Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“No, baby. You didn’t. I did. I let us be that vulnerable. I did things that day that I didn’t explain. I allowed us to be that exposed and it won’t ever happen again. I’ll protect us. I’ll protect you. And Ri will pay in blood for what he’s done.”
Anger quakes in his voice and Grayson is not a man who allows such emotions to control him. Anger that I know is not all about Ri and what he perceives his role to be in our breakup. It’s about me leaving him, me walking away. No matter what he says otherwise, we’ve betrayed each other in ways that have led us to where we are now. We can’t just kiss and make up. We have to fight through the emotional storm to follow. We have to fight for each other.
“We’re going to be okay,” he promises, and I wonder if he’s trying to convince me or him, or both of us. It doesn’t matter though. I want him to be right. I want him to be right so badly that when his mouth comes down on mine, I am instantly clinging to him the way I would a ledge for dear life. I can’t let go or I’ll cease to exist. I won’t let go. Not this time. Not ever. No matter how fierce that storm becomes. No matter how brutal the fight I know is to come.
Chapter eighteen
Mia
“Stop kissing me like it’s goodbye, Mia,” Grayson orders, pressing me against the closet wall in between a row of his clothes and mine. His fingers tangle roughly in my hair. “There is no goodbye. Not this time. Not ever again. You’re mine and just to be clear, I’m yours. I was always yours.”
“We can’t pretend it didn’t happen. Things happened. Those things change us.”
He kisses me, a deep, drugging kiss. “Do we taste different to you?” His hand slides down my back and he cups my backside, molding my hips to his hips, his erection pressed to my belly. “Do we feel different? How do we feel, Mia?”
“Perfect,” I whisper. “But we aren’t perfect. We can’t pretend that we are.” Emotions overwhelm me, the idea that I left him after his father died cutting me into a million little pieces. “Grayson—”
“We’re back together. That’s what matters. We can talk, fight, fuck, and repeat to get past this, but we have that opportunity for one reason and one reason only. We’re here. We’re together.”
“We’re together,” I whisper, my hands sliding under his shirt, palms pressing against his taut flesh in an effort to confirm those words that don’t yet feel real.
“I don’t want to be without you again,” he says, his voice low, raspy, affected, as his mouth closes down on mine and the minute our tongues connect, we’re desperate all over again. Our hands are everywhere and clothes are shoved, pulled, and pushed until we’re standing there in the closet, naked, and it’s still not enough.
Grayson pulls my leg to his hip and his thick erection presses along the wet seam of my sex. I moan with need and satisfaction because he’s here, we’re here, doing this. He presses inside me and lifts me at the same time. It’s just like beside the car the day of the funeral. He’s holding me and his hands squeeze my ass, pulling me away from the wall and down on top of him even as he’s pushing into me. I hold onto his shoulders, my nails digging in, my lips finding his as his hand settles between my shoulder blades. And when we can’t kiss for the force of our passion, I bury my face in his neck, inhaling that delicious woodsy scent of him that I want to roll around in, get drunk on.
It’s as if we both feel like we have to hold onto each other, to get closer to survive and perhaps that’s where this leads; we do have to hold onto each other, we do have to get closer to survive all the damaged places we’ve been and now we cannot fully escape. I don’t want this to end, and yet when my back hits the wall again and he drives into me, I welcome the tumble into bliss that follows. I welcome the shudder of his body around mine. I revel in the deep, guttural groan that escapes his lips in pleasure with me and no one else. Our bodies tremble and ease, seconds ticking before Grayson eases back and says, “How about that pizza?”
I laugh, “Yes. Please. I’m officially starving.”
He kisses me, a quick brush of our mouths before he settles me on the ground, but when we would pull on our clothes, he cups my face and tilts my gaze to his. “We’re together, Mia. Everything will work out.”