“Yeah?”
He met Heath’s gaze. “Let’s go get our girl.”
Chapter Seventeen
Toni almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the front door. She’d been jittery all morning, and anxious and a hair away from institutionally depressed. Her fingers froze on the keyboard as muffled footsteps approached behind her.There was more than one set coming. . . .
Spurred to her feet, she turned and was arrested by the sight of Heath, smiling a lazy, toe-curling, heartbreaking smile at her. Like a formidable statue, Grey stood beside him, his tie perfectly in place, his sharp black suit sharper than ever, not a hair out of place. And that face . . .
Vaguely, she remembered she was in her sweatpants, without a drop of makeup and with purple bags under her eyes. And Grey looked wonderful. Odious, stubborn, beloved Grey.
They were here. Both of them. Heath was smiling. Grey was not. His eyes were alight with emotion.
Her vibrant red sash hung from his right hand.
A wave of relief flooded her, but with it came a sharp, startling pain.
Hurt and anger churned in her belly. Her eyes filled up, and Grey became a blur. She rounded the desk and began to back away into the kitchen, trying to swallow back tears as she said in breathless shriek, “H-how could you!”
“Toni.”
He started toward her, and she impulsively grabbed the em
pty coffee cup from the corner of the desk and flung it. He ducked and it fell on the runner with a low thunk.
“You jerk.You pigheaded son of a bitch, you’ve put me through hell!”
She changed directions when he almost caught her, still backing away, then grabbed a couch pillow and sent it flying at him. His hand shot out to derail it, and he seized her arms before she could go further, his eyes crinkled, full of laughter. “Come here, darling.”
Her treacherous heart leapt at the fact that he called her darling again, and a sob wrenched her throat as she fought weakly against his grasp. “Don’t you dare laugh at me, don’t you dare!” she screeched. “Y-you say you love me and the s-second you don’t get your way, you’re out the f- fucking door!”
He pulled her to his body, engulfing her in his arms, his voice full of despair as he sifted his fingers through her hair. “Baby.” He captured her lips, not tenderly, but with shattering desperation, his moist, warm mouth everywhere at once—on her eyes, her lips, her cheeks, his hands cradling the back of her head.
“You call that l- love, t-turning your back on the two people who love you most, who love you just as you are, Grey Richards!”
He clutched her face with no finesse, his eyes feverish and reckless as he met her accusing ones. “I was in hell. Oh, baby, you have no idea. I was in hell!” And he kissed her more, his mouth ravenous, opening so wide around hers she felt swallowed whole. When he drew back, his gaze covered every inch of her face and made every bit of it burn from the intensity. “I love you. I have from the first moment and I’ve never stopped. I love you more and more and more.”
More tears sprang into her eyes, one leaking past the corner. He tracked it with his eyes, then caught it with his tongue and groaned. He kissed her hard, a dry, tight kiss on the lips. “We’re home now. We’re not going anywhere. Heath is not going anywhere. Neither am I.”
Nodding, she choked on a part sob, part laugh. “I’m not going anywhere, either.”
He let out a frazzled breath, as though he’d been holding it forever; then his fists were on her track jacket, pulling down the zipper and pushing it off her shoulders as his lips descended with purpose. “Fuck me. Hold me. Love me. Don’t let me go.”
“Oh, Grey, yes, yes.” She busily shrugged off her jacket while their mouths locked, melting together. Grey yanked roughly on his jacket, his tie, his shirt, as though the fabrics were everything they needed to shed so they could once again be one.
When they were bare-chested, she jumped on him and he caught her by the ass, and they were skin to skin, her nipples plastered to his chest, her legs coiling around him as their ravenous mouths slanted and their moans poured out of them.
Desire invaded her in a flood of molten lava as he carried her to the couch, laid her back, and slipped off her sweatpants and panties. “I want you writhing. I want you moaning. I want you screaming Grey.”
Oh, god, yes. Knees folded on the seat, she opened her thighs wide for him. Naked, he lowered himself above her, and she locked her ankles at the small of his back a second before he impaled. She moaned. So did he. He felt huge inside her, sliding his hands under her and lifting her higher to take him.The upward angle of her hips sent the blood rushing to her head then back to her pussy as he started pounding and hitting her walls with every deep, plunging inward stroke.
“Oh, baby . . . oh, god . . .”
He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them, his simmering gaze greedily feasted on her. She could feel the jiggle of her breasts, noted the complete exposure of her body to him.
He bent over her, pumping red- hot pleasure into her body, holding her hips in those large, capable hands. He kissed her lips and captured her debilitated sounds with his mouth, their tongues brushing, tangling.
“Say Grey.”