Sienna Langford
My legs were still weak as I pulled my skirt back down and smoothed it over my hips, and my pulse still hadn’t come all the way down. My panties were somewhere inside my purse now because they were too wet to put back on. Reek stood at the sink beside me, adjusting himself and fixing his shirt.
We were both still catching our breath.
I looked at him in the mirror, searching his face for some clue about what had gotten into him.
Part of me wanted to believe he had wanted me that badly, that the sight of me in this outfit had made him unable to wait until after the shower to get inside me again.
But I was too smart to lie to myself like that.
And that was dangerous because every day I stayed around Reek, every day I let him touch me, every day I kept telling myself I would handle it before it went too far, the truth got heavier and harder to bear.
I glanced at Reek again. He still hadn’t said a word.
He rarely did. That man could fuck me into weakness with strokes full of emotion and then go stoic as soon as he pulled out of me.
There was no softness or letting me in. I didn’t understand it.
I had been less performative with him lately and more honest. I stopped trying to be impressive and just started being me.
I knew that he was starting to like me as a person.
A man like him didn’t lay his head anywhere, and he was spending the night at my place more frequently.
We were even spending time together that wasn’t staged.
Still, no matter how open I was about my feelings. how much I catered to him, how regularly he ended up between my legs, he would not bend.
He could stomach my presence. Clearly, he liked fucking me. But wanting me in his life as something real wasn’t an option for him, and Reek guarded that boundary like the Secret Service guarded the president of the United States.
I fixed my lipstick with my finger as I thought there had to still be a way out of this that would protect me and keep Reek in my life.
Reek and the Cartiers had connections. I was starting to lean towards telling him the truth in hopes that he would, if not protect me, protect the pussy he enjoys so much and Project 83.
If I could just find the right time to come clean, maybe all of this didn’t have to end with me dead or behind bars.
“You ready?” Reek asked, finally looking at me.
I gave him a small smile. “Yeah.”
He unlocked the bathroom door, pulled it open, and I followed him back down the hall with my knees still weak.
By the time we stepped back into the shower, most of the guests had gathered in the main area around Saint and Zahra.
Somebody had dimmed the music a little. People were smiling, with their phones up, waiting.
In front of them was this huge cream-colored display with balloons, florals, and a big gold box set up for the reveal.
Zahra stood in the middle of it, glowing with one hand under her belly and the other tucked into Saint’s.
Saint looked like he was trying to play cool, but I could see the excitement all over him.
His smile was already too big. His eyes stayed on Zahra, like none of this would’ve mattered if she wasn’t standing there.
Saint stepped behind Zahra and wrapped one arm around her while they got into position.
Then everybody started counting down.
“Three! Two! One!”
Saint and Zahra hurriedly opened the display, and a burst of blue exploded out of it. Blue balloons lifted. Blue confetti rained down. Those who were rooting for a boy screamed. Others who were wishing for a girl howled in disappointment.
The music kicked up louder as Ava screamed excitedly, “It’s a boy!”
Saint lost his mind. That man howled so loud the whole room cracked up.
He threw his arms around Zahra, lifted her in the air and spun her around, like her belly wasn’t adding twenty pounds to her body weight.
Zahra squealed with the happiest grin on her face as they went around in circles way too fast.
Once he set her down, he grabbed Zahra’s face and kissed her like they were the only two people in the room. After that, he dropped down in front of her belly, rubbing it, talking to his unborn son like the baby could hear every word.
Everybody around them melted, but I just stood there watching a man let joy take him over in front of everybody, watching him love his wife and his child out loud, watching what it looked like when a man actually let himself feel.
I turned my head slightly and looked at Reek. He stood there handsome and unreadable.
He was a wall, and I hated how badly I wanted to be the woman who could tear that wall down.