Risk It All - Raph X OC

Falling

"Where..."

"Where are we goin'?" Raph finished Brooke's sentence, as he'd been doing ever since they'd left the lair. He didn't want her talking more than necessary. He could tell it hurt her by the way she winced when she spoke.

Damn, he hated that Sergei had laid his hands on her, and he blamed himself for not preventing it. He shouldn't have allowed her out of his sight. Not even for a few minutes. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his anger bubbling up. But his self-recriminations couldn't change what had happened. All he could do now was take care of her while she recovered.

They stopped at a gas station where Brooke went in instead to buy cold water bottles and ice. Raph remained hidden in the car and called Casey. The two discussed various options for accommodations. When Brooke returned to the car, she passed him a drink and Raph set to work fashioning an ice pack out of an extra shirt that was in his bag.

"Where next?" Brooke prompted again.

"In fifteen minutes, we'll head north and meet up with Casey." He passed her the ice pack, and she pressed it against her throat. Anger spiked through him again. How could anyone harm her?

"Another abandoned warehouse"

"No," he said, his voice grim. "Where we're goin' is private and secure."

Casey had invited them to stay at grandma's cabin, where he was crashing majority of the time when April wanted to get away from the city. His grandma passed away a long time ago and left the land to Casey to own. It was perfectly secluded in the woods so that Raph and his brothers would stay if they ever needed to. Unfortunately, Casey couldn't meet them for half an hour and the key was with him, not under a doormat.

Brooke shifted in her seat. The sunshine through the windshield lit up her hair, rendering the blonde strands as fine as spun gold. It was an odd, yet enchanting visual. His whole life Raph was used to the darkness, staying in the shadows away from humans. He eventually thought he was meant for darkness...until Brooke lit up his life. Then Raph noticed the ice pack had dripped onto her blue shirt, rendering it translucent and causing her left nipple to pebble from the cold. His heart beat faster as he wished her whole breast had been revealed.

He yanked his gaze away. What was wrong with him? The woman needed safeguarding, not ogling, But every minute he spent with Brooke Rogers fired up his testosterone as if she were an aphrodisiac.

Maybe it was his body objecting to a long stretch of abstinence. Raph had never come close to a woman, let alone a woman who matched his very own attraction to her. Splinter explained the male and female body parts as the turtles grew into teenagers, but it was all textbook. Then Raph discovered porn and that's where he thought it would end. It was always plain and clear that there would be no way a human would desire a turtle. Until now. Being close in proximity to a knockout like Brooke flooded his head with erotic fantasies.

The new place had another advantage. Casey Jones. He would be the proverbial third wheel, in witting chaperone to his two house guests --

Brooke's hoarse voice broke through his thoughts. "Why didn't you tell me... the missing guy is a family member of yours?"

His head whipped around. "What?" he said, not because he hadn't heard her, but because she shouldn't know that info.

"You should have been... honest with me. Instead, I had to hear it... from Sergei."

Raph's hands tightened into fists, and he wished he'd tossed the bastard into the dumpster, instead of leaving him next to it. Sidorov's orders had been to bring Brooke back for questioning, not strike a conversation with her. However, events had unfolded differently for everybody concerned. Because Sergei had shot off his mouth to Brooke, Raph now had a damage-control issue.