The Promise (Neighbor from Hell #10)(47)

“I’m making you feel better,” he said as he pressed a kiss against the other cheek while he lightly ran his hands over her bottom, soothing away the pain and she had to admit that it was definitely working.





Chapter 28

“You’re missing the best part!” the little bastard that had taken his seat said as he shoved another handful of popcorn in his mouth while the small woman that he was risking over twenty years of friendship for continued staring down at her iPad.

Jackson had been his best friend since they were seven years old. They’d grown up like brothers and he’d never thought that he’d do anything to risk that. But then again, he’d never thought that he’d ever want anyone the way that he wanted Joey, which was the problem.

He was going to have to tell Jackson.

Granted, he’d known the second that he’d decided to cross that line that he was going to have to tell Jackson. He just wasn’t sure what he was going to tell him, because there was nothing that he could say that was going to make this right. But every time he tried to tell himself that they shouldn’t be doing this he remembered just how good it felt to touch her and found it difficult to care how this ended.

“You’ve seen this movie already,” Reed pointed out as he shifted his attention to the stack of files on the coffee table, reminding himself that he should be working.

“But she hasn’t,” Matt said, gesturing to Joey with a handful of popcorn.

“And somehow I’ve managed to survive,” she said with a nod as she continued staring down at her iPad while he sat there, wondering what he was going to do about her.

For a moment, he sat there contemplating his options. He could end this now before it was too late or he could continue sitting here pretending that he wasn’t thinking about her. It was definitely for the best if he didn’t think about her, he decided.

Definitely for the best, he thought as he grabbed a file off the stack and started reading something about…something. Definitely for the best, he decided absently a few seconds later when he found himself watching her. She was adorable, but then again, she’d always been adorable. But now, she was also kind, sweet, and incredibly sexy, he thought, remembering the way she’d moved on him in the truck, the way she’d kissed him and the sweet little moans that she’d made when he’d-

“Goodnight,” Joey mumbled as she got up from the couch, stumbled, righted herself and continued walking toward the stairs all while looking down at her iPad.

“Goodnight,” Matt said absently as he stuffed another handful of popcorn into his mouth while Reed sat there, watching Joey’s every step until she disappeared around the corner.

It took everything in him not to follow her upstairs. It was only the reminder that they were trying to keep what was going on between them a secret that kept him in that chair. Besides, he had enough to deal with work, he reminded himself as he stared back down at the file in his hands only to find himself thinking about her, soft, naked, warm, and waiting for him upstairs in his bed.

“Where are you going?” Matt asked him, frowning as he helped himself to Joey’s abandoned can of Dr. Pepper.

“Bed,” Reed said, tossing the file back on the pile as he got up and headed for the stairs.

Frowning, Matt pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. “It’s only ten.”

“It’s late.”

“Since when is ten o’clock late?” Matt called after him.

Since he’d been waiting three hours to get Joey back in his bed, he thought that ten o’clock was really fucking late. After what happened in the closet, and god, he couldn’t stop thinking about the closet, he’d been counting down the minutes until he could go upstairs and touch her again. He’d planned on waiting until he couldn’t see straight and was too fucking exhausted to do anything more than make it back to his room and pass out like he did every night, but the thought of Joey waiting for him in his bed had him ready to call it an early night.

---

“There,” she said with a satisfied sigh as she placed the last pillow on her bed. Finally, she thought only to frown down at the large, incredibly comfortable bed decked out with clean sheets and a faux down comforter that had been delivered a few hours ago and realized something important.

“This just isn’t going to do,” she said with a sad shake of her head as she grabbed the small stack of books that she’d helped herself to and headed back toward the bathroom door.

After carefully sneaking inside so that the adorable kitten that she hadn’t figured out a good name for couldn’t escape, she spent the next five minutes snuggling the sweet little baby that she was definitely keeping before she carefully made her way to Reed’s room. She closed the door behind her only to find his bed empty. For a moment she stood there, not really sure what she should do. Since they weren’t exactly dating maybe she should go back to her room and wait until later, she wondered only to decide that she definitely needed some answers.

Decision made, she turned around and carefully made her way back into the bathroom where she spent another five minutes cuddling her precious little baby boy before she went back to her room. She grabbed her iPad off the bed only to end up following that up with a twenty-minute search through her bags and the boxes that she should probably unpack at some point, for her charger since the three hours she’d spent researching her camping needs had drained her battery. Once she found her charger after a second search of her computer bag she plugged her iPad in, curled up on her bed, and quickly realized that this whole thing was a lot more complicated than she’d originally thought.