Page 35 of Desk & Deception
A tortured groan tore from deep in my chest. I stepped between her spread thighs and gently pushed her back onto the mattress. Her hazel eyes were dark with a storm of emotions I knew mirrored my own.
I leaned down and kissed the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder, sucking lightly. She made the softest, sexiest sounds that went straight to my cock. I captured her mouth again, and she threaded her fingers into my hair, tugging hard enough to sting. The desperation between us was almost painful.
I pulled back just enough to yank my shirt over my head. When I looked down, she was already working on her jeans. The sight of her fingers trembling at the button made something feral snap inside me.
“I’ve waited too damn long to have you like this again.” My voice was strained. “Let me.”
I hooked my fingers into the waistband and dragged her jeans down her legs, quickly tossing them aside. The sight of herlying in nothing but peach lace nearly short-circuited my brain. She was so fucking beautiful it hurt.
I shoved my own jeans and boxer briefs down in one rough motion, kicking them away. Then I was on her again, kissing her like I was trying to erase every mistake I’d ever made.
My hands roamed greedily over her body. Cupping her breasts through the lace before I dragged the cups down, exposing her perfect tits. Then I latched onto a nipple with my mouth, and she arched off the mattress with a broken moan, her fingers tightening in my hair.
I sucked, licked, and gently bit, switching from one to the other until she was writhing beneath me. Her breath came in short, desperate gasps as I tugged her bra off while still paying homage to her perfect tits.
“Reid,” she whimpered. “Please.”
I moved lower, kissing down her stomach until I reached the lace between her thighs. I pressed my mouth against her through the fabric and licked. She was soaked, and her taste made me groan.
I didn’t have the patience for gentleness. I hooked my fingers in the waistband and tore the lace. The sound of ripping fabric filled the room. Then my mouth was on her, devouring her like a man possessed.
I slid two fingers inside her tight heat and curled them, stroking that spot I knew drove her crazy while my tongue worked relentlessly over her clit. She came hard, crying out my name, her thighs shaking around my head.
“Reid, yes! Oh yes!”
I kept licking her through every aftershock until she was trembling and gasping, her hands fisted in my hair.
Unable to wait any longer, I climbed up her body, fisted my aching cock, and pushed inside her in one deep, desperatethrust. The feeling of her tight heat surrounding me was almost too much.
I buried my face in her neck and fucked her hard. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”
Instead of answering with words, Lila wrapped her legs around me tighter and met me thrust for thrust. Her nails dug into my back hard enough to draw blood, but the pain only made me fuck her harder.
We were a mess of need and unspoken pain, chasing our release like it could fix everything that had broken between us. When she came again, clenching around my cock like a vise and sobbing my name, I followed right behind her with a guttural groan, spilling deep inside her as the world narrowed down to nothing but the woman I loved.
We stayed locked together afterward, breathing hard. I held her close, pressing kisses to her damp forehead, terrified that when I let go, the walls between us would slam right back up.
17
LILA
We lay tangled together in my bed, the sheets twisted around us as our breathing slowly settled. Reid’s hand moved in gentle strokes down my bare back, his fingers tracing lazy patterns along my spine. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head, his breath warm against my hair. “I’ve missed being with you like this.”
With the warmth of his body around me and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat under my cheek, everything felt right. I had longed for this during our time apart.
But as the emotional high began to fade, reality started creeping back in.
I wasn’t sorry we had done this. I didn’t regret reaching for him or how I had given myself up to the passion that still burned between us.
That didn’t mean the fear was gone, though. If anything, it was more insistent as it returned because there was no denying I was letting him back in.
The thought made me panic a little. I had spent weeks building walls to protect myself, and now I was willingly lowering them.
Nestled against his chest, I was quietly torn between the deep vulnerability I felt in his arms and the very real fear of getting hurt again. His hand continued its slow path down my back, and I knew I had to speak up or we’d lose any progress we’d made together.
I lay there in his arms for a while longer before the words I had been holding back finally rose to the surface.
“The quiet moments like this were what I lived for,” I whispered. “But eventually I felt like I was competing with everything. Your work. Your phone. The office. Keeping the peace.”
