“You heard what she said.”
She shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“Look, Vanessa is just a girl I was seeing at the beginning of summer. I’m not with her anymore.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s just hard to hear what people really think of me.”
“That’s not what everyone thinks of you,” he soothed, rubbing her arm.
“Isn’t it though? The girls at work know I don’t have money, so they think I’m trash. Your aunt thinks I’m trying to tempt you with my wanton ways. And you think something’s wrong with me because I enjoyed the other night. Hell, maybe I do have warped morals.”
“Enough,” he said, his voice soft but firm. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you.”
“Right, I’m not screwed up, yet you believe there’s something the matter with you because of what happened between us. Your logic sucks, Reid.”
He groaned. “Listen, that’s why I brought you here. Maybe I can help you understand. You’re not the only one who wishes they could change their family background.”
He rose from the bed and crossed over to a small desk stacked with textbooks and papers in the corner of the room. He yanked open a drawer, rifled through it, and pulled out a manila envelope. “Here.”
He tossed it onto the bed and shoved his hands in his pockets, his posture turning rigid. She eyed him warily and picked it up. “What is this?”
“My father’s claim to fame.”
She slid her fingers beneath the flap to pull out the contents. A yellowed newspaper clipping. The picture on the article was of an older man with Reid’s features, but none of his warmth. Cold, gray eyes stared from the page, sending a ripple of uneasiness through her. The headline read Serial Rapist Caught. Her stomach flipped over. “Oh, my God.”
“Brutalized thirteen women before he was arrested. Tied them up, beat them, raped them.” His voice caught on the last part. “My mother was his sixth victim.”
The breath left her lungs. Reid was born out of rape? Growing up, she’d thought nothing could be worse than her situation—not knowing who her father was. But man, she’d been wrong. She glanced up and found Reid staring at his shoes, his shame and embarrassment palpable.
She set the article down on the bed and went to him, sliding her arms around his waist, though he kept his hands in his pockets. “I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say.”
He sighed and put his arms around her. “Now do you see why we need to be careful?”
“What do you mean?” She pulled back so she could look at his face.
He threw his hands out to his sides. “I came from a monster, Brynn. Half of me is from him. What if all these urges I have to dominate you are an early version of what he became? What if he started by just wanting to tie a girl up and spank her a little?”
“Oh, Reid, no,” she said, shaking her head, her heart breaking for him. “You have as much in common with that man as Molly has with a brain surgeon. You can see it in the photo, that man has no heart, no soul.” She cupped his face and met his eyes. “And you—you’re all heart and soul.”
He stared down at her, his eyes swirling with an amalgam of emotions. “Why do you keep putting your trust in me? I don’t know if I trust myself.”
She wound her arms around his neck and held his gaze. “My mom has dated abusive men. When guys like that walk into the room, it’s like the air stops moving. My skin crawls and all I want to do is leave. But when you walk into the room, the opposite happens—I’m not scared. All I want to do is get closer to you. And get naked.”
A laugh broke through his pained expression. “Is that right?”
She shrugged and stepped back. “But if you’re not into me…”
He hooked her waistband with one of his fingers and yanked her against him. “Now hold up right there, sugar. I never said I wasn’t into you.”
“So what are you going to do about it, then?” she asked, her tone challenging.
His gaze met hers. “I’m in.”
“What do you mean?”
He sank into his desk chair and pulled her down onto his lap. “I mean, I’m in. I’m tired of struggling against my instincts when I’m with you. So, let’s try it your way. You want me to be myself, well, here I am.”
Her heart did a little twirl in her chest. “Really?”
He cupped her chin and ran his thumb along her cheek. His eyes pleaded with her. “You just have to swear that if I ever do anything you don’t want me to, you’ll make me stop. We’ll come up with a code word that means quit, but even with that, you have to promise you’ll do whatever you need to get your point across. Don’t let me push you too far.”
She leaned forward and brushed her lips across his. “I promise. I will totally kick your ass if you step out of line.”
He grinned, the tension lines in his face softening and the heaviness in the air seeming to lift. His hand curled around her hip, and he put his forehead to hers. “Thank you. I’ve never told anyone about my dad besides Jace. I thought for sure you would run for the hills.”
She lifted her head and shrugged. “I refuse to believe that we’re doomed to our parents’ fate. If I bought into that logic, I may as well slit my wrists now.”
“Your outlook on life is such a ball of sunshine,” he teased.
She tapped her temple. “Yep, like I told you, it’s all rainbows and unicorns in here.”
He gave her a wry smile and closed the space between them to claim her mouth in a heated kiss. Her lips parted, and she could feel the tension draining from both of their bodies as they gave themselves over to the simple pleasure of tasting each other—an acceptance of each other’s ugly histories and a promise to move forward despite it all.
He pulled away from the kiss, his cheeks flushed. “You know we still have a half hour before we’re due back to the office? Maybe we should practice our new arrangement.”
She shifted on his lap so that she could straddle him, and adjusted her skirt. Her panties brushed directly against the hardening erection in his pants, sending a dart of warmth through her. “That isn’t very much time.”
He shoved her skirt farther up her hips and with a yank, ripped off her panties.
“Hey! I’m supposed to go back to work in those,” she protested.
He pulled the swath of material from under her and tossed the panties onto the floor. “I’ll buy you some new ones. But for the rest of the day, I want to look across that office and know that there’s only this thin skirt between me and what’s mine.”
His fingers found her heat and glossed her clit with her juices. She tilted her head back, and his other hand unbuttoned
