by Linda Verji
“I can’t sleep,” she murmured, her breath blowing against his chin.
“Why not?” he asked.
She lifted her head off his shoulder to stare at him before she suddenly moved on top of him.
“Snow.” His breath came in a rush as he instinctively closed his hands around her waist. “What are you doing?”
“Just getting comfortable.”
Is that what they called what she was doing? The way she rubbed the side of her face against his chest. The way her hands stroked up his arms to rest on his shoulders. The way her nipples poked into his chest. The way her thighs closed on the sides of his and her pussy settled right over his cock.
“Snow, no!” he protested – or at least he thought he did. Apparently, it wasn’t loud enough because she moved her hips back and forth slowly and pushed her pussy against his cock in a way that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than grinding.
If he was following his primal instincts, he would’ve slid his hands to her ass and gripped them while grinding back into her. But he was trying to be pious here. Hardening his grip on her waist, he lifted her off him and set her back on the bed. “No.”
“Why?” Her confused gaze settled on him even as her leg remained slung over his.
Tempted as he was to satisfy the clear desire shining in her beautiful brown eyes, Greyson gently pushed her leg off him. “Not tonight.”
Frustration joined desire in her eyes and her lips jutted out in a pout. “Why not tonight?”
How was he supposed to tell her that he wanted her badly, really badly, but not like this? Not while Charlie was still in the peripherals. Greyson knew that those words wouldn’t go down well. What woman wanted to be told that she wasn’t completely over her ex? So instead of answering her question, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.
He only meant it as short consolation kiss for not giving her what she wanted, but her lips were so soft and there was a hint of mint and sweetness to them that had him aching for more. The kiss ended up lasting much longer than he expected and by the time he pulled back both he and Snow were panting roughly.
“Next time,” he rasped.
Snow didn’t say anything. She just stared at him for a long uncomfortable moment. He wasn’t sure whether she was thinking of how to convince him to give in to her seduction or going over all the ways she could kill him for leaving her high and dry. To his relief, she sighed before setting her head back on his shoulder.
She slapped his chest lightly. “You’re such a tease.”
He felt bad for disappointing her but there was nothing he could do about it right now, other than distracting her. He latched on to the nearest topic. “I’m sorry about how I snapped at you yesterday.”
Snow lifted her head to look up at him. “You call that snapping? Amateur!” She chuckled. “You should see me in a snit.”
“Oh, I’ve seen you in one.”
“You have?” She stared at him. “When?”
He started, “Remember that time those kids crushed into you while they were racing in the dining area-”
“- And their mother tried to blame it on me.” She finished for him as mirth lit up her eyes. “Oh! I was mad that day.”
Greyson grinned. “I thought you’d smack their mom where she stood.”
The talking was actually helping to cool down his ardor. And Snow seemed to have forgotten her disappointment as she said, “I felt like smacking her.” She plucked at his t-shirt, lifting the fabric slightly off his chest as she asked, “What would you have done if I had?”
“Fired you,” he replied.
“Really?” Snow made a horrified face. “But she was the one in the wrong.”
“If you’d smacked her, you’d be the one in the wrong.” He pinched her nose lightly. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you? Use your words, Snow. Not your fists.”
“She told me.” A mischievous twinkle glinted in Snow’s eyes as she added, “But she was smacking me at the time.”
Greyson’s laughter reverberated through the room. This is why he loved being around her so much. She had the ability to make him forget everything that was bothering him with just a few words. He tightened his hold around her shoulders and trailed his fingers over her arms as silence settled between them.
Moments later, she called out, “Greyson?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you okay?”
The question was so out of the blue that he lowered his eyes to meet hers. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s just that-” She paused and bit her lip as if she was reconsidering asking the question.
“It’s just what?” he nudged her shoulder, encouraging her to talk to him.
“I don’t mean to pry but-” She took a deep breath. “-you didn’t seem like yourself yesterday and I thought that something might be wrong so…”
Maybe he wanted to keep Snow from thinking that caring about him was prying. Maybe he just needed to get things off his chest. Either way, he found himself saying, “My mother is flying into town tomorrow morning.”
Snow studied him. “Is that a bad thing?”
“I’m not sure…” Pretty soon he found himself revealing details of his flawed relationship with his mother to Snow – details he’d never shared with anyone, not even Roman. He told of how his mother had dropped him off at his uncle’s house after his father had died saying that she didn’t have the financial means.
“… I can understand her not having the money-” Greyson stared up at the ceiling. “- but why was I the one who got dumped? Why was my sister chosen?”
Even to his own ears he sounded jealous. And he was. What was so terrible about him that he was the one who’d ended up being left behind? Snow didn’t call him out on his jealousy. Instead, she said, “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“I do.” Regret threaded through him as he added, “But we don’t talk much.”
Greyson went on to reveal how Lana would drop by his uncle’s place once every month to see him – as if she was visiting an inmate. When he was fifteen, Lana remarried and got more financially stable. He thought that she’d come for him then and that they’d finally live together as a family. But she didn’t even see fit to tell her new husband about Greyson’s existence.
“No.” Snow gasped. “Then who did she tell him you were?”
“We were never introduced.” Greyson sighed. “The first time I saw the man in person was three years ago – at his funeral.”
“No.” Snow’s shock was apparent. Obviously, she also thought that normal mothers didn’t erase their children from existence.
Greyson continued, “I think her pretending that I didn’t exist was the last straw. I told her to stop visiting and calling me – what was the point? I wasn’t anything to her so why bother with me?”
“Did she stop?” Snow asked.
That was the most hurtful part. “She did.”
The only communication she’d done after that was with his uncle and aunt. After her husband’s death, Lana tried to reconcile with him.
“…as if her husband not being around meant that everything between us was now okay.” Greyson laughed but the harsh sound was filled with unrestrained bitterness. “Like we could be a family after all those years. Ridiculous!”
Snow asked, “Is she still trying to reconcile with you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “She makes regular trips here these days, but it’s always to see our relatives. Not to see me.”
Even as he said those words, he realized how much of himself he’d bared to Snow. He should’ve been afraid, after all his open wounds were now on full display for her. If she wanted, she could poke at those wounds and make them bleed afresh. Yet, he’d never felt safer or more relieved. It was almost as if he’d gotten a heavy load off his shoulders. In that moment he realized that he trusted Snow.
She watched him for a long while before rising slightly to press a soothing kiss on his lips. “I’m sorry you ha
d to go through all that stuff.” She lay back down on his shoulder and rubbed her palm over his chest in a soothing motion. “And I’m glad that despite all that you turned into such a good man.”
He appreciated that she didn’t say anything more – didn’t throw in her two cents about how he could fix his relationship with his mother. All she did was hold him and lie beside him. And that was all he needed for now.
Her by his side and on his side.
He tightened his arm around her shoulder, closed his eyes and buried his nose in her hair.
CHAPTER 13
Snow was having the most wonderful, sensual dream. Her lover’s large, muscular body fit perfectly around hers and, like a blanket, it warmed her back. The strong arm he’d wrapped beneath her breasts was like a band holding her sealed tightly to him. Each even rhythmic breath he took warmed her nape reminding her that he was there, protecting her, keeping her safe.
Smiling, she shifted backwards and closer to him. Immediately, a rock-hard rod wrapped in fabric wedged itself between her naked buttocks. Even in her dream, she knew what that rod was. If this was real life, she’d be scooting away, trying to figure out who the erection was attached to before deciding what to do next. But this was a dream and in dreams you could fulfill your deepest, darkest, most desperate desires without worrying about the other player.
Sighing, she pushed her ass harder into that rod. Her pussy tingled and constricted at the immediate pleasure that raced through her. It begged her to give it more of that sweet pleasure. So she did. She moved her hips slowly forward and back, caressing the her lover’s cock with her ass cheeks. Relishing the feel of his length, she tilted her hips upwards slightly so she could feel him closer to her core. Immediate wetness dripped from her pussy and wetted her thighs.
Something about her movements must’ve awakened her lover because his breathing suddenly changed. The relaxed rhythm turned shallow and rapid, and his hold around her torso tightened. He was awake. Pure carnal need driving her, she rocked back against him, sensuously using her body to urge him to join in.
At first, he lay still behind her but eventually his hand moved, turned until he was cupping her breast. A gasp tore from Snow’s throat as she arched slightly forward – whether to get away from his touch or to get more of it she wasn’t quite sure. His touch followed her, surrounded her soft, swollen roundness and squeezed it. Despite the fabric barring his hand from meeting her naked skin, sharp pleasure lanced through her body to pool between her thighs.
He drew his finger in slow circles over the hard tip of her breast, again and again, until she had no choice but to match the rhythm of her ass against his cock to that of his finger on her nipple. But it was when he caught the sensitive point between his fingers that real desire soared through her. She quivered in his arms, shifted desperately against his body.
“Snow.” Her lover’s hushed groan sent shivers through her body as the pressure of his erection rose harder on her ass. Lowering his mouth to her neck, he slid his hand down her midriff. She felt every second of that sensuous movement down, wished he’d move his hands faster, wished…
“Aah!” She whimpered when he finally slid his hand over her thatch of feminine curls and cupped her there. She lifted her leg so that it was propped over his and she was more open for his touch. Her lover’s hands moved lower, parted her plump folds and found her slick with feminine moisture.
“Snow,” he husked into her ear as he repeatedly worried her swollen clitoris, circling it around and around. She had never felt like this… so consumed with this… this… this hot need.
The way he was teasing her.
The way he was toying with her sensitive nub.
The way he was softly tapping it.
It felt so good. It felt so sweet. It felt so… real.
“Aah!” Her soft whimpers and pants matched the swirl of his fingers as her pussy became wetter and wetter by the second.
“Snow.” He moaned her name again as he moved lower, then pushed his finger in, in, in, deep inside her.
The sudden stretching of her walls around his fingers wasn’t painful but it was a little too… too real to be a figment of her imagination.
Her eyes snapped open. The dull shards of daylight that immediately pricked at her pupils were all too real and the room she was in was unfamiliar but still real; as real as the male body behind her and the finger steadily pushing its way into her pussy.
Confusion, shock and panic shot through Snow. Instinctively, she jerked out of the man’s hold and rolled away. She meant to turn and face him but obviously she’d overestimated the size of the bed because she rolled too far and ended up tumbling to the floor.
“Ow.” She groaned as her knees met the carpeted floor with a thud. Real pain shot through her and she squeezed her eyes tightly to dispel it.
“Shit!” The cussing dragged her attention to the other side of the room. She wasn’t sure what was more surprising – seeing Greyson standing beside the bed watching her with a stricken expression, or realizing that he’d been the lover in her dreams.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a strangled voice as he swept one hand over his ruffled hair.
She was too busy scrambling to her feet and pulling her t-shirt down to cover her exposed body to answer. Last night when she was trying to seduce him, the t-shirt-and-no-underwear combo had seemed like a good idea. This morning, it was just an embarrassing reminder of his rejection. Mortified heat flushed through her body. If her skin was a lighter shade, she would’ve been tomato red.
“Snow.” Greyson called her attention back to him. “Are you okay?”
Without looking at him, she nodded then fled into the bathroom before things could get more embarrassing. She plopped down over the covered toilet seat and cupped her palms over her face.
“Oh, Snow.” She moaned. What was wrong with her? Why had she ran and why was she so embarrassed? She’d already shown him practically everything last night, and whatever he hadn’t seen he’d touched this morning. Snow, you idiot! She gave herself a few light slaps on the cheeks. If only she hadn’t rolled away and instead gone along with the ‘dream’, they could’ve finally finished what she’d started yesterday.
Speaking of yesterday, she’d thrown herself at the guy, practically offered herself on a platter and begged him to have his fill of her. Yet, he’d refused. Why? Wasn’t he attracted to her? No, she’d felt his erection – he was very attracted to her. Then what was wrong? Was it her? Or was it him? Maybe he’d taken a vow of celibacy. She would’ve loved to be able to face him and ask those questions – but right now she was still wondering if she would face him ever again.
Ugh! This was so embarrassing.
She took her time in the bathroom, even took a shower. When she finally reentered the bedroom, she found him gone and her freshly laundered clothes sitting on the bed. Ten minutes later, she was dressed, but she stayed in the room for several minutes more to straighten the room and gather the courage to face Greyson.
Her heart thumping like an unruly drum, she opened the door. Immediately the smell of bacon and eggs tickled her nose and her stomach growled in hunger. He’d made breakfast! And it smelt so good. If ever there was a reason for her to get past her embarrassment, then this was it. Steeling her shoulders, she crossed the hallway, opened the door and entered the living room.
He must’ve heard the door opening because moments after her entrance, he emerged from the kitchen. Freshly showered, he’d changed into a black shirt folded at the sleeves and un-tucked over gray denim pants.
His smile faltering, he said, “I made breakfast.”
She swallowed. “Oh!”
“Why don’t we eat then drop by the boutique for clothes for you?”
Striving to mimic his calm tone, she said, “I don’t think I need to get anything new.” Snow glanced down at her navy top and skinny jeans combo. “These are clean enough. And besides I’ll be in a chef-coat all day. What I have on underneath won’t matter.�
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“You’re sure?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “Okay then, breakfast then I drive you to work.”
“You’re driving me there?” She frowned. “Isn’t today your day off?”
“It is but I’m heading out to the other Tellers to check on the construction, so it’s not out of my way.” He added, “Let me finish up with breakfast then we can head out.”
“Do you need help in there?”
“No. Just take a seat, get comfortable. I’ll be done in a minute.”
He went back to the kitchen leaving her in the living room. The international news channel playing on TV was enough to keep her entertained until Greyson came back into the room carrying two plates of food. As soon as he set the plates filled with bacon, eggs and slices of bread on the coffee-table her stomach rumbled loudly. So loudly, there was no way he couldn’t have heard it. Snow’s hand flew to her tummy as her embarrassment soared. “Sorry.”
Greyson laughed. “You don’t need to apologize for being hungry.”
He left to go get the juice and moments later reappeared with two glasses and a pitcher filled with freshly squeezed juice. Soon they were both chomping on breakfast. The only sounds in the room were those of their cutlery meeting their plates and the humming of the TV. Snow wanted to say something to break the awkward silence, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Memories of last night hovered over their heads like a cloud taunting them with rain. If it wasn’t for the sudden ringing of his phone, the uncomfortable tension throbbing between them would’ve worsened.
“It’s Roman,” Greyson informed her before he answered the phone. “Hey.” He paused to listen to his cousin before saying, “Cool. Thanks for letting me know.” And with that he ended the call.
It would’ve been a lie to say that Snow wasn’t curious about the call – curiosity was after all human nature. But she wasn’t brazen enough to ask. Thankfully, Greyson chose to satisfy her curiosity. Tossing his phone back on the coffee-table he said, “Roman just picked my mom from the airport. Apparently, she arrived safe and sound.”