Best Kept Secrets (Complete Series)

by Kandi Steiner

  This man, so strong and hard and scarred, had made me feel pleasure I never knew existed.

  I wanted to do the same for him.

  I brought one hand up under my mouth, closing it around the lower part of his shaft that my mouth couldn’t reach. I sucked, fastening my mouth to the edge of my hand, and when I moved them in sync, Reese growled, legs trembling before his hands reached for my elbows and tugged me back up to my feet.

  I released him with a pop, mouth still hanging open once I was on my feet and his lips fastened over mine again. He inhaled that kiss, pulling me into him like I was going to be the death of him if he let me stay on my knees even one moment longer.

  This was what I loved most about Reese, about us together — that indescribable, undeniable energy that existed since the very first moment his eyes found mine across a dark and crowded restaurant. It was too powerful to resist, too intense to deny.

  We were tied together before we even knew the other one existed, and all this time, we were just walking, searching, looking for something we couldn’t place or name or identify. It was a feeling, a hope that should have died in both of us long ago, but was reborn the minute we found each other.

  Nothing about us made sense, and yet, there was no other possibility.

  It was me and him and us. It just was. And it always would be.

  Reese must have felt it, too — that energy — because he lowered his forehead to mine, stealing a breath between our kisses as his arms trembled under my hands. He blinked his eyes opening, finding mine before he gently walked me back to the bed, his hand catching my head before it hit the pillow. And when he settled between my legs, the heat of him pressed against the heat of me, only the thin fabric of my panties separating us, we both let out a shaky sigh.

  His lips were slow and purposeful, peppering me with long, tender, sweet kisses as he trailed himself down the length of my body. He paused to suck each of my nipples, making me writhe beneath him as the shocking sensation shot through me with each bite. He smiled, trailing his lips down lower, lower, a kiss to my navel, my left hip, my right hip, each inner thigh, and then, softly, right at the center of my panties.

  I gasped, arching off the bed, and Reese took the opportunity to fold his fingers over the lace straps. I lifted my hips as he pulled, sliding my panties over my ass, my thighs, my knees. He freed them of one ankle and then the other, letting them fall somewhere behind him before he settled between my legs. His emerald eyes cast up at me, and he kissed each thigh again, working slowly toward where I wanted his lips the most.

  With each kiss, I writhed and squirmed. With each touch of his hot breath against my skin, I sighed and moaned. And when his tongue snaked out, touching my clit with a feather-like pressure before it was gone again, my hands shot up against the headboard, desperate for the friction he denied me.

  Reese chuckled, licking the inside of my thigh. “So impatient.”

  I didn’t respond. Words were lost to me, along with the rest of the world, and when he finally lowered his mouth to my clit again, I surrendered to the pull into the vast, endless universe.

  The nerves that bundled at that sensitive peak sparked to life with each sweep of his tongue, and the silence I’d fallen under was broken by unabashed moans. Reese slipped his hands beneath me, grabbing my ass and pulling me into him as he devoured me. He tasted me with the flat of his tongue, groaning as if it was him getting closer and closer to climax. But when he tensed his tongue, teasing my clit with the tip of it as he circled and jagged, I fisted my hands in the sheets and pulled. I needed something to hold, something to fasten myself to so I wouldn’t float away.

  Reese pulled one hand from beneath me, trailing his fingertips up my thigh until they settled under his mouth. And slowly, achingly slowly, he slipped one thick finger inside me.

  It was too much then — the flick of his tongue, the pressure of his hand grabbing my ass, the curl of his finger inside me. I felt my orgasm starting to burn from the center of my belly, but before it could catch, I reached for Reese’s hair, tugging until his mouth was off me as I panted.

  I didn’t have to say a word.

  Reese met my gaze with confusion at first, but it faded quickly, and he nodded, kissing my thighs before he crawled his way back up. He knew what I wanted, what I needed.

  It was my first time. And I wanted to come apart with him inside me.

  All the confidence he’d had with his face buried between my legs faded as his mouth captured mine once more, his elbows framing each side of me, balancing his weight. My hands framed his biceps, and I felt him shaking, felt myself shaking, each of us riddled with the sweetest anxiety as he lined up at my center. The smooth skin of him slipped between my lips, and we both inhaled a stiff breath, Reese breaking our kiss as he hovered over me.

  In that moment, time slipped away like a silk sheet falling off the edge of a bed. We were floating, suspended, his eyes bouncing between mine as my hands gripped his biceps more, holding on, bracing for impact. One of Reese’s hands swept over my cheek, folding behind my ear as if I had hair to sweep away as he watched me with tender care.

  “I love you, Sarah Henderson,” he whispered, searching my gaze. That crease between his brow begged me to believe him, urged me to understand what this moment meant to him.

  To grasp what it meant to me.

  I framed his face, searching his eyes with just as much earnest. “And I love you, Reese Walker.”

  He smirked at that. “Say it again.”

  “I love you,” I breathed on a small laugh of my own, but that laughter faded when he pressed his lips to mine once more. This kiss was slower, softer, with a hint of timid hesitation. But in the next moment, he deepened the kiss, his rose petal lips bending mine into submission until I opened my mouth for him, letting him taste me.

  His hand left me long enough to slip into the drawer of the bedside table, and I focused on his lips on mine, on the taste of his tongue as his hands met behind the pillow my head rested on. I heard the tear of the package, and then his hand slipped between us, rolling the condom on before he was lined up with me again.

  I inhaled a breath when the tip of him found my entrance, and he kissed me harder, holding his lips to mine as he flexed his hips forward. It was just an inch, just the tip, but I gasped, arching off the bed at the sensation. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into me, arms shaking as I nodded against his lips.

  “More,” I whispered.

  And he delivered, flexing his hips once more, slowly. And inch by blissful inch, I opened for him.

  He promised to erase my memories of that fateful night in December, but when Reese kissed me, when he filled me, there wasn’t a single other vision in my mind. There were no memories left of my wolf, of my stolen innocence, of the hateful man who touched me before the one who loved me could find me.

  I was finally free of my wolf.

  And it was all thanks to my prince.

  Reese sighed when he withdrew, sliding inside me again just a little deeper, his arms trembling where they balanced his weight. His forehead fell to mine, and each shaky breath he took met my lips in hot waves. My hands gripped and pulled, desperate to have him closer, to have more.

  “You are so incredible,” he whispered, kissing my jaw, my cheek, before capturing my lips again. He flexed his hips again, and we both groaned, breathing into that kiss like it was the only oxygen we had.

  The time that had slipped away in the moments before Reese was inside me snapped back like a rubber band, and I felt every minute, every second of him between my legs. I felt his hard back muscles under my hands, his muscular hips between my thighs, his stiff, pulsing member stretching me more, more, and with every thrust, he hit a tender spot inside me that I never knew existed.

  “Reese,” I breathed, feeling my orgasm build. It was a sweet, torturous cycle — each thrust of his hips touched that spot, each glide of his pelvis against my clit gave the friction I craved. My legs shook violently arou
nd him, my breaths quickening until they stopped all together, and in a moment suspended in time, the fire caught.

  Every muscle tensed, an almost painful tension gripping me before it all released at once, the blood rushing between my legs in a fury of pleasure as I came undone. I gasped, surrendering to the moans that ripped through me, rolling my hips as I chased the friction. And Reese delivered, pumping harder, flexing his hips with calculated intensity as he swallowed my moans with hot, passionate kisses.

  When I groaned his name, Reese quickened his pace until he stiffened all together, and even through the condom, I felt his hot release. I raked my nails down his back, reveling in the feel of him coming inside me as I rode down from my own climax. It was the hottest moment of my life, and the power I felt in that moment was indescribable.

  I’d brought the infamous Reese Walker to the highest pleasure, and as soon as it was over, I found myself desperate to do it again.

  “Mmm,” Reese growled, still inside me as we both floated down, coming back to Earth, back to his bed. He let his head fall into the crevice of my neck, and I chuckled, wrapping my arms around him to savor the moment. I closed my eyes, memorizing the feel of his weight between my legs, of him softening inside me, of his hands holding me close, his lips tasting my skin.

  I never wanted to forget this night, not for as long as I lived.

  Reese rolled until we were both on our sides, him slipping out of me with a longing sigh of loss from both of us. He carefully pulled the condom off, reaching over to drop it in the small waste basket by his bedside table before his arms reached for me again, pulling me into him, his legs tangling with mine, bodies fitting together like the perfect puzzle pieces.

  Our breaths evened out as the soreness between my legs made itself known, but I smiled at it this time, at the memory of how it came to be. We’d only just finished, and I already felt that energy sparking to life again, my hips rolling of their own accord, clit rubbing against the heat of Reese’s thigh. I moaned, pulling him into me, and something between a growl and a laugh left his throat.

  “Woman,” he murmured against my neck.

  I chuckled, kissing his forehead. “Mm?”

  “Don’t give me that innocent ‘mm’,” he said, wrapping his arms around me tighter to hold me still. “Recovery. I need ten minutes. You forget, I’m an old man.”

  “Fine, but I’m setting a mental alarm.”

  Reese laughed, shaking his head before he rolled on a groan, balancing his head on one hand so he could look down at me. His smile slipped, that crease I loved so much making its presence known. I reached up to trace it, tapping his nose before I let my hand fall again.

  We watched each other for the longest time — fingertips tracing, hearts beating steady, bodies finding warmth and comfort under those sheets. Reese’s eyes skated over every inch of my face, like he was memorizing where each freckle was, and he shook his head.

  “What?” I asked on a whisper.

  He shook his head again. “I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re mine, that we’re here, that this is happening.”

  “Are we crazy to do this?”

  “Do what?”

  I reached up to brush his hair back, swallowing. “This. Moving to New York. Without a plan. Without anything but each other.”

  Reese smiled, leaning down to press his lips to mine before he propped his head up again. “Maybe. But if the one thing we do have is each other, I think the odds of us making it are pretty high.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, smile mirroring his own.

  Reese nodded, framing my chin as his eyes searched mine. “I’d bet everything I own on us.”

  “Me and you against the world, huh?”

  His smile doubled at that. “I like the sound of that. What do you think?”

  I threaded my arms around his neck, pulling him down into me for a long, tender kiss. And in that moment, I knew without a doubt that I would do the same. If anyone could make it, if anyone could defy all the odds and somehow emerge even stronger on the other side, it was us.

  It was him, the broken man too bruised to feel, too scared to love, who somehow found a home in me.

  It was me, the scarred woman too afraid to trust, too busted up to believe, who somehow found music again in him.

  And it was us, the unlikely couple, the man too old and the girl too young, the teacher and the student who weren’t afraid of what others would say, what they would think, what they would assume.

  If it really was us against the world, one thing was certain.

  I couldn’t ask for a better man to have on my team.

  “I think nothing can stop us now,” I answered on a breath.

  And I knew nothing ever would.

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  Three Years Later

  Sarah

  It must have been a fun house mirror.

  That’s the only thought I had in my mind as I stared at my reflection in the crisp white room, the bright lights that surrounded the mirror casting my skin in a golden glow. I traced every edge of the reflection that stared back at me, half with wonder and half with disbelief.

  It couldn’t be me.

  It couldn’t be me, standing there, confident and strong and collected. It couldn’t be my eyes that glistened in the light, couldn’t be my lips that parted, letting out a long, steady breath. It couldn’t be my face that was framed by those short, tight, bouncy curls — each one hairsprayed to perfection. I reached one hand up, the reflection mirroring the movement, and touched one curl — just to be sure. I felt the rough tendrils of it, plucked it down before letting it bounce back into place.

  Still, it couldn’t be me.

  It couldn’t be me, standing backstage at Carnegie Hall, less than an hour from playing for nearly three-thousand people.

  It couldn’t be my hands — those cold, clammy things at my side — that would play the piano tonight.

  It wasn’t possible, and yet, it was true.

  I was here. It was me. This was my literal dream come true.

  Nerves fluttered to life in my belly like a hurricane of butterflies, and I pressed my hands against it with a smile, smoothing my palms over the silky fabric of my black dress. My eyes fell to where my hands framed my stomach in the mirror just as a knock sounded on my dressing room door.

  “Come in,” I said, still marveling at my reflection. When the door opened behind me, my eyes shot to the tall, dark figure who entered, and my smile slipped from my face like sand through an hourglass.

  I turned, letting my eyes drink him in from head to toe as Reese let the door close softly behind him. He was doing the same as I was, his eyes trailing from my face, following every smooth inch of fabric that covered me all the way down to my crystal high heels before they climbed their way back up. And I took in every inch of him — his long, chestnut hair, neatly styled and flowing down just past his shoulders, his broad shoulders stretching the charcoal tuxedo he wore, the slacks hanging off his hips in a way that made my stomach spring to life with a completely different set of nerves.

  And in his hands, he held a bouquet of lilies — my favorite flower.

  Our eyes met at the same time, and we both smiled. Reese crossed the room to me, holding out the flowers as an offering between us.

  “You look…” He swallowed, eyes trailing down again before they met mine once more. “You look like a dark queen, here to seduce us with your magic and eat us all alive.”

  I laughed. “Thank you?”

  “It’s a compliment. Trust me,” he said as I took the flowers from his hands.

  I inhaled their scent with a smile, careful not to get any of the pollen on my hands or dress as I turned back toward the mirror, placing them carefully in one of the empty vases provided by the hall. I was still facing the mirror when Reese slid up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me into his chest. One hand skated up, thumb brushing my bottom lip, which was painted a glossy, candy
apple red.

  “I like this,” he murmured, but it turned into a growl when he removed his thumb and saw it was still painted red. “Fuck, I really like this.”

  I smirked. “You can take it off me tonight.”

  “Woman,” he growled, pulling me into him more as he shook his head. I giggled, leaning into him, and our eyes found each other in the mirror as we both released a content sigh.

  Three years.

  Three years I’d been in New York City with that man holding me in the mirror.

  Three years of living together, of learning together, of loving. There had been struggles from the very beginning — starting with Reese finding work after being removed from the city for so long. While I studied with James, working on my technique and networking my ass off to get the right connections to play at Carnegie, Reese had been looking for any place that would pay him to do what he loved. He’d started off as a tutor for private students, eventually landing a gig at a restaurant much like The Kinky Starfish. But it wasn’t until last year, until one of his old colleagues reached out to him that everything changed.

  They’d invited him to teach at Juilliard.

  It was part time for now, but ever since he started teaching, I’d watched him bloom into a brand-new man. His purpose had been refilled, refueled by these students.

  “Their passion reminds me of you sometimes,” he’d said one night at dinner. “And I finally feel like I’m using my talent to make a difference in this world.”

  Reese wasn’t the only one who had to struggle when we got to the city, either. On top of feeling the pressure of studying with James, of networking, and playing whatever gigs I could find to make ends meet, I was also dealing with the trial.

  After I told my mother what happened with Wolfgang, she went with me to press charges. And in a long, grueling process, we tried to fight against what happened to me — what could possibly have still been happening to others.