She didn’t respond.
“Listen to me.” My voice was firm. “Never get in the way of these people over me ever again. D’you understand me? The paps are vultures, just one good picture of me, or the guys, doing something they think is wrong is enough for them keep the lights on in their houses for a couple of months. People will do anything for money and me and the guys bring them money.”
She scoffed with frustration.
“So I’m supposed to let strangers who want to exploit you for money just waltz in here like they own the place?”
“Just turn a blind eye to them; everyone else does.”
“I’m not everyone else, Risk! I won’t let someone do that shit to you if I can help it.”
I couldn’t believe it when her voice cracked, and neither could she, telling by the wide-eyed expression that washed over her beautiful face. She hurriedly turned her back to me and headed straight for the back door of the kitchen, but she barely made it two steps before my hands touched her shoulders and turned her back around. My gut clenched when a tear fell from her eye and trickled down her cheek.
“Why’re you crying?”
She reached up and swiped away the lone tear immediately.
“I’m not.”
I stared down at her, blankly.
“Fine, I am,” she looked down at her feet. “I just hate that you can’t even eat a meal in peace without someone bothering you. All those strangers want something from you, you giving them songs should be enough. I don’t like it. If I can stop one of them from exploiting you then I will and I don’t want to hear a word about it from you either!”
She tried to move past me, but I blocked her from doing so.
“What?” she hissed. “If you’re gonna shout at me, just do it. I’m not gonna change my mind and there’s nothing you can—”
I had enough of her running her mouth so I shut her up with a kiss.
A kiss that to anyone else would have looked chaste and innocent, but to me made my body weak and my head spin. My heart was just about to burst when Frankie parted her soft lips and her warm, wet tongue tangled with mine. I never knew someone could taste so familiar, but Frankie did. She reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my body flush against hers. Like when we kissed on the pier, Frankie’s mouth devoured mine in a heated frenzy. I wanted to kiss her all over, to touch her, to strip her naked and feel the heat of her tight cunt wrapped around my cock as I sunk inside her. A little taste of her wasn’t enough. I had been craving her taste, her touch, her very presence for far too long.
It was a fine line I walked, nothing about our situation had changed, but I wanted her more than my next breath.
“Shit, sorry!”
Frankie jumped away from me like I was an open flame.
We both looked towards the door of the kitchen that was flapping shut. The voice of the person belonged to May so I wasn’t bothered, but Frankie was red-faced at being caught kissing me. I got back in her space, lifted my hands to her cheeks and ran my fingertips over her hot, flushed skin. I noticed the bruising around her eye was starting to change colour. The darkness was fading to a yellow, green colour. It was healing.
“You’re so beautiful.” I smiled. “I love when you’re embarrassed, your face glows like Rudolph’s nose. You really are my little cherry.”
Frankie sucked in a strangled breath as she pressed forward and hid her face against my chest, making me laugh.
“Only you could go from spitting mad to embarrassed in space of a few minutes.” I chuckled. “God, I’ve missed you.”
Her arms came around my waist and she held me tightly.
“You came by for breakfast, right?”
“Yeah.” I said. “I wanted to see you too.”
Frankie stepped back, cheeks still glowing as she said, “Come on, let’s go get you settled and I’ll take your order.”
“May’ll be happy.” I grinned. “He’s starving.”
I followed her out of the kitchen. Joe, Anna and May were leaning against the service counter and when they saw us both, each of them relaxed.
“Thank God,” Joe said, placing a hand on his chest. “I’d thought you were gonna kill him.”
“Me too,” Anna bobbed her head. “I’ve never heard you curse or shout so much, Frankie. You’re pretty scary when you get going.”
“Like I said, gorgeous,” May said to Anna. “The littlest dogs always have the biggest fight in them.”
Frankie rolled her eyes, I chuckled.
“Let’s just put what happened behind us,” she said. “What did the police say?”
“They took our statements after you gave yours when they first arrived and I filed a report. I’ve given them access to our security cameras so they can extract the footage of the man attacking you.”