Chapter 8 #3
Charlie couldn’t hide how strongly her body responded when his hands moved over her breasts and his teeth grazed her skin, every small bite dragging another breath from her.
The pressure of his hips against hers made desire throb low inside her, and when his hand finally slipped between her thighs and stroked her through the fabric, she pushed instinctively towards him, demanding more.
Reeze, however, seemed in no hurry whatsoever.
He took his time, kissing and biting his way down her body, over her stomach and thighs and along the sensitive skin inside them. Every time Charlie tried to reach for him, he caught her wrists and guided them back above her head, holding them there until she stopped fighting him for control.
“Not now, babe,” he murmured against her skin. “I want this one to be about you.”
Charlie finally gave up trying to reach him and let him have his way, opening herself beneath his hands and mouth until every slow stroke of his tongue between her thighs sent another wave of heat through her.
Everything beyond the room gradually disappeared.
Dennis, the fear and all the poisonous words that had always found her when she least wanted them were pushed away by the simple reality of Reeze holding her thighs apart and showing her, with every touch, exactly how much he wanted her.
By the time he finally straightened and pushed his jeans down, Charlie’s ability to think coherently had more or less disappeared.
Then she saw all of him for the first time.
One thought somehow survived.
Fuck. He’s huge.
Reeze clearly read the thought straight from her face because a broad grin spread across his mouth before he moved back over her. He caught her hips, drew her towards him and pushed inside with a deep groan.
“Fuck,” he hissed through clenched teeth.
At first he moved slowly, giving her body time to adjust while his hands held her firmly against him and his gaze found hers each time he sank deeper.
He built the sensation without rushing it, their heated skin sliding together until Charlie could barely tell where she ended and Reeze began.
Only when he felt how close she was did his rhythm change, becoming harder and faster, and Charlie dug her fingers into his back as each thrust drove deeper.
When the orgasm finally broke through her, it was violent enough to make her entire body tremble. Reeze followed not long afterwards, his body going rigid before he collapsed over her, hot and heavy while they both struggled to catch their breath.
For several seconds he simply stayed there.
Then he lifted his head just enough to reach her mouth.
“Fuck, babe, you’re killing me,” he whispered before kissing her again.
It was the light that woke Charlie the following morning, not an alarm or any sound from the yard, just pale daylight creeping between the curtains and slowly pushing the last darkness out of the bedroom.
She remained with her eyes closed for a few seconds before becoming fully aware of the warmth around her. Reeze’s arm lay heavily across her waist, not as though he was holding her down, but more as though his body had simply refused to let go of her during the night.
Charlie smiled before opening her eyes and turning her head towards him.
He was still asleep, or at least appeared to be.
His dark hair was tousled against the pillow and his short beard held a few grey strands she hadn’t noticed before.
One arm remained around her while the other was stretched above his head, and the covers had slipped down sometime during the night, leaving most of his upper body bare.
Charlie lay there looking at him, probably for longer than could reasonably be considered normal, but she couldn’t help herself.
She had seen Reeze almost every day since moving in, out in the yard, on the steps, arriving home on his bike or laughing with his brothers. She had seen women looking at him too and understood perfectly well why they did.
This was different.
There was no cut, no self-assured stance and no audience. There was only the man beneath all of it, sleeping with a faint crease between his brows as though some part of him was still trying to solve problems even while unconscious.
Something tightened in Charlie’s chest and she carefully reached out, tracing the little line between his eyebrows with one fingertip.
It didn’t disappear.
Even here, when there should have been nothing demanding his attention, life didn’t seem to give him permission to relax completely.
Her gaze travelled over his face, the scars and the small lines around his eyes before moving down over his shoulders and chest. The night before, the sheer number of scars had almost frightened her.
Now they simply hurt to look at, not because she found them ugly, but because each one meant that someone or something had once managed to hurt him badly enough to leave a permanent mark.
Charlie placed her palm against his chest and felt the slow, steady beat beneath his skin.
Reeze stirred in his sleep and automatically pulled her closer, as though his body already recognised her and knew exactly where she belonged.
Charlie smiled and tucked herself against him, burying her nose against his neck and breathing in the scent of soap, warm skin and the faint trace of leather and engine oil that seemed to have worked its way into him after so many years on the road.
His arm tightened around her.
“You snore a little,” she whispered sleepily.
“Slander.”
The answer came immediately, low, rough and still wrapped in sleep.
Charlie burst out laughing and lifted her head.
“You’re awake.”
Reeze opened one eye and looked at her without the slightest trace of guilt.
“Have been for a while.”
“And you just lay there?”
A slow, sleepy smile appeared.
“I was busy.”
“Doing what?”
His gaze wandered over her face before returning to her eyes.
“Looking at you.”
Something softened around his eyes before he suddenly rolled her over him, and Charlie laughed as she landed against his chest. Reeze looked entirely satisfied with the result, sliding one hand into her hair and pressing an absent kiss to the inside of her wrist while he held her there.
“Good,” he muttered.
Neither of them seemed particularly interested in getting up, and they stayed where they were while the morning light slowly brightened around them.
Charlie lay with her head against his chest and Reeze half wrapped around her, his fingers moving lazily through her hair while her own hand rested against his stomach.
Every now and then one of them touched the other without really thinking about it, and the easy silence between them felt strangely comfortable.
It didn’t take long before Charlie became very aware that Reeze was hard against her again, and he made absolutely no attempt to hide what he wanted.
Charlie wasn’t particularly interested in objecting either.
Their morning consequently lasted considerably longer than she had originally expected.
When they were lying tangled together in bed again, attempting to find some compelling reason to actually leave it, Charlie lifted her head from his chest.
“How old are you, anyway?”
Reeze made a low, disgruntled sound.
“Old enough not to answer that question.”
“That definitely means over thirty.”
He sighed theatrically.
“Thirty-one.”
“Ha.”
Reeze narrowed his eyes at her. “What the fuck does ha mean?”
“I thought you were younger.”
“I’ve had a hard life.”
Charlie studied him for several seconds before shaking her head. “No. Not worn out.”
“No?”
“You look like someone who never lets himself fall apart.”
That silenced him, and Charlie had already begun to recognise the difference between the moments when he was simply listening and the moments when something she said actually got through.
“What else do you see?” he asked quietly.
She traced her fingertips across his chest while she thought about it.
“A man who always stands up for everyone else.”
One eyebrow rose. “I’m literally lying down right now.”
Charlie laughed and slapped his chest lightly.
“You know what I mean.”
“Maybe.”
He ran his hand through her hair, looking at her with that expression that was already becoming dangerously familiar, as though he could see more than she had actually intended to show him.
“What do you see when you look at yourself?”
The question landed harder than she expected and Charlie was quiet before answering.
“Someone who should have got better at choosing the right people.”
Reeze pulled her closer without hesitation.
“You’re here now.”
“Yes.”
“Then you made the right choice.”
He said it with such uncomplicated certainty that she had no idea what to do with the feeling it stirred in her.
Eventually Reeze was the one who reluctantly climbed out of bed with an unhappy grunt.
“Where are you going?” Charlie muttered.
He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at her.
“Coffee. Before I fucking die.”
“I can make it.”
“You can stay there and look cute. Feels more productive.”
Charlie rolled her eyes but remained exactly where she was, watching him disappear from the bedroom.
And, good God.
It should almost have been illegal for a man to look like that first thing in the morning. Barefoot, bare-chested and still half asleep, but built like someone who could walk through a wall if the mood took him. Tattoos covered his back and arms as the morning light followed him through the flat.
Charlie gave up trying to stay in bed fairly quickly. She pulled on an oversized T-shirt and went into the kitchen, where she found Reeze standing in front of the coffee machine with a frown of intense concentration. He held a packet of filters in one hand as though it had personally offended him.