Risky Pleasures (18 page)

She smiled as she picked up the phone. “Hello.”

“Leah, this is Daniel.”

Leah raised her brow wondering why Reese’s brother would be calling her. “Yes, Daniel, what is it?”

“It’s about Reese. He asked me to call you. He was involved in an accident on his way back to town and—”

“An accident!” Panic raced through Leah’s body. “What happened? Is he okay? Where is he?”

“Yes, he’s okay, just bruised up some. We’re at the hospital. Some trucker fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into him. I understand from the state troopers that things could have been much worse, especially if Reese hadn’t been familiar with the roads and hadn’t been able to retain control of his truck. Otherwise, there’s no way he would have been able to stop the vehicle from going over a cliff.”

Leah closed her eyes, imagining such a thing happening when she remembered the mountainous roads between Newton Grove and Memphis with all those sharp curves. She began shaking. “Where is he, Daniel? I need to come to him. I need to—”

“You really don’t need to do anything. The only reason I’m calling is because he asked me to.”

She paused, hearing the cold bitterness in Reese’s brother’s voice. At that moment, anger suddenly tore into her, but she wouldn’t give in to it. There was a lot about her and Reese’s relationship that Daniel didn’t know. “And I appreciate you calling, but I really need to know what hospital he was taken to.” She needed to see Reese, talk to him and make sure he was all right.

“There’s no need for you to come here. The doctor has fixed him up and has given me the okay to take him home and that’s what I’m doing. You can call and talk to him later. ’Bye.”

Leah heard the click in her ear and for the longest time just stood there and stared at the phone. If anyone thought she wasn’t going to find Reese and see for herself that he was all right then they had another think coming.

She pulled the apron over her head as she grabbed her purse and headed for the door. It would be closing time in an hour or so and Marie could do it for her. At the moment, the one and only thing on her mind was getting to Reese.

Leah pulled into Reese’s yard at the same time Daniel did, and she barely gave her car a chance to stop before she jumped out of it. As soon as Reese opened the door to Daniel’s truck to get out, she was there. And as if he understood, he pulled her into his arms and held her close to him.

A part of her wanted to cry. She’d seen the scratches on his face, the cut on his forehead and the slightly bruised eye. She thanked God because things could have been a lot worse. She could have lost him.

She pulled back and placed her hands on his shoulders and studied his features. Even banged-up he was the most handsome man she knew. And because she needed to know that he was totally okay, she moved closer to him and, on tiptoe and ignoring his brother’s presence, covered his mouth with hers. She gave a sigh of relief, then one of pleasure, when he began kissing her back, accepting the invasion of her tongue as he continued to kiss her and she kissed him, over and over.

In the distance, she heard Daniel clear his throat and she and Reese reluctantly parted. She glanced over and saw the frown that covered Daniel’s. “If the two of you don’t mind, I have to get back to work. I’d like to get Reese settled before I go. The doctor gave him some pain pills and said for him to lie down and rest,” he said.

She heard the underlying message in Daniel’s words. He would take care of his brother and wanted her gone. But she had news for Daniel Singleton. She wasn’t going anyplace.

“You can go on back to work, Daniel. I’ll handle things from here. I’ll take care of Reese.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes at her, and she knew he wanted to say something, probably something smart, but he decided to hold his tongue in front of Reese. She felt his anger. Daniel was only eighteen months younger than Reese and the two of them had always been close. He saw her as the woman who had hurt his brother deeply.

“I’ll be okay, Danny. I need you to go and assure Mom that I’m all right. Let her know that Leah is here with me and that I’ll be fine.”

Leah could feel the tension between the two men and it nearly broke her heart to know she was the cause of it. Daniel stared at Reese for the longest time before finally nodding. Getting back into his truck he glanced through the window at them one last time before pulling off. Leah then turned her attention back to Reese. Taking his hand in hers, she said warmly, “Come on. Let’s go inside so I can get you settled in bed.”

Less than an hour later, Reese had showered, put on his pajamas, eaten the chicken noodle soup Leah had prepared, taken his medication and was out like a light. Leah thought that even asleep he looked sexy.

She stood at the foot of the bed and smiled down at the man she loved with all her heart. She didn’t want to think about what could have happened, but thanked God for what hadn’t happened.

She glanced down at herself, deciding she needed to take a shower, as well, but knew she didn’t have any clothes to change into. She also knew she wouldn’t be leaving Reese alone tonight so she made a quick decision. He had a drawer full of T-shirts; she would shower then slip into one and then wash and dry the clothes she was wearing for tomorrow.

Knowing Reese would be sleeping for a while, she crossed the room and opened several drawers before locating the one where he kept his T-shirts nicely folded. She found one that advertised Singleton’s Handcrafted Furniture that she knew would work. She checked on him one last time before leaving the room to use the shower in the guest room.

A half hour later she had showered, put on Reese’s T-shirt—it came to midthigh—and sat curled up in a chair by his bed, watching him as he continued to sleep. It was just turning dusk when she stood to stretch her muscles and decided to give Jocelyn a call to let her know about Reese. Tiptoeing out of the room she went into the living room and picked up the phone.

Moments later she heard her sister’s voice on the line. “Hello?”

“Jocelyn? This is Leah.”

Jocelyn knew something was wrong the moment she heard the strain in her sister’s voice.

“Leah? What’s wrong?”

Hearing Jocelyn ask that question opened a flood gate of fears for Leah, fears of what she could have lost. In no time she was pouring out everything to her sister while trying to keep her voice composed. Near the end, she lost her battle not to cry and ended up sobbing. “What if he’d been killed, Jocelyn? What if I had lost him?”

“But you didn’t,” was her sister’s calming words. “Reese is okay.”

Despite Jocelyn’s efforts to reassure her of that over and over, Leah’s stomach still trembled at the thought of how he could have been taken away from her.

“Look, Leah, while Reese is sleeping, you should get some rest yourself. You’re wound up pretty tight and you need to clear your mind of everything for a while.”

Leah nodded, knowing Jocelyn was right. “Okay. I do need to rest my mind and thanks for listening. How are things going in Charlotte?”

For the next ten minutes Leah listened while Jocelyn told her how she had adjusted to being Sebastian’s wife and what a loving family he had. His parents, brothers and cousins had accepted her with open arms and, although she missed everyone in Newton Grove, she loved her life with Bas living in Charlotte.

After ending the call Leah decided to telephone Reese’s mother and brother to let them know he was doing okay. She hung up the phone minutes later thinking they actually seemed appreciative for the information she had provided to them. She then threw her jeans and top into the washing machine with plans to dry them later. She noticed the time was seven o’clock as she made her way around the house, locking everything up for the night.

As she passed through several rooms, the thought that Reese had built this house with his own hands and just for her made her chest swell with love for him. Jocelyn had finally told her how he had worked for their father’s construction company in the day and then at night and on weekends he had built this home for her. At the time, she hadn’t known of Reese’s special gift because he had meant to surprise her with the home on their wedding day.

While she mused about the house, she decided to use the guest room that was closest to Reese’s room. She wanted to be close enough to be able to hear him if he woke up in the night and called for her. As she settled down in the bed, she lay flat on her back and looked up at the ceiling. She willed herself to close her eyes for just a little while.

For a moment, a really brief moment, she wanted to pretend that she and Reese were married and living in this house together, and that he was in the shower and in a few moments he would be joining her in the bed.

That pleasant thought was on her mind when sleep finally overtook her a few moments later.

Reese heard the sound of a woman calling out to him in a panicked and frantic voice. Leah’s voice. His eyes popped open and he forced them into focus. Then he heard the sound again.

“Reese! No! Don’t go!”

Jumping up he glanced around the room, remembering where he was and why Leah was in his home. When he heard her cry out a third time he raced out of the room, following the sound. Had she had a nightmare? Was she reliving that night with Neil Grunthall?

He entered the guest room to find her thrashing about in the bed. Not wanting to frighten her, he knew he had to be careful how he approached her to pull her from the throes of the tortured sleep she was enduring. Wanting her to know it was him and not Neil, he began talking to her in a gentle voice.

“Leah, it’s Reese. You’re okay, sweetheart. You’re with me and you’re okay.”

He watched as her eyes flew open and she jerked upright in bed and glanced over at him. He saw the haunted look in her eyes and it almost broke his heart. He quickly moved to her, sat on the edge of the bed and gathered her into his arms.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

“Reese,” she said sobbing, wrapping her arms around his neck as if she would never let him go. “I thought I had lost you. I dreamed that I saw your truck go over the edge of that mountain. Oh, Reese, it was awful.”

It then dawned on Reese that her nightmare had nothing to do with Neil but with him and what had happened to him earlier that day. He gently stroked her back and held her. “I’m fine, Leah. I’m safe and I’m here with you now.”

“But I saw it,” she said, still sobbing.

“It was only a bad dream, baby. I’m alive and here with you. Look at me.”

She slowly released him to look at him. He saw the reddened eyes, the tear-strained cheeks and the quivering lips. He brushed a kiss across those lips and then said gently. “See. I’m here.”

“But I could have lost you,” she said in a low, trembling voice. “I could have lost you, Reese.”

He heard the gut-wrenching torment in her voice and didn’t know what to say; so instead he did what came instinctively. He pulled her closer into his arms and he kissed her.

Passion such as he hadn’t felt in a long time poured out of him as he put everything that was him into that kiss. Tonight he felt connected to Leah in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time…nearly five long years. He tried remaining in control and fought the need coursing all through his body, but she was returning the kiss, stroke for stroke, mating her tongue with his as frantically and as desperately as he was mating his with hers. If being aroused could kill then he was a dead man, because he was aroused to the nth degree. His desire was potent; it felt vital to his survival, his mental and physical endurance.

He gave in when she pulled him down on the bed with her as they continued to kiss, and when she instinctively wrapped her body around his, that desperate need he’d felt earlier was clawing in him, taking everything he possessed to keep his control and sanity.

And suddenly, when he felt Leah’s hand on him, sliding up his thigh and then settling on his crotch, stroking his erection through the material of his pajama bottoms, he broke off the kiss and pulled back. He knew she was not acting rationally and was reacting to the bad dream she’d had. The last thing he wanted to do was give in to his needs and take advantage of what she was going through.

“No, Leah,” he said, pulling her hand away from him. “We have to stop.”

“No, Reese,” she said, looking at him with tortured eyes. “We have to finish. I need to know you’re okay in my own way. I need to know that I didn’t lose you.”

“But you didn’t lose me, baby. I’m okay and—”

“No! I have to do this! Please, let me. Take your bottoms off for me. Please.”

He heard the desperate plea in her voice and saw the tortured look in her eyes. He lifted his hips and removed his pajama bottoms and tossed them aside and before he could make a move to do anything else, she had pushed him back in the bed and was straddling him.

He sucked in a deep breath, trying not to notice how the T-shirt she was wearing had ridden up nearly to her waist, giving him a delectable view of her nakedness, especially of her feminine mound. He sucked in an even deeper breath when she took hold of his erection and began stroking it before shifting her body to bear down on him, lowering her own body to his. “Leah! Wait!”

She stubbornly shook her head, letting him know there was no waiting. She wanted to be a part of him now. She needed the connection. He needed the connection, as well, but willed his body to remain still and to let her have her way with him.