Page 79 of The Grumpy Billionaire
His voice was ragged with intensity. “Oh God, Mara—I thought you didn’t care. I thought you were bored of me. It never occurred to me that you were trying to protect me. I wish I’d known.”
He grabbed me and held me to his chest, stroking the back of my hair with firm, barely controlled motions. “All I ever wanted was you. Even after you left me—I tried to want other women, I tried to move on. But I couldn’t. I still wanted you. Only you.”
And then he tipped my face up to his and kissed me as if both our lives depended on it, as if this was our last chance to taste each other, touch each other. Maybe it was. I didn’t care.
All I cared about was that moment with him. It was everything I’d longed for these past eleven years.
I brought my hands to his heated cheeks and held his face to mine. I let my tongue move with his, tasting, testing, communicating things I still wasn’t ready to say.
Maybe he would hurt me. Maybe I would hurt him. Right now it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting closer to him, getting him inside of me where he belonged.
My fingers went to the front of his shirt, fumbling with the buttons as our mouths devoured each other. I was shaking, making unsteady progress, managing only the top three buttons before Reid broke apart from me for a second and sat back, ripping the shirt over his head.
I sighed with satisfaction, relishing the feel of his hot, smooth skin under my fingers, sliding them over his shoulders and back and down the tightly segmented muscle of his sides.
It was intoxicating to touch him like this. I felt like an addict in the middle of a spectacular slow-motion fall from the wagon after years of sobriety. My senses were overrun as his mouth went to my ear, my neck, kissing me everywhere.
It wasn’t enough. I squirmed, restless for more contact, more closeness.
Clearly reading my signs, Reid searched under my hair behind my neck for the clasp of my halter top, working with it for a few seconds before it opened. He peeled the top down. Then his hands were right where I wanted them most, cupping the tender fullness of my breasts, soothing the aching tips with his palms and gentle fingertips. I moaned as he urged me back on the bed and fastened his mouth around one nipple.
The wet heat and pleasure of it seared down to my core. I pulled his head against me, urging him to continue, to go further, to taste and take all of me now that my surrender was complete.
I didn’t want to stop, could not stop until I felt every part of him against my bare skin and held him inside my body. The memory of our one night together had sustained me this far, but now I’d have at least one more, and I planned to enjoy and remember every moment.
“I want you Mara,” Reid growled, moving his mouth down my body, devouring me like a man who’d survived on beef jerky for years and had been offered prime rib. “I’ve got to have you, in every way. I’ve waited long enough.”
“Yes. Yes.” I arched my back, lifting myself to meet his mouth and roaming hands, desperate for him, consumed by a desire that approached insanity.
I wanted to kiss him again, needed his gratifying weight on top of me. Gripping his shoulders, I pulled him up until his face was over mine.
Reid kissed me intently until he felt my lower body pressing against him in an increasingly insistent rhythm. I told him with my body, my hands, my mouth that I was ready.
Suddenly he pulled his lips away from mine. “I don’t have anything,” he said in a dismayed whisper.
“What?” My lust-addled brain had no idea what he was saying. I strained upward toward his mouth, wanting him to kiss me again.
“Condoms. I don’t have any protection. I didn’t expect to need something like that tonight.” He sniffed a short laugh.
“So you didn’t intend to kiss and make up with Rainy, then?” I grinned.
“No. That was just an excuse to go to the restaurant so I could see Bruce.”
I wrinkled my nose at the mention of my ridiculous date’s name.
“Who?” I joked. When Reid smiled, I added, “Well, there was only that one other person for me, years ago. So, I’m safe.”
He kissed my nose. “Of course you are—I wasn’t even thinking that. I’ve always used a condom,” he volunteered, his voice growing hopeful. “Every time. Even that one night with you, if you’ll remember.”
I giggled. “How could I forget?”
As it was the first time for both of us, we’d actually read the instructions on the package and put it on him together. We’d been terrified of getting me pregnant.
The same memory seemed to have popped into Reid’s brain. “What about…”
“I’m on the pill. I started using it a couple years ago to help with my skin. Don’t worry—you won’t have to share your billions with some unplanned ‘love child,’” I joked.
Reid looked at me, his expression going through several changes before he opened his mouth. Even then he started to speak but then seemed to think better of what he’d been about to say.
