Page 99 of Reacher
I knew he wasn’t speaking idly, about two people going to a tattooist together and having matching tattoos. He was talking about biker rites of passage. He was talking about us wearing each other’s mark, claiming me as his official old lady. It was agonising to see how it was hurting him. His damn brothers. I wanted to scream at them. Hit them. Knock their dumb, empty heads against each other.
“I want that too, Reacher.”
He groaned, prying my legs apart, to bury his face there, breathing deeply. It was oddly erotic. I mean, it was mortifying on a personal level, to have a man smelling me down there, butwhen he did it, it was like he needed it. The smell of me. My scent. Like it was oxygen for him.
He rubbed his beard against my already heated flesh, and I felt a shudder run through me. He felt it too, lifting his eyes to stare at me.
“I’ll be as gentle as I can, woman, but I need you, and more importantly, you need me. You need me to claim you back as mine, so that there’s not even a fucking memory left of that bastard. I know he didn’t… didn’t get the chance to…”
I stroked his hair, shushing him.
“He doesn’t exist, Reacher. He never did.”
He rubbed at his eyes, his voice gruff when he replied.
“Nobody is ever gonna hurt you again, Ally. I won’t let it happen.”
Reacher
AndthereIam,pussying out when I should be pleasuring my woman. I’d tried to hide how fucking terrified I’d been at the thought of losing her, of not having her beside me, and with me, but it was impossible.
She was putting it out there; her fears, her needs, her thoughts… and I was hiding mine, and doing the whole ‘manning up’ thing. What I really wanted to do was wrap my fucking arms around her, and hold her every second of every damn day, because that was the only way I’d know she was safe.
“Reacher?”
“Yeah.” Damn, my voice was shaky.
“Are you stiffing me out of a good time then, or can we get on with it?” Her tone of voice wasn’t quite on point, but she was trying, and I barked out a laugh.
“Just giving you time to brace yourself, woman.” Yeah, I can do this. I can show her with my fucking body just how much she means to me. Just how much I need her, just to be able to breathe. My body had literally tried to give up when she was taken from me. How much more proof did we need?
“Reacher? Oh fuck!” The door slammed, and I shot Ally a frustrated look, because now I was torn and supremely pissed off. Should I stay here, and keep doing this, keep pleasing my woman, or should I find Stitch, and feed him my fist through every possible orifice, until he remembers how to fucking knock.
She dragged the covers over her, gesturing to the door.
“Go. It might be important.”
“More important than this? Than you?”
She grinned wickedly. “Don’t take too long, old man. We don’t want your stamina running out.”
Fucking woman. She’d pay for that. She hurried to the bathroom, and I yelled out to Stitch, who poked his head back around the door.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Reacher. I… I guess I figured she wasn’t up to it yet, and it’d be safe for me to be a dumbass, and not knock.”
I waved at him to come in, wondering why I wasn’t beating the shit out of him for his fucking disgraceful interruption.
“Did you see her naked?”
He shot me a horrified look.
“God no. You know I wouldn’t dream of it.” Yeah, like it was possible not to see her gorgeous naked flesh as she lay there.
“You’re lucky I’m saving all my energy for my woman right now. What was so important that you had to cockblock me like that?”
“Jesus.” He ran his hand through his hair. He was no longer covered in blood either, so I knew he’d done exactly what I did and focused on getting clean.
“Just wanted to confirm that the uh… deed is done, and clean up is in progress. Damn… those poor prospects. Two of them threw up instantly.”
