Page 18 of Into the Light
“Oh, thank you. I mean, you know I’m not good at public speaking, so I just sort of spoke from the heart.”
“Did you mean it then? You believe you’re good enough for love now?” Shit, I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean to talk about this at all. I started walking again, but my feet were properly killing me now, so I stopped to take my heels off.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t walk barefoot on these cobblestones, who knows what you could step on. And the alley?” He pointed to the alley a block away that I’d have to walk down to get to my door. “Fuck no.”
Before I realized what was happening, Raf scooped me up, one hand behind my back, the other under my knees, and carried me down the street.
“Rafael! Put me down.”
“Nah.”
“I’m serious! I can walk, I’m not going to step on any glass or needles. This is downtown Moon Harbor, for Christ’s sake, they have a committee just to prevent stuff like that.”
He laughed, but kept walking. I ignored how easy it seemed for him to carry my weight.
“I would have driven you home, you didn’t have to walk.”
“It’s just down the street.”
I looked up at him, wondering how the hell he thought he could get away with being so handsome.
“Are you going to answer my question?”
“What question?”
“The thing in your speech. About you being worthy of love. I mean, if you’re dating then you must believe it, and I’m just glad you haven’t closed yourself off like you were saying the other night.”
“What do you mean dating?”
Shit. I shouldn’t have said that.
“Oh, nothing. I just heard that you were on a date earlier this week and I figured, you know, that’s good. You’re not closing yourself off.”
“I wasn’t on a date.”
“You uh, you weren’t?”
“Nope.” He adjusted his grip as he turned down the alley.
“Then who were you with?” I smacked a hand over my mouth. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”
Raf just smirked. “Who gave you this very salacious information?”
My cheeks reddened and even in the dark of night, I knew he could tell.
“Just. Derek. He might have mentioned it.” My voice was mousy from the embarrassment. This all made me sound so stupid.
Raf’s smirk went from jovial to angry.
“What the hell is he telling you lies like that for? To get in your pants again?”
