by Faye Avalon
Mortified, Lissa glanced up at him. Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? One look at his hard glare and she knew it to be true.
How dare he? How could he humiliate her like this in front of Jack?
Lissa’s face burned and she couldn’t look at Jack, but she was aware of him replacing his cup on the table and trying to pretend he wasn’t smack bang in the middle of this conversation. Had Reed told him about her past?
Pain merged with anger and she grabbed her bag.
She began to get up when Jack stood too. “I think I’ll also pass on supper.”
Lissa looked up into Jack’s warm brown eyes as he held out his hand. “Good luck with the new business, Lissa. I hope it’s everything you want it to be.”
He kept his hand in hers for a moment longer than necessary and squeezed it lightly. From the simple smile and the warmth in his eyes, she knew he was offering her a gesture of support, comfort even. He obviously realized his friend was being a complete asshole.
“I’ll make sure of it.” She trembled him a smile. “Thanks for everything, Jack.”
As Reed accompanied his friend out into the hallway, Lissa hovered by the sofa. She wasn’t sure what to do now. All she knew was that she intended to stay only long enough to give him a piece of her mind. She heard the feint muttering as the two men exchanged words and then the click of the apartment door closing.
She steeled herself, the blood pumping through her and fueling her anger.
As Reed stepped back into the room, Lissa raised her chin and met his hard gaze with one of her own. “How dare you insult me like that?”
“It wasn’t an insult.” He moved leisurely toward the drinks cabinet. “It was an invitation.”
Red hot fury spiked through the hurt. “Why are you behaving like this, Reed? It can’t matter to you if I slept with one man or fifty. What we had was a temporary fling while we both got what we wanted out of this mockery of a marriage.”
“And had I known you liked the group sex scene maybe I would have upped the ante. Made it even more pleasurable for you.” He splashed whisky into a tumbler. “As it is, you’ve done me out of the satisfaction of pushing you harder in the bedroom. And beyond.”
“Harder?” It actually made her laugh. “Dear God, Reed. If you’d pushed me any harder—”
“Don’t start with the protests. It wasn’t like you weren’t up for it.”
She tightened her grip on the strap of her bag. “I don’t deny it. But neither will I apologize or make excuses for my past. I’m a woman with my own mind, making my own choices, and I’m not scared to go for what I want. Why else would I have agreed to climb in bed—physically and metaphorically—with a man like you? If my choices offend your delicate sensibilities, then you can go screw yourself.”
His shoulders went back and after taking a swig of whisky, he put down his glass with a snap. When he turned to her there was such a gleam in his eyes, she actually thought about running from the apartment. But her pride wouldn’t let her. She stood her ground as he walked toward her.
“I think I’d prefer to screw you, princess.”
She backed up and her legs hit the edge of the sofa. She actually toppled back but managed to steady herself by throwing her arm out to the back of the seat. It left her in a precarious position and as she tried to straighten herself back up, Reed snagged his arm around her waist and maneuvered them so that she half lay beneath him.
“Don’t you dare try anything with me.”
He laughed, his face centimeters from hers, but the lack of humor sent a shiver through her. “It wasn’t that long ago you were begging me to try just about anything with you.”
When he started tugging her blouse from the waistband of her skirt, Lissa clamped her hand over his. “That was before you insulted me and starting acting like a jerk. I’ve got no interest in you now.”
“Really?” That gleam was back in his eye as he slowly brushed his thumb over her already pebbled nipple. “Why do I not believe you?”
She shifted and pushed at his chest. “Let go of me. I despise you.”
His thumb worked across her nipple.
Oh hell, she was actually turned on. What sort of insane person did that make her?
The hand she had pressed to his chest moved up to his shoulder. He took advantage of the diminishing pressure against his chest and lowered himself to her. His mouth found hers in an almost brutal kiss that she returned in kind as her blood raced and her pussy wept with the need to have him inside her.
She hated herself for responding to him almost as much as she hated him right then. But her body had other ideas and her arms swept around his neck.
“You want me,” he ground against her mouth. “Almost as much as I want you. I always fucking want you, damn it.”
Again he took her mouth with a fierce possession that grabbed her breath and made her dizzy, but she couldn’t give in to this. Couldn’t allow him to get away with the insult he’d aimed at her.
She broke the kiss, but Reed claimed her neck. She wanted to close her eyes against the onslaught of his mouth, but she fought it. “You want me enough that you would offer me up on a plate to your friend,” she grated as she momentarily lost the battle with her eyes. “Or was I mistaken in assuming the entertainment you had planned didn’t involve me as the meat in your friendly little sandwich?”
He growled. “That wouldn’t have happened.”
“That’s not how it sounded.”
“I told you before.” He tugged the blouse from her skirt and slid his hand to cup her bra-covered breast. “I don’t share.”
With his eyes on hers, he grabbed the edges of her blouse. With one yank, he ripped it apart and buttons popped as it gaped open.
Lissa gasped in shock as Reed scowled. Nudging away the torn material, he pushed her bra up over her breasts and took greedy possession with his mouth. His tongue flicked over her nipple, while his hands kneaded her flesh until she squirmed beneath him.
While he continued to possess her breast, he slid his hand down her leg and reached under her skirt. He grabbed for her panties, hooking his index finger beneath the damp panel covering her drenched pussy. With a deep groan he yanked down the silk.
While her panties lay halfway down her thighs, he pushed a finger inside her.
Lissa bucked and tried to protest, but her heart wasn’t in it. She wanted Reed. Wanted him so damn badly that her hands got busy tugging the shirt from his trouser waistband until she could touch his hot naked flesh.
“Tell me you want me,” he demanded as he sucked hard on her breast. “Tell me.”
Lissa swallowed as his teeth scraped her hardened bud. “Damn you, you know I want you.”
He straightened, hoisted up her hips and reached beneath her skirt again to tug at the panties. He yanked them off, pushed her skirt up around her waist, then kneeled on the floor in front of her. With his hands on her hips, he pulled her off the sofa and together they fell to the floor. He used his foot to shove away the coffee table, and pressed her onto her back. Kneeling between her legs, he pushed up her knees until her feet left the floor and she was fully open to him.
Lissa lay there panting. Her blouse torn in pieces, her bra pushed up exposing her breasts, her skirt bunched around her waist and her pussy in full view of Reed’s hungry gaze.
With his hands on her knees he pressed them down, further exposing her to him. “You think I’d ever be willing to share you?” he said, baring his teeth. “Watch some other man’s cock drive into you? Hear you gasp his name, scream your release as he pumped inside you?”
With his chest heaving, he reached for the waistband of his trousers and unhooked the button before sliding down the zip. He worked the top of his trousers down to his hips until his erection sprang free.
Lissa couldn’t remember when she’d ever felt so turned on. She knew she should stop him, knew that she needed to protest against his insulting treatment of her, but she felt incapable of denying herself one last
time in his arms—seeing how much he wanted her reflected in the dark gleam of his eyes, hearing him speak those heavily erotic words in a menacing tone, feeling the tension in his incredible body as he barely kept it contained, scenting his desire in the air as it buzzed around them.
She felt powerless against the strength of her desire, her need for him. Defenseless as he yanked up her hips and drove inside her.
She jerked against the unexpected force of his possession, the air leaving her lungs on a moan. With his hands either side of her ribcage, he anchored himself as he thrust harder and harder, deeper and deeper.
The tension in his body was evident in his face as he pumped ruthlessly into her. A sheen covered his forehead, the muscles in his throat flexing as he grit his teeth.
Lissa felt the heady rush of climax. She pushed her hands beneath his shirt and grabbed at his back, her nails digging deep into his flesh as the incredible friction intensified.
She came, rushing over the magnificent edge into a void of space and endlessness that she ached to get lost in and never return.
As she continued to spin, Reed groaned loudly and the first spurt of his semen shot deep inside her. She clamped down with her internal muscles, squeezing him, wanting to drain from him everything he had to give her even as she pushed away the dark warnings echoing inside her head. She wanted this. Just once. She wanted it. Nothing between them. No barriers—physical or emotional. She wanted to experience it. She wanted to experience it with Reed.
As he continued to empty himself, Lissa fought against closing her eyes. The sight of his muscles bunching and tensing, those dark blue eyes, the tension in his jaw as he clenched his teeth—she wanted to remember it all.
But all too soon it was over, leaving her to face the reality of their reckless passion.
Reed panted, his hard body still tense as he stared down at her. He said nothing, but she wondered if the stunned look in his eyes meant that his thoughts resembled hers. She dismissed the possibility. The sex for him was to prove a point, stake his claim. A payback for Ethan and Marco.
Her chest felt tight as she tried to even her breathing, but he had yet to pull out and the warmth of him and his release continued to fill her. Emotion stormed through her as she realized she would never feel this way again. Never feel quite so devastated by any other man, so overwhelmed, so…raw.
Reed sucked in a breath, his chest expanding with the effort. “Fuck,” he growled and pulled out of her with a jerk, as if the speed of his withdrawal could stop the potential consequences of their actions. “I’m sorry.”
Since she assumed he was referring to the fact he hadn’t used a condom, Lissa lay staring up at the ceiling as he rolled onto his back beside her. “I’m on the pill.”
She wasn’t sure why she’d said it. Maybe it was more to reassure herself in the light of his obvious disgust at what he’d done. Perhaps she should take a leaf from his book and be equally appalled, but she couldn’t.
Reed shifted, and the precious inches he placed between them seemed like miles. He turned his head toward her. “I’m clean.”
Keeping her attention firmly focused on the ceiling, she nodded. “Me, too.”
“Did I hurt you?”
Not physically, she wanted to say, but since he wasn’t interested in any other way but physically, she shook her head. Then she remembered the way she’d dug her nails into his back as her need for him escalated into something raw and ferocious. “Did I hurt you?”
Like she had done, he shook his head. But Lissa knew that despite his dismissive manner, there had to be scratches on his flesh. Well, it served him bloody well right. His scars might be visible, but would likely heal soon enough. Hers went deeper, and evident only to her aching heart.
Oh God. She was such a fool.
She felt like crawling into a hole and licking her wounds, but instead sat and pulled her bra down over her breasts, yanking the torn sides of her blouse together.
As she scrambled to her knees, she tugged down her skirt then reached across the floor for her panties. Positioning her trembling hand on the seat of the sofa, she hauled herself up to stand.
Reed stood beside her, tucking his shirt into the waistband of his trousers. The slide of his zipper echoed like a thunderbolt in the silence between them.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“What?” She couldn’t look at him. “Rough sex or not using a condom?”
“Both.”
They fell into silence again as they each continued to straighten their clothing.
So that was it? Lissa thought. An apology for caveman sex and not using protection, but no apology for the way he’d treated her before that?
Lissa snatched up her bag. “I think our business is concluded.” With her throat raw and burning, she hurried to the door.
Once there, Reed stepped in front of her. “I’m not finished.”
She grabbed the strap of her bag, her arm tight across her chest as if to shield her heart. “Well, get this, you egotistical jerk, I am.” Elbowing him out of the way, she flung open the door. In the corridor, she didn’t wait for the lift but hurried down the stairs and out into the parking complex. Her heart banged against her chest, her blood burning so hot she thought she might combust.
How could she have gotten herself tangled up with a man like him? She’d thought she’d come a long way from the woman who had been screwed over by her business partner. A woman stupid enough to trust someone who didn’t deserve it. Yet it seemed she hadn’t come far at all. She still expected more from people. Believed in them. Believed in him.
Was she incapable of protecting herself? Shielding herself and making sure her interests were covered? It seemed so. Hadn’t she been prepared to sign those damn divorce papers without checking them through first? And all because she’d let her emotions rule and hoped for things she couldn’t have.
Her eyes had started to mist up and everything seemed hazy as she stumbled across the apartment parking area toward her car.
“You’re a damn idiot,” she grated out as she fumbled for her car keys. “You never learn from your mistakes.”
“Still talking to yourself.”
She swung around at the sound of Reed’s voice. In doing so she turned her ankle, dropping her bag as she instinctively grabbed his arm to stop herself going down.
He reached a hand under her elbow as she clung to him. “Careful.”
Aware of his secure hold on her, she shook him away. “It’s a pity you didn’t give me that advice before I got hooked up with you. A pity you didn’t take your own advice come to that.”
“Come back inside and let’s talk.”
She straightened, wincing as she tentatively tried to put weight on her foot while Reed picked up her bag from the ground. “What do you want to talk about? The fact you tried to pay me off by handing me a check the size of a small country’s national debt? Or that you’d hoped to insult me by offering me up on a plate to your buddy, Jack? Or maybe it was the fact you failed to control yourself long enough to put on a damn condom.”
In the glow of the overhead lights, she saw his jaw go tight. “I already told you, there’s no way I’d let another man touch you.”
“Well, that’s not your decision to make, is it? What I do with my body is not up to you. If you have a problem with my past, then that’s exactly what it is. Your problem. I’m not explaining myself. I’m not apologizing for my actions. I’m finished here, Reed.”
He ran his hand over his head. “Hell, Lissa. Give me a break.”
“What sort of break would that be? The sort that lets you judge me? Makes me out to be a woman who has little respect for herself?”
“I’m not judging you. I’m an asshole, okay. I get that. It’s…”
“What?” she demanded when he remained silent. “What?”
He scrubbed his hand over his head. “Fuck, Lissa. It’s Ethan. And Marco. How the hell am I supposed to feel? My cousin and a man I do busine
ss with. Every time I see them I’ll be thinking about you with them. It’s not easy for me knowing they’ve had you.”
Her anger, which had abated a tad as he tried to explain, boiled up again. “They’ve had me? Do you know how that sounds? How it makes me feel?”
“It’s not my intention to make you feel bad. I just need you to know it’s … difficult for me to swallow.”
She grabbed her bag from him. “Well let me make it easy for you. We’re done, Reed, so you don’t have to swallow anything except your stupid assumptions and attitudes.”
Her ankle screamed as she settled herself behind the wheel of her car and pressed her foot on the clutch, but she gritted her teeth, yanked the door closed, and drove off.
This time she did glance in her rear view mirror. Reed stood there watching, but his image became blurry as her pent up tears started to fall.
Chapter Twelve
With his hands deep in his pockets, Reed stood at the edge of the development that would become the new leisure center and watched workmen clearing the ground. He had never known the days to pass so slowly. Usually the months slipped away before he realized it, but for the last four weeks he’d felt as if he’d been wading through heavy black sludge.
Thankfully, plans for the leisure center were going well and pretty much coasting along without him. Which was a blessing, seeing as how he hadn’t felt much like moving and shaking this past month.
Truth was, he missed Lissa. Missed talking to her about his current projects, missed getting her feedback—although sometimes off the wall, but it made him think around the edges—and damn it, he missed her in his bed. Missed waking up with her, the feel of her soft, warm flesh next to his. He missed the way she gave that little humming sound as she snuggled into him after they’d made love.
Watching impassively as a group of workmen erected steel joists, he fingered the small box in his pocket, the one that held the diamond ring he’d given her on their wedding day. The one she’d sent back to him by registered mail the day after that last disastrous night. He’d been carrying it around in his pocket ever since, not even daring to ask himself why.
