Page 44 of What He Always Knew

“I don’thavean answer,” I said honestly, my voice squeaking at the top of the confession. “And I didn’t say it was over. I just… I told you I slept with him. I wanted to be honest.”

Reese’s jaw flexed at the reminder of what I’d done, and he took another step, just centimeters between us now.

“You slept with him,” he repeated. “Knowing that… hearing you say those words… itkillsme, Charlie. It makes me want to murder him.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I never said it was,” he answered quickly. “But it’s the truth.”

Tears pricked the edges of my eyes, but I forced a breath, keeping them inside.

“I still love him,” I whispered.

Reese swallowed. “So, does that mean you don’t want me?”

My eyes traveled up until they met his chest, and I watched his breaths enter and leave, the speed of them matching that of my heart.

“You don’t care about me?” he pushed further, his hand letting go of where it held the charger and mine. He moved it to frame my jaw instead, thumb tracing the skin there, his breath hot on my lips. “And everything we had, everything you felt with me…” he said. “You don’t feel that anymore?”

“I…”

I couldn’t answer, the words stuck like feathers in honey somewhere inside my throat. My head spun, the smell of him too much, the feel of his hand on me making me weak.

“And this…” he continued, his free hand trailing up the edges of my robe that lined the middle of my body. He pushed them aside gently, his finger just barely grazing the bottom of my breast as I inhaled a stiff breath. “This doesn’t make you feel anything at all?”

“Reese…”

“Say my name one more time, and this robe will be on the floor.”

I bit my lip, squeezing my eyes as my body screamed under his touch. He’d barely even brushed my skin and I was already on fire, writhing for oxygen.

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?” he probed, and this time, his finger trailed up just enough to graze my pebbled nipple.

“Yes, I still want you,” I panted. “But I’m just… I’m confused. I need some space, some time.”

“I don’t want space.” He rolled the pad of his thumb over my nipple, his hand slipping all the way under my robe to grip my breast firmly. “And we don’t have time.”

“Reese…”

And just as he promised, my robe was on the floor in a snap.

He tugged one end of the loose knot I’d tied under my breasts, and the moment the robe wasn’t between us any longer, he pulled me flush against him, his lips finding mine in a heated frenzy.

I gasped into his open mouth, but his tongue snuck inside in the next breath, and before I could register what had happened, my feet were off the ground. Reese pushed me against the wall, his hands pinning my hips against it as he kissed down my neck, sucking the skin between his teeth hard enough to leave marks.

Hissing, I arched off the wall and into his touch, the overwhelming feel of him taking me under like a tidal wave. I didn’t gasp for air, didn’t beg for oxygen — I simply let the wave take me down, down to hell, down to where my favorite sinner waited with open arms.

“You drive me absolutelycrazy, you know that?” Reese growled, pressing the hard-on straining through his shorts against my naked core. The friction sparked a fire, and I whimpered, rolling my hips against him.

Reese hadn’t touched me since the night of the spring concert, since he’d made me come for him in the costume closet. I’d had to be quiet then, but as Reese slipped a finger inside me, the loudest moan ripped from my throat. He groaned, withdrawing his finger before sliding it in again.

“So tight.” He murmured against my lips, and he kissed me harder as he slid another finger in to join the first.

My hands pressed hard into the wall, trying to find something to grip as he pinned me there. Every sound was muted other than his breaths, his eyes all I could see, his hands all I could feel. Just like the first time he’d touched me, Reese overwhelmed every sense, demanding all of me.

Memories of the fort flashed behind my eyes, the feel of him touching me on his piano, the way he’d stretched me open more than once that night. And I wished it was only lust. I wished it was only his body that made me feel this way.