Page 121 of Dirty Rival

One lie, one secret, to protect her and my brother.

Chapter fifty-nine

Carrie

The minute Reid says, “I promise,” I climb on top of him and let my robe slide from my body. His gaze rakes over my body and he grabs me, rolls me, and in an instant, he’s undressed and pressing inside me. And this time, we fuck. Hard and fast, with my legs on his shoulders and then my knees in his chest. When it’s over, we end up under the blankets with me curled into his side, my head resting on his chest; his heart thrumming beneath my palm.

“Tomorrow’s the big day,” I say.

He leans up to look at me, his gaze cutting through the haze of the room lit by open curtains and starlight. “It’ll go well.”

“Yes. I think it will.”

“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” I say as we have in the past.

“I’m a movie buff. I love going to the movies and eating popcorn. I even go alone.”

I lift my head. “Alone?”

“Yes. Alone.”

“Well, I like movies. So you don’t need to go alone anymore.”

“I won’t,” he says. “It’s a date. Many movies. Your turn. Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

“I want a cat, but I fear I work too much.”

“I want a dog, but I fear I work too much.”

I roll to my stomach to look at him. “You want a dog?”

“Yeah. I do. I had one as a kid and I loved that damn dog.”

“What kind?”

“German Shepard.”

“I had a Pomeranian I lost a few years back, it feels like yesterday. I think I’m ready to have another fur baby. I was actually thinking about getting a cat. Do you like cats?”

“Yes.” He laughs. “I feel like we’re having the ‘do you want kids’ conversation.” He rolls me to my side and pulls me against his chest, with that comment lingering in the air.

“I don’t,” I say as if he asked. “I don’t want kids. I just don’t want someone to disappoint.”

His curls his arm more fully around me. “You understand me better than you think, Carrie. And I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Go to sleep, baby. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

I shut my eyes, my hand settling on his arm, and just like that the warmth of slumber overtakes me.

I wake naked, in my bed, with Reid wrapped around me, sunlight beaming through the window, announcing the new day I’m starting with him, and it really is heavenly. He smells good and I feel safe. I don’t remember any human being except my father, and of course, in a different way, making me feel safe. But as I lay here, I realize at some point my father stopped giving me that feeling. I guess I assumed it was being an adult and independent. But it was more. I sensed something in him and only now does everything Reid told me last night start to sink in.

“I can hear you thinking some pretty heavy thoughts.”

I roll over and face him. “Not about you.”

He brushes what has to be my wild morning hair from my eyes. “Your father.”

“Yes. My father.”

“I get it, you know. It wasn’t that long ago that I finally saw my father for what he is.”