by A. C. Arthur
“That’s because his name is George,” Gray said. “George the snowman.”
“That sounds silly,” Jack proclaimed and then laughed. “That’s our snowman, George. Take a picture so we can send it to Aunt Wendy and Granny!”
Gray dug his phone out of his coat pocket and snapped a picture of George.
“All of you go stand beside him,” Gray instructed and they followed.
Morgan stood beside George while Jack and Lily kneeled down in front of him. When the kids scrambled out of the way, tossing more snow at each other, Morgan thought she saw another flash. She looked around and then back at Gray, who snapped another picture of her.
“What are you doing?”
“Making a memory,” he replied instantly.
* * *
Later that afternoon, once Morgan had gotten the kids and herself out of their wet clothing and fixed grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for everyone, she and Gray sat in the living room alone.
“They’ll sleep for a couple hours they’re so worn out,” she told him.
He’d taken off his wet clothes and slipped on a pair of sweatpants that should have definitely been banned for any man built like Gray to wear. His T-shirt was fitted, his feet covered in white socks as he sat on her couch, looking as if he belonged there. With a resigned sigh to not entertain any more guilty thoughts about James, she’d taken a seat on the other end of the couch. The only other furniture in her living room besides the couch was an old recliner, which had a tendency to recline on its own. She usually steered clear of it while the kids loved to play on it. Which was probably the reason it was broken.
“They had fun,” Gray said. He was holding a mug of hot chocolate she’d just made for the two of them. His big hands wrapped tightly around the Scooby-Doo mug. “I’d forgotten how much fun it could be to play in the snow.”
“I’ll bet you and your siblings had a great time in that big yard. The property surrounding that house is so spacious and totally conducive to a big family,” she said before hurrying to sip from her cup in fear she had said too much.
Gray sat with his elbows on his knees and stared down into his cup.
“We played all day in the summer. After breakfast we’d head right outside. Me, Garrek and Gage, we liked to build forts and keep the girls out.” He chuckled. “Gemma and Gia were always plotting ways to get inside. But Gen, that’s what we call Genevieve, she didn’t care. She was always the more serious one out of all of us. She learned how to read first and never let any of us forget that she could do it best.”
“Wendy did most everything better than me. She ran faster, did better splits and cartwheels. She even sounded better yelling cheers than I did,” Morgan said and then shrugged. “But I had kids first and she hates that.”
“My mother always said she was glad she decided to keep all her babies. She’d wanted a big family and she’d gotten it in a one-shot deal,” he said.
Morgan couldn’t help but feel admiration for Olivia Taylor. Having twins had been quite a task for her, so there was no way she could imagine giving birth to sextuplets.
“I imagine it was hard for her, the pregnancy and everything.”
“The press was the hardest part,” Gray said. “She never liked them being around all the time. I guess that’s why I don’t, either.”
Morgan sighed. “Granny said they’ve been driving all around town talking to people and speculating about what you’re going to do.”
He shook his head. “It shouldn’t matter to them. I mean, it’s just a story they get to tell. Just like they told the story about my family before, only they got that one all wrong.”
“No,” Morgan admitted. “It probably doesn’t really matter to them. But it does to me. Especially because after I lost James, this town and the people here were all I had left. They took me and my kids in and they showered us with their love and generosity. It’s my home and it just matters,” she told him with a quiet shrug.
Gray sat back on the couch then and looked over at her. She didn’t turn away, although his gaze was intense. It was also needy and Morgan couldn’t bear not to be there for him. She suspected that nobody had been there for Gray all these years. He was a fixer and so he fixed things, but he didn’t share and he didn’t grieve. She thought that was very sad.
“I know it matters to you,” he told her. “I’m trying to do the right thing here, Morgan. I just need to figure out what that is.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
She did and then she didn’t. What she thought was so simple, she imagined was much harder for someone with the feelings Gray was harboring.
“My father had plans for those buildings. I want to know exactly what those plans were and how he was going to implement them.”
“And then what? Will you carry out his plans even though you still hold so much resentment toward him?”
He frowned and then took a sip from his cup. “I’m going to do what I think is best for everyone involved. I’ll ask my siblings when I make a decision and then I’ll go from there.”
“The community center has been the hub for our theater program. Kids in the town over have taken school trips out here to see plays. It doesn’t bring in a lot of money, but I was thinking that we could invite other theater groups here, larger ones to put on plays maybe around the holidays. We have lots of great shops here so tourists could not only pay to see really great professional plays, but also shop around and purchase unique gifts,” she offered.
“And what about the hospital?” he asked.
Morgan leaned forward to set her mug on the coffee table. Then she turned, lifting one leg to rest on the couch as she faced Gray. “Well, for starters, it’s the only full-service medical facility we have. Doc Silbey still has his clinic down on River Street, but he’s getting older and mostly only tends to minor bumps and bruises. Besides, my sister works at the hospital and so do a lot of other people. Where will they find work? What will happen when Granny finally cracks someone over the head with that cane of hers because they ticked her off?”
He laughed at that. Morgan liked his laugh, the deep rumble that came bursting out of his chest. She was liking way too much about this man.
“I can actually see that happening,” he told her when he’d regained a bit of his composure.
“Me, too,” she said, and had to chuckle herself because he’d started laughing again.
Then she sobered a bit, propped her arm on the back of the couch and leaned her head on her hand. “What I’m saying is that we have a use for the buildings here. Sure, they may need to be renovated, but they also need to stay. If you sell them to someone, who knows what they’ll want to do with them. They might even think it’s best to just tear them down. So I hope you’ll consider all this when you make your final decision.”
“I will,” he said. “I’m going to consider something else, too.”
“What’s that?” she asked casually. Throughout the day she’d grown more and more comfortable with Gray being there. Though that wasn’t totally true, she admitted to herself. The comfort had been growing in the last week as he’d picked her up for work and brought her home after work, as if it was their daily routine. When he showed up the second morning, Morgan decided not to argue the transportation issue anymore. The kids loved riding in the fancy car with the heated seats and Morgan kind of liked not having to hear Wendy complain about getting up too early in the morning to come and get her while her car was still in the shop.
“How much I like kissing you,” he answered.
No matter how comfortable she thought she felt, his words still caught her off guard.
She cleared her throat. “I’m, ah, I’m not sure we should go down this road again.”
Gray moved closer to her. “I’m not sure we can avoid it.”
H
e was right and Morgan couldn’t figure out anything to say to rebut his statement. That was all Gray needed to react. If she gave him the smallest opening, he’d fill it, quickly and completely. His hand cupped her face in a motion so soft and endearing she sighed.
“I never imagined a man like you coming into my life,” she admitted. “And I’m sure I’m not the type of woman you usually spend your time with.”
His thumb rubbed along her cheek as a smile slowly spread across his face. “That just means that neither of us were thinking enough of ourselves.”
“Gray,” she sighed again, her eyes fluttering as she saw him moving closer.
“Yes?” he answered, his lips just a whisper away from hers.
“I like kissing you, too.”
Chapter 10
He wanted to see all of her this time and he didn’t want her on a damn couch. So Gray took Morgan by the hand and they both stood. She stepped close to him and wrapped her free arm around his waist.
“This won’t end well,” she said softly, resting her forehead against his chest.
He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t want to talk about the end,” he told her. “I don’t want to talk at all.”
In the next instant he was lifting her into his arms, cradling her small frame against his chest as he walked back toward her bedroom. She lay her head on his shoulder and Gray looked down at her as he stepped into her room. Using his foot, he closed the door behind them and moved closer to her bed. The room was small. She’d taken the smaller one and had given her children the larger room. Her queen-size bed barely fit, leaving room for only one nightstand on that side of the room. There was a window and right next to the door was her dresser.
Standing at the foot of her bed, Gray let her down slowly, loving the way her body felt moving along his. She kept her palms flat on his chest and looked up at him. Gray leaned down, taking her lips in a soft and slow kiss that only stoked the fire already brimming inside him.
What was it about this woman? She was absolutely right when she had said she was not the type of woman he dated. He could count on one hand how many female bedrooms he’d seen over the years, preferring a hotel room to the personal space of him or the woman he was with. Had he ever known any of their family members? No. He was certain of that fact.
Gray knew that Morgan liked lots of sugar and a little cream in her coffee and that she drank that coffee from a Tinker Bell mug every morning. He knew that her shoe size was an eight and a half—he’d learned that when he’d helped the kids pull her boots off earlier when they’d come inside. She laughed a lot when her children were around. Her eyes danced with the action and her cheeks lifted high on her face.
When her arms came up to wrap around his neck, Gray wrapped his tighter around her petite body. He now held her so close to him that he felt the moment she came up on tiptoe to meet his demands. Pulling away from the kiss, he set her slowly on the bed. She’d changed into thin pants that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Her full bottom had enticed him terribly as she’d moved throughout the kitchen fixing their lunch. Now, he pulled those pants down her legs slowly. They trembled slightly and he touched one thigh, while dropping a soft kiss on the other.
He removed her shirt, his fingers brushing against the pale green lace of her bra. When he’d tossed the shirt to the side, Gray couldn’t help himself—he leaned in, dragging his tongue over the hill of cleavage. She sucked in a breath and he moved to the other breast to lick the smooth skin there as well. When her hand went to the back of his head, his erection throbbed, pressing against the restraint of his boxers and his sweatpants.
Her hands were fast and before he could take another breath, Morgan was reaching down the fabric of his pants, grasping his length in her palm. The breath didn’t come and he almost choked, pleasure spiking through his blood. Gray hurriedly unsnapped her bra so he could get his mouth on her pert nipples. Morgan moved just as quickly, as she pushed at his pants and boxers, until she could wrap her bare hands around his length, stroking him from the base to the tip. Gray moaned, closing his eyes and suckling her breast with more urgency than ever. He thrust his hips into her strokes, loving the warmth and the desire that continued to spread like wildfire at her touch.
“Off!” she moaned and tried to push at his pants once more.
With Herculean strength he pulled away from her, her breast leaving his mouth with a popping sound. Gray pulled at his clothes, tossing them wherever they fell in her room. He’d clean up later, he told himself. All that mattered now was her.
She slid back farther on the bed until her head rested on the pillows. Then she let her legs open wide, her arms lifting to him. Had he ever seen anything as beautiful as Morgan lying naked on a bright rainbow-colored bedspread? Gray didn’t think so. He did think, however, that he was going to make a fool of himself and come right then at the sight of her tender folds open and damp with her arousal for him.
“You were right,” he said, his voice gruff as he climbed on the bed, moving slowly toward her. “You’re not like any other woman I’ve ever met.”
When he thought he saw her tense, Gray touched the inside of her thighs, pushing them farther apart until he leaned forward and dragged his tongue through her moist center. “You’re so much more,” he whispered before touching his tongue to her soft, wet flesh once more.
She gasped and then moaned as he continued, lifting her hips as if she wanted to feed him. That was just fine with Gray because he was hungry, so damn hungry for her. She was delicious, soft, hot, sweet. He couldn’t get enough as he delved deeper, his fingers clenching her thighs. He was intoxicated—that’s the only way Gray could think to describe the woozy feeling he had each time he inhaled the scent of desire and tasted her thick nectar. The more she moved against his mouth, the hungrier he became. He didn’t think he would ever get his fill of her.
“Gray!” she moaned and he knew she was trying her best to be quiet.
He wanted to help her with that, but he couldn’t stop. Each time he told himself that he’d had enough and tried to pull back, he opened his eyes and look down at her plump flesh so moist and delectable, and all for him. Yes, he told himself, she was for him. All of her.
When her body trembled beneath him and she clenched the back of his head until the waves of pleasure had finally abated, Gray moved over her. He slipped inside of her in one thrust, filling her completely and loving every inch of his length she’d sucked into her waiting abyss.
It was heaven. No, for Gray this was so much more. It was a place he’d never imagined, a feeling he’d never conceived. Buried to the hilt inside of Morgan, he closed his eyes to the onslaught of feelings. On the one hand he wanted to hold her tightly to him. On the other, he wanted her in every position he could visualize, taking every bit of this desire he had for her. He wanted her release, again and again. He wanted her moans against his mouth, her softness against his skin. If he could hear her voice...
“Gray,” she moaned when he thrust deep into her once more, as if on cue.
“Say it again,” he told her. “Please say it again.”
Because if she did he’d know without a doubt this was where he belonged. This place, right here, right now, was made just for him.
“Yes, Gray,” she whispered. “Yes!”
“Yes,” he said, echoing her. “Yes!”
This was where he was supposed to be. He moved in and out of her, dropping kisses over her forehead, down her nose and onto her waiting lips. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his waist and held on tight. He stopped thinking—hell, he may have even stopped breathing, she felt so good.
When she pushed against him and he rolled over onto his back, Gray thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful. He’d been wrong. She looked like a sex goddess rising over him with her hair slightly mussed, h
er high pert breasts staring down at him. When she opened her legs and straddled him, Gray moaned. He grabbed her hips, guiding her. She didn’t need the help, he thought as she grabbed his erection with ease, positioning him so that she could lower herself onto his shaft. It was hot and exciting, the connection striking him like ten thousand bolts of lightning.
She lowered herself slowly and Gray watched with intense pleasure as his length disappeared inside of her. When she was completely impaled he squeezed her hips, reached his hands up to cup her breasts and whispered her name this time.
“Morgan,” he said. “My sweet and hot Morgan.”
She rode him then, letting her head fall back as she arched over him, driving him crazy with desire. When they finally laced their fingers together, holding their arms above them, Gray pumped wild and fast inside her, loving the sight of her keeping up with his pace, her breasts moving and her mouth open as she moaned her pleasure. They came together this time, squeezing each other’s fingers and trying like hell not to yell out as the intense feelings of desire completely washed over them.
* * *
Dinner was homemade pizzas.
The reason why there was now red sauce splashed over the counters and on the table. The mozzarella-and-Romano-cheese mix was sprinkled across the floor in almost a direct path from where Lily and Jack had carried their handfuls from the counter to the table, where their individual pizzas were being prepared. It had only taken two trips for Morgan to realize it was smarter to move the bowl of cheese to the table with the rest of the ingredients. The table was small so she’d been trying to leave plenty of room for the two of them to work, but that had only created more of an issue as they bumped into each other as they moved back and forth.
As for Gray, well, his white T-shirt had red splashes all over it. Then while Jack was trying to carry the tray with his pizza to the oven, he’d even dropped a huge glob of pepperoni soaked in sauce and cheese on Gray’s foot. To say it had been an adventure in the kitchen was definitely an understatement.
