Page 66 of Shadow Justice

After he thoroughly reacquainted himself with each of her gorgeous mounds, he hooked a finger in her waistband. Breathing hard, she looked at him with half-lidded eyes. “You first,” she said with an evil glint in them.

She grabbed him by the belt and tugged him forward. Her hands finished undressing him and he kicked his pants aside.

Holly looked him over, her face slightly flushed. A finger traced over his pecs, his abs, lower. “You’ve filled out since the last time I saw you naked.”

He grinned. She reached for his hardness, but before she wrapped a hand around him, Blue came clicking into the kitchen to see what was going on.

“Bedroom,” she said, pointing at the hall.

Reid scooped her off the island, and she let out another gasp, this one of surprise. Laughter came next as he carried her with her legs wrapped around him down the short corridor and into her bedroom.

Blue followed. “Sorry, buddy,” he said. “I promise extra treats as soon as I’m done here.”

He closed the door. The room was small but filled with warm colors, mismatched textiles, a stack of books on the nightstand with their spines facing different directions, and a cardigan thrown over the chair in the corner.

He sat her on the edge of her bed. She reached past him to turn on the lamp. When she turned back, the openness in her expression caught him unprepared. He’d expected some last wall, some reflex of self-protection. Instead, she slid out of her pants and stood close enough that they were nearly touching, letting him see everything—the nervousness, the want, the bone-deep weariness.

She’d spent her whole life taking care of everyone around her, managing their fear, keeping everyone in her orbit steadier than she felt herself. He’d watched her do it when they were kids and again over the past few days. He hated that there was no one doing it for her.

He intended to fix that, starting now. He kissed her again, hard, taking his time and hoping to convey everything that was in his heart.

She returned the kiss, her hands roaming over him. When she finally broke away and lay down on the bed, she parted her knees to him, and it felt better than any of his courtroom wins.

He’d been half-afraid she might armor herself out of habit, that a woman who’d spent years being capable and careful might not remember how to be taken care of. But once she let go, all of that peeled away and she guided him in.

They moved together, their bodies remembering each other. To him, it felt as if no time had passed.

The rhythm built. She cried out his name, bucking under him, and he thrust into her again, over and over as she rode out the orgasm. His own followed swiftly. His vision whited out and his body molded against hers.

He made himself a quiet promise that he would spend whatever time she gave him making her call his name exactly like that again.

Afterward, they lay in the quiet of her bedroom with the lamp still on. He tucked her against his side, and she laid her head on his shoulder. Her hand rested on his chest. He could feel her heartbeat begin to slow.

He held her and stared at the ceiling and thought about that morning all those years ago—standing in a doorway with his boots in his hand and every reason he’d assembled for why leaving was the right thing to do in his head.

He’d spent years calling that decision honorable. Standing in the kitchen tonight watching her hold her own arms against the refrigerator because there was nothing else to hold onto, he’d finally understood what it had actually been. He’d been scared that she’d take a risk on him and he’d fail her. He’d decided she didn’t deserve that possibility and called it protection.

She’d deserved the chance to decide for herself.

“You’re still here,” Holly said.

He turned his head. She was watching him, her cheek against his shoulder. “That was the plan,” he said.

“It’s a good plan.” She traced the edge of his collarbone with one finger, and he felt the warmth of it as if it had sunk clear to his chest. “I meant what I said earlier,” she said.

“About carrying everything alone?”

She nodded against his shoulder. “You didn’t fix that, and I don’t expect you to.” She let out a long breath. “But it helped. Being allowed to put it down for a minute.”

He pressed his mouth to her temple. “You can put it down as long as you need.”

She was quiet after that, and he let the silence settle around them without filling it. She’d been teaching him that without intending to, just by being a person whose quiet held things worth waiting for. He could feel the day unwinding through her body, the tension easing out of her in slow degrees, the way it did when someone finally stopped bracing for the next thing.

“Reid?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t go anywhere.”