Page 52 of The Pretenders of Copper County
“Suck,” I clarified. “Suck. Like with my mouth. Er… my tongue. My lips? I’m not sure howmpfh?—”
Reed’s tongue entered my mouth again, and his hand crept up to gently hold the front of my throat. An embarrassing sound came from my nose as I gasped in pleasure at his grip.
When he finally finished vacuuming all rationalthought from my brain, he pulled back and pinned me with his eyes. “As long as it’s not teeth, sweetheart, it’ll be good. You sure this is?—”
Now, it was my turn to take charge. Before he could finish his question, I slipped out of his grip and dropped to my knees, accidentally falling sideways a little bit and scrambling to catch hold of something.
That something ended up being a shampoo bottle and a scrunchie poof. The two items shot off the shelf, slipped through my fingers, and clattered around the shower floor.
“It’s fine!” I called up to him in hopes he wouldn’t interpret the teeny-tiny incident as an indicator that his current sexual partner wasn’t actually graceful or suave enough to participate in adult activities. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine!”
The small trickle of blood from a new scrape on my knee washed easily down the drain without anyone the wiser.
I straightened up and faced Reed’s… impressive manhood. Well, it was an impressive bulge. In his shorts. Because he was still fully dressed. Still. It was… I swallowed around a lump in my throat. Large.
Large and probably in charge.
I inhaled a shaky breath. I could do this. I would do this. And if it was terrible for him, at least he was kind enough not to say anything about it later. Probably. And then I’d have a wild oat fully sown. Which would be something.
Before I could lean forward and begin sowing, Reed leaned down and grabbed me under the arms. “For fuck’s sake,” he muttered before hauling me out of the shower and standing me on a bathmat.
I stared at him and tried not to register my disappointment. It was too good to be true. Of course it was. And I couldn’t blame him for being disappointed.
“Yeah, sure. No, I get it. Super fine.”
He turned back to me with a fluffy towel and wrapped it around my shoulders before reaching for my glasses and removing them. He placed them carefully on the vanity before reaching for a second towel to dry my hair. I risked a glance at his face and saw a soft, affectionate expression that surprised me.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking,” he said in a low voice. “But I can tell it’s not good.”
I forced a smile. “No, it’s good. It’s really good. I was thinking how lucky I am to have such a good friend who was brave enough to pull me out of the lake after my…” I thought of the words my cousin Nicky had used when I was twelve and the handlebar brakes on my bike had locked, and I’d nearly crashed my bike into a car in the Cellar parking lot. “Stupid stunt.”
Reed’s eyes darkened. “It might have been ill-advised. I might have recommended a different way of diffusing the situation. But it wasn’t stupid, and it wasn’t a stunt.”
He moved the towel down and began drying every part of me while he stood there fully dressed, dripping on the floor.
“That feels good,” I admitted.
“Go get in bed.” His voice held a familiar, commanding tone that did things to me. I started to nod when he added, “I’ll join you as soon as I dry off.”
I wondered if that was when he’d give me the lecture about water safety. After wrapping the towel around my waist, I headed into the bedroom to look for dry clothes.
His voice called after me. “Don’t even think about putting clothes on, Chris Winowski.”
I nearly ran into the doorframe. “W-what?”
“If you want to finish what you started inthe shower, you’ll get into that bed naked. If you put clothes on, I’ll understand.”
My jaw dropped comically before I tossed off the towel, took one giant leap from the doorway onto the bed, and scrambled under the covers.
I tried to control my breathing, but I was still panting heavily when he arrived.
Reed Sunday was miles of hairy-chested lumberjack fantasy come to life. As he entered the bedroom with nothing but a small towel around his waist, I wondered just how desperate he’d have to be to accept a tumble with a guy like me.
But then I remembered Amber’s words at the roadhouse.
You’re adorable, sweetheart.
I sucked in a breath and remembered the looks of appreciation I’d gotten from some of the men in O’Leary. Maybe I wasn’t half-bad. Maybe… maybe after getting some experience with Reed, I would be less awkward and more attractive to other men.
