Kate
I’m out of breath and covered in bruises, mud, and a little bit of blood where I cut my knee. I’m taking part in a race where we have to undertake a variety of challenges as we run ten kilometres.
Reece is ahead of me, but he stops and turns around. He’s covered in mud, too, but it can’t hide the glory of his physique. My God, but he’s hotter than ever. He’s actually a little leaner than he was, because he lost a lot of weight whilst recuperating. He’s put much of it back on, but is still about fifteen pounds lighter. It means he’s more cut, with a defined six pack.
Maggie, Cara, Luka, and Ethan are also taking part in the race. And they’re all ahead of me. Isla, Liam, Abi, and Mag’s partner, Laura, are waiting at the finish line, with an assortment of dogs, food and drink.
Liam twisted his ankle a few weeks ago, running after a man who had threatened a dignitary he was watching, which served to remind us all how dangerous the work these guys do is.
Otherwise, Liam would have been taking part, too. It’s called a Rough and Muddy challenge and it has been hard.
I’m achy and sweaty, but also exhilarated because we’re near the finish line, and I’ve done it all. Not only the ten kilometres, but the wall we had to scale, the muddy river we had to cross, the electric fence riddled field we had to navigate, and the log filled mud bath. I did it all, and now I’m close to the end.
Reece hangs back, his friends disappearing in front as he waits for me.
“Go,” I pant. “Go be with your friends. Earn your place. I’m fine.”
He smiles at me, loose and genuine and happy. “I’m fine too, right here, cupcake.” He says this with an easy grin and then kisses me, quick and fierce and hot, and I want to combust right then and there.
“Come on. One foot in front of the other, we’re nearly there.” He cajoles me forward again, and we’re jogging toward the finish line.
As we near, I see Isla jumping up and down. Abi is grinning next to her. Cara smiles at us, too. She’s more serious than the other two, but I like her. She’s an interesting person, full of ideas, and theories about life.
Isla, I took a while to warm to. Not her fault, she’s so astonishingly beautiful that whenever I’m around her, I feel inferior. It’s odd, because if you looked at the group, not knowing them, you’d put Isla with Luka. Both beautiful, both with a softness to them. But instead, Luka is with hard-headed, super intelligent Cara, and Isla is with rough-edged Ethan. And it works. Chalk and cheese and yet they fit together perfectly.
Cara’s helped me overcome some of my hang-ups about Reece and I. When I told her one night, a bit too tipsy for discretion, that I felt as if Reece was way out of my league, she burst out laughing. Her words make me smile now.
She’d said, “Oh, honey, you could be me months back. Reece is hot, I know this, but, and don’t take this the wrong way, objectively none of these guys hold a candle to Luka.” She’d paused, taken a sip of her wine. “Yet I am the dowdiest one out of all you women.”
I’d started to interject but she’d silenced me with a shrewd look bordering on a glare, so I’d shut my mouth.
“I know it’s true,” she’d continued. “I don’t care anymore. Luka sees something in me. I don’t know what, but he sees it, and he loves it, and that’s all that matters. If all we have to go on when we attract someone is our looks, then it ends up being shallow, and there will always be someone more beautiful than us. Even a supermodel will end up finding another girl younger, prettier, than her, after her crown. Attraction, true, deep attraction is about more than the surface. I think you’re gorgeous, but Reece sees something in you beyond the surface. Something unique that calls to him.”
We were at a barbecue when we had this conversation and she’d looked over at Isla. Pretty, dainty, busty, sickeningly hot, Isla. “See, even Isla. She’s gorgeous, but there’s always going to be someone better than her, if Ethan were only into for her appearance, but it’s more than that. Isla is…and I’m not being bitchy now, Isla is childlike in many ways. She’s strong, she was sick and she’s been through a lot, but she submits to Ethan, in all walks of life, in a way I never could to Luka. Ethan leads, and she follows. She loves that though, and so does he, so they fit.”
She’d gone on to analyze Abi and Liam, and then, me and Reece. “You two, you’re alike in a lot of ways. You like the same things, you want to travel, and explore, but also, you’re different. He’s someone who needs someone else to be practical at times, you could be that someone else. Reece is a good guy, but he’s a bit of a dreamer, and he needs someone to live that dream with him, but also tend to reality when it’s needed. I think you could be that person.”
Then she’d hugged me. Cara, who can seem so reserved in some ways, wrapped her arms around me, and hugged me.
So now, when my insecurity demons come calling, I remind myself that I’m Reece’s person.
We reach the finish line and Isla gives a squeal of delight, so high pitched that Liam, sat next to her winces. “Go Kate!” she yells, and I warm to her some more.
The group saunter over to us, and Reece and I re-hydrate, sucking back water in huge gulps.
“Well done, guys,” Abi says softly with a smile.
She’s lovely but a bit of a closed book. Keeps herself to herself, and seems happiest when with her horses and Liam on their farm.
The other runners from our little club are farther down the line, all still puffing and panting, signing something, and we head over to them as a group.
Luka pulls Cara into a hug and she gives him a soft peck and murmurs something to him.
Isla throws herself into Ethan’s arms and he wraps her up, covering her white dress in mud and sweat and she doesn’t care one bit as she kisses him full on.
Liam has his arm around Abi.
Reece slings his own heavy arm around me, pulling me into him and kissing the top of my head.
“We did it,” Maggie says as Laura goes in for her own kiss.
“Right, you lot.” Liam talks to us all as if we’re in his regiment and it makes me bite back a laugh. “Get yourselves washed, showered, re-hydrated and be at the farm at eight for food and drink.”
We all do as he says, heading to our respective vehicles and going home to wash off the sweat, mud, and in my case blood from a cut on my knee.
Reece and I shower separately as I cook while he cleans up, then he clears up the bomb site I’ve made of the kitchen after we’ve eaten, while I shower.
A couple of hours later, we’re ready to head to Liam and Abi’s place. I put on a sweater, some skinny jeans, and then, my favorite part of the outfit, my biker boots. A present from Reece a month back. He also got me a helmet, and a jacket. He only uses the bike for journeys like the one we’re about to take. Short, on country lanes, and when the weather is good. For getting about town, he uses one of his cars.
I’m basically living with him, and whatever happens between us long term, I’ve decided to sell the house in Scotland. It represents an awful time in my life, and is like a prison to me. I’m keeping my holiday home on Anglesey and have already bought a small cottage in France. I want to buy somewhere with some great surfing, too. Maybe something in the Maldives or the Caribbean. I need to talk to Reece first, though, because I want it to be ours, not mine, and I’m hoping me mentioning it doesn’t scare him off.
So far, things have been great between us. I’m feeling more secure than I have in years. I have Reece, and my stalker is dead. He met a nasty end in jail. Apparently serial rapists aren’t popular behind bars and Duncan got targeted. I cried when I found out, but from relief not from upset.
So, no stalker. I have Reece. We’re holed up in his house, unofficially living together, and we’ve already been on two trips. I don’t want to throw a wrench in the works by talking about something more.
On the other hand, I want something more. I certainly want us to have somewhere we can go and surf together, and if something like that is too deep for him, then we’re back to square one. I love him, dearly, but I won’t settle for second best. Nerves flutter in my belly as I think about how he will react to my proposition.
He comes into the room, looking and smelling amazing. Wearing jeans and his own biker boots. We both grab our helmets, and walk out the door.
A few hours later, and I’m angry at myself. I’ve had a few chances to talk to Reece alone, to bring up the holiday home, and I’ve balked every time.
I’m on my third glass of wine, liquid courage, while Reece nurses a low alcohol beer, since he’ll be driving us back on the bike.
I wander out of the lounge and up the stairs, heading for the toilet. When I get to the top of the landing, I hear footsteps behind me and turn to see Reece.
“I’m nipping to the loo,” I say.
He gives me a shit-eating grin. “Did I tell you how hot you look in those boots? I fucking love them on you.”
I’ve taken them off now, left them by the door and only have my socks on but he’s got a heated look in his eyes. I know what it means.
“Not here,” I tell him. “We can’t do it in your friend’s house.”
“Says who?”
He hustles me into the bathroom and closes the door behind us.
“I’ve been wanting to fuck you all day. Seeing you all hot and mud covered got me hard as nails.”
“Really?” this surprises me.
“Yeah. I wanted to take you down in that muddy trough and fuck you there and then, slipping about in it.”
“Oh,” I don’t know what else to say. His words have lit a fire in me though.
“We’d have had something of an audience,” I say with a laugh.
“I’d fuck you in front of them,” he replies. “Show them all you’re mine and no one else’s.”
“How utterly caveman of you,” I say with a smirk.
“You want to see caveman?” His brow raises in a challenge.
“Yes,” I breathe, because I so do.
He turns me around facing the sink. “Hold on,” he grunts.
I do, my fingers wrap around the porcelain as I do as instructed.
His fingers reach around to the front of my jeans and he undoes the zip on them. Then he pulls them down before kicking my legs apart.
He doesn’t take my knickers down, and he leans in to whisper to me. “Remember the first time we fucked? You pulled your panties to one side and slid down on my cock. I fucking loved it.”
I shiver because I loved it, too, and I love his dirty talk now.
He pulls my knickers roughly to one side and I wait for his finger at my core, but instead he drops to his knees behind me and I gasp as his tongue flicks out to lick me right where I need him. His fingers palm my ass and pull my cheeks to the side, giving him better access to my core.
It doesn’t take long before I feel my orgasm coming at me like a freight train and I let go of the sink with one hand to stuff a fist in my mouth as I cry out around it.
In one smooth motion, he’s up and behind me, and he surges into me as I still contract.
“Oh, God.” My head falls back against his chest for a moment, but then his hand comes up around the back of my neck and he pushes my head down, and holds me there.
Fuck, it’s dirty, and it’s hot!
Giving me no mercy, he rams into me hard and fast and I can tell by his breathing he won’t last long. When he comes inside me with a groan, it’s delicious. Just him and me, no condoms anymore. I’m on the pill, and we’re both clean.
He’s already pulling his trousers up, which he’d only pushed down and not taken off, and I put my panties back to the right place and tug my jeans up.
I turn to Reece and he gives me a deep, hot kiss. I head to the door and turn the lock, shooting him a wicked smile over my shoulder.
“Kate.”
He stops me with one word, his voice serious, low.
Shit. I’m not sure I’m going to like the sound of this. I should get my own stuff in first. Ask him about the holiday home. Put it out there, rejection or not, and find out where I stand.
“I want to ask you something,” I tell him.
“Me first.” He prowls over to me, loose limbed, easy but predatory somehow.
“I want to ask you something, and I don’t want to do it in front of everyone down there in case you’re not there yet. Don’t want to put you in a bad position.”
What the hell is he going to ask me? For a crazy moment, I wonder if he’s going to ask me about his book, the one he’s actually writing now.
He smiles at me, and there’s something shining in his eyes, I don’t see too often but when I do it lights me up inside. It’s a soft glow, a regard. As if he thinks I’m the most precious thing in this world.
Then he sinks down to the floor and I wonder if he’s going to start being dirty again, but my brain slowly takes in that he’s on one knee and reaching into his pocket.
My heart speeds up until a wave of faintness washes over me.
Reece pulls a dark blue velvet box out of his pocket.
“It’s a bit weird, me doing this in Liam’s bathroom, but I figured you’re not a public proposal kind of a girl.”
He figured right, I’m more private than I used to be since my stalker.
“I also figured, this is maybe too soon, and I didn’t want you forced to say yes, because you’re too nice to turn me down in front of the others. This is what I followed you up here for, but you distracted me with your sexy.”
I laugh at him, and I can feel tears in my eyes.
With a slight creak of hinges, he opens the box. The ring nestled in the satin inside is exquisite. A rose gold ring with a stunning, rectangular emerald in the center and two diamonds either side.
“Oh my God,” I breathe.
“Do you like it?” he asks. “I took one of your rings to make sure it fits, and I know you love rose gold, and you like turquoise, too, but I needed a better stone than a turquoise for your engagement ring. The lady in the shop suggested this. It’s antique.”
“I love it!”
I want to squeal and jump up and down like a kid in a candy store. I don’t. I grin instead at Reece who is standing now.
“Is that a yes? Will you marry me, Kate? Be free with me? Come on the adventure. For the rest of our lives?”
And just like that, with those words, it doesn’t matter that we are in a bathroom. Or that he got sidetracked from his proposal by the sex. Those words are beautiful, and they fill me up inside.
“Yes, Reece. I’ll be free with you.”
He kisses me then and when he pulls away, he takes hold of my hand and puts the ring on.
It fits perfectly and it’s beautiful. We kiss again, and then he places his hand on my heart, palm down.
“You own me, Kate. Here, deep down where it matters. Sometimes that scares me, I’ll be honest, but I’ve never been a coward, and the things worth having are sometimes scary. I want us to be climbing mountains together when we’re in our seventies.”
I giggle at his last words, and suddenly telling him about wanting to buy a holiday home doesn’t seem so scary.
We go back downstairs and don’t say anything, but then eagle-eyed Cara spots the ring and asks, so we tell them.
There are congratulations and at some point Abi fetches Champagne but I don’t take it in. It’s all background noise to the buzz of outright joy within.
Reece helped me heal, and I helped him heal right back. Together we make the other better, and together we’ll face whatever comes as a team, and one that doesn’t need to be tied down to any one place.
For us, home is wherever we are.
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