Page 19 of Shattered By the Currents

Outside, the cool breeze ran over her skin, making her shiver. Connor inched closer, his entire side touching hers, that palm on her back still bringing warmth to her body.

“So that jerk at the bar is friends with your ex?” Connor asked, an edge to his voice.

“Yeah. I never liked him.”

“What’s to like?”

“I think Xander lied to him about me.” It was all she could think of to explain the disgust and blatant hate. Nothing else made sense.

“Why would he do that?”

They stopped at her blue Subaru, and she unlocked the doors before turning back to Connor. “To turn him against me. Tomake my life hard. Maybe there are other reasons too, I don’t know. I’ve discovered I didn’t know Xander as well as I thought. Something I learned the hard way.”

She shouldn’t be sharing so much. But Connor was easy to talk to. And God, she wanted someone to talk to.

His green gaze beamed into her. “He’s an idiot.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“I don’t need to. He let you go.”

Heat bloomed in her cheeks. “You don’t know me either. Not well.”

One side of his mouth kicked up. “We should change that, shouldn’t we?”

Go. She needed to go. Get away. Before she did something completely stupid, like fall for this guy. “I’m kind of a mess, Connor. And when I say kind of, I mean, I’m one gigantic ball of problems.”

His smile widened. “Good. I didn’t want to be the only mess in this relationship.”

Relationship?

Connor’s lipstwitched at the flare of Raven’s eyes.

He wanted to kiss her. Fuck, he wanted to kiss her so bad he found himself leaning in with absolutely no conscious thought of doing so.

Raven’s pink lips parted, like she wanted to kiss him too. Her eyes darkened, reminding him of tides beneath pale skies.

They were almost touching, when she whispered, “I should go.”

It was like a bucket of cold water on his head. But he forced his feet back. It went against every instinct inside him, but he managed. “Drive safe, Raven.”

One quick nod, and she slipped behind the wheel and drove out of the lot. The second she was out of his sight, his gaze went back to the bar, that familiar rage curling in his gut once again. At the memory of that asshole cornering her. Looming over her. At the fear in Raven’s eyes.

Inside the bar, he went back to the guys, but his attention was partially on the asshole. What had his name been? Nathaniel?

“What’s the story?” Ryan asked, his gaze also on the bar.

“He was friends with her ex. Apparently still is.”

“You know why she and the ex broke up yet?”

Connor shook his head, and when Nathaniel finally looked up, his gaze was only on Connor for a second before scanning the rest of their group…like he was searching. For Raven? Why? So he could harass her some more?

Polly held out her hand from the other side of the table. “Phone.”

“What?”

“Give me your cell phone, Blackwood.”