The Promise (Neighbor from Hell 10)

She would not moan, she told herself as she grabbed hold of the pillow, because moaning was wrong, so very wrong. As she laid there, pretending to be asleep, she was forced to amend her earlier decision of not moaning to not moaning again since she was almost positive that she’d moaned when she’d woken up to find herself sprawled out on top of the man that she didn’t think was breathing.

Growing somewhat concerned, she opened her eyes and moved to sit up when a pair of large hands grabbed her hips to stop her, but not before she managed to rub against the very large appendage that she’d been trying not to think about since she’d realized that it was pressed between her legs.

“Don’t move,” Reed said, sounding strained as his hold tightened on her and she decided that another apology was probably in order here.

“I’m sorry.”

“For?” he asked while she tried to think of the best way to extricate herself from this situation without making this awkward.

Okay, even more awkward than it already was, she amended when she realized that either her shirt had ridden up or…

Julie really was a very lucky woman, she thought with a wince at the reminder that the man that she was currently sprawled on top of had a girlfriend. Well, that and he hated her. That was enough to get her to move, but unfortunately, the man still holding onto her wasn’t quite ready to let her go yet.

“I move around when I sleep,” she said, only to squeeze her eyes shut and mouth, “Oh, my god!” into the pillow when the appendage in question jerked against her stomach.

“Funny enough, I figured that out for myself,” he said dryly.

“I need to get up,” she told him.

“I know.”

“I don’t think I can get up without…umm, you know…” she said with a wince.

“Trust me, I know,” he said, moving to shift her off him only to decide against it. “I’m going to roll you.”

“I was afraid of that,” she managed to get out while she did her best not to think about what was about to happen.

Without warning, he had her on her back and was off the bed in seconds and heading for the bathroom while she laid there, deciding that it would probably be for the best if she slept on the couch tonight. Decision made, she crawled off the bed, grabbed a book off the nightstand and went downstairs where she fully planned on pretending that this never happened.

*-*-*-*

“Shit!” Reed bit out as he stumbled into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

As he shoved his boxers down, he tried not to think about how good she’d felt in his arms or how much he’d loved it when she’d moaned in his ear. But it was a losing battle and by the time he stepped into the shower he had his hand wrapped around his cock. He was calling himself a fucking idiot for thinking about his best friend’s little sister even as his hand slid down his cock while he thought about just how good it felt to hold her, the way she’d moved against him in her sleep, and imagined how good it would have felt to pull her shorts down and run his fingers between her slit as he played with her clit, making her wet so that he could slide a finger deep inside her and fuck her with his hand while she moaned his name.

He worked his hand down his cock as he imagined what it would feel like to press the tip of his cock against her wet slit, how soft her skin would feel sliding past the tip as he pushed between her plump lips and slid inside her, and how tightly those velvety walls would feel as he-

“Fuck,” Reed said, dropping his hand away with a sigh as he reached up and turned the hot water off so that he was left standing there, grinding his teeth as the ice-cold water hit him while he reminded himself that she was off limits.

“I really need to get laid,” he decided with a nod as he shut the shower off because that was really the only explanation that he could come up with for the way that he was reacting to her.

He needed to make a point to get out, he decided as he quickly dried off and pulled on a pair of boxers even as he considered giving it another try with Julie only to immediately dismiss the idea since she’d betrayed him last night by leaving him with-

He was running even before Joey’s scream registered in his mind and wondering how he’d fucked this up so quickly. Jackson was going to fucking kill him, he realized as he made it down the stairs and headed for the back of the house, praying that she…that she…

“She dropped her towel,” his brother said hoarsely with a look of wonder as he stood in front of the bathroom door, hugging a large bath towel against his chest.

“What the hell happened?” Reed asked as he joined his brother.

Matt licked his lips, and with a look of pure joy, he gestured with the towel toward the closed bathroom door and repeated, “She dropped her towel.”

“Reed?” came the softly spoken word from the safety of the bathroom.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to kill your brother,” she calmly explained through the door.

Nodding, Matt said, “I’m ready to go,” and headed for the bathroom door, but before he managed to do something to get himself killed, Reed reached out and grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him away from the door.

“Let’s go,” he said, dragging the little bastard toward the kitchen.

“But her towel?” Matt said with a wistful sigh that had Reed rolling his eyes and shoving the little bastard into the kitchen.

“She’ll find another one,” Reed said, giving his brother another shove to get him away from the door.

There was a long dreamy sigh and then, “Dibs,” making Reed roll his eyes as he headed for the refrigerator.

“She’s out of your league,” he said, opening the refrigerator doors and frowned when he spotted the small lunch cooler with its lid flipped open and a post-it-note with his name written across it taped to the front.

Curious, he pulled the bag closer, noting that it was heavy and-

“She made me lunch,” he said hollowly as he took in the meatloaf sandwiches stacked in one corner, the small bowl of chunky homemade applesauce left over from last night, two wrapped biscuits, a small bag of chips, a large stack of butterscotch cookies, and a napkin.

No one had made him lunch since he

was a kid, he thought as he pulled the bag out and put it on the kitchen island so that he could run his fingers reverently over the sandwiches that probably weren’t going to last until lunch. He’d had a few girlfriends that had tried to play house over the years. They’d show up at his house wearing the sexiest outfit they could find and cooked him dinner, making sure that he knew just how much work had gone into doing it while giving him coy smiles that were meant to entice him into giving them something more. But they’d never done any of it simply because they’d wanted to do something nice for him. They’d never-

“Ouch!” the little bastard said as he pulled his hand away.

“Mine,” Reed said as he made quick work of throwing a few ice packs in the cooler and zipped it closed with a look of warning for his brother.

“Well, technically that should be mine since I called dibs,” Matt pointed out with another wistful glance at the door.

“You have nothing in common,” Reed pointed out as he shifted his attention to the clock above the stove, noting that he had twenty minutes before he had to leave and turned his attention to finding something for breakfast.

“How do you know?” Matt asked, throwing the towel over his shoulder and sat down at the kitchen island.

“Because she’s a college professor and you’re an asshole,” Reed explained as he tossed a box of blueberry Pop-Tarts to the little bastard that was going to get himself killed.

“I’m willing to learn whatever she wants to teach me,” Matt said, nodding solemnly as he ripped open the thin foil seal and took a bite out of a cold Pop Tart with a heartfelt sigh.

“You don’t even know who she is,” Reed pointed out, reluctantly grabbing a box of strawberry Pop-Tarts.

“Doesn’t matter,” Matt said, shifting his attention back to the closed kitchen door.

“It’s Joey,” Reed said, chuckling when Matt choked on his next bite as he threw a panicked look toward the closed kitchen door.

“Joey Lawson?”

“The one and only,” he said as he debated stopping to grab something to eat on the way to work only to immediately dismiss the idea since he had too much shit to do this morning.