If Only

C H A P T E R 26

TAKING

RAVEN

Out for the third night of clubbing for this week, I had met a different set of ladies. Drunk, I had joined the table of the first woman who had approached me when I sat by the bar.

The woman has been provocatively pressing her body on me. I just sat back and enjoyed her attention as drinks flowed on our table nonstop. Touching my thighs and kissing my neck, she was not into subtlety. In the heat of the moment, I kissed the woman passionately and groped her eager body.

The lust induced reaction turned cold, it felt wrong. I felt like someone was watching me so I craned my neck and looked around to catch the voyeur. Across the room was a woman who had laser eyes trained on me and the woman I was with. Though relieved to find it was not Miranda, I could not shake the feeling of her looking so familiar.

"Eyes on me, player," the woman pulled me to turn my attention back to her and her pouty red lips. "I don't play team sports but if you want her to join us, I won't mind." Her breath was hot on my skin.

"Quite an offer," I had her chin by my thumb and forefinger. "But you're going to have my undivided attention tonight."

Her lips formed into a sultry smile, "Works for me." She then resumed on kissing and sucking on the skin of my neck.

"You're a handful." I chuckled as I fondled her breast and grazed the soft skin a little high up on her thigh.

When I was too plastered to drive by eleven, I called Aaron to pick me up. I have long left the woman I was with. She was too pushy and kept on trying to get me to leave with her.

* * *

MIRANDA

"What happened?" I asked Aaron who was helping an inebriated and passed out Raven to the stairs.

"Nothing," he labored on getting the drunken woman up so he stopped and turned to his wife. "Harriette, love, will you please come help with her?"

Harriette took Raven's arm and put it on her shoulder and moved as her husband led them up. I followed them and opened the door to her room. They deposited her on the bed but didn't leave.

Raven was so out of it that I feared she was like Ruen. When her head hit the pillows, I elbowed my way past Aaron and sat beside her. I could smell the overpowering scent of beer and smoke.

And a woman's perfume on her.

But I thought nothing of it. My concern was her well-being. I immediately touched and checked if she was cold and clammy. She was not. She was warm to the touch.

"Was she vomiting?"

"Once," was Aaron's disgruntled response.

"Was she having trouble breathing?" I could not wait for him to answer so I felt for Raven's chest, wrist and the vein on her neck for a pulse.

She's just passed out, nothing life-threatening.

"I'll take care of her." I volunteered.

"No!" Aaron was quick to object and pull me up off the bed, "Harriette and I could do it. I can't leave her to you unconscious."

Oh, please. As if I'm planning on taking advantage and having my way with her.

That's Raven's forte.

I contemplated on hitting his head with the lamp but Harriette beat me to it. Pinching hard, she had her husband by his ear. She was obviously itching to scold him.

"Instead of worrying about Raven, you worry more about yourself. You're not exactly my favorite person these days. In fact, you haven't been in months," she added for good measure.

Harriette pulled her husband by the ear as she escorted him out of the room. Once alone, I took Raven's shoes and socks off and removed her tie and belt. Covering her with the blanket, I then began undressing her.

She was murmuring in her sleep when I gathered her dirty clothes and put them away. I got warm wet towels and cleaned her before dressing her in new shirts and shorts.

Done with easing her for bed, I turned off the main lighting and turned on the bed lights. I wanted to stay and keep watch. I can't be too sure and just go to my room with her like this. Watching the rhythm of her peaceful sleep, I laid beside her until sleep claimed me as well.

* * *

RAVEN

My eyes adjusted in the dim lights to find a woman lying next to me. Wrapped by a sheet up to her shoulder, her back was facing me so I can't tell who she was.

Shit, was I that drunk?

Didn't Aaron come to pick me up?

Did I end up having sex with the woman and spent the night in her house?

Fuck!

Peering under the cover, I noticed that I was wearing different clothes. Strange. If I really spent the night with that woman, I should at least be butt naked.

I took in the walls, pieces of furniture, and decors that lined the room and noted that I was in my own room. I sighed and sank back down on my bed. They must have changed the sheets and beddings. I almost didn't recognize them.

It was then I remembered the woman sleeping next to me.

Did I bring her home?

I'm screwed!

The bed shifted as the woman turned to sleep on her side facing me. I was ready to jump out of the bed and leave but I stopped when the dim light showed Miranda's face framed by her loose long hair.

Her eyebrows were furrowed like she was seeing something bad in her dream. Not being with her for the past months almost made me forget how beautiful she was. Her lips were red and her long thick lashes need no makeup to enhance them.

She moved again and laid flat on her back. Struggling free from the blanket, she moved it below her knees. It was obvious that she was hot from being wrapped up like a burrito.

A burrito! She looked like a burrito!

Damn if that didn't make me go hungry.

She must have wrapped the sheet around herself as a precaution while she stayed to care for me.

I felt clean and fresh, donning different clothes. She cleaned me up after I came home drunk. It warmed me up inside to know she did it and not the helpers.

I followed Miranda's hand as it moved on her stomach and slowly rubbed it. The movement caused her shirt to hike up and her belly button showed.

My hand moved on top of hers and caressed her skin. I cupped her cheek with my hand and move her hair away from her face. I was so horny that my body moved before I could stop. I kissed Miranda like a woman trapped in the desert finding her oasis.

I came alive.

Hands pushed at me to get me off, "Raven! Quit it!" She was awake and getting mad at me again.

"Why do you hate me so much?" I asked her.

"I think you got it wrong. It's you who hates me." She squirmed and tried to escape. "You're fine then I can go." She pushed me aside and sat upright.

"I don't hate you." I took her hand kissed it despite the skeptical look she was giving me. "I don't. I don't..."

"Why do you always beat me when it comes to crying?" She wiped the tears that were rolling down my cheek. Patting the bed, she told me, "Go back to sleep."

I allowed her to push me down and rest my head on the pillow but I didn't let her go. I took her down with me and restrained her with a hand on the back of her neck. "Stay with me."

"You don't fight fair."

This time when I kissed her she was no longer fighting me off.

I missed her so much.