Project Runaway Bride(40)

“Reid.” She panted his name over and over, unsure whether the sound was actually passing her lips or was merely an ongoing chant inside her head.

He whispered her name in return, and that was all it took to send her flying. Her entire body went rigid, her spine bowing as a single tremendous orgasm tore through her, followed by a series of small but no less intense ones.

Shimmers of pleasure continued to rock her as Reid’s fingers dug into the flesh of her hips and buttocks, and he gave one final pump upward before shouting his completion into the curve of her neck.

Her face was buried against his throat while she struggled for breath and Reid’s chest rose and fell choppily against her. Another second of almost suspended animation passed before the strength seemed to go out of his muscles and he fell backward, taking Juliet with him.

Long minutes later, after their breathing had returned to normal and she was telling herself to get up even as sleep pulled at her, Reid’s voice reached up to stir the hair near her ear.

“I’d say that we passed.”

Rolling her head to rest on the upper portion of his chest to face him a bit more fully, she made an indistinct sound low in her throat. “Passed what?”

A chuckle rumbled beneath her. “The compatibility test.”

“Mmm.”

Since that had never been a question in her mind, she didn’t want to say too much one way or the other. Especially when she knew this had all been his way of proving a point...and convincing her that “compatibility” should translate into “commitment.”

Something she would be only too eager to agree to if circumstances were different. But she couldn’t let a surprise pregnancy and his sense of chivalry push her into a situation she didn’t think either of them were ready for.

“But you’re not going to change your mind, are you?” he asked quietly. “About marrying me.”

Holding her breath and hoping her answer didn’t completely destroy the nice little bubble of contentment surrounding her, she said, “Not today.”

After another stretch of tense silence, he sighed but didn’t let go of her and didn’t sit up and walk out. Instead, he stayed exactly where he was, with his arm growing even tighter around her waist.





Ten



When Juliet next awoke, she was alone in her bed. Or the bed in the guest room of Reid’s town house, at any rate.

Though Reid was no longer lying naked beneath her, acting as the best human mattress ever, he had apparently shifted her around so that her head was on one of the pillows near the headboard and she was covered up to her chin by the sheets and lightweight comforter.

Throwing back the covers and pushing to the edge of the bed, she blew out a breath. She didn’t know whether to categorize this most recent encounter as a failure or a success. A little of each, she supposed.

But for now, at least, Reid seemed willing to let the topic of a shotgun wedding drop.

She had no doubt Reid McCormack was in her life to stay—which was only right, since they would soon share a child. But while she couldn’t agree to marry him—because he’d suggested it for all the wrong reasons—that didn’t mean she wasn’t still attracted to him. Sort of overwhelmingly, distractedly attracted, if she was completely honest.

Even now, the scent of his cologne reached out from the tangled bedclothes and made her want to breathe deep. The same as it had the entire time they were involved. The same as it did every time they were in the same room together, to the point where she was perpetually tempted to crook a finger and invite him to take her to bed.

A flush of heat warmed her from her hairline straight down to the tips of her wine-colored toenails. Flashes of her collective time with him filled her head. All the meals they’d shared, the conversations they’d had. All of the other times she’d been in this house with him, often wandering around nude under Reid’s oversize robe after they’d already made love or whiling away the hours in bed with him. His big, king-size bed, not this one.

She wished they could go back there, when things were—ironically—simpler.

Which made her realize that she really needed to leave. She couldn’t stay here, wishing they could go back in time or that things could be different when they were never going to be.

And having Reid propose to her—as rough around the edges as that proposal had been—only aided in driving home the fact that she was hiding. Hiding from Paul, hiding from her family, hiding from reality.

But she couldn’t hide forever, and the longer she did, the weaker she would appear. The harder it would be to return to her old life.

She was also afraid that if she let Reid host and protect her any longer, especially with side benefits like the ones they’d recently shared, he would continue to see her as needing his help and protection. But she didn’t want to be a job for him, a responsibility. Not like this.