It didn’t take long for us to realize that as beautiful as Cunningham Falls was, I wasn’t going to be able to do everything I needed to do from here. I picked up a bunch of fairy lights for the decoration, and I advised Susan and Molly on really cute outfits we bought from a store called Dress It Up, but we were soon to be stumped on the rest of the planning.
Deciding to have a late lunch, we held off on calling Gray and went back to the coffee shop with its free wifi. We sat at a table with my phone in hand and together we ordered everything online. Moreover, we sent e-invites to all of Molly’s friends and a couple of Susan’s and some family members.
Finally we called Gray and he took us to a place called Ed’s Diner for lunch where I had the best burger I’d had in a long time. Molly threw question after question at Gray, gazing up at him like he was a hero come to life. I sensed an adorable crush.
I couldn’t blame her.
At lunch, as soon as Molly took a breath and I had an in, I asked Gray where I could get all my baking and cooking needs. That was the store we hit last and Gray said I could use the condo in his kitchen to cater the party.
It was a fun day but obviously a lot more energetic than Molly or Susan had experienced in a while. Between the ski lessons that morning and walking all over the small town that afternoon, they were tired. We bundled all of my supplies into the car and headed back up the mountain.
I told them I’d see them the next day and received a hug from Molly, followed by a tight squeeze of a hug from her mum. My eyes brightened with tears at the quiet desperation in her grip and I held her just as tight. When we finally let go of each other she smiled gratefully and then touched Gray’s arm in silent thanks. He gave her a solemn chin nod and we watched as mother and daughter climbed the stairs up to their condo.
Finally Gray turned to me. “Good day then?”
I nodded, knowing I couldn’t hide what I felt for him.
His eyes darkened with desire and a whole lot more. “Tired?”
I shook my head.
Gray’s lips curled at the corners. “You ever going to talk again?”
“I’m afraid of what I might say.”
He stepped into me, sliding his arms around my waist to pull me close. “Don’t be. Ever. Not with me.”
Melting against him, I slid my hands across his chest, desperate to feel every inch of him against me. “Will you do a late dinner with me tonight?”
“You don’t even have to ask.”
“And then after… do you want to spend the night with me?”
I felt his heart beat faster against the palm of my hand. “More than I want anything.”
* * * *
I didn’t remember much about dinner that evening. I did remember the look on Gray’s face when I met him outside the restaurant (something I insisted on because I knew if he collected me from my suite we wouldn’t make it to dinner). I wore an LBD—a little black dress. It was simple but form fitting, and although the sweetheart neckline only hinted at cleavage, and the hem sat a respectable few inches above the knee, it was still sexy. Especially paired with my Jimmy Choos. And by the smoldering heat in Gray’s eyes, he thought so too.
I remembered how gorgeous he looked in a cobalt blue shirt that matched his eyes.
I remembered that I hardly ate a thing because I was so nervous and excited about what was going to happen between us after dinner.
But I couldn’t remember our conversation. All I was cognizant of was the palpable heat between us. Both of our minds were on one thing and one thing only.
Suffice it to say we rushed dinner.
In fact, in retrospect it was almost comical how fast we hurried down the corridor to my suite, hand in hand. However, neither of us were laughing. At the time, there wasn’t anything funny about the potent sexual desire licking between us like flames scorching our skin.
My hands trembled as I fumbled in my clutch for my room key card and as soon as that door opened, Gray pushed me gently inside, let the door slam shut, and then shoved me against the wall, pinning me there with his body and his mouth as he crushed mine beneath his.
I wrapped myself around him, wanting us to melt together, and my fingers curled in the hair at the back of his neck as I licked and sucked and flicked my tongue against his, our kiss so deep I’d forgotten where we were. All that mattered was Gray.
My breasts were swollen, my skin burned, and because the entire dinner had felt like foreplay, I was more than a little ready for him from just his kiss and the anticipation. I tugged his shirt out of his suit trousers so I could slide my hand up under it to feel the smooth, hard—and sculpted!—hot skin against my palm. I groaned into his mouth and Gray’s grip on my waist turned almost bruising. He sucked my tongue hard and I shuddered in need, eliciting a growl from him that turned the heat between us into wildfire.
Our kiss lost all control and I felt his warm, callused hands on my outer thighs as they brushed my skin, pushing my dress up to my waist. Gray curled his hands around the fabric of my knickers and tugged, breaking the kiss to stare into my eyes as he pulled them down. I felt them fall around my ankles and as cold air hit between my legs, my belly squeezed, causing another rush of wet.
I shivered with want as I kicked my underwear away. Gray’s eyes were so dark they were almost black and his jaw was taut with tension. He brought his lips to mine but barely brushed them, staring deep into my eyes.
“Spread your legs, angel,” he murmured against my mouth.
Another belly squeeze.
Holy crap.
I did as asked, my breath stuttering as Gray leaned one hand against the wall at my head and slid the other between my legs. His fingers pushed in, eased by my wetness, and as his thumb came down on my clit, his eyes flared and a groan rumbled out between his lips from somewhere deep inside him.
“Fuck,” he grunted against my mouth. “Fuck, you’re ready. So ready.”
“That’s what you do to me,” I whispered on a gasp as his fingers moved inside me.
Gray dropped his hand from the wall as he kept pleasuring me with his other and he made short, jerky movements as he unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers. Then he took my hand and suddenly I had his hot, pulsing erection in it.
His eyes squeezed shut for a second as I fondled him and when they opened he stared deep into mine. “And that’s what you do to me.”
Suddenly we were kissing again—lips biting, nipping, licking, as we both reached to shove his trousers down. Then he broke the kiss to bend down to collect a condom from his back pocket. When he straightened to roll it down his straining arousal, I whimpered with need. He was unsurprisingly big… but he also had impressive girth too.
“Holy…” I breathed.
“All yours, angel.” Gray flashed me a cocky grin that made me giggle—laughter that ended with a gasp as he gripped my legs, spread them, and thrust up into me.
“Oh God!” I cried out in pleasured shock, his throbbing heat overwhelming me. I wrapped my arms around his back, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt and the muscle beneath. Gray had one hand braced on the wall at my head and the other curled around my thigh, holding it against his waist as he powered in and out of me.
He’d lost control. This was fucking. Raw and hard.
And I was right there with him, glorying in the mind-blowing pleasure of it. Holding tight to him, I panted with excitement as he pounded us into the wall, thrusting into me hard, gliding in and out of my snug channel, each drive spurring us toward climax.
It didn’t take long, my body had been so ready for him before he even entered me, and I blew apart.
“Ahhhh!” I cried out, shuddering and pulsing so hard it triggered Gray’s release. He threw his head back, his eyes on me, his muscles strained as he let out a guttural grunt, my sex pulsing around him as he jerked inside me.
Gray’s body melted against mine, his forehead dropping to my shoulder. “Fuck,” he huffed.
I caressed his back, feeling it
rise and fall as he tried to catch his breath. Attempting to catch my own, I could only nod.
He lifted his head to stare into my eyes. To my shock, I saw concern there. “That wasn’t how I wanted our first time to go. You okay?”
I smiled lazily. “Babe, you just gave me the best orgasm of my life. I’m more than okay.” I felt him pulse in little aftershocks inside me. “Gray,” I whimpered.
His eyes flashed. “More?”
“More,” I demanded, sliding my hand up his back to clasp his nape and draw his head to mine. My kiss was full of need.
I sighed into his mouth as he slid out of me.
Gray grunted and broke the kiss to huff, “Fuck, you’re so goddamn sexy, I never want to let you out of my bed.”
“We would have to eventually leave for sustenance.”
“Screw that. Death by sex doesn’t sound so bad,” he teased.
I laughed and agreed, “Not the way you do it.”
His eyes glinted with laughter as he said, “Did you notice we crossed off number seven on your list?”
Confused for a moment, I froze. “Number seven?”
“Your list today.”
And then it dawned on me.
7. AHHHH!
I threw my head back in laughter, not missing the way Gray watched me with tenderness. When I finally stopped giggling, he cupped my face and pressed a sweet kiss to my lips. “Wait there while I deal with this condom. Bathroom?”
I pointed and he pulled up his trousers before striding over and into it. Feeling the shiver of want cascade over me, I knew I was nowhere near done with him. First I pulled my dress up and off and threw it on a nearby chair. My bra and sandals followed next.
Gray came back out of the bathroom, fully clothed, and stuttered to a stop at the sight of me waiting on him in the nude.
I felt every inch of my skin blush as he visually devoured me. When his gaze finally locked with mine, tears burned in the back of my eyes at the awe I found there. “I’ve never seen anything as fucking beautiful as you in my whole life, angel. And I’ve seen a lot of beauty.”
My smile trembled with emotion and I took a step toward him. “Shirt off,” I whispered.
He immediately obeyed, throwing it on the chair to join my dress. Gray made to take a step toward me but I shook my head. He frowned but stayed still and I loved him for it.
I loved him.
I loved him.
How that could be I didn’t know, but it was true.
Grinning at my little (or big!) secret, I strolled toward him with an exaggerated swing in my hips that made my breasts bounce, and Gray’s eyes turned molten. As soon as I stopped before him, my body almost flush with his, he reached up to cup my breasts in his large hands, swiping my nipples with his thumbs. Sensation flooded through me, heading straight between my legs and I dropped my head back as he touched and caressed and squeezed my breasts. My own hands roamed his hard chest, my thumbs brushing his nipples, exploring him in a way I’d wanted to from that first night in the bar.
Then suddenly his mouth was on me, tonguing and sucking my nipples until I was whimpering and moaning with need.
It took me some time to find my way out of the fog and it was with much reluctance that I pressed my hands to his shoulders to push him back.
He scowled impatiently at me and I had to bite my lip to stop from smiling. “My turn to cross something off my list.”
Gray’s eyebrows furrowed and this time I grinned. “Number eight.” I slid my hand down his hard, beautiful stomach and rubbed the heel of my palm over his zipper where his erection aggressively strained. Up on tip-toes, my hard nipples brushing his chest, I leaned in to whisper in his ear, “I suck.”
Somehow, he got even harder under my hand and when I pulled back his whole face was taut with need. I watched him—unbelievably turned on by how much he wanted me—as I unzipped his trousers and released him.
When I lowered to my knees in front of him I swear to God his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head before my mouth even got near him.
* * * *
Gray’s lips moved down my stomach, his tongue licking my belly button before moving further down. My lower belly rippled in a mini-orgasm as his mouth got closer to where I wanted it the most.
After I took him to heaven in my mouth, Gray had undressed completely, and then we’d made love on the big four poster bed in my suite. We’d dozed for a while until I’d become fully alert at the feel of Gray’s mouth on my breast. And now he was making it clear he was about to offer his own oral gift in return for mine earlier.
My legs fell open, inviting him in, and I heard his grunt of satisfaction seconds before his tongue touched my clit.
Want slammed through me and my hips pushed into his mouth. He gripped them, pressing them back to the mattress, and he started to destroy me in the best way possible. He suckled my clit, pulling on it hard, and as I began to undulate against his mouth, Gray stopped.
I made an incoherent noise of frustration and felt a puff of breath against me that suggested he’d just laughed.
“Gray,” I begged.
He gave me his tongue back, this time licking inside me. I writhed because it wasn’t enough. I needed more.
Hearing my whimpers, Gray returned to my clit, let go of my left hip and gently pushed two fingers inside of me. I was so swollen and sensitive, it was the most intense kind of pleasure burn.
“Gray.” I bucked against him as he used both his mouth and fingers to push me to climax.
And then he stopped again. Just as I was about to explode.
“No!” I gasped in frustration.
And so it went, Gray bringing me close to coming and then stopping.
“Gray, please,” I whimpered, feeling tears of desire thicken my throat.
At the sound of my emotional plea, he suddenly braced over me, his hand on my inner thigh, pushing me open as his other pressed into the mattress at my shoulder. He brushed his lips over mine. “I’ll take care of you, angel. I’ll always take care of you.” He quickly reached for one of the two condoms he’d dropped on the bedside table earlier, thankfully took seconds to put it on, and then he eased inside of me. One glide, two, and that was all it took.
I shattered around him and Gray kept pumping slowly in and out. His expression darkened and tensed with need as he controlled his thrusts and just watching him move over me, beautiful and strong, feeling his thick hardness inside of me, got me hot all over again. I gasped in wonder as that familiar need coiled tightly low in my belly and Gray’s eyes flared with understanding.
“Come, Autumn,” he growled. “I’m not coming until you come again.”
I wrapped my legs around his waist and curled my fingernails into his taut, delicious arse. His thrusts came harder, faster. “Yes, yes!”
“Oh fuck, angel, come, you gotta come.”
His wish, my command.
I blew apart.
Gray’s deep shout of pleasure filled my suite as his hips jerked against mine. He collapsed over me and I wrapped myself around him, luxuriating in the feel of his shuddering body as he came down from his climax.
Holy shit.
Who knew?
Not wanting to crush me, Gray rolled to his side, and we clung to each other. He was still inside me. We kissed. Slowly. Languidly. Sweetly.
“I didn’t know,” I whispered. “I didn’t know it could be like this.”
His hold on me tightened. “Me neither.”
We lay there in silence, just gazing into each other’s eyes, in wonder. I hadn’t known it was possible to lie with a man like this, to feel so unbelievably connected in every way.
“Number nine,” Gray eventually whispered.
9. HOLD ME :(
“I need to turn that sad face upside down though,” I whispered back, smiling.
“And add the word ‘forever.’” He rested his forehead against mine. “I’m going to hold you forever, Autumn O’Dea.”
A tear slipped do
wn my cheek before I could stop it and Gray caught it on his thumb. He pulled back to stare at me in concern and I shook my head. “Happy tears,” I promised.
Tenderness swept over his expression and was quickly replaced by something I didn’t understand until he kissed me.
It was a possessive kiss, deep and hungry, and demanding.
That and his look told me what he didn’t say.
I belonged to him.
And he belonged to me.
As we lay in each other’s arms, wrapped tight and warm and safe, I tried my best to push away my fears… because we still hadn’t addressed one big blue problem. That bloody great big ocean between us.
Chapter Seven
Gray had ski lessons booked for that morning so he had to leave my bed to shower and change. I loved how reluctant he was to go, peppering every inch of me with kisses.
“If you don’t stop I’m going to make you late,” I warned, smiling dreamily at the ceiling, my fingers curled in his thick, soft hair as he trailed kisses across my stomach. My hands slipped down his head to his back as he came over me and kissed me.
“Unfortunately, I really have to go.” He gave me another quick kiss and then rolled out of bed.
I turned onto my side to enjoy the view as he crossed the room to where his clothes were piled on the chair. The man had the finest arse I’d ever seen in my life. I wanted to bite it.
He turned as he dressed and caught me leering. Laughing, he shook his head. “Stop it.”
I grinned. “I can’t help it. You’re delicious.”
Looking pleased that I thought so, he quickly shrugged on his shirt and began to button it. “I’m booked until one. You want to do lunch?”
“Definitely. I told Susan and Molly I’d go over to their place at nine o’ clock to go over things and see where the plans are at. The party is in three days. I’ll need your kitchen the day before that.”
“No problem, angel.” He came back over the bed and leaned down to give me one last lingering kiss. “Best night of my life.”
Joy suffused me and I felt weirdly, stupidly shy all of a sudden. “Me, too.”
Hold On Page 7
