“Now?” he asked.
She pressed a button on her mouse, waited for a second, and then leaned her head against his chest. “Now.”
The man moved fast, picking the pretty brunette up out of the chair and walking to the couch. It was then I realized who I was looking at. They say it’s a small world, and as I watched the detective who worked on Amy’s murder, I grinned. What were the odds? I never thought I’d have a front row seat for his personal life. The game just got even more exciting.
He pulled her T-shirt off. “You have too many clothes on.”
She smiled and reached behind her back to free her breasts. “And now?”
“Still too much.”
I had to agree.
Watching them was turning me. I continued to watch like a voyeur. Hell, I was. I’d watched Amy with a few men, knowing I could be better than them, but I didn’t want this Reagan woman. That didn’t stop me from slipping my hand into my underwear and touching myself slowly as she turned, straddled the detective, and positioned herself on his cock. I couldn’t see her slide him inside of her because the back of the couch blocked my view, but the thought alone of her pussy being worked was enough for me.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
My eyes stayed glued to her chest, watching her tits bounce up and down as she rode him. My hand moved faster, needing to match her pace. I had to admit that even though I was looking for someone else to watch, I didn’t expect to get so lucky—and so fast. They started kissing, obstructing my view of her boobs, but I continued to work myself up as I looked on. This was better than any porn I’d ever watched. Knowing that—at this exact moment—those two people were fucking was making me hot, and I wasn’t going to stop watching until they were done.
Reagan came with a jerk and a loud moan, bringing me back into the present. I wondered how far away from me she was being fucked. Could she be in my building? Down the street? Across town? I made a mental note to check the university’s files and find out Reagan’s address because I was curious.
As I watched the detective stand and Reagan turn to lean across the back of the couch, I decided I wanted them to know I was watching them. They’d never find me, of course. If they caught on that it had something to do with me watching them through their webcam, my VPN would get traced back to China. Or Japan. Or The Netherlands. Or France. Or …
They’d never find me.
The detective lined himself up and sank into her from behind. Doggie was my favorite. Watching a woman being fucked hard, balls slapping, made me come fast each time I watched it. I was close, my hand coated with my arousal as I moved it faster and faster. Just as I was on the edge, Reagan looked up at the computer as though she knew I was watching her. Our eyes locked …
And then I came.
As I watched them finish, I knew what I needed to do. Reagan McCormick was going to get a wood plaque from me.
Working, going to school, and dating a new guy made me feel as though I was in my twenties again. But juggling it all was exhausting.
Honestly, I loved the fact that Ethan was my boyfriend. I’d always loved him. I still did. Every moment we spent together, that love grew stronger. He’d said we weren’t at the beginning stages, and I had to agree, but, I wondered if it was too soon to tell him that I still loved him.
I never thought I’d want to get married again, but while Ethan and I had just rekindled our relationship, a part of me always felt as though we would marry one day, though I never thought it would be with us both divorced and in our forties. But what if Ethan never wanted to get married again? What if he didn’t want something long term? I’d yet to meet his kids, so maybe that was my answer. Maybe we were just killing time. If Maddie were in town, I would have introduced them. Of course, she was older and could handle her mom having a new boyfriend, while Ethan’s boys were little and probably didn’t understand why Daddy and Mommy didn’t live together anymore.
Until I knew where our relationship was going, I was going to enjoy it. We’d been dating again for almost a month, and the sex was better than it was when we were teenagers. Of course, it was because we knew what we were doing this go around, and what we wanted. I couldn’t get enough of him, which was why I made sure to wake up each morning with his alarm even though I didn’t have class until ten. I wanted to see him off, wish him good luck on whatever case he was working, and make sure his day got off to a good start.
We fell back against the pillows, both out of breath. “Who needs a gym when we wake up like this?”
I smiled. “Exactly.”
Ethan crawled out of bed. “I mean, sex twice a day is great cardio.”
“It sure is.”
He walked over and kissed my lips softly. “Go back to sleep, baby. I’ll see you tonight at Judy’s.”
“Okay.” I smiled and pulled the sheet up, ready to get another hour of sleep because I hadn’t gotten much the night before.
Judy’s was slammed.
It usually was on a Friday night, and I made good money, which made it all worth it. Once I got my certificate, I’d find a job assisting at crime scenes, and I wouldn’t need to work at the bar. I was looking forward to only working crime scenes and following my dreams. While I didn’t know what hours I’d be working, I pictured having dinners with Ethan every night, and I imagined us having lazy weekends when we caught up on TV or took a weekend trip somewhere—depending on his caseload, of course.
“Need anything?” Derrick questioned after he restocked clean glasses.
“Ice, please.” I didn’t look over at him as I keyed in the drink I’d just made for a customer.
He stepped closer to me. “Do you like to eat ice?”
I balked at his question and turned my head to look over at him. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I heard once that if you eat ice, you’re sex deprived.”
I chuckled. “Nope, don’t eat ice.”
“So, your boyfriend is giving it to you good?”
I stopped and fully turned to face Derrick. He had been flirting with me since day one, and I would always brush it off, but it was getting tiresome. I got within an inch of him and leaned forward to whisper into his ear, “Nightly.”
“What can I getcha?” I asked as I turned to face the new customer at the bar. He was about my age with dark brown hair and dark eyes.
“Whiskey, neat.”
“Any brand in particular?”
He looked up at the bottles lined up behind me, and I turned to see that Derrick had walked off. “Redbreast.”
I reached for the bottle of whiskey and poured a glass for him. “Here alone?”
He smiled. “Is it that obvious?”
I chuckled. “No. Just making small talk.”
“Fair enough.”
I slid the amber liquor to him, exchanging it for the money he handed me.
“Are you having a nice night?”
“Just a bit busy,” I replied as I finished the transaction on the POS system.
“That’s good, right?”
“It is. Let me know when you need another.” I moved to the next customer. “Refill?”
The blonde looked to her martini glass and then met my gaze. “Sure, why not?”
As I began to make her cosmo, I noticed the man next to her stared at her as though he was waiting for her to look over at him. She was alone, he was alone, and we were in a bar where people seemed to meet their soulmates. At least that was what Ethan had told me about his sister and her husband. In the time Ethan and I had been back together, I hadn’t seen Ashtyn. When we were kids, she and I hadn’t been friends. She was five years younger than me, and at that age, five years was a huge difference, but I liked her. Ethan also had a younger brother, Carter, who was the middle child and two years younger than me. He was a doctor, and I had yet to see him either. I wondered if they knew Ethan and I were back together. What would they think? What would his parents think?
Before I could try to play matchmaker, the man who consumed my thoughts wal
ked in through the door of Judy’s. Our gazes locked and we smiled at each other. My heart beat faster, the blood flowing with excitement.
“Hey,” Ethan greeted, leaning against a tiny open space of the bar next to me.
“Hey yourself.” I wanted to kiss him, to pull the lapel of his jacket and drag him over the bartop and plant my lips on his, but I didn’t think that was appropriate with a bar full of people. So, instead, I poured him a beer from the tap and slid it to him. “How was work?”
He shrugged and took a sip of the dark beer. “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
I chuckled. “We wouldn’t want that.”
“No, we wouldn’t.” He winked and took another sip.
I blushed like a teenager. As I did, I noticed Whiskey Neat was staring at me and not the blonde anymore. “Need another?” I asked him.
His dark gaze flicked toward Ethan and then back to me. He slid his glass forward. “Sure. One more for the road.”
I poured him his whiskey, and was about to play matchmaker when a group of three women swamped the blonde, making my night even busier until it was time to walk to Ethan’s for the night.
Ethan and I had breakfast in bed on the weekends he didn’t have his boys. Afterward, he’d watch TV or work on the case he was investigating while I did homework or looked over my notes from the week, then we’d have lunch before I had to get ready to head to the bar. Okay, maybe there was sex between breakfast and lunch. We were in the beginning stages of our relationship, and we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. I wasn’t complaining.
Not one bit.
“Next weekend …” Ethan trailed off.
I raised my head from his bare chest and placed my chin on his sternum to look into his dark blue eyes. “Yeah?”
He took a deep breath. “I have my kids again.”
“I know. I’ll stay at my place like I did last weekend.”
He started to play with my hair absently. “That’s …” He paused. “That’s not what I’m getting at.”
“Okay? Then what are you getting at?”
“I ah …” Ethan paused again. “I’ve never had to do this before.”
I grinned. “Are you saying you want me to meet them?”
He smiled back. “Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to ask.”
I straddled his hips. “I would love to.”
“Of course, I need to tell Jessica first.”
“I understand.” Having Ethan ask me to meet his kids was huge. That meant we weren’t just having fun, we were serious. I kissed him. “Does anyone else know we’re back together?”
“You mean my family?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, if I’m meeting your boys, then they should probably know too.”
Ethan pulled me down, making me squeal as he rolled us over so he was on top of me. “Don’t worry about them, Buttercup. They’ll be fine with it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not gonna lie. They know you broke my heart, but they’ll get over it.”
My heart sank. “I broke my own heart too.”
He pressed his lips to mine. “I know. We don’t need to rehash it. They’ll think it’s fate since Ash met Rhys at Judy’s.”
“Then we should do dinner or something with them. I’d love to see them again.”
He grinned. “Yeah?”
I snorted. “We’re not kids anymore, honey. I can handle meeting—well, re-meeting—your family.” Even if they faulted me for hurting their son, it had all worked out, right? I mean, he’d met Jessica and had kids. It wasn’t as though he’d been mourning the loss of me for twenty-three years.
Ethan kissed me again. “Okay. I’ll set it up and let you know.”
Everything was falling into place. At least, I assumed so. “Then, there’s one more thing to do.”
“What’s that?”
I rolled us so I was straddling him again, and then I reached for my purse on the nightstand. “You should have a key to my place.” I pulled out my keys and slipped one off.
He took it from me. “It’s about time.”
It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted him to have a key to my place. I still had his key, and I trusted him with my life. I just hadn’t had one to give him because Maddison had my spare, so I had an extra one cut on Wednesday while he was with his boys.
“Yep. Now, shut up and kiss me.”
Every morning, before I started my first class, I’d swing by the coffee shop on campus for a latte even though I’d have a cup of coffee as I got ready each morning. I needed extra caffeine to get me through the day. While in some ways I felt as though I was in my twenties, I wasn’t, and getting little sleep was starting to get to me. I wasn’t going to stop anything, though, because I loved my mornings with Ethan.
“Good morning, Reagan. The usual?” Krystal, the barista, asked.
I smiled. It was clear I came here five mornings a week. “Yes, thank you.” I handed her my credit card. When I turned around, I ran into someone. “Sorry,” I muttered.
“It’s okay,” a man replied.
I looked up, meeting the dark gaze of Whiskey Neat, and smiled warmly. “Oh.”
There was a slight pause as though he was trying to place me as well. “You’re the bartender from Judy’s, right?”
I grinned and nodded. “I am.”
“I thought you looked familiar when I walked in.”
“Do you—go here?” I didn’t want to assume he worked at the college since I was a student myself. Maybe he was getting a degree for his dream job too.
“Actually, I work here.”
“Of course.” I smiled again.
“Do you go here?”
“I do.” I bobbed my head.
“Oh? What’s your major?”
“For now, getting my certificate in crime scene investigation.”
He balked as though that wasn’t what he expected me to say. “You like murder or something?”
I chuckled. “It’s always been something that interested me.”
He stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “So, are you a murderer?”
“What?” I laughed. “No! I want to solve them, not commit them.”
“Not to be too forward, but I wouldn’t mind you tying me up.”
What?
“Reagan, your vanilla latte,” Krystal called.
I went to the counter, grabbed my drink, and turned back to Whiskey Neat. “Have a good day.”
He smiled kindly. “You too.”
I left the coffee shop, walking out into the slight wind. It was starting to get colder because autumn was approaching.
The time I would walk to class, I spent it calling Maddison. It had been a few days since I’d last spoken to her because I tried to let her have weekends to just be a teenager in college, so I dialed her cell, knowing that she had a break at this time.
“Hey, Mom,” she greeted when she answered the phone.
“Hey, baby. How was your weekend?”
“It was good.”
“Go to any good parties?”
I heard her laugh on the other end. “I did.”
“Just be careful.” I took a sip of my latte.
“I am. Are you being careful? You’re in college too.”
I chuckled. “Don’t think these kids want a forty-one-year-old at their parties.”
“They’d probably be too drunk to even notice your age.”
“Maybe.” I smiled and took another sip. “Before I go, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay?”
I took a deep breath. Not because I didn’t want to tell her I was dating Ethan, but because I hadn’t seriously dated anyone since her father and I had split. “I’m dating someone.”
There was a slight pause. “It’s not a student, is it?”
I snorted. “What? No!”
“Is it someone from the bar you work at?”
“Well, kinda. He doesn’t work there, though.”
“He’s a customer?”
“He’s … He’s more than that.”
“What do you mean?”
I took a quick sip of my coffee. “A few weeks ago, my boyfriend from high school walked into the bar, and ever since, we’ve been dating again.”
“What? Mom! That’s—that’s amazing!”
My shoulders instantly dropped, tension leaving my body, and I grinned, thinking of Ethan. “Yeah, it is.”
“Do I get to meet him over Thanksgiving?”
“Hope so.”
Maddie was coming to visit me for Thanksgiving. For Christmas break, she was spending the holiday with her father in Denver, and the rest of the time with me until she had to go back to school at the end of January. I’d assumed she would want to spend more time in Colorado with her old friends from high school, but she had decided she wanted to be in Chicago. I wasn’t going to tell her no. I was excited for her to meet Ethan, and I was excited to meet his boys.
This wasn’t how I pictured life would be when Ethan and I dated before, but now that we were back together, I wouldn’t change anything.
I wasn’t nervous for Reagan to see my family again. They knew she had broken my heart, but I also knew they’d liked her when we were kids. People grow, we change, we move on. That was clear when it came to how I felt about Jessica. Sure, she was my sons’ mother, but what I’d felt for Jess was nothing compared to what I’d felt or still feel for Reagan.
Once a month, my family made sure to have dinner together, and because I had the boys on Wednesday nights, we tried to make it that night of the week. Sometimes Rhys missed them if there was a Blackhawks’ game, or even Carter if he had a surgery or something, but for the most part, we were able to get together.
I wanted to add one more person to that family dinner.
“Hey, Mom,” I’d said when I had called her on Monday morning.
“Hey, sweetie. Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I was calling to—to tell you that I’m bringing more than the boys to dinner on Wednesday.”
“Oh?” she’d breathed.
“Remember Reagan?”
“Reagan Hunter?” She hadn’t skipped a beat.
I’d smiled. “Well, she has a different last name now.”
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