“Do you really need to leave?” Reed asked her when she finished pulling her shirt over her head. She’d stayed longer than she’d planned, but it was still only nine.
“I do.” She opted for a bit more honesty and said, “I should get home to my dog.”
“You’ve got a dog? What kind?”
She’d told him a lot more than she’d planned on tonight, but knew if she didn’t give him something it would raise some suspicions she didn’t want to deal with right now.
They’d had a spectacular day and evening together and she didn’t want anything to ruin that. She knew once she got home and started to think more about this day she’d have enough doubts to put a negative spin on it in her mind.
“A little bit of this and that and everything in between. We adopted him.”
“We?”
“Me,” she corrected. How the hell had she let that slip? “I say ‘we’ when I think of him and me.”
He nodded like he bought it. She hoped. “What’s his name?”
“Mutt. Like ‘you ugly mutt’.” Reed laughed. She didn’t want to say part of the reason was because that was what Angie called him once Taylor had said “come on, mutt, out of the car,” when they brought him home.
“So he’s been home all alone today?”
“He’s got food and water and a dog door to a fenced-in backyard. He’s good, but I’ve never left him overnight, nor did I plan on spending the night.”
“Why?” he asked. He sure did ask a lot of questions. They were standing in his bedroom right now, both of them dressed, but she knew Reed had done it reluctantly. She also knew darn well he would have stayed in bed messing up his sheets if she’d suggested it.
“Because that’s pushing it for just being friends, don’t you think?”
He didn’t say anything at first, just stared at her, and then finally responded with, “Maybe next time.”
“Or maybe not,” she said, grinning and poking her finger into his stomach. What was she supposed to say? She had no intention of telling him she had a child. He didn’t need to know anyway. She’d already confessed that they were pretty much poor growing up and it wasn’t easy. Her life was nothing like his and the last thing she wanted to worry about was that he thought she was eying him like a meal ticket.
“So when do I get to see you again?” he asked.
“I’ll be to work on Monday morning. You can see me there if you have a reason to come into the building.”
He laughed and she took that moment to walk past him and out of the room. His relaxed face and casual attire were enough to make her want to change her mind. What was it about bare feet that made a man sexy?
“How about after work?”
“After work on Monday?” she asked. “Sorry, during the week is hard.”
“And you aren’t going to tell me the reason for that?” he said sighing.
“Nope.” She started to trot down the stairs with him following. “By the time I get home at night and do household things, I’m tired. Weekends are for fun, weekdays for work.”
“You’re right. We’re swamped. I’ve got the men working all sorts of overtime and I need to be on site too. Not sure what I was thinking.”
She was glad that he understood. Or maybe he wasn’t thinking either. They both probably fried a few brain cells in his bedroom tonight. She was nice and limber at the moment and though she was looking forward to the next time they could get some bedroom exercise in, it was going to be at least two weeks.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she wrapped him up tight, plastered a long lingering kiss on his lips and said, “Thanks for tonight.”
“I should be thanking you,” he said, winking.
“It was definitely mutual.”
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, reaching for a lock of her hair, then dropping his hand away before he touched her. It was a soft move. A sensual one. A caring one.
And she needed to get the hell out of there before she started to feel more for him than just being his friend.
***
Almost two weeks had gone by and Reed was going nuts with need. His body was tight and ready for action and, surprisingly, his ice-cold heart was melting somewhat and needed to spend some time with Taylor.
He’d honored her request about no weekdays and unfortunately last weekend he’d committed to helping one of his crew members do some work at their house. Or more like guiding them so they didn’t mess it up.
If he could have gotten out of it, he would have, but told himself that his job always came first. Or it should now.
Whitney never minded that he worked as much as he had. The only time she ever complained was when she was free and wanted him to be. Normally she was working much more than him. Her way of hiding the affair she was having, he knew that now.
He had a good crew and that was hard to find. They helped each other out when they could and he wasn’t going to back out now.
After that first night he and Taylor shared together—those hours of passion like he’d never felt before—he’d lain in bed hornier than a teen with his first Playboy magazine in his hands when by all intents he should have been sated.
But he wasn’t, because all he could think of was when he was going to get his hands and mouth on Taylor again.
He’d wanted to call her the next day but didn’t. That would be desperate in his book when he was anything but. He did text her though and they had some flirtatious banter going back and forth and it held him over.
What held him over even more was the fact that three nights ago they were both lying in bed and he decided to try his hand with a little phone sex...just to see if she was game.
She was. By the time he’d relieved himself, hoping and imagining she was doing the same on the other end, he’d fallen into a deep slumber.
But it was Friday again and they did make plans for tomorrow. There were only so many hot air balloon dates he could come up with, so he decided to go to the lake, not that he’d told her that yet. Just that he was going to make plans and she didn’t care what they did.
On lunch break, he made his way to the office building and up the stairs to his father’s office. “Am I bothering you?” he asked when his father looked up from where he was hitting a golf ball into a cup.
“Hardly. Come on in, Reed.”
“Why are you even here?” he asked. “Just take the day and go golfing.”
“I am. Or I will be in an hour or so with a few buddies. I was just finishing up paperwork.”
“If you say so,” he said, walking over and sitting in the chair across from his father’s desk.
“What can I help you with?” his father asked, sitting down himself.
“Is anyone going to be at the lake house tomorrow?”
“Nope. It’s empty. Why, are you making plans to bring a friend there?”
No one knew of his and Taylor’s situation, but he wasn’t going to completely lie either. “I was thinking about it if no one was using it or was going to be around.”
“Your mother is dragging me to Vermont for some silly craft fair and Rachel is out of town visiting friends. The camp is all yours.”
“Thanks,” he said, standing up and getting ready to leave.
“Reed?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing,” his father said, shaking his head.
“It’s something or you wouldn’t have stopped me.”
“I just don’t want to see Taylor get hurt.”
He laughed. “You’re worried about her. What about me?”
“You’d have to be able to feel something to be hurt and you’ve been telling us all along that you didn’t.”
“Maybe I’ve changed.”
“I hope so,” his father said. “But actions speak louder.”
“Time will tell,” Reed said.