My place.
What was my place with Gray?
He was pulling away, and I knew it was for the best. I didn’t know what his mood was, but whatever was running through his mind was more important than getting me back to the motel. I didn’t want to force him to let me in on his thoughts. I wanted him to do that organically. Naturally. I wanted him to trust me with them instead of me trying to dig them out from the depths of his mind. And if he didn’t want to offer up his thoughts, then there was nothing I could do about it.
Yet another sign that convinced me this was only temporary.
“Stop right here,” I said.
Gray was on autopilot and headed straight for Anton’s.
“Sorry. Where am I taking you?” he asked.
“Right here,” I said, as I opened the door.
“Seriously, Michelle. Get in. Where am I taking you?”
“Right here,” I said.
I pointed up the road to the dilapidated sign of the motel. He turned around to look at it as he sat there on the side of the road. I dipped into his car and grabbed my apron from work, then proceeded to talk down the sidewalk.
“Michelle, wait.”
My shoulders tensed and my heart thundered in my chest as I turned around.
“Yes?” I asked softly.
Then, I watched as he parked his car and got out.
Chapter 11
Grayson
Over the past month, there was only one thing I’d truly been obsessed with. And ever since I’d gotten back into town, I couldn’t get it off my mind. Hell, since the moment Michelle first crawled into bed with me that night, nearly naked, I hadn’t been able to rid my mind of those thoughts. The one thing that consumed me more than anything was feeling her naked body against mine.
And I’d had her. Outdoors. Riding my cock and pressing her tits against me after tasting the fountain between her thighs. Such a primitive, raw moment. A moment unlike anything I’d ever shared with any other woman. Even as I laid there in the grass with her, bathing our bodies in sunlight, my head spun from my orgasm. It was one of the most powerful sexual experiences I’d ever engaged in, and I was about to ruin things again.
Ruin shit with the woman who had turned my world upside down.
I was about to drop her off at a shitty motel and head back to a dead man’s house alone. And it was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn’t want to let her walk off and stay in that place by herself. I didn’t want her sleeping in whatever bedbug-infested mattress that place had in its dusty, molded rooms. I wanted more time with Michelle. More moments to cherish her and feel her and please her. More moments to tease her and pleasure her and bring her to heights I knew she had never experienced with any other man.
I wanted to wake up next to her, and I wasn’t above bribery to make it happen.
I hopped out of my car as horns honked at me, but I didn’t care. I knew I was blocking the lane parking on the curb of the road, but I didn’t give a shit. I needed Michelle to wait. I needed a chance to fix things. The last thing I wanted was for my own insecurities to get in the way of the beauty we experienced together in that meadow.
A beauty I knew we could recreate so long as I was in Stillsville.
She looked back at me with an expression so cute and so curious. There was a hope in her eyes that made my heart soar. It gave me the push I needed to walk towards her, and soon I was standing in front of her and gazing down. My wet shirt clung to me and my jeans were far too tight due to the waterlogged fabric. Then again, her clothes looked pretty rough on her as well.
I had a notion to rip them right off her and take her to Anton’s so she could wear mine.
“Yes, Gray?” Michelle asked.
“The room in Anton’s place is still open,” I said. “You’re more than welcome to it again.”
“Aren’t you selling that house?” she asked.
“I’ll need to stage it, so it won’t look the same. But it’s there for you to use. All of it, if you want it. I’ll be doing some things here and there. Cleaning. Dusting. Packing the rest of Anton’s things up and finding a buyer for his furniture.”