Her hips went still. “Reed,” she whispered, more tender than he’d ever heard her voice. She looked at him, something softened in her eyes, and she ran her knuckles across his cheek. She kissed him lovingly, her lips gentle on his.
“You want me to take whatever I want,” she said with a grin, the Reaper coming back. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, her breasts in his face. “Suck my tit,” she demanded as she began to ride him again.
He took her in his mouth, rolling her nipple in his tongue as she brought herself to another climax. He couldn’t hold back any more, and together they erupted, quivering and breathless.
They stayed like that, her panting and sweaty. His cock going soft while he kept her hard nipple between his lips. Slowly, she slid away from him, standing above him with her dark hair in sheets around her face, hiding her eyes.
He wanted to reach for her. To hold her. To tell her he loved her again and again. But she disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.
Reed’s heart pounded in his chest, his cock soft and wet inside the condom. He ripped it off and tossed it in the garbage, his body sensitive and over stimulated. He pulled on his boxers, cleaned up Diana’s documents, and converted the dinette into the bed.
He was placing the fitted sheet when Siren returned from the bathroom, wearing a long T-shirt. He spread the comforter over the bed, and Siren climbed in, laying down on the pillow.
He climbed in beside her, the warmth of her body radiating across the small space. “We should get some sleep,” she said, turning out the light.
She turned away from him, but to his shock, she moved toward him, her back to his chest. Reed wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to him. He held her like a treasure, terrified she’d change her mind and roll away.
But she didn’t. He inhaled the scent of her hair. The smell of pleasure radiating from her body. She fell asleep in his arms. But he wanted to capture every minute of this moment, unwilling to miss a second of it.
He’d told her he loved her, and she hadn’t said it back. But now she was in his arms, sleeping peacefully, like she trusted him with this closeness. It was a crack in the wall. And that crack was all he needed to keep going.
Chapter
Eighteen
Siren wokewith the weight of Reed’s arm across her waist. His body was warm against her back. His hand rested on her stomach like it belonged there.
She didn’t move. Her wolf purred inside her mind, still insistent that she claim her mate, but content in a way she wasn’t used to. It felt like something had shifted inside her.
She let herself stay inside Reed’s warmth for a moment longer. Last night he told her he loved her. Offered himself to her completely. “I’ll wait for you forever.”
She thought about her mother. How every new boyfriend was like her salvation. How she’d crumbled when Siren’s father died, and the parade of men that followed. Each one promising to fill the hole her father left. Each one more disappointing than the one before.
Then there was the last one before Siren had left. The memory of the way he looked at her still made her skin crawl. She’d told her mother about her loser boyfriend. The third one that year. Yet, her mother had still chosen him.
Siren had learned something important the year she joined the Army. Men make you weak. Men make you make bad choices. Men make you betray the people who need you most.
But Reed wasn’t like that. He didn’t make her weak. He wasn’t trying to change her. He knew she was the Reaper. Knew her darkness and violence, the blood on her hands. He let her take whatever she wanted without flinching. Without shame.
Maybe it could last?
She slipped out from under his arm, not wanting to wake him. The morning air was cool as she found her clothes and dressed. She started the little coffee pot and looked for something to make for breakfast.
There was a package of pancake mix in the cupboard. She pulled it out, measured it into a bowl and added water. Reed had been doing most of the cooking, which she appreciated. But this morning she felt like doing it herself.
She sprayed the pan with oil and poured in the batter. The scent of pancakes and coffee filled the small space. Reed stirred as she flipped the first pancake, and he slowly climbed out of bed, pulling on his pants.
“Smells good,” he said, reaching for a mug from the cabinet. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. It was such an automatic action that she didn’t have time to resist or respond. He sipped his coffee while breaking down the bed into the dinette. When he was done, he sat at the table, with his coffee in hand. She passed him his plate of pancakes and joined him with her own.
They ate in silence, neither of them willing to broach what had transpired between them. He’d told her he loved her. She hadn’tsaid it back. He kissed her on the cheek without permission, and she hadn’t pulled away.
Things had changed between them. A boundary had been crossed. And saying it out loud would only make it more obvious.
They were on the highway by nine. She called James on the burner while Reed drove, making an appointment with him at two. When she finished the call, she watched the cornfields roll by, the horizon a straight line in every direction.
“What’s your history with James?” Reed asked, making conversation.
“We both worked in Army intelligence in Afghanistan. He was good at his job. We respected each other. He has access to databases I can’t reach anymore. If anyone can match Diana’s intel to the military contractor who ordered Carl’s murder, it’s him.”
