The Love Series Complete Box Set (26 page)

I lower her legs from around my shoulders and stand, holding her in my arms. Carrying her to her room, I bend my face to hers and kiss her fiercely. When she pulls my tongue into her mouth and sucks hard, I nearly drop her.

“I love how I taste on your mouth, baby.”

At that, I nearly sprint the rest of the way.

When we get to her room, we’re all hands and mouths, lips and teeth. It’s a fevered passion that’s ignited between us. We’re out of control with desire for one another, and in less than a minute we’re both naked and on her bed.

She’s spread out beneath me, hair fanned out beautifully on her pillow, and she reaches up to wrap her hands around my neck. Pulling me close to her, she kisses me. Our tongues stroke together as our bodies connect.

She’s so tight and hot and wet. Sinking into her, the world fades away. There’s just me and her and our love.

My hips pump a furious rhythm into her, and I grab her ankles up to my shoulders. I see her eyes roll back into her head as I bottom out in her.

“Reid . . . so . . . deep . . . I . . . gonna . . . come.”

I feel her core tremble and clamp down on me. I’m lost.

A few more hard pumps into her, and I come, calling her name. She wraps her arms around my sweat-drenched shoulders and pulls me to her. I collapse into her as we both work to catch our breath.

I roll off her, knowing that I’m crushing her, but still needing to be close. I move behind her and spoon her, sweeping her hair from her neck. I place my lips softly on her nape and whisper, “I love you.”

We drift off to a blissful sleep, wrapped in the safety of each other’s arms.

A small smile curls up the corners of my lips, knowing that we’re in for more of the same bliss this weekend.

Chapter 16

I’m sitting at my desk, writing this stupid poetry paper, and all I can think about is last night. After Reid explained that the movie was about finding a rat, I just wanted to run away. Talk about irony. I wanted to tell him about everything, I really did. I just couldn’t.

Maybe it was wrong of me to act as if nothing was going on, to act as if I wasn’t hiding something. Even when we were making love, it was in the back of my head. “It” being that I’m going to hurt him. Because that’s what it comes down to. No matter who Katelyn is, no matter how they’re connected—it won’t even matter that the whole situation might be connected to his past. What matters the most is that my initial reaction was that he was going behind my back, that I didn’t trust him, and that I thought he was doing wrong by me.

All of these feelings of guilt brew while I’m stuck here writing about love and beautiful things like that. The paper doesn’t come easily, but three hours later I’m done and on my way across campus to hand it in. It’s not my best work, but it’s on time and complete. Right now, I’m not capable of much more than that.

It’s hard to believe that three short months ago, my life was so vastly different from what it is today. I guess with the semester ending, I’m in a bit of a reflective mood. So much has happened in such a short time that it really is quite overwhelming.

I can’t say that I’m completely over my parents and the feeling of emptiness that I’ll always associate with them being gone, but the family I have here in Cammie, Lia, and Mel has strengthened me in ways I never thought possible.

My relationship with Reid has shown me so much that I never knew about myself. He taught me how to love again, despite the pain. I really have found my best friend in him and now I’m so afraid that I’m going to lose him. Losing him would be like losing a part of my soul. With that thought in the center of my consciousness, I make the decision to tell him everything that’s going on. The longer I keep it hidden from him, the longer the betrayal will go on; he’ll be hurt one way or the other, but if I don’t tell him now, if I wait weeks, even months, to tell him, he’ll be even more hurt. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to go about it all, but I have at least tonight to figure it out.

The girls and I are having a “girls’ night in” tonight. With the semester coming to an end and finals being ridiculously crazy, we haven’t had much time to spend together, so when Lia suggested that we have a
Friends
marathon, eat junk food, and drink cheap wine all night, everyone jumped at the idea.

Lia nearly tramples over me to get to the chips when I get back to the suite.

“Please tell me you got salt and vinegar chips! I am
so
craving those.” She looks like a rabid beast sorting through the bags I’ve brought home from the supermarket. I don’t know how she eats the way she does and still maintains her figure.

“Yes, Lia. I got you your chips. You only texted me ten times today to remind me to get them for you.” I roll my eyes at her, and she just sticks her tongue out at me in return.

Cammie is already elbow deep into the carton of ice cream, and Mel is slicing open the roll of chocolate chip cookie dough. I can feel the bellyache settling in already, but I know it’ll be worth it.

When what must be the tenth episode of
Friends
comes on, I hear Mel squeal with delight.

“Omigod! This is my all-time favorite.”

Mel is a complete and total
Friends
junkie. We spent many late nights watching reruns. I’m pretty certain that we’ve seen every single episode—twice.

I must admit that this is my favorite one, too. It’s the one where Ross is trying to get Rachel back after making a list of reasons not be with her. Phoebe’s line of reasoning that he’s her lobster—that lobsters mate for life and walk around holding claws—is not working. In the end, Rachel realizes that Ross went to great lengths to save her from being stood up at prom. She is overcome with emotion and puts aside her feelings of hurt. Again, the irony is not lost on me that this episode is rather fitting for my current situation with Reid. In the end, I hope he can see that he’s my lobster.

Lost in my musings about Reid, I’m completely unaware that someone is knocking on the door. Before I can even realize it, Reid is standing before us, smiling slyly at our little pajama-party scene.

“Oh, please tell me I didn’t miss the naked pillow fight.” He’s trying to stifle a laugh, but he’s failing miserably.

Feigning irritation, Cammie asks, “What are you doing here? This is a girls’ night, so unless you grew a pair of breasts overnight, you have to leave. No boys allowed!” She’s in full little girl mode, hands on her hips, sternly tapping a toe. I can’t help but laugh out loud at her little act.

“Oh, Cam, believe me—if I grew a pair of my own tits, I’d be at home playing with them right now, but since I didn’t, I figured I would come over and borrow Maddy’s for a while.”

“Reid!” I yell at him. “I can’t believe you just said that!” My face is bright red with sheer embarrassment.

“What, babe? I can’t compliment my girl on her great rack?” His eyes are dancing with mirth, and his lips quirk up at the corners. He’s gorgeous, but I still can’t help but roll my eyes at him.

I walk over to where he’s standing and wrap my arms around his waist. Looking up into his deep blue eyes, I know there will always be just him. I will never love anyone as much as I love this man. He’s everything I never knew I wanted and never thought I deserved.

“Seriously, Reid, what are you doing here? It’s girls’ night. I thought you were going out with the guys?”

At my questions, I see him sneak a peek at Melanie, and I know something is up. Before I can say anything else, Mel is walking out of my room, wheeling a small suitcase behind her.

I can’t help the exasperated sigh I let out at being duped yet again, but I will admit that there is a very large part of me that likes him surprising me like this all the time. “What did you guys do this time?” My tone is more anxious than angry.

“I didn’t do anything. Well, nothing except plan a little vacation for us. And, as usual, I had a little help from a friend.” He smiles over at Mel while explaining all this to me.

I’m struck completely speechless. “We’re going on vacation? Where? When do we leave?” Okay, not completely speechless, but I’m definitely in shock.

“Calm down, babe. Have I ever been unprepared? I’ve got everything covered. All you’ve got to do is get changed for the car ride, and then we’re off. Everything else is taken care of, as usual.”

And it’s just that simple. He takes care of every last detail. He takes care of me, and I love him so much for it.

“Road trip? How far away are we going? Why don’t we just wait until the morning? It’s almost midnight.” When he said “vacation,” I immediately thought we were taking a flight somewhere. I can’t think of many places within driving distance that make for the ideal vacation spot, but I have a fairly strong feeling that Reid has this all thought out.

“Just get changed and get your sweet ass in my car. I got this.” He leans back against the counter and crosses his legs in front of him. Tapping the face of his watch, he says, “Let’s get a move on.”

Five minutes and a completely pointless conversation with Mel about where Reid is taking me later, I’m walking out of my dorm and into the dark of the night to drive to some unknown location that my incredibly sweet boyfriend has determined to be an excellent vacation spot.

I can’t help but think that maybe this little vacation will give me the perfect opportunity to get everything off my chest. Smiling a little, I laugh at the idea that I’ll have the whole week to make everything up to him.

About an hour into our road trip, Reid stops at a gas station, and I am feeling sick to my stomach. I’ve never been good on long car rides. But this time is much worse because of all of the crap I ate earlier.

As Reid walks past my door to go inside to pay the attendant, he leans in the window and asks if I want anything.

“Dramamine, please. I’m not feeling so hot.” I know my insides are also churning for reasons other than the car sickness and bellyache, but I won’t share that with him just yet.

“Sure thing, babe. Be right out.” He kisses me briefly before walking away.

When he comes back to the car, he hands me my pills and a bottle of water. Reaching into the back seat, he pulls out a small travel pillow and a blanket.

“Why don’t you close your eyes and sleep a little?”

He kisses my forehead as he drapes the blanket around me. I recline the seat a little to try to get comfortable, and before I know it I’m drifting off to a peaceful slumber where little old lobsters walk around with their one true love.

When I wake up a few hours later, it’s still dark. I don’t recognize where we are, not that there’s much around that would really help distinguish our location. The highway is small, two lanes in each direction, and it’s lined with tall pine trees. There aren’t any shopping centers or gas stations to note. There aren’t many other people on the road, either.

I pull the seat up and stretch a little before I lean my head over to rest on Reid’s shoulder.

“Where are we?” My voice is soft, sleepy.

“Somewhere.”

Okay, I see how it is. He’s not going to tell me anything until we’re there. “Is it even worth it for me to ask any more questions?”

“You can ask whatever you’d like, sweetie, but I’m not answering anything.” He looks down at his watch and then glances out to the horizon. “Besides, we should be there soon.”

I relent and just nuzzle up close to him. It’s quiet and peaceful anyway, so I enjoy the silence. The only thing I hear is the rumble of the Mustang, and the only thing I feel is the beating of Reid’s heart beneath my hand.

After a few minutes, the sun begins peeking its head up over the horizon. It’s absolutely beautiful. Shades of red and orange dance with one another. They mingle and intertwine, creating colors that have never been seen before, that will never be seen again. As the sun gains height in the sky, the colors transform into a soft fuchsia and violet combination that is more beautiful than any picture of the sunrise I’ve ever seen before.

Reid catches me gazing out at the scene before me, and he smiles. This must have been part of his plan. He’s so incredible.