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

“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.

“What are you doing?” the man that she was only supposed to acknowledge for sex according to this website and the previous five that she’d read, asked as he sat down on the bed next to her.

“Nothing,” she said quickly, which had him shifting so that he could see what she was looking at only to end up sighing.

“Please tell me that you’re not really looking up the rules for friends with benefits,” Reed said as she scrolled down the page and couldn’t help but shake her head with a sigh, because they were already screwing this up.

“I like to be informed,” she said, wondering how they were supposed to follow rules five through eight while she was living here. Then again, rule number four might be an issue since she really wasn’t interested in exploring her BDSM side. Except for the spankings. She was definitely interested in the spankings.

“I see,” he said with a thoughtful murmur as he plucked the iPad out of her hands and tossed it aside.

“Wait! I wasn’t done reading the section on booty calls!” she said only to sigh in defeat when he pulled her onto his lap.

“We’re not doing that,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.

“Oh,” she said, knowing that she was pouting, but she couldn’t help it. She kind of liked the idea of sending him a text anytime that she wanted him to-

“You’re killing me, Joey,” he said on a groan as he leaned in and kissed her.

“I get that a lot,” she admitted with a small sigh that had his lips twitching against hers.

“I’m sure you do,” he said softly as he brushed his lips teasingly against hers.

“I really do,” she said, reaching up to pull his tie loose.

“We’re not friends with benefits, Joey,” he said, grabbing the hem of the tee shirt that she’d changed into earlier and pulled it off her.

“Then what exactly are we doing?” she asked as she shifted her attention to his shirt.

“Making as many bad choices as humanly possible,” he said, making her lips twitch as she pulled his shirt free.