Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,53
looked so beautiful and so pissed off.
“Just what exactly are you so mad about?” I said as I took a step toward her.
“Which part?”
“This is a two-part fight?”
“Three,” she barked back. “You suck at handling critique, you called me a...nerd and you said we were just f-f...screwing.”
And then she really looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Heavy day,” I said. “And you aren’t so innocent in this. You tore down my game. You don’t do that to a man when his pants are down.”
“I was wrong,” she admitted openly. “I’m sorry. I need couth...tact when it comes to giving my opinion. It’s a flaw of mine.”
“You have no flaws, Alice,” I said as I took another step forward and wiped the grease away from her nose with my thumb. “And you’re right, we aren’t just fucking. This thing between us is more than that. And, Alice, let’s go ahead and put it out there. You are a nerd, but I love that about you. Can we do this somewhere else? Like maybe a place where cars aren’t whizzing by us at eighty miles per hour?”
She barely hid her smile and huffed as she looked at her engine. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“You’re out of gas.”
Her perfectly plump lips twisted. “What?”
“Sometimes the solution is the most obvious.”
“Oh God,” she sighed as she tried to walk around me, but I pulled her through my arm and away from traffic as she took a seat in her car and saw the evidence for herself.
“I’m out of gas! Jesus, what is wrong with me?”
I chuckled as I shut her hood and reached in and pulled the key and Alice from the car and loaded them into my Jeep.
“We’ll gas her up, get her to your place, order Chinese food, and watch The Karate Kid.”
Alice smiled with tears in her eyes as she turned to me. “I hate my job.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what to do. I have a new class. They’re even worse than the last.”
“So your day was heavy, too?”
“The heaviest,” she said as I laced our fingers together and kissed the back of her hand. “I’ve got you.”
She turned to me with the same confidence. “I’ve got you, too.”
“Lift your right hand.”
I rolled my eyes, and Rafe pinched my sides.
“Do it.”
I raised my hand as I straddled him, naked.
“I, Alice Boyd.”
“I, Alice Boyd.”
“Do solemnly swear.”
“Do solemnly swear,” I said in a dull monotone.
“To praise the penis of Rafe Hembrey.”
“To prrraise,” I burst out laughing as Rafe licked his thumb and stroked my exposed nipple, eliciting a moan from me. He raised his brow as I sucked in air. “To praise the penis of Rafe Hembrey.”
“Keep your hand up, baby.”
“It’s up,” I said as I looked down at my golden man with golden skin and rich dark hair and eyes. It was by far the best night of my life.
“I promise to love, honor, and cherish his penis and only his penis.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“You called my penis Jake Ryan.”
“It’s the highest of compliments, I swear.”
“Say it!”
“I promise to love, honor, and cherish Rafe’s penis and only his penis.”
“I will not under any circumstances title it without written consent from Rafe Hembrey.”
“I will not, this is ridiculous—Rafe!” I shrieked as he pinched my nipple. “I will not under any circumstances title it without written consent from Rafe Hembrey.”
“I will pleasure it fully and often.”
I smacked his chest as he looked up at me, a change in his tone, and a hopeful lift in his voice. “Say it, beautiful.”
“I will pleasure it fully and often.”
I waited for more, my hand held high.
“Rafe, what’s the end?”
“No end,” he said softly, “no end, Alice,” before he brought my mouth down to his.
In the dark, with only whispers between us and little else, I kissed Rafe’s chest and folded my hands over it.
“Tell me about your family.”
“Nothing to tell,” he said quickly.
“Your dad?”
“Estranged,” he answered. I could feel his discomfort.
“Why?”
“Some other time, okay?” I nodded into his chest.
“Your sister?”
“Harmony was ten years older than me and married right out of high school, so I don’t really know her that well. She moved to Utah with her husband years ago. We don’t speak often.”
“And your mother?”
“We’re cool.”
“Rafe...”
“She’ll be at a game sometime. I’ll introduce you.” I frowned though he couldn’t see it.
Rafe ran his fingers through my hair with his question. “What about your dad?”
“He left me a stack of movies when I was five, and that’s all I know about him. He didn’t actually leave