“Why are you coming?” Reign finally says.
I don’t move my gaze from the floor.
“Are you hearin’ me, Tia?”
I lift my eyes, meeting his. “I’m coming because it’s my job.”
The elevator dings and I step out, not giving him the chance to answer. The grand ballroom in the resort is filled with mingling people. I don’t know where to go; I don’t know who to speak to. Reign and Selena brush past me as if I don’t exist. I know he’s angry, but I’m trying, I’m trying to make it better. A man like Reign won’t accept just an apology. This is the best I can offer him.
The young man that was on the golf course earlier with us comes over, smiling at me as he places a kiss on my cheek. “Tiani, you look lovely.”
I immediately warm to him, simply because he’s easing the awkward tension I’m feeling in the room tonight. “It’s nice to see you again, ah, I didn’t catch your name earlier?”
“Josh,” he offers.
“It’s nice to meet you officially, Josh.”
Josh is nice looking. He’s not gorgeous, but he’s certainly not lacking. He’s tall, with a lean frame and messy brown hair that falls over his forehead. His eyes are a light blue and they match his pale skin perfectly.
“Would you like to dance?”
I let my eyes scan the room, and I see Reign glaring at me. Straightening my back, I turn back to Josh. “I’d love too.”
He takes my hand and leads me out onto the dance floor. We fall into a basic waltz, moving around the space with other dancers. I find myself smiling, grateful to Josh in this moment. We continue around the dance floor and I find myself loosening up, right up until the moment Reign pulls Selena out. Then his arms are around her and her head is buried into his shoulder and I just can’t take it.
I’m trying, trying to be everything he needs me to be, but I can’t.
I love him. I hate that I fucking love him, because it’s only going to end in disaster.
“I’m just going to the bathroom,” I whisper, smiling up at Josh. “Excuse me?”
He returns my smile. “Thank you for the dance.”
I quickly nod, pulling away from him and rushing off the dance floor before anyone sees how devastated I am. I rush out of the ballroom and down a few halls until I find a private room. I test the door handle and gasp with relief when it opens. I step inside, hesitant, hoping it’s empty.
It is.
I close the door behind me and walk over to the window, pressing my palms against it and leaning my forehead on the glass. Calm down, take a breath. You can do this. Just go back out with a smile, keep your cool, and then go back to the room. There’s no need for it to get to you like this.
“I’m so fucking angry at you.”
I spin around at the sound of Reign’s voice, and I see him standing at the door, his back pressed against it, arms crossed over his chest.
“What do you want, Reign?” I whisper. “You’ve said what you needed to say.”
He pushes off the door, his eyes wild and lusty. He stops in front of me, reaching his finger out to run down my cleavage. I shiver.
“I’m so fucking angry, but seeing you in this dress, my fucking body pressed against another man . . . I don’t like it. No, that’s not enough. I fucking hate it.”
For some reason, this comment makes my blood boil. I came down here; trying to be everything he needed only for him to shove it back in my face. I’m trying to be the better person, trying to show him that I was wrong and now he’s making out like all he wants to do is fuck me. Like I’m nothing more than a whore.
“You know what,” I breathe. “Fuck you.”
He takes a step back, his eyes wide. “I beg your pardon?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me, Reign. I said fuck you. I came down here, trying to make up for what I did, but you know what...I take it back. You deserved everything you got. You’re a selfish, self centered, pig.”
He glares at me. “You can talk.”
“I try,” I scream. “But you can’t see it. Your head is so far up your ass you can’t see what I’m trying to do for you. I care about you; it’s why I’m like this. Do you think I want to care about you? God knows you don’t deserve me to.”
“You made a fool of me!” he barks.
“Yeah,” I growl, stepping closer. “Well you make a fool of me every damned day you keep chasing that woman.”
“You accepted this job, I didn’t make you. What I did ask of you, though, was for you to behave professionally.”
“Why should I?” I growl. “When you can’t?”
“Fuck, Tia. Is it really your place to be angry at me right now?”
I step closer, shoving his chest. “Abso-fucking-lutley.”
His eyes flash and he steps forward, tangling his fingers into my hair. “You’re in this as much as I am.”
“Fuck you.”
He tangles his hand in my hair. “Keep speakin’ to me like that and I’ll fucking put you over my knee and spank you until my hand burns. You make me so wild, so fucking angry but . . .” His eyes drop to my breasts. “I can’t stop wanting you.”
“That’s all I am to you, right,” I growl. “A whore. A good time?”
“No, you’re far, far more than that.”
Then he crushes his lips down over mine, causing my breath to get stuck in my throat. I whimper and my entire body goes weak as his hand slides around my back, bringing me closer to him. His kiss is desperate, rough and a little angry. It’s full of passion and confusion, and it’s all consuming.
He doesn’t waste time; there is no going slowly tonight. His hand goes down and he takes hold of my dress, sliding it up. He bunches it around my waist with one hand while the other fumbles with his pants. He frees his cock and then reaches down, his lips on my neck, and jerks my panties aside. Well, if you could call them panties. They’re more a scrap of material.
He presses me against the window, using it to hold most of my weight while he lifts my leg and wraps it around his hip, my heel digging into his ass. He groans at the feeling. “Fuck, those heels, baby,” he murmurs. “Make it hurt.”
With pleasure.
He takes his cock, pressing it against my entrance and then he’s inside me, deep and hard. He doesn’t give me fast thrusts; instead he grinds against me, only pulling his cock out just slightly. His hips rotate as he fucks me slowly against the window, rubbing over the sensitive bundle of nerves inside me, the material on his pants rubbing against my exposed clit.
I press my heels into his thigh, using him to tilt my body up so he can fuck me deeper, slower. He tangles his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back and staring down at me, keeping his eyes pinned to mine as he takes all of me. God, the deep yet slow thrusting is bringing me to heights I’ve never known.
“Yes,” I mewl as I reach the edge and hang just slightly over, not quite getting to where I need to go because I’m too greedy to let myself find that release.
“Your cunt is so tight on my dick,” he growls into my ear. “Like a snug little glove. Let go for me, baby. I need to feel you pulse around me.”
He cups my ass with his hand, squeezing it as he picks up his pace, fucking me harder and harder until I’m screaming his name. Then I come, and when I do, it’s explosive. For a moment I see nothing but stars. I hear nothing but the sounds of my own screams. I feel nothing but him. When he loses control I feel his cock explode, reminding me just how much it loves my body.
“Baby,” he grunts into my ear. “Fuck.”
It takes us a long time to come down after that, but eventually Reign pulls out, shoving his cock into his pants and straightening himself up. I pull my panties back over and let my dress drop, knowing full well I’ll need to go and clean myself up before I can join everyone again.
“I’m sorry,” I say, looking up at him, admiring his just-fucked hair that he’s running his fingers through, trying to fix.
“You made a fool of me out th
ere today,” he says, finally looking at me.
“I fucked up. I know I did.”
He sighs. “You’re putting me in a hard place. You have no fucking idea how I’m fighting against myself right now.”
“I can’t help the way I feel. I can’t help wanting you the way I do.”
He looks at the roof, his jaw tight. “I can’t . . .” He stops talking, closing his eyes and running his hand down his face. “Shit, Tia, I can’t even . . .”
“I get it,” I say, my voice small. “I do . . . even if you don’t think I do.”
He pins me with his gaze and takes a deep breath. “I’m going to give it to you straight, because you deserve it that way,” he swallows and for the first time I see a flash of vulnerability in his eyes. “I’m not going to deny I feel something for you, because that would be a fucking lie. I do. You make me laugh and when I’m inside you, fuck, it’s never felt so damned good. When you smile, I smile, because something lightens when you’re around.”
“But?” I croak.
“But I care about her, Tia. I can’t just turn that shit off. Has it dimmed since I started sleeping with you? Absolutely. There are times I’ve forgotten to even think about her, and that scares the hell out of me because it means I’m feeling something for you that goes beyond friendship, but I can’t turn off my feelings for her. I’m trying to, but I can’t. I’m in a fucked-up situation, because the truth of it is . . .” He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I care about two women, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out which one is best for me.”
My lip trembles as I stare at him, loving that he’s so honest. It hurts, God, it hurts like hell, but I can’t ask any more of him. He’s given me the truth, and I can’t hate him for that.
“It hurts me to say this,” I force out, “but I get it.”
He shakes his head, giving me a pitying expression. “It’s hard. I want to spend time with both of you to be able to make a clear decision, but how the fuck can I ask that of you? Stay by my side and continue fucking me while I’m doing the same thing with another woman? I needed to show her today, for whatever sick reason I needed for her to see you were second best.”
Oh god. That burns. It fucking burns. Reality at its hardest.
“Are you...are you sleeping with her?”
He shakes his head, eyes intense. “I haven’t. That’s the God-honest truth, Tia. I haven’t put my cock inside her since she’s been back, but I can’t promise that won’t happen. I know what it will do to you . . . I don’t want to be that man.”
My heart aches. It feels like it’s being ripped out of my chest.
“Reign?”
I jerk when I hear Selena’s voice, and I look past him to see her at the door. From the look on her face, she doesn’t know what we just did in here, nor did she hear our conversation. Reign stares at me, holding my gaze for an intense minute before turning to her.
“I’m coming.”
She smiles at him, and I want to hate her, but do I really have the right? After all, in her eyes, I’m the reason Reign is holding back. Just like in mine, she’s the reason. In this situation, who is really in the wrong?
“I’m going to go back to my room,” I say, my voice weak and pathetic. Betraying me when I need it to be sassy and funny.
“Tia,” Reign says as I brush past him.
I turn to him. “It’s simple, if we really want it to be. You don’t have to make the choice, Reign. I do.”
I step past and rush back down the halls to the elevator.
That didn’t go as planned.
~*~*~*~
“Autumn,” I whisper down the line, talking to her answering machine for the hundredth time. “I miss you. I wish you were here. I could use you.”
I hang up and turn my phone off. I walk into the bathroom, kicking off my shoes as I go. I find a robe and decide I could use a bath. I strip down while the hot water fills the massive tub. The moment it finishes, I step over the side and sink down, sighing with relief as my muscles relax. I close my eyes, letting myself sink into the bubbles.
I’m in there no longer than twenty minutes when I hear my door open and shut. I jerk upright, covering my breasts. Is it house-keeping? I stare at the bathroom door, heart pounding. It creaks open and I let out a little squeak but quickly smother it when Reign steps in. He’s drunk; I can see it straight away. His eyes are glassy, he’s got a real swagger, his jacket is gone, his shirt is half undone and of course, he’s got a bottle of open wine in his hand.
He looks divine.
“Reign,” I breathe, starting at his half-untucked shirt. He looks messy and rugged and so fucking sexy it hurts.
“You can’t keep walkin’ away from me,” he says, dropping the wine on the countertop.
He takes hold of his shirt, tearing it up and over his head, sending a few buttons soaring across the room. He jerks his pants down, causing my eyes to widen.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to get in. I’m going to fuck you slowly, and I’m going to try and forget why the fuck I’m doubting everything.”
I bite my lip as he strips down to nothing, his big, hard body straining as he strides towards me. Oh. Shit. I can’t do this right now. I quickly stand, getting out of the bath. I take a towel and avoid his questioning glance. Not to mention his hardening cock. Not worried about me getting out, he walks over and takes my hips, lifting me and placing me on the counter next to the sink.
“Why are you doing this to me? Makin’ me feel for you? I don’t want to fuckin’ feel for you, Tia. I just want you to stop makin’ me feel.”
I swallow and turn my eyes away.
“Don’t look away from me. Don’t be ashamed of the power you have. Embrace it, but just know you deserve better than me. I don’t want you to wait for me, but I can’t fucking tell you to leave. I’m selfish.”
My eyes burn as unshed tears rise to the surface.
“Don’t cry,” he says, leaning down and kissing my tears away. “Don’t fuckin’ cry, baby.”
He spreads my legs and his cock pushes inside me without warning.
“Oh God,” I whimper.
“Don’t cry,” he groans, pulling it back out and sliding it back in. “Never fuckin’ cry for me. I’m not worth it.”
“You are.” I gasp as he begins fucking me for the second time tonight.
“I want my cock inside you; it’s all I think about. Your little pussy consumes me, invading my thoughts.”
Deeper, softer, oh God.
“Take me deeper,” he growls into my ear. “Spread your legs wider and take my cock so fuckin’ deep you feel my balls against your sweet ass. I’ll fuck you there one day. I’ll make you scream my name with my cock deep inside your ass while my fingers sink into your pussy.”
I tremble and cry out his name, my orgasm scarily close.
“Come for me. Don’t hold back. Give me all of this.”
He plunges deeper. Pushing my ass into the sink but I don’t care.
“I want to come. I need to fucking come. Milk me, baby, take me inside you,” he hisses, biting my earlobe.
“Then come,” I growl, arching up. “You prick.”
“Fuck,” he moans. “My dirty girl.”
I press myself up into him, reaching down to grip his ass as I find my orgasm. He finds his in the exact same moment, as if we’re one and the same. As I clench around him, his cock pulses inside me.
“Milk me, fuck, God, yes.”
I drop back into the sink, sighing deeply. Reign lifts my head, nuzzling my cheek.
“You’ve killed me. It’s official,” he murmurs.
“I could say the same. Mrs. Mufflepuff is out of bounds for the next week.”
He snorts and pushes himself back. “I’m starving and I want more alcohol.”
“Reign?” I ask, as he pulls me up and takes a towel.
“Yeah?”
“Would it be—” I hesitate. “Would it be too much to ask for you
to stay with me tonight?”
His eyes flash and he turns to me. “No, that ain’t too much to ask.”
I give him a full-blown, can’t-wipe-it-off-my-face smile.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Give me five things I don’t know about you.” I laugh, leaning back into the bed with a bottle of wine in my lap.
“I hate chickens.”
I snort loudly and start laughing hysterically. “Chickens? Why?”
Grinning, Reign drops down beside me, slice of pizza in his hand. “They’re just . . . ugly.”
“You hate them because they’re ugly?”
He shrugs. “They’re like an insult to nature ‘Oh I’m a bird, but I can’t fly. I just run around squeezing eggs out of my ass.’”
I laugh so hard that my belly aches. “You’ve been playing in the special farm too long.”
He chuckles. “No one said I wasn’t special.”
“Okay,” I say, trying to breathe through my giggles. “What else?”
“I have an extreme weakness for cigars. I mean, I’m going to be that old, wrinkled man in fifty years that’s sitting in his study, killing everyone with cigar smoke.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Gross.”
“I love basketball, but I could never figure out how to play it.”
“Poor sad, short man.”
He grunts. “Rub it in, go on.”
I roll, taking my wine with me until I’m settling in the crook of his arm.
“Number four?”
“I love Family Guy.”
I burst out with a squeal. “Me too!”
“Yeah?” he says, tangling a finger in my hair. “I knew I liked you.”
“And the last one. Make it count, big guy.”
“I fix old cars when I’m not at work.”
I sit up, staring down at him. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“I mean like . . . whoa! You in greasy cover-alls? And I didn’t know?”
He winks at me. “Maybe one day I’ll let you see them.”