is real, then she’s here in my arms.”
The faint harmony washes over my bare skin in waves, gently lapping me to full consciousness.
“Did you just make that up?” I murmur, snuggling into Reed’s bare chest as he kisses my head. “Oh, don’t stop. There’s nothing I’d rather wake up to than my very own poetic dawn chorus.”
I giggle as he rolls me onto my back and pins my arms above my head.
“I mean it. I love your singing.” I giggle harder as he attacks my neck with his mouth.
“I know, Angel. That’s why I sing to you. But now it’s your turn to show me what your lips can do.” He kisses down my body, pausing to suck both of my nipples on his way south.
“Reed, we can’t. It’s THE day. We need to get ready and go to your office. Stu’s probably already there going mental.” I sigh, my protestations melting from my lips as Reed swipes his tongue between my legs, making my core clench with need.
“I know. That’s why I woke you up early. No way am I going to spend a day waiting for the final count to come in without tasting you first. It’s going to be a long-ass day. I need my sustenance.”
I giggle more as Reed grabs my ass cheeks and lifts my pussy toward his face, groaning as it makes contact with his mouth again. “Fuck, Harls. You taste so damn sweet.”
“I…” I let my eyes roll back in my head, my giggle fading as rippling pleasure spreads through me, dancing over my nerve endings like bubbling water on a riverbed. “Fine,” I moan as his tongue dips inside me, making me arch against his face. “Fill yourself up.”
“I intend to,” he groans as he brings his tongue back to my clit. “And then I’m going to fill you. I want to know you’re still feeling me all day while we’re surrounded by people and I can’t have you.”
Today is everything he has been working toward, planning for, and gearing up to.
Election day.
And he’s right. We aren’t going to get a second to ourselves until all the votes are in, which could take hours. It could go well into the night. Stuart’s already insisted we meet early in the office. He’s laid on a breakfast for the entire campaign team and all the volunteers who’ve helped. It’s going to be mayhem. Edge of our seat, nail biting, torturously long, mayhem.
Hell, it might even be tomorrow by the time we get any privacy again, and that’s if we’re lucky. If Reed wins, as I hope he will, then it’ll probably turn into celebratory drinks and then a quick sleep before interviews and whatever official things that need doing begin.
God, it could be days until we are properly alone again.
I part my legs wider and grab his hair, sudden urgency communicated by my fingers digging into his scalp and an urgent groan of “more” from my lips.
“Good girl,” he groans against me. “Good fucking girl.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, it looks as though we have the final results in.” The news anchor presses her manicured fingertips to her earpiece as she looks straight into the camera. “Yes, I can confirm that all votes have been counted.”
There’s an excited gasp and murmur around the office as we all stare at the giant projector screen that Stuart has set up.
I slip my arm around Reed’s waist and am met with the taut, corded muscles of his back. He’s focused. I’ve seen him at work before, but never like this. This means everything to him. His eyes haven’t left the screen for the past forty minutes since they announced the count was almost complete. He was calm up until then, laughing and joking with the rest of the team. He even gave a couple of short interviews to the news crews set up outside. Then he invited them in, and they joined us for take-out as the count continued. We’ve been here hours, and now the moment of truth is here.
“I believe in you,” I whisper as I watch the screen. I don’t think it’s loud enough for anyone except me to hear. But the warm lips that graze my temple tell me Reed heard.
“The next Mayor for the city of New York is…”
Silence falls around the room.
“Reed Walker with a record-breaking seventy-one percent of the votes.”
Oh my God.
“Reed! You won! You won!” I jump up and down, my grin almost splitting my face as I turn to him.
He’s being enveloped by a sea of arms patting him on the back, hands squeezing his shoulders, and party poppers firing paper streamers off over his head that are tangling themselves in his warm, brown waves.
Then I see his eyes. Shining with emotion as he reaches for me and pulls me to him.
“I can’t believe it, Harls.”
“I can. You deserve this. You’re going to be amazing,” I squeal in delight as I wrap my arms around his neck and jump into his arms. He catches me, and I wrap my legs around his waist to the sound of cheers and whistles. Unable to stop myself, I grab his cheeks and plant a kiss firmly on his lips.
“You can do all the things you wanted, Reed. You can make a difference.” I hold his eyes, unspoken understanding filling the air between us. “You can do anything,” I whisper.
His eyes glitter back at me, and then he’s grinning, too. Matching my own until we probably look like a ridiculous pair of overexcited children’s toys with permanently ecstatic expressions painted on their faces.
But I don’t care.
Seeing the pride in his eyes, the excitement, the sense of value and purpose in what he’s achieved today, and will achieve now that he has the position to be able to do so…
It’s breathtaking.
This moment is everything to him. And because of that, it’s everything to me as well.
He is everything.
My breath catches in my throat as he kisses me. It catches, and it stays there until the kiss ends. Until the man I love reluctantly prises his lips away from mine and places me back to the floor so that he can accept the congratulatory hugs and handshakes from everyone else in the room.
The man I love.
I smile as I watch him talk and laugh with everyone and thank them for their help. It’s like looking at a completely different person to the Reed Walker I knew a few months ago. Back when I thought he was a shallow womanizer, and I didn’t care to know if there was more to him.
But there is so much more.
He’s shown me all his scars. And he’s seen all of mine. And I know beyond doubt that I was wrong. I was so wrong.
Reed Walker is everything I never expected him to be. And I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong.
I love him. I’ve fallen completely in love with him.
I beam at him as he seeks me out from across the room. He’s just given a quick collective interview to the news crews that are here. I don’t know how he managed to look and sound so calm. I’m pretty sure my heart is about to break out of my chest from beating so fast.
His eyes hold mine as he makes excuses to who he’s talking with, before making his way to me.
“It’s about to get very loud,” he says as he reaches me. A second later, music blares out from a speaker, and the room erupts into shouts and cheers again, one of the loudest being from Stu.
“Oh, God.” I laugh as people around us begin to sing and dance. There is a steady stream of champagne and hard liquor flowing, again courtesy of Stuart’s organization skills, no doubt.
“Come with me.” Reed grabs my hands and pulls me from the main communal office area, down the short corridor to his private office.
He clicks the latch after closing the door and then pulls me to him.
“You okay?”
“You’re asking me if I’m okay? Reed. You just won the election. You shouldn’t be worrying about me. You should be out there chugging champagne and throwing your tie off and dancing on the table or something.”
He laughs, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “I love the way your mind works, Harls. And the things you come out with.”
“You do, huh?” I bite my lip and giggle. “What, words like Daddy?” I lean forward and let my breath tickle his ear as I whisper.
“Especially words like that. Fuck,” he hisses, grabbing handfuls of my ass through my dress. “Today has been torture. Do you know how hard it is keeping my hands in respectable places when we haven’t had a second alone all day?”
“It’s been hard, huh?” I smile up at him as I rub him through the fabric of his pants.
“Angel…” His eyes darken as he flexes his fingers against my ass. “I need you. I can’t wait any longer.”
He moves me back and unfastens his belt with one hand, maneuvering me over to the desk with the other.
I walk backward, drinking up the lust in his hooded eyes as he rolls his lips and lets out a low groan when I wriggle out of my panties and hand them to him. He lifts them to his nose, keeping his eyes on mine as he inhales, and then he pushes them into the pocket of his suit pants.
“We don’t have long before they realize you’re missing and wonder where you are,” I say as I turn and rest my palms on the smooth, cool surface.
“Let them fucking wonder,” Reed growls as he pushes my dress up around my waist and sucks in a breath. “You’re stunning, Harley. Now bend over for me.”
He pushes me down so my chest is on the desk and my cheek is pressed against the neatly stacked paperwork. Then he strokes his hand over my ass, sliding it over the curve. There’s a slight break in the air before his palm connects with my skin, slapping me, sending a sting racing over my skin before he soothes it with his mouth, kissing and sucking gently. The contrast of pain and pleasure has me groaning as arousal floods between my thighs, calling out for him to touch me.
“Reed… please.”
“Please what, Angel?” he growls, his lips leaving my skin.
“I need you. Please,” I whimper, feeling exposed, spread out like this for him with my ass in the air.
There’s the sound of a zipper being undone and then warm, slick skin between my legs as he rubs the head of his cock through my folds.
“Yes. More.” I reach back blindly with one arm to pull him closer. He catches my hand in his and puts his solid cock in my palm.
“This, Angel? You want me to fuck your tight little cunt with this?”
“Yes,” I whimper as his precum smears over my forearm.
“Suck it off,” he instructs, guiding my wrist to my lips. I dart my tongue out greedily and lick off the wetness that’s glistening on my skin.
“Good girl.” He sounds like he’s smiling, but it soon turns to a growl as he pushes inside me from behind, forcing my cheek into the paperwork.
“God,” I cry out. “Please, Reed. I need it hard. I need you… I need—”
“You’ve got me,” he groans as he pistons into me, driving himself in to the hilt until his thighs meet mine. “You’ve got me, Harley. You’ve had me such a long fucking time.”
I unravel beneath him, shuddering as he pumps into me, one of his hands grasping my hip, the other reaching around and stroking my slick, swollen clit. We fuck like that, the desk creaking beneath us. The sound will be drowned out in the main office by the loud music. But here, where it’s just the two of us, it echoes off the walls as my body vibrates to a different bass. One that’s running through it with every movement of his. One that’s growing and swelling inside me, telling me he’s close.
“Come for me, Harls.” He keeps rubbing my clit as his pace increases.
It’s more than I can bear, and I squeeze my eyes shut and scream as I come. Hard.
“Fuck, I can feel you squeezing me, sucking in my cock… Oh God, fuck…”
Reed’s hand on my hip tightens, and he keeps rubbing my orgasm out of me with his other as he groans and spills inside me. The two of us are a mess of pants and moans as we come together, riding it out in one delicious, wet, hot wave.
He stills, his breathing heavy as he folds forward, laying his chest over my back and kissing my shoulder. “You’re perfect, Mrs. Walker.”
I pant out a small giggle. “Technically, my employment ended when the results were read out.”
“Really? It’s like that, is it?” He kisses my shoulder again. “You know, that can only mean one thing.”
“What’s that?” I sigh dreamily as his kisses move to my neck, sending warmth radiating through me.
“It means you really wanted to fuck me this time.” He flexes his cock inside me, the movement making me shudder.
“Were we both just pretending the other times then?” I suck in a breath as he nips my neck gently.
“Never. You had me Harley-trapped from day one,” he murmurs against my skin, kissing me again.
I laugh. “Harley-trapped? I Harley-trapped you?”
“Sure did, Angel. I’m a total fucking goner.”
I laugh again as his chest vibrates, and he joins me in a moment of blissful silliness.
“Reed?”
“Yes, Angel?”
I bite my lip, hesitating over what I’m about to say. I should know beyond doubt that this is real for him after all we’ve been through and shared. But still, my heart flutters and my stomach is in knots, knowing that he could send it all crashing down.
“It’s not a trap if you want to stay,” I finally say.
“I want to stay,” he answers before I even finish, making me laugh again. “Please. I want to fucking stay.” He laughs as he pulls his body from mine and brings me to my feet and turns me around to face him.
His laugh fades to a breathtaking smile as smoky-quartz eyes sear into my soul.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Then his lips are on mine again. Kissing me. Scrambling my thoughts. The only one I can still decipher is…
I want to stay, too.
“Here they are!” Stuart pipes up as we slip back into the party. His eyes flit to mine and he gives me a knowing smile, summoning a flush of heat to my cheeks.
“I’m going to grab a drink. Do you want one?” I ask Reed, gesturing to the table the makeshift bar has been set up on.
“Sure, whatever you like, Angel,” he says as he’s pulled into a back-slapping hug by someone.
I smile at him to let him know I’m all right and then make my way over to the drinks. Reed was right. Today has been crazy busy. I look around at the sea of elated people, dancing and drinking. It doesn’t look like the night is anywhere near over, either.
My cell buzzes in my small clutch that I kept in Reed’s office for the day. I only picked it up now as it has a mini packet of wipes for me to clean up with in it.
I place my purse on the table and take out my cell with one hand as I pick up a glass of water and chug a long, cool drink with the other. The message is from an unknown number and has a video attached.
Unknown: Blast from the past.
I click play, my eyes widening as the grainy image comes into view. My fingers lose their grip on the glass of water, and it crashes to the floor, splintering into pieces.
No.
Sickness ravages my body in one merciless strike. Like a guillotine, cutting off all light until only darkness remains. Goosebumps claw their way over my skin as I struggle not to retch. Not to retch and then crumble into bloodied pieces across the floor.
“Are you all right?” someone asks.
But their voice sounds far away.
Phone clutched to my chest, I snap my head side to side, frantically searching for Reed.
“I… I’m fine, thank you,” I mutter.
I spot him. He’s right over the other side of the room, deep in conversation with somebody. As if sensing me, he looks up and I give him my best ‘everything is fine’ smile as he looks at me, puzzled.
“Are you sure?” the same someone asks.
I nod apologetically in her direction. “I’m just a little dizzy. I’m going to get some air.”
My feet weave their way through the room as if on autopilot as my blood pounds in my ears. When I push through the doors and down the lobby steps into the Manhattan night, I gasp. I bend over and gasp, sucking in deep lungfuls of air. Each one reduces the pounding in my ears by a trace amount. But the sickness remains. A suffocating toxin that’s threatening to take over my entire body and mind if I let it.
I raise my cell phone. I’m gripping it so tightly that my knuckles have turned white.
Then I click play to watch the video again.
It can’t be what I think it is.
The image is grainy, but the man… the brown wavy hair…
My stomach heaves and I lean one palm against the side of the building and gag, bringing up the glass of water, tinged with acid.
It can’t be.
Please, God. It can’t be.
