Page 63 of Reverb

“Ignore it?” I didn’t think so. Why the hell had she written that down? And just when I’d started to like him, too.

“It’s a long story,” Sienna said. “It doesn’t mean what you think it means. I mean, he is hot. But—”

“Hell, no.” I grabbed the notebook and tossed it on the floor. Then I grabbed her foot from my thigh and tugged her down so she was flat on her back on the sofa. I pressed myself over her and kissed her, long and deep.

“You’re ridiculous,” she chided me when I came up for air.

“Shut up,” I said and kissed her again.

This time, her hands moved down and started working open my belt buckle. Her teeth scraped my lip. I knew exactly how my girl liked it. Just dirty enough. Adventurous, but not crossing any lines. I could be bossy but not rude. If I did it just right, she ran white-hot and was practically insatiable.

As for me, if I could get her like this—pliable underneath me, clear about what she desired, starting to get demanding—I’d do anything she wanted. Anything at all.

I broke the kiss. “We doing this, Maplethorpe?” I asked her.

She nodded. She’d unfastened my belt buckle and was unzipping my jeans.

“Right here on the sofa?” I asked. “We gonna break it in?”

“Yes, please,” she replied. “I’d like that.”

I slid my hands up under her tee and got her panties off. I stripped off my shirt. Sienna tugged my jeans and boxers down.

I braced myself over her again, placing sucking kisses along the line of her neck, under her jaw, behind her ear. Using just enough pressure, using my teeth in the gentlest way. She smelled like shampoo and tasted like Sienna. I used my weight to press her down into the sofa, letting her feel me. She responded with a gasp in my ear.

I’d have to be careful. We’d ditched condoms when she went on birth control—literally the best thing that had ever happened to me, bar none—and I didn’t want to make a mess on her sofa. I should have thought ahead, grabbed a towel to put down beneath us. Now it was too late.

Sienna squirmed beneath me, her heels digging into the backs of my knees. She said my name.

Yeah, it was definitely too late. I’d have to come on her stomach to keep things clean. No one could say I wasn’t a gentleman.

I slid into her, and then I kissed her. I kissed her because Sienna was my girl, the only one I wanted. I didn’t tell her that I’d wait as long as it took—years, if I had to. I didn’t tell her that I thought she was the smartest, hottest woman I’d ever known, that she had a light that drew me in and made me a better person. I didn’t tell her that before she came along, I hadn’t had a woman at all for four years. Because I’d been wandering the world alone. Because I hadn’t met anyone I wanted. I didn’t tell her that I’d thought I’d be alone forever. Until her.

I kissed her, and I made it good for her. Really, really good. Because I couldn’t think of anything else she wanted, and it was what I had to give.

TWENTY-FOUR

Sienna

Diana Harvey lived in a small bungalow in a nice neighborhood. I knew from Stone that this was the house he grew up in, that Diana owned it, and that Stone now helped her pay the bills and the upkeep.

She greeted me on the front porch as I got out of my car. She was wearing snug jeans, a button-down top tucked in, and a wide belt. She wore long dangly earrings and a layer of makeup. I wondered whether this was her usual look or whether she’d dressed up for me.

She smiled as we introduced ourselves and shook hands, but I could tell she was nervous. She was an inch shorter than me, so Stone didn’t get his height from her. I could see a little resemblance to him in her eyes, but not anywhere else. I knew Stone’s face so well now that I would recognize it if he looked like his mother.

“Make yourself at home,” she said a little too brightly as she led me inside. “It doesn’t look like much, I know. You want something to drink? I don’t mean alcohol, you know. Like tea or something? I might have some. Where should we sit? I have a sitting room up front but I never sit in it. How weird is that, right?”

She patted her pockets, then fiddled with an earring. She’d definitely dressed up for this. She’d arranged the throw pillows on the sofa and I could see vacuum marks on the carpets.

“We can sit wherever you’re comfortable,” I said. “This won’t take long. We’re just going to talk about Stone.”

Diana barked a nervous laugh, but her shoulders relaxed. “My favorite topic. I can talk about Stoney all day. Are you going to publish that his mom is a wrinkly old bird? It’s true and all, but I don’t think he’d like it.”

“I’m not going to write that,” I assured her. I’d never heard him called Stoney before. “I just want a little background about his life from one of the people who knows him best. I’m not trying to make either of you look bad.”

She nodded and stopped touching her earring. “Let’s sit out back.”

There were a couple of well-used chairs on the back patio. This was obviously one of her favorite spots. I declined a drink and we sat down. She watched as I started the recording app on my phone and set it between us.

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