His hand goes to my shirt and he slips it underneath, sliding it up my skin. I shiver and curl my leg around his hips. He groans and thrusts, rubbing his hard length against my sex. Oh God. That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt. My lips feel bruised and they burn a little, but I don’t care. Kissing Rainer is more than I could have ever imagined. I never want it to end.

But fate has other ideas.

Just as his hand reaches my breast, the phone on the bedside table rings. We ignore it the first time, kissing harder, deeper, our tongues dancing. But then it rings again. And again. With a curse, Rainer pushes himself off me, pressing a palm to his erection, trying to adjust it. My eyes flicker to it, and oh, it looks uncomfortable.

“What?” he barks, answering the phone, keeping his smoldering eyes on me.

He listens a moment and then something washes across his features. It’s a mix of pain, shock and horror. “What?” he rasps.

His body seems to buckle and his shoulders slump, then he says, “I’ll be there soon.”

He hangs up and looks over to me. There’s something broken in his gaze. Something awful has happened. It’s written all over his face.

“Rainer?” I whisper, leaping to my feet. “What is it?”

“My dad is dead.”

Oh God.

No.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NOW – MALI

God, my feet ache. My shift at work tonight was long. The shop was having a function, so we had preparation as well as serving, and by the time it ended, I had been there all day and most of the night. I plod up to my house, keys dangling from my fingers, but stop dead when I see the man sitting on my front steps, head in his hands. I flinch.

Rainer.

I stop walking and just stare at him, not really knowing what to say. I don’t even know why he’s here. My chat with Pippa yesterday shed some light on the situation, but in the end it still hasn’t given me any answers. My keys make a jingling sound and he looks up, his brown eyes pinning mine. “What are you doing here, Rainer?” I ask.

He stands and walks over to me. “Will you take a walk with me?”

I sigh. “I don’t think that’s wise . . .”

“Please, Mali.”

My shoulders slump. “Okay, but it can’t be far. My feet are killing me.”

He studies me, then glances around us. There’s a park over the road, with an old rusted playground no one uses anymore, though they never seem to want to knock it down, which makes no sense to me. Rainer points to it. “Is that too far?”

I shake my head. “No.”

We walk across the road in silence and when we reach the grass, I lean down and slip off my shoes. I carry them in my hand, sighing as the cool grass brings some relief to my tired, aching feet. We reach the swings and I sit on one. It’s probably ready to break, but I risk it. Rainer sits on the other and we both remain silent.

“I’m sorry for what I did to you, Mali.”

I shrug. “Shit happens.”

“Don’t do that,” he says. “I was a fucking jerk, and you didn’t deserve that. I know I said it was only a casual thing, and that’s the truth, but you’re still a girl and you still deserve respect. I should have told Pippa how it was.”

“She already knew, Rainer, so the only people you upset were yourself and me.”

He narrows his eyes. “You’ve spoken to her.”

It’s not a question.

“Yeah, I did speak to her. She wanted to talk to me about what went down. She’s not stupid and she cares about you, Rainer.”

His eyes meet mine. “Either way, I shouldn’t have done what I did. I’m not ashamed of you, Mali. In fact . . .”

He trails off and I stare at him, waiting for him to go on.

“In fact?” I prompt.

“You’re the best lay I’ve had . . . since . . . I can’t even remember.”

I blink. The best . . . lay.

“Lay?” I say, my eyes wide.

He closes his eyes, cursing. “There I go again, fucking things up.”

“It’s okay,” I say, waving a hand. “I’m flattered . . . I think.”

His lips quirk. “Anyway, I’m sorry. I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing here, but for some strange reason I find myself not wanting to stop. I can’t promise you anything, because there’s nothing to give, but I want to keep . . .”

“Fucking me?”

His eyes flash. “Yeah.”

“Well, it’s your lucky day, handsome,” I say, swinging the old rusty set. “I’m happy to keep it up, too.”

“Yeah?”

I smile at him. “Yeah.”

~*~*~*~

“So, go ahead and tell me something you’ve never told anyone else,” I say to Rainer, that night in my bed.

He just fucked me, long and slow, and now we’re tucked in each other’s arms, happily exhausted. He isn’t running. He isn’t making any move to leave. He seems happy enough to stay, and I’m fine with that.

“I am shit scared of spiders.”

I giggle.

“Seriously?”

He grunts. “Fuck yeah. They’re awful.”

“Do you scream and run around, hands in the air?”

He pinches my arm softly. “No, but I don’t like them being close to me.”

“You’re funny.”

He snorts. “I’m glad I entertain you.”

“You just don’t seem like the type to be scared of anything.”

He goes quiet for a moment. “You’d be surprised.”

“I think I would,” I admit. “You seem so strong on the exterior, but there’s a big story behind your eyes, Rainer. One day, you might want to tell me about it.”

He shifts and I think he’s going to brush it off again, but he starts speaking. “I was sold as a slave.”

My entire body jerks in his arms, because I’ve thought of a thousand different scenarios, but never, not ever did I think something like that had happened to him. My blood runs cold. A slave? He doesn’t mean . . .

“Not a sex slave,” he says, as if reading my thoughts. “I was a working slave.”

“Rainer,” I breathe.

“That’s how I met Pippa.”

Oh no.

“Pippa was a slave too?” I gasp.

“Yeah,” he says, his voice thick. “We met and became close while we were there.”

“I’m so sorry. I . . . I never...how did you end up like that?”

He starts playing absently with a strand of my hair. “I got into drugs. I fucked with the wrong people, and as a debt repayment, I was sold to a tobacco farm somewhere in Mexico. I was there more than five years.”

Oh God. Poor Rainer. My poor, beautiful Rainer.

“And Pippa?”

“She had a really hard life and got sold for much the same reason. We were thrown in with each other and over the years, we became all the other person had. The scars on my back are the day I got whipped nearly to death protecting her.”

Tears start flowing now, and I can’t stop them. I never realized Rainer had led such a hard life. I never realized he had been through so much hell. What kind of horror did he live through? What kind of pain must he have endured?