She whimpers when I move my hands to her hips and slide my fingers under the sides of her suit then hold her against me. I kiss down until I reach her belly button. I’m so close to her pussy my mouth waters. Jesus Christ! Her smell alone can make me come in my shorts. I want to taste her right here, but I know I won’t be able to stop. Her body starts shaking against mine and when I look in her eyes, there’s need and longing.
Fuck it! I slide one hand down until I feel the skin against my fingers. Sucking in a breath, I try to calm down, knowing she is completely bare. The need to strip her and lick every inch almost overwhelms me. I test her entrance with one finger and find her soaking wet. Without warning, I slide in and suck at her skin gently. Her nails scrape against my scalp and she moans loudly. I add another finger and feel her flinch, I continue to move in and out, and slide my thumb to her clit. As soon as I touch the spot, she cries out and moisture coats my hand. Feeling her come against me causes my balls to pull up and I know I’m close too. Her moans fill the room as she convulses against me.
I slide my fingers out and look at her. She watches me as I lick each one savoring her taste. Heat creeps up her cheek and I notice small botches break out on her neck and chest.
“Angel, don’t be embarrassed. You taste amazing and it took every ounce of control I have not to lay you on that couch and rip this suit off.”
She grins and lowers herself to me. Her lips touch mine briefly but it’s not enough. I crush my mouth over hers and press her body against mine. The kiss is fast and deep and does nothing to help my aching erection.
“We have to stop.” I say against her lips. “Don’t test me.”
She leans back and sits on her heels panting. We stare at one another a few minutes until I help her off the floor and hand her the towel. I link our fingers together and lead her to the beach where I hope to God that there aren’t too many people around.
“Ari, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Okay, but first come here and let me put some sunscreen on your shoulders.” Her touch sends the familiar burning down my body that I have with only her. Thoughts drift to how right we feel together like this.
She lies down on her towel and I follow, propping up on my side to admire the view.
“I called my mom when I got home last night and told her everything.”
Panic crossed her face and I reach out to hold her hand.
“Ari, she was so excited. After I explained what happened and what you went through, she started crying. There was no judgment or anger at all. Just sympathy and concern. Then she became angry, livid really. She feels cheated out of the years with Davis as much as I do. My mom and sister watched how destructive I became the months after our breakup and worried about my life. You were the only girl I’d ever introduced to my mom as a true girlfriend. She liked you a lot and spent the last four years thinking terrible things about you. My sister always wanted to find you and kick your ass but I stopped her.”
“I’m not sure this is making me feel warm and fuzzy,” she says softly.
“Well, this might. When she finished crying and calmed down, she drilled me about you and Davis. She is so proud of you and what you did to raise our son. She asked for your number and then started talking about her trip up here. I tried to push her to Fourth of July, but she demanded to drive up in two weeks. We decided that I want to tell Cara myself because I need to explain what happened to us. So I plan on calling her tomorrow.”
“Why does your mom want my number?”
“Baby, I don’t know, but my guess is to talk your ear off. There are so many questions I couldn’t answer, she was relentless. I also think there’s a level of guilt. If I had given you a chance to talk to me that night at my apartment, things would have turned out really differently. I let my ego and fucking temper take over my judgment. She was really pissed at me about that. If it wasn’t for Davis, I think I’d get the silent treatment for a while.”
“Okay. Give her my number.”
“She’s going to be thrilled.”
“Reed?”
“Hmmm?” I run her knuckles across my lips and kiss them.
“Can we never talk about that night again? There are only two other nights in my entire life that were worse than that. One was the night I lost my parents.”
There’s pain in her voice and I want to ask her to clarify, but don’t want to upset her further.
“Yeah, we’ll never talk about it again. But are you okay with my mom coming in a few weeks?”
“Let me talk to her and think about how we’re going to tell Davis. But yes, she needs to meet her grandson.”
“Thank you,” I say as sincerely as I can, “it means a lot to me.”
She shakes her head and lies back, soaking up the sun’s rays, and holds my hand peacefully. I continue watching her and thinking about the feelings that overwhelm me when it comes to Arianna Williams.
After two hours, we pack up and I take her home. I don’t tell her about my meeting with Luke. He obviously has his reasons for wanting to meet privately.
“Baby, I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty. We’re going to a casual restaurant downtown.” I kiss her lightly outside her door in case Davis is inside with Katy. I don’t want to get caught mauling her.
“Okay, see you then.”
She goes inside and when the door closes, my heart jumps. She’s not even four feet away and I miss her.
I’m out of the shower and dressed for dinner when the doorbell rings. I take in a deep breath before opening the door, preparing myself for whatever Luke has to say.
He stands there with a six-pack of beer in one hand and the other braced on the doorframe. His gaze is indifferent with no signs of kindness.
“You serious about Ari and Davis?” he growls.
“What the fuck, Adams? Yeah I am.”
His face softens and he pushes himself past me into the house. “Then we need to talk.”
Chapter 10
Reed
A car door slams outside and I stop pacing to try and get my anger under control. Anger isn’t the word for how I feel right now. Rage, fury, and murderous come to mind.
Luke spent an hour talking and when he was done, I wanted to kill someone. I knew I had to handle this immediately. The only way to do that is to confront Jack personally.
Ari sounded disappointed when I canceled our date, but I told her I would explain tomorrow. The insecurity in her voice killed me. The only thing that gave me any ease was that Luke was on his way to her house. He wanted her to hear it from him.
The knock at the door does nothing to calm my nerves.
“Reed, man, what the fuck? I haven’t heard from you since you called me to find you a PI. You fall off the face of the earth and move to the beach an hour away? Then call and demand I come up here? What the hell is going on?”
“Jack, we need to talk.” I step aside for him to pass and he notices the tone of my voice.
He whistles when he sees the view from my living room. “Must be nice to be a multi-millionaire. This place have any hot women—”
“I have a son.” I cut him off.
His expression changes to fear. “No shit?”
“No shit. He’s three and a half. He’ll be four in September.”
“Are you sure he’s yours?”
“I’m holding it together loosely, brother. From the look on your face, you’re not surprised.”
He plops down on the sofa and runs his hands through his hair, not looking at my face. I heard Luke’s side of things, but I’m going to give the man that has been my best friend forever a chance to explain. Then I’ll decide if I beat the shit out of him.
“Reed, I don’t know what to say.”
“Why don’t you start with the truth and we’ll go from there.”
He sighs and scrubs his hands down his face. “Our senior year, Luke something or other—”
“Luke Adams, his name is Luke Adams.” I growl.
J
acks eyes grow wide but he continues. “Okay, Luke Adams cornered me at the gym. I knew how tore up you were about he and Ari dating, so I tried to blow him off. I really wanted to beat his ass for fucking your girl but you had just started to move on. You’d been so torn up and we were only weeks away from the draft. He caught me alone after my shower and told me Ari was pregnant. I laughed in his face and congratulated him.”
My stomach feels tight. I stay silent waiting for more.
“He threw me up against the wall and told me the baby was yours. Even though you left her, he thought you had a right to know. I didn’t believe him. I’d seen them around campus, and knew how tight they were. It was too close to you getting a number one pick, following your dreams, and becoming a millionaire. The whole situation was too fucked up for me to believe it. So I told him no way was I going to help them scam my best friend. He backed off and told me I had a decision to make. If I was really your best friend, I’d let you know you were going to be a father.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me that shit? You think the draft and the money means more to me than flesh and blood?!”
I can’t hold in the anger pouring out of my body. Luke fucking Adams went against his best friend’s wishes to tell me about my unborn child. He risked losing her because he felt I had a right to know. He knew her hurt and humiliation could be stopped if I claimed the baby.
But my best friend since I was three years old hid the news from me. He made a decision that I may never forgive. At that point in our lives, the damage wasn’t done. I could have gone to her and known the truth.
“What the fuck? I was protecting you. Are you even sure he belongs to you? I saw Luke and Ari together. They were definitely more than friends. The way I saw it, he knocked her up and they wanted you to take the hit. It was too coincidental that you were about to be rich and famous and suddenly she was pregnant? Don’t you think the timing is questionable? I didn’t know Ari well, but I knew she didn’t come from much. With the way y’all broke up, I was convinced she was looking for a meal ticket.”
“You motherfucker! You don’t know shit. Ari may not have had much, but she wasn’t a gold digging whore. You knew how much I loved her. I was gutted for months over her. It wasn’t your place to keep this information from me. And as for Davis being mine, there’s no fucking doubt. She got pregnant the night of the Sugar Bowl win.”
Jack’s face falls and he stares at me with guilt in his eyes. “She named him Davis?”
“Yeah, you sack of shit. She did. He’s the spitting image of me.”
“Is this why you needed the PI?”
I nod my head.
“Reed, I had no idea he was telling the truth. Why did she breakup with you if she was carrying your baby?”
“She didn’t.”
He looks at me waiting on an explanation, but I’m not giving him one.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you are a sorry son of a bitch and I want you out of my house.”
He gets up and walks by me. Before he can pass, I grab his arm and let my fist fly to his face. He stumbles back holding his jaw but doesn’t lift a hand to hit me back.
He stares at me with eyes full of hurt and pain. A part of me feels guilty, but then I think about the little boy down the road.
“I’m sorry, Reed.”
I jerk my chin and watch him walk out the door. As soon as it closes, I reach for the bottle of Jack Daniels. Tonight it’s going to take the place of my best friend.
Ari
“Are you mad at me, Ari?” Luke asks softly.
“No. You did what you thought was right. As always, you were looking out for me.”
“I can’t believe what a dick Jack Stark is. How could he keep that from Reed?” Sophie asks.
“I don’t know? But I can tell you Reed is pissed. I’m not sure what he’s going to do but I have a feeling it’s not good.” Luke answers her.
I reach over the table to pour myself another glass of wine. When Reed canceled our date tonight, I was hurt. Even though he assured me he would explain, my mind immediately filled with bad thoughts. Luke showed up a few minutes later with two bottles of my favorite wine and I knew something was going on. Sophie was already here to help dress me, so she stayed and we listened to Luke’s story. Relief washed through me when he told me the note on Reed’s car was from him.
“Well, I’ll find out in the morning. He said we’d make plans again tomorrow. Maybe try to take Davis to the beach again.”
“Let’s talk about you and Reed. How are you feeling about everything?” Luke looks at me with concern on his face.
“Confused, scared, overwhelmed because his idea of taking things slow and mine are completely different. He told me his mom wants to call me to learn about Davis. She’s driving up in to meet him.”
“That’s a good thing. He’ll love it.”
“Is this too fast? He found out who his dad was last night. Now, I’ll be introducing a whole new family to him.”
“It’s not too fast. From the impression he gave me tonight, I don’t think Reed is going anywhere. Davis will adapt.”
“You’re right.”
“Another thing, Ari, I told him our story. I could tell he still has questions about our relationship. I wanted to set him straight when you told me he thought I was your rebound in college, but waited to see how serious he was about you. If he’s going to be in your life, I thought he should know.”
Shock hits me. Luke never talks about his past. He had a horrible home life and both his parents were drunks. We met in grade school and my parents knew right away that something wasn’t right. They tried several times to talk to his parents but nothing changed. They completely neglected him, unless they were beating him. By high school, his grades were low and he was fighting. It was then my parents moved him into our house and threatened to turn his mom and dad into child services. They filled out the appropriate paperwork to become Luke’s guardians. This was a wake-up call to Luke’s mom, who entered rehab the next week. His dad bailed. He sent divorce papers a year later. We thought this would send his mother back to the bottom of a bottle, but she surprised us.
Luke moved back home, but always had a room at my house. When my parents died, it hit him hard, but he was strong for me. We knew I had to move into Katy’s house, so Luke asked if he could come too. Katy gladly opened her home to him. He alternated staying with his mom and us. We met Sophie our freshman year and our trio was inseparable; it wasn’t even a question that we would all go to college together.
No one has ever understood the bond Luke and I share. But he really is like a brother to me. He credits my parents with helping him get on the right path and not throw away his life. He also believes it is their interference that helped his mother get sober. They never fully rebuilt a relationship, but he is thankful she didn’t drink herself to death.
“Enough of all this heavy shit. It’s been far too long since all of us had a Saturday night together. Let’s see if Katy will watch Davis for a while and go out.” Sophie breaks in.
“She’s out with friends.”
“How in the world did your grandma’s social life get more interesting than ours?”
I grin and shrug.
“How about I promise to keep your wine glasses filled all night and watch a chick flick?”
Sophie and I look at Luke like he’s lost his mind. Usually we have to threaten or beg him to let us pick out the movie.
“What? It’s been a while since I spent the night with two of my favorite girls?”
“I know what you’re doing Luke and you don’t need to feel guilty. I’m sure Sarah would be more fun than us.”
“Nah, I’m the reason your big date got canceled so the least I can do is suffer through.” He winks at me and gets up.
Grabbing our wine, Sophie and I follow him to the living room and pick out a comedy. I’m not going to make him suffer too badly.
“Shhh, baby, be quiet. We don’t w
ant to wake anyone up.” I give Davis his cereal and juice and pour myself a generous cup of coffee. My phone rings on the counter and I lunge for it. Who is calling this early?
“Hello?” I whisper.
“Ari?”
“Reed? Is everything okay?”
“I can hardly hear you.”
I step to the back porch where I can still watch Davis eating. “Hey, sorry about that. Sophie and Luke are still asleep and I didn’t want to wake them. What are you doing up so early?”
“Sophie and Luke spent the night?” he sounds confused.
“Yeah, Luke came straight here after leaving your place. He brought over some wine and told us about your conversation. He was on a huge guilt trip. We ended up watching movies and they slept over.”
“You weren’t too hard on him were you?”
“No, I know why he did it. How’d you feel about it?”
“Needless to say, I’m pissed and hurt. I’ll tell you all about it when we see each other.”
“Reed, I really wanted to call and see how you were doing. I know how close you and Jack are and it must have been a huge betrayal. I was worried about you.”
“I would have loved to have heard your voice, but I knew you had your own things going on. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Okay.”
“Listen, Ari, I’m on my way to Orlando. My mom called a little while ago and my sister’s been in a bad accident. She’s really shaken up and I need to be there.”
“Oh my God! What happened?”
“It was a car accident after midnight last night. Someone else was driving. Cara was in the back and she was coherent enough to give the EMTs mom’s number.”
“I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do from here?”
“Not that I can think of. I left a message for my physical therapist and my coach. I’ll know more by tonight.”
“Be careful.”
“I’m sorry I won’t be around to take you and Davis to the beach today.”
“Don’t worry about us.”
Reed's Reckoning Page 9
