Meanwhile Reid had stayed in the spare room, saying he didn’t want to jostle her arm and hurt her in the middle of the night. His distance was more painful than her injury. The combination of his misplaced concern and her own stir-crazy petulance made her feel like throwing something.
“Okay,” Reid said, bustling into the room like an old woman. “Breakfast is ready. And then I’ll set you up on the sofa for the day.”
“No,” Lia said, with more frustration than he probably deserved. Guilt tweaked at her when she took in the concern on his face.
“If you want to stay in bed, that’s cool, too.” He opened the blinds and the balcony door. “I’ll remake your bed while you eat and—”
“Reid, I’m not sick. I’m not dying. The surgery was nearly a week ago. You’ve got a garage to run, and I need to get on with my life.”
“It must be frustrating, babe,” he said, touching her cheek gently. “Do you need your pain meds?”
He was close enough to punch in the throat, and she debated doing it. “I’m not in pain,” she said between gritted teeth—because in truth, she was a little. “I just want up. I want a shower. I want to put on my makeup. I want to put on a fucking dress and underwear, and leave my fucking apartment. I’ll be thirty next week, so stop treating me like I’m a child.”
Reid sat on the edge of the bed and ran a finger down her cheek. “I’ll address the fact that your birthday is next week and I didn’t know in a second, babe. I’m not treating you like a child, even though you’re acting like one. It’s okay to admit it hurts, and snapping at me isn’t going to make it better. If it did, I’d encourage you to snap at me all day because you know I’d do anything to make this better for you. But you know all that shit, Lia. So what’s going on?”
Lia ground her teeth and looked at the comforter, embarrassment heating her face. Tears burned her eyes as she realized she was behaving exactly like a child.
“I’m sick of being mollycoddled. And I want to shower.”
Reid looked at his watch. “Fine. Pancakes can wait. Let’s get you into the shower. The doc said the incision needed to be kept dry for five days so you’re good.”
“And I want you to come into the shower with me,” she said boldly. If he didn’t want her to be a child, he could deal with the grown-ass woman she was.
“Lia.” He groaned. “Babe.”
“You asked me what was going on. I don’t like the distance.” She reached her good hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer until she could feel his breath on her lips. “It makes me very . . . needy, Reid.”
Reid licked his lips and studied her mouth, and she deliberately bit her lip. Yes, she was baiting him, but right now her need for him made it worth it.
“I need hot water,” she whispered, “and soap to clean all the parts of me that are dirty. I need someone to wash my hair until white lather runs down my naked body, over my breasts, and between my legs.”
“Lia,” he said gruffly.
But it was too late. She could already see the way his erection was tenting his shorts. She had him. “I just want to feel close to you, Reid. Don’t turn me down.”
“Goddamn, babe. How the fuck am I supposed to say no to that?” He walked to the bedside table and grabbed a condom. “Might as well be prepared,” he said as he lifted her and carried her to her en suite bathroom. With the gentlest of movements, he placed her on her feet.
“You aren’t going to hurt me, Reid,” she said as he removed her brace and lifted her slip up over her head.
“Just let me take care of you, for fuck’s sake. It’s been trying my last thread of control to go to sleep in that stupid spare room every night knowing you were sleeping in silk like this. So while my dick is demanding I bend you over the sink, babe, I’m going to take my time.”
Lia grinned and placed her hand over his hard length. “Does that mean I get to take my time, too?” she asked.
He narrowed his eyes at her and lifted her hand away. “This is all about you, Lia,” he said as he shucked his clothes and dropped the condom on the bench in the shower. He turned the water on and steam started to rise. She’d never been more excited to step into her large glass shower stall. Reid tested the water; once it was to his satisfaction, he held out his hand to her.
She followed him under the spray of the large rainfall shower head. The water felt heavenly and didn’t sting her arm. Lifting her face toward the spray, she closed her eyes and exhaled. Never would she take showering for granted again.
Reid stood behind her and slid his hands over her shoulders and down her arms, avoiding her stitches, until he took hold of her hands. He pressed gentle kisses behind her ear and along her chin, and she tilted her neck to the side to give him better access. She adored feeling his solid pecs against her back, the brittle feel of the hairs on his chest, the way his cock slid between the cheeks of her ass. She needed more.
“Reid,” she moaned as his hands left hers, drifting across her stomach and cupping her breasts. He squeezed them, sliding her nipples between his fingers, occasionally tugging on them.
He reached in front of her and pulled a bottle of shampoo off the shelf. She heard the cap click shut behind her and saw the bottle had been returned. When his hands delved into her hair, she sighed. The scent of her favorite Biolage filled the air. His hands massaged her scalp confidently and she closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of being taken care of in a way that fueled her sensual side. It wasn’t even sex that she needed, although she knew that was where they were heading. It was this. The intimate moments.
“Turn for me, Lia,” Reid instructed, and she did as he asked.
He leaned back against the wall of the shower, taking himself in hand as he watched her. “Wanna see if that soap running down your body looks as good as I imagined,” he said gruffly.
Lia stepped under the spray, sending the suds cascading down her body. She used her good hand to keep them out of her face, pressing the water along her scalp and down her back.
“Fuck, babe,” he said, tugging his cock harder. Lia physically ached where she stood, entranced by the way he slid his hand along his length.
“What next?” he asked.
“You take me. In any way you feel like.”
“Oh, I fully intend to. But only once you are clean and happy.” He picked another bottle off the shelf, reading the label. She watched as he poured conditioner onto his palm. She wanted his hands on her in places other than her scalp. He walked around the back of her again and ran the conditioner through her hair. Goddamn. All of a sudden, the shower no longer felt like the most important thing on her highly aroused to-do list.
Reid wrapped the length of her hair around his hand and slowly tugged her head back under the spray. She wasn’t big into domination, although she did love when a man took charge in the bedroom, but there was something about the way he almost lovingly pulled her into place that made her tummy tighten with excitement and her thighs press together.
When her hair was rinsed clean, he grabbed her shower gel, but instead of using the pouf that hung over the tap, he rubbed it between his hands and began to rub it over her body. He started with her shoulders, carefully lifting her arms to wash her underarms, and went around her stitches. It stung a little, but Lia didn’t have the capacity to call out. Her breath was caught in her throat.
Her nipples were hard peaks by the time he had finished with her breasts. His hands drifted lower, but just before they reached the place she wanted them, he turned her around and started from her shoulders again. By the time he had washed the cheeks of her ass and each of her legs, Lia was very much on the edge.
“Please, Reid,” she begged.
Reid pulled her against him and groaned as his cock brushed against her. “Is your tantrum over, babe?” he asked, staring straight into her eyes. “Because I really want to fuck the sexy-as-hell woman I’ve been dating, not the brat I just met in the bedroom.”
Lia nodded, unable to argue o
r answer.
“Good, now turn around and face the wall, rest your forehead on your good arm, and put your injured one wherever doesn’t hurt, ass in my direction,” he said.
She turned and looked over her shoulder to where he stood looking at her. “Like this?” she asked.
“Yeah. Exactly like that.” With an urgency she shared, he grabbed the condom and pulled it on. “Ready?” he asked as he stepped back under the spray, and she nodded again. “Good, now don’t move,” he said, positioning himself behind her. “Welcome back, babe. I missed you,” he said and slid deep inside her.
* * *
“I have to say, Lia, that if I worked at Second Circle, I’d be a little nervous by now. You guys have been through some scrapes.”
Detective Carter placed his coffee cup down on the table in Lia’s living room and ran his hand over his close-cropped brown hair. Reid had first met him several days earlier after Drea had called him, an act which had pissed off her boyfriend, Cujo. There was obviously some history there, and he could see why. Carter demolished the donuts-and-coffee cop stereotype, and could probably bench more than he could. He hadn’t originally been assigned to the case, but Drea pulled some strings.
The car that had hit them on the pavement had been found abandoned in an empty lot near the docks where all the cruise ships came into Miami. It was currently being combed over by a forensic unit, having been identified by CCTV from its plates as the vehicle that had jumped the curb.
“Life in the big city,” Lia said before taking a sip of her coffee. “It was probably just a drunk driver who ran.”
Reid thought back to Lia’s comments at the hospital. Even Harper and Trent agreed with her that though there was a slight possibility that the two incidents were connected, Winston had nothing to gain by hurting them other than revenge for revenge’s sake. While Winston was absolutely despicable, they were sure he wouldn’t dirty his own hands like that. Though they’d just about convinced him that it had been nothing more than coincidence, a small voice still niggled at him.
“Were you able to talk to Winston Bell?” Reid asked. “I know everybody thinks it’s nothing, but I can’t shake the fact that this happened right after I argued with him.”
Detective Carter nodded. “He was already back in Chicago by the time we got in touch with him, but he’d been with people for most of the day and offered transcripts of his phone records, including the ones from the hotel where he was staying here in Miami. All of the people we spoke to confirmed that he was with them. You know, I never say never because I’ve seen some real crazy shit happen over the years, but I gotta be honest with you, I can’t see it.”
Reid digested the information. At some point he was going to have to let it go because it burned him too much to think about it. Perhaps he was doubly sensitive because he hadn’t been there for Harper when she’d needed him.
Carter finished his coffee and stood. “I’m sorry I can’t be more help right now. Hopefully we’ll know more from the car soon and will be able to figure out our next step. Please, don’t get up.” He shook Lia’s hand, then reached across to shake Reid’s. “I’ll see myself out.”
The door to the condo closed with a click, and all that was left were empty coffee cups and packed-up bags. It was time for him to go home and take care of business. The ninety-minute drive ahead of him to Fort Pierce seemed like a million miles. Over the last few days, his relationship with Lia had gone from fledgling to full-on falling for her. And he’d had the opportunity to spend some more time with Harper when she was done with school for the day. She’d shared more of what she had been through and had even showed him the whole of the amazing tattoo Trent had done for her. They’d cried. Laughed. And most importantly, she’d forgiven him. She was anxious to talk to their parents about him, but he just wasn’t there yet.
He’d spent the last six years alone, comfortable in the home he created for himself. But suddenly the idea of going back to his apartment above the garage really sucked.
“Are you going to be okay seeing your dad?” he asked. Lia’s father had called on a number of occasions but hadn’t once asked how Lia actually was. The first message had been a barrage of questions about why she had given the Orlando newspaper permission to use her image in the expo coverage. The second and third had berated her for the events that transpired at her father’s party. The fourth was a request to attend a community event as a family. It irritated the crap out of him that her father could be furious in one message yet sycophantic in the next.
Lia placed her coffee cup down on the table. “I’d prefer to never have to speak to him again, but I think the only way to stop his requests is to go see him. But first I need to speak to Mom. I’m going to ask her if she wants to leave him. It’s likely that my father has control over their money, and I’d hate to think that was her reason for staying. I want her to know that if she wants to leave, I have the funds to help her do it.”
“I wish I didn’t have to leave,” he said as he took the coffee cups into the kitchen. He wanted to go with her when she spoke to her father, but the road and responsibilities called. The emotions he felt didn’t sit well. He wasn’t needy, or a pussy, but he had some serious anxiety about leaving her alone. And it wasn’t just some messed-up macho shit. Sure, he wanted to stay and look after her because he saw the way she winced when she accidentally put any weight on her arm. But it was more than that. Simpler. He just wanted to be with her.
Lia followed him and perched on one of the bar stools, resting her brace, newly decorated with pink hand-painted roses, on the counter. “I know. If I say what’s on my mind, though, I might scare you back to Fort Pierce.”
Reid walked back around the counter and came to stand in front of her. If she had the courage to say what was on her mind, he might, too. “Believe me, babe. Fort Pierce is the last place I want to be right now. I need to go see my kids at the club and take care of business. But if there was any other way, I’d stay here with you for a little while longer while I figure out why my insides feel like they just got torched.”
Her clear gray eyes studied him. “You feel it, too?” She reached for his hand, clasping his fingers with hers.
“It’s not as if you didn’t warn me, babe. I just didn’t expect to fall so fast with you.”
“Is that your gruff way of telling me that you love me?” she asked playfully.
“When I was earning my engineering degree, I learned that potential energy is basically energy stored in an object as a result of its size and vertical position or height.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “The formula is mass multiplied by acceleration multiplied by height. I’m a big guy, and you were right, this was fast. And while I can’t say I’ve hit the ground yet, I guess the rate at which I’m falling makes it inevitable.”
“So in layman’s terms . . .” Lia let the sentence hang, and grinned at him.
“You really are cute, you know,” he said, running one of his fingers down the side of her cheek. “I think you understand me loud and clear.”
“You’re the one with the engineering degree. My arts degree didn’t prepare me to understand the technical explanation of your feelings.”
They stood staring at each other, stupid grins on their faces, for a couple of moments. Each waited for the other to crack. Her fingers slid underneath his T-shirt, stroking the skin just under the waistband of his jeans.
He grabbed her wrists. “That’s cheating,” he said.
“I know, but if I can keep you here for just a little while longer, you might just decide to say it.”
“Say what?” he said, waiting for her to say the words.
“You might say that you love me. And I might respond by telling you that I love you, too.”
Something squeezed at his chest, the word settling between them as he brushed his thumb along her bright red lip. “Isn’t there some rule that you can’t say it before a month is up or something, just in case something goes w
rong?”
Lia laughed and placed her forehead against his chest. “You’re making it sound like a warranty for a new blender.”
Reid ran his fingers through her hair. “This is crazy. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. But I did give you fair warning.”
* * *
Lia smoothed the full skirt of her navy blue dress as her taxi made its way over the bridge to Star Island. The bright yellow flowers on it always cheered her up. Her arms were bare—at best an act of defiance, at worst, a giant fuck-you to her father. The entire ensemble was offset by her ridiculously unsexy arm brace. Her disastrous attempt at driving yesterday had revealed it was impossible to operate a stick shift for now. After the first gear change, she’d almost wept like a baby. She hadn’t made it out of the parking garage.
She smiled at the memory of Reid’s video call threat to get on his bike and drive down to Miami to spank her ass if she pulled any more dumb shit. For all his bluster and posturing, those expressive brown eyes of his had told her just how much he cared. He’d threatened to hire a car and driver for her, which, while of course she refused it, touched her so much. After all, he was fighting to make ends meet while building a business for himself. All her life she had been exposed to wealthy people, and the truth was she really didn’t like any of them. In fact, one of her biggest fears was being seen as one of them, which was why she also hadn’t hired a limo like any other child of a Star Island resident would do in her position.
When she was younger, Lia had assumed Star Island had gotten its name because of all the famous people who lived there. At various times in her life, her neighbors had included Gloria Estefan, Shaquille O’Neal, and more recently LeBron James. Now the homes were more likely to be in the possession of wealthy CEOs and reality-TV stars. As she’d gotten older, she’d realized it was so exclusive that even God himself wouldn’t have been able to buy a home there unless he had twenty million or more to spare.
The Darkest Link (Second Circle Tattoos) Page 20