Zip, Zero, Zilch (The Reed Brothers 6)

I lay my fork down. I might as well. My plate is empty. “Prove it,” I say.

Silence falls over the room like a heavy blanket. “If I thought you were ready for what I want, I would.”

He gets up and washes my plate. “How do you know what I’m ready for?” I walk up behind him and pull his shirt from where it’s tucked into his pants. I slide my hands around his naked stomach, and lay the side of my face on his shoulder. He goes stiff in my arms.

“I’ll give you ten minutes to knock that shit off,” he says. He chuckles, and I can feel his belly moving under my fingers. I dip my fingers into his waistband and his hand comes up to cover mine. “You ready to go to bed?” he asks, turning his head to kiss me over his shoulder.

“I need a shower. The sound guy was smoking and I’m afraid I have it in my hair.”

He lifts a lock up to his nose and grimaces. “You do.”

“Ugh,” I grunt.

“Use my bathroom,” he says.

The bathroom where he was masturbating to thoughts of me this morning? “Okay.”

I grab my things and go into his bathroom. I shower really quickly and brush my teeth.

When I go back into the room, Sam has taken his contacts out and he’s wearing glasses in bed, reading a book. “I didn’t know you wear glasses,” I tell him. I saw him wearing them last night for the first time, but I never would have known otherwise.

“I don’t.” He takes them off and sets them to the side.

“You do,” I tease.

His gaze takes a lingering path up and down my body. I’m wearing a long T-shirt that goes down to my knees and I’m not wearing a bra. His perusal shoots straight to my center.

“I feel bad that you stayed up waiting for me,” I tell him. He grabs me and pulls me onto his chest, and I lay my face on the light dusting of hair that graces his body.

“I like waiting for you,” he tells me. He lifts his head and kisses my forehead. He reaches over and turns out the light. I can feel him all around me, but I can’t see him. “So I was wondering…”

“Ask. Just ask.” But I stiffen because I’m not sure I’m going to like whatever he’s going to ask me about.

“This thing we’re doing. What would you call it?”

I lift my head. “You mean sex?”

He grumbles. “No, this is not sex. If you think this is sex, your previous partners were really bad at it.” He laughs, his chest shaking beneath me. “No, this…relationship.” He jostles me in his arms. “This is a relationship, right?”

“I guess so,” I say quietly.

“You guess?”

“I mean, yeah, I think it’s a relationship.” I draw a circle on his chest. “Do you want it to be a relationship?” I hold my breath.

“Hell yeah, I want it to be a relationship.”

“I wouldn’t mind if it was sex, too,” I whisper. I kiss the center of his chest, and his belly clenches under my hand.

“Would you be mad if I said I’m not ready for sex yet?” He strokes a hand down the length of my hair.

I scramble away from him, but he wraps me up tightly in his strong arms.

“Don’t go,” he says. “I don’t think you took that the way I meant it.”

“How did you mean it?”

“I mean that I really, really like you and I want to see where this thing is going.”

“Okay…”

“And I know that once I get to be inside you, I’m never going to want to let you go, so I want to be sure this is permanent.”

“Permanent.” God, I probably sound like a parrot.

“Permanent.”

“So…no sex.”

“You okay with that?”

“Well, I was kind of hoping to try out that piercing.”

He growls and pulls my earlobe into his mouth to bite it gently. He rolls me onto my back and covers me. His lips touch mine, and his tongue slides into my mouth. When he lifts his head, I’ve lost all my wits. I can’t put two thoughts together.

“You can try out my piercing after you fall in love with me, okay?”

“What?”

“I kind of need for you to love me, Peck.” He’s quiet but fierce. “You’re not in love with me yet, are you?”

“Um…” I don’t know how to answer him.

“It’s okay. Don’t rush it. I can wait.”

I can feel his dick pressing against my thigh, and I reach out to touch it. He catches my hand and brings it to his lips. His breath is hot against my fingers, and his lips tickle.

“But this morning—” I protest.

“This morning was me being greedy. I’m sorry about that.”

But I came! And he didn’t. There’s no greed in that. “Huh,” I grunt. “I was the only one who got off. I can’t figure how you were being greedy.”

He chuckles. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to taste you, do you? To smell you and feel you and touch you? To feel you come apart all around my fingers?”

“Jesus,” I whisper.

“It’s all I thought about all day.” He chuckles. “I’m going to have to go and take a cold shower if we keep this up.”

“I could…” I reach for him again, but he pulls his hips back.

“No. Not yet.” He rolls me so that I’m facing away from him, and pulls me into the spoon of his hips. His dick is pressing hard against my bottom. “He’ll give up in a minute. Go to sleep.”