Chapter 7

7

REED

I can’t take my eyes off her exposed body. Valerie’s outfit barely covers anything at all and leaves nothing to the imagination. It doesn’t help that I've seen what’s beneath it.

Still, by outfit alone, her intentions are obvious. Her dark purple bustier corset is rimmed with light, see-through fabric. The straps are made of an equally thin fabric, with two bows above the shoulders to tie it together. Her short skirt, the same deep shade of purple, rides up her legs so high that a gentle wind could show off what she’s hiding beneath.

“What are you doing here?” I ask when my prolonged gawking forces a cheeky grin onto Valerie’s face.

“I came to see you.” Her eyes, like mine, wander. She inspects my muscles, the silver scars coating them, and of course, the enormous tent stretching the material of my gray track pants.

“At this time of night? It isn’t wise.” I wrap a hand around her waist, resting it loosely on the small of her back.

Valerie raises a hand to my cheek, brushing it with the back of her fingers before it slithers behind my neck.

“I had the same thought myself. It’s why I was hiding in your bushes.” She winks and gives me a smirk. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

The priest. His arrival is horribly timed. If I had a little more time, I’m sure I’d be able to leave this place with the money and Valerie. But my clock started ticking when I answered Alfonso Cipriani’s call this afternoon. He’s going to send his bloodhounds on their hunt. The priest coming to claim his role is just another reminder that it’s time to get the hell out of Aurora.

“Not at all.” I won’t lie to her unless explicitly necessary. It’s easier to cut the conversation short.

My response changes something on her face. The sweet smirk she wore as she entered vanishes into a pout. Her eyes soften, and tears rim the lids. The hand she snaked around my shoulder tightens around my neck as she draws me close.

“Are you okay?” I tighten my grip around her waist and pull her into my chest.

She doesn’t cry—not immediately—but her words carry so much sorrow. “You’re going to leave me, aren’t you?”

Fuck.

I’m not ready to have this conversation. I blew into town a few nights ago and lost myself to fantasies of the perfect future with Valerie at my side. The consequences of my actions were, and still are, the furthest thing on my mind.

But running off and spending the rest of our days together, as beautiful as it sounds, is a delusion that had to catch up to me eventually. Why the fuck did it have to be tonight? Why would she part ways with her life for a drifter? Hell, I’m not even a drifter. I’m a conniving, lying bastard who saw an opportunity to abuse my power to get closer to her.

And good God, has it been fucking amazing, but it’s time for reality to set in. For the hard truths of this life to shatter the perfect image of our future together. No matter how badly it stings.

“Valerie, I—” I don’t know what to say. “You can come with me. I’ve got a boat. I’ve got cash. I can give you the life you deserve.”

“I can?” She peers those puppy-dog eyes up at me.

I’m not the sort of man that likes to mince words. I like to say it like it is.

“I want you to.” Those words don’t convey my truth. I don’t want anything.

My mornings should start gazing at her picturesque beauty while my nights are spent buried deep inside her warm cunt. Valerie sunk her hooks in me and claimed my soul the moment we set eyes on each other. I lost sight of myself to a future full of her, and I will not yield.

There’s no point lying now. She has seen behind my thin veil of lies.

“I need you to,” I correct myself.

“You barely know me.” She brings her hand back around and digs her finger into my chest while she sinks it down my frame. “What happens if you get bored of me? Find someone else?”

“You lit a fire in me that hasn’t stopped burning. I can’t see it fizzling out when every time I look at you, new flames roar higher,” I say.

Pearly white teeth sink into her lower lip. Her deep blue eyes are glued to mine. They don’t hover or move, but I can tell her mind’s racing. Thoughts of running away and escaping this town are playing in her head. Her fantasies, like mine, are becoming a reality. Escaping this town together, disappearing into the night, taking on the future together.

“Kiss me.”

Not the words I was expecting, but I’d be a fool not to take up the offer.

With the hand wrapped around her waist, I hoist Valerie into the air, and our lips meet. My free hand shimmies down her body, stroking at every patch of free skin it can graze before nestling on her ass underneath the skirt. With an effortless hoist, I pull her into the air, and Valerie locks her legs around my waist.

Our tongues connect, dancing freely between one another’s mouths. They battle for supremacy, smashing together as squeals of delight bubble their way up from Valerie’s core.

“I’ve dreamed about this moment every night since the diner,” Valerie whispers between kisses. “Your rough fingers moving over my skin. Our bodies melting together and becoming one.” She pauses, and I feel her naughty grin against my lips. “Your massive cock splitting me in half.”

“You know exactly what to say, don’t you?” I groan in desperation.

Valerie clings to me with one arm as the other descends between our bodies. It hits the waistband of my pants, and two fingers trail the length until they find the string tightening the pants to my waist. She tugs on it delicately, slowly unraveling the knot, while her head snaps to my ear.

“No. I know exactly what I want,” she purrs against my earlobe, “and you’re going to give it to me.”