Chapter 41
I wake up with a steel pipe nestled between my butt cheeks. My inexperience is showing, because I thought morning wood was a joke. But what I'm pressed against doesn’t feel funny at all. I’m hyperaware of everywhere our bodies are touching.
The sheets cover us from the waist down, and my breasts are on full display. I skate my hand beneath the sheets and yep, I’m naked. Reid’s still in his boxer briefs but that's the only thing between us.
I'm particularly chipper this morning. The mind-altering orgasm last night led to the best sleep of my life. I touch the cool pendant resting on my sternum. No one’s ever bought jewelry for me before.
I'll need to get my dress laundered because it might be the nicest thing I own. Well, not including my Reid-coat and boots. He’s spoiling me and I don’t hate it—he makes me feel deserving.
Without Reid’s heavy arm holding me down, I'm able to sneak out of bed, not bothering to put on any clothes or a robe.
I pad silently to the living room, taking my time to admire every detail of the freaking garden filling the space.
The soft fragrance of roses fills the cool morning air, and it still feels like a dream.
I drink a glass of cold water and refill it to bring back to the bedroom.
He's so fucking gorgeous. I love him relaxed like this. The harsh lines from his perma-scowl are evened out, and his dark eyelashes fan out prettier than they have the right to. Why are long eyelashes wasted on men? I’d like to lodge a formal complaint with the people-making people.
I take my time devouring his glorious naked body. The scarring is painted from his hairline, down his brow and temple, cheek, and jaw. It continues on the side of his neck and spreads down to cover the top of his shoulder and drips down his pec, tapering off on his ribs.
I desperately want to touch him. I want to touch and kiss and worship every part of him to show him he isn’t damaged. Now that we’ve blown open the door to intimacy, I hope he'll let me.
Happiness surges through me, thirteen-year-old Isabelle would be catatonic if she knew Reid Andersen was practically naked, in my bed. Giddiness surges through me, and I launch myself onto the bed and straddle Reid like a bucking bronco. And buck he does because I scare the bajeezus out of him.
“What the—holy shit, Isabelle, I think you gave me a heart attack. Thank god you didn’t knee me in the balls. Fuck.” But he's smiling, and I'm giggling.
His eyes immediately darken as he takes in my naked body. His hands meander to my hips and continue up the slope of my waist. He grips me hard, and I feel his cock twitch beneath me. He sucks in air through his teeth.
“Baby you’re so fucking gorgeous. Your body is incredible—perfect for me.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not blind. I don’t look like the girls you used to hook up with. I’m not model thin, and my boobs are small. But I have ass enough to spare so that’s something,” I joke.
His hand comes down hard on my ass with a loud pop.
“Did you just spank me?” I squeal, rubbing the stinging handprint.
“Yes, and I’ll do it again if you ever talk about yourself like that again, you hear me? You're a stunner, a knock-out, the only centerfold I ever want to lay eyes on ever again.”
I blush deeply from his compliments.
His hands roam softly across my hips and thighs as he muses. “You're so my type it’s not even funny. I was a goner the first time I saw you. Your body is the ultimate temptation. I stare at your ass every chance I get.” He grabs my ass in two large handfuls, spreading me enough to make me gasp.
“This hourglass figure of yours makes my hands itch to wrap around your waist.” He does as such, and his thumbs press into my soft stomach and his fingers spread wide against my back. His hands are huge , and they feel incredible.
“These tits, fuck sugar, they star in every single one of my dreams, day and night.” He envelopes my entire breasts in his hands, kneading them reverently.
“I thought I was going to die when I saw your nipple piercings for the first time. All my blood rushed to my dick, and I think several brain cells starved to death because I was hard for so long.” He thumbs the cool balls on each side of my nipples.
“When did you notice them?” I’m genuinely curious because I’ve tried so hard to be modest and professional around Reid. I can’t help but moan from how good his hands feel on me.
He bites his bottom lip, completely focused on my breasts. “The last time we came here. The night you asked me about the ranch.”
He pauses and settles his hands back on my waist. “You came out for a drink of water. That chunky sweater you were wearing did a shit job at covering you because your nipples were testing the limits of your tank top. I could see every bump of the barbell ends and your nipples. Haven’t stopped thinking about them and praying they’d make another appearance. ”
His eyes burn with hunger. “When’d you get them?” Rough hands tighten on my waist and hips.
“When I lived in Denver.” I hesitate, embarrassed about the truth.
“I left Swiftwater without a plan, I couldn’t bear the town’s cruelty anymore.
I stayed in women’s shelters until I could afford to rent a room anywhere.
It took a few months, but when I was settled, I went and got them pierced with the little money I had left over.
I should’ve spent the money on groceries or saved it.
But it had been several years since…that night…
and I’d never even kissed a man. I wanted to feel sexy.
” I shrug like it was no big deal, hoping to minimize Reid’s pity.
His glimmering gemstone eyes rove across my face. The intensity of his attention tightens my chest.
“You are the strongest person I’ve ever met, Isabelle. You walked through hell and somehow retained your humanity, kindness, generosity, and sense of humor. Don’t ever feel ashamed for doing what you had to do to survive.”
His focus trails downward and my nipples pebble as if he’s touching me. “You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. I fucking love these.” He gently tweaks the barbells threaded through my sensitive nipples.
We look at each other, soaking in the moment of intimacy. I muster the courage and ask, “Can I touch you?”
“You’re butt ass naked sitting on my dick, sugar. I’d say we're way past touching.” He laughs.
“No, Reid. I mean, I want to touch every part of you. I want to touch your chest, your shoulders, and your face. I'm so ridiculously attracted to you. Every. Part. Of. You.” Does he understand I’m asking permission to touch his scars?
He tucks his hands behind his head, baring himself to me.
“Yea, baby, you can touch me.”
Needing no further permission, I trace gentle fingertips along his lower stomach, between my spread legs, across the waistband of his underwear. His stomach dips and tenses at the sensation.
I flatten my palms against his sides and drag them up and down his ribs, coming together on his lower chest, just below his pecs. I trace a path with my fingers down the center of his abdomen, following his happy trail, eliciting a heady groan from his throat.
“You’re so fucking hot, Reid. I’m obsessed with your body,” I say into his stomach.
I swallow, desperate and anxious to keep going.
I tilt my hips forward and support my weight with my right arm leaving my left hand to explore the scarred right side of his body.
Gently, but not ticklish or tentatively, I run my hands over the textured skin on his pec and dip down to place soft kisses across his flesh.
“Isabelle.” He groans in pleasure and frustration.
He already told me he hasn’t been touched above his belt in almost eight years. This must be overwhelming for him, and my heart soars that he trusts me to be the one to break the spell.
I repeat the pattern of my touches and kisses along his shoulder. When my mouth touches his neck, his hands fly out from behind his head and grab me by the waist, halting my motion.
“I’m sorry,” I gasp, pulling away from him—but his tense fingers tell me to hold still.
“Sugar, I don’t know how much longer I can lay here and take you touching me, with your entire body available to me. I’m trying to be a good man, a better man, for you. If you don’t want things to go any further, you’d better hop off and get dressed.” He sounds pained, offering for me to stop.
But I don’t want to stop.
I'm in love with Reid, and he proved to me last night that he respects me, taking the utmost care with my body. I know with every fiber of my being that I want Reid to be the one to take my virginity.