Love Beyond the Curve (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (19 page)

“I’ve got something that wants to be stuck in your throat. Do you know how unbelievably sexy you look standing there all wet and naked with only that towel between us?” Reed rubbed his hand down the length of the obvious bulge in the front of his jeans, still moving with a catlike stride toward her.

“I know the look in your eyes tells me you might devour me right now if it weren’t for this towel.” Charlotte was almost to the door of her room as Reed reached out a long arm and wrapped his hand around her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

“You’re right. I
am
going to devour you, and you’re going to ask me to do it, Charlotte. You know how I feel about you. You can trust me.” Reed pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with a hungry kiss. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and explored every warm, wet surface, crushing her body against his own.

Charlotte wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, relaxing in his arms as he held her close. Reed ran his hand beneath the hem of the towel to caress her bare hip, lifting her up against his bulging erection.

“You feel like heaven in my arms. I love you, Charlotte. I want to make love with you.” Reed held her face in his hands, searching her eyes for an answer to his plea.

“I want you to make love to me, Reed. I’m yours.” Charlotte pulled the towel from around her body and let it slip silently to the floor, along with any inhibitions she may have been harboring.

Reed swept her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom, where he gently placed her in the middle of the bed. He stepped back and gazed down at her, letting his eyes wander over her body from head to toe. She lay there with her dark hair spread out against the pillows, framing the look of desire that burned in her eyes. She relaxed her hands, palms up, at either side of her head as if in surrender. She twirled a lock of hair around a finger as Reed continued to stare down at her.

He pulled his sweatshirt over his head and tossed it aside, revealing the hard-muscled body of a builder. A man whose body was chiseled and planed, not with weights and machines, but from years of lifting, sawing, hammering, pounding, pushing and pulling lumber, steel, and bricks. His shoulders were broad and thick with strength. His stomach was flat, but ripped with well-defined abs all the way down to where his unbuttoned jeans hung low at his waist.

He unzipped his jeans and slid them down until he, too, was standing before her naked and fully aroused. He sat down on the side of the bed and traced her lips with his fingertip. He let that same fingertip slide down her throat to circle the hardened nipples of her breasts. He continued until his hand came to rest on her lower abdomen. He flattened his hand against it and rubbed it back and forth, sending tingles over her body. He then leaned down and kissed her belly with a tenderness that moved Charlotte deep within her heart. Reed slid his warm, callused hand down the length of her leg and back to rest on her stomach, where he traced ever-widening circles over it.

“You are incredibly beautiful. Your body is beautiful, too. You have a woman’s body. It is so soft and feminine that it makes me feel more like a man than I’ve ever felt before. It makes me want to love you fully and completely without holding anything back out of fear of hurting you. I’ve not ever felt quite this way before, I don’t think. This feels like what it should be between a man and woman.” Reed stretched out beside her and slipped his arm under her neck, holding her in the crook of his arm. He rubbed her back and let his hand wander over the curves of her breast, waist, and hip, amazed at how deeply her femininity aroused his passion.

Charlotte let her hand roam at will over the wide expanse of his chest and shoulders. He was as hard as she was soft. There wasn’t a mushy spot on him. Reed lay back, giving her better access to explore his body as he had hers.

Charlotte let her fingers run through the dark mat of hair on his chest. His breath hitched as she rubbed her fingertip lightly over his distended nipples. She propped up on an elbow and leaned over to kiss each one, flicking her tongue over them. She moved up to kiss the corner of his mouth and slowly begin to kiss his lower lip, sinking her teeth lightly into its fullness. She slid her hand over the ridges of his abdomen, feeling each defined muscle of his six-pack. Her fingertips hesitated only a moment before reaching out to wrap her fingers around his long, thick shaft. It was warm in her hand as she held it and let her thumb trace tiny circles over the suede-like feel of its wide tip.

Reed closed his eyes, rubbing her back as he absorbed the tremors coursing through his body while she began to caress his length with her fingertips. She took him in her hand and had begun to fully stroke him when the quiet atmosphere was shattered by the shrill ringing of her phone. Charlotte ignored it and continued to focus her attention on Reed. The answering machine picked up and the voice on the other end sounded desperate.

“Charlotte, I hate to do this, but Parker and Susan can’t come in today because they seem to have come down with this virus that has been going through here. I could really use your help if at all possible. Let me know something as soon as you can. Thanks.”

“No, no, no, no, no. Not today. Not now.” Charlotte fell back against the pillows, shaking her head with her arm across her eyes.

Reed rolled to his side and pulled her arm down from her eyes so he could look at her. “Charlotte, it’s okay. You’ve got to go. I know you, and you won’t rest until you get there to take care of your patients. I understand. Your faithfulness to all of your endeavors is something I love about you. It says so much about the kind of person you are. If they can rely on you, so can I.”

“Why do you have to be so great about it? I could have tried to pretend I never heard it, and we could continue.” Charlotte cupped his cheek as he smiled down at her.

“You know, this may be for the best anyway. We’ve gotten the chance to begin to explore each other’s body. We were relaxed, and it happened naturally. Next time we can go a little farther, maybe. I want to be able to savor every moment and not rush. Now I can envision you naked whenever I want to. You are beautiful, and it will be beautiful when we make love again. You go ahead and go to work, and I’ll talk with you later.” Reed leaned down and kissed her breast and squeezed it gently.

“You really shouldn’t have done that. Now it will be even harder to go.” Charlotte placed her hand in the center of his chest.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. It gives me something to hold on to until I see you again.” He rolled her nipple between his thumb and index finger.

“Well, I guess I have something to hold on to until I see you again, too. I’m really sorry about getting that started and abandoning you.” Charlotte bit her lower lip and closed her eyes for a moment.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m the one that said we should wait. It’s nothing a cold shower and doing laundry won’t fix.” Reed grinned as he rolled off the bed and pulled on his jeans.

“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“I’m sure you will. I’m going to hold you to it.” Reed pulled her up to stand in his arms as he kissed her good-bye, then left her to dress, wondering how things might have been if the phone hadn’t interrupted them.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“Hey, guess what came in the mail today?” Reed closed the door on the dishwasher and called to Charlotte in the other room.

Charlotte came into the kitchen putting her long hair up into a ponytail. “What? Was it a package for Christmas?”

“No, it was an invitation to the Black & White Ball on New Year’s Eve at the country club. This event is a huge deal in the Jackson family. My parents and brother and his wife will be there. I’m expected to be there front and center as well. My mother would rather I skip Christmas dinner than miss this event. You
will
go with me, won’t you?” Reed pulled her down beside him on the sofa, putting his arm around her shoulders, tucking her under his arm like he always did.

Charlotte picked up the remote and started fanning the dial to find their favorite television shows for Saturday night. She kept her look focused on the screen and didn’t reply. She kept flipping channels, seemingly ignoring his question.

Reed took the remote from her hand and stuffed it between the cushions. He placed a fingertip under her chin and turned her face to look at him. “Charlotte? You’ll go with me to this ball, right? If you don’t, then I have to pay my receptionist overtime, reimburse her for the cost of a suitable dress, and give her the following Monday off, so she can have a three-day weekend. Say something. You’re scaring me.”

Charlotte stood up and walked over to the fireplace with her arms wrapped around her waist. She turned around and bit her lip before responding to Reed.

“This is when you decide you need a thin girlfriend after all. This is where I say I’m too fat to go be paraded around on your arm in a room full of anorexic women. This is where your mother asks you, ‘What were you thinking?’ This is where everyone looks at you and then at me, silently wondering what a gorgeous man like you is doing with a big girl like me. They will smile in our faces and whisper behind our backs. Your mother wants you there to show off her prize offspring, and I will definitely put a damper on the picture she wants to present to the world of her perfect family. I don’t know, Reed. I don’t know if I can go. What if
I
pay for the receptionist to go ‘front’ for me? That way you and your family are spared all the drama and fallout.”

* * * *

Reed was speechless. Never in a million years did he expect this kind of response to a simple question of going to a dance with him. He was across the room in three strides and had her enveloped in his arms, trying to settle her down. “Sweetheart, it is only a dance. You are gorgeous. You will turn every head in the room, and every man will want to be me. Every woman will be jealous, because you will outshine them all. If I’m happy, then my mother will be happy. She’s never been touchy-feely, but she does want me to be happy. My happiness is wrapped up in you now. I was happy before I met you, but you have enhanced that now because I have someone to share it with. I don’t know what to say, Charlotte. I want you with me. I’m not ashamed to be seen with you. I don’t think you are ‘fat,’ and that’s your word, not mine. I’ve told you that I see you as gorgeous and sexy, and yes, the love of my life. I will take out a full-page ad in the newspaper announcing that I love you if that will take away this insecurity about my feelings for you. I love you, Charlotte, not the package you are in. I don’t care if you weigh two hundred pounds. It won’t change the way I see you when I look at you.”

Charlotte looked up at him wide-eyed and broke free of his embrace. She walked away from him and then turned around and sighed heavily. “Reed, I
have
weighed two hundred pounds before. Don’t believe for a minute it can’t happen again. You thought that number was far-fetched enough to use as an example, but I have lived it. Now, what do you think? This is never going to work.” She headed for the back door, grabbing her jacket on the way out.

“No, Charlotte. I won’t let you run away from me. We are going to work through this. It may not be settled today, but we will talk about it, not run from it. I want you, however I can get you. I will just keep saying it until it’s ingrained in your brain. Forget the dance. It isn’t worth this. Just don’t leave.” Reed held her and rested his forehead against hers, afraid to let go. Afraid she would run away from him and not come back.

“I’m sorry, Reed. This is why I work all the time. I don’t have to worry about special occasions. I should have just said I had to work and never said all of this to you. You have a way of making me speak honestly with you, revealing all my fears and insecurities. Not a real turn-on, I’m sure.” Charlotte kept her forehead against his, playing with the buttons on his shirt to avoid looking at him.

“Actually, it makes me feel good to know you’re telling me how you feel so I can understand you better. That’s what I want to do, Charlotte. I want us to be real with each other. That’s part of why I love you. You are real, not an image of what is thought to be real. So what if you weighed two hundred pounds? So what if you weigh two hundred pounds again? You’ll still be you, and that’s all I want.” Reed pulled her hips against him and kissed her forehead and trailed on down the side of her neck with more little kisses.

“I love you, Reed.”

Reed lifted his head and held her face in his hands, looking down into her soul. “That’s the first time you’ve ever said that to me, Charlotte. I’ve been waiting to hear those words from your lips for quite a while. I love you, too. Together, we’ll face anything and everything. You’ll see that I mean what I say to you. Say it again, Charlotte.”

“I love you, Reed Jackson. With all my heart.”

Reed smiled and kissed her warm, pliant lips, claiming her heart as his own. Making her believe that maybe dreams do come true.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Well, that went great, don’t you think? You seemed to fit right in. They really liked you.” Reed put the car in reverse as they headed down the driveway of his parents’ home.

“Oh, really? I think your mother’s eyebrow may be permanently arched. She nearly choked on her glass of wine when you introduced me as your girlfriend, Reed. I thought we might need to have the paramedics on speed dial. She tried so hard to be okay with this. She really did, but you could tell she was still in a state of shock even when we were saying good-bye. I’m sure you’ll get a call before the night’s over telling you all the reasons I’m wrong for you.” Charlotte looked out her window and sat in silence, thinking over the afternoon luncheon his mother had organized so they could all meet before the night of the ball.