40. Reid
FORTY
REID
“That pizza was delicious,” Avery calls out from the bathroom where she’s drying her hair. “Thanks for not judging me for eating five slices.”
“Are you kidding?” I relax against the pillows on my bed and grab my Watchmen comic off the bedside table. I turn to the spot I left off on the other night and put an arm behind my head. “The cheese hanging from the corner of your mouth was hot as fuck.”
“You’re such a liar. Reading?” she asks from the doorway.
I hum and fix my pajama bottoms before slipping under the sheets and flipping the page. “Skimming. Someone posted an outlandish theory in a Reddit thread the other day. It’s one I haven’t picked up on. This is my forty-fifth read through, and I still don’t understand what they’re trying to say. It’s infuriating.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“Have you read Watchmen ?”
“No. I promise I will soon, though.”
The bed dips under her weight, and I barely look up. “You don’t have to. It’s long. It’s not the short and snappy comics you’ve read before.”
“You like it. I want to give it a try.” Avery straddles me and rests her palms on my bare stomach. “I might like it too.”
“You might.” I rest a hand on her thigh. She’s still warm from the shower we took after dinner, her skin soft and clean. “Don’t hate me if you’re bored to death.”
“I’ll survive.” Her fingers curl around the spine of the book, blocking the page from view. “Reid?”
“Hm?” I try to nudge her hand out of the way, but she doesn’t give me an inch. “What’s up?”
“Can we put this down for a little while?”
I look up at her. Her cheeks are flushed, and she’s staring at me. Her nipples are hard and pointed through the thin cotton of the T-shirt I gave her to sleep in. She rolls her hips in a slow circle against me. Her pussy brushes over the sheet covering my lower half, and I realize five seconds too late she’s to wearing any underwear.
“Oh.” I swallow, relenting my grip on the graphic novel without another thought. She takes it from my hand and sets it aside. “Yeah. Ah. Of course. Sorry. The world pulls me in sometimes. Please don’t think I was trying to ignore you.”
“I know you weren’t. While I have your attention, I should tell you I haven’t been completely honest with you.” She tugs on the hem of her shirt and drags it over her head. I suck in a sharp breath at her naked body, and she gives me a wicked grin. “And it’s time I come clean.”
“What—” I swallow. My throat is dry, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get over how beautiful she is. How lucky I am that I get to have her like this. “What are you hiding?”
“I know all about Doctor Manhattan and Edward Blake. Rorschach too.”
I blink. “What?”
She leans forward, and her tits are practically in my face. “After I left the bar the night we met, I ordered a copy of Watchmen . I read it front to back then I read it again. All because the cute guy who blushed when I complimented him said it was his favorite,” she whispers in my ear.
My head is spinning. There’s no way this is real life. There’s no way she’s saying these things to me.
I squeeze my eyes shut. I count to ten then open them, shocked to find her still on top of me. Still naked and beautiful and smirking with a sly little grin.
“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?” I ask.
Her smile falls. She sits back and I scramble for her, aching for her touch.
“This is silly.” She folds her arms over her chest and shakes her head. “I’m so stupid.”
“Whoa. Hang on.” I stroke the space between her shoulder blades and frown, confused by her change in attitude. “You’re the furthest thing from stupid. Where did you get that idea?”
“I wanted to surprise you by reading the story you like, but it’s not that impressive. I don’t know why I thought it was special and a big deal.”
“That’s not—Avery. Could you look at me, please?” I ask, and she lifts her chin. “I didn’t mean that as a dig to you, and I’m sorry if it came off that way. I—” I huff out a laugh, embarrassed. “To be honest, I’m still in shock you’re here at all. Add in the whole naked and on top of me talking about comic books thing, and I swear I’m having a stroke. You’re—god. Calling you the girl of my dreams sounds so fucking cliché, but it’s true. If I had to put together my perfect person, every part of them would be made of you.”
It’s not a confession to how I’ve been feeling about her, but it’s close enough. It gets the point across, because one minute, she’s blinking at me with wide eyes, the next, she’s kissing me, her mouth on mine and a breathy moan escaping from her throat.
I touch her everywhere I can reach. Her legs, stomach. The hips I love to grab when I fuck her from behind. Her chest, my palm resting over her heart and feeling how our beats align.
Avery lifts off of me, pawing at my pajama bottoms, her intent clear. I switch our positions, guiding her to the sheets so I can strip down and be naked just like her.
“How do you want me?” she asks, slipping a hand between her legs and touching herself. When her slender fingers disappear inside her pussy, I can’t help but groan. “You made me feel so good earlier, Reid. I want you to feel like that too.”
“I feel like that every time you’re with me, baby. It’s always the best time of my fucking life.”
She arches her back. “I want to fuck you. I want to be on top.”
I try to speak, but I can’t find the goddamn words.
I’m too mesmerized by the easy way she tugs me to the pillows. Her laugh when she straddles me again and goes to pull off my glasses, stopping when I shake my head.
“Want to leave them on,” I rasp. “Want to watch you.”
“Greedy slut,” she murmurs in my ear, and I buck my hips into hers. “Look at you, Reid. Pre-cum already? You must really like what you see.”
I think I might love what I see .
She spits in her hand and wraps it around my length, stroking me up and down. I grip the sheets, my head lolling back and my chest pinching tight. When her thumb runs over the head of my cock, I moan her name.
“ Avery . You gotta get on and fuck me, baby, because the longer you touch me, the less time I’m going to last. And I really want to paint you with my cum.”
Avery grins, the dimple on her cheek popping in the lamplight, and I make a decision right now to always wear my glasses when I fuck her. I like seeing the soft skin of her thighs. I like seeing her laugh when I practically grab for her, the giggle changing to a low moan when she sinks down on my dick.
“I almost forgot how full you make me feel when you’re inside me,” she gasps, rocking forward so her hands land on either side of my head. “Best I’ve ever had.”
I grunt and grip her hips, slamming her down on my length then lifting her up. “Tell me how much you want me. Tell me how good I make you feel.”
She licks my throat, and I hiss. Her mouth brushes against my ear, her breath hot on my skin as she dips her voice low.
“Do you know whose I am, Reid?” she whispers. “Yours. Only you can make me feel this way.”
Fucking fuck.
I don’t have any more self-restraint. I don’t have any more patience. I have to have her, or I’m going to go out of my goddamn mind.
Mine .
I want her to be mine.
Totally and completely, in every sense of the word.
I want to put a ring on her finger and maybe have a couple kids.
I want to grow old with her and sit on a porch, talking about all the good things we’ve done together.
I want to argue and fight with her and let her push me out of my comfort zone.
I want to love her, and I want her to love me back.
Avery works herself up and down, her movements turning wild. Her hair sticks to her skin and her eyes flutter closed. The sheen of sweat on her forehead glistens. When she parts her mouth, I drag a thumb across her lower lip.
“You’re mine,” I tell her, letting the words slip free and she smiles. “Today. Tomorrow. For as long as you’ll have me.”
“Yours,” she repeats, circling her hips in the way I like.
My breathing turns rough, and I know I’m teetering close to an orgasm. I drop my hand between her legs, touching her thigh. Her knee. Her clit and anywhere I can fucking reach.
“What do you need?” I ask. I close my eyes, afraid if I keep looking at her, if I keep watching her, I’ll finish before she does. And that’s not an option.
“You’re enough.” Avery sighs, pinching her nipples. She sounds happy. Content and satisfied. Because of me . “You’re always enough, Reid.”
Her pussy tightens, the same sensation I felt around my fingers in the kitchen I feel around my cock, and it’s fucking fantastic. Heaven on earth. A place where I’d be glad to die. I groan and hold her in place, lifting my hips to thrust into her again and again.
I want to get her there.
I want her to be first.
What I don’t say with my words I show her with my cock and my hands, and time stands still.
“ Yes ,” she says. “I’m going to?—”
“Fuck. Me too, Ave.”
I follow her over the edge, moaning her name through my release. She tortures me, refusing to give me an ounce of relief until I’m whimpering. Until my legs shake and my hips buck, giving her every drop of the cum buried inside her and trailing down her leg.
“Holy shit.” She puts her hands on my chest and eases herself off me. She settles on the mattress, her hair across the sheets and an arm thrown over her eyes. “You’re the only guy who’s ever made me come when having sex.”
I’m weak.
My mental capacities are diminished and my limbs are heavy like lead. Still, I want to see her. I muster all of my energy and sit up. I grab her left knee and roll so I’m positioned between her legs.
“What—” She sputters out a string of curses when I rest my hands under her thighs and hold her open. “You?—”
“Want to see. Want to feel.” I push two fingers in her pussy, groaning when my cum coats my fingers. Warm, sticky, I pull out of her and drag my fingers over her skin. Up across her stomach and to her mouth. “Want to watch you taste.”
“Greedy man,” she whispers, sticking out her tongue. She sucks my fingers clean, a devilish gleam in her eyes that has my cock twitching again. That has me ready to go another round. “Such a bad boy.”
I blush and climb over her, kissing her. “And to think, this was all because you started talking about Watchmen . About what you said earlier. I hope you never feel stupid with me, Avery. Not when you talk about the things you like. Not when you ask for things you might enjoy. I want… I want to be a safe space for you.”
“You’re something else.” She kisses me again and laughs against my mouth. “A few minutes ago, you were fucking me within an inch of my life. Now you’re over here waxing poetic. Where have you been hiding, Reid Duncan?”
“I don’t know. Giving the wrong people my attention, I guess.”
“Been there. Done that. At least, that’s what some dude at a bar once told me.”
I smile and rub my thumb along the curve of her jaw. “I want to clean you up.”
“What else do you want?” she asks.
You here forever , I think.
“To hear all your Watchmen theories,” I say instead.
Avery laughs again, softer this time. “I’ll tell you all my thoughts in the shower. They’re extensive, Duncan. I hope you’re ready.”
“Yeah.” My heart is lodged halfway up my throat. “I am.”