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The other screamedto hell with that.
Unfortunately, there would always be one that was stronger than the other.
Chapter Seventeen
REED
“What do you think?” Valen asked as she sat on the edge of the bed, threading a tiny strap through a buckle on her heel.
“That dress is making me think we should skip this party and stay the hell home,” I told her seriously as I pulled on my jacket and tugged at the cuffs. Her rose gold strapless dress accentuated the curve of her breasts and her slim waist. The length just brushed the floor with a split up the right side as high as her hip.
She’d had it on for less than twenty minutes and I was already struggling to keep my eyes and hands to myself.
While I didn’t believe in perfection, I struggled to see anything besides that with this woman.
She had all the right curves.
The right amount of confidence.
And we could speak for hours about anything—business, sports, movies. And even when we disagreed, the way she so passionately argued her point could be the sexiest fucking thing about her.
There were men out there looking for women to be submissive, to see them as the income earner, the head of the household, and the one who made the decisions.
But that had never been me.
I wanted a woman to stand with me, who felt like she could speak her mind and be heard. I wanted her to feel revered, not like a pretty accessory on my arm. Because I know life is not perfect. There will be times when I will feel knocked down and find the urge to lean on her for support. Because while it seemed so easy for us to lift each other during the good times if we couldn’t be each other’s balance in the bad times, then we both crashed and burned.
Maybe that’s why this felt different.
The idea of forming some kind of relationship with someone had forever been the dread that sat in my stomach. It was the fear of loving someone so hard and fighting for them but then watching them leave anyway.
I’d felt that pain before.
I loved Gabe, and no matter what I did to help him, he was taken from me.
I loved my parents, but when Gabe died, even having given parts of my body wasn’t enough for them. All they could do was look at me with disappointment and blame—a bitter pill to swallow.
So I lost them too.
With Valen though, we’d begun building something from nothing. There’d been no expectations. No pressure. Things between us had developed naturally as we’d gotten to know each other. Just two people whose lives crashed together and were now moving along the same track. And while there was still a part of me waiting for it to derail at any moment, both of us had taken turns over the past few weeks to keep things straight and steady.
“Earth to Reed?”
I blinked a couple of times, moving my gaze to her face, where I was met with a knowing smile.
She laughed softly, pointing at her face. “My eyes up are here, Mr. Lawson. And I meant… what do you think about me seeing her later?”
“Well, Mrs. Lawson, you knew full well what putting on that dress would do to me.” She reached for me, and I took her hand, helping her to her feet with a little extra tug that had her falling into my chest. My arm circled her waist, and with my free hand, I hooked her hair back behind her ear. “Do you really want to see her?”
Valen had explained about her phone call with Jade yesterday.
I’d been fielding my own phone calls from my dad and Christine—mostly Christine—including some pretty angry voicemails about how Valen was being stubborn and insensitive by not hearing Jade out. And how I was only feeding her vindictive ways by giving her somewhere to stay.
My first instinct was to keep Jade the hell away from Valen.
There was nothing she could say or do to excuse her actions.
However, those plans were beginning to falter when I saw how eager Valen was to suddenly hear her out.
