I felt his forehead lower and rest on the back of my head. “Baby, you’re mine. If you say you don’t feel this between us, then go. But you’re right there with me. I know it, so you can’t leave me because I won’t let you go.”
It wasn’t just his words that had me stilling beneath him, giving up. Giving over. It was his voice, his tone, the pleading, the need, the longing, the intensity. He was right. If his dad was trying to rip us apart, he was doing a fine job of it.
“You still want me even with my troubles?” I asked.
His body relaxed and settled against me in an entirely different way. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t so upset that I felt every sinewy inch of Gray’s body pressing into mine. Even his cock nudged against my hip, full and thick. My body softened and warmed to the feel of him, recognizing his scent. My body knew him to be the man who wrung pleasure from it. My body craved him, wanted him again.
He nuzzled his nose into my neck, slipped soft kisses along the tendon then up to my ear. “You don’t have any troubles, baby. They’re mine now. You don’t have to worry about my dad or the house. You’re not alone any more.”
He shifted slightly and kissed along my shoulder, letting me know he was right there, above me, around me, surrounding me. It was as if he were shielding me from the world with his body—and I knew he would. The thought that I didn’t have to solve every problem on my own felt…good. I’d thought I had that with Jack, but it had been fake. I’d taken care of everything while he worked, and worked through all his secretaries and paralegals.
My breathing deepened and my skin came alive beneath his lips.
“I don’t know how to give someone my troubles,” I admitted, my eyes slipping shut as he started kissing down my spine.
“Neither…do…I,” he replied, kiss after kiss. “There’s one thing we do really well together.”
When a hand gently nudged my legs apart, I murmured, “Oh?”
I was lost, completely and totally lost in Gray. I heard more than saw him reach down for his pants and pull out another condom, then nudge my thighs wide with his knees. “Most people keep those in their bedside drawer,” I commented.
“I’ve never been with anyone here before.” He worked the condom on then leaned over me, his skin hot against the length of my back. “I’ll pick up a box later.”
“Gray,” I groaned, my hands curling tightly around the sheets.
“I can’t be gentle this time, baby.” His knee nudged my right leg even wider and I felt him prod my opening, the head slipping in. “I usually go and work off this restless energy in the ring, but fucking you is much better of a workout.”
As he started to stretch me open, I moaned, snagged the sheets so my knuckles turned white. “Don’t hold back,” I pleaded, needing the connection with him probably as much as he.
With one arm, he scooped under my belly and pulled me up on to my knees. As his right hand cupped my breast, he slipped in all the way, settling, and I heard him groan. I knew only Gray could make me feel complete, feel possessed, and very, very soon, feel the most intense orgasm of my life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GRAY
I came out of the shower and went into my walk-in closet to get dressed and couldn’t help but listen to Emory on the phone.
“I’m fine. Everything is good here so you don’t have to worry about me.”
All was quiet as she listened and I pulled on some boxers.
“Really? You have to memorize the entire meal and yell it in the hallway? What on earth does that have to do with the Navy?”
Her son. Chris. I was glad she was talking to him. I’d known she was a mother and she’d mentioned him, even saw pictures of him around her house, read his name in that fucking text, but having him be on the phone with her made him even more real. The sound of her voice changed when she talked to him; it brightened and softened. She laughed at something he said and was obviously reassured he was fine. “How many pushups? Your grandfather was right about the mashed potatoes, then?”
Her laugh had me smiling and leaning against the wall of the closet, just listening. It made me, God, it made me happy to hear her laugh. I wasn’t eavesdropping, because she’d tell me about Chris in time, but hearing the way she talked to her only child had me learning about her—her inflection, the obvious love for her son, her warmth. “Yes, I’ll come down for parents’ weekend. Wouldn’t miss it.”
I stood, went to a drawer to pull out a T-shirt.
“All right. Nine o’clock. Sure. I’m…I’m going to bring someone with me. No, Simon said he’ll see you at the end of the year because he doesn’t talk to mere Plebes.”
I couldn’t help but grin. Shit, I was crazy, smiling because she was pulling me in, letting me get closer to her son, to Simon. Her family.
“I met someone and I want you to meet him. Yes, a man.” I froze, my shirt forgotten. She wanted to bring me to meet Chris? “No, he’s not a doctor. No, it’s not the radiologist that hit on me at your graduation.”
A radiologist hit on her?
“His name is Gray. Yes, like the color. Yes, he’s nice. Yes, he’s nice to me.”