Reed Walker is super-fucking-human. I knew those sexy glasses were a disguise. He’s like Superman’s filthier cousin or something.
I open my mouth to answer him—
“Hello, you two.”
Tom Coulter’s warm voice cuts me off from asking Reed if he fancies getting a cape to roleplay with, and I smile politely at him and Margo.
“Oh, don’t let us interrupt,” Tom says. “We’ll catch you both later for a dance partner swap.” Tom smiles as Margo winks at Reed. Then they wrap their arms around each other and move away in time to the music.
“They’re so lovely. They’ve been in love for nearly forty years, you know. Tom told me that first night I met him.” I gaze after them as they dance and laugh together.
“He’s a good man,” Reed says, pulling me close to him again and placing his second hand low on my ass cheeks so I’m pinned in his embrace just as the band start playing “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman.
Reed dips his lips to my ear and gently sings the words to me, making my body vibrate with energy like electricity is dancing over my skin with each perfectly sung note. There are no words more fitting for Reed right now. Words did try to destroy. Bea, Graham, Dennis… they’re all awaiting trial.
But he is strong and brave.
He’s exactly who he’s meant to be.
He is Reed Walker.
And I couldn’t love him any harder if I tried.
I slide my arms around his neck and sink my fingers into the hair at the top of his neck, smiling when a deep moan leaves his lips and his eyes return to mine.
I smile at him, and he smiles back.
“Do you think people still kiss lots when they’ve been together that long? I hope they do. I mean, it would be quite sad, don’t you think? If you stop. I wonder if you’d forget how to kiss and have to learn all over again like—”
Warm lips seal themselves over mine, taking my breath as their own, and sending heat powering through my veins. I whimper into his mouth as he kisses me with the confidence and certainty of a man who knows what he wants.
“I’ll never let you forget how to kiss, Harls.” His lips hover over mine, my breasts rising and falling against his shirt as I take in air. “You know why?”
“Why?” I whisper, attempting to swallow down the Reed Walker butterfly fan club that lives permanently in my core, ready to start a riot at any given second. All they need is a small sign.
One kiss. One heated look. One growl.
One anything of his.
“Because”—he kisses me softly—“I’m going to kiss you until I’m all old and wrinkly, remember?”
“You—?” Warmth blossoms in my chest as I look into his eyes, and the butterflies receive their signal as his pupils dilate. “Paige’s party?”
Reed nods, confirming it’s no coincidence that he’s repeating the exact words he said to me at Paige’s birthday party. After he got headbutted by Freddy the goat.
He lifts both hands to cup my face.
“I love you so much,” I whisper, looking up at him.
“I love you too, Harley. And I will love you for as long as my soul exists.”
“Souls exist forever, Reed.” I stare into his eyes.
His eyes sweep over my entire face before coming back to rest on mine as he smiles.
“Then forever it is.”
Chapter forty-two