Chapter Eleven
Hazel
Reid was right, I was exhausted last night, but with one more Seven—and Reid if I was being completely honest with myself—round with my vibrator and I’d been out for a solid six hours before my alarm woke me at seven.
Rifling through the top drawer of my dresser, I shifted the pieces of lace and satin to the side as I tried to find the bright pink lace bustier I’d stashed in here last year. I’d never worn it, but I couldn’t resist it on the lingerie website when I’d found it on sale.
I wasn’t sure how comfortable it’d be to wear pressed against Reid on the back of his motorcycle, but I knew I needed it after listening to the chapter of the audiobook my latest commission was based on. The heroine had been stretched out across the handlebars of the hero’s motorcycle in only a thong and a lace bustier while he sat shirtless in his helmet and leather pants with her perched on his lap, his thumb strumming her into an explosive orgasm before he bent her over the side of the bike and fucked her.
My author had wanted that moment captured, the one right before the frantic fucking when the hero was worshipping her lace clad body. And while I’d been listening, I imagined the same scene, but with me in the heroine’s place and Reid running his hands over every inch of my body while he whispered dirty praises and coaxed an orgasm out of me.
Quickly donning it and the matching thong, I ran to my closet next to pull out jeans and a loose sweater. My black leather combat boots were next, and once I had them on, I paused in front of the mirror, studying my chaotic hair, deciding a sleek ponytail at the base of my neck was the safest way to wear it.
By the time I had my backpack ready to go, a knock sounding from my front door caught my attention, and I yanked it open, expecting my handsome model, but it was my best friend instead.
“Hey.” She smiled, stepping around me and plopping herself down on my couch as I followed her back into the apartment. “You look cute this morning. Got plans you didn’t tell me about?”
“Um…not that I’m not happy to see you, but why are you here so early? I didn’t think you and Hudson came up for air before noon most days.”
“It’s Sunday,” she said, like the answer should have been obvious. “Hudson is downstairs unloading the produce shipment with Reid and then he needs to do inventory and place next week’s order.”
I’d completely forgotten that was his usual weekly routine. At least Reid regularly helped him, and he wouldn’t be questioning why his best friend was in the bar this early.
“Why do you look guilty? And weren’t you on until midnight last night? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Normally, I would be. This girl loved her sleep, but I also needed to keep the momentum going on my commissions queue, so I didn’t fall behind. With Reid helping, I wouldn’t have to spend hours combing the internet for reference photos for the poses. We could create them in real time, and I could keep taking on new clients that I’d turned down before and keep up with my online coursework at the same time.
“I’m going somewhere this morning. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming over?”
She smirked, slowly assessing my outfit. “Where are you going dressed like that at eight on a Sunday? There isn’t really anything open for another few hours.”
“Donuts?” I asked, like an idiot, because the bakery was the only place I knew was open this early on a Sunday.
“Okay…and why was it so important for you to get donuts to day?”
“Does anyone really need an excuse to need donuts any day? I mean, donuts and potatoes need to be their own food groups in my opinion. But I digress.”
“Haz, are you okay? You’ve been a little jumpy lately. You’re not getting burned out, are you? I can talk to Hudson about cutting your hours if you need me to. He won’t get mad if he knows you need the time for your classes.”
“No! No…” I tried to lower my voice. “It’s fine. I’ve got plenty of time to keep working at the bar while I do my commissions and course work during the day. I promise I’m not getting burned out.”
She nodded, looking around the apartment, probably noticing that since she was gone, it wasn’t quite as neat as it’d once been. Despite her bad girl persona, once she’d started dating Hudson, his neat freak ways had rubbed off on her. “So, how have other things been going?”
“Things?” I asked, but we both knew what she was asking about. She wanted to talk about if either of the guys I’d left numbers for had texted me.
“Don’t play coy, Haz. Have either of them messaged you?”
“And the them you are referring to are?”
She narrowed her eyes, and I tried not to fidget. While I told her nearly everything, I wasn’t sure I wanted to share anything about Seven with her yet. “I’ll give you points for evasion, but you know I’m gonna keep asking until you give me more details.”
“Ten has not.”
“But…?” she asked, knowing he wasn’t the only person I left my number for.
“Seven has.”
“God, this is like pulling teeth,” she laughed, but I was still trying to figure out what to tell her without making him sound bad. She hadn’t designed the experiment for the singles to start immediately sexting each other, but it wasn’t like I’d even done that with Seven. Things with him were…complicated. They were beyond just innocent flirting, but not quite to R-rated territory. Not that I was opposed to it heading in that direction .
“He’s…nice?” God, now I was making him sound lame.
“Sounds like a dud,” a deep voice coming from the stairwell startled me, and I turned toward my open front door, trying not to gasp as I got an eyeful of Reid wearing the fuck out of a pair of black leather pants.
“Yeah, Haz. He sounds kind of lame,” Charley replied, giving Reid a pointed look over my shoulder. I could tell she was irritated he’d crashed her mission to get intel on my interactions with bachelors’ number seven and ten. “Maybe you need to cut Seven loose and focus on Ten. I can get his number so you can text him if you want. I know it breaks the rules, but we both know I’m not that great at following them, anyway.”
“Hey,” Reid cut in, stepping in behind me and resting his hand on the middle of my back. Even through the lace and my sweater, along with the leather glove covering his palm, it still sent tingles racing up my spine. Tingles I should not be focusing on. “Maybe Seven is still warming up. I wouldn’t count him out yet, and if Ten hasn’t messaged her, that’s his loss and she should chalk it up to him not being interested enough. If he wasn’t eager to send her a message right away, he’s not the right guy for her.”
“Maybe Seven is coming on too strong and Ten is just easing his way into things.”
Charley and Reid were staring at each other like I wasn’t in the room, or the person who these mystery men were supposed to be texting.
“Hey,” I interrupted as they opened their mouths to start another verbal volley. “Seven is holding his own. And I’m not cutting him out of anywhere.”
“See, told you.” Reid shot a satisfied grin at Charley, and she bit her lip as she raised an eyebrow back in response.
“And Ten hasn’t shown any interest at all, so I’ll pass on getting his number. If he couldn’t be bothered to send a text, then I don’t want to talk to him until he does.”
“But…” Charley argued, but Reid cut her off .
“I’m sure Haz is more than capable of running her own dating life. Maybe her best friend should butt out of it, especially when she is suggesting trying to undermine the setup of her own event.”
“Oh, I’m the one undermining the integrity of the event, huh?” she asked Reid, her eyes briefly cutting to mine. I frowned as I tried to gauge what she meant by that. “What about—”
“ Anyway ,” Reid said loudly, cutting her off. “I’m borrowing Haz to come help me work on the logo concept and design for Jay’s new restaurant plans this morning, so maybe you should go drag your boyfriend out of his office before he spends all day in there. I think he’s wrapping up the supply order right now.”
“Donuts, huh?” Charley asked, calling me out, but Reid was quicker.
“Yeah, I know the way to this girl’s heart. Gotta feed her donuts, so she’ll agree to help me.”
“You sure you want him to put you to work on your day off? I thought Jay was already working with the architect on all the designs for the expansion. He was talking to Annie about it earlier this week,” Charley commented, clearly fishing to see if Reid’s cover story was true.
“That’s just the architectural work. He’s still figuring out things on the marketing end himself, right, Reid?”
“Right,” he confirmed, shooting me a wink when Charley turned to grab the sweatshirt she’d thrown on the coffee table when she’d barged in earlier.
“Well, I guess I’ll let you two work on those marketing plans this morning.” She squinted as she looked at Reid, tilting her head to the side. “Do you have a black eye?”
“Um.” He cleared his throat, his eyes briefly darting toward me. “No. It’s just a bruise on my nose. I was working in the breakroom yesterday and something fell on my face.”
“What fell on your face?”
I definitely shouldn't say , “I did.”
“Oh, uh. A case of sterile gauze pads. Box turned, and the corner caught me right on the nose as it came down. It’d been rocking above me precariously, and I thought I could balance it before it fell. Guess I was wrong.”
“Ouch. Looks like it caught you pretty good. Did it hurt?”
My cheeks heated as I tried to keep myself from recalling the brief moments before my knee had slipped when I was perched above Reid yesterday. As the blush spread, I looked away, knowing that Charley would be suspicious if talking about how Reid bruised his face was making me turn into a tomato.
“Nah, it’s fine. Made it hard to breathe for a second, but I’ll get over it. I like a little pain sometimes.”
“Freak,” Charley responded with a giggle, shaking her head.
“Yup, that’s me. I kinda like the rush I get when things land on my face. You should see how excited I get when someone tries to smother me.”
His shoulder nudged mine, and I fought the urge to break out into a nervous giggle. Or focus on Reid commenting that he liked a little pain. That’d only make the blush worse.
“On that note, I think I’m gonna go.” Charley pushed Reid out of the way when she got to the doorway, pulling me into a hug. “You know I love you, right?”
I nodded, and she squeezed a little tighter. “Go with your heart, whoever you choose. But make him work for it. He doesn’t deserve you either way, but he needs to earn your attention.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Reid commented once Charley let me go and headed down the stairs. “He’s never going to deserve you, but make sure he shows you how much he wants you. Don’t take it easy on him.”
Smiling as I looked over at him, I realized maybe Reid wasn’t as emotionally stunted as I’d once thought he was. “Definitely don’t intend to make anything easy for him.”
“The hard way. I like it.” He grinned, and I tried to push away how seeing him smile like that made me feel. I needed to keep reminding myself Reid wasn’t an option. But Seven was.