Chapter Text
Tabitha had never been with anyone as ridiculous in her life.
“Books are not childish,” said Reese. “I’m generally more into movies, but sometimes you’ve got to go back to the source material to get a little perspective on something. And you have got to read this one!”
“I have got to go to work,” she protested.
“You can be late for work one time,” he said, reaching for her bedside bookshelf.
“Reese, I have to go!” Tabitha dissolved into laughter as Reese cautiously resized his hand to grasp her book without clawing it to pieces.
The man had definitely grown a backbone, she reflected as he slid back into bed, hooked a leg over her torso, and pinned her down. She tried to squirm away for a moment before giving up—alright, maybe she’d give him five minutes. He flipped open The Haunting of Hill House and began to read to her, insisting she would love it.
Incredible to see this backbone grown over something as odd as her never making time for horror movies or the books on her shelf anymore.
And… even more incredible, she found herself engrossed. Apparently Stella’s recommendation had been spot-on.
Until she heard a strange noise in the hallway.
Reese withdrew his leg and let her throw on her bathrobe to go confront that busybody, Janey, who was standing outside the room listening in.
As Tabitha rolled out of bed and headed toward the door, Reese ducked under the blankets and cautiously felt his teeth with his hands, checking to see if he was Fit to Be Seen. He didn’t want to out himself to the biggest gossip in town besides Avery.
He couldn’t make out the words of the verbal evisceration Tabitha was fishing out but it sounded spicy.
When she came back to him, she was looking sober. “I should really head to work,” she said.
Reese reached up and grabbed her by the hand, dragging her back down. “Nope, one chapter first,” he said, surprising himself with his boldness.
It was coming easier with her.
Her cousin had liked him first as a person… a shy person isolated from the world and barely able to stammer out a response to flirting… and he had stayed with him in spite of being a monster.
Tabitha had hated him as a person and first noticed him when she saw him transformed. When he’d stood up for himself, when he’d fought back. When he’d grown a goddamn backbone.
And he was damned if he was going to let her walk all over him when she knew damn well she liked him like this.
So when she grumbled, he didn’t listen, and he pulled her back into bed and trapped her under him while he read.
A whole chapter.
And he didn’t let her go until she had promised she would read the second one or let him read it to her.