Chapter 5
RAFE
“In the car, Juniper.”
“Excuse me?” She puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head like she’s not going to do what I say. Again.
This woman is desperately trying to drive me crazy. And she’s halfway there.
“I said get into the car. I’m taking you home.” I know this is all a game to her, but I’m starting to feel very turned on, and I don’t want to do something that I’ll regret later.
“But Rosie and Sage—”
“I’ll call Mia, and I will tell her that she and Luke can take them home. But you’re wet. You’re cold. I’m not going to have you catching pneumonia. I’m taking you home. Your cousins are obviously having fun, so let them stay out for the rest of the night.”
“Who do you think you are, Rafe, that you think you can just boss me around?”
“You didn’t want to listen to me earlier, and look where that got you.”
“What do you mean, look where it got me?”
“It got you nearly half naked and almost being groped by three horny college guys you were about to give a lap dance to.”
“What? You’re just jealous because you weren’t the one up on the stage who I was about to give the lap dance to.”
“Not likely.” I stare at her for a couple of seconds.
I’m furious, and I’m jealous, and I’m mad enough to admit that the thought of her grinding up and down on some strange man while he was touching her definitely caused me to take action.
I’m not going to tell her that though. “Juniper, I know you’re at an age where you like to play these sorts of games, but I’m at an age where—”
“You think I like to play games? You’re really condescending, Rafe. You act like you’re some eighty-year-old man. You’re not that much older than me.”
“Yes, but I’m far more adult.”
“Oh, yes. You are so mature. I forgot you were crowned Rafe Bishop, the most mature man in the world.”
I can’t stop myself from laughing as she pretends to bow at me and then shivers as a cool breeze passes us by.
“Juniper, I can tell you’re cold. Please let me just take you home.”
“Fine,” she says. “But I have my car here.” She pouts. “What am I supposed to do about that?”
“We’ll come and get it in the morning.”
“What do you mean, we’ll come and get it in the morning?”
“I’m not having your cousins drive it tonight. They’ve been drinking. Luke and Mia will drive them home, and then I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning, and we’ll come and get your car before work.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I care and I want to make sure you’re safe.”
“I didn’t ask you to do this.”
“I know you didn’t ask me, but I feel like it’s my duty. It’s my obligation. Get in,” I say as I open the door.
“Wow. I guess chivalry isn’t dead.” She glances at me and then offers me a small smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re still shivering.” I frown. “You need to get out of those clothes. I don’t want you catching a cold or pneumonia or bronchitis.”
“It’ll be fine. I don’t live that far away.”
“No.” I unbutton my shirt and hand it to her. “Put this on.”
“I still have my wet clothes on, so it’s not like that’s going to do anything.”
“Take them off and then put this on.”
“But I don’t want you staring at me.”
“I’ll turn my back. Juniper, trust me, I’m not trying to ogle your bare breasts.”
“Oh, yeah? Are you sure about that?”
“What do you mean, am I sure about that?”
“Well, just two seconds ago, you pulled me into you, and you were touching me and gazing at me like you kind of wanted to have a lick or a bite or something.”
“Really? Is that what you were thinking when I was getting … you off … the stage?” I pause as she starts laughing. “What is so funny?”
“You. You’re stumbling over your words. Are you really going to pretend that you didn’t just pull me close to you and you weren’t just staring at my boobs?”
“I wasn’t pretending anything, Juniper.” I grin at her.
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Do you want me to say that you’re a very beautiful young woman?
Do you want me to say that I’m attracted to you?
Do you want me to say that watching you onstage was as sexy as it was naughty? Do you want me to say—”
“I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to turn around so I can take these wet clothes off and put on your shirt,” she says, wrinkling her nose.
I turn my back and listen as she pulls off her clothes.
“Are you nearly done yet?”
“Give me a second,” she says. “There are so many buttons on this shirt. I’m ready.”
I turn around and stare at her in my red-and-white shirt. It’s very baggy on her, but she looks super cute. Her hair is damp, and she pulls it into a ponytail at the top of her head.
Her wide brown eyes stare at me innocently.
“Are you going to take me home now, or are you going to attempt to have your wicked way with me again?”
“My wicked way with you?”
“That’s something I definitely don’t want,” she says quickly. “Just in case you have any ideas.”
“I didn’t say I had any ideas.” I shrug. “Why would you think that?”
“Just in case you’re remembering a certain time slash incident years ago, where I offered myself to you and you turned me down. I was young and dumb. That’s never going to happen again.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Just in case you got any ideas into your head …”
“I have zero ideas in my head, so don’t worry about it.” I close the door and then head over to the driver’s seat and slide in.
I glance over at her as she buckles up. She’s looking at me with parted lips, and there’s an expression in her eyes that I can’t quite read.
“What is it?” I ask her.
“Hey, can I text Mia to let my cousins know they need a ride? Because we just disappeared and I don’t want them to think they’ve been abandoned.” She pauses. “I know you said you were going to call, but you haven’t yet."
“I’m sure they’re not worried about being abandoned.” I laugh. “Your cousins are crazy.”
“They’re not crazy. They’re just fun-loving.”
“They’re crazy, fun-loving women.”
“What? So, you don’t like my cousins?”
“I think your cousins are great,” I say honestly as I start the car and pull out of the lot. “I just think they are young, naive, and slightly gullible, and they probably need someone like me to look after them as well.”
“Really?” She stares at me. “I think you lost your calling, Father Rafe.”
“What do you mean?”
“You should have been a priest or cop or a firefighter or something because you seem to like being in people’s business and taking care of them quite a lot.”
“Why does that not feel like a compliment?”
“Maybe because I didn’t mean it to be. It’s kind of overbearing—you know that, Rafe?”
“What? Trying to be protective and look out for you?”
“Undermining my every move. Trying to tell me what to do. It’s annoying.”
“Shall I turn back around and take you back to the bar so that you can give a lap dance to Adam, Mark, Peter, Paul, Jason, John, or anyone else who asks and get them off for the night? I’m sure they’ve all got plenty of singles.”
“What?” She looks at me with a mad expression. “That’s really rude.”
“I’m just saying. What did you think was going to happen tonight? They weren’t there because they were trying to find out if your personality was good.”
She stares at me for a couple of seconds and lets out a low sigh. “I know. And thank you. I didn’t necessarily want to continue on, and you were, I suppose, my unwanted knight in shining armor.”
“Your unwanted knight in shining armor?” I laugh. “I guess I’ll take it.”
We sit back in companionable silence as I make my way to her condo.
“So, anything new going on in your life?” I ask her.
“There’s a reason why I wanted to enter the competition today.”
“I know. You wanted to go against my wishes and what I thought was best because you’re stubborn.”
“It had nothing to do with you,” she says, glaring at me. “It was for …”
“Well?”
“It was for research.” She licks her lips and nods.
“Research?” I stare at her for a couple of seconds before turning back to face the road.
“What research?”
“I am going to write a romance book.”
“You’re writing a romance book? I had no idea.”
“Why would you have any idea? It’s not like we’ve talked about it.”
“I suppose not. So, what did tonight have to do with you writing a romance book?”
“Well, the girl has to get a job as a …” She pauses and licks her lips. “As a stripper to take care of her young brother, and I just kind of wanted to see what it felt like to be in a position like that without actually having to strip.”
“So, you’re saying that you decided to enter a wet T-shirt competition because you wanted it to act as research for the book that you’re writing about a stripper who’s looking after her young brother?” The words sound incredulous, and I can tell she knows I’m not buying it.
“Well, yes. I don’t suppose you’ve read many romance books, Rafe, but many of them have plots that are based upon women having to do things that they don’t want to do to take care of someone. And in my book, she has to take care of her younger brother …”
“Because she can’t get a job with Walmart or McDonald’s, right? She has to be a stripper.”
“Well, obviously, the plot dictates that she’s stripping for a reason.” She sounds defensive. “Anyway, I know you wouldn’t understand because you’re a vet, and you don’t really read, and you don’t know anything about romance plots, and—”
“No, I respect it. If you decided you were going to do this wet T-shirt competition as research for a book, then who am I to stop you?” I pull into the parking lot and turn off the ignition and face her.
“What do you mean, who are you to stop me? Are you going to take me back?”
“No. But wouldn’t you rather practice on someone you know than some strange guy?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you entered a T-shirt competition to see what it felt like to be a stripper, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, why not practice on me? Someone you know. Actually give me a lap dance or pretend to be stripping, if you need to do research that badly.”
Her lower lip trembles, and she stares at me, blinking rapidly.
I know I’ve called her bluff.
I know she’s not writing any romance books.
Why has she never mentioned it before?
“I just …” She licks her lips nervously. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Rafe.”
“Why not? Don’t you still need to get the research?”
“No, because I kind of already know what it’s like to be uncomfortable, and I …”
She blushes profusely, and I can’t help but stare at her lips. She’s gorgeous.
“Well, the offer stands if you need to practice. I mean, better me than some random guy?”
“But you’re Mia’s brother, and that would just feel icky.”
The way she said icky makes me frown, like it’s something that would make her throw up.
“There was a time when you didn’t feel so icky, being around me.”
“Well, those days are long gone,” she says. “Thanks for the ride home, and I’ll see you later.”
She jumps out of the car, but I jump out as well and head with her toward her front door.
“What are you doing, Rafe?”
“I’m walking you to your door, like any gentleman would.”
“But—”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to say I’m not a gentleman.”
“You don’t need to do that. I walk to my door by myself every night.”
“I know,” I say as I continue walking alongside her.
She grabs her keys and stops and looks at me.
“Thank you,” she says, offering me a warm smile that makes my heart race.
There’s something familiar about the look in her eyes that reminds me of bonfires at the beach and late nights watching movies with buttery popcorns.
She’d practically lived at our house. “I know I’ve been annoyed with you, but I do appreciate you looking out for me most of the time. ”
“You’re welcome,” I say.
My eyes stare into hers. I reach over and touch the side of her face, and because I can’t help myself, I lean forward and gently kiss her cheek.
She looks at me in surprise. Then I glance at her lips.
I press mine against hers, and she kisses me back softly, her fingers at the nape of my neck.
As I press her against the front door, she moans against my lips.
I slide my hand up her shirt and touch her cool skin.
She shivers slightly against me. I press myself into her and continue kissing her, and she murmurs against me.
I want to take her inside the condo, into her bedroom.
I want her to continue the show she was putting on earlier. But then I stop because I realize where we are and what I’m doing and I step back.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” I say, looking at her quivering lips.
Her nostrils flare as she glares at me.
“You really shouldn’t have.”
She pushes her hand against my chest, and I catch it and squeeze it.
“Did you not enjoy it?”
“Whether or not I enjoyed it is not the question,” she says, licking her lips nervously.
“Well, I enjoyed it,” I say softly and issue her a small wink.
She blushes slightly and shakes her head.
“Well, I mean—”
“You mean what?” I say.
“Nothing.”
She gasps as I lean forward and run my fingers across her belly. I undo one button, and I see she’s breathing harder. I undo another, and then another, and then another until my shirt on her is hanging open and I can see the swell of her breasts.
The shirt falls slightly, and I reach up and move it to the side, staring at her right breast, her nipple puckered.
So beautiful. I bite down on my lower lip.
I lean forward and kiss it and suck for just one second.
She moans as she stands there, running her fingers through my hair.
Then I step back, feeling like the baddest man in all the land.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” I say.
“No, you shouldn’t have.” She blinks rapidly, and I take a deep breath.
“I think we’ve both just been overcome by a weird emotion tonight. Maybe it’s because your cousins are in town,” I whisper.
“Yeah, that must be it,” she says. “Well, I’m going to go inside now.”
“Okay.” I nod. “Hey, and, Juniper?”
“Yes, Rafe?” She looks back at me with a question in her eyes.
“If you need to do any more research for this romance book, I’m your man.” I offer her a wide smile. “I’m willing to help in any way that you need.”
“I think I can categorically say that I won’t be in need of any help.” She gasps and pulls the shirt together. “Good night, Rafe.”
She hurries inside her apartment, and I stand there, feeling like the wind has just been knocked out of my sails.