Chapter Twenty-Six

Carrie

“I need up, Reid,” I repeat when he doesn’t move.

“Hold on, baby,” he murmurs, the endearment rolling off his tongue in this intimate, warm way, that does crazy things to my stomach, and feels nothing like his arrogantly delivered “sweetheart” references.

He reaches over me and before I know his intent, he’s pressing tissues between my legs, and as silly as it seems, it feels more intimate than anything we’ve done so far. It drives home the absence of the condom, the undertone of asking for and giving trust between us. “Baby?”

He eases back to look at me. “Did that bother you?”

“Since when do you care what bothers me?”

“Answer, Carrie.”

“No,” I say. “It didn’t bother me. I just—we’re—just—I need a bathroom.” I roll away from him and sit up, tossing the tissue in a well-placed trashcan.

Reid is sitting next to me in a flash, snatching up my blouse as I reach for it and tossing it out of reach. “What are you doing?” I demand.

He grabs his shirt and settles it over my shoulders. “Making sure you stay.”

I glance over at him. “I don’t like an awkward morning after, and all of my things are in my apartment. I should just go now.”

“It won’t be awkward because this isn’t some drunken mistake. I was an asshole in the office.”

“Yeah, you were.”

“I was pissed at you.”

“Pissed at me?” I ask incredulously. “For what?”

“Because I was sure once I fucked you, my obsession with fucking you would end, but it didn’t.”

“So you were an ass to me,” I supply.

“Yes. I was pissed. But—I’m sorry.”

I blanch and rotate to face him. “Did you just apologize? And, with a bonus of you being naked while doing it?”

“I did, in fact, apologize while naked.” He reaches up and strokes hair behind my ear, the touch remarkably tender, his voice softer now. “We’ll get up early and I’ll walk you to your place so you can get ready.”

I catch his hand, needing to control what I can about where this is headed. “If I stay, then tomorrow morning, it’s over. We don’t do this anymore.”

“No,” he says. “I’m not going to say that. I’m not going to make you a promise I can’t keep. I already know that I’m not only going to want to touch you tomorrow. I’m going to touch you tomorrow, Carrie.”

“We’re supposed to be fucking each other out of our systems,” I remind him.

“And so we’ll keep trying.”

“You’re confusing me, Reid.”

“You and me both, baby.” He leans in and kisses me. “Stay. I want you to stay, and I want you to want to stay.”

He wants me to stay. I want to stay. I can’t seem to say the words, though. I can’t seem to get my head around what I’m doing with this man. But I’m staying. We both know that I’m staying. “Are you going to feed me if I stay?”

He laughs, and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him laugh, not like this, not natural and at ease. “Yes. I’ll feed you. I’m starving for food and you. There’s a sandwich place I love around the corner. They deliver.”

“Jersey’s?” I ask.

“Yes. Jersey’s. I can’t believe you knew that.”

“I love it, too.”

“Well then. You go to the bathroom. It’s to the left by the stairs. I’ll order.”

“Great. Thank you.” I stand up, holding his giant shirt closed around me and I start walking, only now aware of the long, rectangular-shaped room with windows that literally climb the room to the second floor.

“What do you want?” he calls after me.

“Tell them to make Carrie’s usual,” I say over my shoulder without turning or looking out the window. I just want a bathroom and a few minutes to myself.

I reach the door, enter, and shut myself inside. I lean on the door, taking in the long mahogany cabinet beneath a shiny white countertop with a mirror above it. I look down at myself in Reid’s shirt and I have a come-to-Jesus moment. I like being in his shirt way too much. I like being here with him way too much, but I’m not a relationship person and neither is he. Reid and I connect professionally and sexually. There is no reason I can’t just enjoy this ride. That’s how you enjoy a man like Reid, as an adrenaline ride that can be sustained. I’m not falling for him. I’m living the high of the ride. The end. I will not go anyplace else with this.

I drop the shirt, pee, wash up, run my fingers through the wild mess that is my hair, and that’s it. I’m not going to give myself a chance to think beyond the logic I’ve established. I’m going to enjoy Reid. I want to know Reid. I can learn from this man. I have never been with a man who I admired and wanted, to learn from. It’s sexy. It’s part of his allure. I pull his shirt back into place the best I can and when I open the door Reid is standing there, wearing nothing but his unzipped pants, beautifully naked from the waist up. He lifts a T-shirt in his hand to show it to me. “This won’t be so big on you and you can actually use your hands to eat.”

He brought me a T-shirt? “Thank you,” I say.

“Drop the shirt you’re wearing.”

“Just like that? Drop the shirt?”

His eyes burn hot with challenge. “Just like that.”

“Fine. Just like that.” I let it fall from my shoulders and pool on the floor behind me. I am now naked but for my thigh highs, and Reid sweeps my body, his gaze hot and heavy, my nipples puckering beneath the inspection. He groans low in his throat and drags me to him. “You’re beautiful. Really fucking beautiful.”

I can’t breathe with the intensity in his voice that is almost anger. Like he doesn’t want to feel whatever he feels, and I wonder if we’re headed toward him suddenly wanting me to leave, but then he’s kissing me, a sultry stroke of tongue before he says, “I’m not even close to done with you, woman.”

“And if I’m done with you?”

“I’ll lick you until you aren’t.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks. “You say—”

“The truth. I told the truth. That’s what I’ll do. And if we don’t get you dressed, I’ll be fucking you when the food gets here.” He kisses me again and pulls the shirt over my head. I shove my arms inside right about the time his phone rings from the living room.

He grimaces and runs his fingers through his hair, leaving it in a spiky sexy mess. “For once I’d like to ignore that damn thing,” he says. “But I have to get it.”

“Of course you have to get it.”

“And you understand that,” he says, and this must please him because his hands come down on my waist and he pulls me to him, kissing me hard and fast before releasing me to chase down his phone somewhere near the couch.

For just a moment, I scan the room I’ve barely noticed because of the man that consumes it and me. The large gray cloth couch a shade darker than the floor, the one where I just had an orgasm, is the entry of the room, framed by cream-colored chairs that are leather to contrast the gray. There’s a gray rug under the couch. The coffee and end tables match the chairs. Cluster lighting dangles just above the seating area, resembling diamond raindrops in the sky. It’s appropriately Reid in its simple masculinity while I don’t believe there is anything simple about this man beyond this room.

I move forward, intending to join Reid where he’s now standing by the couch on the phone. Instead, I find myself stepping to the window just in front of the living area, staring at the Statue of Liberty alight in the center of a now black sea. My stomach knots with about ten emotions, all personal, all about where I am in life right now at this moment.

“Tomorrow,” Reid says to whoever he’s talking to. “No, Gabe. I’m not dealing with this tonight. Tomorrow. I’m hanging up now.” I sense rather than know that he does just that, and in a few beats, he is standing beside me, his hand stroking down my hair.

“Problem?” I ask, glancing over at him.

“My fucking brother is always a problem.”

“Gabe?” I ask, turning to face him.

“Yes Gabe. He has no limits. Not where I’m concerned.”

“It’s just him and a sister, right? You don’t have any other siblings?”

“We have a younger brother, who lives in Texas. He’s also completely removed from the family business. He’s a civil engineer which is a blessing. Gabe manages to be a pain in my ass enough as it is.” He pulls me to him, hands shackling my waist. “Forget Gabe. What were you thinking when I just joined you?”

“I don’t think I’ll share that,” I say, my hand settling on his chest.

“Why?”

“It’s my own personal baggage. It’s not for you, Reid.”

“What if I want it to be?”

“But you don’t. You just think you do because we’re in the moment. Tomorrow changes everything.”

“We had this discussion. Tomorrow changes nothing. What were you thinking?”

“I love your view, Reid,” I say.

He narrows his eyes at me. “And you’re comparing my view to yours?”

“Yes,” not sure how he reads me this easily but maybe that’s part of how he’s made so much money, and he’s under forty. He’s a good poker player. He reads people.

“I have years on you, baby. You know that, right?”

“Yes. I do. I know.”

His hand goes to my face and he tilts my gaze to his. “You don’t have to sell your apartment. You aren’t going to lose your job. We’re going to make a lot of money together.”

“I really hate that you had me investigated.”

“It was before we were personal. You know that, too.”

“That doesn’t mean I like it.”

“You aren’t selling your apartment.”

“I am, and I’ll buy another later,” I say, “more like this one.”

“I’ll make your apartment part of the deal when they sign you as CEO. We’ll pay it off.”

“No,” I say immediately. “No, I’m not some sort of kept woman, Reid. I will earn what I get.”

“Kept woman? The board will award it to you and you take every perk you can get. You think that you won’t be earning it?”

“I think you’ll earn it. I think you’ll make it happen. You thought I betrayed you tonight for a reason.”

“What does that mean, Carrie?”

“You know what it means. I had the chance to sweep control and I didn’t take it, but you would have and that’s why you have this apartment and I’m selling mine.”

“You’re seeing this with the wrong eyes.”

“Exactly,” I say. “If you were me, would you have taken it?”

His expression hardens. “Not with you.”

“But with someone else?”

“Not with you.”

The doorbell rings. “That’s our food.” He kisses me. “We’re doing this together for a reason. I can’t do it without you. I’ll teach you how to swim with the sharks and win. And no, you don’t have to be as brutal as I am.”

“Why wouldn’t you demand that I be exactly as brutal as you?”

“Because I want you to stay you and you’ll be better for it.” The doorbell rings again. “I’ll be right back.”

He heads toward the door in nothing but his unzipped pants and I focus on three words he spoke. Not with me. He’s heartless. He’s brutal. He’s spared me. It’s not comforting. What happens if he turns on me? And why am I not running? Because I’m not. I’m not even close to running.

***

Reid

I walk down the hallway toward the door, out of Carrie’s sight, and before I answer the door, I press a hand on the wall next to it and let my chin dip. What the fuck am I doing? I’m acting like I want things with Carrie that I swore I didn’t want in my life. More. Like I want more than sex when sex is the zone where I keep women. I need to reel this in, but instead, I'm not going to. I'm going eat sandwiches with Carrie and talk to her. I won’t even consider letting her go home tonight.

The doorbell rings again.

Fuck.

I open the damn door.