Twist's Raven, page 7
He rode his motorcycle to Honey Creek, and he hadn’t taken his guitar storm chasing last time, so it was still at the ranch. He was itching to sing tonight. He’d probably sing some sappy song, but there was something about Raven.
He’d wanted what Booker and Compass had found with their women. When he thought about where he wanted to be in five years, he saw himself settled down in a house with a woman. For the first time ever, he had a woman he pictured there. Raven was the only woman he could see doing life with, for lack of a better term. He wondered if a little boy would have her blonde hair or if a little girl might have her gray eyes. He’d thought he would feel torn, as if he were deserting the brotherhood by falling for her.
But he knew deep down in his soul that whatever it took, he would gladly do it if it meant a life with Raven. Watching the girls roasting marshmallows for s’mores and Raven smacking Buzzard’s hand away when he tried to steal her stick had him admitting he’d lied to himself about her.
He’d fallen for her back when she first glared at him, and he’d only continued to fall deeper for her as he got to know her through research and talking today. Maybe he should see if she wanted to show him her Legos. Quiet room, his woman, because sometime in the last hour, Twist had decided he was not ever letting her go. She was his. Now to get her alone in a quiet room and make sure she understood how much he wanted her.
Twist headed over to Raven. It was time to show Raven how a man besotted with a woman took her pleasure seriously.
Raven chuckled at Beth Franks. Her stories about chasing skips had all the women laughing. Raven’s favorite was the skip trying to evade Beth, who had run naked into a corral with one of the bulls for the rodeo. Beth had said she’d been laughing so hard and watching him try to run away from the bull that she almost couldn’t calm down enough to cuff him after the rodeo clown had gone in and distracted the bull.
“Ladies, I’m going to see if I can steal Raven away for a walk,” Twist said.
Raven grinned at him and let him take her hand. Her belly warmed at the feel of his roughened fingers in hers. A walk would be nice. She loved these women, but she’d been trying to figure out how to get away from them to get Twist alone with her.
“Be safe, children,” Guru called.
“Make sure he’s a giver instead of a taker, Rave,” Fury called out.
She rolled her eyes at her friends. Fury would say that. Fury’d had a one-night stand, and the guy had thought two pumps should make a woman climax. Raven let Twist lead her away from the group before they could say anything else to embarrass her. She wondered where he wanted to walk.
“Well, I’d never be a taker, but I thought maybe you could show me your Lego collection. I knew if I said that, though, Remi and Beth would probably invite themselves along,” he said.
“I’d like that. My cabin is here,” Raven led him to her above-ground residence. They all had smaller rooms with en suites downstairs in another area that branched off from the Time Out rooms. Mace, along with a couple others, had planned for multiple places to hide. Raven adored her little house. It was two bedrooms with one bathroom and an open floor plan with the kitchen and family room. She used one bedroom specifically for all her Legos and her crafts.
She unlocked the door and let Twist into her space. Although the cabins on the property all had pretty much the same layout, she’d personalized hers. She had white countertops in her kitchen with brass streaks running through them. Her cabinets were a deep blue on the bottom with brass handles to highlight the streaks in the marble. Her upper cabinets were painted an almost white with a hint of gray. She’d seen the color combination at the warehouse where she’d picked out the countertops and fallen in love with it. Her floors were a honey oak color. The house was an oasis in the storms they dealt with.
“It’s gorgeous but homey, too. I feel like I could sit down and relax,” Twist said, smiling at her. She was deeply regretting saying they should take it slow. He was handsome, but when he smiled—it was all she could do not to rip off her damp panties and ask him to please take her.
“Where do you work on the Legos?” he asked.
She turned the light on in the first bedroom. Bookcases lined three of the four walls, floor to ceiling. Books and Legos filled most of the shelves.
“Bookworm?” he asked.
“Avid,” she answered.
Twist ran his hands over some of the spines of the titles. Raven wished he was running his fingers over her. He walked around the room, inspecting her different Lego pieces. His questions showed he genuinely cared about her answers.
Once he’d gotten all the way around the room, he turned and stared at her. The heat of his stare had her nipples beading and her belly aching. He walked toward her, reminding her of a wild animal stalking its prey. But she didn’t mind being prey in this instance.
“I find you incredibly sexy, intoxicating, and so attractive I can’t think straight around you,” Twist said, pausing as he stopped in front of her, his finger brushing down the bridge of her nose, across her lips until he reached her chin and tilted it up.
“I’d like to take you into the front room, lay you down on your couch, slide these jeans down your thighs, and then feast until you know that I’m a giver, not a taker,” he said.
Raven’s breath caught in her throat at Twist’s words. In one short afternoon, she moved from attraction to infatuation, and now she had a deep longing to see where letting Twist have his way would take them. She nodded her agreement.
Twist smirked, grasping her waist to lift her. She wrapped her legs around him, grasping his shoulders. She stared into his eyes as he carried her into the room and laid her down on her couch.
“I’m going to need the words that yes, you want this,” Twist said, unbuckling her boots and sliding them off with her socks.
His finger lightly rubbed along the bottom of her foot before he kissed it. He knelt at the edge of the couch and reached for her belt buckle but paused. She needed to answer him.
“I want this even though I don’t know why I trust you after barely knowing you, but I do. Which is strange for me because I dissect everyone’s expressions and intentions, working through plausible reasons and… I’m babbling again,” she said.
Twist gave her the sweetest smile. “I adore your babbling, as you call it. Feel free to continue while I remove these pesky clothes keeping me from my treasure.”
Twist had efficiently unbuckled her belt and had her jeans and panties past her thighs while she was still relishing that he liked her rush of words. She shivered as every part of her ached for Twist to touch her. He grasped her leg, running his hand down her thigh, leaving goosebumps in his wake. He was waking up every nerve ending with his touch. He folded her jeans and panties, placing them on the table. His hands slid to her buttocks and tugged her a little lower, widening her thighs.
“Feel free to grab my hair, tell me what feels good and what you need,” Twist said. Before she could ask him if he truly wanted directions, his warm breath wafted over her center.
She didn’t have time to tell him what felt good because she was too busy experiencing the sensations he was creating. His tongue, lips, and fingers created a storm that raged through her. Wave after wave built until she was shaking and screaming his name. When he backed off a little to let her come down, she realized her thighs were clamped around his head. She loosened her legs. Twist stared up at her from between her legs, placing a kiss on her clit.
“You are so sexy when you come. How about we see that again?” he said, leaning closer to lick around her clit as his finger traced her opening.
“Twist?” she moaned.
“Ummm,” he replied.
“You haven’t let me return the favor?” she asked.
His tongue licking her and his fingers thrusting inside her were making her belly tighten again.
“This is all for you tonight,” he said.
Raven was glad he’d finished talking because the sensations washing over her were building higher until she was strung tight.
“Come for me, Raven,” Twist whispered against her. Waves of passion built until Twist’s words had pleasure washing over her.
Raven basked in the afterglow of Twist’s giving. She smiled.
“That’s quite the smirk,” Twist said, his hand gliding up and down her thigh.
“Well, I had quite the gift from a generous man,” Raven said, opening her eyes.
Twist winked, stood up, and lifted her in his arms. “How about we find you some night clothes? I’d like to stay but just hold you while we sleep. I find myself not wanting to be parted from you,” he said.
Holy Hotness, Batman. Twist was more than she’d expected but exactly what she’d always wanted.
Chapter Thirteen
Twist lay still for a second, trying to figure out what had woken him up. Raven’s whimpering had him starting to sit up.
A small flashlight clicked on by the bed, and Snipe’s face shone in the light.
“She’s not awake. Just wrap your arms tighter around her and tell her everything will be okay. She’ll settle down and drop back into a deep sleep. Once she does, come see me in the front room,” Snipe whispered, clicked off the light, and disappeared.
What the actual fuck was Snipe doing in the house, and how did he know Raven would be whimpering in her sleep? He’d worry about that in a minute after he did what Snipe said.
He pulled Raven tighter in his arms. Her head was already on his shoulder. “Everything will be okay. Sleep, baby,” he whispered, continuing to repeat the words quietly until her whimpers ceased and she was breathing deeply.
When he and Raven had crawled into bed earlier after he’d tasted his woman for the first time, he hadn’t imagined waking up with Snipe beside the bed. Raven had worn a T-shirt and sleep shorts to bed. He hadn’t wanted to walk over to where his extra clothes were, so he’d made do with his underwear. He worked his way out from under Raven and slipped on his jeans.
He walked out into the front room to find Snipe sitting on the couch. Twist walked over and sat in a chair across from him. He cocked his eyebrow, waiting to find out why Snipe was in Raven’s house at night.
“Buzzard and I discussed what, if anything, we needed to tell you. Seeing her still having trouble with you here tells me I need to share a little,” Snipe said.
The front door quietly opened. Buzzard walked in, dropping onto the couch beside Snipe.
“She doesn’t know she still has nightmares. She used to scream and still didn’t wake up. We thought possibly once we moved here that they’d quit. They aren’t every night but at least three to four times a week. Buzzard and I take turns staying the night either on the front porch or we sneak into the house and sleep on the couch. If we hear her, we hold her and help her fall back asleep,” Snipe said softly.
“I’m guessing it’s trauma-related. Does it have anything to do with the raised scars I felt on the back of her thighs and buttocks?” Twist asked.
Buzzard nodded. “It has everything to do with that. We both agree you need to know enough to take care of her but that the whole story needs to come from Raven.”
“I would agree with that. I don’t want her to feel as if people spoke to me out of turn. So, what are you going to tell me?” Twist asked.
“She was asked out by a prominent individual when we were on leave. She’d met him when he was hanging at our base doing a story. He drugged her and was assaulting her when Snipe and I broke in. We wanted to kill him, but multiple people had seen them together. She never reported it, but she still suffers from what happened,” Snipe said.
Twist thought through what they hadn’t said—the man’s name, job, and exactly what he’d done. But Twist knew enough to help Raven. He wasn’t so sure keeping her in the dark about her screaming or whimpering was a good idea.
He tamped down the anger because there was plenty of time for that later. Now he needed to get back to bed with his girl and let these men know how much he valued their commitment to Raven.
“Okay. I appreciate everything you’ve done for her. You’ve truly been brothers to her, protecting her. And just so we’re clear—Raven’s mine, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make her happy and keep her safe,” Twist said, holding his hand out.
Buzzard and Snipe stood. Snipe grasped his hand and pulled him close. “Of course you will, fucker. Because if you don’t, you won’t live to see the sunrise.”
Twist chuckled quietly. “I wouldn’t expect any less. Go get some sleep. I’ve got this.”
Twist locked the door after Buzzard and Snipe left, though obviously, a locked door hadn’t kept them out earlier. He walked back to the bedroom and slipped off his jeans. He crawled back into bed, moving Raven back on his shoulder and holding her close. He breathed in the scent that was Raven and vowed he would keep her safe. But more importantly, he was going to make sure his woman got to face her abuser. It would take planning, but from what he’d gleaned so far, Raven was amazing at planning, and Twist wasn’t too shabby himself.
But for now, he was going to enjoy his first night sleeping with the woman he planned on making his wife and his Ol’ Lady. He’d worry about how that would work with the two clubs later.
Chapter Fourteen
Raven was smiling as she walked into the clubhouse. Twist was with the guys, helping set up some of the carnival games for the town’s Halloween celebration. The decorations, games, and activities were so elaborate that it took days to set up. Halloween was two days away and everyone was pitching in.
She walked into the front room and paused at the news playing on the television. A reporter was talking about the storm possibilities in Nebraska and Kansas on Halloween. Adrenaline flooded her system, and for a short time, she was waking up in that room with her thighs and buttocks in pain, with Snipe and Buzzard above her.
She blamed herself. She’d trusted someone she didn’t know well and paid the price. She had her buddies to thank for being suspicious of him. If they hadn’t been hanging around outside his room, they wouldn’t have rescued her. Something worse than him whipping her thighs and buttocks could have happened.
“Raven, you okay?” Daydream asked, sliding her arm around her.
“Are you finally ready to tell us?” Guru asked, walking in with a coffee and doughnut. The woman was a junk food junkie but never gained weight. If Raven didn’t love her so much, she’d hate her for getting to eat anything she wanted.
“Tell you what?” Raven asked, letting Daydream lead her to the couch and sit down beside her.
“Woman, seriously, you can’t be around all of us former law enforcement and not have us notice that every time that jackass is on the news, you tense. Does it have something to do with the scars on the back of your thighs?” Guru asked.
Before she could answer, Quicksilver, Hoax, Fury, and Lucy, Avery’s wife, walked in.
“I called in reinforcements,” Daydream said.
“The kids?” Raven asked. She didn’t want Lane Jr. possibly overhearing her.
“Your parents have the kids at the diner getting pancakes,” Daydream said.
Okay, she could do this. Why she hadn’t shared this with the women who were closest to her made no sense, except she hadn’t wanted them to see her as weak.
“I went on a date with him. He asked me back to his apartment and I went. I had to go to the bathroom. When I got back, he had drinks for us. I should have known better, but we were on leave, and for once, I wanted to feel like a woman. I had on a dress, which I never do, but I was tired of being in uniform. I sipped the drink, but it tasted a little off. I’m glad I didn’t finish it. It knocked me out but not for long. I woke up to Snipe and Buzzard beside me, asking what hospital I wanted to be taken to. We got out of there. I had stitches put in and that was that. I didn’t want to file charges because, let’s face it, he’s a celebrity. I also didn’t want to deal with the looks I’d get. The jerks who didn’t think women should serve would have used it as one more reason I shouldn’t have been there. And that’s it,” Raven said.
“Leave it to you to minimize what happened. You were attacked. And by the way, no man does something that well thought out without practicing before it happened to you. I get that you said you didn’t want to deal with him while you were in the military, but what about now?” Fury asked.
Raven knew that Fury could relate to what Raven had dealt with in the military. When Baylee had joined the ATF, she’d been relegated to filing most of the reports because the men didn’t think she had what it took. Fury harbored a boatload of resentment toward any man who hurt women.
“I just don’t know. I hate the feeling of helplessness I get every time I see him on TV. But he’s all over. I don’t know what I could do that would make me feel better because I don’t want to have to relive what I went through during a trial,” Raven said.
“Well, I think if you’re serious about Twist, you need to share with him in a more detailed version of what went on. Is he the first man you’ve had since the incident?” Guru asked.
Raven thought back. She’d had sex once or twice but always on her terms.
“He’s the first man that I’ve allowed to control what happened while making love,” Raven said, irritated with the heat she could feel in her cheeks.
“Oh, that blush says something else. Oh, oh, oh, is he a giver? Did he make your lady garden bloom or set your core aflame?” Daydream asked.
Raven giggled along with everyone else. She never dreamed she’d be talking about this topic and laughing.
“Well, we know who has been binging her historical romance books,” Fury said, smirking.
“He is a giver, but he’s more than that. I’m just scared to trust that it will all turn out okay,” Raven said softly.
Daydream slid her arm around Raven. “So it doesn’t all turn out okay just because you want it to. Relationships are full of ups and downs that require both people to dig in and fight for their love and the life they want together. Anybody who tells you marriage is easy is either lying or single.”
