Page 49 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“Do you want me to go?”
Trenna got to her feet a little too quickly. “I’ll get the ice pack.”
Reed got up more slowly, but he was closer, so he reached the fridge at the same time she did, putting his hand on the freezer compartment door.
“Do you want me to go?”
She glanced down, but he caught her chin with his fingers and lightly lifted it. Again her gaze locked on his, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer, because the answer she was supposed to give, the answer that was best for them if they wanted to maintain status quo, was a lie. The silence stretched between them as he waited for the answer she couldn’t give.
“I don’t want an ice pack,” he muttered roughly.
“I know,” she whispered as she studied the achingly familiar planes of his face.
She raised a hand to touch his cheek with an open palm, just below the purplish mark under his eye. It wasn’t swelling that much. He didn’t need an ice pack—but she needed him. And she would have him.
Reed turned his head to kiss her palm, and Trenna shivered as his lips touched the sensitive skin, her fingers curling into a fist as he lifted his head, as if to capture the sensation. Her heart hammered a slow but steady rhythm as their gazes met and the years, the distance, all barriers large and small, crumbled and fell away.
This was right. The moment. The man.
She raised her hands to skim along the planes of his cheeks, and then her fingers splayed in his hair as she pulled his mouth to hers. There was the briefest moment of hesitation as their breaths mingled, then Trenna was lost in the world that was Reed. The world she’d given up and missed more than she’d allowed herself to realize.
Life was full of sacrifices, and Reed was hers. She’d convinced herself that parting ways had been for the best. More than that, that the parting was inevitable as her father had insisted. Even Reed had come to that conclusion, but now that she was in his arms again, backing him against the wall so that he could not escape her, she wondered if they’d been wrong.
That’s serotonin talking, her small voice murmured, then rational thought evaporated as Reed’s hands slid down over her ass, lifting her onto her toes, pulling her against his erection, and liquid heat enveloped her.
“You’ve grown,” she murmured.
He gave her a wicked look that shook the parts of her that weren’t already shaking and stepped back so that she could slide her hand down to his bulging front. Trenna could feel the heat through his jeans, and more than anything she wanted there to be no jeans.
They weren’t kids and this wasn’t love. This was something she needed. Something he needed. It might be the key to making things less tense between them.
She didn’t know. She didn’t care. She started undoing buttons, pulling zippers, struggling out of sleeves and pant legs. A trail of clothing followed them to the bed behind the rattan screen, but Trenna was still struggling to get Reed’s shirt off due to buttoned cuffs. He ripped one arm free and left the shirt dangling from the other as they fell into bed.
Reed’s body had always been hard, but the lean wiriness of youth had shifted to sculpted muscle. Trenna found the change fascinating, but her explorations were interrupted by Reed’s hand stroking lower as his lips reacquainted themselves with her breasts, teasing her nipples as his fingers slipped inside of her.
Trenna bucked and pulled back. She was not a multipleOgirl, and she wasn’t wasting fireworks on a mere hand. Not when Reed had so much more to offer.
And offer he did. Trenna’s breath caught as he eased inside of her, filling her to capacity before he stilled. Trenna met his gaze, remembered to breathe, then hooked a hand around his neck and pulled his mouth to hers as they began to move together. She’d expected a frenzy, but instead the rhythm was slow, with long deep strokes that were doing her no favors as she fought to hold off.
She gasped for air, her fingers digging into his back, and then Reed took over, taking her to the edge, then pulling back. He managed to do that twice before his control faltered and the race for the finish line was won.
Trenna tumbled first, muffling her cry against his shoulder as Reed stiffened against her, then slowly lowered his body onto hers with a long low exhalation.
“Wow.” The word came out on a sigh as she stroked a hand over Reed’s damp hair. He dropped an arm over her and pulled her against him.
“Ice pack,” he muttered.
*
“Are you okay?”Trenna propped herself onto her elbow as she stared down at Reed.
For the most part he was. Making love to Trenna had been like coming home, but he wasn’t fool enough to believe it had removed the obstacles between them. They’d just taken a step that may well have been inevitable, but now they needed to figure out how to play it.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I am. But”—he traced a finger over the curve of her breast—“I think we need to nail down the what-now?”
“In what way?”
“I think you know.”
