9. Reid
NINE
REID
“These fries are delicious,” Avery says. She licks a clump of salt off her fingers, and it’s downright indecent. “I could eat eight servings.”
“Seriously.” I pop one in my mouth. “Who knew the steak tartare and roasted chicken breast at the reception weren’t going to be filling? I guess it goes to show you money doesn’t buy happiness.”
“I’m going to do a taco bar at my wedding. A buffet line of everyone’s favorite toppings, and they can have as much as they want. They’ll be so full, they’ll have to be rolled out.”
“Planning on getting married sometime soon?”
“Is that not what’s happening here?” she jokes, and I laugh.
“I could get behind a taco bar.”
“Speaking of weddings, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead,” I say.
“You mentioned you were engaged before.”
“I was.”
“What happened?”
“Ah.” I wipe my hands and lean back on the pillows behind me. My skin is prickly, not because I don’t want to tell her, but because her opinion of me might change when I do. “Do you want the long story or the short one?”
Avery fixes the collar of the shirt I gave her and shrugs. She crosses her legs and drops her elbows to her knees. “Whichever one you want to tell me.”
“Short story: I work too much. Long story: I missed an important event because I was at the office too late, and it wasn’t the first time it happened. It was my fault, and I didn’t listen to her when she told me what she needed from me in our relationship. I’ve learned to put some boundaries up in my professional life since then. I shut my phone off before the ceremony, and I’m not turning it on again until tomorrow because this is what’s important right now. That’s a big step for me.”
“It’s not easy to admit when you’re wrong, and self-awareness shows maturity.”
“It sucks to think you’re going to spend forever with someone, only for that to change. Things happen for a reason, though. Glass-half-full optimistic bullshit, according to my therapist. What about you? Ever been engaged?”
“That’s something I’ve never been asked by a one-night stand before.” She cocks a brow before continuing. “I haven’t been engaged. At one point, I thought I might be. But it’s like you said: everything happens for a reason.”
“What if I don’t want this to be a one-night stand? What if I want to see you again?” I ask.
Avery smiles and crawls across the mattress. She slings one leg on either side of my hips. I rest my hands on her bare legs and stroke my thumbs up her thighs.
“I’d like that,” she says. “You mentioned something about dinner.”
“My place on Tuesday?”
“Sounds perfect.”
She leans forward and brushes her nose against mine. Her lips are an inch away from my mouth, and when I sit up to kiss her, she pulls back and lowers herself onto my lap. She rolls her hips and grinds into my briefs, and I groan.
“Did you not—” I lift up her shirt. My eyes drop between her legs. Wet. Bare. Pink and fucking beautiful. “ Avery . Where the hell did your underwear go?”
“Seemed silly to put them back on when I knew they’d be coming off.” She ditches my shirt, throwing it behind her where her dress sits wrinkled in the middle of the room.
I move my palms from her ribs to her chest, weighing her tits in my hand. My gaze roams down her body, and I’m instantly hard from seeing her completely naked for the first time. I lift her off me and switch our positions, setting her on the mattress and hovering over her.
“Put your arms above your head,” I tell her, and she does.
I’ve never been a dominant guy in the bedroom, but something about Avery makes me want to take control and have her every way I could ever want.
I look at her again, at the curve of her breasts and the tan skin of her stomach. I spend too long staring at her hips, the skin I want to hold on to while I drive into her from behind. She spreads her legs, and I spend even longer staring at the dampness on her inner thighs and the way she squirms on the sheets.
“Do you like what you see, Reid?” she asks.
My cock jumps when she uses my name, and I nod.
I’m a goddamn goner.
Talk to her. She wants to hear it.
“Yeah,” I say. “You’re perfect, Avery. Perfect tits. Perfect body. Perfect pussy.” She inhales sharply, and I stare at her. “What?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing.”
“Do you not like that word? I don’t have to use it.”
“It’s more that I didn’t expect it from you.” She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “You’re a nice guy. You blush, for heaven’s sake, which is the cutest thing in the world, by the way. I didn’t think you’d have an A+ dirty talk game, and I’m surprised.”
“Oh.” I push my glasses up my nose. “I can be very direct. I forget that not everyone operates the same way I do and?—”
Avery cuts me off with a kiss, shutting me up the same way she shut me up in the hallway. It’s rough and hot, and I groan against her mouth. I sneak a hand between her legs and nudge her knees wide open.
“I like logical,” she murmurs before biting my lower lip.
I’m going out of my mind. I’m being driven to the brink of insanity, and when she wraps her hand around my cock and strokes up and down in the tempo I really like, I whimper , seconds away from begging.
“Hang on.” I bend down and suck on her nipple, wanting to torture her like she’s torturing me. She moans, and I file that away for later under things she likes. “Need to get you off again before I fuck you.”
“You don’t?—”
“Yes, I do,” I say firmly. “Hold onto the headboard, Avery. There you go. That’s a good girl.”
She squirms again. I also add praise to the list, wishing I had a notebook to write all these things down.
I scoot down the sheets and lie on my stomach, gripping her thighs with both hands. I really want to use my tongue and taste her again, but I also want to watch her.
I press a kiss to her hip bone, and she shudders in anticipation. I drag my finger across her entrance and smile when she drops her head back and tips her legs open even wider.
“Needy,” I mumble.
That might be my favorite thing about her. How much it seems like she wants me.
It’s nice to be wanted.
“And horny,” she adds, lifting her hips.
I push two fingers inside her, giving her what she wants. Even though I stretched her out an hour ago, she’s still tight as hell.
“ God ,” she groans. She grinds against my hand and fucks herself with my fingers. “You’re so close to— oh . That’s perfect, Reid.”
I sit up so I can have a better angle and get deeper. I grab one of her legs and wrap it around my waist, curling my fingers and watching her reactions. “There?”
“ Yes . Fuck. How are you—you found— god. Three. I need three. Please .”
I add a third finger, humming when she adjusts to the stretch more quickly this time, and just when she relaxes into it, I rub a slow circle over her clit with my thumb.
She jolts forward. Her arms almost slip from above her head, but she catches them at the last second. She moans loudly, a sweet sound that makes me rock-hard.
Five more minutes of watching her like this and I could come without even being touched.
“Look at you getting the sheets all wet,” I murmur, mesmerized. It’s the hottest thing I’ve seen in my entire life. “You’re soaking them, Avery.”
“I’m close,” she pants. She opens her eyes, staring right at me. “Make me come, Reid. Ruin me.”
Ruin her.
I forget about being careful. I forget about being a nice guy. I’d get on my knees and crawl to her if she asked, and I’m not going to stop until this woman is completely satisfied.
I push my fingers back in her, increasing my pace and finding a rhythm with the circles on her clit while also touching her chest. I wish I had a third hand so I could wrap it around her throat, and a fourth so I could cup her ass.
I want things I’ve never wanted before, all because she’s moaning my name.
Talk her through it .
“You’re doing so well,” I say. Her legs shake, and I know she’s close. “Ah, fuck, Avery. I love when you squeeze around me.”
“You’re enjoying this too?” she whispers.
“You make me feel so good, and you aren’t even touching me. Watching you is enough.” I kiss her knee, and her breathing changes. Her back arches off the bed, and she cries out. “There you go. That’s it. Fuck . Look how pretty you are when you come.”
She doesn’t last a second longer, falling apart piece by piece as her orgasm hits her.
I work her through it, not stopping when she thinks she’s done, and coaxing another one out of her. She sobs and turns into a writhing mess of limbs and tears, begging me for more while also cursing me out.
I ease her down gently, kissing her forehead and her cheek and the space above her collarbone as I slow my movements. When I finally pull my fingers out of her, she groans.
I tug on her bottom lip, and her eyes flutter open.
“Hi,” she mumbles.
“Hi.”
“That was—” She smiles, stuck in a haze, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something so beautiful. “Wow.”
“I hope that’s a good wow, and not an I should really get out of here wow.”
“I really should get out of here,” Avery teases, looping her arms around my neck. “But I want you inside me first.”
“You sure?”
She nods. “I’m sure. I haven’t been with anyone in a year. When I was last tested, there was nothing to report.”
“It’s been, ah, a little longer for me,” I admit. I pull off my glasses and set them on the nightstand next to the condoms I bought. “Three years.”
Avery blinks. “You’re telling me you did that to me and it was your first time in three years ? Are you a goddamn wizard?”
“That’s the character I sometimes use when I play Dungeons & Dragons. Supreme magic-users.” I blush and rub the back of my neck, knowing I need to stop talking. I’m trying to keep this woman around, not scare her off. “Sorry. Thanks, ah, for the compliment. I also don’t have anything to report from my last test.”
“That’s good,” she murmurs. She moves her hands to the waistband of my briefs and looks up at me. “Can I take these off?”
I swallow. My throat is dry, and every nerve ending is awake. It’s like I’ve been electrocuted, and if this is how alive I feel just from her teasing me, what is it going to be like when I fuck her?
Heaven, probably.
Heaven, definitely.
“You can,” I say.
Avery yanks my underwear off in one motion. “God, you’re so big. You’re going to fill me up, aren’t you?”
I swallow again.
I’ve never been with someone so vocal. Someone who is so open about telling me what she wants, and I love it. It strokes my ego and makes me feel like I’m some woman-pleasing sex aficionado, when really, I think I’m flying by the seat of my pants.
I push her legs open. “That’s the plan.”
“You might not fit.”
“I know you can take it,” I tell her. “And I’ll go slow.”
Mirth flares in her eyes. Grabbing the box of condoms, I tear it open and pull out a foil packet. I slide it down my hard length and line up with her entrance. I drag the head of my cock through her, teasing her, and she grabs my hip.
“Fuck me, Reid,” she whispers, and I nod.
I push inside her and groan. Her breath stutters and she clutches my forearm.
One inch.
I’m only one inch deep, and I’m already well and truly fucked.