Chapter Forty-Seven

Reid

As eager as I am to get Carrie back to the cottage in time to actually have her to myself for a decent amount of time before we fly out, I find her insistence that we wait for boxes, and take home her mac n’ cheese and mine for that matter, adorable. I watch her interact with the waiter who is scooping our meal into the takeout container, her brown hair tangling in the wind, her lips curved in a smile; those emerald eyes seeking mine often, telling me how engaged she is with me even when she’s talking to someone else. That’s the thing that I can’t explain. I’ve had beautiful, smart, sexy women just as engaged, but they didn’t stir what she does in me. I need her just as in this with me, and I’m in all the way. Right, wrong, everything in between, I’m in this and if I have my way, and I will, I will soon be in her.

I tip the waiter an extra chunk of change and give him a look to go away. He glances at the cash I’ve palmed him, gives me a look, and seems to get the idea. He leaves. “Let’s get out of here,” I say, reaching for Carrie’s hand. “We have plans before we leave.” I lower my voice for her ears only. “I need you naked and on my tongue right now.”

Her cheek flushes pink, and holy hell that little shy moment has me so damn hot and hard I might have to take her to the bathroom. “Reid Maxwell.”

At the sound of my name, I glance up to find a tall, dark-haired man with wild, curly dark hair, and brown hawk eyes. “Eli Matthews,” I say. “I didn’t know you had left your tower in the city.”

“One could say the same of you.” He glances expectantly at Carrie and I grind my teeth and force myself to face facts. Eli could be useful. We aren’t leaving.

“Carrie, this is Eli Matthews, as you already heard. We went to college together and you should care about him because he’s half the asshole I am, filthy rich, and connected.”

“Oh,” Carrie says, laughing. “At least you’re only half the asshole. And rich and connected works for my line of business.”

“Which is what?” Eli asks.

“Sit down,” I order. “The wine we were drinking is expensive, just like you like it. I’ll order another bottle. Unless you’re tied up.”

He glances at Carrie’s mouth and I want to punch the asshole. “I just finished up a meeting,” he says, grabbing a chair. “I’ll stay.”

He’s across from Carrie and next to me. I motion to the waiter, order the wine, and then as the waiter steps away, I lean in close to Eli. “There’s nothing but money at this table for you.”

He eases back to give me a surprised look. “That’s new for you.”

I don’t acknowledge that comment. I ease back into my seat fully, settle my hand on Carrie’s leg and give her my attention. She gives me a curious look, but then her hand covers mine and understanding settles in those beautiful eyes. “Is time an issue? We have to get to your sister’s party. We could let him know the details, and see if he fits later.”

She’s coy. She’s just told him that she’s with me and made him think we have a big opportunity that we might not let him in on. “I know how you are,” I say. “You like to trust people you do deals with. Eli is honorable.”

She hesitates for a few beats and then looks at him. “Then it’s nice to meet you, Eli.”

For the next hour and a half, we talk to Eli about his company, where West Enterprises is headed, and a potential Asian investment, holding back Grayson’s involvement. When I finally draw the line on time, Carrie has charmed Eli, who’s a little too attentive to her as far as I’m concerned, but he’s also pledged to open his wallet, and since he wants to impress her as well, I know we’ll be hearing from him. Carrie is happy and excited by the time we’re in the car and rushing to grab our bags.

Once the driver sets us in motion, I pull her close and whisper in her ear, “Eli wants to fuck you.”

She leans in close, twisting toward me, her hands resting on my chest and my upper thigh, her lips at my ear. “I want to fuck you.”

My cock twitches and she presses her hand over it, stroking the hard line of my now throbbing erection. She’s teasing me because she thinks we don’t have time for this, but she’s wrong. The motherfucking chopper can wait. I cannot. I cup her face and pull her mouth to mine, nip her lips and kiss her. She doesn’t hesitate. She kisses me back, hungry, just as damn hot as I am. She’s in jeans but I don’t let that deter me. We’re behind the driver’s seat, and I mold her close, stroking her breast.

She catches my hand, but when she would pull it away, I slide my hand under her T-shirt and tear down the top of her bra to pinch her nipple. She buries her face in my neck. “Stop.”

But I don’t. I won’t ever stop where this woman is concerned. I stroke the line of her sex through her jeans and squeeze her breast. “Reid,” she hisses and I kiss her, a deep stroke of tongue against tongue, and she arches against my hand on her breast and between her legs.

The car halts at the cottage and I tear my mouth from hers. “We’re here.”

Her teeth scrape her bottom lip. “Thank God,” she whispers, reaching for the door.

I catch her hand, delaying her escape, while I pat the driver’s seat. “We’ll be twenty minutes.”

The driver smartly says nothing. He lifts a hand in compliance and now I scoot Carrie out of the car, shutting the door behind us and folding our elbows; pulling her close to me. “Do you know what happens when you tease me?”

“You get hard and hot and I get all the rewards?”

Well, she’s not wrong on that, but she left something out that she won’t leave out next time. I unlock the front door and pull her inside, and before she can get away, it’s shut again, and she’s facing it, her hands on the door. I step into her, my hands on her hips, my lips at her ear. “You get punished.” I reach around and cup her breast.

“Is this supposed to be punishment?” she asks, all but daring me to go further but I don’t need a dare. She’s my woman now and I feel the edge of telling her about the war between our fathers. I feel the need to ensure that when she walks into that party tonight, she feels owned. She feels like she belongs to me and with me. Fuck. I need to feel like I own her and can’t lose her.

I reach around her and unbutton her jeans, dragging the zipper down. Her pants follow and when I would slide them all the way down, I don’t. I tangle them at her knees, and move to her side, my hand on her naked backside, which is naked because she’s not wearing any panties. I cup her backside and her sex at the same time. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”

“Punish me,” she says, looking at me. “I know what you’re going to do, but do it naked.”

I smack her backside, just a light smack. “I’m not getting naked. Not now.” I slip my fingers along her clit, flicking it back and forth.

She pants, a sexy, raspy drive-me-out-of-my-fucking-mind sound that has my cock throbbing against my zipper. “I’m going to spank you. For teasing me. For making me watch Eli flirt with you.”

“I don’t want Eli. Not even a little bit.”

“I know that.” I slide fingers inside her. “That doesn’t mean I liked how he looked at you. I’m the only man who gets to fuck you now.”

“You are. You are the only man, so do it. Why aren’t you—”

“It’s not time.” I smack her backside and this time not gently.

“Reid,” she pants out.

I spank her again and my fingers move inside her, my thumb stroking her clit. I pat her backside now, fast but not hard, working that friction against that of my hand stroking her to orgasm. “Oh God,” she whispers. “Reid, I need—”

I spank her again because that’s what she needs. I figured that out the first time I spanked her. She likes it. It’s an escape, a release, the one time she doesn’t have to think. So I give it to her. Harder this time. Not once. Not twice. Three times and she locks up around my fingers, spasming into orgasm, her entire body quaking. I wrap my arm around her waist, twisting her around to face me, my mouth coming down on hers, my fingers easing as I sense she needs them to ease until she collapses into me. I turn her and press against the door, giving her that extra support as I pull up her pants.

“What are you doing?”

“We have a chopper to catch.”

“No, we didn’t—”

I cup her face. “We will, but we’re waiting.”

“I don’t want to wait.” She presses her hand to my erection. “And you don’t want to wait.”

I inhale on the need burning through me and catch her hand. “It’ll be better because we waited. And believe me, I need to be thinking about fucking you when we’re at that party. I’ll need to fuck you when it’s over.”

Her expression softens instantly. “Talk to me. Tell what that means.”

My hands go to the door on either side of her. “It means we’ll fuck and talk afterward.”

“You’ll talk to me.”

“Yes, Carrie. I will talk to you and only you.”

“Reid—”

I tangle fingers in her hair and kiss her. “Whatever you’re going to say, say it when we’re naked and in my bed later tonight. Okay?”

She studies me a moment before her fingers find my jaw. “Yes. Okay.” She presses to her toes, pushes her lips to my lips and kisses me before whispering, “Right after we fuck whatever this is out of your system. And in case you were wondering, I love everything you do to me.”

Holy hell, this woman is trying to make me fuck her right now. No. She’s trying to make me fall in love with her.