Page 77 of The Grumpy Billionaire
My hands went to his face as the kiss went on, greedily gliding over his cheekbones, his temples, sliding into his thick hair, so silky against my fingers.
With a low groan, Reid deepened the kiss and pushed me down to the couch cushions until I was on my back. He covered me with his body, even bigger and harder than it used to be. And I did nothing to stop him.
It felt incredible, intensely satisfying, necessary. Here on this couch where we’d made out countless times, my barriers were falling like the red maple leaves outside my house. I just couldn’t fight it anymore. I didn’t want to. I wanted him.
And though Reid no longer believed in love, he clearly still believed in lust, in that undeniable attraction that had always burned between the two of us. He possessed my mouth, his kisses becoming stronger, deeper, giving me a preview of what his body wanted to do to mine.
Even before he’d started kissing me, my nerve endings had gone into launch sequence. Now the booster rockets were firing. Every inch of my skin screamed for his touch. I writhed beneath him, lifting against the delicious hardness of his body.
Reid supported his weight on one arm, and his other hand hungrily explored my curves while we moved together, falling easily into a maddening slow rhythm.
After a few minutes of this he disengaged from my mouth, his voice sounding ragged. “God, Mara. I want you so much I don’t think I can stand it anymore. If you’re going to stop this, do it now. Tell me to go. Because otherwise, I’m going to make love to you—right here, right now.”
His words evaporated my thoughts into a puff of steam. I’d almost certainly be sorry later on, but at that moment, I wanted exactly what he’d just threatened.
“No,” I answered him in a rough, lust-soaked voice.
Reid stopped moving, his hand stilling on my body as he stared down at me with piercing eyes.
“Not here,” I whispered. “My room.”
Reid still didn’t move. He stared at me as if stunned. I nudged upward, and then he did lift off of me, getting to his feet and pulling me up by the hands.
“Are you… are you saying yes?”
I nodded. As long as I was making this mistake, I might as well go big.
“Yes.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the stairs. We walked up together toward the place he’d never been allowed by my strict, protective parents. And they had been so wise to keep us from being in my room alone together.
No doubt we would have taken things all the way much earlier if we’d ever been given the privacy and opportunity to do it.
At the top of the stairs, Reid paused. I stepped ahead of him and walked down the hallway to my room, pushing open the door and glancing back at him.
His smile nearly stopped my heart. It was so full of desire, remembered and brand new.
“Ah, the mysterious bedroom,” he said, stepping inside for the first time ever. “I feel a little like Indiana Jones entering a hidden temple filled with treasure.”
Walking around the room, he studied the mementos I’d saved and the photos on my walls.
Did he notice there were none of him? I’d taken them down and stashed them in a box at the back of my closet years ago.
He touched a trophy on one of my shelves, ran his fingers over old concert tickets and the high school ring I no longer wore then stopped when he came to the clear glass jar containing the stone hearts I’d collected from our beach walks.
“Did you put the new one in here?” At my answering nod, he smiled and then asked, “Have you… added many in the past few years?”
“None,” I said softly. “I wasn’t looking for them.”
Reid’s eyes narrowed, and his lips gathered into sort of a puckered grin. He’d liked that answer.
Slowly approaching, he slid his arms around my waist, looking down at me and drawing me close to his body.
“I’m sure you came across more than a few willing hearts in all your… travels,” he murmured, his voice husky.
“Maybe,” I said. It was true.
The more determined I’d been to keep things casual, the more interested guys had seemed to be in pushing me to get serious. Who knew? The key to making guys commit was having no desire to do so yourself.
