Free Feel the Rush: A Hard Feelings Novel (InterMix) by Kelsie Leverich Page B

be.”
    Reed smiled, she had him there—that was exactly something he would do. “Nah, with you, sugar, I would take it easy. That is, unless you like it rough.”
    Her eyebrows darted to her hairline and her wide eyes stared at him incredulously.
    Reed threw his head back and laughed, he liked this woman. He liked making her blush and he liked shocking the hell out of her, even if he didn’t mean to that time. “Get your head out of the gutter, woman. I was talking about the courses. There are several different levels, and some are rougher than other.”
    “Uh-huh. Nice cover.”
    “Think what you think, but it’s nice to know where your head keeps going.”
    Her mouth gaped open and she made a little noise that caused his dick to twitch beneath his shorts. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Five
    Meagan didn’t know how to respond to that—because he was right. Her head kept going back to that night eight years ago when she’d followed him back to his hotel room like a dog in heat. She had just gotten home from college for the summer, packing with her a broken heart. Her dad was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood at the time and she didn’t know anyone there yet other than the neighbors’ daughter, Courtney, and she was a little on the wild side. Courtney had taken her out to a small hole-in-the-wall bar that played a mix of eighties rock music and country—not the best bar, but there wasn’t much to choose from at Leonard Wood. The atmosphere was mixed, young and old alike, and they sat at the bar as Courtney flirted with the bartender and obsessed about getting out from underneath her parents.
    Meagan had made a trip to the restroom and was making her way back to the bar when she ran into Reed—literally. Yes, it was kind of like one of those typical romance movies where the girl runs into the guy and he spills his drink on her and tries to wipe it off with his hand, conveniently brushing over her boobs in the meantime, and when they lock eyes it was all love at first sight, yada, yada, yada. It was exactly like that, minus the whole love-at-first-sight thing. It was more like turned on at first sight. Reed was sexy, and he had this playfulness to him that instantly roped her in—and she needed roped in, she needed the distraction he was so easily giving her. He seemed like the cure-all for her newly broken heart, standing there flirting with her in his worn pair of jeans and solid black T-shirt, (again, typical, and yes, she remembered what he was wearing), his mouth tilting up in that cocky smile, the Cupid’s bow tempting her, just like it was at that very moment.
    Needless to say, they both had a little more to drink than they should have had to make morally correct decisions, but at twenty-two, decisions based on morals weren’t high on the priority list. She left with him, and he took her back to his motel room. She had never had a one-night stand before Reed, and she didn’t care. She had just come out of a relationship that left her numb to the idea of caring, and besides, the things he did to her body made any regrets she was afraid she would have later vanish. And she never once regretted it.
    She’d anticipated this raw, intense . . . fuck . . . for lack of a better word, but it was anything but that. He was silly and playful. Their foreplay was more wrestling around and flirting, play-bites between kisses, and tickling between undressing. It was lighthearted and fun; and she let him sweep her up and carry her away in it.
    The Reed she saw sitting before her now still had that playfulness to him that she adored. But there was a new harshness that hung in his shoulders, like something had eroded away a thin layer of his carefree demeanor and left a rough patch in its place. It wasn’t something that was obvious or noticeable, and she didn’t understand why after only spending such a short time with him back then that she could see this subtle change in him, especially when he