by K. L. Jessop
“Grayson… It’s beautiful.”
“I wanted to get something that made you feel close to your dad at all times but captured your love for the ocean, too. The anchor and the turtle together screamed your name as soon as I saw it. It was too perfect to not purchase.”
“Thank you.” I look up at him, and a soft smile tugs his lips. Reaching out, he catches the tear that escapes.
“Shall I put it on for you?”
I nod, taking it out of the box and handing it to him before turning. Once it's placed on, the anchor sits perfectly in the dip of my neck while the long chain of the turtle falls between my breasts. As Grayson turns to face me, I run my fingers along it once more.
“Beautiful,” he whispers.
“I love it.”
“And I love you.”
“You’re too good to me, Grayson.”
“My sweet girl. This is only the beginning.” He pulls me toward him. “Now, let’s dance under the sea of pretty fish, kiss like we mean it, and make tonight one to remember.”
I smile and whisper. “Sounds perfect.”
“Fuck, Nora,” he breathes against my lips as I’m pushed back against his bedroom door. Our hands are everywhere. Our mouths exploring.
The sexual tension between us in the Aquarium had grown thicker the longer we’d stayed there. We’d danced, we’d talked, then we’d danced some more before kissing like it would be our last chance. His hands had roamed, my body craved him, and before long our endless kisses turned into something so sultry that we knew it was time to leave. The ride home had been just as intense.
The second we’d pulled up in his drive, he’d practically dragged me out of the truck, lifted me so my legs wrapped around his waist, and crushed his lips to mine. The front door was kicked closed and my tank top stripped from my body as he climbed the stairs.
“You drive me fucking insane with need.” He nips at the skin of my neck as my hands desperately trying to remove his T-shirt. I want his skin on mine.
As I lift the material over his head, my lips press to his shoulder before I drag wet kisses across his skin, rocking myself into him as his hard length presses against his zipper. He pulls on my hair for my head to tilt back, his eyes hot and needy before his mouth is on mine again and his tongue darts between my lips like a weapon. His kiss is deep. His kiss is all-consuming, and every nerve ending in my body awakens with his tantalizing touch. I swear if he kissed me this way alone, he’d still make me come. Each kiss has the power to elicit a different sensation in my heart and soul, and it’s a drug I’ll never tire of. I’m wet, hungry, and craving for more.
“God, Gray,” I whimper, the ache between my thighs driving me wild. He grinds against me, teasing my sweet spot with his jeans. His mouth covers my nipple, the tip of his tongue flicking and teasing causing fireworks to set off in my lower stomach. I whimper, this time deeper, as I push on his shoulders, needing to gain a little control between us but at the same time, loving the sensations throughout my body.
“If you keep doing that I’m going to come.”
“That’s the whole point in this game, little lady.”
“But I need you inside me. I want you to fuck me. I need you to fuck me.”
Ignoring my plea, he teases me more, rubbing his thumb over my nipple and grinding against me harder. His hard length and the rigid denim of his jeans brutally rub against the lace of my panties in just the right spot. My eyes slam shut, and he shifts himself in slow, powerful moves as he continues to tease my nipples. Heat rises in my body, my toes become numb as my body falls deeper and further under his spell of intoxication. We are not fully skin on skin, yet my body can feel him everywhere, burning into every pore as he brings me to the highest high.
“Grayson, please.”
“I like to see you this way. So beautiful. So, fucking high on lust and love. I wanted to watch you come undone when I’ve hardly touched you.”
“By a dry hump against the wall?”
“Yes.”
“You are crazy.”
“But is it working?” He pushes and the fabrics rub against my clit, creating friction that is driving me crazy.
“Fuck, yes.”
A torturous sensation swirls deep from my core and a hot rush covers my body. I cry out as my orgasm crashes through me, and the next thing I know, my back is hitting the mattress and my panties are being removed. He stands over me, and I catch my breath. Grayson’s tall, muscular frame is spectacular. His hooded, heated eyes focus on mine as he slowly removes his jeans. Even the way he does that causes my stomach to flip with need and longing. Taking his cock in his hand, he strokes himself as I admire his now fully naked physique.
There is a silence between us, and it’s one of the things I love about who we are. No words are needed. With or without the sexual desires, our minds are content, our hearts become one and our love for each other is something that no one can break. But right now, what passes between us is something far deeper than we’ve ever felt. We’ve said the ‘I love yous’, but as we hold each other’s gaze, it’s like we’ve finally sealed our commitment, adoration and true love for each other.
I reach out for him, and he comes to me, hovering over me, and dusting sweet kisses over my mouth. Wanting to take a little control, I push him onto his back and straddle him, the ache between my thighs increasing once again with the need for him. “I love the way you make me feel,” I whisper, drawing a path of kisses down the center of his torso as he leans up on his elbows.
“And how is that?” he says on a groan as I tease the pre-cum over the tip of his cock with my thumb.
“Amazing. Loved. Sexy. Incredibly fucking sexy.”
He grips my hips roughly as I begin to move, sliding my wetness up and down his hard length. The sensitivity makes my breath catch, but I continue my path, teasing and tormenting. His fingers dig into my ass as I rock, his other hand covering my breast before his mouth takes dominance on my neck. My head tips back, and heat races across my body. His hooded eyes, now a dark blue of desire, hold my gaze as I shift my hips up and down. His tongue darts out and does a sexy figure eight at the dip of my neck before he draws the tip up the center of my throat. He crashes his mouth to mine and takes control of the kiss. It’s deep and needy and only encourages me on as I begin to come undone.
“Jesus Christ. You fucking kill me, Shortcake.”
My body starts to feel that delicious trail as another orgasm builds. A hot, sinful burn cascades down my spine and pools in my lower stomach, my legs begin to tremble, and my breaths come quicker.
“Grayson…”
“Don’t stop, Nora. Don’t fucking stop.” His mouth bruises my neck, his teeth mark my skin before he takes away the sting with the wetness of his tongue.
The second my climax breaks, I’m flipped on to my back and he slams into me. My cry matches his moan, and he wastes no time in fucking me.
We’ve made love so many times, and those nights have been filled with delicate kisses, words of sweet seduction and a tenderness that makes me fall for him over and over again. I love those times, but there’s something about times like now that set a fire in me that I want to stay alight forever. The rawness, the hunger, the craving that has us both gripping onto each other like never before. This. So much this.
“Oh, God. Grayson.”
“So, fucking good,” he pants, shifting my leg up and over his shoulder.
The new position is deeper, and each hard thrust hits my sweet spot as I work my hips to match his moves. My heart is pounding, our skin on fire, and my body is at an overwhelming high with his touch.
“Nora…”
That’s all he needs to say for me to know, and like we can read each other, our bodies crash in unison. Harsh heated breaths hit my neck as he covers my body with his weight, and I grip onto him tightly as I come down from my high.
“Oh, wow,” I pant. “If that’s what a night in the Aquarium does to us then we should make it a regular thing.”
/>
He chuckles against the dip of my neck. “Maybe I need to get a membership.”
“I like the sound of that.”
He kisses me again, this time returning with his soft, tender touches as though he’s making love to my mouth. It makes my heart race yet causes it to skip all at once.
“You blow my mind, Shortcake. You take my breath away every damn day.”
We hold each other’s gaze, my hands gliding up and down his back as his weight bears down on me. It’s something I love so much. It’s protection I’ll never tire of, and one that I feel I’ll need forever. But as I stare up into his eyes, the uncertainty of what the future will be grips my stomach, and my anxiety at the idea of not having him in my life takes over. It’s not the time to allow it to emerge and it’s something I know deep down I don’t need to worry about because in my heart of hearts, I know where his lies. But at the same time, it’s also a fear I can’t run away from. I need that little bit of reassurance to make it right.
Reaching up, I trail my fingertips over his cheek and whisper. “Promise me I’ll never lose you, Grayson.”
With a soft smile, he calms the looming storm inside my heart. “Every second with you is another minute my heart loves you more. You are my reason and my future, little lady. You’ll never lose me.”
Chapter Thirty
Grayson
I wake with a jolt, unaware of what has disturbed me so suddenly. My heart pounds a few beats faster, but it’s soon slowing down when I latch eyes on my girl sleeping peacefully at the side of me. Curled up in the bedsheet, her silky, hot-toffee hair drapes across the pillow and her long lashes fan against her blush cheeks.
I can’t recall the number of times I’ve watched her sleep, but it’s the one thing that I love doing the most: just watching her, knowing she’s with me, wants me, loves me. Sometimes, I’m waiting to be woken from this dream because it all seems too good to be true.
Reaching out, I brush my knuckles across her cheeks and a sweet whimper leaves her. I’m about to do it again when something stops me. Movement comes from the stairs, and my head lifts off the pillow, waiting for my cats to bound into my room as the door is ajar, and leap up on the bed. However, the shadow from the gap in the doorway tells me it’s not my cats, and my heart is suddenly in my throat.
I don’t have a chance to do anything before the bedroom door swings back with force and a furious Asher charges toward me.
“Sonofabitch!”
“Asher. No.”
His fist makes contact with my jaw, and my head swings back.
Nora’s scream fills the room, but before I can protect myself, I get another blow to the face, my vision now dazed as alcohol infused words growl in my face.
“I trusted you. You fucking asshole.”
Another hit.
“How could you do this!” he seethes.
Knowing I need to gain some control, I force myself up off the bed and block his oncoming punch. I hit him hard in the stomach, and the sound he makes tells me I’ve winded him. Going at him harder, I bundle him against the wall and smack the fucker square in the jaw. But the hits keep on coming. His hard fist whacks my ribs, and I groan. It’s a weak spot of mine, and the fucker knows it. He hits me again in the same place, and I stumble back, him not giving two shits that I’m naked.
As he takes an unsteady step toward me, his arm swings out, but I catch him off guard and hit him again in the face. Blood sprays from his nose, and I go in for another punch, wanting to take the control now that he’s unsteady, but a plea hits my ears.
“Stop. Please!” she cries. “Both of you stop.”
Like cold water has just been poured over me, I’m brought back to the here and now. The fear in her voice is noticeable to the both of us, and I try and get my breath back, wincing at the pain that now wraps around my ribs.
“Welcome the fuck home,” I growl. “Now get the fuck up off my floor.” Grabbing my jeans and T-shirt, I shove them on and glance over at Nora, who is at the other side of the bed with the bedsheet wrapped around her. Her eyes are wide with unshed tears as they dart from her brother to me, still in shock to have been woken as she has.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whisper, kissing her forehead. “You okay?”
She nods, wiping the tears that fall before her eyes move past me and back to Asher. And just like that, her beautiful blues transform into hues of pure resentment at the sight of him but it’s not a patch on how I’m feeling.
Rage races through my body as I try to process what just happened.
I should be there for him; I should support him if he’s trapped in a world from which he can’t escape, but right now, I can’t because despite the troubles he may be going through, the sight of my best friend curled up in a drunken mess on my bedroom floor only heightens my disappointment in him.
How could he do that to them?
How could he do that to any of us?
But more importantly, how could he do that to my girl?
Countless times she’s cried herself to sleep with her head on my chest because all she’s wanted was her daddy back and her brother home. Yet while I’ve been trying to comfort her, the big, protective brother has been getting shit faced in bars before laying with countless women whose names he won't remember.
Fucking bastard.
I cut him a glare of disgust as he holds the bridge of his nose, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. My hand stings and my jaw and ribs ache like a bitch, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that I’m suffering.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Asher growls. “Nora, what the fuck?”
“Where the hell have you been?”
I keep my eyes on Asher, waiting for him to answer her question, but I can feel the wrath radiating from Nora’s body. Her tiny frame trembles under my touch, and I know she is doing everything within her power not to break in front of him.
“Nora, listen.”
“Where the hell have you been!” she screams.
“California.” He says it in a tone that comes across as if he’s not bothered. “I came right back when I found out my best fucking friend had betrayed me,” he says, looking directly at me with bitterness.
“Found out from who? We’ve been trying to contact you for weeks and we’ve got nothing. Who told you? Was it Mark?” I ask, knowing that Dixon wouldn’t break my trust when he flew out to find him but unsure how he found out at all.
“Why the fuck would Twilight tell me.” His eyes widen and reality hits. “Wait. He fucking knows about you two, too?”
“Answer the question, Asher,” Nora grits.
“No. Mark never told me. I’ve not even seen him in Cali.”
I frown, wanting to know who he’s been in contact with when he’s abandoned everyone else. “So, who?”
"Lacy. She’s kept me up to date with everything back here."
“Oh my God,” Nora gasps.
“She had her suspicions long before I came back, but it was that cozy little time in your office that sealed the deal.” A sick laugh radiates from his throat. “After that, I got some nice snap shots of the two of you sent to my phone.”
Bile rises in my throat. The sneaky little bitch.
I take a step forward wanting to smack the fucker again, but Nora’s grip on my arm stops me from going further.
She is silent at my side, but I can’t remain muted like she is. She may be stunned at his words, but I’m fucking savage. "So, you miss your own father's funeral, yet you hear I'm sleeping with your sister and you're on the first flight home? Well, I guess you’ve got your priorities right."
"Fuck you,” he spits. “You can’t say shit like that when you’re in the wrong here.”
“I’m in the wrong? Have you fucking heard yourself?”
“You don't know anything."
"I know you're a fucking mess. Look at you!" I point. “You can’t even stand up straight. You run at a time when your family needed you the most.
Meanwhile, I had to step in and support them. So no, Asher. I’m not in the wrong, I never have been.”
He holds my stare, and I can see that my words have cut deep. However, he fights back like I knew he would and instead of explaining his actions regarding his father, he turns the questions back to my relationship with Nora.
"When did it start?" he growls.
“Have you really come back here just because of me and Nora? Don’t you think you have bigger things to sort out Asher?”
"When?" he roars, now standing. It’s only now that I get a clear look at him. His eyes are bloodshot, his face pale as he hides behind his new, untamed beard. His once solid frame seems to have lost the definition it once had, yet the power behind his punch is still very much there. His clothes look like he’s been wearing them for days, and his hands and knuckles are covered in cuts and scabs—not just from our fight. They are old wounds. He’s a mess and the state of him hits me hard in the chest because I feel like I’ve failed him when he’s needed me the most.
“When did it start?”
I swallow. Whatever I say won’t be the answer he’s wanting, so I go with the truth.
Nora steps in, though, and finally speaks before sitting herself on the edge of the bed. "The night of Dad’s first seizure."
His eyes widen, and he takes a staggering step toward her, glaring at me. The look on his face is as if she’s just split his heart in two.
"So, what? You wanted to fuck the anguish out of each other?"
"Of course not. It wasn't like that. Things were happening between us long before you left, Asher,” Nora replies in frustration.
He takes a few more steps toward me, and I square my shoulders, waiting for the hits to come. Only this time they don’t. He gets up close to my face, his eyes dilated, his breath reeking with a poison I recognize all too well from the days with my mother. Her drunken, intoxicated body flashes before me, but as the dark, hollow eyes of Asher hold my gaze, I see it: the plea; the cry for help... Or at least I think I do. Whatever it was that just flickered behind his eyes means I suddenly don’t want to fight him anymore. A part of me wants to wrap my arms around him and tell him that everything will be all right, that I’m here for him. I may love Nora, but I can be here for them both.
