Carter Reed (Carter Reed 1)

“No, you aren’t.”

“Yes, I am. I shouldn’t be here. I’m everyone’s boss. This isn’t appropriate.”

Theresa shot her hand out and pinned his arm to the table. She leaned close, lowering her voice, but not enough. “You promised me you’d do this. I don’t care whose boss you are. Co-workers party all the time together.”

“Yeah,” he said. “At holiday parties.”

“Noah.”

He shook her hand off and stood from the table. As he reached for his wallet, he glanced up and froze. His eyes rounded and his mouth opened. Then a hush went over the room. I closed my eyes as tingles raced over my skin. I felt him coming. I knew he was there, and as I turned around, Carter stood behind me. A slight smirk was there.

He wore a hooded sweatshirt over custom-fitted jeans. I knew he aimed to look casual, but it only made him look younger and innocent. And everyone in the room knew Carter Reed was no angel, though his face teased at the image. His eyes were filled with dark promises as he skimmed over me. I hadn’t thought he was coming, but I was glad Theresa made me promise to dress up. I wore shimmering black pants, loose, but they rested low on my stomach. They matched the black top I wore. It was sleeveless and the ends tied around my neck. There was no back. It ended under my sides. That was it. His hand touched the small of my back as he sat beside me. A fresh burst of sensations shot through me. As his thumb rubbed over my skin, he leaned forward to kiss underneath my ear. It looked like he was saying something to me, but he wasn’t. He was nibbling.

I bit my lip to keep from groaning out loud. As if he sensed my battle, he swept his tongue against my earlobe and whispered, “If this is how you dress going to these things, I don’t think you can keep me away.”

I grinned. Our eyes met and held for a sizzling moment where he was close enough to kiss. Then he moved away, but not before he skimmed a tender hand from my hair down my back to rest on my waist. He pulled me closer to him as he turned to Noah. “Karaoke?”

A grunt, followed by a curse was his response.

Theresa and Amanda were both wide-eyed as they witnessed the exchange.

They’d been around Carter, but I knew both were still frightened from conversing with him. Theresa had gotten over her disdain for him long ago. She seemed tongue-tied around him, even after Ben’s death and staying at his safehouse until Amanda was ready to move out. They murmured quiet hellos to him but conversed with each other after that. The drunken loud state Theresa had been in was shot down, way down.

I frowned. They should’ve been comfortable enough to say more than hello to him, but that wasn’t the case. When Carter showed up, he talked to me or Noah. Amanda confessed she was still scared of him, and Theresa confided that she didn’t know how to talk to him.

Theresa said something now and Noah looked over. As he was pulled into their conversation, Carter moved his hand up and down my back again. He murmured, “I hope I don’t have to sing because I came. I don’t think that’d be good.”

I sucked in my breath. Too many lustful temptations were going through me as his hand continued his caresses. “No.” Sneaking a glance around the room, it was how I thought. Most everyone was watching our table, but the attention was no longer on their boss. It was on Carter.

I couldn’t blame them. I couldn’t even blame the media. Their obsession wasn’t dying down.

“So,” Theresa spoke up. The brave one. Her smile teetered as she caught my gaze, but she pushed forward, “Carter, I hope you’re not trying to be incognito with that get-up.”

He stiffened but glanced down.

I burst out laughing. “He was.”

He grimaced at me. “Didn’t work?”

Theresa was building more confidence. She laughed with me, shaking her head. “I don’t think you can go anywhere in this city with that face and be invisible.”

I sucked in my breath.

Carter threw me a look from the corner of his eye, but he shrugged. “I thought I’d try to fit in with The Richmond work force.”

“Good luck. That’s not going to happen,” Theresa teased him. “Too mysterious and too gorgeous.”

Noah frowned at her. “I thought you were my date.”

“We’re not on a date. I work for you.”

“Because I’m stuck with you,” he shot back, but the grin that appeared took away any negative connotation.

She gasped and hit his arm.

And the two went back to their pseudo-flirting/bickering again.

Amanda shook her head as she watched them. She caught my gaze and pretended to roll her eyes upwards in annoyance. We both knew better. She only wanted Theresa to be happy. I did too, but it was more for Amanda. She’d been brought in from the cold. Theresa and Amanda would be attached at the hip from now on. I wasn’t worried because no one understood how cold it was on the outside like I did. I’d been there, right alongside her.