Chapter Twenty-Nine Reed
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Reed
The spray beat down on my shoulders, hot water masking the chills crawling up my spine.
I stepped next to her and rested my palms on the tiled wall, trying to process what was happening.
Trying to understand how we got here. I’d been cleaning my guns, and she was supposed to read our messages and see how obvious it was that we didn’t belong with each other, and now here we were.
I pushed away from the wall and slowly faced her, ensuring I hadn’t hit my head and passed out. I deserved that kind of cruel fate, to wake up to the fact my mind was screwing with me.
My breath caught in my lungs when reality flexed its muscles. You’re here. And the evidence of what we did was on her body. My fingerprints marked her cheeks, her arms, her legs.
She remained quietly staring at me, her long, wet lashes fluttering. Her tongue catching drops of water when it should have been my tongue doing that for her.
I cupped water in my hands and ran it gently over her face, washing away my handprints, and she quietly watched me with those eyes that made me forget logic. Forget my past, the life I’d run away from.
I soaped up the loofah next and dragged it along her arm, her neck—avoiding her chain—then continued to clean the rest of her upper body.
Hesitantly, and maybe stupidly, I knelt before her. My jeans clung, becoming soaked through as I stayed there, washing my prints from her thighs.
Her hands rested on my shoulders, and when I looked up, the sight of her loosened something inside me. Every instinct begged me to bury my face between her legs, to taste her until she was shaking on my tongue.
I dropped the loofah, resting my hands on her outer thighs, breathing hard as I battled with the desperate urge to make her come.
Her fingernails bit into my shoulders, a plea to do exactly that.
But if I started . . . I knew where that would lead.
I groaned, hating myself, my past—all of it—and forced myself to stand.
“I’m sorry,” I mouthed.
“It’s okay.” She lightly nodded. So understanding. So perfect, and she had no idea just how broken and fucked up I used to be.
What if I still am?
She pressed her lips to mine, and that was all it took for me to forget again. Forget the darkness and the pain.
The water poured over us, and she melted into me. There was an achy need in her touch as she raced her hands over my body, arching into me.
I couldn’t handle it, not without snapping. I caught her wrists in one hand and swiftly brought her hands up over her head.
God help me, dominance only seemed to turn her on even more. Her back hit the wall as I kept her arms in the prison of my embrace.
She rolled her shoulders back, breathless, her tits starved for my attention as she breathed heavily.
“Are you allowed to touch me?” she cried out.
“I am touching you,” I growled, unable to take my eyes off her, wanting to take in every part of her from head to toe.
She wiggled her hips, bucking forward. “I’m trying to behave, I’m sorry. It’s just hard.” She squeezed her eyes shut, tilting her head to the ceiling, and I loosened my grip on her wrists but didn’t let go.
“Can’t control your tongue or your hands, hmm?” I asked, my voice rough as lust violently stormed through me, and I continued to fight back with everything I had in me.
“Trying to b-be good for you,” she sputtered. “Whatever you want, I’ll do it. Want me to behave? I will. We can’t have sex, I—I respect that. But if you want to push your fingers inside me and give me the first orgasm I’ll remember—”
“Fuuuuck.” I cut her off when her green eyes landed on mine, and she annihilated whatever was left of my self-control. I let go of her wrists and grabbed hold of her ass cheeks, guiding her to use my body however she wanted or needed to get off as I kissed her.
I convinced myself this was okay. That as long as I didn’t have sex with her, this wouldn’t screw me up in the head.
I wouldn’t have to start over again. No new reset point.
I dragged my mouth around to her ear as she whimpered and moaned, her hands flying across my chest, nails scratching me as she searched for relief by rubbing against my jeans.
No, this isn’t right. She deserved better than this, even if it’d destroy me. “I’m going to give you my hand, okay?” I pulled back to search for her eyes.
“But if that’s going to cause you—”
“You’re going to ride my hand, okay? I’m going to”—I swallowed—“put my hand between your legs, and you’re going to get off. You need relief. To feel better.”
“You’re sure?” She was still grinding against my jeans, a hand tangling my hair, the other clawing at my back.
Yeah, this woman needed some tension relief, that was for damn sure. I wouldn’t be walking away from her until she had it, either. I back seated my issues, removed my head from the past, and anchored myself to the moment.
My fingers feathered over her clit, and something inside me snapped.
My hand went around her throat, gently holding her steady as I kissed along her jaw, devouring her mouth again.
So much for just letting her use my hand. I was going to make her come with it. Dictate the movements. Each stroke. The amount of pressure.
I gave her everything I was physically able to with my touch. And if she wanted the universe? I’d find a way to get that for her, too.
She shuddered hard against my hand, orgasming.
I released her throat, and she pinned my hand between her legs as if not ready to be done yet.
I caught sight of a shadow in the doorway. That shadow launched into a full-on storm of barking before a familiar voice called out my name.
We weren’t under attack, but my team leader was about to have my ass.
“Don’t move.” I pulled my hand away, kissed her temple, then slid open the door to get out, water streaming off me. “Git,” I told Ranger, lifting my chin as a second command, feeling oddly protective of letting anyone, even an animal, see my girl naked.
I paused at the thought whiplashing me in the face. My girl? I shook it off, not yet digesting what had just happened in that shower and how fast I’d thrown five-plus years of practiced restraint out the window for her.
I snagged a towel and half-assed dried my hair as if my jeans weren’t plastered to my legs. “Coming, one sec.”
Ranger was waiting alone in the bedroom, hackles raised, still barking his head off.
“Where are you?” Alex that time—just great. I’d get a two-for-one lecture special.
I went out into the hall, Ranger following close behind. “When I said use my key for an emergency,” I hissed, “this wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Ryder said, waiting for me at the end of the hallway alongside Alex. “We got worried something happened.” He holstered his sidearm.
“Looks like something did happen,” Alex tossed out under his breath, securing his Glock as well. Silent judgment, or maybe amusement, was written into every line of his face.
“What?” I scoffed. “You don’t take showers in your jeans?” I dragged the towel across my chest. “Why were you calling?”
Ryder propped his hand up on the wall, shooting me an Are you kidding me? look.
I walked down the hall, water dripping from me with every step, a dark trail in my wake. I couldn’t stop staring at it, following the evidence of what I’d done.
My tongue had been in Hollis’s mouth, my hand between her legs, and I . . .
Ah, shit. I checked my jeans, praying my hard-on was gone. Thank God.
“What’s going on?” At Hollis’s soft voice, I froze mid-step, the towel slipping from my hand. She was supposed to stay back out of sight, but of course she didn’t listen.
She stood in the hall, damp hair over her shoulders, soaking through her shirt. Bare feet on the slick hardwood floors as she took cautious steps our way.
Her lips were still swollen from kissing, and they parted open in question.
Right. Why were we interrupted? I pivoted around to the reason I wasn’t making her come for a second time.
“Constantine called with news,” Ryder said, a worried expression crossing his face.
Hypocrite. The guy had once blown his own cover for Seraphina, and now he wanted to judge me?
Hollis stood alongside me, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering. She was cold, nervous, and exposed.
I shoved past the guys to grab a blanket from the hall closet. When I draped it over her shoulders, she looked up at me, eyes apologetic for not hanging back as I’d requested.
Ranger came around between us and planted himself on her feet like a guard, and I forced myself to face Ryder. “So?”
“Three people confirmed Hollis was at the rave in the library and that she wasn’t alone.” Ryder’s words hit me hard. “They wouldn’t turn over cell phones, and Constantine couldn’t exactly force them to do it.”
My spine went stiff, and my fingers curled inward at the sides of my wet jeans as I tried to rally, to get through whatever was about to hit me next, and I could feel it coming. Something that’d knock the wind from me. Wait, did he say . . . ?
“I wasn’t alone?” Hollis echoed my thoughts, playing catch-up to what Ryder had said. Meanwhile, my chest was splitting in two.
“The crowd allegedly scattered when they realized shots were being fired,” Ryder continued, not addressing her question.
Not yet, at least. “One witness saw you run to the back of the basement’s library and disappear.
He said the guy you were with covered your escape. Several men were shooting at you two.”
The guy you were with were the only words I could latch on to.
“The kid who threw the rave bought off the police and witnesses, as we suspected. I don’t think he asked his father to do it, since he seemed afraid for Constantine to talk to his dad, but who knows.
He just said he didn’t want to get in trouble.
Constantine’s still looking into any possible connection between the Putcheski family and who attacked you that night, especially since his father was in Italy at the time,” Ryder explained, his voice even-toned, a sharp contrast to how I was on the inside.
“Did anyone see the shooters?” I asked, trying like hell to get back to the mission and out of my own head.
“No. Vague descriptions, and it was dark with flashing lights down there.” Alex spoke up that time. “But, uh, one witness believes the man you were with was someone you were . . . well, uh, with.”
With? The word detonated in my head. I staggered back, nearly stepping on Ranger’s tail from the abrupt movement. My hand went to my sternum as I searched Hollis’s eyes for her reaction. She’d gone pale in shock.
“Well, he’s wrong,” she said a few moments later while recoiling, the blanket becoming a distant memory on the floor. “I wasn’t with anyone in that way.” She fisted her hand, tapping her mouth while staring at the floor.
You’re worried you cheated on some guy with me, aren’t you? I should have felt bad about that, but instead, I was dying on the inside for my own selfish reasons. That her heart may belong to someone else and that microscopic chance I’d stupidly thought I might have with her just blew the hell up.
But it was one terrified punk’s word. He could’ve easily made a mistake. How well could he see in a rave anyway? But try telling that to the weight in my chest.
“You don’t remember, though,” Alex reminded her, interrupting my spiral. “And you did tell Audrey you were going to Italy with someone.”
I was ready to lay him out for that. I dragged in a breath that scraped my lungs, trying to get back to mission-focused. But I was standing there in wet jeans, after showering with the subject of our operation, and I’d had my hand between her legs and my tongue in her mouth.
“Constantine showed the witnesses some other photos, too”—Ryder was next up to bat to interrupt my thoughts—“to see if we could get a hit on who may have betrayed you.”
“Who of?” she asked, her voice as fragile as my current state of mind.
“Pictures of your family. We discreetly took photos of everyone while we were at your parents’ place,” Ryder shared.
“One witness recognized Gideon.” He held up his hand as if to say Hold up.
“It’s because he beat Constantine to the punch, questioning the ravers yesterday.
Gideon found out about it before Constantine did.
Not a shocker given your family’s resources and power.
But here’s the kicker.” He leaned his shoulder against the wall.
“The college kid who saw you disappear also recognized the guy you were with when Gideon showed his own set of photos.”
“Gideon knows who I was with, then,” she whispered.
“I’m guessing Gideon didn’t name drop who that was during his questioning,” I muttered, and Ryder shook his head. “Any idea what he looks like?”
“Just a headshot was shown to him. Dark hair, gray eyes, and tan,” Alex said. “No real help.”
Dammit. “Any chance Gideon fed this kid a story he wanted relayed to us?”
“It’s worth considering. I could think of a few reasons why Gideon would do that,” Ryder responded, and I was about to breathe easier because I wanted this witness to be wrong, but his next words erased any chance of possible calm.
“But Constantine can be intimidating when he wants answers. From what I hear, people don’t lie to him, not unless they have a death wish. ”
I went quiet, unsure what to say next, when I overheard my phone ringing from down the hall in the gym.
“Expecting someone?” Alex asked.
Nope. I went and grabbed it, careful not to slip. It was my personal cell. Blocked number. “This is Reed,” I hesitantly answered.
“Gideon,” he responded, and my muscles banded tight at the sound of his voice, ready for a fight. “We need to talk.”
I placed him on speaker and returned to the others, holding out the phone. “We’re here and listening.”
“We need to speak in person,” Gideon said flatly. “Neutral territory. I heard you pulled in Falcon Falls, not just Constantine Costa, to help you out.”
Ryder set his hands on his hips, standing opposite me, eyes on the phone. “And?”
“We’ll meet at Carter’s hotel, the one he co-owns with that Irishman from The League. Switzerland doesn’t get more neutral than that.”
“Works for us,” Ryder agreed.
“Tomorrow,” Gideon demanded. “Reserve an entire floor.” The line went dead after that, and I lowered the phone to my side, checking on Hollis.
Her eyes were downcast and on Ranger pawing her leg, offering her emotional support that I might need myself.
Ryder muttered something about making calls, urging Alex away. But space wasn’t what I wanted. No, I needed them close because I was on the verge of losing it.
There was a chance Hollis may have been romantically involved with someone else, and I was assuming the worst and blowing things out of proportion. That was typical of my glass-half-empty self, but what if I was right?
What if someone Hollis cared about was out there waiting for a rescue? Or hell, what if they were already dead?