“Wanna talk about it?” After all, that’s what I’m here for. I want to be everything she needs, whether it be the shoulder to cry on, the arms to hold her tight, or the good lay in bed she wants. Whatever it is, I’m her man.
We make our way into the house, heading straight for the kitchen, and I wonder if she’ll notice. I’ve been hard at work today too.
“Oh, Reed, you changed the countertop. I love this stone one!”
The praise feels good, and I love she loves it, but I know a change of subject when I hear one. “Great,” I set the pizza down and grab some paper plates. “Now, you wanna tell me what happened at work?” I don’t like the fact she’s hiding something from me. I want her to be able to talk to me about anything and everything. Whatever happened to her, I want to make this better.
She puts a piece of pizza on her plate and grabs a beer out of the fridge. She’s become more at home in my home, and I like that. It makes me feel good. That I’ve made a place where she can be comfortable too. She takes a fortifying drink of the beer and picks a pepperoni off the pizza.
“I had a meeting with Taylor today.”
The way she says it makes my hair stand on end, and immediately my blood boils. I don’t even like to hear his name spoken. I know that’s not fair to her, but I don’t trust him. I never will again, and I don’t think it’s fair for her to bear the brunt of my annoyance, but she’s going to have to. “Really?” Suddenly my appetite is nonexistent, and I throw my piece of pizza onto the paper plate.
“Don’t be like that.” She blows a breath out her nose. “It’s not like I wanted to do it, but he’s a paying customer. Things got weird.” She shakes as she puts her arms around her middle, her drink and food forgotten.
“In what way, Cassandra?” My voice is harder than I want it to be, but damn if this doesn’t piss me the fuck off.
I can see her wrestling with this. I can see her debating if she wants to go with the truth or not. That fucking pisses me off too. “Don’t you dare even think about lying to me. I trust you. I trust you more than I ever trusted Lacey, and if you break that trust, you’ll never get it back.” It’s all or nothing with me, and I can’t change how I am.
Her face goes white. “You can’t make demands, and you can’t out of the blue tell me you trust me more than Lacey. That’s not fair,” she argues.
“You wanna know what’s not fair? Him already stealing one love of my life isn’t fair.”
I can’t get enough breath in my lungs. This hurts, knowing she’s not being honest with me. It hurts more than I ever thought it would. “What the fuck happened, Sass?”
“He cornered me.” She turns so she’s not facing me. “Told me he could have me as easily as he had Lacey. He shoved me up against the wall and held me there so I couldn’t breathe.”
I walk over to her, grasp her at the bicep, and turn her around so she faces me. I’m angrier than I’ve been in a long time, but I can’t get over the fact he’s threatened to steal her from me. “That’s not gonna happen. You got that?”
There are tears in her eyes, and it pulls at my heart, but I need to know. What’s it going to be? Will she leave me just like Lacey did? Out of every conversation we’ve had, this one right here is the most significant in my mind.
She shakes her head in a “no” fashion. “I don’t want it to happen, Reed,” she yells, her voice pleading. I hate I’ve reduced her to this, but dammit, I need to know. “All I want is you, all I’ve ever wanted is you.”
I’m all over her. I need to know how much she wants me, I need to know he’s not going to take away another integral piece of my life. I won’t survive it. Lacey I survived, I carved out an existence, and I forced myself to live. Sass—she’s become too much of a part of my life. If she left me, if Taylor got to her, I wouldn’t be able to take it. I try to show her in the way my lips dominate hers, and I hope like hell she can understand what I’m trying to convey.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sass
Never in my life have I been aroused by or with a man this aroused before, but I get the feeling this isn’t about pleasure. It’s about staking a claim. Reed is coming at me like a dog in heat, and I’m not sure I can handle him. Something about the way I let him know what happened with Taylor has got him all over me. I can’t help but be okay with that. This is what I’ve wanted all along—him to care about me so much he would do anything it takes to have me.
I press my head back against the pillow on his mattress and expose my throat to him, encouraging him to take what he wants, what he needs. I’m not even sure how we got here, to the bedroom. The last thing I remember is being in the kitchen. I don’t know when he picked me up and brought me up here, but I’m totally on board with whatever he wants to do. He’s consuming me as he runs his whiskered face against my jawbone. I moan as he nips the skin, using his hand to tilt my head back.
“What is this?” he asks, his eyes dark as he sees the bruises on my neck. His tone is no-nonsense, but it doesn’t scare me the way Taylor’s did.
“Taylor lifted me up against the barn wall.” I’m holding on to his shoulders tightly. I don’t want Reed to leave me; I don’t want this to send him over the edge. “I told him if he tried to do anything like that again, I’d shove his balls so far up his ass he’d be spitting them.”
He chuckles against my skin before grasping my wrists and bringing my hands over my head, entwining our fingers, putting our palms together. “That’s my girl, but I think I’ll be having a few words with the fucker myself.”
Hearing him call me his girl does weird things to me. It makes me want to believe things that probably are never going to come true. It makes me want to write our names together on a notebook and see what they would look like if we were married. This is the type of stuff I can’t handle anymore; this is the type of stuff I need to get a grip on.
“Reed, love me,” I beg him. I don’t even realize the words that have come out of my mouth and I don’t think he has either. I need him to ground me.
“I should withhold myself to let you understand my anger about him pushing you up against a barn and you not telling me,” he grits out between his teeth.
Suddenly I realize he’s angry. He’s pissed at me because I haven’t been honest, because I didn’t run to him with this problem I had. I can see him wrestling with himself, and it’s then I give in. I let my arms go slack, let my hands go slack against his, and I give myself over. Because in some strange way I want him to take control, and I want to see what he’ll do with it. “Whatever you think I deserve.” And I mean it, because I’m an idiot for going out there and being alone with Taylor when I knew he made me feel uncomfortable. I feel like an even bigger idiot for letting my feelings get in the way of whatever this is with Reed, and I need a reality check.
He pulls me up off the bed, putting me on my knees in front of him. Running his hands down my side, he catches my shirt and yanks it over my head. I look at him, trusting him to do with me what he wants, and I think it’s the hunger in my eyes that convinces him. A growl escapes his throat as he palms my breasts, pushing them up above the cups of my bra. The tips rub against the edges of the lace, frustrating me.
Leaning down, his tongue comes out from between his lips to soothe the ache that’s set up shop at the ends of my nipples. They are their own nerves, and I need him to soothe the burn. I thrust myself into his mouth, dig my hands in his hair, and hold him in place. The large palm that was gripping my tit is now moving down my back to my ass. I want his skin on mine, so I reach down and undo the button on my jeans before reaching over and undoing the button on his.
I whimper when he puts his hands down the loosened back of mine, pulling the waistband of my panties tight against his hand. It puts pressure on my core, and I’m so turned on it makes me groan, and I rake my fingernails down his back in response. I fight as I try to take his shirt off, but he doesn’t want to release my nipple. He has a tight hold on my flesh, and I know tomorrow I’ll
wear the bruises and the love nips of this encounter around like badges of honor.
I’m grinding my body down against the fabric he’s pulling tightly against my pussy, and I think I can come from the pressure alone. When I am almost there, he stops gripping the fabric, releases my flesh, and his mouth leaves my body. I fall back against the covers, because his big hands were holding me up, and now he’s left me.
“Reed.” I gasp, my nipples tight against my skin, my core throbbing against the arousal there. Surely to God he won’t leave me hanging.
He stands up and gets rid of his clothes before he reaches over and grabs me by the ankles, pulling my jeans off. It’s disconcerting the way he doesn’t speak as he grabs my panties and pulls them off as well. I make a move to take the bra off, but he puts his hands overtop mine.
“Leave that on.”
His voice is dark, and I’m trying to decide if he’s exorcising some demons or if this is just the way he is sometimes. I don’t have enough experience with him to know yet. I stop what I’m doing when he pulls me to him, and without any kind of fanfare, sticks his hand between my legs. I moan when two fingers insert themselves inside me.
“Ohhh, Sass. We’re gonna have some fun.” He takes those same two fingers out, putting them to his lips and then enveloping them with his mouth. His tongue swirls, licking my essence off himself. It’s probably the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, causing my stomach to clench and my nipples to harden even further. This is the kind of bad boy I knew he could be but hadn’t been privy to. These are the actions fantasies are made of.
My mouth hangs open as I watch. Then I’m flipped over and I’m facing the headboard. His big body comes up behind me, and like that, I feel him inside me. His hands grip the wood of the headboard as he rocks into me. He’s large, and it hurts for a second until I will myself to relax. Right now he doesn’t care; this is all about him and his need to know I’m his.
“Fucking Taylor,” he forces through clenched teeth. The tone of his voice is irritated anger, and I let him rage, because I don’t know what else to do. “Thinking he’s going to take something that’s mine again? Like hell. You’re mine, and I’m not giving you up to anyone, much less him.”
He’s muttering, and I’m not sure if he even knows what he’s saying, but he’s owning me, and I’m not even ashamed about it. This is what I’ve wanted him to do for years, since I knew what sex was. He’s going after what he wants, and that’s a turn-on for me.
“I’m yours.” I’m not sure if he can hear, since my head is turned, the pillow muffling my words.
The sound of the headboard hitting the wall is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I remember someone in one of my college classes telling me that’s how you knew you were getting it good. I’m getting it better than good, though, I realize, because his knees have widened my legs. It’s causing my clit to rub against the sheet underneath us every time he pushes in and pulls back. I want to turn my head and look at him, but I can’t. My knees are slipping down the mattress, and he’s got hold of the headboard in one hand, my bra strap in the other, and he’s using both of those things for leverage to slam into me.
This should hurt, and I know it will tomorrow, but fuck if I don’t want this right now.
“C’mon, Reed,” I encourage him. I want to scream out I bet Lacey didn’t let him fuck her like this—Lacey seems like she’s too straight-laced, but I don’t want to ruin the dream-like state we’re in. I don’t want this to end.
He’s pushing faster and faster inside of me, his abs tightening against my back, and I know he’s going to be hot and warm inside me at any minute, so I concentrate on tightening my own muscles, holding my breath, digging my fingers into the sheets so that I can move myself against them in my own rhythm.
He spills, and it’s enough to send me off too, and as he breathes heavily against my back and I realize just how chafed my nipples are, I also realize I could never trust another man to use me this way and enjoy it.
Another thing Reed Shamrock has ruined for Cassandra Straight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Reed
I’m pissed and emotionally raw. Pissed because of the way I treated Sass last night. I should never have taken her that hard, especially after the day she had, but I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t help the need I had to assert my power over her. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life, and while I feel guilty, I can’t help but be thankful for it at the same time.
I’m emotionally raw because I faced some truths. Looking at those handprints on her skin, I know now what she means to me. I know the extremes I’ll go to, in order to keep this woman safe and with me. Which is why I’m at Taylor’s body shop at seven a.m. this morning. As soon as I pulled in, I saw his truck. I know he’s here. I just have to find him. Walking around the side of the building, I wonder if this is where he approached Sass. Is this where he saw where she wasn’t paying attention and went in for the kill? I’m already raging, and I know I don’t have to think much about it to fucking detonate.
“Taylor!” I yell because I don’t want to play this game of cat and mouse. I want him to come out from whatever rock he’s crawled under, and I want to face him man to man. “Taylor!”
The side door opens, and he comes stumbling out, smoking what appears to be a hand-rolled joint. “What the fuck do you want?” he asks, looking up at me.
This is one time when I’m really thankful for my height advantage. Plowing towards him, I knock the joint out of his hand, slam the door, and push him up against it. “How’s it goin’?” My tone is conversational, but I can tell by the wild look in his eyes he knows I’m not here to make small talk—any kind of talk really.
“That was expensive weed, you asshole, and it was my last little bit of it.”
The fact he’s worried this much about drugs tells me more than anything about how far he’s fallen. I wonder if Lacey knows this. I wonder if she realizes what a piece of shit she’s sharing a bed with, and I have to remind myself it’s none of my business. It’s an epiphany though, because I realize I’m worried as a friend, not as an ex-lover.
“I don’t give a shit about that.” I move my hand up against his windpipe and use the leverage to pick him up off the ground. “Does this seem familiar to you? This is what I give a shit about.”
“Reed, I was playing around.” His words are strained against my hand.
I tighten my grip. “Playing around? You don’t play around and leave handprints on her throat. You’re lucky she didn’t call the fucking cops on you. You’re lucky I didn’t. What the fuck is wrong with you?” I loosen my grip and let his feet hit the ground because I want to hear him.
“That’s something you would do, right? You’re perfect, and you never want to get your hands dirty. All the stupid shit we did in high school and after, and golden boy Reed never once suffered the consequences.”
I know what he’s talking about. Taylor has been arrested more than once for public intoxication because he likes to drink a little too much. I’ve been with him numerous times, but never gotten arrested myself because I’ve always been respectful and never been above the legal limit. That’s the difference between us, I know my limits.
“Fuck you.”
“You moved on really quick, didn’t you? Sass has always been a hot piece of ass.”
That’s it, I’ve been nice, but those words piss me off. I pick him up higher than before with one hand and pull back with the other. When my fist hits his nose, it’s the most satisfying crack I have ever heard. Even more satisfying than the one I gave him when I caught him with Lacey. Blood is pouring again, and I drop him down on the ground as I let go.
“Motherfucker, Reed. This is twice you’ve broke my damn nose.” He’s holding his nose again, bent at the waist.
“Ask me if I care.” I step over him and walk back to my truck.
“You don’t know what I saw, Reed. Maybe you should be more careful in parking lots,
my man.”
I rage, and I run back over to him, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt, cracking my knuckles against him one more time, and making sure I stomp on his stomach. He doubles over in pain and groans, saying he thinks he’s going to throw up.
My work here is done.
Sass
Justin looks at me as he enters the office, and I can tell he’s surprised at what I look like. I’m a little surprised myself. I tried to cover it up, but I have whisker burn on my jawline and two hickeys. One on my neck and one on my earlobe; not to mention the love bites my clothes are concealing. I have bruises on my thighs, and I’m sore—thoroughly sore. I know I look like I’ve had the most amazing sex of my life, but last night was probably the most emotionally painful encounter I’ve ever had. It’s taking everything I have to hold back the tears that are threatening and have been threatening since I woke up this morning and made a quick exit from Reed’s house.
“Damn, Cassandra.” He shakes his head as he gets a good look at me. I don’t know if he’s ashamed or if he wants to give me a high-five.
“I don’t even want to talk about it.” I’m raw today. Last night took a lot emotionally out of me, and I’m not sure how much I have left to give anyone else. I don’t even know right now how much I have left to give myself.
“Tough shit, you’re gonna hear it, and if he were here, he would be hearing it too. In fact, I may find his ass and give him an earful. You’re my goddamn sister, he should know better than to treat you like this.”
When Justin gets on his high horse, it’s hard to knock him down, and I want nothing more than to do that right now. But it’s just another thing I don’t have in me at this moment, another thing I can’t force myself to do. It’s better this way.
“Where do you see this heading?” he asks, looming over me. “Do you really think Reed is gonna give anyone else a ring after what happened with Lacey? Do you think you’re special, Sass? Do you think you’re the one? I’ve seen this out of him since he started dating. He moves on, and he moves on with everything he has. But it doesn’t stick.”
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