Page 61 of Wicked Little Darling

But goddammit my heart was swelling at the way he was willing to go to bat for me like that.

What would my life have been like if I’d had someone like Reese on my side throughout the years?

He bit down on his bottom lip, fingers flexing against my cheeks, then seemed to deflate on a heavy sigh. “Is that why you were such an asshole that day? Because you thought he would hurt me?”

He was damn perceptive if he’d already figured that out.

I nodded. “I just—I wanted you to go away. To not be near him. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that, but—I—fuck, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, it just came out.”

I rubbed my thumb along the back of his hand and waited for something—anything—from Reese, but he didn’t say a word.

He didn’t pull away from me, either.

Eventually, he spoke so softly I barely heard it. “It’s okay.”

And just like that, the guilt evaporated.

“Why are you scared of Albert?” I asked.

Had he done something? Had he met with Reese? Said something to him? God, I hated my fucking family. Everyone—excluding Val—was the worst kind of scum.

“Oh. I’m…not.”

That was convincing.

“You don’t have to be afraid of him.”

Liar.

“I think you’re all better now,” he said in a quivering voice, though his tone was a little abrasive.

“I’m not,” I murmured, drawing my thumb up his palm. He’d stopped tracing my scar, was just letting me hold his hand against my face now. His skin was so damn soft.

Were his lips just as soft? Softer? His mouth was filled with barbed words, and I wanted to kiss him and find out if his lips were just as stinging.

I slowly trailed my fingertips across the back of his hand, down his arm.

Slowly, slowly, slowly.

Seeing what he’d let me do. Testing what was okay with him.

My fingers slid beneath the sleeve of his shirt, and he made a sound in the back of his throat as his entire body shuddered. I felt it against my right hip and leg and a flood of desire poured through my groin at his reaction to my touch, my cock throbbing and thickening. Fuck, I wanted to see what else I could get from him. I wanted every single reaction of his, wanted to trace my tongue?—

“What are you doing?” His voice was shaky, breathless, and husky.

“Touching you,” I whispered. “Can I touch you? Please?”

Reese’s eyes burned into mine as I trailed my fingers back down his arm. He glanced at my hand then returned his gaze to mine and licked his lips. They glistened now, a deep dark red, and his teeth scraped against the bottom one. “I…”

“Please, Reese?”

The flush on his cheeks deepened and spread. Fuck me, he was gorgeous.

“I don’t?—”

His breath hitched as I slid my other hand down his arm, trailing light fingers over his soft skin. His exhale was shaky, and he leaned closer.

Closer.