Page 10 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

Porter’s eyes burned with outrage, then shifted to retaliation. He threw a fist at Rafferty’s stomach, but Rafferty twisted his hips, dodging the attempt.

“Let me go,” Porter bit out.

Rafferty’s lips curled into a sinister grin. “That’s funny. You want me to let you go. Stop… touching you… like Lex asked you to stop touching her yesterday.”

For a split-second, Porter’s eyes darted to me. “Not the same thing.”

“How many times did she tell you to stop? She never said when I asked. Had to be more than once.”

Porter grabbed Rafferty’s wrist. “Fuck you.”

“No, Porter. You got a lesson to learn. Any woman says ‘stop’—” Rafferty pulled him forward, then shoved him back against the wall, hard. “You stop, the first fuckin’ time.”

Porter seethed at Rafferty. “Why the fuck do you care? Or are you gagging to be her first?”

Oh my God!

Mortification consumed me. I forced it aside, set the rolling pin on the counter, and sidled up to Rafferty. “Let him go. He isn’t worth it.”

Rafferty’s mahogany brown eyes glared at me. “No - but you’re worth everything to me, and making sure this fuck-up doesn’t treat another woman the same way is doing the right thing.”

I felt a sweeping sensation in my belly at those words.

Porter let go of Rafferty’s wrist and threw an uppercut at Rafferty’s jaw.

Rafferty dodged that one, too. Obviously, he’d learned some new techniques.

“Step back, Lex,” Rafferty said.

I took a step back and Rafferty let go of Porter with his right hand. Then he landed a vicious blow to Porter’s ribs.

Porter let out a gush of air.

Rafferty moved closer and put his forearm to Porter’s throat. “Hard to breathe yet, Porter?”

I bit my lip as I noticed my ex-boyfriend’s complexion turning more and more pink. Porter narrowed his eyes at Rafferty.

“You gonna touch another woman after she tells you to stop? Just nod if we’re clear?”

With his eyes still narrowed, Porter nodded.

“Good. Get the fuck out of here. Lex told you twice - that I heard - probably more. I won’t hesitate to kick your ass if you stick around.”

Rafferty dropped his arm and moved back so Porter couldn’t see me.

After the door closed, Rafferty crossed the room and locked the door. He turned around, giving me a hard stare. “He ever shows up again, don’t open the door to him.”

I crossed my arms on my chest. “I didn’t open the door to him, Raff. He didn’t even knock. From the doorbell camera footage, Ines got a box delivered and I went to grab it. Then he appeared in the doorway, so he must have been lying in wait for that.”

Raff narrowed his eyes at me. “He was just hanging out waiting for you to get a delivery?”

Then it hit me.

“No, he works part-time delivering packages. He routinely ran a route that included this complex. I’m speculating about this, but he probably had the ability to find out if me or Ines were getting an order.

Hell, I’d have let the box sit on the doorstep until dinner if Ines hadn’t made such a big deal on Friday morning about ordering perfume.

You probably don’t know this, but leaving a bottle of that stuff out in the heat ruins the fragrance. ”

Raff’s lips set into a thin line, which brought my attention to his beard.

He hadn’t shaved at my parents’ house, so his facial hair was much fuller.

I wasn’t sure if it was because he looked older with the beard or if it was the way his face set in anger, but it gave him a ‘don’t-fuck-with-me’ vibe that I found irresistible.

“You have a final tomorrow, is that the only one?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I have one tomorrow, and two on Thursday.”

He turned up his hand, swinging it out between us in question. “What about Wednesday?”

I shrugged. “I’ll be studying, unless I need to assist one of the professors with something.”

His brows drew together. “You’re assisting professors?”

A tiny smile flitted across my face. “At this point, I’m doing whatever any professor asks of me, Raff. In a year or so, I’m gonna need help getting an internship and not long after that, I’ll probably need references to land an actual job, so if a professor says jump, I ask how high?”

He stared at me for a long moment. “You’re so driven, Lex.”

I pressed my lips together. “So are you.”

He looked past me and his eyes fixated on something. “A goddamn rolling pin. Ought to take a fuckin’ rolling pin to his dick and flatten it out.”

My eyes widened just before I laughed.

His head whipped toward me. On a scoff that might have held a trace of humor he demanded, “What the hell are you laughing at?”

“The visual you just painted. That’s extreme.”

He stalked closer to me. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did, do you really think he’d have stopped? He laughed at you holding the rolling pin. Sure, you hit him with it, but you didn’t aim for his temple.”

My head reared back. “I didn’t want to kill him.”

His brows arched and he dipped his chin. “Then maybe you didn’t listen to my mom when she gave us that talk. She’s vicious as fuck, and she’d have told you to aim for the head. Especially with the way he snuck in here on you.”

I didn’t see the point in rehashing things. “Why did you ask about my schedule?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t have to be anywhere until tomorrow afternoon. Beyond that, I’ll have to reschedule some shit so I can get back here.”

“Why would you need to come back?” I asked.

Seemed that wasn’t the thing to ask, based on the anger suffusing Rafferty’s features.

He took a deep breath and his body relaxed. “I asked you to think about giving me a chance. Also told you I’d bring you dinner, but something made me come back here sooner.” His eyes shifted to the rolling pin on the counter behind me. “Thank God I did.”

“Yes, I’m grateful that you did. Seriously. I’m not sure how to thank you for that.”

“I wasn’t finished. If you decide to give us a shot, then the last thing I want to do is spend the night only to leave tomorrow and not get back here until the weekend - if I’m lucky.”

I dropped my head for a moment as I pressed my lips together. The idea of spending the night with Rafferty thrilled me. “As much as I hate to admit this, I need you to go back until the weekend because I won’t get much done if you’re around.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer. “Bullshit, Lex. You’re the most disciplined person I’ve ever met. If you need to study, you’ll tune out everything to make that happen. Are we gonna see where this goes with us?”

I bit my lip, took a deep breath, rested my hands on his broad chest, and decided to take the plunge. “Yeah, but I don’t think you realize, I’m busy as fuck most of the time. Finals are pretty much the only time life slows down, and even then… that’s so I can cram.”

He wrapped an arm around my waist. “If we’re both set to make this work, it will work, Robertson. Besides, the brothers are gonna run me ragged since I’m not gonna get my patch for another seven months at least—”

“You don’t know that. It could happen sooner since you’re a legacy.”

He lowered his chin. “Yeah, but no matter how cool your Dad was with me on the phone about us—”

My eyes widened. “What? How—? Why does Dad know?”

“Seriously? He would lose his mind if I didn’t tell him before we really started seeing each other.”

I shrugged. “He loses his mind no matter who I date.”

He gave a single nod. “Yeah, so I’m heading that off at the pass, but the other brothers…like Blood or Volt, or Razor are gonna give me a whole new ration of shit when they find out.”

I tipped my head to the side and tried to hold back my smile at him mentioning the other brothers - especially Uncle Razor, since for some reason he had a soft spot for me. “I’ll tell Razor to go easy on you.”

His eyes widened. “Don’t do that. Christ. That’s a sure-fire way to get them to send me to Memphis.”

That brought me back to reality. “I thought you were moving.”

His lips tipped up. “And I thought you were in a serious relationship. That changes things, Lex.”

I nodded slowly. “But you weren’t moving because of me, were you?”

He wobbled his head. “You had a little something to do with it. Do you need to study more, or can I take you out to dinner?”

“We could DoorDash.”

His fingers slid under my t-shirt at the small of my back. “No, we can do that some other time. If we order in, I’m not gonna be able to take my hands off you, and my gut says we need to get to know one another again.”

I mulled that over. “You’re right… and you’re wrong. We may have kept our distance, Raff, but I think we both know plenty about each other. But, I’ll do this your way.” An idea hit me and I beamed up at him. “You suggested sushi? I’ll take you to one of the best places in town.”

He turned his head a touch. “Same place where Simone got sick last year?”

I shot him a cynical frown. “Simone got morning sickness, even though she didn’t know she was pregnant yet. Get your story straight, sir.”

He chuckled. “They got any food that’s actually cooked?”

I tipped my head back and cried, “Oh my God, you really have been talking to Dad!”

The sound of his laughter was music to my ears, but it didn’t last long before he put his lips to my throat and kissed a path to my jaw. Heat flooded my body and I righted my head. Before I could say anything else, Rafferty’s lips found mine and he kissed me.

God, he could kiss.

I slid my hands up his chest to his shoulders and up along his neck. One hand went around to the back of his head and fisted his hair. On a groan, he pushed forward and arched me slightly over his arm.

I attempted to give as good as I got, but Rafferty had total control over this kiss. Seemed all he wanted me to do was hold on and enjoy the ride, which I did until he ended it.

His lips were a millimeter away from mine. “You’re sure you want sushi?”

I swept my thumb along his throat. “I’m sure I want DoorDash is more like it.”

He chuckled and straightened up taking me with him. “Nope. That’s just a taste of what we’re gonna do later. Put your shoes on while I put away the shit I bought at the store.”

“What’d you buy at the store?” I asked, moving to the living room.

“Odds and ends,” he muttered.

I glanced over my shoulder at him. “That sounds almost ominous.”

“Hurry up, I’m hungry.”