by Jessica Roe
Luckily, Reid is no prude. “They're cool people.”
“I know.”
“I like them.”
“Good.”
I make the mistake then of glancing into his dark eyes and I can't look away. I drown in them, breathless and wanting. Reid inches closer, sucking the lip hoop into his mouth. His eyes widen just a fraction, waiting and hopeful, like he's sensed a change in me.
Ghost by Sir Sly comes on in the background. It's our song, the one we listened to when we almost kissed in my dorm room. I cock my head to the side to listen. “They don't normally play music like this here.”
“I asked your boss to play it when I ran to take a leak earlier.”
My brow furrows and I pout, confused. That night isn't exactly one of our best memories, why would he want to dredge all that up again?
His fingers trace the inside of my wrist. “Dance with me?”
It takes me a moment, but I realize what he's doing. He's rewriting our history, rewriting that night and hoping for a better ending.
I nod silently, my heart racing so fast I'm dizzy. Standing, Reid pulls me up and wraps an arm around my waist, walking us back until we're on the dance floor. My arms find their way around his neck, and he holds me tight as we sway together. He presses his head against mine, his chin scratching my cheek in ways that are so wonderful, so alluring and so reassuringly Reid, all at the same time.
These are the only arms I'm supposed to be wrapped in. I know that now.
“They're so different, Jem,” he whispers into my hair.
He's talking about Blair and Silver, yet at the same time he's talking about us. There's a point to be made here and he saw it within moments of meeting them, whereas it took me much longer.
If they can do it, so can we.
“They are,” I agree quietly. I think about all the obstacles my sister and Silver had to overcome to be together, about all the differences that could have torn them apart and stood in their way. Yet they made it work. They still make it work. They'll always make it work, there's no doubt about it.
An image of Adrian pops into my head, and all the clones of him that came before. Even Vic in high school was the son of an influential family – he was going to the top whether he wanted to screw up his life or not. I almost snort. How could I have thought any of those guys were the perfect match for me? Polished rich boys and spoiled heirs with their fancy clothes and cars and money.
I was so stupid, so stubborn. I was the spoiled one.
Because the perfect guy for me is as imperfect as I am. He drinks too much, he smokes too much and he drives way too fast. He curses like he can't stop, eats like a pig and steals all my Twinkies. He makes me want different things, new things, exciting things. He makes me view the world in a way I never have before. He drives me wild with a single touch.
God, I've been such a dummy.
Unaware of my thoughts, Reid brings me even closer, one hand gripping my waist and the other creeping up my spine towards my neck. We move together slowly, tantalizingly. I hold onto his wide shoulders, afraid my legs won't be able to hold me up if I let go. Not that it matters – he'd never let me fall.
His fingers slide through the hair at the back of my head, holding me captive. “Say yes, Jemma,” he murmurs almost desperately into the soft skin underneath my ear. “Just say yes.”
“Reid?” I press my forehead into his shoulder.
“Yeah, baby?”
“You were right before when you said I was scared.” I swallow, hard. “I'm not scared any more.”
Reid freezes, his whole body growing still. After a heartbeat, he pulls away so he can cup my face in his large hands. Calloused thumbs rub over my cheeks as he watches me. There's fear in his expression, mixed in with the longing and hope. “Tell me, Jemma,” he demands.
My hands curl around his wrists, my fingers running over his tattoos. “I want you,” I tell him, staring right into his eyes so he can see how much I mean it. “Just you. You're all I want. I'm yours.”
“Fuck,” he breathes out, closing his eyes for the briefest second. When he opens them again, the fear is all gone, replaced with a fire and passion that stops my breath. Without hesitation, he smashes his mouth onto mine, kissing away any lingering doubts I might have had left. He kisses my top lip, my bottom lip, then I open my mouth for him and his tongue brushes mine. “That's all I wanted,” he mutters into my mouth, wrapping his arms around my waist and squeezing me in a tight embrace. “That's all I've fucking wanted, ever since I met you.” He rips his mouth away suddenly. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
I blink in a daze, having completely forgotten where I was. Steve is leering at us from the bar and a couple of the girls I work with are watching on with bemusement. Nodding emphatically, I let Reid grab my hand and pull me out the back entrance where he parked his bike earlier. We practically fly down the dark, empty corridor in our haste.
“Wait.” His hand freezes on the door. “What about your sister and Silver?”
“Trust me, they're not coming back either. Now let's go!”
He grins, suddenly so happy at my eagerness that it completely transforms him. Leaning down to kiss me quick, he pushes open the door. Like he can't even make it the five feet to where his bike is parked, he spins me and pushes me against the brick wall so he can plant his ravenous lips on mine again. I trace my tongue over the hoop in his lip. “I feel like I've been waiting for his forever,” he pants. His hands brush gently over my shoulders, contrasting with his hard mouth. “Come on.”
Before handing me the spare helmet, Reid slips his arms around my waist from behind and leans down to bite the curve between my neck and shoulder. “You wanna know what I've fantasized about more than anything since I met you?” he growls into my ear, his voice gravelly and full of heat. “You, bent over my bike with that perfect little ass stuck out in the air, naked underneath me.”
My breath hitches and a bolt of heat shoots straight to my core. “Okay, that definitely needs to go on the to-do list.” I grin mischievously. “And by to-do, I mean you-to-do-me.”
“Man, you're fucking awesome.” His lips meet mine again for an all too short moment. “But that can come later. Right now the place I want you most is in my bed.”
The ride back to Reid's place is pure torture, but he makes it in record time; for once I'm not pissed at his excessive speed. He rushes through locking the bike up, then pulls me inside the building. The second the elevator doors ding shut behind us he has me pressed up against the mirrored walls, attacking my lips with an almost savage fierceness. I clutch at every inch of him I can, sure I'll never get tired of exploring his body. My fingers brush beneath the waistline of his jeans, and with a grunt of pleasure, he slams his hands down on either side of my head. I think I hear the glass crack.
Seconds later the doors ping back open. He slides his hands beneath my thighs and lifts me, backing out without watching where he's going. We pass by a shocked middle aged couple, probably his neighbors, but I'm too drunk on lust to care. Reid just pulls his mouth from mine and shoots them a lopsided I'm-the-shit grin.
We get to his front door and he jostles me around for a moment, holding me up with one hand while he searches his pockets.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” I demand.
His mouth twists. “I can't find my fucking keys.”
“Are you actually for real right now?”
Looking as frustrated as I feel, he lets me slide down to my feet so he can check his pockets properly. I pretend to help, but really I'm just groping and he knows exactly what I'm doing. In one possessive move, he twists both of my wrists into the air and presses them against the door above my head. “Not helping,” he tells me in a low voice, though there's a twinkle in his eye.
A throat clears awkwardly behind us. One of the neighbors we passed holds Reid's keys up, dangling them from her index finger. “You left these in the elevator,” she says, averting her eyes like we're already naked
.
I blush in utter mortification. Now that Reid's mouth isn't attached to mine, I'm almost able to think clearly again – enough to be completely and totally shamed.
With a wink, Reid thanks her and takes the keys, quickly letting us inside. I hold my hands over my face and groan, but he isn't having that. He pries them down, kissing both of my palms adoringly. “You're so damned sweet,” he utters, wrapping his arms around me and pressing me back against the closed front door.
We calm a little as we hold each other. The fire and heated passion there a moment before is still raging under the surface, but there's also another element. Safety. In his embrace I feel safe.
“Look,” he says. “I didn't mean to attack you like that. I mean I did, but. . .you know.”
“Pretty sure I attacked you right back.”
He chuckles, his chest rumbling beneath my cheek. “Yeah, that you did. It's just that, when you finally admitted you want me as much as I want you, I wildly lost it. Like everything I wanted suddenly fell into place and it kind of made me explode.” Pulling back an inch, he rests his forehead against mine. “But we don't need to do anything tonight – we got all the time in the world, baby.” I know he means it, but it must be difficult for him to say because I can feel how hard he is beneath his jeans – it's pressing against my stomach in a rather insistent manner. “It's enough for now that I have you. Finally, I have you. We can take things as slow as you want.” His head darts up and he looks down at me with wide eyes as something occurs to him. “I do have you, right? This is real? Not just a one night thing?”
My heart swells so much I half expect it to pound out of my chest and leave a big cartoonish shape in my skin. “You have me,” I promise. “For as long as you want me.”
He laughs in relief. “For fucking ever, Jemma. I want you forever. You're mine, and I'm yours. End of story.”
“Reid?” I reach up and cup his scruffy jaw.
“Yeah, baby?”
“We've been taking things slow for months. Any slower and I'll have to maim you worse than Blair ever could. Mmkay?”
A wicked smile spreads across his face. “Yes, ma'am.” He slips my cardigan off and lets it drop to the floor, kissing my bare shoulder before making his way back to my mouth. Without removing his lips from mine, he hoists me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. The passion bubbling just beneath the surface spills over, exploding around us in a sea of sparks as we stumble towards his bedroom. I toe my chunky heels off, hearing them fall to the floor with a clunk.
I've never before been inside Reid's bedroom. The window is small and faces the street below, the bed is large and made with dark blue sheets, and the whole room smells like Reid, but in a gorgeous, musky way that makes me want to bask in it forever. That's all I notice before he drops me on the bed.
He kicks off his boots and jeans, then his body lands over mine, pressing me into the mattress as he kisses me again. Impatiently, I gather the material of his white t-shirt and pull. He kneels up to yank it over his head, tossing it carelessly aside where it knocks over something on his nightstand, though neither of us pay attention to what. I suck in my breath when I get my first glimpse of his sculpted chest. When he leans over me again, holding himself up on his fists so the muscles in his arms strain, I run my hands over his skin. The pads of my fingers trace tattoos and scars – scars he must have gotten while fighting as a teenager. Despite the imperfections, I decide right then that he's the most perfect man I've ever seen. Maybe because of his imperfections. It pleases me a ridiculous amount when I find his nipple piercing and he makes a deep sound in the back of his throat when I touch it.
After letting me explore him a minute longer, he sits me up and pulls off my top, unclasping my bra with expert fingers and dropping it to one side. His hands rub over my breasts and I gasp.
“I knew you'd be perfect,” he claims quietly, biting down on my neck as his fingers go to the button on my shorts. I lay back so he can pull them off my legs.
Reid leans down to kiss me again, hard and possessive, as his thumbs hook underneath the sides of my panties. After pausing for just a second, he slips them down, kissing the inside of each of my knees when I'm fully bare.
I've been with other guys before – not many, but a couple – and there was always the slightest element of awkwardness when I was fully naked in front of them, like I was exposed and not wholly comfortable with it. But things feel different with Reid – I feel different with Reid. His eyes roam my body, worshiping every inch, and I've never felt more beautiful in my life.
He kneels again, pulling me up so I'm straddling his knees. He clutches my back with one hand and slips the other between my thighs. Breathless moans escape me as he finally touches me where I need him to. I wrap an arm around his neck, clinging to him because I'm quickly becoming undone and I need to cling on to something. It doesn't take me long to come apart. I bite down on his lip to stop from screaming.
Feeling wild and out of control, I shove him back onto the bed. I tug down his boxer briefs and he kicks them off urgently as our desperate hands run over each others bodies, gripping and clutching and loving as much flesh as we can reach. I take him in my hand – he's hot and hard and big. As I stroke him, I press a trail of kisses over his bristly jaw, his neck, his shoulder. I tug at his nipple piercing with my teeth and he groans loudly.
“That's it,” he growls, wrapping his large hands around my waist and throwing me back against his pillows. I laugh as he crawls on top of my body, but that laugh immediately dies out and becomes a wanton mewl when he pushes himself against me.
“Wait,” I gasp. “Condom!”
“Shit, I forgot. You make me forget everything else even exists.” He gulps in a breath of air and glances at the ceiling for a moment, thinking.
“What is it?”
“I'm trying to remember if I have any.”
“Any what? Condoms? How can you not have any?” It should probably embarrass me how desperate I sound, but I'm too far gone to care.
Reid looks down at me, suddenly vulnerable. “There hasn't been anyone else, not since we met. I haven't wanted anyone but you.”
I swallow hard. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
“But what about. . . Didn't you go out with that girl? Ciara?”
He shakes his head. “Bailed on her last minute. Couldn't go through with it. That's what you've done to me, woman.” A light comes on in his eyes. “Wait, I think I have one. Let me check.” He leans over me and yanks open the drawer in his nightstand, routing through with one hand. So rambunctious is his search that the entire drawer pops out, scattering papers over the floor. “Thank fuck,” he blurts, grabbing up a little foil square.
Waggling his eyebrows, he rips it open with his teeth, throwing the crackling packet aside. A moment later I feel him against me once more, hot and ready. I bring my knee up against the side of his ribs in anticipation, rubbing my foot along the curve of his perfect butt.
With his elbows on either side of my shoulders, he cradles my face between gentle hands, looking down at me in utter adoration. “This was inevitable,” he says, pressing his forehead against mine. “We were inevitable, Jemma.” His body tenses as he pushes inside me, and his lips crash against mine. He fills me and I feel. . .whole. Perfectly whole. Pulling out slowly, he makes a low noise of pleasure in his throat, then slams back in.
I move against him, arching my back and digging my nails into his shoulders. There will probably be scratch marks later, but he definitely doesn't seem to mind. Our movements become quicker, more rhythmic. We cling to each other, pull at each other, unable to get enough. Panting, thrusting, groaning. Reid slides an arm under my neck, his other hand grabbing my thigh to push even deeper. He rips his mouth from mine, watching me intensely. His breath is hot over my lips.
Time may as well have stopped outside this room. Reid and I and the way our bodies move together are the only things that matter, are the only things that exist.
; A fine layer of sweat coats our skin. He tastes salty where I kiss his jaw and neck. I push my face against his shoulder and bite down as he moves even faster, then I lose myself completely. I wrap my arms around him, clutching the skin of his back when I'm sure I'll drift away.
Reid cups my face again as his movements become rigid. His eyes squeeze tightly shut. He groans my name loudly and pushes into me a final time, pressing his damp forehead against my neck.
He's still for a few seconds, then he collapses against me with a satisfied sigh. I wrap my arms and legs around him, quickly discovering that there is no better place than the curve of Reid's damp neck after sex. I brush my lips over it, feeling more content than I ever have.
“That was incredible,” he murmurs sweetly. “You were incredible.”
I'm pretty sure I still can't form words, so I hum happily in response.
I don't deserve this man. I'm selfish and bitchy and it takes me way too long to discover something amazing right in front of me, but for whatever reason, he wants me. He's mine now, and I'm keeping him.
After a moment he rolls to one side, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me against him, holding on tight.
“This right here,” he says as his breathing begins to calm. “This is exactly how we're meant to be. This was always how we were meant to be.”
I nod, pressing my face into his chest. I'm sure I must be glowing. “I was just too slow to see it.”
He chuckles, sending vibrations down his chest. “So fucking slow. But you got here in the end.” Shifting, he looks down at me fondly, placing sweet kisses over my lips and eyelids. “But I knew it right from the beginning. From the moment you hid behind the counter and couldn't keep your eyes off my ass.”
I slap his shoulder half halfheartedly. If I had more energy, I'd probably blush about the fact that he'd seen me checking him out that day. “Show off.”