* Please Review! Im nervous about this chapter*

Once outside, Layla handed over her keys to him which wasn't a surprised. She always wanted him to drive, be it her car or his. He opened the passenger door and waited until she sat down before he shut it. He hurried to the driver's side with his stomach in knots. This could be it. This might be the night they got back together. He smiled to himself as he opened the door.

" You sure you want to go to my place?" Reed asked after he sat down.

" Yeah. I want to be comfortable and private." Layla said. He nodded and looked out her windshield, shutting the door quickly. He had a closed mouth smile. She wanted to be somewhere comfortable and that place was with him at his apartment. Hope surged through him as he started up her car.

" Okay. Did you eat? Do you want me to pick something up on the way home or get some coffee?" Reed asked, pulling away from the bar.

" No." She said.

Without looking at him, Layla reached over and placed her hand onto of his as he held onto the gear shifter. Reed looked down then back at the road. He shifted his hand so her fingers slipped into his palm. He closed his fingers around hers and squeezed them. She squeezed him back, making him grin. They were quiet the rest of the ride. He rubbed his fingers against hers slowly. She, in return, was working them with him. Quietly they were feeling each other, enjoying being close again. For the first time since they broke up, Reed felt relaxed.

As they walked into his apartment, he hung her keys up where he always placed them. She moved to the couch, he went to his room. He had been sleeping with her favorite blanket and he wanted to get it for her. It was laying across his bed so when he walked into his room, he snatched it up. He quickly went back to his living room and found her waiting patiently for him.

" Thought you might want this." Reed said quietly, making her smile.

" Thank you." Layla said. He spread the blanket out over her legs then sat down beside her.

" You're welcome." He said.

He turned towards her, putting his left arm across the back of the couch and bring his left leg onto it. She was staring at the blanket, her fingers working against the hem. She was nervous. Who should start talking? What should he say? A million things were flying through his head but none of them sounded right. They all sounded sappy and pathetic.

" I'm sorry I ignored you. I deleted your texts without reading them." She said without lifting her eyes.

" Why?" He asked. She shook her head and closed her eyes.

" I was too hurt and angry to read them. My mother," She paused and shook her head again but she did open her eyes and look at him. " she always said you never give a man a second change. If he screws up then he's out. I thought I was never going to talk to you again. I kept repeating your words over and over again."

" I'm sorry. I didn't have the right to say that." Reed said quickly.

" No, it's okay. You're right. I thought I could keep things good between us, keep you with me, if I became what I thought you wanted. You bought outfits for me that were super sexy and tight. I thought you wanted a super sexually charged girl. I took what my mother said and the outfits and I tried to become that for you."

" Layla, I don't need you to be anything but you." He said.

" No, just listen to me, please." She almost begged. " See, in all my other relationships I changed myself, like I had seen my mother do a million times. I became what I thought my boyfriends wanted. When those relationships ended my mother always said it was because I hadn't tried hard enough to give them what they wanted. But when you came along, I didn't feel the need to change because I didn't think anything would happen. I didn't think we'd meet in person so I could just be me." She said.

" And when we did meet?" Reed asked.

" I still didn't believe anything would happen so I didn't try and change but things did change." She said, making him nod.

" It did." Reed agreed.

" For the first time I started to feel confident in myself. You knew me and you still wanted to be around me. You called me, sent me texts, came to my work and I thought, this was it. I could just be me. Then you bought me that first outfit. I started to think that was what you wanted, someone who dressed like that so I made myself wear it." Layla explained.

" I never meant for you to feel like that." He said.

" I know you didn't. After we met my mother and she said what she said, I fell back into my ways. I tried to be this over sexed girl I thought you wanted but it got to be to much and then you found out what she said. You were angry and at first I couldn't understand why. I thought I was doing what you wanted so I got mad. I talked to my mother a few days ago. She was yelling at me, asking me how I could have screwed things up, again. I listened and agreed like I knew she wanted. When she calmed down she told me that number five had left her but how she was going to get over 2.5 million in the divorce and I don't know what came over me but I told her to shut the hell up." She said with a small smile. Reed was shocked.

" You did? And how did that go over?" He asked, making her laugh.

" As well as you think it went. I mean, at first she didn't say anything then she started yelling at me but I just hung up because you were right and it didn't hit me until then. Why was I listening to a woman who had been married that many times and couldn't hold on to anyone? She told me my entire life that I wasn't good enough, that I made to make myself into what a man wanted, like she did. She had her breasts done. She redyed her hair, had her stomach done, her chin, she just kept remaking herself over and over again my entire life but it never worked. The men in her life didn't want her. I just realized that I was being just like her and I didn't want to do that."

" So why didn't you call me afterwards?" Reed asked. Layla dropped her eyes and focused in on her hands.

" I know you had been trying to get a hold of me and I just thought you'd be upset because I had ignored you. I thought it would be too late to fix things between us." She admitted. " The day after I talked to my mom Jason asked me out and I agreed. I thought it might get my mind off of you but then," She shook her head and looked up at him. " you showed up at the bar."

" That seems to happen to us a lot." Reed said softly. " Things just seem to push us together. I mean, I drive past your apartment complex every day when I go to work and come home. I found you with the phone, I went to the bar and we met." Layla nodded.

" When I saw you at the bar I thought, this is it. I was going to come home and call you. When you showed up and punched Jason I thought you still cared about me and wanted to be with me. So I called to explain these things to you."

" And I didn't answer." Reed said.

" You didn't answer. So then I thought I had really screwed things up. I wasn't going to come out tonight and at the last second I decided too. I decided that if you were there I would try and talk to you. If you would let me, I could explain things to you and now...I have." She said. Reed nodded.

" You have." He said.

" Now you know everything. You can do whatever you want with it. You can take it or leave it but here it is." They fell silence for a few minutes. Both just stared at each other.

" And if I want to take it?" Reed finally asked.

" Then you can do what you want with it." Reed nodded and sat back. He let his right arm come to rest on his couch's arm. She gave him a lot to think about. He looked away from her with his mind going over everything she had told him. She changed herself to be with him so did he really know her at all?

" I should go." Layla said as she pushed the blanket off her lap.

She had said she was herself when they first talked and for a while because she hadn't expected them to meet or that he'd want to stay with her.

" I just wanted you to know what happen, from my side." She said, standing up.

Reed nodded but didn't say anything. What could he say? She was a little more damaged then he thought she was. Did he really know her? He nodded to himself. He did. She may have thought she had changed herself to be with him, but she hadn't. She hadn't pretended to like things she didn't. She acted the same, she was just more sexual then she had been when they were first together. Reed's head snapped to his front door when he realized she was getting ready to open it.

" Layla, wait." He said as he stood up. She froze with her hand on the door knob but didn't turn around to face him. " I need to know something." He said, coming towards her quickly.

" What?" She asked.

" Did you enjoy sex with me or were you just pretending?" Layla blushed and he knew the answer. She hadn't faked it, not one time, not that he really doubted it. He had been with a girl who faked it and Layla's body didn't respond like a faker. When she had an orgasm, she trembled inside. She contracted either around his dick or his finger and that wasn't something you could fake.

" I didn't pretend." She almost whispered as she opened his door. Reed's left hand came up quickly. He pushed it shut fast but still she didn't turn. His right hand touched her lower back.

" Don't go, please." He said. Layla exhaled and closed her eyes. " Just stay. We don't have to have sex or kiss, I just want you to stay for the night. Just lay with me." She turned around and put her back to his door. Reed moved so he had both hands on the door by her head as they stared into each other's eyes.

" You want me to stay?" She asked. Reed nodded. Layla took a hold of his face and brought it down as she stepped up. She closed her eyes and lightly brushed her lips against his. " Okay."

Reed's arms closed in around her. He tilted his head and let his tongue trail along her lips. Layla opened herself and he moved straight into her mouth with a groan. She tasted the same, felt the same, and reacted to him the same. She pressed her little body against his as he pressed her back against the door. He wanted her and knew she felt it but there was nothing he could do about it. She took a hold of his shirt as their kissing picked up it's pace.

" We have to stop." Reed whispered, resting his forehead against hers. They kept their eyes closed. " I want you. I'm sorry." She bit into her lower lip and sighed.

" Don't be." She whispered. Reed pulled away to look down at her. Her cheeks were tinted red and her lips were kissed until they were slightly swollen. She opened her eyes and gave him a small smile. " I'm going to go home and pack a bag. We could spend tomorrow together if you want."

" We're already here. I'll grab a few things and we'll go to your place." He said quickly.

NRNRNR

His arm was tight around her waist and they were snuggled deep into her blankets. She had one arm under her pillow and the other resting against his arm. They were pressed against each other but fully clothed. Reed couldn't complain. He was in her bed, she was sleeping beside them, he had no reason to complain.

" I love you." He whispered.