Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sophie
Reid’s friends were wonderful. I’d known they would be, but I’d needed to see for myself. To shut up the mean anxiety voice in my head.
Cade and I had especially bonded over books and I had a whole list of new titles to read, and I’d given her some too.
Then there was Eloise. Eloise freaking Roth . The famous author. Famous by anyone’s standards. She’d published dozens of bestsellers and traveled all around the world promoting them. She rubbed elbows with so many other famous people, not just authors. Just talking to her was a privilege.
“I can’t believe Eloise said she’d help me out,” I said for the tenth time. I couldn’t stop gushing to Reid on the way back, but she didn’t seem annoyed or anything. She just smiled at me from the passenger seat.
“She’s cool like that. I should have hooked the two of you up sooner. She could definitely help open doors for you with your career.”
That was something beyond my wildest dreams.
“So, you had a good time?” Reid asked.
“Yeah, I really did. Honest.”
“You didn’t have to use your safe word,” she said, reaching across the console to set her hand in my lap. I laced our fingers together.
“I didn’t.” But I’d had it in my back pocket. Just in case. That meant more than I could express to her. That she’d known this would be hard for me and had given me the support I needed.
“You’re a good person, Reid,” I said, and she scoffed. “You are. But don’t worry. I’ll keep it a secret.” I whispered the last part.
Reid laughed. She’d been smiling and laughing a lot today. She’d been comfortable in a way I hadn’t seen her be, outside of our time together.
“Did you have a good day?” I asked her.
“Mmmm, I did. Surprisingly. If you would have told me I’d go and bounce on the trampoline before we got there, I would have said you were high, but it was fun. I had fun.”
I pretended to gasp. “Reid Hayward had fun? Shocking.”
“Shut up,” she said through a laugh before raising our joined hands to kiss the back of mine.
“Never,” I said.
I didn’t ask her if she wanted to come into my apartment with me after the party. She just followed me in, setting down the empty pan that had once held the cobbler. It had been devoured and my baking skills had been complemented. Both Maggie and Torrin had asked for the recipe.
Reid sunk down onto my couch with a sigh after she’d kicked her shoes off. I did the same, sitting next to her. She put her arm around me, pulling me closer.
“I love my friends but listen to that.” She paused and I stayed silent.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Quiet,” she said.
“Oh.”
Her eyes went wide. “I didn’t mean you had to be quiet. I mean now I don’t have to hear anyone else but you. You’re my favorite person to listen to, Soph.”
Well.
“That’s a nice thing to say.”
Reid ran one finger down my nose, over my lips, and down my chin.
“It’s the truth.” Her finger drew me closer until our lips met.
“Wait,” I said, and she instantly pulled back. “No, I mean, I just wanted to say that I know this is all still new and you’ve been so careful and sweet with me, but you don’t have to. I mean, I’m still nervous, but I feel safe with you. I want…I want to do more.” Not sure what that more was yet.
“What kind of more, baby?” she asked, voice going low in that way that made tingles go up and down my spine.
“I don’t know. But I’d like to see?”
Reid nodded. “We can absolutely do that. Want me in charge again?”
I nodded eagerly and she chuckled. “You ready now?”
Absolutely.
I led Reid to my bedroom again and this time, I was ready for her to see more of me. No more hiding under blankets and sheets. I wanted to see her too.
“Can you take off your shirt?” I asked her and she put her finger up to silence me. It should have been irritating, but it wasn’t. Not when we were like this together.
“You said I could be in charge, remember?”
I nodded against her finger.
“So I think you should take your shirt off first.”
Oh . Warmth pooled and settled in various parts of my body as the air grew thick between us.
I reached down and pulled my shirt over my head. I had a bra on underneath. It was simple but pretty and pink. I’d worn it in the hopes that she would see it and enjoy it.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” Reid said, reaching for me and stroking her hands up and down my sides, causing goosebumps.
“Let me see what’s under that skirt, baby,” she asked softly.
I pulled down the zipper on the side and shimmied out of the skirt. The bottoms I had on matched my bra. Reid didn’t need to know that most days I didn’t bother to match.
“Damn, Sophie,” Reid said. “You’re killing me here and you’re not even naked. Get that cute ass on the bed.”
I laughed as I launched myself onto the bed with a flying leap.
“That’s one way to do it,” Reid said, laughing as she crawled up next to me.
“I know you’re being all bossy and everything, but can you please take your clothes off?” I asked. “Please?”
Reid closed her eyes. “Fuck, you could get anything you wanted when you say that, and you look at me like that.” She stripped off her shirt, revealing a classic black cotton bra. That wasn’t a surprise.
“More?” I asked.
Reid sighed. “You know you’re not being very good at letting me top you, baby.”
“Sorry,” I said, but I wasn’t.
Once Reid had stripped out of her jeans, I got to see her in just her underwear.
“Scared?” she asked, stretching out next to me on the bed, laying on her side.
“No,” I said. I wasn’t scared right now. A little apprehensive. But there was no fear.
“You ready to get naked?” Reid asked.
I took a shaky breath. “Yeah.”
I sat up and watched her as I slid my bra off and let it fall to the floor, pausing while I hooked my fingers in my bottoms.
“All of it,” Reid said, that low command back.
Now or never.
I shimmied out of my bottoms and lay back on the bed, completely and totally naked with another human for the first time.
“Look at you,” Reid said, leaning closer. “You’re absolutely fucking gorgeous , Sophie.”
In that moment, I wasn’t thinking about scars or flaws or stretch marks or any of my other insecurities. I was only thinking about the way that Reid was looking at me.
“You’re utterly perfect,” she said, her voice soft and reverent. “Can I touch you?”
“Yes,” I said. “Please.”
Reid’s fingers were light as she traced them from my cheek down my neck and the top of my chest, fluttering along my collarbone. Those touches were so light that I could barely feel them.
I grabbed her hand and used it to cup my breast, moaning at the contact.
“Oh is that how it’s going to be?” Reid said through a laugh. “You’re a little bit of a brat, you know that?”
“I’m not,” I said as she started stroking me, circling my nipple. Oh, that felt so good . Much better than when I touched myself.
“I have to kiss you, baby,” Reid said, her voice sounding a little desperate.
I reached up to put my hand on the back of her neck to pull her closer until our lips met, causing both of us to moan.
Before I knew it, Reid had straddled me, her entire body pressing me into the mattress. Her weight was warm and heavy in the best way. Oh god, I could come just from kissing her like this.
Reid systematically took me apart with her lips and her tongue and her hands that roamed and touched and teased as her hips just barely thrust against me.
“ Fuck ,” I gasped, and Reid chuckled into my mouth.
“You’ve been wanting this, haven’t you, baby? Been craving it?”
I whimpered an answer.
“Do you want me to touch your pussy? See how wet you are for me?”
Another desperate sound. She’d robbed me of the ability to speak.
“Or maybe I should make you check first? Touch yourself, Sophie. Show me.”
Holy hell. With a shaking hand, I slipped my fingers between us and touched my throbbing clit and moved lower to my entrance which was dripping.
“Show me, Sophie.”
I raised my hand between us, presenting Reid with the evidence of my arousal.
She smiled. “That’s what I thought.”
Before I could gasp, she’d sucked my fingers into her mouth, her tongue circling and licking and sucking in an obscene way that made my clit pulse with need and my pussy ache to grip onto something.
My wand vibrator was great, but it could never top this. Never in a million years.
“Mmmm. You taste sweeter than I imagined,” she said. “Can I touch you now?”
I could only nod my agreement.
Reid pushed up on her forearms and scooted further down my body, dropping sweet little kisses on my skin as she went. She knew what she was doing and everything she did was right.
“You still with me, baby?” she asked.
My hands had been gripping onto the blankets beneath me, but I let go and stroked a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face. Reid never wore her hair up, not even when she was bartending. It was always messy in a sexy way.
“Yes,” I said as she looked up into my eyes, hers like pools of melting chocolate and flecks of gold leaf.
“If I do anything that isn’t working for you, I want you to say something. This doesn’t work unless we’re both enjoying it. And if there’s something you want me to do, you need to tell me. Understood?” Her tone was stern again and it made my breath stutter in my lungs.
“Y-yes,” I said.
“Good girl,” she said, and I gasped. She gave me a devious smile before she pushed my legs wider. “Lift your hips up for me, baby.”
I did and she shoved a pillow underneath that she pulled from the head of the bed.
“Look at you. Pink and pretty and perfect,” she said. There was only a small flash of embarrassment about being so open in front of her, but it went away as she gazed at me.
“God, you’re gorgeous everywhere.”
I shifted on the pillow and she noticed. Reid always noticed.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to lick you and touch you and fuck you with my fingers until you come. I’m not giving up until that happens. I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to take care of you, Sophie. Know that.”
I dug my fingers into her scalp. “I know.”
“Good,” she said. “Let’s find out what you like.”