One Night of Scandal (7 page)

Nodding, she held up her purse and the big stack of tests she was bringing home to grade. “Yep.” She hesitated. “Would you be able to drop me off at home? I walked this morning, so I don’t have my car.”

“No problem,” he said easily.

They left the school through the back doors, crossing the parking lot toward Reed’s black Camaro. The drive to her apartment wasn’t as tense or awkward as she thought it would be. They chatted about the workshop and what Reed planned on teaching the kids the following afternoon, and by the time they reached her building, she felt completely at ease.

At least until he asked if he could come upstairs.

“I’m dying of thirst,” he said sheepishly, putting the car in park and killing the engine. “FYI—the water fountains at your school suck.”

“Yeah, they tend to drizzle out drops instead of a steady stream,” she answered with a laugh.

“Mind if I chug some water before I take off?”

She hesitated only for a beat. “Sure, come on up.”

Her heart did flip after flip as they rode the elevator to her fourth floor apartment. She wasn’t sure being alone in such close quarters with Reed was a good idea, but what was she supposed to do? Let the man die of dehydration?

Still, AJ’s text message of blessing once again fluttered through her mind as she unlocked the door and gestured for Reed to come inside.

“Don’t mind the teeny size of this place.” She sighed. “It kind of grows on you after a while.”

It was two steps from the front hall to the kitchen, and Darcy hurried to the sink to pour him a glass of water. “Want ice?” she offered.

“Naah, this is perfect. Thanks.”

He drained half the water in one hearty gulp and she watched his strong throat muscles work as he swallowed. Once he finished, he went to fill up the glass again, chugged it as well, then glanced over and said, “So do I get the grand tour?”

She snickered. “Uh-huh. Sure.” She moved to the doorway and pointed to their right. “Living room.” Pointed to the left. “Bedroom and bathroom.” She faced him again. “The end.”

Reed chuckled as they drifted into the living room, which was just big enough to accommodate her sofa, coffee table, and TV unit, and a cramped office area in the corner with a large desk and two mini file cabinets.

“You’re right,” he remarked. “This
is
tiny. I’m surprised you don’t get claustrophobic in here.”

“Like I said, it grows on you.” She wandered over to the desk and set the stack of tests next to the computer keyboard. The sight of the sleek work surface reminded her of Reed’s cryptic laughter in her classroom, and as usual, her curiosity got the best of her. “What were you giggling about when you were looking around my classroom earlier?”

He rolled his eyes. “First off, I’m a man. Men don’t
giggle
.”

“Mmm-hmmm. Whatever you say.”

“I
laughed
because being there brought back some memories. I’m pretty sure the last time I was in a classroom, I was failing a test. Either that, or daydreaming about my geography teacher.”

She stuck out her tongue. “He must have been a real looker.”

“Ha ha. And I’ll have you know,
she
totally was.” A dreamy sigh escaped his mouth. “I would’ve cut off my right arm for a shot with Mrs. Franklin. Lord, she used to sit up on her desk, and she’d always wear the most indecently short skirts, flashing a helluva lot of thigh. I guarantee that every single boy in her class was trying to hide a boner with his geography book.”

Darcy laughed. “Poor Mrs. Franklin.”

“Poor Mrs. Franklin?” he echoed. “No way. That broad was totally digging the attention. She wore high heels and miniskirts to teach a
geography
class—trust me, she knew exactly what she was doing to us poor boys.”

“Now I’m picturing a total seductress. Like a Mrs. Robinson type.” With a grin, Darcy sidled back to her desk and hopped up on the edge. She crossed her legs, then leaned back on one elbow, trying to strike her most provocative pose. “Is this how she’d sit?”

Uh-oh. Big mistake.

In the blink of an eye, Reed’s expression had flooded with heat. The man even licked his lips, which summoned an instantaneous response from her. Her body tingled as his smoldering blue eyes seared right through her clothes and brought goose bumps to her skin.

Despite her better judgment, she dropped her gaze to his groin, and her breath lodged in her throat when she saw the outline of his erection straining beneath his shorts.

“You’re just as bad as Mrs. Franklin,” Reed said in an accusatory voice. “Get off that desk before I do something stupid, Darcy.”

She swallowed the moisture that had filled her mouth. “What kind of fantasies did you have when you were sitting in her class?”

He growled. “You really don’t want the answer to that.”

I hope it works out with Reed.

AJ’s words buzzed in the forefront of her brain again, bringing a rush of uncertainty. She was tempted to ask Reed exactly what AJ had said to him when he’d confessed, but at the moment, his sexy body was too big a distraction. So was the predatory gleam in his eyes as he advanced on her.

Her heart did a crazy flip, anticipation surging in her veins as she met his eyes.

“Tell me,” she murmured. “Tell me what you imagined doing to her.” She drew a deep breath. “Or better yet, show me.”

Chapter Seven

Darcy held her breath as she waited for Reed to respond. His shoulders stiffened, but that didn’t stop him from moving closer, until he stood only a foot away from her.

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going down this road,” he said hoarsely.

“Maybe I changed my mind,” Darcy answered, her voice equally hoarse.

Unhappiness lurked in his eyes. “AJ—”

“AJ will be fine,” she finished quietly. “He’s a grown man, and I don’t think he would appreciate us treating him like a fragile piece of china.”

Taking another breath, she uncrossed her legs.

After one heart stopping moment, Reed eased in, slowly, deliberately, until he was fully cradled between her thighs. His erection pushed against her mound, the hard ridge making her wet, and then impossibly wetter when he rotated his hips.

“I want you so bad I can’t think straight,” he mumbled.

Darcy’s hand trembled as she raised it to his strong jaw, lightly stroking the bristles dotting his face. His facial hair was more of a perpetual five o’clock shadow than a tidy beard, and she liked the way his stubble abraded her fingertips. She suddenly imagined it scraping her inner thighs when he buried his face between her legs, and an uncontrollable shiver skittered up her spine.

Reed sagged into her touch, his eyelids fluttering closed to reveal surprisingly thick lashes. God, he really was a beautiful man. Long limbs, heavy muscles, and chiseled features created the most tantalizing package she’d ever seen.

She’d noticed those good looks plenty of times before, but she’d never truly
admired
them. Now, with him inches away, she couldn’t tear her gaze off him, couldn’t stop her fingers from exploring every inch of his face.

“Just once,” he said thickly. “This can only happen once.”

Her head jerked in a nod. But even if she’d wanted to complain about his laying down the law, she didn’t have time, because his head dipped down and suddenly he was kissing her.

Darcy was happy to be sitting down, otherwise the impact of that passionate kiss would have knocked her right over. Reed’s tongue plunged through her parted lips, tangling with hers, and then he thrust one hand in her hair and angled her head to drive the kiss even deeper. Sexual excitement burned in the air, licked through her body in long, pulsing waves.

She couldn’t resist touching him. Everywhere. Running her fingers up and down his chest, sliding her hands over his firm ass to give it a hard squeeze. He groaned and rocked his hips, each sensual thrust causing his cock to glide over her aching sex.

She needed more, damn it. She needed everything. And apparently so did he. His frantic hands tugged on her clothing, peeling her tank top and sports bra over her head, shoving her shorts and panties down her legs. His hurried movements knocked the stack of papers onto the living room floor and pushed the computer keyboard to the far end of the desk, where it teetered perilously close to the edge. She was naked now, while he remained clothed, but once again she didn’t have time to protest the injustice.

Reed dropped to his knees in front of her, his warm palms braced on her thighs as he gently parted them. He sucked in a breath at the first sight of her most intimate place.

“Oh Jesus,” he hissed out. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this. How long I’ve wanted to put my tongue. Right. Here.”

Darcy moaned when he made contact, licking a slow circle around her clit.
So
good. It felt so criminally good that stars flashed in her vision. She was worried she might actually pass out.

Reed’s tongue followed the line of her slit to her opening, lapping up the evidence of her arousal. He groaned again, a husky humming sound, laced with such approval and joy that a desperate laugh flew out of her mouth.

“I didn’t think guys got this much pleasure from going down on a woman,” she choked out.

He tilted his head back, startling her with the intensity of his gaze. “Baby, I could eat your pussy for hours. I could make you come like this over and over again, and enjoy it just as much as I would if my cock was buried inside you.”

“Is this what you wanted to do to Mrs. Franklin?” she said in a breathy voice.

“Yes.” He stroked his thumb over her folds, his features taut with pleasure. “But not as badly as I’ve wanted to do it to you.”

He lowered his head again, each deliberate lick tightening the knot of pressure forming in her core. Pleasure prickled over her flesh, throbbed in her clit, caused every muscle in her body to tense with anticipation.

“I want you to come,” Reed muttered against her aching flesh. “I want you to come on my face and my tongue, and scream my name while I drink you up.”

God, she’d never been with a man who talked dirty. AJ hadn’t, and neither had her previous boyfriends. It thrilled her. Probably more than it should, but holy moly, just hearing those X-rated words leave his mouth made her senses come alive.

She whimpered when his mouth closed over her clit. He sucked on the sensitized bud, softly, gently.
Too
gently. Darcy lifted her hips, trying to deepen the contact, desperate for relief.

Growling with approval, he sucked harder, one finger teasing her opening before plunging deep. With his finger pumping into her and his mouth and tongue devouring her clit, Darcy came with a wild cry of abandon. Shards of pleasure exploded inside her, rendering her speechless. Leaving her limp and breathless.

Reed rose with a satisfied chuckle. His hot mouth latched onto her neck, kissing and sucking her feverish flesh as he continued to fuck her with his fingers. Two now, then three, stretching her wide, curling over a spot deep inside and promptly reigniting the fire threatening to consume her.

She’d never come without clitoral stimulation, but whatever he was doing to her, that spot he was hitting…it unleashed a rush of ecstasy she wasn’t prepared for. It wasn’t an orgasm she was used to, less of an explosion and more of a slow burn, but
hot damn
, she certainly wasn’t complaining.

“Hell, Darcy. You’re so wet. So tight.” He rumbled out the words as his fingers stilled, then withdrew from her core.

She felt empty without them, desperate for that feeling of completion again. “I need you to fuck me. Please, Reed,
please
.”

She didn’t recognize her own voice. Didn’t recognize herself. She was naked on her desk, for Pete’s sake. Naked and begging to be fucked. But she didn’t care how weak or needy that made her.

This was precisely what she’d craved—dirty, passionate sex that wasn’t encumbered with common sense or propriety or the self-consciousness that usually hit her when she was intimate with a man.

Reed’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he reached for the waistband of his shorts. Then his fingers hesitated. She could see his brain working through the implications, the consequences, but she didn’t give him the chance to surrender to them. She reached out and shoved his shorts down his trim hips in one swift motion.

The first sight of his cock made her moan. It was long and hard and massively thick, a clear drop of arousal pooling at his engorged head. As her heart pounded like a jackhammer, she curled her fingers around his shaft and stroked him with her fist, eliciting a husky noise from his throat.

“I think I’m in love with your dick,” she announced.

He croaked out a laugh. “That’s incredibly forward of you. At least buy him dinner first. I’m curious, though. What did it for you? The length? The girth?”

A smile stretched across her mouth. “Naah, it was the thought of how good it’s going to feel inside me.”

A hiss shot out when her exploratory caresses turned into fast pumps. “Baby, if you keep jacking me off like that, you won’t get the chance to experience it. I’m gonna come all over your hand.”

As appealing as that sounded, she refused to deprive herself of the sensation of his hard cock pulsing inside her when he climaxed.

Releasing him, Darcy stretched one hand toward the arm of the couch where she’d left her purse. She swiped the leather bag by the strap and dragged it closer, then rifled inside until she located the small zippered pouch that housed her first aid travel kit. And her condoms. She was a grown woman living in the twenty-first century—condoms were a necessity.

Reed’s expression turned reluctant as she proudly handed him the foil packet. “This still feels wrong.”

A part of her agreed, but she couldn’t derail the crazy train they’d boarded. Besides, she’d already experienced two mind-blowing orgasms. At this point, a third wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Clearly Reed agreed. In a speedy motion, he peeled off his shirt, momentarily distracting her with his spectacular bare chest. Sleek golden skin and perfectly contoured muscles assaulted her vision. And oh God, he had tattoos. Several of them.

She ran her fingers over the black and red boxing gloves inked above his left pectoral, then traveled down to his hip, to the three rows of dates done in simple black calligraphy. She didn’t ask what the dates meant. She was too distracted by the flash of green that caught her eye when he turned slightly. A lethal dragon spanning one side of his back, so vividly realistic that she shivered.

Reed rolled the condom on, his blue eyes smoldering as he stepped between her legs. Goose bumps broke out on her skin when he fisted his cock and rubbed the tip of it over her folds.

“I’m going to fuck you nice and slow,” he rasped. “I’m going to make every second count, so neither one of us ever forgets how good it is.”

Her entire body trembled with need, her legs widening on their own accord in anticipation of what was to come.

Reed’s gaze stayed glued to hers as he dragged the head of his cock up and down her slit, taking his time, lazily bringing it to her entrance before gliding right back up. Neither of them spoke. Neither of them moved, except for his skillful hand on his cock, teasing her to oblivion.

Darcy had never wanted anyone so badly. She stared into his bottomless blue eyes, holding her breath, fighting the urge to beg again. She was so wet her juices now glistened on the condom, but still Reed held back.

His expression glittered with lust, the rugged planes of his face tight with passion. His tongue came out to moisten his bottom lip, his broad chest rising as he drew a breath.

Time stopped. So did the movement of his hand.

“Reed. Please,” she whispered.

He made the sexiest sound she’d ever heard. Half growl, half moan, all man.

Ever so slowly, he guided his erection to her opening, then kept it there. He didn’t slam in. Didn’t thrust his hips. Only a fraction of an inch deep, a hint of what was to come.

Frustration seized Darcy’s throat. Oh God. She might actually die if he wasn’t inside her in the next three sec—

The loud knock on the door stopped Darcy’s heart. Reed froze, his cock still poised millimeters from her core.

They stared at each other, rooted in place, utterly silent.

Another knock echoed through the living room. “Ms. Grant? Are you home? We’re here to check your fire and CO detectors.”

Oh crap. She’d forgotten all about that. Her landlord had specifically ordered everyone on her floor to be home today for the inspection.

She didn’t answer, glancing at Reed in a panicked plea for help, but the evil gleam in his eyes told her he was the wrong person to ask.

A second later, he slammed his cock so deep she cried out in pleasure-laced shock.

Oh fuck.

Oh hell.

Oh fucking
hell
.

Reed was buried inside her, filling her completely.

And there were who knew how many fire inspectors standing right outside the door.

Her cry had clearly been heard because the male voice grew louder. “Ms. Grant?”

White dots swam in Darcy’s field of vision as her inner muscles clamped around Reed’s cock. The deep penetration and delicious stretch felt so damn good she couldn’t move, let alone speak.

But she forced herself to respond to the worried inquiry. “Yes, I’m home,” she called out in a wobbly voice. “I’m…here. In here. But I just got out of the—”

Reed eased his hips back, then drove inside her again.

“Shower!” she croaked. “I’m not…dressed…and—” her voice lowered to a hiss, “Oh God, don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

Reed didn’t stop. Chuckling quietly, he thrust into her with long, hard strokes that made her vision go blurry again.

“Can you…check the other apartments first and then come back?” she practically wailed at the door. “I won’t be long… I—”

Reed gripped her hips and started fucking her in earnest.

Darcy bit her lip to contain a moan. “I’m almost done—I mean, dressed! I’m getting dressed.”

There was a beat, followed by a cheerful reply. “No problem. I’ll start at the other end of the hall and make my way back to you.”

She registered vague sounds—the soft thud of footsteps, low male voices in conversation, another knock from somewhere farther down the hall. But her attention was elsewhere. Every thought, every frantic heartbeat and ragged breath was focused wholly on Reed. His cock moving inside her, warm hands gripping her hips, sexy lips brushing her ear as he bent down to whisper into it.

“I promised you nice and slow, but circumstances have changed. Hold on for the ride, baby.”

Then those greedy lips captured hers in a kiss, and the rocking of his hips turned ferocious.

She came the moment his tongue touched hers. Choked on the blissful moans doing their damndest to slip out. She had to tear her mouth away from his, bringing it to his shoulder instead and biting his hot, male flesh to stop from vocalizing her pleasure. Reed grunted in pain, but he didn’t slow down. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh echoed in the room with each furious thrust. His fingers dug into her waist, and the low groan he released told her he was close.

“Coming,” he hissed out.

As his cock pulsed inside her and his shoulders shuddered from the force of his pleasure, Darcy was struck with realization. A clear, persistent truth she couldn’t deny if she tried.

Once wasn’t going to be enough.