And she was there. Every shield stripped. Vulnerabilities laid bare. So damn beautiful it made my heart falter.
Her cheeks filled with heat, wonder and disbelief danced across her features for a moment before she cracked a grin and said, “I frustrate you.”
A breath of a laugh left me as I grabbed a condom and tore open the wrapper, a surge of primal need racing through my veins at the shock she struggled to hide when I finished removing my boxer briefs.
“I, uh . . .” She stared unabashedly as I knelt onto the bed, slowly pumping myself as I watched that blush creep all the way down to her chest.
“You challenge and surprise me,” I told her as I rolled the condom on. “You consume me.”
Her stare darted to mine at the confession, a mixture of emotions flashing through them as I settled between her legs.
“You pushing?” I asked softly and covered her hand with my own when she placed it on my chest.
“I trust you,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “I love you.”
Her claim could’ve stopped the world with the way it stopped my heart and stalled my lungs for those next seconds.
And then I was capturing her lips and tasting the remnants of her words as I slid my cock against her slick folds, pressing against her entrance and feeling the way she shook beneath me in anticipation.
I wanted to bury myself in her. Lose myself in the way she felt.
But I forced myself to grip the comforter, listening to every hitched breath and feeling the pressure against my chest as I slowly began easing inside her. Shallowly rocking and going a little deeper each time and trying not to lose my goddamn mind because she felt like heaven, and I wanted more.
“Fuck,” I ground out, my teeth scraping along her jaw as I bottomed out and forced a whimper from her. And I knew I could’ve stayed there, her words echoing in my mind and her silent show of trust and love pressing against my chest, wrapped up in her, for-fucking-ever.
With a soft kiss to the same spot, I pushed up to hover over her and slowly pulled out before driving back in. The movements coming faster and faster until Emma’s breaths were uneven and her eyelids were fluttering shut. Letting herself feel me and experience this without her fears and memories forcing their way between us. Losing myself in her a little more with each passing minute until I was gritting my teeth and fighting the fast-building pleasure.
I swallowed her surprised gasp when I lowered myself to her and switched our positions. “You’re in control,” I said against the kiss. “So, control it.”
Her wide eyes bounced quickly between mine, her head shaking as she looked at me. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Yes, you do,” I assured her.
Gripping her hips, I gently guided her, a groan breaking free at the feel of the new position. At the feel of her weight on me as she continued, the rocking of her hips pure hesitation until my hands began moving over her body—searching and teasing and learning. Kneading her breasts and torturing her nipples with my tongue and teeth until she was sitting back. Looking like an intoxicating mixture of sin and innocence as she began riding me. Hands pressed firmly to my chest, eyes heavy-lidded and full lips parted with her rough breaths. Threatening to send me over the edge as pleasure gathered at the base of my spine.
But I needed her there with me.
Reaching between our bodies, I circled my fingers around her clit again and again and again before focusing on the bud.
“Reed,” she cried out, her walls clenching around me like a vise as she fell apart around me and forced me into my own orgasm. These weeks of hostility and pain and love magnifying the pleasure that barreled through me until all I saw, all I knew, was Emma.
Tremors rolled through her body and transferred into my own for long moments until she went lax above me. Easing onto my chest and resting her ear where her hands had been as her arms fell limply to my sides.
I trailed my fingers up and down her spine as I held her close, measuring her deep breaths, broken up every now and then by an errant shudder as we both came down. Lingering in the silence and the feel of each other.
“You okay?”
“I feel like I shouldn’t be,” she said after a while. “It feels wrong that I am.” Putting her chin on my chest, she looked at me, eyebrows drawn close. “Does that upset you?”
“Me?” A soft huff left me. “No. And don’t worry about me. However you feel when it comes to physical stuff is how you feel. It’s not for me to have a say in.”
Her stare drifted to the side as she weighed whatever was on her mind.
“Just say it.”
“What if the next time’s different?” Her eyes met mine again, worry seeping into them. “What if, the next time, I can’t?”
“Then we won’t,” I assured her.
“You say that like it’s simple.”
“It is,” I said firmly. “You know I want you—that isn’t new, and it won’t ever change. But this doesn’t change what I know you need. It doesn’t create expectations. You push, we stop. Always. Understand?”
Her eyelids slowly shut as she nodded and then rolled her head to the side again, a deep, contented sigh leaving her as she did. “I didn’t know you played guitar.”
A soft laugh rumbled in my chest at the unexpected change. “Guess what? I play guitar.”
She scoffed and pressed up to fold her arms over my chest and stare down at me. “Tell me something you think I should know about you.”
I glanced over to where my dad’s old guitar sat propped up in the corner before looking back at her. “My dad played and sang—”
“In a band?” she asked, surprise weaving through her expression.
“No,” I said quickly as I pushed back so I was propped up against the pillows, careful not to shift her. “He’s a cop.”
“Oh, I think . . . I think I knew that,” she muttered, trying to blink away the instinctive animosity that had been quick to surge forward.
I resumed trailing my fingers up and down her spine, trying to help soothe her. “I always wanted to be just like him, so I learned to play. I can’t sing like him though. That’s his,” I said, slanting my head toward the corner.
“Will you play something?” Her eyes lit at the idea.
“There’s actually something I need to talk to you about—it isn’t bad,” I hurried to assure her when that light dimmed and was replaced with a look I was beginning to know too well from her. “I forgot all about talking to you about it before I went to work yesterday. By the time I remembered, Rowe was texting me that you were here, and I didn’t want to bring it up to you when I had a feeling there was something wrong.” My brow furrowed at the memory. “Was there something wrong?”
“Can you finish what you’re saying?” she pleaded in a hollow tone.
“I have to go to Florida today—home.” I gripped her hips as I explained, “My parents are having an anniversary party that I promised I’d be there for. I have to leave . . .”—I glanced at the clock on the bedside table—“soon.”
“Oh.” She started pushing off me. “Why didn’t you tell me before? I wouldn’t have—”
“Will you come with me?”
Emma stilled, her eyes widening as she stared at me as if trying to make sure she’d heard me correctly. “What?”
“To Florida. Will you come with me?”
“To your parents’,” she said slowly. “To their anniversary party.” When I started responding, she shook her head. “Reed, I can’t meet your parents.”
“Why?”
She sat back, grabbing at the comforter and pulling it up to cover her bare chest as she floundered for her response. “Because it’s soon, isn’t it?” Her head shook. “I don’t know how these things work, but isn’t it soon? And I have the store opening next week. And they don’t even know I exist.”
“Trust me, they do.” At her wide-eyed shock, I asked, “Where do you think I went last week?”
“Oh my God, what d
id you tell them?”
I leaned forward and cradled her face in my palm. “They know I love you. They know you pushed me away and they both thought I was an idiot for not being here trying to get you back. The rest?” I shrugged. “Emma, if you don’t want to go, I won’t make you go. But I can have you back for the store’s opening, and I don’t give a shit if anyone thinks what we do is too soon.” At her hesitation, I said, “You opened up dark pasts and gave me all of you yesterday. Going home with me? That’s the best way I can give you all of me.”
She watched me for a long time before asking, “When are we leaving?”
A smile stretched across my face as I grabbed one of her hands and pressed a kiss to her palm. “As soon as we get in my truck.”
Her expression fell. “Wait, what? We’re driving?”
“It takes a little less than six hours to drive there,” I explained as I climbed off the bed, bringing her with me as I headed for the shower. “Takes a lot more than that to get to an airport and fly there.”
“But you—when was the last time you slept?”
That smile grew as I stopped and pulled her in for a slow kiss. “We used to have to stay awake for days at a time for missions. I’m fine. Are you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never met parents, and I wasn’t expecting to meet yours because you said you didn’t speak to them.”
“I’ll explain all that on the way,” I said as I turned on the shower. “Don’t worry, I think they already like you more than they like me.”
“They haven’t met me,” she muttered, earning a scoffing laugh from me.
“You haven’t met them.”
My mouth fell open as an audible breath escaped me, all shock and disbelief.
“I know,” Reed said as he took a turn into a neighborhood that afternoon. “A lot to wrap your mind around.”
That was an understatement.
After he’d taken a quick shower and tossed some things into a backpack, Reed had driven me to Lala’s to grab what I needed and leave a note for her and Nora, and then we’d left. We’d been on the road within half an hour from deciding I was going with him.
To meet his parents.
We were just minutes away, and I still couldn’t figure out why I’d agreed. I had no experience with this and didn’t know anyone who’d gone through this sort of thing, but it felt weird to be meeting his parents when just twenty-four hours before, Reed and I hadn’t been speaking.
At the same time, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I’d missed him, and I loved hearing about his life and his family—as unbelievable as it all sounded. The stories that helped explain Reed—the man who looked like heartbreak and had a gentle soul.
“So, Kennedy’s husband disappeared,” I said, the words coming out slow as I tried to put the story together in my mind. “And the next time you saw him, he was married to Kira—her identical twin.”
“Right,” Reed said as he took another turn.
“And the reason he disappeared was because your dad sent him undercover . . .”
“My dad and uncle Mason train people to go undercover,” he corrected. “Rhys was already going, they just trained him.”
I nodded as I fixed the story in my mind before my head shook quickly. “And Kennedy’s just okay with this?”
“According to the rest of my family,” he said with a shrug, then gave me a look like he thought it was crazy. “I haven’t talked to her in years.”
“Is she going to be there this weekend?”
“No,” he muttered, sounding like that bothered him. “She and her husband live in California.” He made an uncomfortable sound as he pulled up in front of a house. “Looks like you’re about to meet everyone else though.”
I looked around at the cars lining the driveway. “I thought their party was tonight?”
“It is.” He jerked his chin in the direction I’d just been looking. “But those all belong to my family.”
“And they’re all cops?” I asked, breaths getting shallow now that we were here, and I was about to face them all.
Reed’s gray stare focused on me as he held out a hand between us. “I would not have asked you to come with me if they weren’t good. You are safe with me, and you are safe with them.”
“Your dad taught you how to escape impossible situations after enduring psychological torture among a lot of other weird and disturbing things.”
An amused huff bled from him. “I know. But after what I told you happened to my mom, can you really blame him?”
“You do.”
He shrugged. “I resented him for it because I thought I was never good enough. But I can’t help but think I would’ve done the same thing.”
“You’re going to make your future kids put together a disassembled rifle and fire at a target while you choke them out?” I asked dryly.
One side of his face scrunched up adorably. “Okay, no. I already told you a lot of it was fucked up.”
A hum of acknowledgment sounded in my throat and ended on a soft inhale when he lifted my hand to press a kiss to my palm.
“But he did what he thought he had to. He made me who I am. I was a fucking good SEAL because of him, and if anyone ever comes after you?” His stare slowly searched my face, his voice lowering gravely. “They won’t be able to get close enough to touch you.”
I nodded and tried not to think about the things he didn’t know.
The people.
“Ready for this?”
“No,” I answered honestly, already reaching into the back seat for my bag. “But I won’t ever be ready, so we should probably just go in.”
His laugh followed me out of the truck, his expression all amusement and assurance as he rounded the front and reached out to take my bag. “It’s gonna be great.”
I let out a slow breath when he took my hand in his, my head listing as a thought came to mind. “If you’re supposed to be this badass, or whatever,” I began and elbowed his side when he scoffed, “why have I been able to hit you?”
His hand squeezed mine. “Each time, I could see I’d done something I shouldn’t have. I was already backing away from you. All defenses down,” he said seriously, but when he continued, a hint of amusement wove through his tone. “If you were the slightest bit of a threat, you never would’ve been able to touch me.”
I believed it.
The morning we’d accidentally fallen asleep in my bed flashed through my mind as he opened the front door and led me inside. Reed’s expression when I’d woken him had been terrifying in that second before he’d realized it was me. A chilling sort of calm beneath the lethal look in his eyes.
“Ready?” he asked again as the front door shut heavily behind us.
I sucked in a steeling breath and ran my hand over my uneasy stomach, the action bringing a smile to his face.
“I have no doubt they’re gonna love you,” he said before the sound of fast-approaching steps had him looking away, his expression filling with disbelief and wonder. “Holy shit.”
I glanced in that direction in time to pull my hand from his and step away as a woman launched herself at him, her excited cry filling the entryway when Reed caught her and held her close.
“The fuck are you doing here?” he asked when he set her on her feet, keeping one hand on her shoulder and offering his hand to me in invitation.
“What do you mean?” She wiped at the tears slipping down her cheeks, and it was then I realized how much they looked alike.
All dark hair and littered with tattoos, but her eyes were dark blue where Reed’s were like steel.
“Dad said you weren’t going to be here,” Reed explained as he looked at me. “Emma, this is Kennedy.”
“California-Kennedy,” I said, realizing exactly why Reed had been so surprised.
A wicked grin lit up her face. “That would be me,” she said before whirling around at the sound of the toddler running up behind her. Bending to scoop him into her arms and smiling warmly at the ma
n who followed closely behind.
“Jesus,” Reed muttered, voice thick as Kennedy stepped close to show off the little boy while reaching back to touch the large, tattooed man. “This is my husband. Liam, this is Reed and Emma, right?”
I offered a small smile of acknowledgment and tried to blend into the wall as the guys said their greetings. Wishing more than anything that I would’ve stayed in South Carolina.
Reed hadn’t talked to this sister in years.
He hadn’t seen her in longer.
He was meeting her husband and son for the first time . . . I shouldn’t be there for that.
“And this is Chase,” Kennedy announced, all affection as she pressed her nose to the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. “Can you say ‘hi’ to your uncle Reed?”
“What’s up, little man?” Reed asked, holding out his fist.
The boy gave a cheesy grin, showing all his little teeth as he gave an overenthusiastic fist-bump.
Reed gave a soft laugh, his voice tight when he said, “I would’ve been there.”
“Dad told me,” Kennedy said, all saddened understanding, then gestured into the house with her head. “Come on, Mom and Dad were just getting everything ready for lunch. And what do you mean he said I wouldn’t be here?” She gave him a bemused look. “Why else would you be here?”
Reed grabbed our bags from where he’d dropped them and waited until I slipped my hand into his before following after them. “For their anniversary party.”
Kennedy’s brows lifted. “Their what?”
“Their—” Reed stopped walking, his tone dropping low. “There isn’t a party tonight, is there?” When Kennedy tried to swallow back a laugh, he hissed, “Asshole.”
As we passed through the living room, he set our bags on one of the couches and pulled me into his arms, his eyes searching mine as he brought our joined hands up to his chest.
“You got quiet,” he said softly. “I can see those shields starting to form and I can see what you’re thinking.” Placing my palm flat against where his heart was beating strong and steady, he leaned closer until his forehead was pressed to mine. “You should absolutely be here. I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else, and I wouldn’t want to be here without you.”
Lie to Me Page 31
