Claiming Her Beasts (Claiming Her Beasts #1) - Dia Cole Page 0,33

hunger. She needed more.

More touching.

More pleasure.

More Reed.

The desire to feel his skin against mine had me grabbing his shirt. “Take this off.” My voice was so husky, I almost didn’t recognize it.

Reed rocked back on his knees, his hands going to the top button of his shirt. A mixture of emotions flashed across his face.

He didn’t think his scars would bother me. Did he? “Here, let me.” I pushed myself up. The mattress seemed to rock underneath me like Reed’s waterbed. I must still be drunk. I put a hand against his chest to steady myself.

His heart pounded a furious beat under the fabric of his shirt.

Our eyes met.

“No,” he mumbled. “You don’t need to see this.” His warm palm curled around my hand.

I brushed it away. “You’ve just fucked me with your tongue. The least you can do is take your shirt off.”

“Lee,” he pleaded.

I wouldn’t let his insecurity kill this moment. Holding his gaze, I slowly unbuttoned his shirt. When I finally swept the fabric aside, I let out a shocked gasp.

Despite us living together for years, he’d always kept his scars hidden. Hell, he even swam in a long sleeve shirt. Now, seeing the overwhelming extent of damage, I could see why.

How did he survive this?

Tears welled in my eyes as I realized how much pain he must’ve suffered.

“Great. I’m making you cry.” Reed clenched his jaw and tried to close his shirt.

“Don’t hide from me.” I yanked it all the way off and tossed it on the floor.

Reed looked down at himself and flinched. “I’m a freak.”

“No, you’re not.” There was no denying the scars were intense. I swept my hands over his chest. The burn scars covering his chest and arms were almost like braille under the pads of my fingertips. Lower, along his abdomen were the smooth silvery scars from the shrapnel that had impaled him in the accident. They mingled with the thicker, raised incision scars from the multiple surgeries that saved his life.

His breath caught, and he stared down at me. It seemed like he was desperately trying to read me.

I bent my head and began kissing each scar.

He groaned as I licked one of the burn scars that warped the flesh of his nipple. “You don’t have to do th—”

He broke off when I kissed him lower. When I got to his waistband, he shuddered and fell back onto the bed. “Jesus, woman. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold back if you put your mouth on me.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to hold back.” While he watched with wide eyes, I undid the top button of his fly and slid the zipper down.

In contrast to the scarred flesh of his upper body, the bronze skin below his waist was kissably smooth.

With a tug, I slid off his boxer briefs. His thick shaft sprung out and bobbed in the air inches from my lips. “Oh, my!” I reared back in shock.

I’d seen my fair share of penises. Hell, I couldn’t get through a week at the club without some perv whipping out his junk during a private show, but I’d seen nothing quite like this.

“What the—?” I stared, slack-jawed, at the rows of silver barbells that pierced the underside of his cock from head to base.

“It’s called a Jacob’s ladder. Do you like it?”

Transfixed, I ran my fingers over the barbells. “It looks painful.”

He shuddered, and his thick purple crown grew slick with arousal. “I won't lie. It hurt like a son of a bitch.”

“Was this the reason you walked like a drunken cowboy for weeks on end?”

“Yeah,” he gasped, rocking against my fingers.

“Why would you do this?” Some dancers at the club had nipple piercings, and I even knew one dancer who had her clit pierced, but they did it to enhance their sexual pleasure. Reed was just as sexually inexperienced as I was.

“I did it for you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, I overheard you telling Cami that you love men with pierced cocks.”

“What?” I blinked in confusion. “I never said that—” A distant memory tugged at the back of my mind. “Are you talking about the time when Cami tried to set me up with Leo?”

Reed gave me a puzzled look.

Oh, God. “Reed, I was joking.” For some inane reason, Cami had been trying to set me up with her ex-boyfriend. Knowing Leo was pierced, I’d said sarcastically that my ideal man was tall, long-haired, tattooed, and had a pierced cock.

I’d had no idea that Reed was eavesdropping. And even if I’d