Staking His Claim(10)

"Yeah, but she hates it, man. She's not going back."

"And that's okay with you?"

"Well, I think she should get an education, but Janie seems to think it's fine, so what the hell do I know?"

"She can always go back when she decides what she wants to do," Raul tried for an even tone, feeling his fists clench the whole time.

"Yeah, but for now she needs some time to heal. We never gave her that. We rushed her off to school in an attempt to get her life back on track. I feel damn guilty for that."

"You couldn't have known. You did what you thought was best at the time," Raul responded in a gravelly voice.

"Yeah," Brian agreed.

"I thought she was still a teenager," Raul gritted out between his teeth, just as a loud ping ping ping of firecrackers went off outside.

Brian straightened from his position next to Raul to go investigate the noise. "No, man," his eyes held Raul's in silent communication for a heartbeat. "She's twenty-two," he said in a somber voice before he turned and walked off.

The back of Raul's head hit the wall and his eyes closed briefly before opening again and staring across the room at Elaina. Fury clouded his brain as he tried unsuccessfully to reason with himself. Yeah, it was a sad story. Yeah, she'd had it rough. Yeah, she was still young. But she had lied to him.

He went over and over their past conversations in his head. Had she lied to him?

He couldn't come up with shit.

He didn't know the answer. But he suspected he knew. She'd kept her true age a secret from him.

Why?

He knew he needed the answer to that question. But for now, he couldn't seem to give a shit. He had only one thought blaring in his brain.

She was twenty-two.

And that meant he could have her.

Now.

*

Elaina stared at herself in the bathroom mirror as she washed her hands. The evening had been a complete blur after she'd had that incredible orgasm. Raul had been amazing, and he'd been watching her ever since like a cat that was just waiting to get the canary.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she opened the door to slip back to the party.

She stopped abruptly when she saw Raul leaning against the wall in the hallway, obviously waiting on her.

Her pulse thundered in her ears.

Her eyes held his in question as he reached out a hand and ran a gentle finger down her cheek. Her breath caught at the soft gesture.

And then he opened his mouth.

"You twenty-two years old?" his voice hissed out in a heated rush of anger.

Shock held her immobile as he lifted his hand away from her face and moved back from her, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall again, tension pouring off his body in waves.

She swallowed hard and knew she was trembling, but couldn't manage to get the constriction in her throat to go away.

Her silence was evidently all the answer he needed.

"Get your purse. And get a jacket, too. It's cold out," his menacing voice made the innocuous words sound like a threat.

She licked her lips. This was it.

She knew this was it. Raul was about to take her away from here, strip her naked and claim her virginity. Her body trembled. She was seriously about to lose her virginity. To Raul Vega.

"Where--where are we going?" She asked the question anyway, even though she already knew the answer.

"We're taking a drive."

She closed her eyes as the defining moment washed over her.

She slowly opened them and watched him leaning against the wall, waiting on her. "Are you mad at me?" She knew he was.

"Yep," he answered succinctly.

She shivered at his one-syllable response as a chill went through her, but she didn't budge from her spot in front of him. "I don't want to go, Raul. I've seen--I've seen you mad before, and I don't like it."

"I'm not going to hurt you." The frown line between his brows deepened, and he looked like he was trying to temper his voice. "Go on now and get your purse. I'm ready to leave."

"Maybe you should go on without me. We can talk tomorrow." She tried to placate him with the suggestion.

It didn't work.

He pushed off the wall, prowled over to her, and crowded her back against the doorframe. Towering over her, he invaded her space and leaned his weight on his forearms, on either side of her head.

He reached one hand down and lifted her chin up until her eyes were glued to his. Her breath became shaky. His voice was low but firm when he spoke. "We got shit to work out between us, Elaina. But it's all real simple. You either want me, or you don't."

He held her chin as her breath came harder. She blinked up at him, but still didn't speak as she waited for him to continue.

"As for me--I guess it's pretty damn obvious I want you. I've been wanting you bad since the night we met, five, six weeks ago." His thumb reached out and swept across her bottom lip. "I admit I've been an asshole a lot of that time, but that's 'cause I was trying to stay the hell away from you. I didn't like that--didn't like that shit at all. Now somewhere along the line, we had a miscommunication." His voice became acerbic. "See, I thought you were a teenager all this time. But you're not, are you?"

His words stopped and he waited until she softly shook her head.

"No, you're not," he agreed with her silent answer. "You're twenty-two now. Have I told you happy birthday yet?"

Her head jerked up and down, just once.

He continued, "Yeah, well, I think it's more like happy birthday to me. You know what I mean? Now, here's the deal. I've told you I'm not going to hurt you. We're just going to sail right past the age thing and continue on as we mean to go forward." His calloused thumb swiped across her lip again. "And I mean to go forward with you in my bed. All you have to do is decide if that's what you want, too. See what I mean? Very simple, baby."

Elaina tried to get a grip on her emotional state, and to think calmly about what he was saying. Her nerves clanged silently in her eardrums. As much as she wanted to deny it, she couldn't. He was right. He was still pissed, but he was right. All she had to do was decide if she wanted him or not.

It was really no decision at all. Or if it was, she'd already made it, unconsciously.

She licked her lips, sucked in a sustaining breath and opened her mouth to speak. "I want you, Raul." She felt a vibration go through his body as he leaned in closer to her. "I know you're pissed at me. Maybe I deserve it, maybe I don't. But you need to remember a couple of things," she remonstrated as her voice grew stronger. "Yeah, I'm twenty-two. But you're still a shit-ton older than me. How old are you, anyway?"

"Thirty," he gritted out between clenched teeth.

"Yeah. Eight years older. So, okay, I'm not as young as you thought I was. But I didn't lie earlier. I'm still a virgin. That hasn't changed," she reminded him tartly, her words coming to a momentary halt as he gripped her more tightly. She looked down at his fingers fisted around her and then back to his face. "Yeah, so why don't you think on that for a bit and calm the hell down some while I go get my things."

She pushed away from his arms and turned toward her bedroom.

*

It was after midnight and since the party was beginning to break up anyway, it was relatively easy for Elaina to slip away. Janie had merely raised her eyebrows and nodded her head in acknowledgement of where Elaina would be when she had told her aunt she was leaving.

Raul made quick work of ushering her out to his truck. Thick silence arced between them on the drive.

He pulled the truck behind the house, and with a hand at the small of her back, led her through the darkened interior.

Bright moonlight spilled in through the windows helping Elaina's vision adjust to the dimness surrounding her. Her legs trembled from the milestone about to occur. The heady knowledge of what was about to take place beat swiftly through her veins.

She wanted it to happen.

And she wanted it to happen with him.

But beyond that, she wasn't willing to think.

He slid his hand from her back and encapsulated her wrist as he moved in front of her, leading her through the kitchen and down a darkened hallway. He didn't speak, and he made no move to turn on any lights.

She followed closely behind, the subtle scent of his skin and the virile magnetism of his hot, steely hand holding her in an uncompromising grip going to her head like a fine wine on an empty stomach. The blood beat hotly in her veins and she wondered if he could feel it where his fingers wrapped around her directly on her pulse point.

He stopped abruptly and the forward motion of her body brought her stumbling into his back. She felt his corded strength, smelled the clean, potent masculinity that exuded from his lean, muscled body. It was the same masculinity that had fascinated her from the first time she got close to him. A thrill of frightened anticipation washed through her, a subtle excitement that she could have so completely attracted a man of his caliber. It seemed almost too much to take in, and the fact that in a matter of minutes, she would undoubtedly have Raul Vega hanging over her naked body, was enough to blow her mind.

She quivered and tried to rein in her fragile control by remembering how much she wanted this, and reminding herself of how he had made her feel earlier when he held her out by the barn. She sucked in a small, shaky breath.

He pushed open a door and moved through the threshold of what Elaina knew had to be his bedroom.

In this room, as in the kitchen, the moonlight came in through the windows, illuminating the space around them just enough to cast a sensuous spell between them.