Wonder With Me (With Me in Seattle 12.5)

“You’re such a caveman.” I laugh and sip my champagne. This is only glass number two, but I’m starting to feel a happy buzz.

Which means I need to slow down because I want all my wits about me tonight. I have a feeling I’m not going to want to forget anything that Reed does to me this evening.

So I set my glass aside, finish my dinner of steak and salad, and before I know it, we’re saying goodbye.

“You just ditched your work party early,” I say in surprise. “Reed, you own the company. Shouldn’t you be there until the end?”

“Elijah will cover for me,” he says with confidence. “Besides, people will start leaving now that dinner’s over anyway. It’s not really a rager of a party.”

“I like them.”

“Who?”

“All of them. They’re nice, and smart. And I can tell that they respect you very much.”

“Thank you,” Reed says and helps me into his car. “Do you mind if I take you to my house tonight? I know the condos are both closer, but I prefer the house, what with all of the beautiful lights and touches that you worked so hard on. Piper’s at the sitter’s until tomorrow morning.”

Before he shuts the door, he leans in and presses his lips to my ear.

“And I want to watch the lights reflect off of your body as I make you quiver with desire.”

I swallow hard. “I didn’t exactly pack a bag,” I say, but then shrug my shoulder. “But if you don’t mind that I wear this dress again tomorrow, then I don’t either.”

He laughs and pulls out of the parking garage, headed toward the freeway. “I’m sure I have something you can lounge in tomorrow morning. Besides, for what I have planned tonight, you don’t need any clothes.”

“Am I that much of a sure thing?” I ask, teasing him, but he frowns and glances at me as he merges onto the freeway. “Nothing about you is a sure thing, and I’m sorry if I sounded crass. Frankly, if you simply want to watch Hallmark movies all night and snuggle, I’m fine with that, too. I mean, it’ll kill me to keep my hands to myself, but I’ll be okay. I mean that.”

“I was teasing you.”

“But you bring up a good point. I just assumed we were on the same page, but I need to make sure you feel the same way.”

Rather than say anything, I simply tug my skirt up around my waist and shimmy out of my panties. I toss the lace into the backseat of Reed’s Mercedes, hitch one stiletto-tipped foot onto the dash and reach down to touch myself.

“Don’t wreck.”

His hand tightens on the wheel. He hasn’t even glanced my way.

So I keep playing with myself, settling back into the leather seat, enjoying the moment.

“After you kissed me on the couch the other night, and your finger almost made it here”—I gently brush my fingertip over my clit and suck in a quick breath—“I went home and did this, imagining it was you. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as turned on as I was that night. You know how to kiss a girl, and more than that, you’re good with your hands—”

“If you keep talking,” he says, his jaw tight, “I will run us off the road.”

I glance at the speedometer. He’s going eighty.

“You’re speeding.”

“Fuck, yes, I’m speeding. I need to get you home so I can bury myself inside you for hours.” He glances my way now, his eyes moving from my face to my hands, and then when he watches the road again, he reaches over and covers my hand with his. “Slower. I don’t want you to make yourself come. That’s my job.”

Maybe this was a bad idea. I thought it sounded like harmless, sexy flirting when I started, but now the sound of his voice, so full of lust and wanting as he shows me how he wants me to touch myself, has me worked into a frenzy.

And he’s barely touched me.

So I breathe. I close my eyes and breathe and let myself feel all of the sensations washing through me.

I also pray with everything in me that we’re almost there. Because, good God, a girl can only take so much.

Finally, I feel him slow down and take the exit. A few seconds later, we pull into the garage.

Before I can blink, he says, “Wait for me.”

I know what that means now. He’s going to open the door and help me out. He’s nothing if not chivalrous.

He opens the door and lifts me, his arms under my legs and behind my back, out of the car. He nudges the door closed with his foot and carries me into the house after fumbling with the doorknob.

I shove my hands into his hair and bury my nose in his neck, kissing and gently biting him there as he maneuvers us through the house.