Page 18 of The Reading

“You heard me,” I replied as I finished off my drink.

Then her eyes narrowed on me. “I thought the restrooms weren’tclassyenough for you?”

“They weren’t when I thought that you were going to be in them with some Irish asshole with red hair and a horrible brogue,” I huffed.

Sloane let out a deep breath. “Reign, I’m not sure what you’re-”

“I’m done, Sloane,” I told her.

“Done with what?”

I leaned in closer because I was still sober enough to recognize that this conversation wasn’t for everyone’s ears. “Done pretending that you don’t get my dick hard,” I finally confessed. “Done with pretending that I don’t think about you more often than I should. Done with worrying about how this might affect our working relationship.” I grabbed her chin in my fingers. “I’m done with it all. I want you, and if you have no interest in me, then just let me know, and I’ll go about my way.” I squeezed her chin a little tighter than was wise. “But if you’ve ever thought about me between your legs, then follow me to the restrooms, and let’s celebrate St. Patrick’s Day the right way.”

“Reign, I…” She looked absolutely bewildered; bewildered and beautiful. “Since when? Since when…have you…this…”

“Since the first time that I ever laid eyes on you,” I admitted. “You smiled at me, shook my hand, then walked away, leaving me feeling like a different man.”

“And you’re choosingnowto tell me this?” she asked incredulously.

“You have a lot of time to think when you’re sitting in jail,” I deadpanned, and her lips twitched a bit.

Sloane shook her head. “I thought…you never-”

“Every guy at Granger has thought it,” I clarified for her. “You’re just too focused on work to notice.”

“That’s not true,” she denied.

“It is,” I insisted. “All you have to do is look up from your caseload to see it.” I leaned in closer. “But I don’t care about them. I care about you, and what happens next.”

“What happens next,” she muttered under her breath, like she was trying to figure that out.

“Now, if you tell me that you’d like dinner and a movie before heading into the restrooms, then I get it,” I told her. “I understand completely, and we can make a date-”

“I don’t need dinner or a movie,” she interrupted, finally making up her mind.

“Then tell me what you do need, because I’m not leaving here until I’m balls-deep in your pussy or you tell me to fuck off.”

“I…uh…I think I need to finish this beer…then…”

My life was hanging in the balance here, and she was fucking stuttering.

“What, baby?”

I watched her take a deep breath, and I was sure that she was going to tell me to go eat a dick. However, instead, she said, “I think I’ll finish my beer, then go freshen up in the restroom.”

Waving the bartender over, I ignored Sloane as she finished her beer, then got up to walk back towards the restrooms. Not caring about the hundred dollars that I had given the bartender earlier, I settled our tab, then finished what was left of my drink.

Ignoring everything and everyone around me, I made my way back towards the restrooms, and I wasn’t coming out without the taste and smell of Sloane Vicious all over me.

Chapter 4

Reign~

As soon as I rounded the corner that led to the bar’s restrooms, I saw Sloane standing closer to the men’s restroom door.

I arched a brow. “The men’s restroom?”

She grimaced a bit. “In this day and age, we don’t need the cops being called on a guy in the women’s restroom.” She added a shrug to her theory. “I figure men might be a little more understanding about a woman in the guy’s restroom than the other way around. It takes only one extremist to claim that your presence in the women’s restroom sexually traumatized her, and then there goes your job, reputation, and everything else.”

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