Best Kept Secrets: The Complete Series

by Kandi Steiner

  I swallowed, stepping toward her as slowly as I could as my eyes drank every inch of her in. Those freckles dotted her from head to toe, like tiny stars in the dark night sky of her skin. Her hips were wide, her waist narrow, the swells of her breasts humble but absolutely perfect. It was more than I was prepared for, the image of her in nothing but a simple white bra and matching dainty panties. It was impossible to say what I imagined, what I though I’d find if I ever had the chance to see her this way.

  She was more. She was always so, so much more.

  The shadow of my hand broke the stream of moonlight on her stomach as I reached for her, the rough callouses of my palm eliciting a shutter from her when I finally touched her ribs. My hands nearly encompassed the whole of her as I wrapped them around her, pulling her into me and dragging my gaze up until I found her eyes again. I held her close, trailing my fingertips up over her arm until I framed her cheek once more.

  “You are a masterpiece, Sarah,” I breathed. “An absolute deity.”

  She shook her head, trying to look down between us, but I held her chin, held her gaze, held her in every way I could as I spoke again.

  “You are,” I repeated. “And I won’t stop worshiping you until you see it, too.”

  I kissed her to seal that promise, pulling my hands from her only long enough to strip off my suit jacket and unbutton my dress shirt before peeling it off, too. I dropped them both on the floor next to her clothes, and Sarah’s hands slipped over my shoulders, my pecs, trailing down my abdomen and sparking a wave of chills in their wake. She pulled away from my kiss, breathing through parted lips as her eyes danced over where her hands touched me.

  “And you say I’m the deity,” she murmured.

  I chuckled, pulling her back into the bed with me and covering us with the sheets before I slid between her legs again. I still wore my pants, much to Sarah’s disdain, I found, as she tried to undo my belt under the covers. But I held her hands, pulled them back up until they were pressed into the pillow on either side of her head as I kissed her softly, slowly, with purpose.

  “I want to kiss you,” I whispered.

  “You already are.”

  I shook my head, running my tongue along her bottom lip before I pulled back. “I want to kiss you everywhere.”

  I slid down her body, kissing a trail across her dainty collarbone, over the swells of her breasts exposed by her bra, along the length of her long, lean navel. She wriggled under each new touch of my lips, and when I settled between her thighs, moving until the backs of them were on my shoulders and my hands were braced on the top of them, she leaned up on her elbows and watched me with wide eyes.

  “I want to kiss you here,” I breathed, sucking the tender skin on the inside of each of her thighs before I hovered over the white cotton of her panties. “Is that okay, Sarah? Can I kiss you here?”

  “Yes,” she breathed, wiggling under my grip again. “Please.”

  I kept my mouth on her, kissing along her thighs as I gently pulled her panties down. She lifted her hips, every muscle trembling as she did, and I slid her panties over her ass, down her thighs, pulling back long enough to free them of her ankles before I settled between her legs again. The sweet scent of her hit my nose as I trailed one hand up the inside of her thigh, brushing the crease of it before I tugged gently on the soft pubic hair covering her.

  “I like this,” I mused, smiling a little at the new chills that broke out over her legs.

  My eyes found hers, and then I lowered my mouth, kissing her where I wanted to most.

  Sarah gasped as I swept my tongue over her sensitive clit, arching her back off the bed as her fists twisted in the sheets. She let out a long, seductive moan as I swirled my tongue, the tip of it circling her clit before I sucked gently. Her hands flew from the sheets to my hair, tugging in a silent plea for more.

  I groaned, running my tongue flat against her before sucking her bud between my teeth again. Her moans turned to whimpers, legs shaking on either side of me the more I tasted her, and every squirm fed my desire.

  This.

  This was what I wanted — to make her feel good, to make her fall apart with the pleasure she deserved to feel, the desire she deserved to elicit from the man who was lucky enough to touch her. I didn’t know why that blessing was mine, why it was me who got the opportunity to erase what had happened to her before, to replace those memories with ones of ecstasy.

  All I knew was that I wouldn’t waste my chance.

  Carefully, with as much patience as I could muster in that moment of all-consuming desire, I slipped one finger between her lips as my tongue worked her clit. She sighed at the sensation, and I ran the pad of my finger along her wet slit, teasing her, warming her up before I slipped just the tip of my finger inside her.

  “Oh, God,” she breathed, arching off the bed again. Her hands twisted in my hair, thighs spreading to allow me access.

  She was so tight, so tender and sensitive as I slowly slid my finger in more, centimeter by centimeter, until she swallowed my first knuckle. I curled that finger inside her, working in rhythm with my mouth as she wriggled under me.

  I’d had countless women in my lifetime, more than I cared to admit, but in that moment — with Sarah in my bed, her thighs on either side of my face, her hands in my hair, her body succumbing to the pleasure I brought her with my tongue — it was like being reborn again. It was my first time. It was her first time. It was the first and the only and the everything when I touched her.

  I hoped she felt it, too.

  She grew tighter the longer I worked, her muscles contracting as her breaths came shallower. She was close, and when I slipped another finger inside her, carefully — but with a firm command — she let out a moan that nearly made me come.

  “Yes,” she breathed, squirming under my touch. “Reese, yes. Yes.”

  I worked my tongue faster, curling my fingers inside her, and when I knew she was close, I climbed my way up her body with my fingers still inside her. My mouth found hers, and I swallowed her next moan, letting her taste herself on my tongue as the palm of my hand rubbed her clit. I moved my hips with my hand, driving my fingers into her over and over again until she tightened around me.

  Sarah broke our kiss in the next instant, moaning my name as she found her release. I kissed her neck, her breasts, driving her to the finish line as she shook around me. She raked her nails down my back, crying out as she rode the waves, her orgasm long and intense if I were judging by the way she trembled and moaned. And when she was done, she fell limp, every muscle in her body releasing at once as she softened beneath me.

  I kissed her again, firm at first before I softened, sweeping my tongue over hers. Her hands found their way back into my hair, and she held me there as I kissed her like I had all night, like we’d only just begun. I gently pulled my fingers from inside her, and she shivered at the loss, pulling me closer like she was afraid I’d pull my mouth away next. But I only kissed her harder, rolling until we were both on our sides, our legs tangled together, arms wrapped around each other, breaths dancing between each kiss.

  We stayed like that for a long while before our kisses slowed, our breath evening out as I kissed my way up to her nose, her forehead, holding my lips there before I pulled away and found her gaze with my own.

  “Thank you,” I breathed, running the tips of my fingers over her shoulder.

  She blushed, shaking her head as she buried her face in the covers. “Thank you,” she mumbled into them.

  I laughed, rolling her until her back was against my chest, my arms wrapped around her, her legs tangling with mine as I spooned her. She lifted my hand to her lips, kissing each pad of my fingertips before she tucked that hand around her chest once more. A comfortable silence fell over us as I held her, and I prayed to a god I didn’t believe in that the bubble that shielded us from reality wouldn’t break.

  I prayed that I’d made her feel wanted, that I’d erased what she’d asked me to. I prayed that
she’d felt every moment like I had, that tonight was as special to her as it was to me. I prayed that I could hold her like that all night, that I could keep her, that I could somehow have her in a world where everything screamed I never could.

  If there really was a god, if there was a chance I could choose my own fate, I prayed that she was it.

  The morning would come.

  I knew it would. I knew that with the daylight, we’d have to face every mountain between us.

  But tonight, in the soft light of the moon, Sarah was mine.

  And I held her like she always would be.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  * * *

  Sarah

  I woke to the sound of Rojo’s soft snores, her body sprawled out on the bed in front of me while Reese hugged me to his chest from behind. His legs tangled with mine, a light sheen of sweat sticking us to each other. He was still in his dress pants from the night before, and I was only in my bra, my panties forgotten along with the rest of my clothes somewhere on the floor.

  It was hot.

  The morning sun streaming through the window shed a light on everything the moon had hidden last night. I was naked in Reese’s bed. I’d stayed the night. And we’d definitely crossed whatever line still existed between us.

  I had no doubt that my phone was buzzing away in the other room, missed calls and texts from my uncle wondering where I was. I needed to come up with a story, but right now, all I wanted to do was hide from reality a little longer.

  So, I twisted in Reese’s hold, fighting against the covers and his dead weight until I was facing him. His arms lifted long enough to let me turn before they were wrapped around me again, pulling me to his broad, god-like chest as Rojo huffed from the other side of us. I giggled at that, and Reese slowly creaked one eye open, a lazy smile on his lips.

  “Mornin’.”

  I snuggled into him more. “Good morning.”

  His smile grew, a long, sleepy breath coming from his chest as he stretched. I did the same, reveling in the sweet soreness between my legs. I’d never woken up in a man’s bed before, never stayed the night with someone other than a girlfriend, and yet, somehow, I felt more comfortable than I ever had in a bed alone with Reese’s arms around me like that.

  I closed my eyes, blushing at the memory of him looking up at me the night before, the feel of his fingers curling inside me, his tongue tasting me. It had been more than I could have ever imagined intimacy could be. I thought I was broken. I thought I would never be able to feel like that, to enjoy being touched, to want to touch someone else.

  I was wrong.

  So, so wrong.

  I squeezed my knees together, tightening around Reese’s thigh that was between them now.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked when I opened my eyes again, but his smirk told me he already knew.

  “How perfect last night was.”

  At that, he propped himself up on one elbow, looking down on me with a concerned crease between his brows. “Yeah?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Were you worried?”

  “A little,” he confessed. “I just… I hoped it was as special to you as it was to me.”

  My heart melted at his words, swishing around in my chest like sticky goo as I ran a hand up over his bare chest, sliding it over his shoulder and pulling him down toward me. I leaned up just enough to meet his lips with my own, both of us breathing out a sigh of relief at the contact, like that kiss was all we needed in life.

  Maybe it was.

  I never thought I’d be here — in Reese’s bed, in Reese’s arms. Everything seemed so impossible — not just with him, with the hurdles between us, but with anyone. I never imagined I could feel whole again, desired, wanted. I never imagined that I could ever want to do the things we did last night.

  I thought the damage my wolf had inflicted was permanent, irreversible, detrimental.

  But Reese kissed me and brought me back to life. He touched me and I took what felt like my first breath.

  I didn’t know how I could ever properly tell him everything that last night meant to me.

  Reese groaned when I deepened the kiss, hands fisting in his hair and pulling until he was on top of me, his core between my legs. Just thinking about last night made me want him again, made me want even more. Now that I’d been awakened, I was thirsty, hungry — an absolute fiend.

  He broke away when I thrust my hips, gasping at the feel of his hard-on against my middle. His pants were the only thing between us, and I wanted them gone.

  “You’re killing me, woman,” he breathed, kissing my nose before he propped himself up on his elbows again.

  “I want you,” I whispered, trying to pull him back into me.

  “And you have me,” he said. He pulled my hand from where it was trailing down between us, kissing my fingertips and holding them to his lips as he watched me. The morning sun played on the emerald flecks in his irises, and his pupils danced as they flicked between my own. “What happened last night?”

  “I mean… do you want me to give you a play by play, or should we just relive it…” I tried to roll my hips again, but Reese growled, kissing me hard before propping himself up again. He slid down, putting his abs at my middle instead of his erection, desperate to put space between us.

  I pouted.

  “I meant, what happened before I got home?” he clarified. “You came to play the song. And you’d been crying.”

  I sighed, the not-so-fond memories of last night making my chest ache. I stared at where Reese held my fingers to his lips, wishing we could focus on that part of the evening, instead.

  “I called my old roommate,” I said after awhile. “Remember, the one I was telling you about that I completely left behind when I walked out of Bramlock?”

  Reese nodded.

  I continued staring at his lips, feeling how soft they were under the pad of my fingers. “I called her and caught her up on everything… well, almost everything,” I amended. “I talked to her about being here. About you. But I left out why I wasn’t at Bramlock anymore.”

  Reese smirked. “What did you say about me?”

  “I’m not telling you that,” I said, cheeks heating. “It’s girl talk. Very private.”

  “You told her how hot your teacher is, didn’t you?”

  I scoffed at that. “Please. She already knows what you look like. Like I said, there are videos of you online, mister.”

  He frowned. “I feel like there’s some sort of invasion of privacy happening with that, voyeurism, even… but whatever.”

  “Anyway,” I said, smiling as he kissed my fingertips again. “Everything was great at first. We caught up, she gave me some advice on how I was feeling about you being out on a date…”

  His eyebrows shot up. “What kind of feelings were you having?”

  “Again, not the point,” I said, but the smile he’d elicited fell as I spoke the next words. “At the end of our call, she invited me back to Bramlock.”

  Reese was quiet, watching me, waiting.

  I swallowed. “She invited me back because Wolfgang has been given a prestigious award, one that our university is very picky about bestowing on anyone. They’re having a big ceremony for him… and I know it probably sounds stupid, but I just… I couldn’t breathe when I heard that. I saw black. I hung up on Reneé, then I threw up, and then I was just crying, and I… I thought about the song… and about my dad… and then, I ended up here.”

  So many emotions passed over Reese’s face as I spoke — anger, understanding, sorrow, empathy. But it went back to anger after a long moment, his jaw clenched tight and nostrils flaring before he spoke. “That motherfucker got an award? How is he even still allowed to fucking teach?”

  My eyes fell to his chest. “Well… it’s not like anyone knows what happened.”

  I didn’t have to look at him again to know he was watching me with questions in his eyes, or maybe with murder. To him, I imagined, it probably seemed so easy. Get rap
ed? Call the police.

  But that just wasn’t how it worked.

  “I tried to tell someone,” I clarified. “I just… the person I told said we should keep it between us. And it wasn’t just a friend or something… it was the music director. She had power, she could have helped me… but… well, she didn’t have to say the exact words for me to hear everything she wasn’t saying.” I shrugged. “He’s Wolfgang Edison. It would have been my word against his, and who’s going to believe a young, black female against an old, prestigious, award-winning, white, male piano legend?”

  “Me,” Reese said without pause. “I believe you. And I know I wouldn’t be the only one.”

  My heart swelled, beating with an unfamiliar emotion at his certainty, his unyielding belief.

  “What if we went to the police together,” he offered. “We could—”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head firmly. “This isn’t up for debate, Reese.” I lifted my eyes to his again. “I’m sorry, but it’s not. Okay? I don’t want to tell anyone about it. And I trust that you never will, either.”

  At that, he lowered his lips to my fingers again, kissing them with promise. “I would never tell anyone. It’s not my story to tell. And I respect you too much to ever do that.”

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  The silence stretched between us, the sun warming the bed as much as Rojo did. She was still sprawled out beside us, snoring lightly, little hind legs twitching a bit.

  “Reese?”

  “Mm?” he answered, shifting his weight to the opposite elbow. He still seemed lost in thought from our last conversation.

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, debating my next words. “Did you and Jennifer… have you ever… you know… with her?”

  He smirked. “Have I ever what?”

  “Please don’t make me say it.”

  Reese chuckled as my cheeks burned. “No. We didn’t. Do you really think I’d fool around with her and then come home and do what I did to you?”