“Is that a yes?” He lowers his mouth to my neck, sucking the skin between his teeth and gently biting down. “Because I’ve only fucked you once today, you’re already reneging on me.”
“Not true,” I rebut. “You fucked me twice this morning.”
“Baby girl, I’m talking about fucking this tight cunt.” His finger slides inside me at his words. “Every other part of you is a bonus — a bonus I expect on a daily basis too,” he grins. My insatiable man.
“Well, you’d better hurry up, then,” I moan as his finger pushes deeper inside me. “Just one more thing,” I add.
“Anything,” he breathes.
“Fuck me hard enough to still feel you tomorrow.”
Of course my man delivers.
Chapter Twenty-One
Reed
I know my friendship with George is irrevocably changed; no matter the outcome of this morning’s ‘meeting’, our relationship will never be the same. But the woman perched next to me on the sofa in their formal parlor is worth it all.
She’s my future, the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. She’s the woman of my dreams.
George still looks like he wants to kill me, and to be fair, if Bella was my daughter and someone my age came along and did the things I’ve done to her — yeah, I’d want to kill me too.
Bella’s mom, Valerie, on the other hand looks like the best option right now. Her face is pinched, her expression definitely not friendly, but it’s not exactly screaming murder either.
“Mom, Dad,” Bella starts, “you wanted to talk.” She looks at George, her chin lifting, her body conveying a confidence I know she’s not feeling right now. “If you promise not to throw any more punches, then we’ll discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” George interrupts. “This is not happening.” He waves his hand towards us, his eyes taking in our clasped hands for the first time. “Let go of her,” he seethes.
“George, enough,” Valerie barks. “You losing your temper throughout this is going to achieve nothing.”
“How can you just sit there and be okay with this? How can you let this happen?” He turns to her, his face a mask of anger.
“Because I will not lose my daughter. She will choose him, George. It’s always been him for her.”
Ah shit. She knew?
“Mom, you knew?” Bella asks. “You knew I had a crush on him?”
“Of course I knew you had a crush on him. For God’s sake, Bella, most women do. I knew yours was a little more than a crush, though — you always had stars in your eyes whenever Reed was near.”
“Excuse me now?” George splutters.
“Oh shush, George, this isn’t about you and your ego,” Valerie interrupts.
His eyes turn to me, and if looks could kill? Well, Bella would be single and they’d no longer have anything to worry about. I can’t deny how much that hurts, how all the years of friendship mean nothing to him in this moment.
“I just never saw anything coming of it, I didn’t thinkyouwould act on it.” She directs that statement at me. “Christ, Reed. She’s twenty-one; you’re old enough to be her father.” Her hands come up to massage her temples. “Make this make sense to me. Explain how this happened.”
“Mom-” she starts but I interrupt her. It’s not Bella that they need to hear from right now, it’s me. It’s howIcould let this happen.
“You’ve both raised an incredible woman. A woman who’s kind, caring, sweet, smart and so fucking loyal to those she loves.I didn’t plan on this happening. I promise you both, when I agreed to Bella working with me this was the last thing I imagined. I had never thought about her like that, not until she walked into my office that first day.” I pause, trying to find the words to explain what seeing her then did to me.
“I hadn’t seen her in a few years, maybe longer, and then there she was, this — Christ, this woman who looked nothing like the girl I remembered. She wasn’t a girl anymore, but I hadn’t seen that change gradually, I hadn’t seen her go from a teenager to a woman. It was suddenly thrust on me. And then she smiled at me and… fuck, I think I fell right there and then.” George scoffs at me, but Valerie is just looking at me, not quite softening, but silently encouraging me to continue.
“He fought it,” Bella inputs. “He fought it with everything he had — point blank told me it was never going to happen.” She turns and gives me that smile, the one that made me fall hard and fast. “But I didn’t make it easy for him.” She turns to look at her Mom. “The minute I knew my feelings weren’t just one sided — well, you know me Mom — I wasn’t letting him go.”
For the first time this morning, Valerie cracks a smile. “That I can imagine. You set your mind to something and there’s no changing it. There never has been.” She takes a deep breath. “I can’t say I’m happy about this, and it’s going to take an awful lot of getting used to. This isn’t easy for your father and I, Bella, but I’m also aware that you’ve chosen him and nothing we say is going to change that.”
