85. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter eighty-five
Carrie
Ican feel how edgy Reid is the entire dinner after he and Cat have their talk, and yet, he’s present. He wants to be here, listening to his sister talk about her future child, talking with Reese about his recent case, talking about our merger. Something is bothering him, though, and I know my future husband well enough to know that he’s in one of those moods where he might just shove me against a wall, fuck me, and then repeat. Then, maybe, he’ll talk.
We’re enjoying chocolate cake for dessert when Christmas comes up. “Can you all do Christmas here with us?” Cat asks.
“As long as I can buy my part of dinner and bring it, I’m in,” Gabe says.
“We’re in,” I say. “Family is one of the reasons we came home instead of going to Paris.”
Cat’s eyes warm. “When and where is this wedding going to be?” She looks at Reid. “We need to lock her down and fast.”
He laughs, his mood easing and he agrees, squeezing my leg under the table. “Yes, we do. If we could make it happen at Christmas in Rockefeller Center, Carrie would be happy, but I’m not waiting a year.” He kisses me. “We’re going to figure this out this weekend. That’s an order.”
I laugh, warmed by the fact that when he talks about our wedding, a bit of that edge in him fades. “For once,” I tease, “I’ll happily take one of your orders.”
Everyone laughs now, and soon we are talking about everything and anything again. We’ve moved on to coffee in the living room, and Reid and Reese are talking when Gabe leans over to Cat and says, “Did you know the whole time?”
“Yes,” she says, her expression solemn. “I knew. Reese didn’t. I wasn’t going to have this ruined for him. I wanted it to be special.”
“You should have told us. You didn’t need to deal with that alone.”
“I wasn’t telling you before Reese, but I wasn’t alone.” She squeezes his hand. “You and Reid were there for me.”
Whatever they’re talking about, I’m now certain it had a lot to do with how Reid responded to the news about the baby. Maybe I interrupted them before he could ask the question Gabe is now. “Carrie,” Cat says, drawing me back to the moment.
“Yes?”
“Do you want to go to lunch on Sunday?”
“I’d love that,” I say. “And I need to Christmas shop if you have time?”
“Oh me, too,” she says. “It’s a date.”
“And right now,” Reid says. “We have a date with our bed. The time change is working a number on me.”
“We’d better rest,” I say. “We have a date with Snowflake tomorrow.”
“Snowflake?” Cat asks.
“A kitty that lost her human. She needs a family.”
Cat laughs. “Reid with a cat. Next thing I know you’ll be pregnant, too.”
“No,” Reid and I say at the same time. “We’re going to get a cat and a dog,” I add. “They will be our children.”
“That’s how it starts, I hear,” Gabe jokes.
Reid stands up. “On that note, we’re going to bed, where we will not be making babies. We’ll visit our niece or nephew.”
“We find out in two weeks,” Cat says cheerfully.
A few minutes later, Reid and I step onto the elevator, and he pulls me to him. “What happened in there that I don’t understand?”
He kisses me, a hungry kiss that tastes of hot, bothered man. “Reid,” I whisper, a question in his name.
He doesn’t reply and the doors open behind me. He turns me to the door, walks me out and in a few minutes, we’re in the back of a hired car with our legs melded together and one of his hands pressed between my thighs. I was right. He’s on edge. He’s in one of those fuck me and talk later moods. His hand slides up my skirt and right when his fingers brush my panties, I catch it, giving him a warning look. He answers by cupping my head and kissing me, and in one stroke of his tongue, I lose control. He slips under the silk between my thighs and he’s stroking the now wet seam of my body.
I fight the sounds I want to make. I grab his hand, but his finger slides inside me. I grab his jacket and give him a warning look that earns me another kiss. His tongue and fingers all but undo me when the car stops. “Your destination, sir,” the driver announces.
Reid slides his fingers from inside me, licks them and then says, “Thank you,” though I’m not sure he’s talking to the driver.
He exits the car and pulls me with him, shutting the door behind me. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
He drags me under his arm, and against him. “I can’t believe I didn’t make you come, but I will,” he promises.
“Because you’d rather fuck than talk about whatever that was back there at Cat’s?”
He doesn’t reply which is my answer. He doesn’t want to talk. He’s going to have to talk. For now, though, I let him have what he wants: control. He needs it. He’ll take it to fulfill that need and I get that. I understand him and so I don’t speak. I let him lead me into the elevator and once we’re there, he pulls my back to his chest, the hard wall of his body absorbing mine. The thick ridge of his erection is pressed to my bottom. His fingers stroke my waist, sending waves of heat through my body. My nipples ache. My sex clenches. I’m reminded that this demanding, controlling side of Reid turns me on and more so now that I know I can trust him.
The car halts and we exit as we entered—without words. He leads me to the apartment and once we’re there, he catches me from behind, his lips at my ear as he orders, “Undress right here in front of me and then walk to the bedroom and wait for me on the bed.”
I open my mouth to object, but this is Reid and clearly, something about tonight hit every nerve he owns, and perhaps cut open a wound or two that is now bleeding. He needs his control and if there is one person in his life who’s taken it, it’s me. Right now, he needs me to give it back. “Do you trust me, Carrie?” he asks as if he senses hesitation in me, and the question is telling. This is about trust as much as control. He wants to deserve my trust. He feels like control prevents him from letting me down. That’s how he protects me. With control and trust, he feels he can stop whatever bad might come my way.
“I trust you, Reid,” I say, twisting in his arms to face him. “You know I do.”
“Show me. Show me you trust me, because you always hold back just a little. Almost all of your trust, almost all of you isn’t enough.”
I don’t believe I hold back, but he does and that’s what matters right now. I step back from him and start to undress. He leans on the door, crosses his arms in front of his chest, and I swear he’s trying to intimidate me, but it won’t work. It’s never worked but he’s going to try harder tonight. I feel it. I see it in his eyes. He’s going to push and demand and press me beyond a comfortable limit.
And I’m going to let him.