Chapter 3
Karter stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. It was a little after eleven, and she had plans to visit her parents’ house at one to have lunch with her mother. She had to work that night, but knew she could take a nap if needed before she went in at seven.
Going to her closet, she pulled out a pair of denim shorts, a yellow top from her dresser, and a pair of sneakers. She then went to her dresser and grabbed her bra and panties. Karter got dressed after moisturizing.
Going back into the bathroom, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. It was the end of May, and the heat was no joke.
Once she was finished with her hair, she grabbed her phone, placing it into her purse before grabbing her keys and heading out of her front door.
Karter smiled at the greenery that adorned the breezeway of her apartment building.
She had saved her money from the time she started working at Purgatory to move out of her parents’ house and live on her own.
She knew that her father would have paid for wherever she wanted to live, but it was something Karter wanted to do on her own.
The entire point was for her to come into her own.
She was an only child, and her father was far too protective.
Though he had bought her a car for graduation, she hadn’t wanted anything too flashy. Her parents were well-off, and she had grown up in comfort, but they had always taught her, her mother more so, that working towards something felt better when you achieved it.
She pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main street. She lived about fifteen minutes from her parents’ house, but she knew that with it being lunchtime on a Saturday, traffic would be heavier than usual.
When she pulled up to her parents’ house, she parked behind her mother’s car before getting out. Karter slid her key into the lock and let herself in.
She heard old-school blues playing from the kitchen and followed the sound. There, she found her mother swaying slowly to the rhythm, her back to Karter. She watched her with a smile as she walked to the island.
She said nothing for several minutes, waiting for the song to finish. When it did, she catcalled and whistled, causing her mom to turn and look over her shoulder. She smiled at her, stopping what she was doing at the stove to greet her.
Karter hugged her mother back before placing her things down on the island.
“You were getting it, weren’t you, Mama? You didn’t even hear me come in,” she said, teasingly.
“Hush, child,” her mother responded before returning to the stove.
Karter followed her to see what she was making that smelled so delicious. Surveying the food on the stove, she noticed that there was a lot for just the two of them.
“Are we having company?”
“Your father and Creed decided they want to join us after they finish whatever they’re working on.”
“Creed?” Karter questioned.
She wasn’t surprised that he would join them for lunch. He hung around her family often. He helped her dad with things from time to time. However, she hadn’t been prepared to see him until that evening.
The problem was, as men went, Creed was absolutely fantastic to look at.
She supposed he lived up to his last name because she would indeed allow him to ravage her.
Though only in her dreams. She was well aware of the fact that her father would more than likely not approve of the crush she had on him, and she was sure that Creed only saw her as his friend’s daughter at best and a little sister at worst.
“Yes, Creed,” her mother responded, looking at her with a smirk. “Problem?” she then questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Karter bit the inside of her cheek; damn that mother’s intuition. “No, it’s just that I have to see him tonight when I go to work; the last thing I expected was to see him on my personal time.”
Her mom gave her that look that all moms give when they don’t believe a word their child is saying.
“If you say so,” she responded. “This is almost finished. Why don’t you set the table out on the patio? I think it would be nice for us to eat out there today.”
Karter nodded, grabbing the tray they used to serve food during the holidays. She placed plates, bowls, cutlery, and glasses onto it before walking out of the back door. The area was screened in and housed a fan, so she knew they wouldn’t get too hot while sitting out there.
She placed the tray on the table and was setting the dishes when she heard the door open.
“You need some help, Kaere?”
She looked over her shoulder to find that Creed had made his way outside. She assumed that he and her father must have walked in seconds after she walked out of the back door, and her mother sent him to help.
“I think I can manage placing some plates and glasses. If not, I need to find a new job, considering it’s pretty much what I do at work,” she told him with a small smile before turning to continue.
She had just finished setting everything out and turned with the tray in her hand to find him right behind her.
“I’ll take it,” he told her, removing the tray from her hands, his fingers ghosting over hers.
Karter swallowed and nodded, not trusting her voice to work at the moment since that slight touch had sent electricity through her body.
She watched him head back inside, and she took a deep breath before following him.
Ravage sat next to Karter at the table, and her perfume was playing with his senses. She always smelled good, but she was wearing a new fragrance today. Something he hadn’t smelled before, and he was not prepared for it.
“So, Ravage, business is still going well?” Demetri asked him as they all ate.
“It is, and constantly picking up,” he responded.
“My little girl isn’t giving you any trouble?”
“Dad,” Karter cut in, exasperated. “You always ask that, and he always tells you I’m not. Besides, I’m not a little girl.”
He had to agree with her on that one. She was definitely not some little girl.
It was on the tip of his tongue to say so out loud, but he refrained.
He knew Demetri would not take kindly to it.
The older man had been clear when telling Ravage he didn’t want his employees at the bar hitting on his daughter.
The way he said it made it very clear that he didn’t want Ravage doing it either.
He could only assume it was because he was rough around the edges at times, or maybe it was the age difference.
Ravage was seven years older than her. He knew it couldn’t be the ethnic difference, considering Demetri’s family was from Russia, and Sora, her mother’s family, was originally from West Africa.
“I’m sure that Creed is taking great care of Karter,” Sora spoke before taking a forkful of pasta. “So, Karter, have you started dating anyone?” Sora asked after several minutes of silence.
Ravage’s ears perked up at the question, though he tried not to show too much interest in the topic on his face.
“No, Mom. I haven’t,” Karter responded as if she and her mother had this conversation every time they saw one another.
He remembered Demetri telling him how Sora was itching for a grandchild and was getting impatient with Karter’s lack of dating so she could get one in a few years.
He could see both sides of that coin. On the one hand, Karter was only twenty-three; she’d just had a birthday five months ago.
He could understand why she wanted to live her life a bit more before having a child.
On the other hand, he knew that Sora wanted one so she could still spend time with them and be active.
Not that she was old, per se. It was simply that she’d had Karter at thirty-one and was going on fifty-five, though you would never know it.
It was true what they said about black not cracking. Sora was four years older than Demetri.
“Well, is there anyone that you’re interested in?” Sora then questioned, and again Ravage tuned his ears in.
“No, Mom,” Karter responded, and Ravage didn’t know how to take that. He should have been happy because it meant she wasn’t interested in some other man, but her saying no also meant that she wasn’t interested in him.
“If you say so,” Sora responded, and he knew her well enough to know that she didn’t believe her daughter.
Once they finished eating, Sora volunteered him and Karter to do the dishes and clean the kitchen.
He didn’t mind, however, because it usually went that way when he ate at their house; if she cooked, someone else had to do the dishes.
Not to mention that the food was delicious. So it was the least he could do.
He helped Karter clear the table while Demetri and Sora headed inside. One to take a nap and the other to read, as they had stated.
Entering the kitchen, he placed the dishes down and ran water in the sink. As he waited for it to fill, he scraped the plates into the trash can as Karter came in with the cups and cutlery. She set them on the counter beside the sink before turning to him.
“Which one do you want? Wash or rinse?”
“It doesn’t matter to me, Kaere.”
For the next forty-five minutes, they washed dishes and cleaned the rest of the kitchen, though there wasn’t much to do aside from the dishes.
When they were done, he told her he would see her at work that evening, as she decided to stay a bit longer and see what book her mother was reading.
Ravage let himself out after saying bye to Sora and got into his car before pulling out of the driveway. Being alone with Karter for any length of time constantly stirred him up, and he found it utterly ridiculous. He was too old to be so affected by a woman.
In all honesty, at first, he hadn’t viewed her that way because they were young when he met Demetri. As they grew up, and she matured into an adult, he found himself attracted to her, he thought it was because she was forbidden fruit. But it didn’t take him long to realize it was more than that.