Page 105 of Audiophile

“I promise,” Reed answers. I glance over my shoulder at his serious tone, and he brushes our noses together before pressing a soft, warm kiss to my mouth.

Electricity rushes from my lips to my toes, and I break away to end the call. “Love you guys. Bye.”

“Love you,” they chorus, and then the house is quiet.

“A promise is a big deal, you know,” I tease, trying to keep it light. My heart is revving out of control.

“It’s an easy promise to make.” Reed turns me around to pin my hips to the counter. He rakes his hands through my hair, his eyes fiercely gold. “Ask me what I was thinking about earlier, Pet.”

I can’t. I have no air left. It’s all been scorched by the way he looks at me. “What?”

“I was reliving the first night you slept over, when you asked if you could hold me. And when you said you’d cancel your DKP subscription. Your voice on the other side of that shower curtain when you asked forme.Not Knight. You always saw me. Just me. I knew before dinner at The Riverfront that I wanted to date you. I knew in your kitchen that I was in danger of falling in love with you. And I knew—after you told me about Natalia—that my heart was in your hands. That I would choose you, each day, for the rest of my life.”

I suck in a breath, hands searching for him without me asking them to. My palms spread wide over his chest, and he’s warm under my fingers.

“Your dad said something to me before dinner, when you walked in. He said, ‘God speaks in my heart. I trust her to you.’ And he was right. Not about you being my property,” he smirks, “but because when you’re happy, I’m happy. When you’re heartbroken, so am I. And when you’re annoyed, well, usually I’m laughing, but you laugh when I’m annoyed, too. It doesn’t matter if I’d met you in Los Angeles, or Swift River, or Indonesia. I’d recognize your soul anywhere.”

I can’t find my breath. “What does my soul look like?”

“Mine.” He leans in and his lips touch mine—a key slipping into a lock, laying me bare to him. There are no more secrets, and what we’re left with is each other.

The past shatters like glass that softens into sand, because it can’t hurt us now. Not when he fits against me like we were made for each other.

Mine.It goes both ways. We’re mirror images, and he’s mine, too. I open my mouth to tell him, but then he deepens the kiss and the words fly out of my head, replaced bymore, please, everything.

His hands change, from soft and tender to hot and demanding. He pulls my shirt off, right there in the kitchen, and then he’s moving me backward, toward the hall. It takes too long. I lace our hands together and we run up the stairs, laughing. He leads me into the bedroom and kisses me with the afternoon sun pouring through the window and heating up my skin.

He yanks his shirt up until he’s skin all over, and it’s been too long since I’ve had full access like this. “Aren’t you going to shut the door?” I protest with a gasp. He wraps his arms around me. With a quick pinch, my bra loosens, and I let it drop to the floor.

“Why? It’s our house, darling.” He punctuates it with a kiss to my shoulder that leaves me breathless. “No need to hide.”

Our house.My brain runs away with the phrase, no matter how ridiculous it is. I kiss everywhere I can reach while he unbuttons my jeans, and I’m frantic as I pull them off. His hands set fires across my skin as he cups my breasts. He teases my nipples to hard points that ache, leaving me breathless and needy.

He kneels, kissing his way up my thighs, and smirks. “You could’ve told me you wanted this earlier, you know,” he teases, stroking the damp fabric of my sheer underwear before tugging them down my legs.

“Well, I want it now.” I tug him back up. “I can’t wait anymore. I want all of you. Just like this. I started birth control the day after I listened to the thumb drive.”

Reed’s pupils widen, and his swallow echoes in the empty room. “Always unexpected, Pet,” he notes, guiding me down to the bed. His hand stretches across my chest, forcing me to lay back, and swipes a thumb over my nipple. “I can only imagine how big thatdecision was for you. Thank you for trusting me. But I want you soaked and trembling first.”

His shoulders fit between my thighs, spreading me open, and I’m lost to the warmth of his mouth. The sunlight bakes into my skin as he devours me. I melt under his attention, and my hands thread through his hair to hold him to me. “Right there,” I plead. “Oh,tesoro, don’t change a thing.”

He chuckles, but does as he’s told. He’s delectable, annoying, amazing. The smirk he gives me with only his honey eyes while he strokes, nips, and swirls, sends me higher. I squeeze my legs around him as the need builds in me. My thighs shake as he sucks my clit back into his mouth, and I surrender. Reality disintegrates until nothing exists except for me and Reed and the places we touch.

When the darkness recedes to the edge of my vision, Reed climbs over to kiss me, long, slick, and deep. The slide of his lips is sinful, and I shudder.

“I want you in every room of this house, Pet. All this time apart has had me dreaming about all the ways I’m going to have you.”

The air burns in my lungs as I suck it down. “Oh? Have you been writing scenes?”

Reed’s dimple winks at me as he smirks. “More like writing a playbook, baby.”

“Oh? And what if I’ve been writing my own?” I undo his pants, and he’s hot and firm in my fist. I smile, eager to make him come. I want to watch his face change when I don’t swallow this time. “I have so many new fantasies.”

But Reed shakes his head as his hands map my curves. “Later. I want you, Pet. In a dozen ways, I want you. But right now I want to bury myself inside you and convince you that it should be you and me from here on out.”

There’s something swelling in my chest, reaching the highest peak of the swell before riding the crash of it. Though I’m wrapped around him and can’t get any closer, my heart aches for him beneath my ribs. I throw my leg over his, burrowing into him. “I don’t need convincing,tesoro.”

My hands unclench and explore, undressing him, memorizing him. There are a thousand places I love to touch that elicit a thousand soft sounds. He slides inside me with a groan that vibrates through my whole body. My eyes slip closed as I clutch his shoulders and adjust to the way we fit together. He’s hot and firm, stretching me in all the right ways.

---