Chapter Eight
Reese spent the next hour hanging from a cliff of anticipation. Every look, every gesture, felt loaded, as if they teetered on the edge and the merest shift, the gentlest breeze, could send them plunging.
He watched Mati’s lips when she spoke, and David’s when he laughed. Mati held Reese’s hand, her knees bumping his ribs, while David practically spooned her from behind, smiling at Reese over her shoulder. No one who saw them would think the scene anything other than what it was—intimate.
What was it like to have David pressed along her back like that? Like snuggling up to a warm, living, breathing brick wall, he’d bet. Her ass had to be wedged against David’s cock, but neither moved as Reese’s imagination so desperately wanted.
The only time any of them moved was when Reese went to raid the mini-bar, retrieving wine for Mati, a bourbon for himself, and water for David. Mati bent her legs so he could slide between them again when he came back.
He settled on the couch as close as he’d been before. Maybe a shade closer, his bent knee pressed to David’s.
Reese thought he’d understood need. The burn of desire that could build under his skin while he’d flirted through a dinner date, the spikes of excitement when eyes met or hands brushed, the tickle along his spine when a date had come home with him and the door had shut behind them.
All of it paled compared to this.
Part of that was because it was Mati, who he had loved for so long. It was no small thing he no longer had to hide that, but it wasn’t that alone.
It was Mati and David. The combination was proving lethal for his libido and his attention span.
Fortunately, the conversation wandered as much as Reese’s imagination, sticking with nothing in particular and anything that came to mind: the news, work, family, and the story of a particularly raunchy bachelorette party Mati had once been roped into. She told them how she’d attempted to sneak out the stage door at the male strip club in Montreal, only to end up drinking whiskey in the dressing room with the dancers who took turns reporting back on her friends out front.
David threw his head back with laughter, his big hand running up and down Mati’s thigh. His bright smile did things to Reese. It made him brave. It made himwant.
Reese ran his hand up Mati’s other thigh, dragging his thumb along the seam from the inside of her knee.
Her eyes met his.
David must have felt how she’d gone still, because he tipped his chin down and took in what was happening. Reese liked that about him. How his eyes were always moving, assessing. It was one of the reasons Reese had felt safe with David from the moment they’d met.
And why he felt safe now, leaning forward and kissing Mati while she sat in David’s lap.
Her lips parted, and he licked into her mouth, desperate to taste. He didn’t linger, though.
She made a disappointed noise when he sat back. Her eyes opened slowly, and she bit her lip, peering at him through those damn glasses.
“I can leave you two alone. Step out into the hall,” David offered cautiously.
Mati shook her head, and Reese tore his eyes from her face to look at David. His heart beat against his ribs so hard it was a wonder Mati and David couldn’t hear it.
“We don’t want you to leave.” Reese wasn’t sure what exactly hedidwant David to do, but he knew it wasn’t that.
David looked at Mati. “You sure?”
She smiled. “Very.”
David somehow managed to look sweetly pleased and drop-dead sexy at the same time.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked Mati
She twisted in this lap and lifted her chin. “Please.”
Reese didn’t expect the soft, sweet kiss David pressed to her lips.
Mati clearly didn’t either. She looked disgruntled when David pulled away so soon.
Amusement sparkled in David’s dark eyes and he kissed her again.
Reese couldn’t tell whose mouth opened first, but with a flash of pink tongue, the kiss went from sweet to hot in the blink of an eye. David’s hand cupped Mati’s cheek to help with the difficult angle while Mati strained to get closer.
