Chapter 12
Quinn
As I race up the sweeping staircase, I hear Reid’s treads behind me.
His steps are slower, but only because he’s taking the stairs two at a time.
He’s gaining on me. I’d left him to straighten out his limbs after being scrunched up in the Jeep, but now his deep, steady breaths are right behind me.
I’m only halfway up the stairs when an arm wraps around my waist.
“You’re taking too long,” he says, tossing me over his shoulder in one swift movement.
I yelp as I stare down his back to the bone-splintering drop below us. My ass is stuck in the air, and my dress is scrunched around my waist. I presume Reid must like the view because he groans. A second later, his hand moves up the back of my thigh.
I fist his dark blue button-down. “Very caveman.”
He slaps my ass cheek, making me jump. “Are you complaining again?” he asks as he rubs my bare skin.
My jaw drops. “Did you just spank me?”
Reid pulls my panties to the side and slides his hand between my legs. “Did you like it?” he asks as his fingers glide along my soaking wet pussy. “Feels like you did.”
I can’t think of a quick retort because my brain is too busy dealing with the sensations making my lower belly twist with want and need, and so much urgency.
My groan of objection transforms into a low, throaty rasp as he plunges his fingers inside me.
I brace my arms against his back so I have enough leverage to press my hips forward. I grind against his hand.
“Lost your tongue, Viper?”
“No!”
Reid pumps his fingers in and out, plunging deep and making my muscles clench and unclench around him.
Tingles ripple up my spine. I’m lost to the sensation, so it takes a moment before I notice Reid’s stopped on the second floor.
We’re wasting time. I want him on top of me, inside me, under me, behind me. I want him every damn which way.
“What are you waiting for?” I pant.
“I was hoping you’d tell me where your room is.” He’s trying to sound nonchalant, but there’s a strain to his voice.
I roll my eyes. “If you hadn’t been distracting me, we’d be fucking by now.”
Reid nips the fleshier part of my thigh with his teeth. He licks where he’s bitten then sucks hard until I’m groaning again. “Noted,” he says.
“Fine. Turn left and it’s the fifth door on your right.”
“Which is Jason’s room?”
“Opposite side of the house,” I say as Reid heads towards my room. “He was next door, but he plays his video games throughout the night and all that yelling and screaming drove me mad.”
“Let’s hope it’s not your screaming he gets to complain about next.”
“You think you can make me scream?” I ask as Reid carries me into my bedroom.
He folds me down onto the mattress, then turns to close and lock the door. He starts unbuttoning his shirt as he stalks back to the bed. “Absolutely,” he promises. “And it’ll be my name you’re screaming.”
“I’ve screamed asshole plenty of times,” I say with a smirk. “Almost exclusively at you.”
“Not good enough,” he says as he drops down onto the bed. “I want full exclusivity.”
Reid’s legs settle between mine, and as he leans over, his shirt falls open. My fingers itch to trace the defined ridges of his chest, but I hold back because… well, because the anticipation is making my body sing and I’m enjoying teasing Reid too much.
“It’s only me you get to call asshole from now on,” Reid continues, and there’s an edge to his voice despite the playful tone. “Let me be your everything, Quinn. Because you’re fast becoming mine.”
My breath stills. I think my heart does too.
Fuck. I see the fall and I need to step back.
We can’t do this. Not now. It’s the wrong time.
The wrong place. The wrong everything. Don’t do this to me, Reid, I want to say.
But I can’t because he’s staring at me with those bright green eyes that pierce my soul.
I squeeze my eyes shut and try again. “No, no, no,” I mumble under my breath.
Blake comes first. She has to.
Annoyance bubbles inside me and when it breaks the surface, it solidifies into anger. I snap open my eyes. “I see what you’re doing, Reid. You couldn’t force me to abandon my plan so now you think you can seduce me instead.” I slam my hands against his chest. “You fucking asshole!”
I’m going to push him away. I swear I am. But the second my fingertips make contact with his skin, a shudder runs through my body and my resolve shatters. My hands go to his neck, then up to his scalp to grab a fistful of hair.
“Listen, and listen good,” I tell him. “I want you. My body wants you. But don’t even think about making me catch feelings for you, Reid. Make my world better today, but don’t ask me for tomorrow.” The words catch in my throat. “I can’t give it to you. And you certainly can’t take it.”
Reid flinches, then drops his forehead to mine. “One day isn’t enough,” he whispers.
I have to swallow hard. “I know. But tomorrow’s problems can wait. I can’t. Please. Give me beautiful, short-lived, spectacular joy,” I beg. “I need you in the now. It’s as far as I dare look.”
Reid’s nose brushes against mine as his mouth ghosts my lips. There’s hunger and desperation in every breath we share, but this moment is too intense to rush. We keep our eyes open, too close to see each other clearly, and yet I feel completely seen.
I lick along the sharp line of his mouth and his lips part. My tongue explores deeper, but as I swipe and tease, Reid doesn’t respond. He’s resisting. He knows he can’t keep his prize, and he’s struggling with that.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” he admits.
“Yes, you do.” I kiss him again, and this time his tongue tangles with mine. “Fuck me, Reid. Make me scream your name, asshole.”
A growl vibrates deep within his chest. “Always the viper.”
I bite his lower lip. “Always your viper.”
Our mouths clash, and as I suck on the tongue that invades my mouth, I drag Reid’s shirt down over his shoulders.
I pull it past his rippling biceps as our kiss deepens, then tug harder as the sleeves snag around his wrists.
Reid’s of no help because he’s preoccupied with taking off my jacket.
Our desperation gets us tangled in fabric and frustration.
Reid rears up onto his knees and pulls off his shirt.
In daylight, I can see tattoos on his arms I hadn’t noticed before, but my eye goes to the griffin inked across his side and chest. The talons look like they’re piercing his skin, suggesting a hold that will never be broken. I know how deep sibling loyalty goes.
As I shrug out of my jacket, I feel the weight of the Glock in my inside pocket. I take it out and put it on the bedside table. Reid unbuckles his holster and places his gun next to mine.
“You could have pulled a gun on me in the car all this time,” I point out.
“A gun is useless if you’re not prepared to use it.”
“You’ve clearly opted for a different weapon,” I say, glancing down to the very prominent ridge of his erection.
Reid reaches into his back pocket, then drops a slightly crushed box of condoms onto the bed. A second box joins it.
“Ready to be taken, Quinn?”
I suck on my lower lip and nod.
Reid slides his hands slowly up the outside of my thighs. As he lifts my dress, I shuffle from side to side so he can pull it over my head, leaving me in just my underwear. He peppers kisses from my neck to my belly button, palming my breasts as he moves lower to snag my panties between his teeth.
“Time to get naked,” he groans before straightening up and pushing himself back off the bed.
While Reid quickly discards the rest of his clothes, I unhook my bra and wriggle out of my panties.
We take a moment to devour each other’s bodies with our eyes, but a moment is too long without his touch.
I open my legs wide, and Reid settles between them like he belongs there.
He pushes me back and I fall against the mattress with a needy groan.
“Damn, I’ve dreamt about this,” Reid says as he brings his mouth to one of my pebbled nipples.
I grind against the rigid cock digging into my stomach, sending jolts of pleasure to where my body throbs loudest. He hears the desperation in my moans and as he cups my pussy, his middle finger parts me.
He glides up and down my center until his fingertip is slick with my arousal, then circles my clit with the perfect amount of pressure. My hips stutter in response.
I tug at Reid’s hair until he breaks the seal of his lips around my nipple. “Fuck me,” I demand.
We reach for the condoms at the same time, and I snatch them up. I tear desperately at the cellophane with my teeth to open the box. Cardboard rips and silver foil wrappers rain down on us. Reid rises up on his knees, and rolls a latex over his leaking cock.
I’ve already had him inside me, but it’s only in the daylight that I get to see how big he is. As he fists himself, he watches me watching him. My eyes dilate. I’d felt him stretching me and filling me in the woods, and I need to feel that completeness again.
I hook my feet around Reid’s hips, and as I tug him back to me, he runs his hands up my calves. My legs aren’t as smooth as they could be, but his thumb brushes over my skin with pure adoration in his eyes.
As he leans over, bracing against one arm, we stare between our bodies as he glides the crown through my center, teasing me. He rubs himself against my clit, and the jolt of electrified pleasure has my ass lifting off the bed.
“Don’t make me beg,” I plead. “Fill me, Reid. Leave no space between us.”
A flicker of devilry tugs at the corners of his mouth, but when his eyes lock on mine, the intensity of our connection turns from playfulness to searing possession.
“You’re mine,” he says gruffly as he seats himself at my entrance.
He uses both arms to hold himself above me, and his biceps ripple with tension. “Say it, Quinn.”
I go to shake my head, but the internal argument I’m having is with myself, not him. Then I remember what I’d said about leaving the difficult stuff for tomorrow. “I’m yours,” I say. “Today.”
Reid’s features cloud. “You’ll give me more,” he promises as he enters me slowly. “But for now, I’ll take a day at a time.” He pushes deeper. “An hour at a time.” He stretches and he fills. “An inch at a time.”
I take all of him, pressing my hips to his as I adjust to his size. We leave no space between us. Just like I’d asked. And it feels so damn perfect as he moves against me in waves. I rock with the ebb and flow with him, skin slapping skin, desire meeting need, ruination meeting salvation.
As I open my mouth on a gasp of raw pleasure Reid swallows my joy.
He plunders my mouth with his tongue as our bodies rock and writhe with increasing urgency, creating delicious friction that makes my clit thrum.
My pussy walls clench down hard around him, and I’m aware of every inch he withdraws until his tip is rubbing against my entrance.
“You’re so tight,” he says. “Your pussy doesn’t want to let me go even if you do.”
Before I can reply, he drives into me again. I press my feet to his ass and I’m panting through the flutters taking over my lower belly. “I don’t want to let you go,” I say as he pulls out again.
His next thrust steals my breath. “But you will.”
I cup his face and stroke my thumbs along his cheekbones. “I’ll come back to you,” I promise.
Reid’s pace becomes more insistent. “Maybe,” he says, his brow creasing. “But if you can’t, Quinn, I’ll come and get you.” He thrusts harder. “Wherever you are. Whatever happens. I’ll come for you.”
My heart swells as I absorb every emotion that passes between us. Desire. Despair. Fear. Pleasure. Lust. And something deeper that I don’t want to name. Those feelings coil like a snake inside me, writhing and twisting.
“Reid,” I gasp as the pressure demands release. My hands remain clasped to his face. We don’t break our gaze. “Fuck me hard. Fuck me as hard as you can.”
He hooks his hands around my shoulders to keep me in place as he slams into me. “Take every inch of me,” he grunts. “Take it all, Quinn. It’s yours.”
Sparks ignite at my core. Heat rises and I’m lifted with it. Up and up and up I go. “Oh god. I’m going to–” I’m teetering on the edge of a precipice.
Reid fucks me at a piston pace. “I’ve got you,” he says. “Wherever you’re going, baby. Take me with you. Now.”
Now. It’s all about this moment. This sweet moment. It’s all about us and what we could be. Reid Griffin completes me. This man I want to hate. This man of my dreams who’s arrived in the middle of a nightmare.
“Reid!” I scream as my body erupts.
The euphoria is all-consuming, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, and as I shatter around his cock, stars explode in front of my eyes.
Reid’s movements become a blur. His mouth falls open on a grunt and with a final thrust, he holds himself tight against me. His cock pulses and he empties into me.
His mouth crushes mine, and our kisses are messy because we’re smiling as we continue to ride the waves. We grind and thrust against, and with each other as we savor the ebbing tide of pleasure.
I keep my legs locked around Reid’s, refusing to let him withdraw as he settles his head against my sweat-damp and heaving chest.
“Can we stay like this for a while?” I ask. I’m not worried about being disturbed. Jason only comes into the house during the day looking for food. He won’t come upstairs to get showered and changed until around five, four at the earliest, and it’s not yet two.
“We can stay like this forever,” Reid says as his hand covers one of my breasts. His thumb brushes my nipple. “Your heart is beating through your chest.” He adjusts his hips, rubbing against my needy clit. “It’s not slowing down at all.”
“I wonder why,” I answer as he grinds against me.
His movements become more purposeful, and when he pulls out just an inch, he’s hard. “Again?”
“We do have two boxes of condoms to get through.”
“Reid, you’re going to ruin me.”
“It’s only fair,” he says with a grunt as he flips onto his back, taking me with him so I’m straddling him. “You ruined me first.”