by Eva Luxe
In front of the hotel, I flagged down the taxi and instructed the driver to take me to the airport. I would buy the first available ticket back home. I would go back to my life in Twin Falls and once I was there, I would figure out what to do. I would build a new life around having a baby that I would raise alone.
And I would try to figure out a way to forget about a man that had taught me, for a very short time, what it felt like to be adored.
Chapter 23
Greyson
She was gone. By the time I reached the room, Cara was gone. I’d had to wait for a parking spot after she’d climbed out of the car, and in the time it had taken me to park the car and go up to the suite, Cara had packed her bags and left.
I tried to call her. I was panicking. I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea what she had meant when she’d said she had to leave me to live my life. All I knew was that I didn’t want to lose her.
Cara didn’t answer her phone. It rang until her voice mail picked up the call. I hung up and tried again, all the while muttering to myself.
When I got the mailbox again, I slammed my phone down on the coffee table. I was breathing hard, upset, and so confused. Everything had been fine. Everything had worked out perfectly between us until this morning. Until we went to the Cow.
Harper had taken Cara to the back with her and when she had come back, Cara had been upset. Something must have been said. What the hell could Harper have said to her?
I picked up my phone and dialed Harper’s number.
“Missing me already?” she asked, when she answered.
“What the hell did you say to her?” I half-shouted into the phone, not responding to her joke. I wasn’t in the mood for games.
“What? Cara?” Harper asked.
“I know you said something to her. You took her with you, she came out upset and now she’s gone.”
“Gone?” Harper asked, and she sounded alarmed.
“Yeah, she packed her bags and fucked off out of my life. Are you happy? Is that what you told her to do? Is this some kind of fucked up joke?” My voice was getting louder and louder, and the more I shouted, the more upset I became.
“Greyson, listen to me,” Harper said, calmly. She wasn’t shouting back. If she did we might have ended up fighting. “You have to go after her.”
“Why? She said it’s over. What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you,” Harper said.
“Why the hell not?” I demanded.
“Trust me, Greyson. It’s not my place to tell you. But she doesn’t want to leave. I know it for a fact. She’s scared and she needs you. Ignore whatever she said to you and go after her. Talk to her.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Just get her back, Greyson. If you love her, go after her.”
Fuck. I did love her. And I trusted Harper. I didn’t know what had been said between them, but Harper had driven Cara away. Something else was wrong and I needed to find Cara to figure out what the hell was going on.
I ran out of the room. She had to have gone to the airport. With her bag, there was nowhere else she could go.
The elevator moved painfully slowly, but I couldn’t take the stairs, that would have taken even longer. When the doors finally slid open in the lobby, I ran to my rental car and started it, turning onto the road with my tires squealing on the concrete. I had to get there before Cara climbed on a plane and headed back home.
Only when I had stopped at the first red light—pissed off that I had to wait and cussing at the light the whole time—did I realize it had started to rain. How apt, it fit the mood and made the driving harder. Other drivers suddenly acted like idiots, when moments before in dry weather they were fine. When it rained, everyone suddenly forgot how to drive.
To make matters worse, I caught every traffic light on red and I had to wait. I couldn’t jump the lights in the city. If a cop pulled me over now it would take even longer.
Finally, I pulled up at the airport, found a close parking spot by some miracle and ran inside. I headed toward departures, scanning the electronic sign in record time for a flight to Magic Valley. There was one, but it hadn’t started boarding yet.
I ran to the gate. They wouldn’t let me into the waiting lounge without a ticket.
“Cara!” I shouted.
I couldn’t see her and she didn’t come running when I called.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down,” the airport security guard said to me.
I shook my head. Dammit! I ran to the desk and bought a ticket to Twin Falls so they would let me through the gate. I would fly all the way there if it meant I could talk to her. As soon as I was through the gate, after the security checks and everything else the universe was trying to throw at me to slow me down, I finally saw her.
She sat on one of the seats, her arms folded across her stomach, staring into the distance. I ran to her and skidded to a stop in front of her.
“Greyson,” she said, shocked to see me. She looked around, unsure. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to stop you from walking away from me,” I said. “Or at least, talk to me first. If you still want to go after you tell me what’s going on, I’ll let you go.”
She looked like she was going to cry. I wanted to hug her, to tell her everything was going to be okay. But I could barely reach her. She was so closed off, she might as well have been in a different city already.
“I can’t,” she said, in a whisper.
I kneeled before her and took her hands in mine, kissing her knuckles.
“I don’t care what it is. I just need to know. I can’t lose you over nothing. Please.”
Tears spilled onto her cheeks. I had never seen her cry, but she was as beautiful as she was in every else she did.
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
My ears started ringing and I could have sworn the earth moved beneath my feet. Pregnant? A baby? My stomach sank.
“I found out after we were together the first time,” she said, crying harder. “I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head.
“Come back to the hotel with me. Let’s talk about this.”
Cara shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Don’t push me away.”
“I already bought a ticket,” Cara said, and held it up.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll refund you. I have enough money. Hell, I bought one too, just to get in here to talk to you.”
“Really?” Cara asked.
I nodded. “Just like they do it in the movies. Come back to the hotel with me. Let’s talk, let’s fix this. I’m here for you, Cara.”
She hesitated, but eventually she nodded. I took her hand.
“What about my luggage?” she asked. “I already checked it in.”
“We’ll sort it out,” I said. I just needed her to come back with me so that we could talk about what was going on. A baby. It bounced around in my head, scaring me, but she had been through so much worse. I wouldn’t freak out about it until we had spoken about it all, until I had her safe with me and I knew I wasn’t going to lose her like this.
We drove to the hotel in silence. The rain pelted the car and it made me think of our time together in that tent. The time that had apparently gotten her pregnant. Apparently, condoms can indeed fail. I’ve always heard stories of people getting pregnant even with a condom. I never thought I’d be part of that percentage. I never thought this would be my life.
When we reached the hotel, we rode the elevator to the room and I unlocked the door, leading Cara inside. She walked to the bedroom, climbed onto the bed and hugged a pillow. I sat down on the bed with her and we talked.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“You said you weren’t ready for kids to take away your freedom. I didn’t want to ruin your life.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know you were asking me in context. My answer would have been completely d
ifferent if I knew what you were really asking.”
“But that’s just it,” Cara said. “I didn’t want you to give me a different answer because you knew. I wanted you to be honest with me.”
“This isn’t about being honest. It’s about being realistic. I wouldn’t have felt the same way about it.”
“But you don’t want a baby now.”
I took a deep breath. “If I had to choose, no. I wouldn’t have a baby now. But you’re pregnant, and I’ll bet you would have chosen it now, either.”
She shook her head.
“I never said I don’t want children. I want them one day, and if that is going to have to move up because of what’s happened, so be it. I’m not going to walk away from this just because it wasn’t planned.”
“I don’t want you to give up your freedom,” Cara said.
“But I’m not giving it up. If it means I get to be with you, I’m free all the same. I don’t want to lose you, Cara. I want to be with you. It’s really fast and we haven’t known each other for long at all, I know. But I wanted to do this with you. Not just for the sake of the baby, but because I want to. Because I want you.”
It was the closest I could get to an ‘I love you’ without saying those words. I didn’t want to scare her off by saying those words, but I meant everything I said. I would give up everything if it meant I could be with her. Now more than ever.
Harper must have known Cara was pregnant. She missed nothing.
“What did Harper say to you?” I asked.
Cara relayed what Harper had said, and I listened carefully before I nodded.
“She’s right,” I said. “I won’t ditch you, even if we aren’t together. But I want us to be together. Since that first day we hiked together, I haven’t stopped thinking about you. You make me feel alive in ways I’ve never felt before, and that’s saying something considering everything I explore.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Cara asked.
I nodded. “I know that I don’t want to live a life without you in it. I knew that from the moment I walked into that dentist office. I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know how to be a dad. But I do know I want to do right by you and our baby.”
Cara took a deep breath. “I was so scared you would walk away from me. I was afraid you would hate me,” she said.
“So, you left first.”
Cara nodded.
“Don’t do that again,” I said, putting my hand on her cheek. She looked at me with large, dark eyes. I leaned my forehead against hers and we sat together like that for a moment before I kissed her.
The kiss was careful and unsure at first, as if she still wasn’t quite sure if I truly wanted her. But I did. I wanted her now more than ever because I had so nearly lost her. I pulled her closer to me and ran my hands down her neck and onto her back, caressing her, touching her, loving her.
I was suddenly hot for her. I wanted her. I wanted her heart and her body. I wanted to reclaim her. I knew it was primal, and I wasn’t sure it was what she wanted, but I couldn’t help how I felt.
When I broke off the kiss, Cara looked at me with eyes that were filled with everything I felt—raw hunger and the need to mend what had been broken. When she kissed me again, she poured everything she felt into that kiss, and I knew exactly what she wanted.
Chapter 24
Cara
He wanted me. He knew about the baby and he hadn’t pushed me away. Greyson had come to the airport after me to find me. He had paid for a ticket so he could come fetch me, and even though I had told him I was pregnant, he had still asked me to come back to the hotel with him so we could talk.
I had been terrified that the conversation would go badly, that he would be angry or want nothing to do with me. Instead, Greyson had been nothing short of amazing.
After we had talked about it all, he kissed me. He kissed me with so much emotion that I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t know how he could be this serious about me when everything that had happened from the start had been unplanned and had turned into something completely contrary to his newfound freedom.
I wanted him. I wanted him to fuck me. No, to make love to me. I wanted him to show me with his body, not just his words, that this was what he wanted. I wanted him to show me that he still wanted me, even though he knew about the baby. I was terrified that his view of me would have changed now that he knew.
Greyson pulled me down onto the bed with him and we lay, our bodies pressed against each other. We moved together, rubbing against each other and I felt the thick ridge of his cock in his pants, hard for me. I was getting hotter for him, wet between my legs so that I could feel it when I squeezed together my thighs.
He moved his hand onto my breast and I gasped. No matter how many times he touched me, I would never get used to the feel of his hands. The rain outside picked up, the sound of it reminding me of our first time in the tent. It was perfect. Somehow, we had come full circle. Even though we had started in a tent, and we were now in a luxurious penthouse. Even though we had been free then, and now we were bound to each other in a way.
“Come with me,” Greyson said, breaking the kiss. He stood and took my hand, leading me to the bathroom. It was a colossal room, with a jet bath in the corner and a shower stretching along the length of the other side. When Greyson turned on the water it was a waterfall shower, water streaming down as if it were raining. A glass wall partitioned off the shower.
Greyson turned to me and kissed me again. Slowly, sensually, he undressed me. His fingers were sure, his hands gentle as he stripped me of my clothes bit by bit in a way that made me feel like he was unwrapping a precious gift.
I did the same to him, pulling his clothes from his body and dropping them on the floor.
When we were both naked, I glanced down. Greyson’s dick was erect, straining toward me. But it wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about the sex, it was about us.
Greyson took my hand and led me into the shower with him. The water cascaded over my body like the rain had that day and steam slowly filled the bathroom. Everything seemed wrapped in a fog in no time. We stood with our naked bodies pressed together, the water running over the form of us, melded together as one. I looked up at Greyson and his eyes were a gray-blue and filled with the promise of us making it through this together.
He lifted his hand to my cheek and kissed me, holding me carefully. His dick was sandwiched between us, flat against my stomach, and my breasts were mashed against his chest.
Slowly, Greyson slid his hand down my body, tracing my curves with his fingers. His lips, his tongue, tasted like the hot water that sprayed on our faces. His skin was colder than the hot water, so I was aware of every inch of him.
Greyson, moving slowly, pressed me against the wall. I gasped when my back was against the cold tiles, but Greyson moved his body against mine and I forgot about the cold wall. He ground his cock against me and I moaned. I put my arms around his neck and Greyson ran his hands over my body and onto my breasts. He massaged them, worshipped them. He kissed and sucked on them, and he licked and sucked on my nipples.
I lifted my leg when Greyson’s hand slid onto my thigh, opening myself to him. Our sensual making out and slow undressing had done more for me than any foreplay I’d ever experienced, and I was ready for him in a way I had never been before.
Greyson pushed into me and we both cried out.
“You’re so wet,” Greyson murmured. I nodded. I was trembling, already struggling to keep my balance.
Greyson seemed to know it and he picked me up, his arms wrapped around my thighs. He held me up as if I weighed nothing and he started sliding in and out of me, bucking his hips. I cried out and moaned as he penetrated me. Greyson was in full control and for the first time since I found out I was pregnant, I could let go completely.
I orgasmed not long after and it was loud and drawn out, as hot and as wet as the water we stood under. It took a long time before my clenching muscles released
and I could concentrate on something other than the burning pleasure that coursed through my veins.
Greyson lifted me so that he slipped out of me and he lowered me down. My legs were weak and I leaned against him. He ran his hands down my back, hugging me to him. We were having sex, but it was so loving and caring it was nothing like anything I had known before. Not with Greyson or anyone else.
I turned around, facing the wall and I looked over my shoulder. I was offering myself to Greyson. His eyes traveled down my body and they were filled with hunger. He touched me like he was in awe, sliding his hands down my side and onto my ass. He squeezed and massaged my ass cheeks for a moment before he pulled them apart slightly, squeezing them harder. I spread my legs and arched my back, inviting him in.
Greyson didn’t wait for me to ask again. With his hands on my hips he pushed into me and I cried out.
This time, although it was still sensual, it was rougher, more intense. Greyson pounded into me and I pressed my chest against the tiles to keep myself up. His hands on my hips helped keep me steady.
Greyson orgasmed, crying out and pressing his front against my back, as we stood together under the water, again our two bodies melded together to become one.
Sometimes, when we did it, it was all about multiple orgasms, crazy positions, and exploring our sexuality as much as we could. This time, it wasn’t about anything like that. We were together because we had a terrible need to be as close as possible. We were sealing something that had happened between us. The orgasms were an after effect. This was about what Greyson felt for me, what I felt for him and what we were going to do together, now that there were no secrets between us.
When he pulled out of me, Greyson reached for a loofah sponge and the soap and he worked up a lather. I turned around and kissed him and while I was pressed against him, Greyson started running the sponge over my skin. We kissed and we washed each other, taking care of each other, sharing in something as intimate as showering, as intimate as sex, and it was calm, serene and beautiful.
