CHAPTER 4 Reid
Reid
Right now the only thing Reid was aware of was the warmth of Maya beneath him.
There were a thousand things he admired about his wife. He loved her stubbornness. Her refusal to accept that things had to stay the way they were. The way she looked at a building and saw not what it was, but what it could be if someone cared enough to fix it.
Reid followed the rules. He always had, and he always would.
But Maya improved things. She could knock down walls and rebuild them better than they had been before her.
His mouth moved slowly along the curve of her neck, feeling the way her body arched instinctively toward him.
She didn’t just exist in the world.
She made it better.
The thought filled him with the same awed disbelief that never quite went away. Maya was his. Somehow.
She shifted beneath him, his beautiful, wonderful wife. One leg slid higher along his hip, pulling him closer with impatient pressure.
He lifted his head just enough to look at her.
Her hair was spread across the pillow, cheeks flushed, eyes bright.
He brushed his thumb along her jaw.
She blinked up at him.
“You deserve everything,” he told her. More than this, he didn’t add. More than me.
He reached for a condom.
He settled more firmly between her legs, pressing forward and she gasped at the feel of him. The sound sent a surge of satisfaction through him.
She sighed on her exhale, her hips tilting up to meet his.
The warmth of her, the yielding softness, the slick heat of her was almost too much. He breathed through his nose and held still, jaw tight. He needed to get a grip.
Her hands slid down his back, as she drew him closer again, her body shifting beneath his with a restless, impatient movement that made his breath hitch, and his body jerked, before he stilled himself.
“Maya,” he murmured again, warning this time.
She smiled against his mouth.
“You started it.”
He moved in her again, slower now, more deliberate, letting the moment stretch instead of rushing through it. He liked taking his time with her.
Liked the way anticipation stretched.
Liked the way her fingers tightened against his shoulders when he kissed the sensitive hollow beneath her ear. He liked the lush give of her under his hands.
She made a small sound that went straight through him.
The rest of the world fell away.
Just this. Just them.
The quiet rhythm of breath and movement and the woman he loved looking up at him like he was the center of her universe. As if that made any kind of sense.
He felt her beginning to unravel.
The small signs that he knew to look for. The tension in her thighs. The way her breath broke rhythm. Her fingers curling at his shoulder.
She groaned and Reid shifted his weight to one arm, sliding his other hand between them, finding her with his fingers.
Maya’s breath caught.
“There?” he murmured.
Her hips lifted into his hand. “Yes.”
He kissed her, keeping the pressure steady, the rhythm slow and sure while he moved inside her.
He knew what she liked. Knew when to soften, when to press harder, when to keep doing exactly what he was doing because her hands had gone tight on his shoulders and her breath was breaking apart against his mouth.
He kissed her, letting the moment stretch. She was his and he was hers. He didn’t want to ever lose her.
He felt her tightening around him, the rhythm of her body changing beneath his. He worked his hips, his hand, working her over until she lost herself in the waves of feeling.
“Reid—” Her breath caught sharply, her fingers digging into his shoulders, as the pleasure crested.
He kissed her again, deeper this time, losing some of the careful restraint he’d been holding onto.
He loved the moment she came apart, the sharp inhale, the way she clung, her body arching beneath him, tension pulling through her all at once.
He tried to hold back. She was still trembling beneath him and he wanted to give her every second he could. But she said his name again, broken and soft against his mouth, and the sound went through him like fire.
He held her tightly and lost himself in her. He followed her into his release with a helpless, gutted sound, pouring himself into her with everything he had left.
For a long time neither of them moved. He held her for a long time, the way he knew she liked.
Just warmth and breath and her heartbeat against his chest. Maya was soft beneath him. He pressed one more kiss to her shoulder, then another to the corner of her mouth.
“I’ll be right back,” he murmured when he could put it off no longer, easing away carefully to deal with the condom.
In the bathroom, he ran the tap until the water turned warm, soaking a flannel and wringing it out. He detoured to the kitchen for a glass of water on his way back.
He sat on the edge of the mattress and handed her the glass, watching her as she drank.
There was something about taking care of this woman who did so much for everyone else. A quiet pleasure about being the person who brought her water, who held her, who made sure she was warm and comfortable and never had to ask.
When he slipped back into bed beside her, Maya came to him immediately, tucking herself against his chest where she belonged, with his arms holding her close.
Reid took another bite of his breakfast sandwich and deliberately did not think about Maya spread across their sheets with her hair loose over his pillow and his name bursting from her mouth.
Work. He had work to get to.
Julian slid into the booth across from him, a slim folder in his hand. His suit was dark and well tailored, completely at odds with the cracked vinyl seats and laminated menus.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Julian said. “I know you’re busy.”
Reid chewed and swallowed before he answered. "What's up?"
Julian didn’t smile. “I need a second opinion.”
Reid reached for his coffee. "On what?"
Julian gestured with the folder. “Maya’s charity.”
Reid lowered the cup without taking a drink.
“I went back over the last couple of years of books,” Julian said. “Because you said there was outside interest. And, well, now that I’m looking at it more closely there are a few inconsistencies I can’t reconcile.”
Reid took the folder, flipping it open immediately. The noise of the diner faded to a dull hum as his focus narrowed.
He frowned.
“Send me everything,” he said.
This was Maya’s life’s work. The money represented her passion. Her people. Every dollar she raised was stretched to the limit.
His mouth pressed into a thin line.
“I’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said, grimly.