“Yes.” Luci bit her lip. “I should have listened to you, Raze,” she said in a low voice. “I never would have tried this if—” She stopped abruptly but Raze frowned and made a “go on” gesture with one big hand.
“Tell me, Lucia. I’ll do everything I can to help you out of this predicament, but I need to know why you got into it in the first place.”
Luci bit her lip and looked down at her hands.
“I guess that’s fair,” she said and sighed. “Okay. The other day after I got off of work, my ex—Tony—ambushed me on the way home.”
“He what?” Raze’s eyes flashed and his voice became a growl. “Did he hurt you, Lucia?”
“No, not physically anyway,” Luci said quickly. “But he saw you and me together back when we were, uh, together…” She could feel her cheeks getting warm. “Anyway, he threatened to take me to court and take my kids away—he said he was going to tell them I’m an unfit mom.”
“What?” Raze’s voice was a muted roar now. “How fucking dare he?” he demanded. “You’re one of the best mothers I’ve ever seen, Lucia! You’re always careful and mindful of your children and they love you.”
“I know that and you know that,” Luci said miserably. “And I pointed out to Tony that no judge would believe he was the better parent—especially since he never comes to see the kids and he doesn’t pay me a cent of child support.”
“That makes sense.” Raze nodded.
“But then he threatened to report my mother to ICE—people who come and take away undocumented immigrants,” she explained. “Technically my mom isn’t here in this country legally because she never went through the right channels to become a citizen. But she holds a job and she’s never hurt anyone and she’s been here for years. Plus, she’s an old lady! If they sent her away, she wouldn’t have anyplace to stay and she’d probably die.” Tears filled her eyes. “And Tony wants to do that to her, just to get back at me for daring to see someone else. He thinks he still owns me and he’s willing to rip my family apart to prove it.”
“Oh, Lucia…” Raze reached for her and somehow she found she was in the big Kindred’s arms with her face pressed against his broad chest. “I’m so sorry,” he rumbled, rubbing his big hands up and down her trembling back soothingly. “I had no idea what a bastard this ex-mate of yours is! Why didn’t you come and ask me for help the minute he threatened you?”
“That’s what I was on the Mother Ship to do,” she admitted, sniffing. “I was going to ask to borrow money to hire a lawyer to defend me. But then I ducked into that Scent Shop place to get away from all the curious single Kindred who were wanting to talk to me, and that salesman with two noses made it seem like this was such an easy way to earn money and now look at me!”
She started to cry again and Raze held her closer.
“It’s all right,” he rumbled. “All right now, sweetheart. “I’m going to help you. To start with, we’re going to get that scent collector out of you and once that’s done, I’m going to find this ex-mate of yours and have a very serious talk with him.”
Lucia looked up at him with wet eyes.
“Please don’t go after Tony—he can get crazy. I know you’re way bigger than him but—”
“One problem at a time,” Raze told her. “The first thing is to get you taken care of. Did you bring everything you were given at the Scent Shop, like I asked you?”
“Oh, yes—here.” Lucia had put everything into a plastic shopping bag which she’d hooked over one arm. Now she opened it and showed him the scent collecting wrapper, the half-empty packet of lube, and the round silver sphere.
“All right.” Raze nodded. “Let’s move into the sleeping chamber so I can…” He cleared his throat. “So I can have a look at the problem.”
Luci felt her cheeks getting hot, but she nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”
Twenty-Three
It felt really strange to take off her panties and lie back in the middle of the big Kindred’s bed so he could examine her, but that was exactly what Luci had to do.
Biting her lip, she tried to get comfortable on the pillows Raze had arranged behind her head as he knelt on the floor in front of the bed to look at her.
“Hmm…” he murmured, tracing the base of the dildo with one fingertip. “Your little pussy seems to be somewhat red and swollen,” he remarked, looking up at her. “Do you think that could be why you can’t get it out?”
“I don’t know,” Luci whispered. Dios, but this was embarrassing! “It could be, I guess. But I did everything the, uh, instruction sphere told me to do—to the letter! This shouldn’t be happening.”