He leaned in and brushed their lips together, Reese allowing hers to part so he could sample her with a slow, restrained kiss, their tongues meeting briefly, yet sparking enough electricity to power the entire city block. “You know,” she murmured, “kissing your date is probably just as effective as smiling…i-in terms of showing an old rival that you’re on to better things. Maybe you should do it again.”
“No.” Their foreheads met and rolled. “When I kiss you, there’s only you. Nothing else.”
They hummed into another light sipping of lips, Leo’s hand fisting in the front of her skirt, an arousing contrast to the restraint he was showing with his mouth.
“Ready to go?”
Thoughts scrambled, Reese could only nod.
Leo signaled for the check, grunting in offense and shaking his head when Reese offered to pay for half—causing a sheepish, inward sigh of relief. They waited while the waiter ran his credit card and brought back the receipt to be signed. Leo helped Reese out of the booth, assisting her in putting on her coat and rejoining their hands.
“Hey!” someone called. “Mean Baker!”
“Oh my God, I thought it was him,” another diner gasped. “See if he’ll take a selfie.”
“Christ,” Leo muttered, starting to pull her toward the exit. Then he stopped suddenly. “What was it you said at my place? Don’t overthink my side of every interaction. Give people a backstory and make it about them?”
The way he recalled exactly what she’d said made her forget to breathe. “Yeah,” she managed around the flutters. “Maybe they’re aspiring bakers. Or maybe they don’t like being bombarded outside of their job by TikTokers, either, and admire the way you handled it.”
“I thought it was TalkTalk.” Reese burst into laughter and his deep rumble joined hers. “All right, fine, let’s take some selfies.”
Reese tucked her clasped hands up beneath her chin, uncaring that her grin was verging on maniacal and watched Leo suffer through selfies with four different people. All while a Tony award winner watched in stony silence from a nearby booth.
On the way out of the restaurant, she leaned into Leo and kissed his cheek. “I take it back. That was way better than smiling at him.”
Chapter 15
This girl made him feel light.
Happy.
He couldn’t recall a single other time in his life that the emotion of happiness was so obvious that he could recognize it in the moment. Call it by name. But walking crosstown holding Reese’s hand, he knew. Call him crazy, but he knew she was the one. The fact that they weren’t on solid ground and didn’t have a spoken commitment made him anxious, no denying it, but if having her meant patience, he’d dig to the bottom of the barrel for it. And then he’d find another barrel and crack that one open, too. She was worth that and more.
There was no mistaking her discomfort when he brought up dancing tonight. Again. While that really confused him, he didn’t want to prod the sore spot any more. For a long time, he’d been protective of his baking. His parents never showed interest or encouraged him, so he’d built a wall around that part of his identity. If he didn’t reveal that part of himself to people, they couldn’t tell him he should be playing football or taking a job in the theater industry, like his parents.
Opening the Cookie Jar had been kind of an exposing experience. He’d made himself wide open for criticism. For judgment and failure. Maybe Reese had a similar wall erected around her love of dancing, although…that didn’t track, since she had a supportive mother. Maybe it had something to do with her father. Or perhaps being a Broadway performer was still relatively new and she didn’t want to jinx herself by getting comfortable. Complacent.
Whatever the reason she didn’t want to talk about her job, Leo would wait for her to tell him herself. They had plenty of time.
If she decided to see him again. Didn’t he promise her they’d take it one day at a time?
Great plan.
One that should have made Leo feel like he skated on thin ice. But…he didn’t. How was he supposed to be anything but optimistic as hell when she smiled over at him, the February breeze blowing a strand of dark blonde hair across her face?
“Are you okay walking or should we grab a cab?” he asked.
“I’m happy walking. I love the city at night.” Their joined hands swung between them. “Besides, I’m a straight shot west on this street. It’s not far.”
“Good. I’ll walk you to the door.”
Did he imagine the way the blood drained out of her face? Or was it just the streetlight hitting her in a certain way. “Oh,” she laughed. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I’m not letting you walk home alone, Reese,” he said firmly, unsurprised by the protectiveness building in his gut, because what didn’t this girl make him feel? “You don’t have to invite me up. That’s not what it’s about. I just need you safe.”
After a moment, she gave a jerky nod. “Okay. Just to the front door of the building, then. It’s not that I don’t want you to come up. I just have a really early workshop—”
“And tomorrow is Sunday, so that means a matinee performance, in addition to your regular show,” he said, squeezing her hand. “You don’t have to explain.”
This time, when she looked over at him, he couldn’t read her expression. But he couldn’t deny the intuition that he was missing something here. With her. About her. Once again, he reminded himself to be patient. It was right on the tip of his tongue to ask Reese to spend the night at his place, but the last thing he needed to add was pressure.
As badly as he ached to be inside of her again.
The image of those thigh high tights would not leave him alone.
“Bryant Park,” he rasped, jerking his chin in the direction of the landmark to his left. “You’ve probably been here a few times by now.”
“Actually,” she murmured. “I haven’t. Show me?”
Leo steered her into a turn and headed up the wide concrete steps, guiding her into the nearly deserted park. On a cool night in February, the crowd was thinner than usual, save people buying coffee from the vendors that surrounded the giant green. “There’s an ice-skating rink here at Christmas.”
Reese sent him an interested look. “Do you skate?”
“Not for a million dollars,” he answered without hesitating. “They never have my shoe size, anyway. It’s always been my get out of jail free card.” They stopped at the edge of the sprawling lawn, the trees whispering in the wind behind them, the sounds of city traffic humming on all sides. “I bet you’re a great skater, aren’t you?”
“I’ve made it my mission in life to be good at anything that requires me to wear a sparkly costume.” Her laugh turned into a wince. “I just had a flashback to a high school field trip.”
“Oh God. That’s never good.”
“You’re going to end the date if I tell you this.”
Leo’s head fell back on a laugh. “Now I really need to know.”
She visibly braced for the reveal. “The entire freshman class went ice skating. It was an end of the year trip. Parental chaperones and everything. Loud bus rides. I was trying to get Drake Millhouse’s attention. So I…oh lord. I wore a white, sequined skating dress under my street clothes and executed a big costume change in the bathroom when we got to the rink. I really thought a bunch of fourteen-year-olds were going to cheer me on.”
“What did they do instead?” Leo asked.
“They roasted me.” She shook her head. “I can’t even blame them.”
Leo was so glad to be talking about her. She had no problem talking about her past. It was only the present where she seemed to throw up roadblocks. “Were you an overachiever in high school?”
“Yes. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t been. Being second or third best wouldn’t hurt so bad now.” She seemed to catch herself, snapping her mouth shut. Looking thoughtful, she stared out at the giant lawn. “Hey, Leo. Maybe instead of talking to you about my dancing…I
could show you?”
Seeing that hopefulness in her eyes? He’d have given her anything she asked for. “I’d love that, Reese.”
Her nod was brisk. “Hold my stuff.”
He watched, stupefied, as she stripped off her purse and coat, piling them into his arms. “You’re going to dance here? Now? It’s freezing.”
“I’m a Wisconsin girl, remember?” She winked at him, taking a position several yards away on the hard grass. “I once performed outside at a used car lot when there was still ice on the ground. True story.”
She struck a pose and Leo knew enough to recognize her lines were what his father would call immaculate. Right there, in the middle of the park, she moved fluidly into motion, a contemporary routine. There had to be music playing inside of her head. And she made him hear it, too, curling her spine downward, hands sweeping toward the ground, slowly rising back up, fingertips reaching and arcing overhead, leaving a pattern in the night sky. She turned slowly, then faster, faster, leaping to land without a sound.
The sight of her dancing in the park, her face at peace, the city sprouting up behind her, was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She couldn’t be real. And she was good. She was really fucking good. Considering she’d made it to Broadway, that shouldn’t have surprised him. But he’d watched a million dancers throughout his life and never once had he ever been unable to move, his heart lodged up into his throat.
When she finished, back in the same pose in which she’d started, it took Leo several moments before he could speak again, his voice emerging rusty. “Reese…” He shook his head. “You’re not second or third best at anything.”
Her arms dropped to her sides, her chest rising and falling, once, twice—and then she ran to him. He only had a split second to register her lost expression and drop her purse and coat, before she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. Leo held her back without hesitation, burying his face in her hair and squeezing, sensing she needed it. Wanting to give her anything she required.
They stayed just like that for long minutes, Reese on tiptoe, Leo rocking her side to side, absorbing her. It took a physical effort not to dig, to ask her to confide in him about whatever caused her to look lost, but he didn’t want to ruin this. If she could share something like that dance with him, he’d have faith that the rest would come in time.
Buttoning Reese back into her coat, he walked her toward the West Side, protectiveness filling his chest to the limit. Kissing her goodnight and walking away was going to be impossible. She belonged in his bed, his shower, his kitchen. His life.
One day at a time.
After another twenty minutes of walking, Reese turned him onto the avenue, stopping in front of a medium-sized high rise. “This is me.”
Resisting the urge to carry her home, Leo gave a firm nod. “Okay.”
She pressed up against him, twisting and untwisting her fingers in the strings on his jacket. “This was the best date I’ve ever been on, Leo.”
Pride swarmed him. “Better than nap date?”
“I’ll rephrase. This was the best traditional date I’ve been on.”
“Give me the chance,” he said, tucking hair behind her ear. “I can top it.”
Reese’s softening eyes were the last things he saw before she lifted up onto her toes and kissed him. It started off slow, like a goodbye kiss, but it didn’t stay that way. It couldn’t when she whimpered at the invasion of tongue, her thighs shifting restlessly against the fronts of his own. His dick turned stiff in approximately one point eight seconds, his hands closing around her hips and tugging, some hungry male part of him needing her to feel it. Acknowledge what she did to him.
Their lips broke apart and he kissed down her throat, dragging his hot open mouth up the side of her neck, his hands slipping around to her ass, clutching it tightly. “Come home with me.” His teeth grazed her ear lobe and she moaned. “Let me fuck you again.”
“I can’t. I…early w-workshop—”
He stamped his mouth back over hers, lust battering his brain, making him forget the plan to take it slow. And their hands collided in the act of getting his jacket unzipped, her coat unbuttoned. Opening the sides of their outerwear so their bodies could get closer, feel more. Press in shamelessly, heat on heat, hard to soft. They met with a joined exhale, a shudder passing through them both. With the sides of their open jacket and coat shielding them from view of the street, Leo’s left hand traveled over the front of her sweater, kneading her tits, thumbing her hard nipples through the thin material.
“Leo,” she whispered against his mouth. “Feels so good.”
His cock strained at those words, his need firing hotter, starved to hear her say them again while he buried himself between her legs. “Do you have roommates?” He backed her toward the building door, flattening her up against it, raking kisses down her exposed throat. “Invite me up, sweetheart. Just long enough to give you an orgasm. You think I don’t know you were wet in the restaurant?” His hand moved from her tits to the waistband of her skirt, fingertips slipping beneath to brush her belly. “Let me deal with it. Hard and fast.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “R-roommates. Yes. I have them. I—” She broke off, visibly attempting to collect her thoughts and not succeeding. Drawing him down for another out-of-control kiss, instead. And God help him when one of her thighs crept up around his hips. He looked down and saw that short skirt riding up, revealing the smooth skin at the tops of those tights. It was, quite simply, on after that. The warmth of her pussy, the promise of friction, was too tempting and he lifted her up by the waist, settling her down on his aching cock, her legs clamping around him automatically.
The sidewalk wasn’t busy at this time of night, but the odd person walked by, thankfully keeping a New York vibe and not paying them much attention, eyes on their phones. So he couldn’t help but rock her on his lap, thrusting his hips up and watching her eyes grow unfocused. “What’s it going to be, Reese? You going to go home all wet and achy? Or am I going to give you the ride on my cock you’re begging for?”
She took several panting breaths. “I won’t make it upstairs.” Without looking, her hand fumbled for the building door handle, pushing it down and sending them stumbling inside into a dimly lit, medium-sized vestibule, complete with a wall of mailboxes and door buzzers. “Right here. I need you here. Now.”
Risky, public sex—public anything—was not his personality. At all. So it was a testament to how this girl affected him that he didn’t even hesitate. There was only getting inside of her as fast as possible. Feeling her. Getting as close to her as humanly possible.
He broke eye contact with Reese only long enough to determine the vestibule was cleaner than most Manhattan entries, noticing a small alcove in the corner. Not big enough to hide them from people coming in and out of the building, but they’d be hidden from the street. And he was already carrying her in that direction, lust blanketing his mind, his cock trying to push itself through the fucking teeth of his zipper.
“Goddammit,” he gritted out, lowering her into the alcove and spinning her around. “Goddammit, sweetheart. Hands up on the wall.”
Sucking in a breath, she did as he asked, bending forward slightly and tucking her ass back into his lap. Or trying to, anyway. Their height difference forced Leo to wrap a forearm around Reese’s hips, lifting her so she could stand on the front of his boots. And then, oh fuck, she teased his lap with a grind. A few more seconds of that torture and he could have come, that’s how hard up she made him. Desperate. Balls in his fucking stomach.
“Shit, Reese. Wait until I’m inside you to do that again.” His hands shook as he peeled up her skirt, no choice but to take a moment to appreciate the tight, red bun huggers she wore. Throw in the thigh highs and Leo knew he’d never jerk off again without thinking of this. Hearing the breath sawing in and out of her throat when he unzipped his jeans, her sides heaving, fingers curling into fists on the wall. Picturing his han
ds tangling in the delicate material of her panties and shoving them down to her knees. Hunger ratcheting higher, higher, he quickly found the condom in his pocket, covering himself.
He needed pleasure from her body so bad, he was almost nervous about taking too roughly and hurting her. In a rush, he peeled off Reese’s coat and stuffed it between her and the wall, his touch traveling southward on her belly to check for wetness between her thighs, finding her pussy soaked and soft. A fantasy. And following instinct, knowing why she held her breath, he pushed his middle and ring finger home inside of her.
“You want me to fuck this?”
“Yes.” She clenched around his knuckles. “Yes.”
He opened his stance wider, doing the same to hers, since she stood on his boots. With his mouth on the side of her neck, kissing and sucking, he worked his fingers in and out of her opening slowly, the wet sounds, that audible proof of her lust, making his dick stiffen to the point of near agony. “You know how many times I’ve thought of you riding me since it happened? I lost count when you’d only been gone an hour.” He pressed his fingers deep and pulled her body up, jiggling those digits until she clawed at the wall, gasping. “Once wasn’t enough. Nothing is going to be enough with you.”
“Leo,” she moaned, one of her hands coming off the wall, reaching back to grasp at his hip, twisting in the sagging material of his jeans, yanking him closer. “I need you. Please.”
Though he wanted to cater to her urgency, he couldn’t resist pulling his fingers out and dragging them, wet and warm, over her clit, causing her to bury her face in the bunched-up coat between her and the wall, wailing his name into the soft wool. When her hips started to shake, Leo knew she was close—and he needed that. Needed her to be on the verge of coming because lasting was going to be a problem when he was this turned on. He gave that swollen nub a final firm stroke and reached for his cock, guiding it to the opening of her flesh and plowing deep in one powerful move.
The Sweetest Fix Page 12
