Page 16 of Reid
“My mom died when I was seventeen,” I explained.It was the easiest answer when most people brought up my mother.“I never lived with Evie’s dad.He… He might have provided half my DNA, but he was never my father.Our parents divorced when Mom was still pregnant with us.They split everything, including us.Once we were born, each of them got one twin.”
That was the most I’d spoken about our parents in a long time.I hadn’t meant to unload all that on him.Not all at once, maybe not ever, but once I opened my mouth, it all came tumbling out.I couldn’t stop it, and with Reid looking at me, his hands still massaging my feet, I felt some of that weight lift from me.
“You didn’t get to grow up with your sister?”he asked.
“We only got one day a year together until we were eighteen.Then…” My throat tightened, the memory of the loss choking me.Blinking against the sudden assault of tears, I lifted a shoulder, trying to shrug it off.“Thankfully, we reconnected recently, when… When Evie’s dad…died.”
“I’m sorry, sweetness.That must have been rough.”He gave my foot a gentle squeeze that made my throat tighten more.
Christ, could this man get sexier?
How was he not already taken?
Jealousy spiked through me.I was sure plenty of women had tried to make him their own.Of course they fucking had.Just looking at him would make any woman salivate.Here was a hot, mature man, who was not only employed, but good to his mother.
That was the prototype for the perfect male, in my opinion.
And here he was, rubbing my feet, being kind to me in a way that made me want to curl up in his lap and cry.Not just because I was sad, but because I was tired.
So, so tired.
“Yeah, it was hard.”I cleared my throat, hoping to ease the lump that was choking me.“Evie is everything to me.”
“Mila calls Monroe the other half of her soul.Is that how it is for you two, even though you didn’t grow up together?”
“That’s one way of describing it.”I was convinced Evie and I had twin telepathy.At least, that was how it seemed to me.I’d had no reason to think she was fading away, but I’d sensed it.That was why I’d gotten desperate, why I’d gone searching for illegal ways to get my sister back.
While my anxiety had been ratcheting up with the ticking of each passing hour, Evie had been slipping deeper into the darkest parts of a mental health crisis.By the time I’d been able to wrap my arms around her, Evie had been minutes away from ending her life.
“Being forced to spend twenty-one years without Evie nearly ruined my soul.Instead of losing it completely, I sold a piece of it to get her back.I would do it over and over if that’s what it takes to keep her with me.”
Fear should have been flooding off me or even unease.I hadn’t confessed to what I’d done, but it felt like I had, given how the guilt I’d been living with evaporated when he gave an understanding nod.
“Family always comes first.Whether they’re blood or honorary, you fight for those you love.The people who will fight just as hard for you.”He moved his hand up my calf again, back to that caressing brush of his fingertips along my skin.Up and down, slow strokes that went a little farther with each pass.“But that’s my question, Evy.Would she do the same for you?”
Some of the guilt returned—not all of it, but enough to cause me to drop my eyes from his stare to his hand on my leg.“She would do the same for me if the roles were reversed.But…she doesn’t know what I did, that I was responsible for extracting her.”
Shut up, Everly!
Don’t spill your guts to this man just because he’s being nice to you.Don’t give him that power.Do not fucking voice your darkest sins to anyone.Take your truth to the grave so you don’t ever risk Evie finding out and hating you.
“Hey.”Reid lifted me off the couch and onto his lap, his face set in tense, serious lines.“You don’t owe me anything, least of all a play-by-play from a past that didn’t include me.But I’m here now.And I am sure as fuck not going anywhere.I’m your present, Ev, and I sure as hell will be your future.”
Without realizing what I was doing, I traced my index finger along his line of thick scruff.He leaned into my touch, as if starved for contact.“You keep your secrets tucked safely away.I don’t need to know them, baby.But also remember, there is nothing you can tell me that would make me not want you.Not want us.”
“You wantus?”I whispered, shocked, mostly scared he was playing with me.Hoping like hell that he wasn’t.“But you don’t know me.We’re strangers, Reid.I met you yesterday.For five minutes.You can’t decide if you want us in that short of time.”
“Ah, sweetness, that decision was taken from both of us the moment I set eyes on you.We were already us, even then.”His hands contracted at my waist.“I can’t let you go now that I’ve finally found you.I won’t.”
Heart melting, body trembling, I shook my head as if that could shake away the insanity of how right what he said felt.“But Reid, we don’t?—”
Grasping the back of my head, no longer being gentle, he sealed his mouth to mine.My brain short-circuited, making it impossible to think of anything but how good his lips felt, how amazing he tasted, how achy my core was.
I kissed him back on instinct alone, chasing his mouth when he teasingly pulled back, arching into his hands when they began to explore above my clothes.Reid played my body like he’d been doing it forever, finding all the places that made me whine and cry into his mouth easily.
Shifting on his lap, I scrambled to straddle him, changing the angle of our kiss, needing more.My skirt hiked up, slipping almost over my ass, giving me room to spread my legs wider.He grabbed my hip and pressed me down, grinding me down on his hard cock.
It hit me at the perfect angle, causing stars to explode behind my closed eyelids.He slid his fingers beneath my panties, filling his hand with one bare cheek and giving it a rough squeeze.Still clutching my flesh, he began to rock me, back and forth, back and forth.Right over his hardness that felt more like a third leg.But that couldn’t be right.Guys weren’t actually that big.Not in real life.
