Thirteen

Raph's kiss had destroyed Legend's ability to do anything more than replay said kiss in her head. She was doing what she said she'd never do—have an affair with him—and it felt pretty good. They were on their way back to his house and every time he looked at her, she was sure she was going to jump on him and eat him alive. And to think, she'd actually accused him of not wanting her. She remembered the lingering looks, how he tried so hard to keep his eyes up when she was in one of her revealing tanks or when she put her legs in his lap. She had been oblivious. Not anymore.

She noticed him now, staring at her legs and she smirked.

"Eyes on the road, before you total us and make me a grimy, bloody part of the road that would need to be scraped off in the morning."

"Thank you very much for that visual. I know I'll remember that whenever I'm trying to eat." He smiled wryly at her.

"You know, you never did give me an answer. Are we doing this or not?" He asked without looking over at her. Probably for the best, though, because she could tell what was on her mind was plain on her face. And she didn't want him to see how scared she was.

It was so easy to love Raph and she didn't want to be hurt ever again. But then, not feeling him, skin on skin, his breaths on her neck, that would hurt. But would it be worth not knowing the pain of a smashed heart again?

Legend was weak so her answer to that question would probably be in the negative.

"We were interrupted, if I remember correctly, so I couldn't decide." She smiled in what she hoped was a seductive manner and not an impression of a gremlin. "Another kiss, however, could help hasten the decision process."

Since when did she start speaking impeccable English? What she meant to say was that she thought Raph's idea was terrifying in all its perfectness, however, she would need more of those kisses because they were more addictive than morphine, thank you very much.

Damn, still more impeccable English. Plain and simple; I'm scared. Kiss me again.

"Hmm, if it would make you think better, who am I to say no? I'm your friend, after all." He teased her. Raph was delusional if he thought his kisses helped her think better. They did just the opposite.

Scrambled eggs had nothing on her brain when he was close by, worse still if his mouth was on hers.

"The things we do for our friends," she teased right back, and they smiled at each other like she hadn't had him in her mouth.

She suddenly realized that this could work. They were still ribbing each other, no awkward pauses or shyness. They could actually make this friends-with-benefits thing work. Love in the dark, Legey and Raphy in the day.

Who knows, they could actually be the first couple to make this work well. They would be given an award for that. She could just imagine her and Raph on a stage, holding a plaque and blowing kisses to the other attendants of the annual Things that Nobody Notices or Gives Much Thought To award show. She would be giving an acceptance speech and making jokes about Raph's dick and not feeling weird at all.

But when he grows tired of you, when this thing fizzles out like a cigarette smoke, where would that leave you? her brain interrupted, trying to throw a monkey wrench in her plan.

We would still be friends. That was the expected reply.

But that wasn't the truth.

Raph's phone rang, and Legend had never been so happy to her the boring tune she always poked him about.

"Perdome."

Ooh, sexy.

Legend watched him get serious, his lips disappearing until they were just thin lines.

"Ok, I'll be right there."

'Right there' wasn't with his tongue shoved down her throat. Legend was sorely disappointed. He got off the phone just as they drove into the garage of his building.

"I have to go. There's been an…emergency at the office." He turned to her and cupped her face in his palm. His big palm that gave her shivers.

"Everything okay? " She asked. And if that came out breathlessly, she could be pardoned. He was running his thumb against her cheek.

"Everything's peachy." He nipped at her lower lip.

"I'll be back soon." Another nip. "I would walk you to the door but..." Another slow kiss.

God, Raph was a seducer. He was so good at this, making her want more. She was sure her panties were soaked.

"I'll be fine." So much pain from excruciating herself from those lips.

She got out and had to refrain from rolling her eyes heavenwards when he cautioned her to be careful.

"Unless there's a guy waiting in the lobby to sell me some sugar-free stuff, I think I'm safe. Quit worrying."

"We're going to finish this." He warned, not bothering to clarify what ‘this' was that needed finishing. She looked at him, really looked at him and thought again how beautiful he was. He was deliciously big, way taller than her in that way that had always made her feel safe and his face had all these angles that put Mona Lisa's overhyped ass to shame.

She didn't answer him, just turned and walked away, added a little extra sway to her hips just because he was watching.

She thought she was walking like a pregnant cross-legged nanny goat.

Raph thought otherwise. He got that across to her by telling her what he was gonna do to that ass.

Legend blushed.

Raphael Perdome was such an animal.

***

"Raph, is that you?"

Her definition of back soon and his were very different. Legend had consumed more sugar—No judgements, please—and had tried to stay up to wait for him while all the while, thinking up reasons why she should say no to him, or act like the coward she was and fake sleep.

In the end, she didn't have to fake being asleep. It was a few minutes to eleven when she gave up, heading to her room and muttering a silent apology to the gods of late nights for turning in so early. She could totally blame that on the phone call she'd just finished having with Burt, the electrician, who told her to quit calling him because she was a jinx.

Dickhead.

It was Midnight and Raph was in her room, his head hung like he was a kid caught watching the hot neighbor getting dressed through the hole in her curtain.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to check if you were still awake. I could come—"

She held open her arms and he climbed into them without hesitation, wrapping his arms tight around her and burying his face in her bosom.

She could feel his body coiled tight with tension.

"What's wrong?" She whispered into the dark, rubbing rhythmically on his back as she stared up at the ceiling.

She didn't think he would answer but he did.

"There was a fire at the office." He sounded about fifty years old.

"Oh My God, are you okay?!" She pulled him up and searched for any bodily damage. His arms, his legs, his torso—and she would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the torso inspection.

"You're the only one to ask me that." A wry smile was on his mouth. "I'm fine, it was a little accident in the storage room. An intern probably took a smoke in there. The only things that caught fire were some cleaning stuff." He burrowed closer, like he was trying to get under her skin, literally.

"I do need a hug, though."

She could give him that. She wrapped him up in her and returned his head to her bosom. She inhaled him. He smelled like smoke and dark promises. She took a bigger whiff.

"Tell me," she started conversationally, intent on taking his mind off the fire. "What was the first thing you thought when you saw me."

"‘Hey-llo, Bay-bee!'" He whooped and Legend had to laugh.

"You're insane."

"No, it's true, actually. My brain sorta imploded and I couldn't think properly. I think it was the Shakira skirt."

"Definitely the Shakira skirt." She assured him.

"Mhmm," he agreed, readjusting his head on the pillow of her chest. "The bounciness got me tripping."

At first glance, Raph could seem shy and distant, but he could be a total hoot. She liked that about him. What she also liked was to think she was the reason for the change in him.

"Okay, your turn, since we're playing spin the bottle and truth." He spun a bottle in the air to demonstrate.

"What did you think when you first saw me?"

"I was thinking I shouldn't have had left my car with that asshole valet."

He wrinkled his nose as he stared up at her. That should've looked weird on such an intense face, but it oddly looked endearingly boyish. She could just kiss that nose.

"I didn't like Vince, too."

"Neither did your mum." She mused.

"So, you spoke to my mum? "

"Yup, she was pretty nice. That was before she knew who I was, anyway."

As usual, any allusion to Logan drew them apart like he was physically in the room with them, his stupid, handsome face in that smirk he was practically born with.

"I'm sure she would still like you." He offered weakly.

Legend huffed out a laugh, drawing Raph closer. He came willingly, sighing deeply in contentment.

"I'm not sure I even like myself these days. Crying, getting pissed all the time, actually being scared of walking out my front door, well, literally, your front door." She was never the kind of girl who would go out on Fridays, but once upon a time, she had had friends, a life. But then her Nana had died and that was that.

She could sense his frown and she smoothened it, her face flaming when he kissed her hand. He had been doing a lot of kissing, not that Legend was complaining.

No, when she would file a complaint at Perdome Tech was when their boss stopped performing his duty of giving heart-stopping kisses.

"Don't worry, we'll fix that."

"Yeah, how? Everything doesn't involve an arithmetical solution, you know." Legend reminded him.

"It's a surprise." He smiled and she snorted.

"I've heard that one before."

"Really?"

"Yup. Guy was a smooth bastard." She teased, her fingers back on his brow.

"Oh, you don't say?" He kept his voice bored, but Legend knew what was up. Raph was pleased.

"Yeah. He waited all of two years before he kissed me. "

He burst into startled laughter.

"Sounds like a real jerk." That was accompanied by another sigh.

"He can be, when he's feeding me garbage," Legend yelped loudly when he pinched her for saying the truth—no good deed goes unpunished. "But he's a real good kisser, so, if he makes me ice cream this night, I'll think about forgiving him."

"Brat. You can't have ice cream, you'll rot your teeth, you greedy chipmunk. "

"Hey, it was worth a try."

They fell into a comfortable silence, each in their own thoughts. Legend's were veering to the dark, lustful places she'd tried all night not to think of.

But it had been delaying the inevitable. Every word, every laugh, every touch had been charged with slow, sweet tension, the undercurrent of unfinished business in every pause of their conversation. Legend realized it had all been building to this moment. Two years of friendship that both parties thought would never work, twenty-four months of conversations and teases, seven hundred and thirty days of repressed feelings.

No more. She was with Raph, and she had never felt more alive. More importantly, she felt free, the restrictions burning off her body like the feathers off a Phoenix. She wanted to touch, wanted to feel him on her, in her, under her, everywhere.

"Raphael, I want you to kiss me."