“I… maybe… I just… I’m scared, Maria. I’m scared of doing the wrong thing and it hurting him more.” I wipe the burning tears from my cheeks as I open my eyes.
“I know, I… Wait. They’re coming out.” Maria’s voice drops to a whisper, and I hold my breath as though they’ll hear my breathing through the phone. Which is ridiculous, because if they’re going to hear anything, it’s my heart banging in my chest like a prisoner trying to escape death row.
“Are they…?”
“They’re leaving,” Maria whispers. “Reed and Stuart are leaving, and…”
“Sweetheart?” Griffin’s voice calls in the background.
“Griffin’s looking for you. You need to go. I know he probably won’t say anything. He’s like a vault when it comes to Reed and their friendship, but if—”
“If he does, then I’ll call or text straight away.”
“Thank you.” My heart slows in my chest as I breathe deeply. “Thank you.”
We hang up and I sit on the floor of Suze’s kitchen, staring out of the window. I don’t know how long I stay there before I force myself to my feet and make myself a mug of decaf tea. It’s not like I need to worry about the caffeine. I won’t sleep. But I do it anyway, knowing I should not put any further obstacles in my path.
It’s dark by the time I finish it. I dunked a cookie in and only managed to eat half. My appetite has vanished, evaporated into thin air, just like my hopes of finding whoever sent that video. Surely Griffin would have something by now. Or Stuart? I’m asking so much of them… I… Realization hits me like a gut punch, stealing the air from my lungs.
I’m asking so much of them. But what am I doing?
I’ve run to them for help. And I’ve left Reed, thinking it will help in some way. But what amIactually doing?
I sit in the semi-dark of the kitchen and wrack my brains for something, anything, that might be useful. There must be something, however small. A flicker of a memory comes to me, and the silence of the house suddenly feels deafening as it bounces off the walls, growing, until it’s less of a flicker and more like a tiny flame. One that could, just maybe, ignite a fire.
I pull out my cell phone to call Stuart just as there’s a knock at the door.
“Shit.”
I tap out a text message instead, as fast as my fumbling fingers will allow, telling him my idea. Then I put my phone on the hall table and open the front door.
“Re—?”
His name doesn’t even have a chance to leave my lips before Reed strides in and backs me up against the wall, crashing his lips onto mine.
I sink into him like it’s the most natural thing in the world to be back in his arms again.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper against his mouth as he holds my face between his hands.
“Don’t talk. We can talk later. Just give yourself to me, Harls. I need you. I need you more than ever,” he breathes against my lips, and they part for him like he’s uttered a magic password. He slides his tongue in and kisses me until I’m dizzy.
“Where are Suze and the kids?”
“School thing,” I pant between kisses as I push my fingers into his hair and moan into another kiss he’s giving me. “They won’t be back for a while.”
“Thank you, fucking universe,” he groans as his lips travel down my neck and he pauses to suck the juncture where it meets my shoulder.
“The door’s open,” I manage to say as his hands push up the sides of my t-shirt and the pads of his thumbs stroke my ribs, making me gasp and throw my head back. It’s only been a matter of days since he touched me, but my body is craving him, absorbing his every touch like it’s been starved for eternity.
His lips stay on my neck as he reaches back blindly and slams the front door shut with one hand. Then he drops it to the waistband of my sweatpants and slides inside them, cupping the front of my panties roughly in his palm.
“You’re soaking,” Reed growls, shifting the wet fabric to one side and sliding his thumb over me.
I arch away from the wall at the sudden contact, which makes my legs threaten to buckle underneath me. All I can do is whimper in response as his thumb circles my already swollen clit.
“Have you been wet for me the whole time we’ve been apart, Angel?”
I hum in appreciation as he strokes me, slick arousal spilling from my body to coat his fingers.