Grayson doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to. I can see the answer shining brightly in his stormy grey eyes. As he stares into mine, something stronger builds between us, something solid and unbreakable.
“I’ve been working on it for the past year,” he tells me. “The boys thought I was fucking crazy, but I think they understand it now.”
“But you didn’t even know me a year ago, not really.”
His eyes bore into mine, and without even realizing it, I move in closer. “Yeah, Winter. I did,” he murmurs, his voice barely even a whisper as I become locked in a trance, unable to look away.
“Move,” a voice cuts in, breaking our moment.
I suck in a breath and have to blink a few times to realize where the hell I am and that we’re not alone. The artist steps right in front of me, getting nice and close to Grayson and forcing me to pull my hand free. She starts cleaning up the excess ink, and before I know it, he’s standing in the corner of the room, looking over everything she’s just done.
All she gets out of him is a firm nod, and just like that, she starts applying some sort of cream and then bandages him up.
After rattling off a list of care instructions, she walks out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her so she can get to her next appointment, leaving us alone with far too many unsaid truths and emotions dangling in the air between us.
Grayson grabs his shirt off the seat he’d thrown it on, but before he pulls it over his head, he stops and looks back at me, his eyes soft and full of resignation. “You were right,” he tells me with a heavy sigh, leaning back against the table that he’d just spent the last two hours on. “Since the second you walked into our lives, I’ve been too fucking scared to make a move. You and me … I don’t know. You’re already with my friends. I don’t want to be third in line, and I sure as hell don’t want to take their girl. You’re off limits to me, Winter, no matter how much I wish things were different.”
I shake my head, slowly moving into him and sucking in a small gasp at the way his hand so effortlessly falls to my waist. “I don’t want to be off limits to you, Grayson,” I tell him. “I know you feel that there’s something here, just like I do, which is why I’ve already spoken to Cruz and King. They know how I feel about both you and Carver and if something were to happen, they’re down with that, but sharing isn’t about who comes first and second in line—it’s equal. I’m not going to lie, it’s a learning curve, and as long as you’re open to it, I don’t see why we can’t make it work, or at least give it a try.”
Grayson pulls me in just a little bit more and I move into the space between his legs. “You’ve talked to King and Cruz?”
“Mmhmm,” I nod, my tongue rolling over my lips. “Haven’t you? You were down for a foursome two weeks ago.”
“That was about sex, Winter,” he tells me. “This is more than that. I want to be able to call you mine.”
“That’s not how it works,” I murmur, knowing I should pull away, but the thought silently threatens to kill me. “I won’t be yours, I’ll be all of yours. You won’t be able to hate on me when I slip into Cruz’s bed instead of yours, and you can’t get jealous if you walk in to find me fucking King, you can join, but you can’t get jealous.”
He shakes his head ever so slightly. “I don’t know,” he says. “I’m just like Carver. I don’t like to share.”
I press my hands against his thighs and push up onto my tippy-toes, putting my lips right in line with his. I lower my voice to a breathy whisper. “How will you ever know if you don’t at least try?”
His hand at my waist slips around my back, pulling me even tighter against his body as my heart races with need. His eyes lock onto mine, so full of desire that if he doesn’t kiss me right fucking now, I might just die.
“Please,” I whisper so softly that I fear he might not hear me.
Something breaks in his resolve, and just like that, his lips finally come down on mine.
CHAPTER 29
Grayson pulls me in hard, his soft lips moving against mine with a hungry desperation that feels so fucking right. It’s like that final second before a firework explodes, right when you know that what comes next is going to be absolutely spectacular. It’s as though my lips were made just for his, my body, my heart and soul.