The Darkest Link (Second Circle Tattoos)

by Scarlett Cole

  Lia shivered at the growl in his voice. She knew him well enough by now to be confident he would make good on his promise, and every part of her tightened a little. Lifting up onto her toes, she pressed her lips to his, savoring the gentleness that belied his words. It was over too soon. She placed the keys to her car into the palm of his hand and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Cases are in the trunk, I’m not wearing panties, and I can’t wait.”

  She kissed the side of his jaw, unable to resist a grin when he groaned.

  “God, Lia. Do you know how hard it is to change brake pads with a fucking boner?”

  She began to walk in the direction of the apartment and turned her head to look over her shoulder. “I don’t,” she said, “but I look forward to a full report at five oh two precisely.”

  * * *

  “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” Chase said as Reid practically shoved him out of the garage. “The sudden attention to mandatory working hours and closing time doesn’t have anything to do with the beauty you let into your apartment earlier, would it?”

  Reid had been doing his best to avoid thinking about Lia, who, if he’d played his cards right, was currently naked right above his head. “Not that I really want to discuss it with you, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. I think that’s pretty fucking obvious.”

  Jarod walked by them with Shaun. “Want me to plan to open up in the morning, Kenny?”

  “Brilliant idea,” he said with a grin. “I might be late. Busy commute and all that.”

  “This has the makings of that romance drivel the missus reads,” Shaun said. “Stranded heroine rescued by car mechanic, who then introduces her to his rocker shaft,” he said, making a jerking-off motion with his hands.

  Reid grinned. “For fuck’s sake, can you just get out of here?”

  The guys laughed and made their way off the lot.

  Quickly, Reid killed the lights, set the alarm, and locked up the doors. He took the stairs two at a time, pulling his polo shirt roughly over his head. Never had he so anticipated entering his own apartment. Another few seconds and he’d be able to do some messy combination of wishing her a happy birthday while fucking her senseless. Reid kicked open the door and closed it just as fast behind him. He ditched his boots by the door and strode purposefully through the apartment. His belt landed somewhere near the dining room table, and his wallet skimmed straight across the breakfast bar. Both jeans and underwear were gone before he stepped into the bedroom.

  He’d died and gone to heaven. There was no other way to describe the vision lying on his bed. She wasn’t naked as he’d requested, but it was hard to complain about the tiny scraps of bright red lace she wore, complete with stockings. And no panties, just as she’d promised. He’d never wanted her more.

  “One of these days I’m going to take you on your knees. Just grab those hips of yours and pound into you.” He moved to the foot of the bed and simply drank her in.

  Lia lifted to her knees in a move that melted his heart. “Like this?” she said confidently over her shoulder. The perfect white globes of her ass faced him, and her back arched perfectly, but she was balanced on one arm, her brace lying on the bedside table. She’d moved how he wanted her to without question, and a warm river of contentment ran through him.

  “Babe,” he said, running the tips of his fingers between her cheeks. “It’s taking Herculean effort to not jump on the bed behind you, but not today. Not with your arm like this. There are a million other ways I’ve thought of while I’ve been fixing cars this afternoon, and none of them involve you hurting your arm.”

  “Tell me,” she whispered breathily.

  He’d get to that in a moment. But for now he needed to kiss her. Needed to feel her tongue tangle with his. In seconds, he was on the bed, helping her lie flat. He pressed his lips against hers, silently begging them to open. Relief flooded him as she welcomed him in. It was probably fucked up to miss her taste as badly as he did, but he didn’t have the wherewithal to care as she stripped his emotions bare. Their kisses were wet, messy, and open-mouthed, punctuated with gasps; they kept their eyes firmly focused on each other.

  He felt her chest rise and fall shallowly beneath him as her breasts pushed against him. Reid crawled farther onto the bed.

  “You want me to tell you? Well for one, I want to look at you right now, because I have missed those beautiful eyes of yours.” He reached over to his side table and pulled out a condom. “Most nights I’ve dreamt about them. You haunt my dreams every night, Lia. And two, it’s your birthday, so it’s not right for you to have to do any of the work. At least not yet,” he said with a wink. “So no going on top to begin with, either.”

  Lia’s eyes, so expressive, flared wide in anticipation. He ripped open the condom and covered himself. “And three, I want to feel those ankles of yours wrapped around my waist.”

  Lia slid her hand up her body and teased one of her breasts through the red lace. “You need to help me take all of this off first,” she said.

  “My pleasure, Red.”

  He kissed her again before he moved to open the clasps of her garter belt. “You should take these off, babe. My hands are pretty ripped up. I’ll ruin them.”

  “No. You taking them off for me is my birthday present to myself. I want to see you rolling them down my thigh, perhaps kissing the skin you see exposed.”

  “We’ve talked about you telling me what we’re going to do in the bedroom, babe. Not gonna happen.”

  Lia attempted to prop herself up before gasping out loud. “Fuck,” she winced.

  Reid grabbed a couple of pillows and lifted her head gently. “Better?”

  “Yes.” She sighed in relief.

  “I just want you, Reid. Please.”

  “Well here’s the deal, Lia. I’m working my way up to that, but first I gotta do a little reconnecting with some of my favorite places. So you can beg all you want, but it isn’t gonna make this mouth of mine go any faster.”

  Slowly, he dragged the nylons down her legs, exposing the creamy smooth skin of her thigh. He planted kisses as he went until he was able to pull the stocking from her foot. Then he repeated the same with her other leg, all the time hyperaware of every little moan and every time she tightened her thighs in anticipation.

  He crawled between her legs to the place where she was already wet . . . another thing he’d missed. As he ran his tongue through the sweetness of her lips, finishing with a hard flick against her clit, he gripped her hips hard to prevent them from bucking off the bed. Her responsiveness drove him crazy as he sucked, and kissed, and licked, desperate to send her over the edge.

  “Reid,” she cried out. “Oh, God.”

  The way she called out his name, so needy and desperate, threatened to be his undoing. He slid his body farther along hers, careful to keep his weight off her, only stopping when the tip of his cock brushed up against her warmth. Her injured arm lay out to one side, and she looked . . . vulnerable. Bringing out a protective side of him he didn’t know existed.

  “Want to know how many times I’ve thought about you this week?” he asked, surprised by the gruffness of his own voice. He reached down and bit her lip before she could answer, then released it just as quickly. “I thought about you when I woke up alone in this bed. I thought about you when I ate breakfast by myself. I thought about you when something silly happened at work and I wanted to share it with you. I thought about you in the evening as I ate dinner alone. And you have no idea how many times I jerked off in my shower because I was thinking about the last time I was alone with you in yours. Worst of all was at night. When the apartment was dark and quiet. I found myself needing you, reaching for you, for comfort and for this.”

  He entered her slowly, in awe of how ready she was for him.

  Lia arched her back, pressing her head into the pillow. Her eyes closed as she groaned. “I missed you, too.”

  Reid slid one of his hands down the curve of her side, allowing his thumb to
glide over the pillow of her breast and across her nipple. He dragged it lazily over her skin, sliding his hand underneath her ass and pulling her tightly against him until he was so deep, they became one. “Look at me, Lia.”

  She did as he asked, and he stared down into her eyes as he began to increase the pace. Each time he went deeper, withdrew a little farther, and repeated it a little more quickly. Over and over he did it until he was pounding into her as he promised. The need to own her, to claim her, to make her his own, took over. Lia slid her hand down between the two of them, and he watched as she began to play with herself, frantically chasing the edge. The sight made his balls tighten.

  All the while, she kept those guileless gray eyes of hers on his. He saw every emotion pass through them. Excitement, pleasure, arousal, and surprise. The moment she started to come, he knew because not only did he feel it, he saw it, the raw emotion of it.

  “I love you, Lia,” he gasped as he followed her over the edge.

  * * *

  Lia opened her eyes in the darkness. A sound like glass bottles being dropped in a Dumpster echoed from outside. Her eyes drifted closed again. She couldn’t keep them open. Reid had kept her up most of the night. Between his hands, his mouth, and that wonderful part of his anatomy that seemed to stand at perpetual attention, she was exhausted, and deliciously sore. Sex had always been something fun, but doing it with somebody she was madly in love with was a whole new experience. Especially when that somebody was great at delivering and just a little bit bossy. Who knew she liked being told what to do? With most of her other lovers, she’d always been the one to take the initiative, but with Reid, she never felt the need.

  They’d made love several more times that evening. The only break had involved pizza. Reid had tried to convince her that they should get showered and changed so he could take her out and show her off on her birthday. It hadn’t taken much to convince him to stay home. She stretched her body, naked except for the necklace she wore with a sparkling cherry on it. It was a beautiful piece of birthday jewelry, and he’d very much deserved the blowjob she’d given him as thanks.

  Sleep was just about to take her when she heard the sound of glass again. Kenny’s Auto Shop was definitely not in the best part of town. For a moment she worried about the Impala, which was parked by the stairs to the apartment. But Reid had told her once that he was well-known in the neighborhood, and she’d seen that firsthand with the boys he played basketball with. She wondered if the club he supported needed funds. It would be great to do something helpful with the money Granny Emmeline had left her.

  Reid draped his arm across her middle and pulled her close. In his sleep he’d forgotten about his pact to leave her alone. Before they had settled down for the night, he’d attempted to insist that he should sleep on the sofa so as not to disturb her arm while they slept. But she had quickly nixed his idea. They’d reached a compromise. Reid had built a fort of pillows and cushions around her and had taken great care to ensure her arm was properly supported. But somehow in sleep, Reid had systematically tossed and turned all of the pillows out of his way until he could get to her. She smiled, the thought reassuring.

  For some reason it seemed to ache worse at night, and she kicked herself for leaving her pain medication at home. Unable to find sleep again, she decided to use the washroom. She slipped out from under Reid’s hold and padded barefoot across the room. As she passed the bedroom door, she smelled the slightest whiff of smoke. When she’d smelled something similar earlier, Reid had explained that it sometimes happened when a lot of angle grinding or welding was going on down below.

  She decided to get some water after using the bathroom. As she approached the kitchen, the smell of smoke seemed stronger.

  The floor beneath her feet became progressively warmer as she walked toward the door. A wisp of smoke curled underneath the door, and without thinking she pulled it open. Smoke filled the apartment, a low hazy mist that immediately made her cough and splutter. Fire was making its way up the far wall by the front door. His sofa was already fully alight.

  “Reid,” she screamed at the top of her voice. She ran to his side of the bed and shook him.

  “Whassup,” he mumbled, still very much asleep.

  “Reid, please. There’s a fire.” Terror like she’d never known pierced through her like sharp needles. She filtered through all the fire safety information she could remember. Stop, drop, and roll. Covering yourself in wet towels. Were you supposed to open windows or was that what caused a backdraft? Shit. Why couldn’t she remember?

  “Fire!” she screamed in Reid’s ear, and that seemed to do the trick. He jumped out of bed and took in the smoke.

  “Fuck,” he shouted. He ran to the bedroom door, took in the burning room, and slammed the door shut before grabbing his phone. “Fuck,” he said again. He dialed the fire department.

  “Babe,” he said, tucking the phone under his chin as he opened the blinds and windows wide open. “Go to the bathtub, start filling it and soak a towel, then wring it out and place it by the door.”

  As she hurried to the bathroom, she heard him explain that there was an out-of-use old wooden ladder at the back of the apartment. While the water was running, she ran back into the bedroom and grabbed a dress from her suitcase. To hell with underwear, she didn’t have time. She yanked it over her head and ran back into the bathroom. She dragged the towel back into the bedroom, soaking her skirt as she walked.

  Strange noises came from the living room. She’d never imagined that fires would be noisy. It was a constant roar offset by loud bangs as things . . . what? Exploded? Oh God, his business. “What about your garage?” she asked Reid as she tucked the towel into the gap under the door.

  Reid pulled on jeans and sneakers. “Can’t think about that now. We’ve got to save ourselves.” He gestured her over to where he was standing by the open window and handed her a pair of her shoes. She slipped them on her feet. He grabbed his wallet and her purse. “There’s an old staircase out of this window.” He pointed outside. Black-and-yellow caution tape crisscrossed the bottom of the stairs. Steps and the handrail were missing in places. They were about one and a half floors from ground level. “It’s in really bad shape and hasn’t been in use since before I moved in here. I honestly don’t know if it can even take our weight. The fire department is on its way with ladders, so I think our best bet is to wait until they get here unless the fire beats them to us.”

  A loud crack sounded in the living room, and they both looked toward the bedroom door, where smoke was beginning to seep in around the frame, leaving black burn marks up the wall. “I’m really scared, Reid,” she said.

  He cupped her face in his hands. “Me, too, babe. But we need to stay calm.” Reid left her for just a moment and quickly grabbed her suitcase. In one quick action, he zipped it up and threw it out of the window.

  Lia shrieked.

  “Better out there than in here.” He grabbed the brace for her arm and helped to put it on.

  It hurt as they clipped it into place, and the tears that had been burning her eyes took the opportunity to fall.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, kissing her forehead firmly. “However we get out of here, you need to try to protect this.”

  Reid fell to his knees and pulled a black sports bag from under the bed. He hurried to the dresser and started pulling out underwear, socks, and T-shirts by the handful. With a swift push, he sent the sliding doors of his closet open.

  Lia heard sirens. She looked back out of the window and saw a fire truck coming into view. “They’re here, Reid,” she yelled over the noise, waving furiously at the truck.

  Reid threw his bag out toward her suitcase just as two firemen rounded the corner with ladders.

  One of them climbed up the ladder so quickly that Lia barely had time to blink, and before she knew it, with assistance from Reid she was on her way down. Gripping the ladder for dear life with her one good hand, she had little opportunity to keep her dress down. It w
as probably the stupidest time to worry about the fact that she wasn’t wearing underwear, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Despite the firefighters’ warnings to stay put, Reid started down as soon as she was clear of the ladder. He raced over to her and tugged her into his embrace.

  “We’re safe,” he said, and sobbed into her hair.

  * * *

  Reid stood frozen to the spot, unable to put words to the emotions swirling in his head as he watched the hoses spray water into his burned-out garage and severely damaged apartment. Even the shattering sound of the apartment windows blowing out hadn’t shaken him out his shock. Lia flinched in his arms, and buried her tearstained face against his chest. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her. She thought he was giving her comfort, when in truth her presence was the only thing keeping him anchored.

  He focused on trying not to puke.

  “Kenny,” Jarod called, making his way through the small but ever-growing group of onlookers. “Holy shit, man. Are you guys okay? I heard the sirens, they woke me up. What the fuck happened?”

  “No clue, man. Lia woke up and started shouting.” He looked down at her. “What made you get out of bed, babe?”

  Lia looked up at him. Her face was covered in dark lines from the smoke and soot. “I heard something. Like glass being smashed. I just assumed it was somebody Dumpster diving.”

  “Once the fire is out, I think we should tell somebody about that. They’re going to be asking questions about how the fire started, and . . . I don’t know . . . That may have something to do with it.”

  “Do you want me to call and text the guys?” Jarod asked. “I mean, it’s obvious nobody can come to work tomorrow.”

  Reid hadn’t even thought that far ahead. Because if his thinking did extend beyond the flames currently licking outside the upper-floor windows, he might just fall apart like a classic car that no longer had any suspension.

  “Sure. I have no idea what this means, but I promise I’ll contact the insurance company tomorrow and figure it out.”