Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
“T his is the room I can sleep in. All by myself?” Charlee’s voice was pitched high, and Reed was surprised the dogs in the neighborhood weren’t howling.
“Yep. And your mum is going to be right next door.”
“And what about you, where will you be?” Her eyes wide with wonderment and a tiny spark of hope. A rush of love for the little girl swelled his heart.
“I’m just down the hall. Do you want to see it?” he asked, quite happy to show Charlee his room. If she woke in the middle of the night, he wanted her to know that she could come to him if she needed to. Of course, her first stop would be her mum, but at least she knew she had options.
“Mummy, are you coming?” Charlee held out her hand.
Lauren was standing by the bed, looking a little shocked. Breaking the news of their new home situation to Charlee had gone off easier than he thought it would’ve. The little girl had been so excited she hadn’t even asked why they couldn’t stay at the house they’d lived in for most of her life.
Reed’s house was the one he’d grown up in. When his parents had died, he’d bought Ben out, allowing his brother to put a deposit down on his own place. Ben was more than happy for Reed to have the family home. Before, when the shit had hit the fan while Reed had been on missions, knowing that his younger brother and parents were safe in this house provided him the focus he’d needed to get through whatever crap he had to deal with. This house represented stability and love and peace, all things he’d needed after he’d discharged out of the Army.
It was a large house, far too large for him, but as he’d always wanted to get married and have kids, it hadn’t bothered him. Now he’d found the woman that he could see spending the rest of his life with, he just had to convince her of it. With her living under his roof, he planned to show her just how good it could be between them, if she would give him a chance.
“Sure, I’ll come, if it’s okay with Reed.”
“It is. Follow me.”
He led them out of the room that his brother had grown up in and headed down the hall to a door at the end. He opened it up and waved them ahead of him.
“Wow, Reed, this is huge!” Charlee exclaimed and ran over to the window seat.
After his parents had died he hadn’t wanted to erase their memories but he’d also wanted to make some changes. Make it his own. His parents wouldn’t have minded him doing what he’d done.
He’d enlarged his childhood bedroom and made it into the main bedroom. He’d added a bathroom, so that it was another master suite. He’d added the window bench because sometimes, when he felt like things were closing in on him, sitting there looking out at the garden, grounded him.
“It’s so pretty looking at the garden, Reed. Did you plant all the flowers?” Charlee asked.
“I did, munchkin. This is the house I grew up in, and my mum loved all sorts of flowers. It didn’t matter what type they were. After she died, and I was feeling sad, I went to the garden store and brought as many different kinds of flowers as I could find.”
“I like that.” Charlee pressed her nose against the window. “I bet it smells amazing, but there would probably be bees, and I’m allergic to bees.”
“How allergic,” Reed asked Lauren, because as much as he wouldn’t like to do it, if it was a choice between Charlee’s life and flowers, he’d choose Charlee’s life.
“Not a deadly reaction, but the area around the bite swells up. She was only stung once, but after that we try to be extra careful around too many flowers.”
Reed walked over to where Charlee sat and squatted down, his hands resting on either side of her leg. “Promise me that if you go anywhere near the garden you do it with either your mum or me. Not by yourself.”
“I promise. If I want to see them without you, I’ll just come in here.”
“Charlee!” Lauren protested. “You can’t just barge into Reed’s room. That’s not polite. We’re guests here, remember that.”
Reed wanted to counter Lauren’s instruction. He wanted to tell Charlee that she could come in any time she wanted, but he kept the words to himself. Lauren was Charlee’s mum, and she set the ground rules.
He also wanted to refute that they were guests. Now that he had them in his house, he didn’t want them to leave again. But he wouldn’t say that either. There would be a right time.
“Okay, well I’ll knock before I come in, is that okay, Reed?” She smiled at him impishly as if she knew what she was doing. And Reed didn’t doubt that she did.
“That works. Now how about some dinner? I don’t know about you, but my stomach is complaining that it needs food, and you look rather tasty Miss Charlee.”
Charlee squealed loudly and ran out of the room. “You can’t catch me.”
Reed laughed at her and looked over at Lauren to share the moment with him. She was staring at him as if he’d sprouted another head. “What?” he asked as he closed the distance between them.
“You’re really good with her.” She sounded surprised, even after everything he’d done to show that she and her daughter were coming to mean a lot to him.
“She’s an easy kid to get along with. You’ve done a great job with her. I know it hasn’t been easy for you. You were young when you had her.”
Lauren shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice, and yes it was hard, but the rewards have far outweighed what I would’ve lost.”
He could hear Charlee singing in her room, as if she’d forgotten all about him chasing her. He took it as a sign that she really was happy in his house. It was easy to say the words, but actions said more in some circumstances.
“I’m really happy you and Charlee are here, Ren.” He brushed his fingers against her arm. A spark of electricity sizzled between them and he stepped a little closer so that his chest almost touched hers.
His gaze dropped to her lips. They were pink, plump and tempting him to sample her. To see if they were as soft beneath his mouth as they looked.
“I’m glad I’m here too.” Her voice soft and strong at the same time.
“Do you mean that or are you just saying that to appease me?”
He stilled when her hand landed on his chest. The fact she voluntarily touched him, thrilled him, and gave him hope that she wanted him too. “I mean it.”
“I want to kiss you, Ren. Can I?”
Lauren pressed her hand harder against his chest. “Yes.”
That was all he needed, he framed her face, holding her where he wanted her before lowering his head, lightly brushing his mouth across hers. Once. Twice, and on the third sweep he stayed, deepening the kiss. He wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her against him. He bit her bottom lip gently to entice her to open beneath him. She answered his call and his tongue caressed her. Her body melted into his as if she had been made just for him. He deepened the kiss, pouring the longing he had for her into it. She didn’t shy away from the intensity of it all, she took it and asked for more herself.
There was a bed not five feet away. A large king-sized one where he could lay her down and worship every inch of her body. Unfortunately, there was also a little person in the house that could interrupt them, and Reed didn’t want that to happen. Lauren had opened up to him and he was happy to take it slowly because she was worth it.
He slowed the kiss until their mouths were just pressing against each other gently. This kiss was even better than he imagined it could be, and he’d done a lot of imagining about it over the past couple of weeks.
Reed took a step back, even though he wanted to keep Lauren close. “That was…” He shook his head as if trying to dislodge the words that could describe how he was feeling after the kiss.
“I know,” Lauren responded, surprise highlighting her face as though she couldn’t believe how a simple kiss could be so defining.
“Mummy! Reed! Are you coming? I’m hungry.” Charlee appeared in the doorway.
“Good timing,” Lauren murmured, blowing out a long breath, before stepping past him toward her daughter. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Pizza!”
“We don’t have anything to make them. I’m sorry sweetie, we’ll have to see what I brought over and then we can make something.”
“Or we could order them,” Reed interrupted. “It’s your first night we should mark the occasion with something special.”
“We can order a pizza?” Charlee asked her eyes wide as if she’d never had take-out pizza before. And considering the first time he’d had dinner with them, and they’d made them, he guessed they probably hadn’t.
“We can, if your mum says it’s okay to do that. Or we can look in the fridge. I think between what I’ve got and what you brought over we can come up with something yummy.” That was what he should’ve led with instead of saying that they could order something.
“But I want pizza.” Charlee pouted, something he’d never seen the little girl do before.
He looked over at Lauren mouthing I’m sorry, knowing that what he’d said had caused this little tantrum.
“Charlee, that’s enough,” Lauren said firmly. “This is our first night in Reed’s house, and only because of that, I’ll give in and we can order food, but I don’t want you to think all you have to do is pout and you’ll get your own way. You know better than that.”
Before his eyes, Charlee’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Mummy, but I was just so excited. I’ve got my own room.”
Lauren flinched at the flyaway comment, and Reed didn’t need to be a genius to know she believed she’d failed her daughter because she hadn’t been able to provide her with something most kids had.
“I know. It’s been an exciting day all round.” Lauren pulled Charlee into a hug and kissed the top of her head.
Reed was impressed. Lauren diffused the situation while also teaching a lesson to her daughter. No way did he think that all parenting situations could be resolved so easily. Heck, he and Ben had been loud and boisterous, causing their parents no end of stress with some of the things they’d gotten up to. Next time might not be so easy.
“Okay. Let me get the menu. They woodfire the pizzas where I normally get them from and they’re delicious.”
“Woodfire? What’s that?” Charlee asked her nose scrunching in the most adorable way.
Reed explained it to her as they made their way to the kitchen. He grabbed his phone and pulled up the shop’s website. “What toppings do you want? I know you normally have cheese, and we can do that, but if you’d like ham, bacon, pepperoni or even pineapple we can add that.”
“Eww not pineapple. I don’t like pineapple,” Charlee declared.
“How about you Lauren, what do you want?” When his gaze collided with hers, tears made her blue irises brighter than normal. Immediately he got up and went over to her. “Are you okay?” He pitched his voice low so that Charlee didn’t hear and get distressed that her mum was upset.
“I’m okay. You’re so patient with her. Have you been around a lot of kids?”
“No, I’ve just watched how you’ve interacted with her. The way she is with you. You don’t talk down to her or treat her like she needs everything dumbed down. You talk to her in a way that she can understand but isn’t too over complicated.”
“You can’t be real,” Lauren whispered.
“I assure you I’m very real. I’m just me. What you see is what you get. Everything will be okay, you’ll see.”
He wanted to take away the stress from her. Wanted to make it all go away, but it wasn’t that easy. They didn’t know Patrick’s end game, and until they did, they were working blind.
The message from sending the photos to both him and Lauren were clear—Patrick could find them wherever they went. Even with all the security he had and the fact that Wilt had connected it to Power’s system, there was still the risk that something could happen. Until Patrick was contained he would need to be alert and call on all his training to protect the mum and daughter in his house. Ones who were becoming more and more important to him with every passing moment.