“Hungry?” he asked, lifting the bags and setting them on the counter. “I knew we didn’t have food at the house, and I remembered you saying something about Mexican food the other night, so that’s what I ordered. I hope that’s okay?”
He didn’t mention his unanswered text message, and I know he saw my phone on the counter. Yep, I had just graduated to Queen Bitch. Why did he have to make this so hard?
“I didn’t hear my phone, but Mexican is fine. I’ll get plates and—”
“I’ve got it,” he said, already moving toward the cabinets. “Sit at the table and I’ll bring everything over.”
I wanted to argue that I could help, but he was already starting to fill his arms with everything. Following him to the table, I watched as he pulled out containers of rice, beans, and meats. Everything smelled delicious.
“Sit,” Reed said, motioning to the chair he pulled out for me and then asked, “How was work?”
“Work was work.” I sat down, trying to keep my annoyance in check.
I told myself my bad attitude had nothing to do with sex. I just needed food. I was like one of those Snickers commercials. Food and then I would be fine. Reed moved around the table, bringing me a plate of food, but when he stood next to me and all I could smell was him, I suddenly felt like a damn cat in heat. Wanting to rub myself against Reed, covering myself in his scent.
He was standing so close, the fabric of his pants brushed my bare thigh, and I wanted to moan. Damn Carrie and her orgasms talk and damn these pregnancy hormones. It suddenly felt a million degrees in the open space. I needed water, preferably ice cold and a bucketful.
I moved to get up, and Reed turned toward me. We stood toe to toe; the warmth of his body reached out and caressed me, burning my skin even more.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” The word came out dry and swallowed. “I just need water.”
“Oh, I can get you—”
“I’ve got it, Reed.”
He frowned but didn’t press it. “Okay.”
He moved aside, and I was thankful for the space. In the kitchen, I grabbed a glass and stood at the sink, filling my glass with water. I drank the entire glass standing there and then filled it again before returning to the table. Reed was sitting, but he wasn’t eating.
“Aren’t you hungry?” I asked, sitting down.
“I was waiting for you.” He smiled and then picked up his fork
“You didn’t have to wait for me, Reed.”
“I know,” he said simply, shoving a forkful of food in his mouth
I should have been glad my bitchiness didn’t easily provoke him, but I didn’t want understanding Reed.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked when I still had yet to take a bite.
“Not really in the mood for Mexican food.”
He stopped midbite and put his fork down. “What are you in the mood for? I can go get you something else.”
“No thanks, Saint Reed.” I continued to push my food around with my fork.
He smirked. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
I lied. I wanted the Mexican food, but since I was making an ass out of myself, I couldn’t eat it now.
“Maybe you should eat it anyway. For the baby’s sake.” I could see the twitch in the corner of his mouth, and I knew he was trying hard not to laugh at me, which only managed to piss me off and embarrass me more.
Without sticking my foot any deeper into my mouth, I kept it shut and began to eat. The first bite was almost moan worthy.
“After dinner, I’ll clean, and you can go and take a bath,” Reed suggested.
I glared at him from across the table, slowly chewing my food. He was freaking kidding, right? We’d been living together for weeks now, and I wasn’t sure how it happened, but we’d managed to get into a routine. Dinner, which Reed usually supplied, we’d eat together, then he would clean up while insisting I sit and put my feet up or take a damn bath.
I was sure normal pregnant women would kill for a husband like Reed, but I wasn’t a normal pregnant woman, and Reed was not my husband, and we sure as hell were not playing house. I didn’t need him to wait on me hand and foot.
“I don’t want to take a bath, and I don’t need you to clean up after me.”
He didn’t respond right away, and then he finally said. “I’ve been reading one of those pregnancy books.”
Surprised, I looked over at him. “You have?”
He put his fork down, returning my stare. “Yep and I was reading about what to expect in your sixth month.”
His eyes darkened, and suddenly, I didn’t want to know what he had read. “I think I’m done.”
I got up and took my plate into the kitchen, cleaning it off in the sink and placing it in the dish rack. When I turned around, Reed was standing there, a knowing smirk clinging to his lips. I lingered there, tracing the shape and curved with my eyes. I licked my own lips, and my gaze lifted to find him watching me watching him.
“Don’t you want to know what I read?” he asked, coming around the island to stand across from me.
“Stop it, Reed,” I warned.
“I read all about the symptoms and the … cravings.” It was his turn to watch my mouth. He pushed away from the counter to stand in front of me. He placed his hands on either side of me, holding the edge of the sink. “I know exactly what has you on edge, Meela.”
“Reed.” Hopefully, it was just me, but it sounded a lot more like a moan than a heeding.
“Don’t you want to know what the cure is, Meela?”
Holy hell. I’d never felt more turned on in my entire life. Hormones or not, the need to pull Reed against me, to feel him between my thighs, pressing into the parts of me that literally begged for him was so strong it literally pained me to deny it.
“I’m going to go take a shower.”
“I’ll clean up,” he said with a smile.
L U S T
My cold shower wasn’t exactly a cure-all, but it managed to tone down the inferno Reed had ignited earlier. No matter how Reed made me feel, I knew I was being an ungrateful brat when all he was trying to do was make things easier for me. I knew I needed to apologize to him in the morning.
Walking into my room, I draped my towel over my bed and slipped on the pair of boy shorts I had laid out before I got in the shower, and then I pulled my oversized nightshirt over my head. My boobs were so sore lately, and my nipples were beyond sensitive, so I opted out of wearing anything to cover them.
Pulling the blanket back on my bed reminded me that I needed another one. The last couple of nights I struggled with freezing my ass off in the mornings now that it was getting colder. I had thought about asking Reed to turn the heat up, but it got too hot in the middle of the night. I knew I would be fine with an extra blanket, but those were in the hallway and that meant having to leave my room.
I chewed on my lower lip, and I stared at my bedroom door.
After a few minutes, I blew my breath out, realizing I was being ridiculous, but that didn’t stop me from putting my ear against the door and listening. I couldn’t hear anything on the other side, and I hoped that meant Reed had already gone to bed, too.
Opening the door, I peeked out. The end of the hallway was dark, and that meant Reed was already in his room. Slipping through my door, I went left to the linen closet and pulled open the door. Of course, the one I needed had to be at the top and just out of my reach.
Lifting onto my tiptoes, I stretched to reach the blanket, but my fingertips were barely brushing the edge. I was just about to give up and freeze my ass off when I felt him behind me. His chest pressed against my back, his hips fitting perfectly against my ass.
“Need help?” he asked as his right hand found my side, and his fingers squeezed.
His other hand stretched along mine, reaching past it until he was gripping the blanket and pulling it down slowly. He held the blanket out in front of me, but I didn’t move to take it.
I was paralyzed or at least it felt that way, considering I couldn’t move a single muscle in my body. Reed was so close, and every inch of him was molding to me.
“Is this the kind of thing you sleep in every night?” he asked, and his lips were only a breath away from the curve of my ear. “I never realized how sexy an overnight shirt could be.”
“Dammit, Reed. What are you doing?” I growled.
“Helping you.”
“I didn’t ask for your help,” I snapped through gritted teeth.
Moving away from him, I put some much-needed space between us. I didn’t know which was worse, seeing Reed’s naked chest or the sweats that hung low and clung to his hips. Either way, the sight of him now would follow me into my dreams.
“You have to stop.”
“Stop what?
“Everything! I’m not your wife, and I’m not your girlfriend. I don’t need you texting me to see if I’m okay, sending me food, cleaning up after me. We aren’t anything to each other but a means to an end.”
“That’s a goddamn lie.”
“We had rules, Reed. Rules you’re not following. You said if I agreed to live here with you, you would respect what I asked for.”
“I’ve been doing everything you’ve asked, Meela.”
“That’s not true,” I denied. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“What?”
“We agreed that we would both see other people. Are you seeing anyone?”
“Is that what you really want? Me fucking a different woman every night so you can hide the fact that you secretly wish it was you beneath me?”
“Your ego astounds me.”
“The only reason you’re so pissed right now is because you fucking hate how much you actually like when I touch you.”
“I don’t!”
“The hell you don’t,” he sneered.
“I don’t have to listen to this.” I turned to leave, and his hand shot out against the wall, leaving me with no choice but to stop or be clotheslined by his massive bicep.
“Yes, you do. You started this, so you will listen to every damn word I have to say.”
Without moving his arm, he took a step closer to me until I was flat against the wall behind me.
“You’ve been so hell-bent on continuing to hate me, over something I did a year ago, that it drives you batshit crazy to know you fucking like it when I touch you.”
“You’re so full of yourself that you can’t see past your own self-delusion to realize I’m the one woman who doesn’t want you.”
“Oh, really?”
I knew that look in his eyes, and I wasn’t going to let him use me to make a point. “Don’t touch me,” I ground out.
“Why? Because you know you won’t want me to stop until you’re coming all over me?”
“I hate you.”
“No, Meela, you don’t. You wish you did because then you could keep lying to yourself, but you’re running out of conviction, and that’s what you hate.”
I wanted to deny his words, throw them back in his smug face, but I couldn’t produce the words.
“This was a mistake,” I whispered, all the fight gone from my voice. “I never should have let you talk me into moving into this house with you. I knew this wouldn’t, couldn’t work.”
“It’s not working because you want to control things you can’t.”
“You’re making this about us, and there is no us, Reed. There never will be and sleeping with you was the biggest mistake of my life.” My words were like acid, eating away at the fight he had left.
I expected him to laugh at me, to break apart what I’d just said in a million pieces of tiny untruths. I expected him to smile or try to touch me again, but he did none of that. He recoiled; stepping away from me as if I’d just turned into venom and one touch from me was fatal.
His eyes dropped to my stomach, and for a brief second, my heart ached for the look I’d caused in those stormy green eyes. Without another word, he turned, heading toward his bedroom and slamming the door so hard I wasn’t sure how it survived his wrath.
A broken sound escaped through the cracks of my chest as I slipped into my room and shut the door. Leaning against the door, I covered my mouth with both hands and let the sobs tear their way into the center of my palms. Tears streamed down my face, carrying away the anger, hurt, and the feeling of not being free to want what I couldn’t have.
Twenty Seven
Reed
That woman was infuriating.
She made me want to tear the house down around us or push her against the wall and fuck her until she admitted she wanted me as much as I wanted her. No matter how much she hissed and clawed, I knew she did. Her body has practically melted into mine with little effort on my part.
Keeping my hands off Meela was damn near the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. So when I’d come out of my room and saw her struggling and the bottom of her shirt playing peek-a-boo with her ass, my restraint snapped, leaving me defenseless.
I’d only planned to feel her against me, but her warmth and softness were all too tempting. I was an addict, and there was no such thing as just one time. Just one feel led to just one touch, and before I knew it, I was as hard as a rock, and there was no hiding that fact from Meela.
Things hadn’t been going as smoothly as I’d hoped since Meela moved in with me, and testing my boundaries with Meela tonight had definitely fucked the situation up more. I wasn’t sure what I thought would happen, or if I had even thought past wanting to feel her body against me.
She was determined as hell, and while, in any other situation, I found it fucking adorable, in this instance, it was leaving me with the worst case of blue balls. It was no longer enough getting myself off to the memory of those long legs and blue eyes.
I wanted Meela in the worst fucking way possible, but she was a stubborn creature and proving to her that she wanted me just as badly was harder than I wanted it to be. And then she had to bring up those fucking rules and remind me how much of an idiot I was to ever agree to them, even if I had no intention of following through.
Dating was a hard pass, but if I wanted to keep the peace on the home front, I would have to show her I was a team player.
A quick cold shower, something that had become a nightly routine, and I was ready for bed. I grinned as I threw back the blankets on my bed and stretched my full frame out. I tucked my hands behind my head and watched the blades of my ceiling fan spin, cooling my naked body.
Meela didn’t want me dating anyone else, I saw it in her eyes, but she needed to feel like she was in control of our situation. She wanted to lie to herself.
L U S T
One … two … three.
I counted.
I waited.
Four.
It was harder this time. She was becoming impatient that I wasn’t answering her. I could see her in my head on the other side of the door as she waited for some sign I was awake and I could hear her. Chewing on that full bottom lip the way I wanted to every time I looked at her. She was most likely fussing with her thumbnail the way she did anytime she was nervous.
“Reed?”
She was nervous now.
She wanted me to wake up, so she didn’t have to come into my room. This was unknown territory for her that therefore made this dangerous territory for her. She had apparently made my room off limits since she’d moved in because she refused to step one foot inside.
Well, that was too damn bad.
I was grumpy and horny, and if she needed me that badly, she would have to bring that pain in the ass inside. I told myself last night I wouldn’t touch Meela again until she asked me to, and she would, but playing a little dirty was a different story.
“Reed?” she said again, louder this time.
Give up, sweetheart, or bring those long legs in here.
I waited still but not for long this time. My game face was on, but I was grinning from ear to ear on the inside when I
heard her rattle the doorknob. It was a warning, another way to see if I would respond.
I didn’t.
With a quick peek down, I made sure enough of my naked body was covered so she wouldn’t turn around and run before she had come in far enough to actually see the good stuff.
“Reed?” she called, but she still waited in the hallway, and so fake asleep I would remain.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. I hadn’t expected that, but I wasn’t going to complain either. Just a few more steps and then the unveiling for her pleasure and mine would happen.
One.
Two.
Three steps.
One more and she would be at the foot of my bed. When I heard her finally take it, I stretched and enjoyed the mix of a sigh and gasp escaped her parted lips. I could almost feel the breathy caress against my exposed cock. I enjoyed it too much as, without any control, I felt the blood rushing straight to my head. Pun intended.
“Reed,” Meela said again, but there was something in her voice I either hadn’t caught before or it hadn’t been there until now. “Reed.”
“Have you come to say you’re sorry?” I asked without opening my eyes.
Stunned silence.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” she hissed, and I could almost hear the air around her fizzling.
“I asked first.” My response only angered her more.
“Someone’s here for you.”
I frowned and opened my eyes. Leaning up on my elbows, I turned my confused expression on her. She knew the minute I popped up that I hadn’t been asleep this whole time, and her eyes narrowed.
“Maybe I should have led with that instead of the countless knocks and eight times I called your name.”
“Four,” I corrected her.
“What?”
“It was four knocks. You said countless, but it was four.”
“Did you actually think this little stunt would work?” she snapped, waving her hand in my direction.
I threw my legs over the bed and stood, stretching. I swear I could hear her swallow. Turning on her, I took a step in her direction, but she took one back, and then another.
Lust Page 21
