The emotion swimming in her gaze sucked the breath right out of his lungs. “I’m seducing you, Reedford. Shut up and enjoy it.”
Enjoy it he did. Impossible not to when the most beautiful woman in the world was grinding on him in a slow, sexy rhythm designed to blow his mind.
But there was something different tonight. Something sweet and tender and…loving. She was peering down at him as if she…loved him.
And Lord, the purity of her expression broke the dam inside him, the one he’d put up to stop himself from thinking too hard about his own feelings.
He wasn’t just falling for her anymore—he’d fallen.
He’d fallen so frickin’ hard, and now he lay flat on his back as the woman he loved—the woman he adored—sent him soaring to a plane of ecstasy where nothing but Darcy and happiness existed.
The orgasm rippled through his body and hummed in his blood, summoning a husky moan from his lips. Darcy’s eyes only burned brighter as she watched him come apart beneath her.
“You…are so sexy…when you come,” she squeezed out. Then those mesmerizing eyes took on a thick sheen of pleasure and she shuddered on top of him, her fingers digging into his abs as she cried out in release.
Afterward, she collapsed on his chest, her soft sigh and even softer hair tickling his pecs. Reed rubbed her back, his throat so tight he could barely draw a breath.
I love you.
The words hovered on the tip of his tongue, desperately trying to escape, but he couldn’t seem to voice them. Christ, this was the Apple Shulman fiasco all over again. The terror of exposing himself and getting rejected was so powerful it had seized his vocal cords.
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Kept rubbing her back.
Man up already.
Reed stifled a groan and ordered the mocking voice in his head to shut the hell up.
He was totally going to do it. He was going to tell her. He just needed a few seconds to gather up his courage.
Finally, he opened his mouth again. Drew a deep breath and exhaled in an unsteady rush.
Then he murmured her name—and realized that she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
Chapter Fifteen
“You’re seriously doing this?” Reed sank into the armchair in front of Gage’s desk and eyed the other man warily.
His friend nodded. “Yep.”
“You’re moving in with Skyler.”
“Yep.”
“After three months of dating.”
“Yep.”
Reed shook his head in amazement. If the news had come from anyone else, he’d still be shocked, but coming from Gage? Multiply the shock by a million. Gage had avoided commitment for as long as Reed had known him, and now he was moving in with a woman he’d only recently started dating?
“Isn’t it a little sudden?” he asked carefully. “I mean, living together is a huge step, bro.”
“I know.” Gage looked a tad smug as he perched his hip on the edge of the desk and folded his arms over his broad chest. “But it’s happening.” He shrugged. “Hell, if it were up to me, we’d be walking down the aisle already, but Skyler laughed in my face when I suggested it. She thinks we should try living together before we jump into marriage.”
“Marriage?” Reed gaped at his friend. “Dude. Were you abducted by aliens? Who are you and what did those bastard aliens do to Gage Holt?”
The other man just chuckled. “I already told you, this is forever. Skyler’s the one.”
“But…” Reed found himself sputtering. “How are you so sure of that?”
“She’s the one,” Gage repeated.
His conviction was downright beautiful.
As Reed unhinged his jaw from the floor, Gage moved away from the desk. “Anyway, I just wanted to share that little bit of good news. Gotta find Jesse now and go over the security assignments for tonight.”
With that, Gage slid out the door, leaving Reed to shake his head to himself. Wow. Well. Gage had always been an intense motherfucker, so maybe it made sense that the man extended that same intensity to his relationships.
But to be that confident about the future? To know without a shred of doubt that Skyler Thompson was the woman for him?
As Reed rose from the chair, thoughts of Darcy crept into his head. It had been two days since he’d almost told her he’d loved her, and in those two days, he’d nearly blurted it out a hundred more times. Fear and insecurities had stopped him each time, but now, as he stood in Gage’s office and replayed his friend’s words in his head—she’s the one—he realized he needed to quit being such a coward.
Because he was Gage. And Darcy was Skyler.
And she was the goddamn one.
A smile stretched across his face. Darcy was the only woman for him. He’d known it from the moment he’d met her. So why the hell was he so scared to tell her?