by Bella Andre
Her pulse quickened and she was filled with hope. She pressed a finger over his lips. “I don’t want any more promises tonight. And even though I know I’m going to need us to slow down again in the morning, right now I don’t want to have to worry about putting on the brakes. Tonight I just want to let the wind carry us both, wherever we need to go.”
He sealed his lips over hers, and when he rolled her onto her back, right onto the palette of paint, she didn’t care about getting paint on either of their clothes...Nor was she going to worry about taking it slow when, in the wake of their totally honest talk, fast felt exactly right.
“God, you feel good, Reese. Like I’ve finally found the missing piece of me.”
Paint smeared all over them as they kissed, desperate for more. She tugged at his shirt, fumbling to undo the buttons, but when paint made it slippery, she couldn’t wait and gripped both sides of his collar to tear it open, sending the buttons flying across the room.
He lifted her up and unhooked her overalls, then pulled her shirt over her head. They tumbled into the paint again as they kissed and groped and slid around in it. She wiggled out of her overalls while Trent stripped bare. When he came down over her again, all of his glorious muscles were perched above her.
And then he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her dizzy. Her head and body were both reeling as he kissed his way down her body, slowing to kiss the swell of her breasts, teasing each taut peak until she was on the verge of release. She pushed at his shoulders, needing his mouth on her, wanting him to love her in all the ways he always had.
His hands traveled over her ribs, down the curve of her waist to her hips. The strength of his hands and the softness of his lips made her ache for more. He spread his big hands over her thighs, and finally—God, finally—brought his mouth to her center. His hot mouth, the scrape of his teeth, made her body shudder, her veins fill with heat. Her sighs felt heavy, growing shorter, harsher, more desirous with every slick of his tongue. Anticipation mounted, until she felt as if she might burst.
“Trent—” She rocked her hips, frantically twisting the tarp below them.
Somewhere in the distance she registered the sound of a paint can tumbling over, but she was too focused on chasing the orgasm that was just out of reach to process it. When he slid his fingers over her inner thighs, around her sex, but didn’t touch her where she needed it, she nearly lost her mind until she looked down and realized his hands were covered in paint.
Seconds later, when he brought his mouth to her again, she lost all control. Her hips bucked against his mouth, and he held her down, keeping her at the peak of the most intense orgasm she’d ever experienced.
She grasped at the tarp, panting as her fingers slid in the paint. “Please, Trent. Take me now.”
He moved up her body, lacing their paint-soaked fingers and pinning them beside her head as he pushed into her, filling her completely. His lips crashed over hers in a mind-numbing kiss, obliterating any chance she had at rational thought. But a moment later he slowed his efforts, torturously so.
“Faster,” she pleaded against his lips.
“Yes”—he kissed her deeply—“we were always good at fast.”
He released her hands, and she grasped at his back and shoulders, feeling the tight pull of his muscles slide beneath the slick paint on her hands as he clutched her hips and buried himself deeper, time and time again. He angled her hips the way they both loved, bringing them as close together as two people could possibly get.
And when he gazed deeply into her eyes and said, “I truly love you,” she tucked his words away to revel in later, as he took her up, up, up, and then they both fell blissfully over the edge.
Chapter Eighteen
TRENT HADN’T COME to Reese’s studio to make love to her until his heart felt so full that he thought it might explode. And after they’d washed the colorful paint from their skin and made love again beneath the warm spray, he thought for sure she’d rethink things and tell him that they were moving too fast.
He readied himself for the blow as he pulled on his slacks. Now that they’d become even closer and he’d just loved her body and soul, she’d fully reclaimed the part of his heart that he’d locked away for so many years. The part that had never stopped loving her. Not for one single second. Reese stepped gracefully into a clean pair of panties and grabbed a T-shirt from a drawer, the sweet curves of her hips disappearing beneath the hem that dipped over her thighs. When she turned to face him, he realized she was wearing his favorite old T-shirt, which she must have taken with her when she’d left New York.
His heart had already grown impossibly fuller by the time she reached for his hand and surprised him by saying, “Stay with me.”
God, there was nothing he wanted more. But he didn’t want to push her too fast and end up losing her again, so he made himself ask, “You’re sure?” If she said she only wanted him to stay a few minutes and then she’d need her space, he’d take it. A few minutes, a few seconds. Any amount of time with Reese was more than he thought she’d ever give him again.
But instead of saying any of that, she gave him the sweetest smile he’d ever seen as she led him to her bed, then climbed beneath the covers, motioning for him to join her. When he kicked his pants back off and crawled in beside her, she snuggled against him in what was once her favorite sleeping spot and draped her arm over his chest.
He wrapped her in his arms, full of intense gratitude.
“I thought I needed to slow us down,” she said as she rested her chin on his chest and turned a soft, loving gaze toward him. “But I don’t think that’s what I really want.”
“Tell me what you do want.” And he would move heaven and earth to give it to her.
She ran her fingertips down over his bare chest like she used to when she wanted him to stay put and talk to her. She needn’t worry. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t think we’re capable of slowing down our need for each other, and I can live with that.” She dropped her eyes for a beat, then met his gaze again. “I love that part of us, Trent. I love it so much I probably should seek treatment to stop from always wanting you. Trent-Lovers Anonymous,” she teased.
“That would be Trent-Lover Anonymous, and if it’s up to me, I’d rather you stay as far away from that treatment as possible.” He kissed her forehead, and she smiled, but then her eyes turned serious.
“We know how to love each other. We just need to figure out the rest of us. Step by step. Piece by piece. I know that fast, crazy love is who we are, but I also know that we need to work on the things we aren’t so good at. Because if we just up and move back in with each other the way I’m so tempted to do...” She paused and shook her head. “I’m afraid if we don’t lay a good foundation this time everything could just blow up again the way it once did.”
“Agreed.” He scanned the room. “Do you have a pad of paper and a pen?”
“What? Why?”
“So we can make a list and—”
She laughed and rolled her eyes at the same time. “I know that’s how you figure things out, but you and I are not one of your legal proceedings. We’re people, with hearts and souls, needs and wants. We can’t build a strong foundation for our relationship with a neat and tidy list. Of course I know you’ll make lists in your head during your morning runs, and I’ll figure some of it out through my art. But us? We need to communicate with words and actions and feelings.”
He propped himself up on his elbow so they were facing each other. “Okay.”
“Okay.” She blew out a relieved sigh, but then she frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Was he already screwing this up?
“I was just wondering, do you think we should take a break from sex until we figure everything else out?”
“There’s nothing I want more than for this to work again, for us to be together again, forever this time. But our physical connection has always been an important part of our love. If you want to go withou
t, I will, but...” He ran his hand up her thigh and pressed his hips to hers. “It’ll be torture.”
“Of course I don’t want to do that!” She bit her lip, and he was hard-pressed not to kiss the now-damp flesh. “I just want to be able to think straight.”
He kissed her before saying, “Okay. Think straight.”
She playfully pushed him away and he laughed. “You’re impossible, and I love it, but…” She managed a serious tone. “I want you to know that I’m going to work on telling you how I feel right when I feel it, instead of bottling it up for so long that it eats me up inside.”
“And I want you to know that I’m not going to put work—or anything else—ahead of you.”
“What else do you need from me?” she asked him.
“You’re perfect just the way you are.”
“That’s sweet and romantic, but I want real. We’re good in bed together. We know that. You make my heart and my mind spin like crazy. But we obviously stink at communicating outside the bedroom. I could have supported your career better. I could have attended more of the social functions with you in New York City instead of begging off because of my own discomfort. I could have met you for lunch and taken the scary subway. And I will do that this time. Well, there’s no subway here, but if we return to the city…”
He couldn’t resist kissing her again. She was really giving them another chance, and he felt like he was the luckiest man on the planet.
“I missed you on those evenings. But I wanted you to be happy, and I knew you were never happy at those functions.” He remembered sitting with his colleagues over dinner, each with their wife or significant other, while he was alone. He’d known then things weren’t ideal, but he’d been so wrapped up in getting through each day and proving himself that he’d never slowed down enough to figure out what to do about it. And then it was too late.
“I wish you would have told me then that you missed me, that you needed me there no matter what. If you had, maybe I would have pushed myself harder. I don’t know for sure what might have happened had things been different. All I know is that we’ve got a second chance at a future. And I want us to give it everything we have this time, without letting all of our fears and pride catch us in their grip.”
Trent felt like all of his dreams just might come true after all. At least, if he didn’t completely screw things up again. Which meant he needed to have the courage to actually communicate with her by asking, “Are you sure you want this? Are you sure you want me? I am one hundred percent in this relationship, but if any part of you isn’t, I need you to tell me.”
“See?” She was beaming at him as if he’d just said the most wonderful thing in the world. “We’re already communicating so much better. We’re bridging the gap that we thought our physical love would fill ten years ago.” She pressed her lips to his, then said, “Yes, I want this. Yes, I want you. I have never stopped loving you. I’m just scared that as things come up, I’ll clam up and you won’t notice. Or that I’ll stop supporting your work and you’ll forget that our relationship needs attention.” She reached for his hand and threaded her fingers through his. “It’s hard for me to admit this to you, but I’m scared, Trent. Scared to open myself up to you again and end up even more hurt than before.”
“I know, sweetheart.” He pulled her in close. “I’m scared, too.”
“You’re never scared.”
“That’s not true. I just never used to let anyone know I was scared. But I’ve never been more afraid of anything than I am of losing the only woman I’ve ever loved for a second time. I’m scared that coming back to the island sends the wrong message to my grandfather or that I’ve somehow let down my father. I’m scared that even after all these changes, and the ones I’m going to make in the future, I’ll still mess things up with us. I’ve had ten years to try to figure out what makes my life complete, and what I know for sure is that you’re the only person, the only thing in this crazy world that makes me feel whole. And the only thing that can truly make me happy is loving you the way you deserve to be loved, every second of every day for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, Trent…”
He lowered his lips to hers with a tender kiss, one she returned just as sweetly, before asking, “When do you think we should tell our families that we’re trying to make things work again?”
“Actually, I’m going to have breakfast with my parents tomorrow morning, because I don’t want them to hear about us from someone else before they hear it from me. If everything does end up working out between us, I’ll want you to come with me. But for now I think I should talk to them myself first.”
He tried not to clench up at the way she’d said, If everything does end up working out between us. She’d been nothing but honest about needing to build a new foundation beneath them, step by step, one piece at a time. And she was right...even if all he wanted was to get down on one knee right this very second and ask her to be his again forever.
Still, he wanted her to know, “If you end up deciding you’d like me to be there, my day is pretty open. Just call or text, and I’ll swing by to say hello to them.”
“You have no plans? No resort business to make yourself crazy over? No legal work to bury yourself in?” Disbelief was evident in her tone. “Even I’ve got tons to take care of between the mural and my gallery.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday, and since I’ve been back on the island, I usually meet up with whatever family members are free to have lunch. I’ve also been going over to Shelley’s café to help out with getting it ready for her grand opening in two weeks. I’d like to tell my family we’re dating again, if it’s okay with you.”
Thankfully, she didn’t pause before saying, “Of course it’s okay with me. And if you need me,” she added with a smile, “just let me know.”
“I always need you, Reese,” he told her as he curled his body around hers the way he always used to. “Always.”
Chapter Nineteen
REESE FELT TRENT’S arms tighten around her waist the following morning and smiled. It felt so right to share a bed with Trent again, and their talk last night had done wonders for her nerves. She even felt a little guilty having so much on her plate today when Trent’s day was wide open. Wasn’t that a shocking change?
She rolled over in his arms, and he kissed her forehead. “Good morning, beautiful. Are you freaking out, or are we okay this morning?”
His hair was tousled from going to bed with it wet from their shower, and he had a light peppering of scruff along his jaw, but it wasn’t just his looks that continually tugged at her heart. It was all of him, and the fact that the first thing he wondered about was her state of mind made her even happier.
“I’m so happy you stayed.” But she also knew she needed to be completely honest and admit, “And I’m also freaking out a little.”
“Only a little?”
She gave him a small smile. “Okay, I might be freaking out a lot, actually. But I’m starting to realize that doesn’t mean I have to run from what I’m feeling. It just means there’s a lot on the line with us...and I don’t want anything to go wrong.”
“It won’t, Reese. Because we are going to build that great foundation that we need this time.”
He sounded so confident, but after their talk last night, she now knew that freaking out didn’t necessarily just go one way. She hadn’t been the only one scared in New York City; Trent had been scared, too. Not only had she never told him how terrified she was, but she had never thought to ask him if he felt the same way.
“What about you?” she asked him now. “Any second thoughts?”
“Only that I love waking up with you...and that I love you even more this morning than I did last night.” He slipped his warm hands onto her waist beneath the hem of her T-shirt. “What time are you meeting your parents?”
“I don’t need to leave until eight, so we have a little time.” She eased her body over his. “Maybe if we make love now we won’t tear ea
ch other’s clothes off in some inappropriate place later.”
“Inappropriate? Your studio is hardly inappropriate.”
“The car?” she reminded him, then silenced him with a kiss as she straddled his hips.
She could still hardly believe that Trent was here with her. Not just in her bed, but back in her life again. Every moment with him was so exciting, and at the same time, there was a lazy sensuality to every kiss, every caress, every whisper of need as they loved each other with the morning sun washing over them.
She gasped with pleasure as he sat up, then wrapped her legs around his waist to bring them even closer together. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and he groaned out her name as they moved together. Two lovers rediscovering the joys of waking up in each other’s arms and greeting the day with the sweetest pleasure imaginable.
Sweeter than anything else she’d ever known…
* * *
AN HOUR AND a half later, nerves sizzled in Reese’s stomach as she walked through her parents’ front door. It had been more than a little nerve-racking to honestly communicate with Trent, but their talk last night and this morning had started to lift at least part of the heavy weight she’d been carrying on her shoulders. Now it was time to be just as up-front with her parents, too.
The house smelled like coffee, sausage, and eggs. It was a comforting, familiar smell that, with the exception of when she’d lived in New York, she’d enjoyed every Sunday of her life.
“Mom? Dad?” She followed the delicious aroma into the kitchen, where she found her mother working on a crossword puzzle.
“Hi.” She kissed her cheek.
“Hi, sweetie. Let me get you some coffee.” Her mother pushed to her feet.