Tall, Tatted and Tempting (The Reed Brothers, #1)

by Tammy Falkner

There are very few things in my life that I can control, and someone touching my body is one of them. I say when. I say where. I say with who. Just like in Pretty Woman.

He would take them inside himself and then breathe them back out, and all my problems would vanish like in The Green Mile.

“I want you more than I want air,” he says. My heart starts to beat a tattoo rhythm in my chest. I open my mouth to speak, but he holds up that damn finger. “But I can’t act on my feelings. Not while I don’t even know your name.”

“I’m sorry,” I start. “I shouldn’t have said that. I just wanted her to go away.” And I wanted to stake my claim, even though I had no right to one.

“I laughed because the one girl I do want to fuck is naked in my room and I can’t have her!” he growls. “It’s like divine intervention.”

“You were naked. And so fucking beautiful that I could barely breathe. Of course, I looked.”

“I’ve been locked in my own world for a really long time,” he says. “I have an excuse to keep people away, because of my disability. And then I saw your tattoo…” I turn his wrist over and trace my finger across it. He shudders at my touch, closing his eyes tightly. “And I felt like maybe, just maybe, we were each locked in our own little worlds and could let each other out.”

I take her root beer to her and stand by the side of the stage to wait until she’s done with the song. But she marches down the steps, her fingers flying over the strings, and she leans over, taking the straw into her mouth. She sucks it greedily, and there’s not a man in the room who’s not envious of me right this moment. She never stops playing, but she drains the glass. Then she smiles at me, kisses me quickly, and struts back up the steps and onto the stage. Great. Now I have a hard on and so does every man within a twenty foot radius. Suddenly, she runs back down the steps. She nods toward a cherry in the glass, and I lift it to her lips. She takes it against the tip of her tongue and closes her lips around it. She pops it off the stem with a gentle tug. She nods to the other and looks at my lips. She taunts me with her grin, and I lift it to my lips and open my mouth for it. I tongue it from the stem, taking my time with it, playing with her, until she leans over, opens her mouth over mine, and takes it back from me. I pretend to look offended, but I’m so fucking turned on that all I can do is look like an idiot.

“If I ever get to fucking be inside you, I want to know what to call you. I want to at least know your name. Because when that happens, you’re going to fucking own me.” I tip her face up so she’s looking at me. “Do you understand?” She looks unsure. “You’re going to own me.” I jerk her hips to mine, letting her feel how much I want her. “And there’s nothing I want more.”

“I do want everything you want. I just can’t have it.”

don’t know how many more moments I’ll have to do this. I want to suck every bit of life from the moments I have.”

Suck every moment from life. We should all do more of that.

“You’ve done this so many times,” she reminds me, rolling her eyes. I still. “I have never done this before.” Her eyes narrow. “I’ve never done this with someone who matters. With someone I’m in love with.