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I let my eyes drift closed, sweeping my fingers through my hair and holding them there in absolute disbelief. Reed chuckled, the sound closer than I anticipated, a warm breeze brushing over my cold, damp skin before his lips met my neck.
I shuddered again, reaching for him—my arms finding his neck while his squeezed under me, between my body and the sofa, the sweat coating my skin was probably sinking into his shirt.
And that was how we lay for a long time, our breathing falling into sync with each other.
Until realization dawned on me, and I let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to move,” I murmured, nuzzling my face into his neck. “But I am so sticky and sweaty.”
Reed chuckled and, with some feat of strength, lifted my body with him as he sat up and then got to his feet with my legs wrapped around his waist.
“Where are we going?” I questioned, though it didn’t really matter.
He could have said Hell, and I would have simply held on for the ride.
“Well, I helped to make the mess,” he explained as he carried me to his bathroom and sat me on the counter. He opened the cabinet below, pulled out a cloth, and placed it next to me before moving to the large tiled shower that took up half the bathroom. “So it’s only fair that I help clean it up,” he said as he flicked the faucet for the shower head.
He leaned back against the wall as he held his hand under the water, waiting for the temperature to change. And while he did, I sat and waited.
I wasn’t lying when I said I was holding on for the ride. I was learning quickly that being around this sexy, intelligent, one-of-a-kind man was like being on a rollercoaster ride full of twists and turns that I thought I’d prepared myself for. I thought I knew what Reed would be like from the images and information the media shared.
Withdrawn.
Cocky.
Maybe a little self-pretentious.
But he was none of the above.
And I was sonotprepared for him.
What I did know, though? Rides eventually came to an end.
So, all I could do was hold on and enjoy the fun while it lasted.
When everything was to his liking, he walked over and held out his hand. I placed mine in it, the both of us pausing to look down at the diamond ring that was now decorating my ring finger. He brushed his thumb over the large rock as he stepped in again.
“It’s actually kind of unreal,” I whispered. “I left my fiancé at the altar and still managed to end up with a ring and actually get the sex I’d been waiting on for almost two years.”
Reed froze. “Say again?”
I cleared my throat. The steam in the room was becoming thicker and thicker, and all the heat was filling my cheeks—the ones on my face. “Chad was Cathol—”
“He didn’t believe in sex before—”
“Not with me. But he was still doing Jade every other day on the side,” I joked, though my laughter fell off, and my mouth suddenly became dry as hell when I noticed Reed’s eyes darken and become more primal. His hand moved from the ring on my finger up my arm, his fingertips leaving a trail of goose bumps behind them as they brushed over my shoulder and curled around my neck.
He gripped it tightly but not painfully. “I try to tell myself to take this slow,” he said quietly. “But then I keep learning more and more about how that motherfucker did you wrong. How he has no fucking idea about how a man should treat a woman.”
I was vulnerable.
Naked.
Exposed.
But the way Reed looked at me, I’d never been so confident.
“Are you on birth control?” he asked.
The question startled me for a moment before I nodded. “I am.”
