While We Waited (The Reed Brothers #8) (20 page)

I cup his face in my palm and stare into his brown eyes. “You’re not unlovable. I’m just not sure I’m worthy.”

“What?” He covers my hand with his on his cheek.

“What if I’m not good enough to be a wife and a mother?”

“You’re good enough. Better than good enough. You’re so
much
that you make my heart stop just looking at you.” He squeezes my hips. “Then I touch you and I lose all reason.”

He clears his throat. “That first night when you pulled your top down and sat in front of me with your tits out and no shame at all, I thought I wanted you then. And when you took me to church and you brought your whole family to support me, I knew I needed you then. When you cried on my son’s shoulder on the Ferris wheel, and you held him close and protected him, I knew I loved you then, because that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. But now, right this second, I want you and I love you and I can’t live without you, Finny. If you tell me to walk away, I will. But please tell me to stay. I understand if you don’t feel as strongly as I do yet, but just give me time to make you love me.”

“Why did you come to this hotel room?” I hate that I need to know, but I do.

“Because I wanted to hold you all night.”

“That’s the only reason?”

He looks directly into my eyes. “Yes.”

“You had no expectation of sleeping with me?”

He grins. “I
hoped
I would get to sleep with you, Finny, I won’t lie. But if you’re not ready, I’ll settle for whatever you’ll give me.”

I kiss him then, and he kisses me back. It’s soft and tender and slow. Then I turn my back, pull my shirt over my head, and ask him without words to unhook my bra, simply by looking over my shoulder at him. His lips touch my shoulder as he works the clasp. The straps fall away and I let the bra drop over my arms. I kick my shoes off, yank off my socks, push my pants down along with my panties and step out of them. The screech of the shower curtain when I pull it back is loud.

My knees wobble, and Tag palms my naked hips to steady me. I immediately stick my face in the spray, and close my eyes, because his eyes are raking up and down my body and I feel more naked and exposed than I have ever been.

“Are you coming in?” I ask quietly.

Tag

Damn if she hasn’t taken my breath away. My knees are weak and my hands are shaky as I take my clothes off. She watches me from the shower, her eyes narrow slits. She picks up the shampoo and fills her palm, and then starts to lather it into her hair. Her eyes close when I get in behind her and draw her bottom back to rest against the tops of my thighs. My dick is so hard I could pound nails with it, but I want to take my time. I want to savor her.

I turn her to face me and pull her hands from the suds in her hair, replacing them with mine. “Let me,” I say when she starts to protest. Her hands fall flat on my chest and she lets me suds her hair up, letting out a little moan because it feels good. I tip her head back under the spray and watch the lather sluice down her body, right where my tongue is dying to go.

I kiss her, our mouths melding under the water until I can’t breathe. I lift my head and take the spray on my face. Her lips touch the bottom of my chin and she walks up the sensitive skin toward my ear, taking tiny, awesome little nibbles of my jaw. I kiss her again. I can’t get enough.

“I need you,” I say.

She looks at me.

“I want you,” I tell her.

She stares into my eyes, and I can feel her breath hitch.

“I love you.”

Her cheeks color. “I need to wash,” she says.

I grin. “Don’t let me stop you.”

“I might need a little privacy…”

My dick is hard between us, and I press it into the notch between her legs.

“Tag!” she cries. “I need to clean up.”

I pull back and spin her to face the wall. “Later,” I say close to her ear. I draw her bottom back and spread the cheeks of her ass with my thumbs. “Are we safe?” I ask, then I bite down gently on her shoulder.

“Safe?”

“I was tested. Were you?”

She nods, and places her palms flat against the tiles of the tub surround. “Right after you and I… Yes. I was tested.”

I want to ask her. I need to ask her. But I won’t. I can’t. Because it would break my heart to know.

She apparently read my mind. “There hasn’t been anyone for me since you, Tag.”

“That guy you brought home…?”

“He kissed me. Nothing more.”

“Any chance I could get you pregnant?” I nudge at her slick heat with the head of my dick and she sucks in a breath.

“Are you asking for permission to get me pregnant? Or are you ruling out pregnancy as an option?” She looks over her shoulder and laughs at me.

I think about it a moment. “I would love to see you pregnant. With my kid. Our kid. Your belly big and swollen and your boobs full. You’d be full of
us
.”

She pushes her bottom back toward me. “Tag–”

“This isn’t turning you on, is it?”

“I can’t get pregnant. At least not today,” she says. “But–”

I freeze. “But what?”

“But I’ve never done it without a condom. Never. Ever. I’m afraid.”

“I’ll take care of you, Finny. I promise.” I notch my dick toward her heat and wait. “Do you trust me?” I ask her.

“Yes!” she cries.

“Tell me you’re ready for this. For me. For us.” I wait, poised at her heat.

“Yes!” she says loudly.

I wrap my arm around her waist and surge inside her. She takes me, all of me, and she gasps as I sink balls-deep. Her warm heat wraps around me and holds me, snug and tight.

“Damn, this feels good,” I say. I palm her breasts, hefting the gentle weight of them in my hands, and draw her nipples into sharp points with elongated pulls of my thumb and forefinger. “What can I do to make you feel good?”

She takes one hand from her boob and moves it down to her lower lips, and I slide my fingers against her slick skin. She’s slippery-sweet and wet, and it’s not from the shower. It’s from how much she wants me. This. Us. I find her clit and circle it, trying to be gentle, but she covers my fingers with hers and shows me how rough I should be.

“God, Finny,” I growl close to her ear, and then I draw her earlobe between my teeth. “I can’t wait.”

She cups the back of my neck in her palm. “It’s okay. Come, Tag.”

I pull out of her, her silken heat tempting me to pump back inside, but I can’t. I have to give her pleasure.

I spin her around and push her back against the wall. Then I drop to my knees in front of her, lift one leg over my shoulder, and I lick her wet slit, quickly finding her clit and drawing on it with the suction of my mouth. She lays her head back against the tiles and closes her eyes. Her hips rock in time with my tongue and I know she’s close. I slide two fingers into her silken sheath and she cries out. Her fingers tangle in my hair and she jerks it.

“Sorry,” she says. “You don’t like that, do you?”

I take her hands and bury them in my hair.
Show me how much you want me, Finny. Guide me. Love me so I can love you back.
She tugs, and I find a rhythm in time with her hands. Her vaginal wall squeezes around my fingers when she comes, and I lick her over and over, her body shuddering and quaking as I wring every drop of her orgasm from her, until she stills and pushes my head away.

“My turn,” I say. I lift her up and she wraps her legs around my hips as I sink inside her. She’s so hot and so sweet, and I know I’m going to shoot my load, so I push her back against the tiles so that I can thrust harder. I need to take her. I need for her to be mine.

“Make me come like this,” she says.

“Tell me how,” I say. I kiss her, covering her cries with my mouth, taking them inside me as fuel.

“Harder, Tag!” she urges. I hook my arms beneath her knees and hold her up so I can pound into her.

“God, you’re so pretty when you come,” I say, just as her eyes flutter closed and her spasms start to milk me. I’m on the edge now. “Can I come inside you? Can I, Finny? Can I come inside you? Please say yes. Oh, God, please say–”

“Yes! Do it, Tag!”

I slam hard into her one last time, and I come deep inside her as her orgasm sucks me deeper, farther, and deeper still, until we can’t join any more completely. Until I can’t do more to fill her up. I have never come so hard, so long, or so powerfully. This woman, she fills me up. And she empties me out. And she makes me whole, while taking a piece of me at the same time. I don’t know how to explain it.

“God, I love you,” I tell her.

She kisses me, and I ease her legs down so that she can stand up.

“I feel weak as water,” she says, giggling nervously.

“Stay there. I’ll clean you up.”

I lather up a washcloth and begin to clean her all over, when she hisses. “Easy,” she warns. “I’m a little sore.” So I take special care to be gentle between her legs.

“Did I hurt you?” I stand up and kiss her.

“No,” she breathes against my lips. “It was perfect.”

I wash my come off of her and clean her up completely, and then I wash myself. I turn off the water and wrap her in a towel, and sling one around my hips.

She turns back the covers on the bed and climbs between the sheets naked, and I slide in behind her, drawing her back so we fit like two spoons in a drawer. “Are you okay?” I kiss her shoulder.

“Yes.” She turns her head and kisses the inside of my upper arm, where her head is resting on it. “I’m okay.”

I yawn and close my eyes, and fall into an immediate and perfect slumber, with the woman I love in my arms.

Finny

When he’s still, I lift up the covers and slide out of bed. I look back when he stirs, and I cover his arm with my hand until he settles again. When he’s quiet, I get up and get dressed, pulling on my pajamas and a robe. Then I put on my slippers and go into the hallway.

I know where Marta and Emilio’s room is, so I go there and knock softly on the door. I know they’re not both asleep because they have two babies with them.

Emilio comes to the door, his hair standing out like a ratty halo around his head. He’s bouncing Benji in his arms. “Hey, Finny,” he says. “Did you need something?”

He steps aside so I can walk past him. “Not really,” I say. The hair on my arms stands up, and I rub up and down them to calm myself. “Is Marta up?”

He shakes his head. “Do you need her?” He tilts his head at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I just wanted to talk. That’s all.”

He points to a chair and falls into the one beside me, still bouncing Benji in his arms. “What’s up, Finny?” He stares hard at me. “You better start speaking before I have to go kick that boy’s ass.” He starts to get up, but I rush to sit him back down.

“Tag didn’t do anything,” I tell him. My cheeks flush. “Well, he didn’t do anything bad.”

His brows shoot up. “But…” he prompts.

“But nothing,” I say quietly. I shrug.

“
Fuck
but nothing,” he barks. “I know you, Finny Vasquez, and I know you have something on your mind, so you might as well spit it out.”

Benji is fussing, so I reach for him and take him into my arms. He immediately settles into me and I hold him close.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Emilio says. “They finally got you.”

I heave a sigh. “Both of them got me, Melio.” I stare down into Benji’s perfect little face. “I am pretty sure I love them.”

He nods. “You got time for your old man to tell you a story?”

“Yes, please.” Benji makes a snuffly little noise as he roots around his pacifier. Melio passes me the bottle he must have been feeding him, and I pop it into his mouth. His rosy red lips close around it and he looks so content. So well cared for. So happy.

“Once upon a time, there was this little birdie named Finny,” he begins. He smiles at me. His eyes go soft. “And she had these perfect feathers, and a perfect beak, and she was smart. She flew all by herself without even needing to hold anyone’s tail feathers. She was always independent, and the daddy bird always worried, because she liked the boy birdies a lot.”

I roll my eyes.

“But the daddy bird, he never worried about the Finny bird. He worried more about all the hearts she broke as she jumped from nest to nest.”

“I don’t think I like this story,” I grouse.

“You see, Finny was afraid to stay in one nest too long, because she thought that getting comfortable would make her nest unstable, and she might fall out.” He slaps his palms together. “Splat! No more Finny.”

“You suck, Emilio.”

“But the daddy bird, he knew it was just fear that kept Finny moving from nest to nest, and that when she found the right one, she would be willing to sit in the nest a little longer. The daddy bird worried about some of his other birdies, but never Finny. She was strong and she was true, and she was as reliable as the day is long.”