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“You know, I didn’t either. Good thing he came in over the comms instead of just parking and busting down the doors.” Reese looks at me. The hunger is still in his eyes. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he whispers. “Let’s get you cleaned up before I try taking you out there like we haven’t just done some unspeakable shit in a rental.”
He tucks himself back in his pants, still throbbing hard and cursing every time he moves in the wrong way and gives himself a jolt of unexpected friction. Meanwhile, I touch up my hair and makeup in a nearby mirror. A couple of steadying breaths later, the only tell that we had just engaged in some unfinished extracurricular activities is the fact he’s got a little bit of a flush to his skin.
He reaches out to help me fix a fallen bang of hair. I grab his wrist and nuzzle against his palm. “We’re gonna continue later, right?” There’s nothing more that I want than to let this high go on.
I need a break from reality. And Reese is the perfect thing to break me in.
He grins at me, curling his fingers against my cheek. “Baby, I’m going to take my sweet, sweet time with dinner. We’re going to eat good food and drink good wine and you’re going to tell me stories about how you came to be the filthiest little demon I’ve ever met in my whole damn life. Then I’m going to take you home and I’m going to rip that dress clean off of you, and I’m going to show you how I came to be the filthiest demon you’ve ever met in yours. Sound good?”
Then he steps out of the car, holding his arm out for me to take. I slip my own into his. The way we fit together like this is perfection. His warmth, his size, the security that I can feel when I’m beside him—he’s right; I’ve never met anyone else like him.
Reese Dalton is one of a kind.
51
OLIVIA
A tuxedoed manager greets Reese with a bow and a huge smile. “Mr. Dalton! We’re excited to have you joining us tonight. Your table is right this way.”
We follow him through a dimly lit dining room. The atmosphere is cozy and refined, with a string quartet playing smooth music in the corner. It’s funny to see Reese here. For all that he’s a Viking and brute sometimes, it’s also easy to forget that he’s an apex athlete. And when he’s dressed up, like he is tonight, his athleticism makes him look lithe and graceful.
I’m ready to jump his bones right on the maître d’s stand.
But I keep it in my pants for the time being as we’re led to a private section in the back that is sectioned off with frosted glass and an elaborate set of French doors. Reese pulls out my chair and helps me into it.
“Oh. Gentleman tonight,” I tease.
“Only in mixed company,” he replies, giving me a wink.
The manager smiles serenely at us. “Your server for the evening will be with you in a moment. In the meantime, can I get you started with something to drink?” His eyes trail to me and then knowingly down to my stomach. “Perhaps something non-alcoholic for the mother-to-be?”
They always say that you shouldn’t assume that a woman is pregnant just by looking at her. But the way that she says “mother-to-be” makes my heart swell ten sizes in my chest.
“Non-alcoholic for the both of us,” Reese answers for me. “Gotta keep up a united front.”
It’s a small thing, but still—I feel it in my toes. Those butterflies do the thing they always do when Reese grins like that at me.
The manager bows again. “I’ll bring those right out for you then. Please enjoy your privacy.”
Anticipation thrums in my chest as he leaves. There’s a charge in the air tonight. A sense of invisible things changing.
“You know, I’ve never really done this,” Reese muses. He gestures around. “I’ve taken women out. Gone on dates. But I wanted this to be something special for you. Something that I’ve never done with anyone else. You mean the world to me, Olivia. And I need you to understand that and believe me when I say it.”
I reach across the table. My fingers slide over his hand. It’s shaking, which is ten kinds of adorable. Why is he so nervous?
“I believe you.” I tilt my head to the side. “Reese, what’s up? Something’s different.”
He laughs. Running his free hand through his hair, he looks at me with a soft smile. “I wanted to make a special night with you after everything that’s been going on. That’s all. I think I’m out of my depth with shit like this. I’m not trying to fuck it up.”
My face softens even more. Reese has come a long way from the man I met so many months ago. I would have never expected the brash, crass hockey player with a chip on his shoulder to turn into the man sitting across from me today.
But, before I can praise him more, a sudden pang plinks through my lower half. Ah. The joys of pregnancy.
“Sorry—I gotta pee,” I say, blushing apologetically. “The little one is a little demanding tonight.”
Reese chuckles. “I’ll be waiting.”
There’s something in the promise of it that sounds so serious for a simple goodbye. I bite my lip and, before I head out, lean down to press a kiss to his mouth. “I love you.”
