14. Reece #3
I stare at her, stunned. Not angry. Just completely wrecked by the audacity. She’s blushing and grinning, her whole body trembling with laughter.
I sit back and rake both hands through my hair, trying to process the sheer chaos of the moment.
She covers her face. “Shit. I really shouldn’t have said that.”
I school my features into something resembling seriousness, then finally say, “I don’t doubt that.”
She looks up, blinking.
“I told you,” I murmur, dragging my thumb slowly over her bottom lip. “I’d ruin you for any other man.”
She exhales on a laugh. “You’re so cocky.”
“Am I?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Did he make you come?” I ask, tilting her chin up with that same thumb. The bratty look on her face vanishes when she sees the look in my eyes.
“Oh m?—”
“Did he?” I interrupt her, my tone clear. “Make you come?” I repeat the words slowly.
“No.”
“Have any of the boys you’ve been with been able to make you come?”
“No.”
“Now. Do I have a right to be cocky, Skye?”
She nods. I slip the tip of my tongue into her mouth and she sucks on it softly, like she knows exactly what it does to me. I pull back slightly, thumb trailing across her lower lip again, then bring it to my own mouth and suck on it like I’m tasting her all over again.
Her eyes darken.
“I thought so,” I say, my voice low and certain. Then I pull her closer to me, settling her body against mine so we can look at one another.
“Ask me what you’ve been dying to ask,” I whisper. “I can see it in your eyes.”
She stays quiet for a moment, her fingers idly tracing shapes across my chest. I rest one hand on her stomach, my thumb brushing soft circles against her skin, letting her have the silence until I feel her inhale like she’s gearing up to speak.
“You can ask me anything.”
Her head turns toward mine. Her expression is softer now, but her eyes are clear. Searching.
“Why didn’t you ever date again? After Lauren?”
I exhale slowly. I’ve told her pieces of the past, but not all of it. Not like this. “I went on a few dates,” I say, voice low. “Dinner. Drinks. Polite conversation. Nothing that meant anything. Nothing that stuck.”
“Why not?”
I tilt my head back against the pillow, staring at the ceiling for a moment before I speak. “Because I was still too in it. Grief. Guilt. And trying to raise a kid who needed more from me than I knew how to give.”
Skye doesn’t interrupt. She just listens.
“I told myself I couldn’t afford to get distracted,” I go on. “I had a business to build, a son to show up for, a reputation to protect. And part of me… part of me thought I didn’t deserve to move on.”
She shifts closer. “Why?”
“Because Lauren was good. Kind. And she loved me.” I pause. “And because I was gone too often. Absent even when I was in the room. And when she died, I had to face the fact that I wasn’t the man I’d promised her I’d be.”
Her fingers thread gently through mine.
“I failed her,” I whisper. “And I failed Archer.”
“You didn’t,” she says firmly. “You lost someone. That’s not failure.”
“No, but hiding behind work? Staying away from anything that felt real?” I glance down at her. “That was.”
She presses her lips to my shoulder, then rests her cheek there. “You showed up for him. That counts.”
“I could’ve done better.” She doesn’t argue. Just holds my hand a little tighter. I shift slightly. “What about you?”
Her brow furrows.
“Why didn’t you tell me what really happened between you and Archer?”
She pulls in a breath, then lets it out in a slow, steady stream. “I didn’t think it mattered. Not anymore.”
“It does to me.”
She looks up at me then. “He cheated.”
I still. “You’re sure?”
“I caught him. His sophomore year, my freshman. I—I had a gut feeling he was lying about where he was one night, so I went looking for him and found him in bed with some girl from his business ethics class. The irony wasn’t lost on me.”
My chest goes tight. I sit up slightly, brushing her hair back. “I had no idea.”
“I didn’t think you did. You were… busy. Building an empire.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, voice rough. “You didn’t deserve that.”
She exhales, long and slow. “It was a shock, that’s all. One day we were planning spring break, and the next… it was over between us and he transferred schools. Just disappeared. No explanation. No goodbye. It was the heartbreak and the confusion that wrecked me.”
My chest tightens.
She lets out a dry little laugh and shrugs like it’s just another story. “It was a long time ago. We were kids. He made a shitty decision and I paid for it with a broken heart. It happens.”
I watch her carefully. She shifts onto her back, her arm resting loosely over her stomach. Like it’s nothing. Like it didn’t change her but I don’t push. I slide closer, lean in, and press a kiss to her bare shoulder.
No more words. No more questions. Just basking in the presence of her for the night because in truth, it’s all I’ll probably ever get with her. My hand drifts across her stomach, slow and steady. She sighs and lets her eyes flutter shut.
But mine stay open. Because now that she’s said his name tonight, my mind won't stop going there. To Archer. To the image of her in his bed. To the way he never once told me what he did. Never acted like he lost anything.
My stomach tightens. I don’t know if it’s guilt or jealousy or both, but it’s bitter either way. Twisting low and hot in my gut.
I shouldn't be here. Shouldn't want her like this. And if he ever finds out… I don’t even let myself finish that thought. Because I know exactly what I’d do if the roles were reversed. And none of it ends well.