Fireflies From Heaven (12 page)

“Why didn’t you
bring him over to meet me?”

I started to
tell him that I hadn’t known he was there, which was the truth but instead I
blurted out, “That’s not him, Dad.”

He blinked and
his eyes widened as he realized what I’d said.
 
“That guy you were kissing isn’t the same
guy you were making out with last night?”

“I know it
sounds bad.
 
I work with Dr.
Hotchkiss and we’ve been out a couple of times.
 
He got the wrong idea and that’s the
kiss you saw.”

Dad turned in
the direction Stephen had driven off in, looking like he might be thinking of
going after him.

“It was a
misunderstanding,” I quickly assured dad, who was scowling. “Dad, I don’t know
if you remember Reed Bentley. He’s Isabelle’s brother.
 
Reed is who I was with last night.”

My dad looked
suddenly furious, and I realized referring to Reed as ‘the guy I was with last
night’ sounded kind of sleazy. “He’s my boyfriend,” I added hastily.

“Boyfriend?” He
said the word as if it was one he was unfamiliar with. “You have a
boyfriend.”
 
Pinching the bridge of
his nose, Dad seemed to be taking everything in.
 
“Bentley? The name is familiar.” He
frowned. “I haven’t arrested him have I?”

“No. You
arrested his dad, Darryl Bentley.” I winced, knowing that didn’t sound much
better.

I saw the
recognition flash in my dad’s eyes. “The drunk,” Dad said with a troubled look.
“Reed isn’t like his father is he?”

“No! Reed is
amazing.
 
You’ll love him.”

My dad studied
me in a way that made me feel like I couldn’t hide anything from him. “You love
him,” Dad said, surprising me.

I hadn’t
expected him to be able to read my feelings so easily or to voice them aloud.
 
It was a lot for him to take in, I knew.
“Reed is a good man.”

“I’ve been
working too much lately. I’m sorry I missed our last dinner.
 
You’ll bring Reed with you when we meet
next week?”

“Sure, Dad.”

“I guess
Isabelle set you up with her brother?”
 
Interestingly, there was something in his voice when he said Isabelle’s
name.

I shook my
head. “Isabelle doesn’t know I’m dating Reed. It’s a long story.”

“Make it
short,” he told me, looking like he wanted to strangle someone, notably Reed.

“Isabelle is
friends with Reed’s ex-girlfriend, and she thinks that they’ll get back
together.
 
That’s why we haven’t
told Isabelle about us yet.”

Dad just stared
at me. “He wants to keep you a secret from his sister.”

“No, it’s not
like that.
 
You’ll like Reed, just
give him a chance.”

Reluctantly, he
agreed to withhold judgment, but I knew that he was prepared to dislike Reed on
sight.
 
That didn’t overly concern
me because I knew that once Dad got to know Reed, he’d see what a great guy
Reed was.
 
At least that’s what I
kept telling myself as I hurried to change and get to work.

By the time I
made it to Reed’s house, I was feeling the effects of yesterday’s drama.
 
I’d tossed and turned most of the night thinking
about what had happened with Isabelle and replaying the things Reed had said to
me that made me feel as warm and mushy as a melted marshmallow.

I was exhausted
but my heart still fluttered when I saw him.
 
His smile had my stomach dropping to my
toes, and I was beaming at him in return. He didn’t say anything when he saw me,
just closed the distance between us, took me into his arms and kissed me like
it had been years since he’d last seen me.

Moving into
him, my leg caught the metal of his IIizarov and I winced. Reed swore.
 

“Are you okay?”
I stepped away, glancing down at his leg before looking up at him. “Did I hurt
you?”

“That’s what I was
going to ask you,” he said, frowning.

 
I smiled. “It’s a small price to pay for
kissing you.”

“I’m sorry,
sweetheart. I’ll be glad to get this hunk of metal off my leg.”

“Only a few
more days.” Reed got around so well with the device on his leg that most of the
time I forgot he had it, but I knew Reed never did.

 
His easy confidence and lack of complaint
made it seem as if he wasn’t self-conscious about his leg, but I thought it bothered
him more than he let on. Suddenly, I thought about us having sex with the
IIizarov on his leg and realized how awkward that might be for Reed. I wished I
hadn’t have mentioned sex yesterday.

“Ellie, you
know that I might never walk again without a limp.” He said it in the same tone
he might say, ‘You know I need to get my oil changed soon’.
 
It was the first time I’d witnessed any
vulnerability in Reed, and my heart ached for him.

“Reed, you’re
leg is healing even faster than expected.
 
The IIizarov is coming off a week early, and you’ve far exceeded your
therapists expectations.” I spoke to him like I would a patient, calm and
positive, stating only the facts.
 

“I know all
that,” he replied quietly, holding my gaze. “I think I’ll make a full recovery,
but there’s always the chance that I won’t.”

“You shouldn’t
be worried about this, Reed.
 
We’ll
just have to wait and see what happens.”
 
I know it sounded lame as far as reassurances went, but I wouldn’t give
him false hope, and Reed was strong enough not need it.

Reaching out,
he gently tugged a strand of my hair. “You said ‘we’.”

I frowned, not
understanding what he meant.

“Ellie,” he
said quietly. “I’m lucky to be alive and I know it.
 
If I end up with a limp, then I’ll walk
a little slower.
 
If I need a cane,
I’ll go buy one.
 
Whatever happens
I’ll accept it, but you don’t have to.”

I couldn’t
believe what he was implying, and I hoped I was wrong.
 
“Are you asking me if I’m going to stay
with you if you end up with a limp?” I was hurt and angry that he’d suggest
something like that, and I prayed that I’d misunderstood what he’d meant.

“I don’t expect
you to answer right now,” he told me as if that made things easier on me, but
it was more like a lit match to a stick of dynamite.

“You don’t?” I
asked, my temper rising.

“Think about
it.
 
Or you can wait and see what
happens before you decide.
 
I’m not
going anywhere.”

Torn between
astonishment and disbelief, I tried to wrap my mind around what he was saying,
but I could not believe Reed was clueless about how I felt about him.

“If I was hurt
Reed, if I had a limp, would you leave me?”

The question
took him by surprise, I could tell.
 
His brows lifted and he watched me intently.
 
“That’s different.”

“Because you’re
a better person than me?”

“No,” he said,
drawing out the single syllable word. “I told you my feelings for you are deep.
 
I spent two years reading your emails
and remembering that night, wondering if I was going to get the chance to see
you again. I know what I want, Ellie.”

My breath
caught. Resisting the temptation to shift beneath his laser hot gaze that
seemed to strip me bare, my thoughts raced with what I should say to Reed to
convince him that I didn’t care about a limp.
 
If he’d lost the limb, my feelings for
him would still be the same because I loved him.

Closing the
distance between us, I wrapped my arms around his middle and buried my head in
his chest. Reed drew in a shaky breath and his arms encircled me.
 
“I know what I want too, Reed. I’m not
going anywhere.” I lifted my head and caught him watching me intently.

We didn’t bring
up the subject again that night.
 
Reed went outside to grill fajitas and I sat down to review some patient
notes. I curled up on his sofa, thinking I’d just close my eyes for a few
minutes but sleep beckoned me and I couldn’t resist its call.

I awoke early next
morning snuggled beneath a warm blanket with my cheek pressed into soft
leather.
 
Stretching beneath my cozy
cocoon, I opened my eyes and a moment of alarm shot through me.
 
I sat up suddenly and looked around,
realizing I was at Reed’s house. I relaxed.
 
My gaze landed on Reed, who was in the
recliner.

“You okay,
Ellie?” His voice was heavy with sleep.

“Yeah, sorry I
woke you. Go back to sleep.”
 
Lowering
my head to the soft pillow he had put beneath my head last night, I slept and
dreamed of Reed.
 
We were on a white
sandy beach, but it was dark and a full moon was shining down on us and on the
water, creating a shimmery dance of light as the moonbeams hit the waves. It
was beautiful.

I was happy.
Reed and I were lying on a thick blanket, he was wearing swim trunks and I had
on a tiny red bikini that barely covered my breasts and left most of my butt
cheeks exposed. That I’d never wear something like that didn’t occur to me because
I was too lost in the sensation of my bare skin against his.

His mouth made
a delicious trail all over my aroused body as he kissed and licked, gently
sucked and nipped my skin, making me arch into him and rub my body against his.
He kissed the side of my neck, my breasts and then his sensual assault dipped
to my stomach before traveling lower.

When I felt his
mouth on the inside of my thigh, my body jerked.
 
Lacing my fingers in his soft hair, I
turned myself over completely to Reed’s delicious ministrations.
 
His fingers slid beneath my bikini
bottom, and I gasped when he touched me between the legs. His mouth replaced
his hand slowly licking my sweet spot and I cried out.

“Reed!”

I heard him
tell me that it was okay, but I was too feverish to do anything but moan. He’d
kindled a fire in my body that was creating an unbearable ache and demanding
release. Reaching for him, I tried to pull him back between my legs.

“Ellie.”

 
“Please, Reed,” I begged.

 
Read groaned. “Ellie, wake up.”

What? That
didn’t make sense. My eyes flew open and what I saw shocked and embarrassed
me.
 
Reed was sitting on the coffee
table facing me, and I was clutching at him and half on his lap.
 
Oh my God! An apology hovered on my lips,
and I was about to let it out when he spoke.

“Don’t,” he
ordered, his eyes dark with need. “I wanted you awake before we finished this.”

We were going
to finish this? My body went weak.

“Lie back against
the couch,” Reed instructed. My lower body was still on his lap with one leg on
each side of his hips.
 
I was still
dressed in my scrubs, but they’d been loosened at the waist and I had a sinking
feeling that I’d been the one to loosen them.

Glancing
nervously at his leg I said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then do
exactly what I say because if I don’t taste you soon it’s going to hurt me.”

Those were the
hottest words I’d ever heard, and I read plenty of romance novels.
 
Feeling the heat pool between my thighs,
I squirmed wanting to press them together to ease the ache but I couldn’t.

“Lift your
hips.”

I did as he
asked and Reed pulled my scrubs down one leg at a time then tossed them onto
his recliner. He’d left on my satiny cream panties, and I glared at them not
realizing what I was doing until I heard Reed’s deep chuckle.

“Soon,” he
promised. “I’m not done playing with you.”

My stomach
dropped at the sensual words.

His fingers
stroked me through my panties and I felt the thin material dampen.
 
Embarrassed, I turned away but Reed’s
voice pulled my attention back to him. “I want you to watch.”

My heart was
racing and my body was on fire.
 
I
watched as Reed’s fingers slipped into my panties and stroked me, pulling away
just when I thought I would come. After several minutes of enduring Reed’s
erotic torture, he reached beneath me, grabbing one cheek in each hand and then
he lowered his head between my soaking wet, aching core and gave a long, slow,
lick.

I went up in
flames.
 

As the orgasm
rocked my body, Reed continued kissing and licking me, savoring each wave that
rippled through me.
 
I closed my
eyes, satiated and still lying exposed before Reed, but I was too weak to move.

When I finally
opened my eyes, I found Reed staring at me almost in amazement. “That was
fucking hot.”

His hands,
which rested on my bare thighs, were shaking.

“We’re not
done, Reed,” I told him, my voice raspy.

A dark brow
arched above his eye.
 
“You want
more?” He studied me and then looked down at my naked body, clearly willing to
oblige me.

Shaking my head,
I moved off of him and reached on the floor for my discarded panties, which I
slipped on. “It’s your turn. Get on the couch. Now,” I commanded.

I saw the
hunger in his eyes and knew that he was turned on even before my gaze landed on
the thick bulge in his shorts.
 
“Ellie,” he whispered huskily. “If you touch me I’m going to explode.”

“Then we’ll do
it again.”

He stood up and
I boldly shoved my hands into his athletic shorts and black briefs and shoved
them down, leaving his impressive erection jutting out proudly between his
legs. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him that night we’d made love, so I drank
in the sight of him now.
 
I nodded
toward the couch, and he sat down.

“If you don’t
stop looking at me like that, you won’t even have to touch me.”

“I’m going to
touch you,” I promised him.
 
I was
going to touch him with my hands, my mouth and my tongue, but I didn’t tell
Reed all that. Lowering my head, I licked the tip of his erection and he
jerked. I did it again. He was so close, I knew, and when I clasped my hand
around him, pumped once, twice, and he shattered calling out my name.

His face was
flushed, and I thought he was embarrassed at how quickly he came.
 
Leaning over him, I pressed my mouth to
his.
 
“Don’t go anywhere,” I said.
Then I went to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, which I used to clean him up
despite his telling me he could do it himself.

Reed didn’t
know it yet but we were not done, not by a long shot.
 
As many fantasies as I’d had about Reed
over the last two years, I hadn’t thought a whole lot about going down on him
but not because the idea didn’t intrigue me. Now, I was desperate to know what
it felt like to have him my mouth, to taste him, to see the pleasure in his
eyes when I made him come with my mouth alone.

When I got on my
knees between his thighs, Reed shot me a questioning look.
 
Leaning over his crotch, I tentatively
licked the tip of him with my tongue.
 
Reed sucked in a harsh breath and his erection twitched.
 
Reaching out, he picked up a wavy lock of
my hair and gently played with the strand.

“You don’t have
to do this, Ellie,” he whispered huskily.

In answer I
began to lick him, cupping his balls and experimenting with my mouth while
trying to tell from his reaction what turned him on the most.
 
I felt him watching me, and it aroused
me to know his eyes were on me while I went down on him.
 
When my mouth closed over him deeply,
settling into an erotic rhythm, I knew that Reed was enjoying this as much as I
was.
 
His knuckles were white as he
clenched the sofa tightly and his breathing was labored as I continued to suck
him.

“Ellie, stop.”

I took him in my
mouth even deeper, feeling the tip of him at the base of my throat.
 
Reed reached down and grabbed me beneath
the arms, pulling me alongside him on the sofa just as he came.

Afterwards,
Reed had toweled himself off and settled me against his chest, as he stroked my
hair and I listened to the beat of his heart.
 
I felt happy, peaceful and safe.

It was a long
time before either of us spoke. Finally, I lifted my chin and stared up at
Reed’s chiseled jaw, which was covered with sexy, dark stubble that I’d felt on
the insides of my thighs earlier. The memory pulled a sigh from me.