The Protector 2

Chapter One-7

Raven takes a step back in defence, and her eyes are fixed on the gun in my hand. I look around, and stick the 9mm into my belt. Her face is pale, I must have scared the crap out of her. That’s good.

“It’s just that the signal…” she lifts her hand clutching the phone.

That’s when I lose my mind.

“What the f**k are you talking about?” I stop directly in front of her, pushing my face against hers. “Did you not get that its life dangerous for you to leave the house alone?”

“I’ve only come to send a text,” she says, and lifting her chin, she holds my gaze. She has obviously composed herself.

“What have you done?” I whisper, and our faces are dangerously close at this point.

Raven straightens herself, as if she is the one in control, and raises her eyebrows provokingly.

“I’ve texted someone. Do you have a problem with that?”

My hand makes a fist, and I’m getting close to a stroke. This woman wears me out.

“Of course I do, damn it. We’ve agreed that you won’t get in touch with anybody without my permission.”

“Oh. Get off me, Harlan!” she rolls her eyes. “You forget how things are here. Employee,” she jabs a finger aggressively towards me, “Employer,” she points to herself. And as my chin drops, she simply turns her back on me, and starts walking in the opposite direction. Red fog fills my brain, and I lose control. I jump to get her, grab her lower arm, and pull her angrily towards me.

“Whom have you written to, and what?”

“None of your business,” she yanks her arm out of my grip.

“Everything is my business that happens here, damn it. My job is to protect you. Don’t you get it?” I yell. “You can’t leave this house, and you can’t message anyone without asking for my consent.”

“Stop ordering me about. You forget that my uncle pays you,” she says, pushing a finger against my chest with flushed cheeks, and her locks are wildly bouncing around her head.

I lift my face to the sky, and pray for strength so I won’t spank this sexy little rebel right on the spot. This woman will kill me once, for sure.

“Give me that phone,” I snort at her.

“Out of the ques…” she starts, but before she would finish her sentence, I grab her waist with one hand, and snatch the phone from her with the other.

An old memory flashes through my brain from our first encounter. We were in Raven’s apartment when I had to confiscate her mobile just like this, so that I could check if she was telling the truth. f*****g history repeats itself, as they say.

Raven is reaching for the phone, kicking her feet in the air, but I’m holding her fast to my side with one hand. Meanwhile, I open the list of sent messages with my right hand, and look at the last one.

“Who the f**k is Johnny?” I hiss threateningly. I can almost feel the murderous rage spread in my veins at the sight of the unknown man’s name.

“Put me down! Put me down!” she screams, so I place her on the ground. She fixes her clothes, and lifting her chin, she looks into my eyes with an angry, burning gaze. “Johnny is my boyfriend. I just wanted to let him know everything is okay. But the signal in the house is so crap that…”

“Did you also call him?” I ask with a shaky voice.

“And if I had called him, so what?” she asks, with hands on her hips.

I squeeze my moutht shut. I need all my will-power not to speak my mind.

“Go back into the house. Now. At once.”

She’s panting, upset. I can see that she’s also freaked out, like me.

“I’ll go back when I want to. And give my phone back, you arsehole!”

I look down at her, tilting my head; the corners of my mouth are quivering with anger.

“What did you just call me?”

“You heard it right. Just don’t say I’m the first one to call you that.”

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

“I’m warning you. Right. Now. Go back. Into the f*****g house,” I narrow my eyes with warning.

“Why? What will you do?” she carries on, and this is the point where I really lose it. With one footstep, I get in front of her and size her up and down. She can probably guess what I’m about to do, because she points to me with eyes open wide. “Don’t even think about it, Harlan.”

I don’t give a s**t if she threatens me. I lean down, grab her by the knees, and simply throw her over my shoulder. She shouts, kicks about, hits my waist and back with her fists, but I don’t care. I hold her thighs and bottom tight, and with a hurry, start for the house. She tries all kinds of threats, but I take no notice, I run up the veranda, into the house, and carry her through the living room. Rita, Gunner and Mac are staring at the bizarre scene with chins dropped, but they don’t say a word.

I walk up the stairs and open the door of her room. I stop in front of her bed and simply throw her onto the mattress. She looks at me with eyes full of hate; without a doubt, she is blind with rage, but before she could go on cursing, I’m on top of her, and press her into the mattress with my full body weight. She resists, fights like a wild cat. She pokes towards me with her fingers and scratches my neck with her nails. I catch her hands and press them down on the sides, while holding her hips in place between my knees.

We stare into each other’s faces with open mouths, panting. I’m hardly in control of myself. I haven’t been so close to her for eight years, haven’t felt the silkiness of her skin against mine. Her hair is a mess, her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are flashing menacingly as she rolls them. She’s full of life, full of fight, full of fire, and as my gaze settles on her mouth, I lose the fight against myself. I fall onto those irresistible, soft, full lips whose taste is still fully alive in my memory, and kiss them wildly. My mouth touches hers, and at that moment I feel that I’m falling, and can’t be saved. I know I’m in forbidden territory, but the temptation is beyond my power to resist, I lose control for the moment. I loosen my grip, and even feel thankful to her when she makes use of my temporary weakness, frees her hand and helps me come to my senses with a huge slap in my face. I pull back, and quickly catch her wrist again. My ear is ringing, but I don’t care. I’m aware that I’ve deserved the slap. My d**k is pushing hard against the front of my jeans, and I have a few naughty ideas how to punish the exciting little rebel, but these are dangerous thoughts. Broken, I close my eyes. Oh God. What the hell am I doing? I’ve lost my senses. I must compose myself and keep a distance from her.

She is stirring under me, casting several very obvious I’ll scrape your eyes out if you touch me again looks at me, so I just snort and with one move, roll myself off her. I sit at the edge of the bed and dig my fingers into my hair. I’ve totally lost grip of things, even though that’s not typical of me. I don’t usually lose my head, but this little Italian b***h has the ability to turn me inside out. Upset, I get up and I begin to walk up and down. Raven also sits up on the bed, and, narrowing her eyes, studies me with hatred. The tension is thick in the room. The walls only echo our heavy breathing and my footsteps. Finally, I stop, and turning towards the bed, I agitatedly smooth my palms over my face, clutching my hands behind the back of my neck at last. I try to sound cool when I speak.

“This will only work if you do as I say, and only when I say it.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You savage,” she spits out the words despisingly.

My face jerks at the emotions hidden behind her words. She really can’t stand my guts, and that snaws at my soul.

“I know you loath me, but I don’t give a s**t,” I lie. “You still have to trust me.”

“You’re only joking, right?” she laughs out bitterly.

“At least, until this is over.”

“I can’t give one damn reason why I should trust you, Rafe Harlan,” she says with such genuine pain that my throat tightens, and I feel like I don’t have a sip of air left in my lungs. Agony is breaking my heart to pieces when I look into her tearful eyes. She drives me nuts when she fights against me, but when I see her so torn and dejected, that’s worse than anything. In this moment I hate myself a thousand times more than Raven could ever hate me.

“f**k it!” the words break from me, and my hands make a fist with frustration. Then, I turn on my heels without any more things to say, and leave the room.

I’m absolutely broken as I walk back to the living room where I am met with three shocked pairs of eyes. I may have made a mistake when I didn’t inform them about my history with Raven at the beginning of the job. The commission itself came unexpectedly from Mr. Bertone, and after I found out who the client was, I believed I was able to handle the situation with the necessary professionalism. I was so damn wrong. Not only am I unable to keep a professional attitude, but the whole thing is beginning to pantiesout of my hands. And what was that kiss, just before? How the hell did it even come to my mind? – I torment myself in thought. I’d like to bang my head against the wall. This can’t go on, I must do something about it to normalize our relationship somewhat. I won’t be able to protect Raven from outer dangers if she herself also works against me.

Gunner, Rita and Mac stare at me inquisitively, and I know I owe them some kind of an explanation, but I need to air my head out first. I must chill. Rita opens her mouth to speak, but I wave her down.

“Not now. I’ll explain it later, but first I need a break.” I put my motorbike jacket on and step out the door, but turn back at once. “Raven can’t leave the house, is that clear?” I jab a finger at them with emphasis, and the men nod. “If necessary, tie her to the chair, but she cannot set foot out of the house,” I mumble.

“That won’t be necessary, Rafe,” Rita rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, you’ve taught the little darling who’s boss,” Gunner adds half jokingly, but I’m not game for it. I slam the door behind me with a big bang.

For a full hour, I see to the posts, double-checking everything. I try to calm down and somewhat arrange my thoughts. I know I can’t even blame her for hating me, after all; she has every reason for it. We’ve never cleared our issue, our relationship is one open, bleeding wound. There is no other solution, I must put my ego aside and explain to her why I behaved with her in such an arseholery way back then. Hopefully, she’ll forgive me. What’s more, I’m dying to hear from her own mouth that my suspicion was right. I want her to say that she didn’t cheat on me, but I was the victim of my own jealousy, even if I’m only making an even bigger fool of myself in her eyes. But I don’t give a damn. I’ve reached the point where hearing from Raven herself that she was faithful to me and didn’t have anybody else is more important to me than my own pride.