Best of 2017

Furthermore, why do I love them back?

“Please…” I don’t even know what I’m begging for at this point. In the shadows of my mind, I know. My sanity refuses to admit it. “Please…”

“Please stay?” he questions, his cock sliding away from my clit and toward my opening. He doesn’t enter me, just rubs against me.

“I hate you.”

“I love you.”

His teasing and proclamations of love have me so confused. My heart is thundering right out of my chest. It wants to run away with him and never look back. My mind is at war, though. I can’t wrap my head around what he’s done. It’s twisted. Fucking insane.

“Let me make love to you,” he breathes against my lips. I’ve lost feeling in my hands where he grips me tight. The thought of him pushing inside me has a low moan rumbling in my throat. Everything throbs for him despite the anger exploding through me. “Say the words and you’re mine again. It’s been all about you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I can’t get you out of my head. The only thing that’ll stop me from loving you—from fucking consuming you—is a bullet to my skull. Is that what you want?”

I whimper and hiss out, “Yes.”

“Liar,” he growls, his cock barely pressing into me. “You want my cock to stretch you open. You hate that you can’t hate me. You hate that you want me to fuck you. You love that I’m obsessed with you. You want my children and my last name. Fucking admit it, Violet.”

“I can’t,” I choke out. “I can’t admit it.”

“You’re beautiful even when you’re in denial.”

I shiver and plead once more. “Please.”

“This?” he questions. The tip of his cock slides further into me.

I can’t breathe. He’s too much. He’s overwhelming. “Y-Yes.”

A scream rips from me because before I’ve barely spit out the word, he drives into me with enough force to rip me in two. Gray is an F-5 tornado destroying me with every touch. And yet I can’t step out of his path. I allow him to consume me.

“I love you,” he tells me over and over again as if it’s a prayer.

All I can do is ride out the storm. My orgasm teases and taunts me. Reminds me that if I give in, he’ll give me everything.

He’s not like Vaughn, he’s worse. My ruthless attempts to convince myself aren’t working because, deep down, I know. He’s not worse. He doesn’t hurt me.

Gray just clouds around me in his intoxicating haze until I’m drunk off his heady scent and whispered vows. I’m so lost in him that I don’t realize he’s released my hands until my fingers claw at his hair. This time, when his lips brush against mine, he follows it with a demanding kiss. So much emotion and power comes with the kiss that I fall victim to it. I want his overpowering attention and affection. I want his gentle love but rough lovemaking. I want him to stalk me to the ends of the earth.

This means I’m sick too.

“Come for me, baby,” he breathes against my mouth as his fingers slip between our slick-from-sweat bodies. The moment he touches my clit, I lose all sense of time and reason. My world tilts off its axis as pleasure crashes through me. I come so hard, my bones feel as though they’re rattling inside me. “Oh, fuck,” he groans as his release spills from him. “My God you’re perfect.”

I close my eyes as his seed pours into me and my body goes limp. I’m exhausted from the tears and the emotions that were exploding through me. The adrenaline that was spiking through me has slowly drained away from me like his cum that leaks from my body.

“Let me take care of you,” he coos as he slides out of me.

I no longer have any fight left in me. He’s a stalker. The man has crept into my home, jacked off all over me, probably touched me while I slept, gone through my things, and lied to me.

And yet I still somehow feel safe with him.

It makes absolutely no sense.

“I don’t know what to think,” I murmur as he carries me to bed.

He kisses my forehead. “I know. So don’t think. Just let me take care of you, like I always will.”

I curl up into a ball once he sets me on the bed. He leaves and several moments later he comes back. Dutifully, he shoves the gun back under the mattress and plugs my phone back in. Then, he uses a wet cloth to clean my stomach and between my legs. Once the light is turned off, he slides into the bed behind me. I shiver until he envelops me with his warmth. My skyrocketing heart slows to a crawl, as my eyelids grow heavy.

I’m tired, and truth be told, I like him wrapped around me.

I know what’s right and wrong, yet here I am, choosing wrong because it feels right.

“I love you, Violet,” he murmurs against my hair.

I shiver again. “I love you too.” Because it’s true. Fucked up, but so very true.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

GRAYSON

“THIS IS FUCKED UP,” Bull growls into the phone.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and nod. “I know, but it’s reality.”

“How is she this morning?”

I glance up at the bathroom. The door is closed as she dries her hair.

“Contemplative but responsive.”

He grunts. “What does that even mean?”

“It means she’s quieter than usual but she didn’t put up an argument when I went down on her this morning in the shower.”

A long, disappointed sigh escapes him. “Where do you guys go from here? I hate to sound like an asshole, but why is she still with you?”

Her phone buzzes on the table. Ignoring him for a moment, I let out a deep breath I’d been holding the moment I see it’s Gwen.

Gwen: Can we do lunch today?

My heart swells.

“Hello?” Bull questions.

“Sorry,” I grunt. “I’ll see you in the meeting this morning. We’ll talk after.” I abruptly hang up, my focus on something new.

Me: It’s Gray. Violet’s drying her hair. I’m sure she’d love to go to breakfast instead. I have a meeting with a London client at 9. Can you pick her up at the office?

Gwen: Of course.

The dryer stops, and a second later, the bathroom door opens. Violet is absolutely stunning today. Her silky brown hair has been blown straight and I love how strands of gold glimmer in the sunlight shining in from the window. A towel remains wrapped around her body that bears red marks—marks I made from sucking on her all night and into the morning.

“Who are you texting?” she questions.

“Gwen. She wants you to have breakfast with her.” I search her gaze. After all that went down last night, I feel that she’s fragile. I need to put her back together if she starts to break again.

She takes her phone and reads through the texts. “Okay.”

I’d only made it to putting my slacks back on but am still without a shirt. Her eyes roam my chest before she turns her back to me. I grab her hips and pull her into my lap. My arms snake around her middle.

“You feeling okay?” I question as I press kisses along the back of her shoulder.

“Surprisingly, yes,” she says with a sigh, relaxing against me. “I should be a lot of things but not content.” Her shoulders sag. “I shouldn’t be happy.”

I tug her towel loose and then urge her to straddle me so I can see her face. My fingers ghost up her ribs on both sides as I look at her, my stare fierce. “You should

be so fucking happy, baby,” I argue, pressing kisses to the hollow of her throat as I squeeze her bare ass.

Her palms find my cheeks and she frowns. “This isn’t normal, Gray. Nothing about this is normal. We’re sick.”

I slide my hand up to cup the back of her neck and draw her closer. We kiss softly. Our kisses are gentle and filled with promises. I pull slightly away and rest my forehead against hers. “We don’t have to follow the rules. We just have to be together.”

She seems to soften and relax. “You make it sound easy.”

I grin at her, which makes her eyes twinkle in return. “It’s that easy. You let me take care of you like I want. After everything you’ve been through, you deserve it. I sure as hell don’t deserve you but I’m going to have you anyway.”

Her thumb brushes along my jaw. “Are you always this intense?”

“Only when it comes to you,” I say with a smirk.

She smiles but then it falls away. “What you did was not okay.”

Shame fills my chest, and I nod. “I know. I’d do it a thousand times over, though. I don’t think you understand the level of my need for you.”

“I believe I get it now,” she says in a wry tone. “After Vaughn, this took me by surprise. Had I not gone through such a toxic relationship with him, I’d never be able to accept this.”

I study her features. Her lips are pressed together in a firm line and her brows are pinched together.

“I won’t hurt you like he did,” I promise. “You have to realize that.”

She smiles. “I do know that. But…” Her smile falls again. “What happens when the intensity fades? Six months down the road? Six years down the road? What happens then, Gray?”