Page 4 of Unforgettable

The alcohol in my system seemed to be on Justin’s side because I was curious to know what bullshit he was going to throw my way. “Fine, you have a minute starting… now,” I said, peering down at my wrist and my nonexistent watch.

The bored expression I was intentionally wearing quickly morphed into disbelief as Justin told his side of the story. “I promise this was not planned; I came here with you because I really liked you. But then I saw Christie. We actually dated in college and then decided to go our separate ways after graduation, and when I saw her here, it felt like fate had led us back to each other. I couldn’t just dismiss the fact that we both ended up being invited to the same wedding of people neither of us knew. And then one thing led to another, and here we are…” He took a step forward, his arms outstretched and pleading, as I reflexively took a step back. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It was… it was fate.”

His voice was sincere, but my give-a-shit meter was broken. “Fate is a fucker. Just leave.”

“Amanda, could you—”

Reed stepped up beside me, and out of the corner of my eye, I watched him shake his head. “Anything you say is just going to make it worse, man. I’d leave now before she tears into you for real.” Justin’s eyes jumped between Reed and me for a moment before he sighed and asked the woman, Christie, if she was ready.

She nodded, threw Reed an apologetic look, and only when I heard her heels clicking against the wood in the hallway did I finally turn back around.

Christie was Reed’s date. How fitting.

I opened my mouth, but Reed held up a finger, silencing me. He tapped the pointer finger of his other hand against his ear, and I listened to Christie’s receding footsteps. When we could no longer hear her, Reed lowered his finger and waved at me to continue as he closed the door behind him.

“How in the world could this happen? Our dates knew each other from college and then proceeded to steal away to a quiet place to fuck? I swear, my life is a joke, and God has a twisted fucking sense of humor. This, right here, is proof God is a man because a woman would give me at least one win.”

Reed stood in the near darkness, hands back in his pockets, and listened to me rant.

“How are you not more upset about this? Your date was a part of this, too, but you don’t look like you care at all.”

He shrugged and closed part of the distance between us as I leaned back against one of the other tables that they had not just been screwing on. The combination of alcohol, adrenaline, and anger made my hands shake and my heart beat mercilessly in my chest.

“She was only my date, a person to bring so I didn’t have to come alone. It wasn’t going to ever turn into anything serious, so there’s no point in getting upset.”

He had a point which irritated me even more.

“Did you see yourself having something long term withhim?” The way he said it made it clear he didn’t believe anything was going to come of it.

“Maybe,” I said as my brain shouted, “No!”as loudly as it could.

Justin, along with everyone else I had dated recently, failed to measure up to my expectations, which I didn’t think were unrealistically high. Justin’s downfall, however, was mostly his lack of enthusiasm. His speech about fate was the most passionate he’d been since we’d begun hanging out. Which was unfortunate.

“You’re lying,” Reed said, taking another step closer.

Still annoyed that he could read me so well, I argued, “No, I’m not. You never know what the future holds. He could have been the one.”

He laughed and took another step as my entire body tensed. The playful light I saw in his eyes before he ripped that damn door open was back, but behind it was something more. “You can’t lie to me, Amanda. I know you too well for that shit.”

I scoffed and tried to pretend like his proximity wasn’t having any effect on my body. That it was only the combination—alcohol, anger, adrenaline—making my breath stutter and my skin prick with awareness. It was why I couldn’t help but take a deep breath of his clean, manly scent. Like he had showered in the woods in a spring rainstorm.

That had to be the reason I found myself licking my lips and not hurrying away as he finally stepped close enough that I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to. Based on the look in his eyes, that’s exactly what he wanted me to do, too.

“I watched you with him tonight, before, during, and after dinner, and there wasn’t a lick of chemistry between the two of you. And see, I would have known.” His voice had dropped into a deeper register, and as I had become familiar with when around the man in front of me, my body reacted to his voice without my say so. The deep timbre of it made me swallow against my suddenly dry mouth and tense as I prepared for him to continue.

“How would you have known?” I said in a small voice that clearly told him he was having his desired effect on me.

A smile crawled across his lips as he wet them with his tongue. “Because I know what you look like when there’s chemistry. When someone’s really getting to you, Amanda, your breathing becomes shallow, and the rise and fall of your chest quickens as it happens. Then, you bite your lip to keep the smile from crossing your face, and you adjust yourself in your chair because there’s a pulsing between your legs. It’s a needy pulse that you have no control over. And you can’t maintain eye contact because the person looking at you intently and showing you how much they want you just with their eyes is too much for you. So, you avert your eyes, and if the person really knows you, then that’s when they touch you.” And so he does. Letting his fingers brush softly against the inside of my thigh, starting at my knee and trailing up my warm skin to the very short hem of my fitted, red dress.

“Which draws your attention back to them and keeps you there as goose bumps follow. Then a shiver makes its way down your spine, sending another jolt of desire where you wish someone would touch you most. But not just touch you, you want them to touch you like you crave to be touched.”

It had been so long since I’d felt Reed’s hands on me, and it was so overwhelming in the best possible way. His touch stoked a fire he had created inside of me, and I wanted his hands to burn me alive if it meant it never stopped.

“You’ve been watching me?” I commented for no other reason than I wanted something to say and wanted to continue pushing him. Even with more than a decade of friendship between us, the things he knew about me—like the way I reacted to pleasure or the way I liked to be touched—weren’t something only friends knew.

“Of course I do. Don’t act like you’re surprised. You know what you’ve done to both me and Josh.”

My eyes fluttered shut as Reed spread my legs apart and positioned himself between them, but at the mention of our one-time third, my eyes opened. There was nothing in Reed’s eyes besides desire as a possessive hand clasped my face, and he pulled at my lower lip with his thumb. Eyeing it like he couldn’t wait to devour it.

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