Reed Read online

  Another stab in my chest, but I try to shake it off as I rummage through her cabinets for a glass. Josie is doing exactly what she wants to do. She's in a relationship with her career, and that's totally fucking cool. I mean, she's a freaking doctor who saves lives.

  But still, there's a part of me that feels sad. She doesn't have any close friends, and I'd venture to say I'm her closest as of now. She's got a fantastic relationship with her parents and talks to her mom a lot, but they're from California, so she doesn't get to see them that often. Until I insinuated myself into her life, she did nothing but work, eat, and sleep. Sleep, eat, and work.

  Now she works, eats, sleeps, and fucks. I've added another dimension to her life, but I'm starting to wonder how much more I can add.

  There is no wonder over the fact that I apparently want to add more. I dig her big time, and I've always been the guy who goes with the flow. I'm not scared to see where this goes. I'm not scared to have more with her.

  The only question is does she want the same thing, because by the way she lives her life by outward appearances, she doesn't seem to need much.

  Chapter 12

  Josie

  In my humble opinion, there aren't many better ways to wake up than with a gorgeous man who has his face shoved between your legs.

  My heels dig down into Reed's back as his mouth and fingers move over me and in me. Feral sounds rumble out of my throat and my fingers clutch fistfuls of his hair. As if it's not enough that Reed is hitting me in all the right places, in all the right ways, he's making his own sounds of pure pleasure over what he's doing to me.

  He loves doing this to me.

  I love him doing it to me.

  My sexual experiences aren't all that vast, and three years of my experiences belonged to Aiden. I thought we were good in bed. In fact, I can still say that we were good. Really good.

  Reed, though, is fantastic. Phenomenal. Amazing. Stupendous.

  He presses two fingers deep into me and his tongue flutters against my clit.

  "Reed," I groan as my hips wiggle, trying to get more friction going. "God, that feels good."

  Lifting those hazel eyes to me, he pulls his mouth away and looks at me with such need my breath catches. "Please tell me you have a condom handy, because after I make you come, I'm going to fuck the hell out of you. God help your neighbors on the other side."

  My sex totally clenches over the rough timbre of his voice laced with desperation. I shake my head and my voice sounds whiny. "I don't. Shit...I don't."

  If I expected Reed to be disappointed over that proclamation, I'd be wrong. Instead, he gives me a wicked smile that sets off a ripple of pleasure through me, then pushes up onto his hands.

  "Guess we'll try something a little different," he says, and before I can even process what he's doing, he's flipping both of us on the bed. He ends up on his back, his huge erection standing straight before my face because that's the way he positioned me. My knees are pressed into the mattress at his sides, and I'm straddling his face.

  "Oh God," I moan as it becomes clear what exactly he has in mind.

  "Let me have it, Josie," he murmurs as his hands spread over my backside. His thumbs creep inward to spread me apart and I have no control over my body as it lowers to meet his mouth.

  The first touch of his tongue causes me to jerk forward and my face smacks against his cock. Reed chuckles against my sensitive flesh.

  Full-body shivers hit me and Reed turns his head slightly to the side. "You can put your mouth on me, Doc, if you want."

  "Oh God," I moan again, and then I have him in my hand and on my tongue.

  "Yes," he hisses as I take him in, going still below me for a moment. I take the opportunity for a long, slow suck of his length into my mouth and I'm rewarded when I feel him tremble.

  "So good," he mutters, and then his mouth is back on me.

  So fucking good.

  Time loses its hold on both of us. I'm drowning in sensation, not only of what Reed is doing to me, but maybe even more so of what I'm doing to him. His hips buck under me, he sounds tortured and pleasured at the same time, and that turns me on so much I feel like I could be happy doing this to him for the rest of my days.

  It feels like it goes on forever, but in truth, I don't think it lasts very long at all. My orgasm crashes into me, blindsiding me so surprisingly that I lift my head and cry out Reed's name.

  "Christ," Reed mutters against me, and as I stare blankly at the ceiling while I continue to quake, I'm vaguely aware of Reed starting to come. My hand strokes him while his hot release hits me in the chest as I hover over him. His hips continue to buck, pushing his cock through my grip in a concerted effort to jerk every bit out of him.

  "Fuck, that was good," he wheezes under me.

  My body goes boneless, which has happened every single time Reed has made me come, and I flop over onto the mattress, my hand still loosely holding him. I can feel his semen trickling over my breast and down under my armpit, and I don't give a crap either.

  "I don't think they're going away," Reed says, and I have no clue what he's talking about.

  I raise my head to look down the bed at him. "What?"

  "Someone's knocking on your door," he says, and that's when I hear the loud knocking.

  "Shit," I cry out as I fly of the bed.

  Reed reacts to the panic in my voice and bounds up after me. "What?"

  "I forgot Sutton and Rose were coming over this morning," I say as I run to the bathroom, emerging two seconds later with my robe on. "You stay here. I'll...um...go get rid of them. No, wait...I can't do that. She's coming to visit. You can just sneak out the window. No, we're on the second floor, you'll kill yourself."

  "Josie," Reed says as he walks up to me, gloriously naked, his dick still half hard. His hands come to my shoulders. "Just go answer the door, tell her you overslept. Invite her in, tell her to make herself comfortable, and then you can come and get dressed, okay?"

  Okay, I think. That sounds calm and rational.

  I take a deep breath and nod vigorously. "Okay."

  I try to turn away from Reed toward my bedroom door, but his hands clamp hard on to me. I look up at him in question. His eyes drop to my chest and he says, "Um...you might want to wipe me off you before you answer the front door."

  My face flames hot as I look down to see the evidence of our happy times all over me. I pull the edges of my robe together and wipe it away, then overlap the sides so nothing's visible.

  "Damn, I'm a mess," I mutter as I turn toward the door.

  "A hot mess," he says with a laugh, and I don't bother to look back at him. I'm afraid I'll laugh too.

  I trot down the stairs, noting the knocking has stopped. When I throw the door open, I find Sutton halfway down my porch steps, a baby carrier in one hand.

  She turns and looks at me with surprise. "Oh God...I didn't mean to wake you up."

  I shake my head and motion for her to come back. "No, it's fine. I'm sorry it took me so long to get to the door. Come on in."

  Sutton beams a smile at me, and it's not my imagination, but she looks more stunning to me now than she did that night of the party before she went into labor. Then she had a beautiful pregnancy glow going on, but now she's practically radiating with happiness. I'm going to guess that's motherhood.

  As soon as Sutton walks in, I close the door behind her and make another apology. "I'm so sorry. Come on into the kitchen and I'll start some coffee. Then I'll just get some clothes on."

  "How about you go get dressed and I'll make coffee," Sutton suggests as she walks right past me and into the kitchen. She puts Rose's baby carrier on the counter and I catch a small glimpse of a beautiful sleeping baby. "I can find what I need."

  "Oh, Sutton," I exclaim softly. "She's beautiful."

  "Isn't she?" she exclaims proudly as she leans over the top and adjusts the blanket across Rose's chest.

  "Just perfect." I hover over the top for a moment, watching the easy peaceful
ness of her slumber.

  "Okay, coffee," Sutton says, and I blink hard to get out of the baby-induced coma.

  Still clutching my robe closed at the chest, I point with my other hand. "Coffee is in that cabinet there, coffeepot is pretty simple to figure out."

  Sutton smiles at me and starts to turn, but then her eyes move to something behind me. Immediately, the hair prickles on my neck as I see the surprise fill Sutton's eyes as I'm assuming Reed walked into the room.

  "Oh," Sutton murmurs, and now her eyes are practically sparkling with amusement. "Hey, Reed."

  I don't turn to face him, instead choosing to look at little Rose again. I try not to stiffen up when Reed's arms come around my waist from behind, and I force myself not to kick him when I hear the matching amusement in his tone. "Hey, Sutton. Cute kid."

  Swiveling my head to shoot him a glare, I mutter, "I thought you were going to stay in the room."

  "Never said that," he says with a grin, and then bends to kiss me on the cheek. "I'm headed to my house to play some Call of Duty. I'd stay here and play it while you two gab, but sadly you have neither a TV nor an Xbox. Call me after Sutton leaves and we'll figure out what to do with the rest of our day. Maybe we'll go buy you a TV later."

  I want to tell him to go to hell for embarrassing me in front of Sutton, but then I realize, I'm actually not embarrassed. I can tell by the look on Sutton's face she's happy to see Reed here in my house, and I can tell by the way I focus on the lingering warmth on my cheek where he just kissed me that I'm happy he's here too.

  "Get out of here," I grumble at him, but I do turn to give him a playful swat on his chest before he leaves. "And I'm not buying a TV."

  "Later, Sutton," Reed says, then shoots me a wink. "You're so buying a TV so I have something to do after I wear you out."

  My jaw drops as I have no response to that. The room is silent as Sutton and I watch Reed walk out my door, almost strutting like only a man can do who just had some amazing oral wake-up sex.

  "No wonder it took you so long to answer the door," Sutton breathes out appreciatively.

  I groan and turn to face her. "I'm so sorry about that. He got carried away this morning...and well, then so did I."

  Sutton makes a dismissive wave of her hand and starts to make the coffee. "Girl, please. I'm just happy someone's getting laid. It's been way too long since Alex and I had sex."

  I lean a hip against the counter as I watch Sutton move around my kitchen as if she was born there. "Let's see...if memory serves me from a rotation I did in obstetrics, you have to wait a month after childbirth?"

  "Four to six weeks," Sutton says with a grimace. "Damn better believe we're going to try at the four-week mark, though."

  I laugh and then push off the counter. I head to the cupboard with my mugs and pull two down.

  "So...you and Reed, huh?" Sutton asks slyly.

  With a sigh of complete acceptance that we are apparently a thing, I admit, "Yeah, me and Reed."

  "He's such a good guy, Josie," Sutton practically gushes. "He's only been with the team a few years, and he's an amazing hockey player, but Alex really likes him a lot. I mean, as a person. Said he's just got really good values."

  "He's a great guy," I affirm, but she hears that "thing" in my voice.

  "But," she prompts.

  "But I don't know what we're doing. We started out as friends. Buddies. Hell, he'd been banging his blond Barbie chicks while we were friends. And then, boom, now he's banging me."

  Sutton snickers as I pass her the creamer from the fridge. She sets it by the pot that's starting to brew and turns to face me. "Just go with it. Enjoy it. There are worse ways to start a relationship, you know."

  A sudden wave of jubilation--a lightness of heart--sweeps through me. She's so right. What could possibly be wrong about starting out as friends and going to lovers? It makes the basis of what we have stronger, and if I think about it, it established a mutual trust between us. How many casual flings fizzle out because you find out while the sex might be good, the person isn't so great?

  Well, not that I'd know about that. I've never been into casual sex, and my last relationship was supposed to be for the long term, but still...I know that's solid reasoning, and I am a logical person if anything.

  I grin back at Sutton and nod firmly. "You're right. I'm going to enjoy it and just go with the flow. Why not?"

  "That's my girl," Sutton exclaims with a tiny pump of her fist.

  Yes, I'm feeling very good about this.

  Chapter 13

  Reed

  I see Josie walking across the darkened parking lot toward me. Well, toward her car. Her head is tucked down and she looks tired. When she finally looks up and locks her eyes on me, the exhaustion melts away and I'm rewarded with a happy, welcoming smile from her.

  "You really have to stop stalking me in parking lots," she quips as she walks closer.

  Then closer still until the tips of her shoes touch the tips of mine and she's offering her mouth to me for a kiss. I, of course, take it, because who wouldn't? It's Josie, and her lips are perfect. She tastes like mint gum and smells faintly of antiseptic, and for some reason that's sexy to me.

  When she pulls back, she tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear and asks, "But seriously, what are you doing here?"

  "Taking you somewhere," I tell her as I grab her hand and turn her toward my Tahoe that's parked the next row over.

  "Where?"

  "It's a surprise."

  One of the things I've come to appreciate about Josie is that she's opening up to spontaneity. Finding joy in it. I love pushing her to explore and out of her little narrow world.

  She looks delectable tonight in her scrubs, and it might possibly be the sexiest outfit I've ever seen her in. I'm sure that has to do with the fact that I respect her so much as a doctor that it just heightens my attraction to her, and I wonder if she will play dress-up games with me in the scrubs. I certainly would not mind getting a thorough exam from her.

  Within minutes I have her loaded in the passenger seat and we're heading down the inner beltline. The sky quickly goes from the orange of a mid-summer sunset to the purplish black of twilight.

  I'll give Josie continued credit. She doesn't ask where we're going and we lapse into the same easy conversation we've had every night since we began sleeping together a little over a week ago. I tell her about the charity golf game I played in today with a few of my teammates and she fills me in on all of the exciting cases she had at the emergency room, which included a toddler swallowing a rare coin from his father's collection.

  "Holy shit. How did you get the coin out of the kid?" I ask her.

  Josie laughs and leans across the center console to slap me on the arm. "You don't take it out. You just have to let the kid pass it naturally."

  "Really?"

  "Well," Josie says with a chuckle. "I did take an X ray to make sure that it was small and could pass safely. It's not like he swallowed something the size of an Olympic medal or anything."

  "Okay, okay, okay...What's the weirdest thing you've ever had to remove from a patient?" I ask her with childish curiosity.

  I glance across at her, and even in the dim interior lights I don't miss her eye roll. Still, she gives me a straight answer. "I once removed a piece of okra from a woman's rectum."

  My head snaps to the right to look at her as my jaw drops open. "You're kidding me?"

  Josie starts to cackle and bends over holding her stomach. When she finally is able to take a breath and look over at me, she says, "Of course I'm kidding you. Who puts okra up their ass?"

  I'm not daunted. "Seriously, what's the weirdest thing?"

  Her laughter dies down and she shrugs. "I really haven't seen much weird stuff. I guess maybe a bag of heroin from a drug dealer who swallowed it before the police caught him in a foot chase. I didn't do the actual surgery, but I diagnosed it."

  I smile and shake my head as I see the turn I'm looking for up ahead. "You neve
r cease to amaze me, Doc. But it's so cool what you do for a living. Impressive as hell."

  "Thanks, Reed," she says softly. "That means a lot."

  I don't respond as I put my blinker on, and when we slow down Josie's looks out the passenger window. "Where are we?"

  I point out of my driver's window across the highway. "That's the airport over there. Hawke told me about this place and said that he and Vale come out here sometimes to watch the planes taking off and landing."

  "You brought me here to watch planes?" she asks in a teasingly droll voice. "That's kind of sweet. I guess."

  I make a mental note to myself never to bring her here to watch planes, as that's clearly not an interest of hers.

  I turn onto a gravel road that winds back through dense bushes and foliage at least ten feet high. The farther back we drive the farther we get from the glow of the airport lights and it's practically pitch dark when I pull into a small clearing.

  I turn the car off, but before I open the door I turn to look at her. "Didn't bring you here to look at planes."

  "Oh, you brought me out here to seduce me?" Josie asks with knowing exaggeration.

  "No, I did not bring you out here to seduce you. Although that still might happen actually, but let's forget about that. Get out of the car."

  Josie laughs as she pops the door open and hops out. I do the same and meet her at the back cargo door. I open it up and pull out a blanket and a six-pack of beer. I nod toward the interior. "Grab the basket."

  Josie blinks in surprise as she grabs the picnic basket I had packed earlier. "Dinner?"

  "I made some sandwiches. Threw in some chips."

  I lead her a few feet away and lay the blanket out on the ground. Josie and I both drop down to it.

  "It's kind of dark out here," she says as she looks around. "Kinda creepy, actually."

  I laugh as I pull out a beer from the six-pack and twist the top for her. I hand it over and say, "Don't worry. I'll protect you from any killer clowns that might be lurking."

  Josie takes a sip of her beer as I open one for myself. After I take a swallow I nod toward the blanket. "Lie down."

  She cocks one of those beautiful modelesque eyebrows at me. "I thought you said you didn't bring me out here to seduce me."

  "Lie down," I say little more forcefully, giving her a no-nonsense look. "On your back."