After the day that I had yesterday, I should be running for the hills and swearing off men altogether. I totally expected Reid to have made a move on me by now, but he has surprised the heck out of me. So far, he’s given me space. He was quiet all day yesterday. I turned down all of his offers to feed me lunch and dinner, or whatever he thought I needed so that I’d be comfortable. I couldn’t eat anyway. For the rest of the time, he’s been in his bedroom or his office.

I should be thanking my blessings for his hospitality and low-key behavior at his place. And thanking him from the bottom of my heart for being at the right place at the right time yesterday.

I do appreciate what he’s done.

I even value the space he’s given me. All night, and right up until I wake up long before the crack of dawn. At that point, I’m too wired to sleep a minute longer, so I use his spare bathroom to get myself a shower and throw on the clothes he laid out for me to wear. The t-shirt and cargo shorts dwarf me completely, but I’m not going to complain.

Heading to the kitchen, I do my best to figure out the coffee situation. It’s the least I can do after he’s opened up his place to me like family. While I look through his kitchen cabinets for coffee mugs, Reid saunters in.

“Good morning,” I greet him as he stands there in sweatpants.

“Morning,” he all but yawns out. “Did you have trouble sleeping, or do you have an early day today?”

“I slept okay. Couldn’t stay in bed anymore. Do you want some coffee?”

“Sure. So, you know it’s Saturday, right?”

I slouch my shoulders. The tragedy of yesterday starts to replay all over again. “I guess so… I mean, I should find myself a calendar or something. Now that I don’t have a cell phone anymore.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot. Give me a second.” He leaves the room and returns a little while later with a smartphone in his hand. “You’re more than welcome to use my personal cell,” he informs me, setting down the phone on the countertop. “I’ve got another one I use for work.”

“You don’t have to do that, you know?”

“I know. You should have a number other than your original phone to leave with your family, friends and other contacts. Otherwise you’ll have to constantly check your voicemail. Keep it for as long as you need it, at least until you get your bank cards and photo ID replaced. That can take a while, from my experience.”

I pour black coffee into a mug and pass it to him. “Don’t remind me,” I whine, leaning on the counter beside him.

That’s when I notice the scars on his arms and chest. There are dots of pink, and scarlet, and circular raised spots in his skin tone. Reid doesn’t react to my staring, but when my hand reaches up to touch one on his bicep, he clasps his hand over mine.

“What happened to you?”

“I’m fine. These are all from long years ago.”

“From your time in the army? I’ve seen pictures of people injured by IEDs, but these…”

“No. My three tours were like Disneyland compared to where I got these fancy little souvenirs.”

“What?”

“I have my old man to thank for them. They’re cigarette burns. Not many people knew he used me as his own personal, child-sized ashtray.”

I don’t even know what to say to that. “Christ, Reid. I didn’t know.”

“It’s over and done with. Ancient history.”

Talk about perspective. Here I am, feeling sorry for having had one bad day, acting like it’s the end of the world that I lost things I can replace over time, when Reid started off his life at the center of a tragically horrific home situation.

He takes a sip of the strong brew and shrugs. “I can put on a t-shirt if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“No. It’s fine.”

“Sorry I brought up replacing you photo ID and stuff.”

“It’s okay. That reminds me…I have to phone Rusty at Whiskey Jacks.”

He turns to face me. “You’re not planning to show up for your gig tonight, are you?”

“Well, let’s see. I don’t own a single guitar anymore, but like I’m starting to see now, I’m lucky to be alive, and my voice didn’t go up in flames, so the singing will continue. I need the cash more than ever.”

“Don’t you have renters’ insurance for your apartment contents?”

“I do, but I’ve been squirreling away my tips in a jar at home. A couple thousand dollars down the drain, just like that. I’m an idiot, right?”

“No. You’re not.” Leaning one hip against the counter, his free hand wanders into my hair. It’s the first time that I welcome his touch by leaning the side of my face toward the warmth of his hand. “You just have bad taste in men,” he jokes.

“I deserve that. Just be sure to put yourself in the pile too.”

Reid flashes me a grin. “So…what are you saying?”

He pulls me into his arms. I don’t give him an ounce of resistance. There’s no fight left in me. I just want strong arms around me and a warm body to hold me tight.

I put my coffee mug down beside me again, burying the side of my head into his chest. “I’m saying…I don’t know.” It takes me a long moment, but I tilt my head up to look him in the eye. “Maybe I’m not saying anything at all. Maybe I’m tired of talking, Reid.”

He relieves himself of his coffee cup too, and runs his hands down my arms, wrapping them around my waist. His gaze is intense, like a laser that bores heat right through me as he takes it all in. My body temperature rises. I don’t care that he’s probably slept with more women than the population of Nevada—and my sister.

I’m about to break two cardinal rules. Never sleep with your big sister’s ex-boyfriend, and never get into bed with a scorching hot, sexy, womanizing manwhore. But rules have been broken in getting me here. Rules like never torch an ex-girlfriend’s place with a Molotov cocktail, never mess with an ex-girlfriend’s livelihood, never kill an ex’s spirit by destroying her means to make the music that calms her soul. And for Reid’s father, never harm a helpless child. Now, I’m ready to break some rules too, especially when breaking them can lead to some healing on both our parts.

I rationalize that it’s probably a good thing that Reid doesn’t want to put down roots.

I don’t either.

For the moment, all I want is a release.

Reid tightens his grip around my waist. He lifts me up until my feet are off the ground. I wrap my legs around his hips and tuck my head into his neck, soaking up the warmth of his chest and arms. With a half-turn, he starts walking. We’re out of the kitchen, in his bedroom and on his king-size bed in no time.

He gets into bed beside me. I can tell he doesn’t plan on rushing this. My guess is he wants to make sure this is what I want. Hell, I really do, and second-guessing myself is off the table now that my judgment is clouded, my knees are weak, and my core is screaming for him. Reid pulls me in closer. My foot instinctively slides up along the sinewy muscles of his calf. It moves higher still, to his dense, bunched, corded thigh muscles. I don’t stop until the back of my heel digs into the small of his back, with my mound pressed firmly at his thick, hardened groin area.

I tilt my head up to meet his darkened, half-lidded eyes. Licking my lips, I give him a subtle nod as my hand skims down his chest. Reid clamps his hand over mine when I make it past his abs to the waistband of his sweatpants. His eyes search mine, but he doesn’t speak. I nod again, smiling slightly at the raspy groan that escapes his throat. His other hand runs up my back and winds its way through my hair. With a tug on my hair that I don’t expect, he smashes his mouth to mine.

Parting my lips, I let the moment and our bodies take us where they want to go. Reid rolls on top of me, pulling my hand that’s over his groin up over my head and pinning both hands to that spot with one of his. I sigh into his mouth as the searing hot skin of his chest rubs against my breasts through my t-shirt, causing my nipples to tighten until they’re hard, needy pebbles desperate for his hands to touch and his mouth to taste.

Without ending the kiss, he grinds his hardness against my mound. It takes all my will not to beg him to rip off our clothes and take care of the throbbing between my legs. But I don’t want to talk. I love our hushed breaths, sighs, hisses, groans and moans that fill the air around us like its own instrumental music. With a tug, Reid grips the hem of my t-shirt, pulling it over my head. He removes the rest of our clothes with an impatience that sends a thrill of need up and down my back. Soon his tongue is traveling from my mouth, down my neck and stops at one nipple with a rough, heated flick that makes me cry out with pleasure. He gently closes his lips over the nipple and sucks hard, so hard that I arch my back off the bed from the contrast in sensation.

I want him to bury his manhood deep inside of me right this instant.

Foreplay can be postponed, for Christ’s sake.

Postplay sounds better.

He must want the same thing, because he stretches a hand over to his night stand, returning it with a strip of condoms. I’m shivering with need. I want to be the one who rolls that condom up his shaft, but his hand shill has both of mine pinned above my head. Reid is not ready to let go of the reins just yet. So far, he knows all the right places to touch, so I let him continue, in spite of the grinding of my hips for more contact.

Reid takes the signal. Moving off from my breasts, and without releasing my hands, he lifts his torso up off me, rips open a condom with his teeth, and rolls one on.

I almost quiver through an orgasm when he grabs my hips and flips me over onto my stomach. Almost. Lifting my ass high in the air, Reid gets behind me, pressing his cock at my center. He bends forward and kisses the spot on my spine between my shoulder blades. That kiss trails up to my neck, and turns into a wicked bite that sends me completely out of my mind. I’m panting heavily, pressing my ass backward, ready to plead for mercy, hoping he’ll take me hard.

The mercy fuck.

I ain’t too proud to ask for it right now.

A whimper leaves my lips when his hand grips into my hair and wraps a handful around his fist. With a long groan, he positions his hardness at my opening. I can’t wait. My hands and knees push into the mattress and I thrust my ass into him as he sinks inside of me.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

He’s thick, hard and fills me up.

I press my eyes shut, willing myself not to come right there and then from with the way his thickness and ample length create pressure against my inner walls, stretching me in every direction as my channel responds by tightening its grip on him.

He pulls almost all the way out, and I’m on the verge of crying for him to get back inside of me. Thank God he buries into me again, harder this time, gripping one hip to improve the anchor of his other hand in my hair, and still controlling my movements. I can’t crane my head back any further. Hell, I’m sure to lose a few hundred strands on account of this one time.

One time with Reid.

Totally. Worth. It.

After a few reps moving at this slow, deliberate pace, Reid picks up speed. Deeper he goes. And faster, so fast, the sounds overtaking our feral noises are the slapping of our bare skin and the creaking of his bedsprings. His hand on my hip slides closer to my drenched, swollen bud, and covers it completely. He flicks his index finger over my most sensitive spot, and after some intense strumming, it does me in.

Electrifying jolts of pleasure shock my system, weakening every muscle in my body and sending me into convulsions as I come.

I cry out so loudly that I’m sure it sounds like I’m being tortured. But I don’t care. Neither does Reid, who continues to piston in and out of me, taking what he needs and giving me the ride of my life. I can’t stop the waves crashing over me even if I try, and when he find his release and stretches out beside me, the only thought in my mind is I. Want. More.

One time is not enough.

Closing my eyes, I soak up the satisfying revelry, and bide my time for when he takes me again.

If.

I’ve heard about his ‘one and done’ track record, and one time won’t be enough for me anymore.

I just hope he wants it as much as I do.