Reese shrugged, stepping back a little, watching a group of kids being hustled into a minivan as she spoke. “It was a hard day, for both of us.”
“I didn’t mean…”
“I know you didn’t,” she answered, attention back on him again. “Neither did I.”
He pushed back the small flush of disappointment that he shouldn’t have felt and nodded. “I just…Rhiannon…I…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. He’d loved his sister, more than he’d ever loved anything, and didn’t think that would ever stop, even though he wished it would because the pain of her being gone was too much to take sometimes.
WHEN RYDER STAYED SILENT, grinding his back teeth together to keep from blurting out all the hurt he’d so expertly bottled up for ten years, Reese reached for him, grabbing his hand to pull back his attention to her. “I miss her, too. So much.”
Ryder stared at her fingers on his hand, the long joints and square nails, wondering why that brief touch felt so good. So comfortable. He’d spent so long hating her, laid so much blame on her shoulders. Maybe he’d done that because it was the only way past his pain. But Ryder had been so blinded by his own loss, he’d never given much consideration to Reese’s. Seeing her Sunday, her tears and guilt forcing her onto that treadmill, slowly trying to kill herself changed that.
He didn’t answer, for fear the tears in his throat would burst forward and spill from his eyes. Instead, Ryder squeezed her hand back, nodding a goodbye, and started for his car. He got five steps away when Reese called his name. He turned, lifting a chin at her.
“You think, maybe,” she started, walking closer to him, “one day when we aren’t driving each other crazy, that we could be friends? Just…just friends?”
Ryder smiled, the tension in his throat lessening. Loyalty. Honor. Friendship. Those were big words with bigger meaning. Looking at her, Ryder wondered what would happen if he associated those words with Reese again.
He nodded, liking the sound of each word, liking more the way Reese watched him, expression open, a little impatient. He liked that look on her. He’d missed seeing it. “Yeah,” he told her. “I think I’d like that.” Funny thing was, he meant it.
11.
RYDER
HE WANTED HER. That sweet curve of her back on display, the shimmer of her skin against the water as she stood there rubbing soap all over her body—it was a flame, and Ryder was a punch-drunk moth.
“I should walk away,” he said, knowing something about this moment was familiar. Had he been here before? Had this already happened?
Ryder didn’t know. He didn’t much care. All he knew was that Reese was standing in front of him, body naked, skin wet, and she wanted him as much as he wanted her. That hadn’t changed, and when she held out her hand, beckoning him forward, he knew the wanting would never leave him.
“This…isn’t right. You and me here like this,” he told her, not stepping away despite whatever stupid protests left his mouth.
“Ry, this is the only right thing left in my world.”
How could he refuse her then? How could he walk away?
He wouldn’t even try.
Reese fit against him like a lock to key; easy, still, her body kissing against his, her mouth and nipples wet and ready and right then, all his for the taking.
“I’ve missed you,” she said, her voice different, sleepy sounding and higher than normal, but Ryder didn’t care what she sounded like. Those three words were enough to make him move, pulling her close, hands smoothing up her back, lifting to her long hair as she arched.
“Then come here, baby.”
They hit the floor, away from the showers, and Ryder pulled Reese with him, finding a soft spot on the bunch of folded towels near the free weights. She climbed over him, body still damp, hair a jumble of wet waves that tangled in his fingers when she slid on top of him completely.
She was naked and got him that way with one smooth rub of her hand along his shorts, and then that hand gripped his aching cock, throbbing and pulsing between her fingers.
“I love the way you touch me.” He always had, and at those long, sure swipes, Ryder jerked against her, hips grinding, coming up to meet her, his body so desperate to be inside her again. “En—enough,” he said, stilling her hand with his fingers on her wrist. “Slide on top of