Chapter 24 #2
Reid shifts to kneel by the tub and cup my face with both hands.
“You’re the strongest person I know,” he says. “But even steel can bend under pressure.”
I let out a shaky breath.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me, Carina. Not your endurance or your resilience. I know you have it. I’ve seen you live it. This—” He brushes a thumb beneath my eye to wipe a tear. “This doesn’t make you weak, baby. It makes you human.”
He kisses my forehead once, and when he pulls back, I think I might fall apart all over again.
“Let me feed you,” he murmurs. “Let me help you and be here the way you deserve someone to be.”
My eyes close, and I nod, and that’s when it happens. A flutter, deep and low, like a knock from inside my belly.
I inhale sharply, my eyes springing open as I sit up and press a hand to my stomach.
“What?” he says, voice alert. “You okay?”
“I think—” I pause.
And there it is again, stronger this time. I grab his wrist and guide his palm to the spot.
The baby kicks. A tiny pulse, right against his touch.
Reid’s eyes widen, mouth parting like he’s about to say something, but doesn’t. He just stares at where his hand touches me, like the whole world has narrowed to that single point.
And when his eyes lift to mine, they’re soft. Cracked open. Full of something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, not even during the scans.
“Hi, baby,” he murmurs.
His voice breaks on the word, and I break with it.
I don’t even realize I’m crying again until he’s brushing my tears away. Not saying anything, just cupping my face with his free hand, like it matters. Like he’d choose this a thousand times over.
I shift his other hand against my stomach, and wait again.
There’s another nudge, and he exhales. A low sound, almost a laugh.
“Hi,” he murmurs again. “It’s me.”
I close my eyes and let the moment settle into my bones. Let him settle into my bones.
And for the first time in days, the exhaustion lifts.
***
I should be asleep.
The apartment is dark, the sheets warm, and body wash still clings faintly to the air. Reid’s chest is pressed to my back, his arm locked around my waist, his breath even.
But my body is not asleep. It’s buzzing.
It’s subtle at first, the slow drag of awareness. The heat between my thighs that refuses to cool, all tangled together until wanting him feels less like desire and more like gravity.
I shift my hips, enough that my ass brushes the unmistakable bulge of his cock. Reid exhales behind me, and his hand tightens at my waist.
“You okay?” he murmurs, voice low with sleep and something else.
I nod, even though he can’t see it. “Mm. Just… awake.”
His nose brushes the back of my neck. A breath skitters along my skin, then another as his hand slips lower, palm warm against my stomach. He rests it there, like he’s testing the moment. Giving me time to pull away.
I don’t.
“You’re warm,” he murmurs.
I swallow. “Reid—”
“I thought you were tired,” he says, voice like sandpaper against my skin.
“I am,” I whisper. “But I want you more.”
“Mm. You always get like this after a hard day?”
“No,” I breathe. “Just when I’m next to you.”
His fingertips brush my waistband. “Tell me if you don’t want this.”
I shake my head. “I want it.”
His fingers slide between my legs, and he freezes for half a second, registering just how wet I am.
“Christ, you’re so wet,” he breathes. “You gonna let me take care of this too?”
“Yes,” I whisper, already dizzy with how badly I want it.
He strokes through my pussy once, then again before pulling his hand free. I see the wetness glistening on his fingertips as he lifts them to his mouth.
I twist to look at him over my shoulder.
His eyes lock on mine as he sucks one finger clean.
“Mmm, so fucking sweet.”
I whimper, and he shifts behind me, chest flush to my back, hand returning between my thighs.
“You know what I love?” His fingers stroke me again, slick and precise. “How fucking composed you are for everyone else. All day and all night, always in control.”
My hips jolt. “Reid—”
“But then you get under me,” he rasps, circling my clit, “and fall apart the second I touch you.”
I gasp, eyes fluttering shut. “Please—”
“I could fuck you like this all night,” he murmurs, “and it would still never be enough.”
The words hit like a spark down my spine as his thumb circles again, his fingers keeping that constant, devastating rhythm. I moan as he pushes deeper, his other hand tilting my hips just right so he can add a second finger, curling hard into that spot that makes me writhe.
“Fuck yes, you hear that?”
I nod frantically at the wet sounds his hand’s making.
“Messy already,” he pants. “Soaked and squeezing me sooo tight.”
When his thumb presses down hard on my clit, I jerk.
“Reid,” I moan. “I’m—”
“Come.” His smirk stretches gently against my skin. “Sensitive girl.”
The orgasm crashes over me in seconds, and I clench around his fingers, thighs trembling as I come apart with a broken sound I don’t recognize.
He doesn’t stop until I do, and when he stills, I sag back against him.
“You okay?”
I nod, dazed. “Yeah. God, yeah.”
“Tell me what you need, Havoc.”
“You,” I moan out. “Inside me. Now.”
He grits out a curse and shifts again, grasping my thigh gently.
“Turn your leg up for me,” he murmurs.
I obey without thinking, lifting my thigh as he presses the blunt head of his cock to my pussy. I groan at the feel of him, the drag of his ladder piercings teasing my already overstimulated nerves.
“Fuck,” I breathe. “I can feel everything.”
“Yeah?” he murmurs against my shoulder. “You like how that feels?”
“So much,” I breathe. “I can feel every part of you.”
He nudges in just the tip, groaning at the feel. “You take me so well,” he says. “Every fucking inch.”
I press back against him. “I need more.”
He starts to move with deep thrusts that hit perfectly with the grind of his hips, dragging over every inch inside me.
“Look at you,” he rasps. “All composed at work, telling people where to stand and how to breathe.” He fucks in harder, making me cry out. “And now you’re dripping all over my cock.”
My fingers clutch the sheets, mind unraveling. I’m floating, so completely undone at the feel of him, that the words slip out before I can stop them.
“Who do I belong to?” I whimper.
He freezes, pauses his thrusting entirely. And then growls like he’s losing his fucking mind. He thrusts deep, hand tightening at my hip.
“You asking me that now, sweetheart?” His voice is thin, pulled tight. “You don’t already know?”
My chest aches as I whisper it again. “Who do I belong to, Reid?”
He pulls almost all the way out, then slams back in.
“You’re mine,” he says, voice breaking around the truth of it. “Say it.”
“I’m yours,” I gasp.
He shudders behind me, forehead dropping to my shoulder.
“Only me,” he mutters, kissing the back of my neck. “Only I get to see you like this, all fucking wrecked and begging.”
His hand slides along my skin, palm wrapping around my throat as the rhythm builds again, each thrust harder and needier. I can feel how badly he’s holding back, not wanting to break me, even now.
“Harder,” I beg. “Please.”
And he gives it to me, rutting into me like he can’t stop, whispering filth between kisses to my shoulder, my jaw, my temple.
“God, I’ll never get enough of you,” he pants. “Fucking made for me.”
“I want it all,” I gasp. “I want you.”
His hips stutter for a second before slamming deeper, but then I feel the buildup mounting, unstoppable at the feel of him.
“Give it to me, Havoc.” He reaches around to circle my clit, working me in rhythm with every thrust. “Come for me just like this.”
I do, his name ripped from my throat as he fucks me through it. He follows with a growl, thrusts growing sloppy as he pulses deep, filling me until I’m overflowing.
I feel the twitch, the warmth, the last shudder of him giving in before he collapses behind me.
He buries his face against the back of my neck, and I don’t say anything, just reach an arm back to tug him in tighter. Needing the press of his chest and the curve of his palm low across my belly.
He kisses my temple. “You good?”
I nod, throat tight. “Yeah. So good.”
His fingers weave through mine, and his thumb brushes along the curve of my knuckles. We don’t speak again as we come down from our highs, but I feel it. All of it.
The connection, the devotion. The love.
It’s everywhere. In the way he moves around me, the way he takes care of me and watches me like I’m the only thing that matters.
Even if both of us are still too scared to say it out loud.