Tall, Tatted and Tempting (The Reed Brothers 1)

“There’s no rule book, remember?” I giggle when he tickles beneath my ribs. “Stop!” I cry.

He looks into my eyes. “I think I might be falling in love with you,” he says softly.

My breath catches. “Yeah, me too,” I say.

He smiles and gets to his feet, tugging me up beside him. His face is flushed, and he’s grinning.

“If you two are done playing lovey dovey,” Matt yells, “we have a game to win.” He waggles his brows at me. Suck every moment from life. We should all do more of that.

Logan

It has been almost two weeks since her declaration in the park. She hasn’t said it again, and neither have I. But I know she loves me. There’s no doubt in my mind. She sleeps in my bed every night, and we spend every waking moment together when we’re not working. I’m so used to having her at my side, I’m not sure I’ll survive it at this point if she leaves me. I’m hopeful that she’ll be ready for what I want soon. Because I want all of her. I want her past, her present and her future. I want to ask her to marry me, but I can’t. Not yet.

Sometimes, there’s a look in her eye that I don’t fully understand. She’s longing for something she doesn’t have. I’m not sure if it’s home or something else.

She’s learned to sign in the past two weeks, and she can carry on conversations. She’s actually really good at it, and she’s found that spelling isn’t as hard for her when she’s fingerspelling as it is on paper. Something about the spacing of the letters, she says.

She’s sitting on the couch now with Hayley in her arms. She’s holding a book upside down, and telling a story she has made up. The corners of my lips tip up and I can’t bite back my grin. She fits so well into my family.

She still busks in the subway every day while I work at the tattoo shop. And last Friday night, the band encouraged her up on the stage when the crowd started chanting for her. They passed a hat through the audience and she got to keep the money they put in it. It was just over one hundred dollars and she only played one or two songs.

She saves every dime of the money she has made. We won’t let her pay rent. My brothers and I had a frank discussion about it and we all agreed. She does too much for us to charge her rent. She cooks often. And she can’t seem to keep from cleaning, even though we tell her not to.

Pete’s on the couch across from Kit with a girl he met a couple of weeks ago. They’ve been necking for about ten minutes. I’m standing in the kitchen with Paul. I jerk my thumb toward them and Paul scowls. He says something to Pete, who looks up sheepishly. He adjusts his junk and lifts the girl up, taking her down the hallway toward his room. Paul yells at him, and he comes back and takes a few condoms from the drawer, grins and goes to his room.

“Great,” Sam grouses. “I’ll have to sleep on the couch.”

Paul smiles. “There are two beds in there.”

“Yuck,” Sam says. “I don’t want to have to hear them.”

At least the boy is getting some, I sign.

Kit scolds me with a glance from across the room. I rue the day I taught her to speak sign language. I can’t keep anything a secret anymore. I shrug at her and she grins.

You would be getting some too if you’d quit being such a prude, she signs to me.

Did you really just call me a prude? I ask as I stalk toward her. She sets Hayley to the side and jumps over the back of the couch. By now, she knows I’m coming for her.

She darts around the sofa and dodges back and forth, trying to avoid my hands. But I catch the tail of her shirt and jerk her to me. Linking my arm around her waist, I pick her up and take her to our room, slamming the door behind us. I toss her onto the bed and she bounces, laughing at me. “Did you really just call me a prude?” I ask, using my voice.

“No, definitely not.” She laughs as I tickle her and she squirms in my arms.

“I think you did.” I keep tickling her, because I know it drives her crazy.

“Prove it,” she says. She’s signing the whole time she’s talking. So, I don’t miss anything with her anymore. She grabs my hands to keep me from tickling her.

I growl as I press my lips to her throat. “Don’t tempt me,” I warn.

She taps my shoulder until I look up at her. “I want to tempt you. I want to tempt you really bad.” She throws her head back on the last word and I can feel her throat vibrating as she growls. “You’re making me crazy.”

I chuckle. “I think that’s my line.”

“How much longer will you make me wait?”

I wake up with her wrapped around me every f**king morning. I go to sleep with her in my arms every night. I take long, cold showers every day, just so I can take some of the pressure off. She’s making me nuts. But she’s not ready for me yet. She’s not. She knows it. I know it.

I change into a pair of jeans while she watches. I don’t even try to hide my erection from her anymore. She knows it’s there. She knows how much I want her. I think she knows how much I love her. I feel certain she loves me just as much. I just don’t know why she’s still hiding. “I have to work tonight at Bounce. Are you coming with me?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I have a date with Hayley to read a book.” She doesn’t look at me.

No she doesn’t. “Paul has a date tonight and he’s taking Hayley with him,” I remind her.