Page 25

CHAPTER

NINE

REECE

F uck. She was beautiful doing nothing more than lying next to me wearing a damn sleep shirt. When she stretched, pushing those tits out, she got me as hard as a rock.

I shook her awake. “Hey, Bree, got to fuck you, babe.”

Without hesitation, she asked, “How do you want me?”

“Just let me do what I got to do.”

“Okay.” She yawned and tore the shirt up over her head, tossing it onto my pillow.

The smell of her desire for me—damn. I wiped my hand over my face, spread her legs wide, and sucked her clit into my mouth.

She moaned this loud, sweet, sexy moan. It was addictive and man, I got off on that. I sucked harder, making her squirm. I ripped my mouth away, slapping her pussy.

She widened her legs for me.

“You like that?”

“Yes.”

I knew it. I just wanted to hear her say it. As a reward, I bent in to suck her again. The second moan sounded even sweeter when it left her mouth and I tore mine away again, slapping that pussy hard enough to turn it bright pink and pucker.

“Please,” she begged.

“Please what?”

“I need more.”

“Not until I’m ready.” I teased her, drawing my cock through her lower lips, using the tip to rub her clit. She cried out.

At this point, I could’ve done anything to her and she’d have taken it—begged for it—and loved every goddamn second.

Women didn’t fake it with me, but Bree? She was something else entirely.

Raw. Responsive. Real. Every moan, every tremble—nothing about her was put on.

And it hit me all over again that this little fake arrangement we’d made might’ve been the best damn decision of my life.

Things were heating up fast—seconds away from going from hot to holy hell —when the doorknob started to twist.

She launched into motion using her mothering superpowers.

One second she was under me, wrecked and wanting, and the next she was shoving me off, yanking her sleep shirt over her head, and sprinting across the room as if her life depended on it.

All to keep her kid from seeing something he shouldn’t.

It might’ve been funny—if I wasn’t left sitting there, rock hard and holding myself, with no relief in sight.

When Benny opened the door, she glanced over her shoulder at me, eyes apologetic, mouth twitching with an unvocalized to laugh. Then she turned back to him and held her arms out wide.

“How’s my boy?” she asked, scooping him up and smothering his face with kisses as she carried him out of the room like it was just another Tuesday.

And I couldn’t even be mad. She had a kid. A life. And that moment right there? That was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen .

She was sweet.

Yeah. I’d seriously lucked out.

Sighing, I ran both hands down my face and tucked myself back into my shorts, adjusting with a wince. That ship had sailed. As if to drive it home, her phone alarm started blaring. I leaned over and shut it off for her.

No relief. No finish. Just one hell of a reminder that this woman, this life—complicated or not—was worth every remaining second I got to be a part of it.

Speaking of… Family time. Benny had school this morning, Bree had work, and I had practice, along with a few photo shoots for Copperheads PR.

When I walked out of the bedroom, she and Benny watched some little kid show on the television. His eyes actually brightened when he saw me. That felt different, better, than I thought it would.

“Hey, bud,” I said, making my way over to him and crouching down to his level. He opened his arms for a hug. It was brief, but he liked me enough to hug me. That was huge. “What do you want for breakfast?” I asked.

“He usually gets his apples and cinnamon oatmeal. It’s in the freezer. I meal prep to save us time. Then he gets the dinosaur cookies to dunk in the oatmeal.”

“Got it,” I replied. “What about you?”

“If I eat, it’s something quick and easy I can grab as I head out the door.”

Not anymore.

“I’ll sort out breakfast while you get him ready.” Then I tugged her chin up to kiss her.

I pulled Benny’s oatmeal from the freezer, setting it on the counter to let the glass bowl come up to temperature before I nuked it.

For us, I grabbed the bagels from the fridge, popped them in the toaster, and pulled out a couple of eggs, cooking them over-easy—just the way we liked them—in the fry pan with olive oil .

Once the eggs were done, I set them aside and heated Benny’s oatmeal while I assembled our breakfast. An egg went on each toasted bagel half, followed by a light sprinkle of grated Parmesan.

I sliced up a few tomatoes, added them on top, and finished it all with a handful of her mixed greens. Simple, but satisfying.

No restaurant was trying to lure me away from hockey, but I was pretty proud of the result.

Finally, I took Benny’s food out of the microwave, setting that at the table along with a small saucer of dinosaur cookies. She didn’t tell me what he liked to drink. Bree and I had coffee. I’d started it brewing while cooking the eggs.

“Breakfast,” I called out to them. She walked into the kitchen holding his hand.

“You did all this? For us?”

“An extra pair of hands makes for light work.”

“That sounds like something your mother probably told you.”

I smiled. “She did.” As Bree helped Benny into his chair, I walked two steaming mugs over to the table. “What does Benny drink?”

“Juice box on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.”

She stirred his oatmeal for him and the kid made his cookies walk across the surface of his food.

He was a trip. I’d never imagined myself liking a kid who wasn’t mine, but Benny was different.

Despite not talking, he still used his body language to express himself in ways that as his mom, Bree could decipher, and she’d started sharing those things with me, so now I saw them too.

I popped the straw through the hole in the top of the box and set it down next to his plate.

He smiled at me for just a second, eyes drifting to the left, then went back to playing and eating.

“This is so good,” Bree said, swallowing down her first bite.

“Just eggs. ”

“Well, to you it’s just eggs. To me, it’s a feast that someone took the time to make for me. You cared enough to make my life just that much easier this morning.” Then she popped another bite into her mouth.

That hit me right in the chest. Bullseye.

Dead center. She appreciated something as small as eggs on a bagel.

I’d fallen so hard for Elyssa, but she never appreciated jack shit.

Always wanting more. Bigger. Better. A polar opposite.

Why did my fake relationship feel more real than my real one ever had?

Once I’d finished eating, I asked, “Mind if I hop in the shower real quick?”

“Go for it.” It appeared she’d showered while I’d been cooking.

By the time I finished cleaning myself and dressing, she and Benny waited by the door with their shoes on. He had his little backpack on again.

“Mornings are usually harried for us. We get lazy and then it’s a mad rush to get ready and out the door on time. He thinks it’s funny, so I haven’t tried to change it. This—this was a nice change. Thank you.” She pressed her hand to one of my cheeks then pushed up to kiss the other.

She locked up and we headed out to the truck, but she walked Benny to her car. “Babe, I drive, remember?”

“When we are in the same car, yes. But I have to get Benny to school and then I go to work.”

“We work at the same place.”

“Right. But my employer is Bennigan. I have to stop there every morning before heading to the arena. Plus, I have to have my car accessible in case I have to get to Benny, if he gets sick or something happens.”

“Something happens?”

“If he falls, if someone hurts him, or he’s just having a bad day. ”

I whipped my head to look down at Benny then back at her. “Someone hurts him? Who the fuck is hurting him?”

She smiled at me. “It doesn’t happen often, but kids are kids.”

“He’s started at the new school, right?”

“Before you and I ever started this. I got him started, then I needed to pay for it.”

“But the school is full of kids like Benny. He’s so sweet.”

She laughed, but not unkindly. “Even autistic kids can be aggressive, Reece.”

“ Baker .”

Bree patted my chest. “Not happening.”

That smirk she shot me. Damn, that was the cutest thing and it defused my temper regarding Benny. It still didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting that kid.

“Fine.” I grabbed a fistful of her sweatshirt to drag her closer to me and kissed her. Then I bent down to open my arms for Benny. He hugged me again.

“Okay, bud. I’ll see you after school,” I said and he smiled like he wanted that. After helping Bree get Benny hooked into his seat, I kissed her once more before heading to my truck.

It’d been a long time since I’d felt this content… happy on a Monday morning.

When I got to the arena, things started feeling weird from the moment I stepped foot inside the building.

Concession workers smiling at me. The men shooting me chin lifts as I passed.

The women—some of their smiles looked genuine and some looked as if they were ready to sink their claws in me.

What the hell was going on? I saw these people all the time.

Then when I reached the locker room, Bishop patted me on the back and made some kind of comment like, “Welcome to the club.”

The club? What club? I’d been a Copperhead longer than him .

Jones said, “It’s about time someone take the spotlight off of Bishop or Bonner.”

Take the spotlight? Before I could ask, Coach punched open the locker room door and bellowed, “Reece, in my office.”