by V. Theia
He asked all the right questions about my life and career goals and wasn’t one of those guys with wandering eyes. He listened with his focus entirely on me.
Much to the nervous-excited twitch in my belly when as we talked he played his fingers over mine.
God, it was embarrassing how I hung off his every word when I got him talking about his shoe business.
I loved listening to his impassioned explanation of how he’d built his business from just an idea into the huge success it was today and the months he slogged at it with no profit at all.
It was true what they say. Ambition and drive were a turn on.
Gray had a hunger for success that came through clearly in every word.
After sharing a chocolate croissant, Joe drove us across to the meat packing district where Gray helped pack up my clothes.
“From the way you salivated over my stock, India, I thought you’d have more shoes than this.” He said putting my few sets I’d held onto into their original boxes before piling everything I was taking by the front door.
Sighing a sad noise, I turned puppy eyes on him. I could be cutely morose like a cartoon when I wanted to. I missed my poor shoes.
“I sold most of them this week. I need to send out a few more packages and then they’re all gone.”
His brows folded in. “Baby…”
I waved off his sympathy and continued folding t-shirts. “Let’s not talk about it, I’ll cry if we do.” Purging my things was good for the soul, I lied to myself. But my shoes… my babies.
Coming up behind me, Gray kissed the top of my head, his palm curled around my nape.
“We’ll get them back if you want,” he told me, lips pressed against my temple. And I believed he would.
“No. I didn’t need that many.” Yes, we did, my heart sulked.
New beginnings called for less things. I could minimalize if I put my mind to it.
Back at his place … our place, as he insisted, I unpacked right away to get it over with. Placing all my clothes on the opposite racks to Gray’s in his super-huge walk-in closet, like the one I’d watched on Sex and the City, you know the one, Mr. Big had it built for Carrie’s shoes. Sigh.
It felt strange calling it our place even as he handed me a set of keys for the main door, the door downstairs and his underground parking.
It was when he tried to hand me a platinum AMEX that my eyes practically flamed out of their sockets. I refused to take it.
Jesus, I really would be a fucking sugar baby, wouldn’t I?
“I’m getting a job, Gray. I have enough money until then.”
“Then use it until you do find something you want and not accept anything that makes you miserable.”
He was so astute it made my heart ache.
“How do you already have a credit card in my name?”
He grinned, eyes twinkled, rolling a shoulder in the white tee with the musical themed ink sleeve prominent against the material. I loved seeing him in distressed jeans. His relaxed rock star appearance turned me on. “Magic.”
The sly man had it on standby, didn’t he? He’d known I’d end up right here.
I didn’t know whether to pounce on him or slap him.
The phone ringing in the living room stopped me doing either.
“Hey, mom. Yeah, she’s here.”
His mom?
She knew about me?
My heart thumped a nervous disconnected pace.
Barely blinking watching him.
Why hadn’t I realized Gray would have parents?
I mean, that was ludicrous, he’d come from somewhere, and didn’t just emerge one day out of a handsome rock star shoemaker bush. But eavesdropping on Gray telling his mom we’d moved most of my things in … felt very fucking real.
Girlfriend real.
I couldn’t keep the squeaked words in once he was finished. “Your mother knows about me?”
“She does. And she’s invited us to dinner to meet you, otherwise she was ready to rampage over right now, and no one is ever prepared for that.” He dared grin at my aghast inhale and poked his tongue against his teeth watching me. “Don’t look so nervous, India.”
Meeting the family.
Unlimited money on a fucking AMEX card.
Keys to everything.
My clothes hung next to his.
I felt the walls closing in on me, anxiety started chirping in the back of my mind listing everything wrong with this situation and how I was going to end up worse when it didn’t work out according to Gray’s plans.
Meeting his family? Good god. What kind of maniac had I agreed to live with?
The fact he’d met my mom was different and not of my doing, he’d railroaded me on that too and now he wanted me to have a cozy dinner with his family. I knew some family details. Two sisters and a brother. All younger than him. His bossy personality was explained there. His parents were still happily married and living here in the city.
“I’m not nervous,” I said popping to my feet.
Needing space became a real issue in a matter of seconds as I looked for my exit. “But I don’t do families, Gray. And not ten seconds after I move in. Do they know why I’m here?”
His amusement fled, concern etched on Gray’s face as he watched me. Little did he know my anxiety was reaching def con oh, fuck no levels.
“Do they know I met and liked a girl and she’s moving in with me? Yeah,” he answered evenly, searching my face. “We don’t have to go, it’s just a relaxed family dinner they do every few weeks.”
“I need a minute.” I was across the floor and I heard him move his big body off the couch. “Please don’t follow me, Gray.”
I sounded like an ungrateful, fucking bitch as I power-walked out of the living room into the maze of a hallway, only finding the bathroom again in my rush for space.
Breathe.
Breathe.
This was nothing. I told myself. Overreacting. Calm the fuck down.
Meeting a boyfriend’s parents happened thousands of times a day and no one had a meltdown over it. Get it together.
Having a claw fix on the sink, my head bent as I inhaled I heard the gentle whoosh of the door slowly opening not a minute later. “India.”
If Gray took in my unresponsive expression it didn’t alter his steps towards me until I felt his hand on my spine stroking up to my nape.
“You’ve had a lot of change dumped on you all at once,” he said. Fingers tenderly going in and out of my hair, the motion of his blunt nails regulated my breathing. My lungs relaxed, his scent became my new focus, and the way he stood at my side but didn’t let his body touch mine was as calming as a hit of pot. “You don’t have to hide away if something bothers you, baby. Tell me and I’ll fix it.”
I secured a gaze on our mirrored reflection over the sinks.
Big and small.
Dark and light.
We looked good together. Good enough that my anxiety began to seep away into the cracks that made up all of me.
“I’ll go to dinner. If I embarrass you then that’s on you, mister.” I warned.
Gray smiled and dipped down to kiss me. A kiss I sighed into by lifting my face.
“You could eat like a pig at a trough and I wouldn’t feel anything but pride you were at my side.”
God. Check this guy out. My heart burst open wanting to invite him in.
I intended to enjoy the hell out of Gray.
He’s one of those rare, lovable genuine no bullshit guys.
He’s the unicorn boyfriend is what he is. He should be in a fucking museum.
And with his sex appeal calling out to mine like a needy wild animal I could allow myself to enjoy that too.
Even as he moved me into his arms, even as he cradled me into his chest and spoke soft words of encouragement, it was going to be impossible not to fall hard and fast and to give Gray every inch of me until he had it all.
I thought for so long all my give-a-fucks were gone.
<
br /> I thought I had nothing to give another person other than the pretense I presented.
And then this guy with his smile and his heart open wide sauntered in and suddenly my give-a-fucks rebounded back.
I gave a fuck that I would make him happy by going to a stupid family dinner.
I gave a fuck about making him smile because I enjoyed the cereal he bought specially for me.
I gave a fuck he enjoyed holding me and comforting me and a million other things he’d showed me over the weeks.
With a shudder, he held me tighter. His body gave me strength when I didn’t feel so strong. He gave me power when I felt powerless. His kindness soaked in and saturated me, and he made me realize I’d only been getting by.
But getting by wasn’t enough any longer.
I wanted to be whole and normal and real. I wanted to be brave and courageous and to be the me again who took reckless chances and did it with a laugh in my heart.
Going to a family dinner when I’d avoided attachment for years. What a fucking crisis of confidence that was if I couldn’t eat chicken with a bunch of strangers.
I latched onto Gray’s waist, locking my arms around him. This cuddling shit wasn’t so bad.
And mumbling into his chest I said. “Just don’t tell everyone I’m your sugar baby…”
Gray laughed and kissed my head. “Wouldn’t dream of it, baby-girl.”
“OMG You’re living with Gray!”
I’m not saying my best friend deafened me.
But I’m not saying she didn’t either.
“Dammit, Sena. It’s still dark o’clock, can we tone it down a bit? I haven’t had coffee yet.” And I’d been fucking Gray’s brains out until three hours ago, so my entire body was still half asleep.
I should never have answered my phone at the butt crack of dawn, but with her in the latter stage of pregnancy I didn’t want to be unavailable for when the happy event happened. I’d been at the hospital when her first baby arrived. I was kid-phobic, but I adored her chubby little Theo with his endless baby giggles.
So, I’d answered her 7 fucking am call, forgetting Gray was behind me making coffee when before I could grumble hello he’d asked, “What cereal do you want, baby-girl?”
Thus, proceeded fifty questions from Sena. Payback really since I’d FBI grilled her about Noah. A few minutes later she had the whole sorry tale of craptastic. I embellished the part about how/why I was living with Gray. I was embarrassed to admit he was footing all my bills for now with his magically maddening AMEX card that was burning a hole in my purse. The same purse he’d shoved it into and told me it was there when I wanted to use it.
She spent more minutes ripping me a new one over not going to stay with them. Like I’d invade their sex cave. Sena and Noah were in their honeymoon phase unable to keep their hands off each other. She was pregnant with her second baby in just over a year, of course they banged around the clock.
“You and Gray! I always knew it would happen. Have you slept with him? Of course, you have, tell me every little detail…. Not little I hope…” she screeched again and then answered her husband who asked her why she was making so much noise. “India is living and having oodles of sex with Gray. Yes, our Gray!” She informed Noah gleefully. I couldn’t help my grin for her southern happiness.
“It wasn’t so long ago,” I smiled as Gray placed a coffee in my hand and kissed my bare shoulder and took a seat at the island with his own coffee and a tablet in front of him. I eyed him like a piece of meat hung in a butcher’s shop window. Ridges and trenches rippled along his tanned torso narrowed into fit hips. Each brick and crevice a work of gorgeous art meant for women’s eyes to drool over. Sorry for the women of the world but it was my eyes enjoying Gray this morning and for all the foreseeable mornings, I realized with a jolt. “Miss Southern belle 2010 that you wouldn’t tell me any details of you and Noah, though I’ve held best friend status on Facebook for years. Why should I tell you anything about Gray and his beastly sexual prowess now?”
He paused his reading, the cup stopped part way to his mouth, both eyebrows shot up over the specs and into his messy bed-hair and his dirty-boy smirk flickered.
He’d earned the smirk after all the effort he put in last night.
After dinner—that he’d cooked from scratch with ingredients that didn’t come out of jars—we’d fooled around a little on the couch. God, that man was a good kisser. He could also get me off with just the sound of his raspy voice pressed to my ear and a coaxing fingertip drawing patterns on my clit. After that he’d carried me through to the bedroom where we’d used up enough sexual energy to power the entire city.
Discovering what each other liked was a heady experience.
He loved being in charge and I loved when he pinned me down.
And when he lifted me onto his lap, told me to ride him hard, he meant hard.
I couldn’t be sure without closer inspection, but I think he’d broken my vagina again. Beast suited Gray, I thought, with an affectionate stare as he drank his espresso. He had the strength, endurance and tenacity of a stallion going into stud.
“Omg, he’s a beast? Lion!” Sena yelled to her husband. “Take the little cub into the other room, this conversation is not for impressionable ears.”
Choosing the tall stool beside Gray, I sighed thoughtfully when he leaned across and cupped my cheek. Leaning into his hand I smiled. He looked gorgeously mussed this morning dressed only in form fitting track pants.
“I can’t talk now, my southern beauty queen, the man himself is sitting right here. We don’t want to make him blush.”
Sena huffed. “But you’ll call me later? I need to get out of the house, Nurse Noah is driving me crazy.”
God, they were cute when they started bickering in the background about how Sena needed to rest and Sena accused he didn’t mind her not resting last night when he woke her with his giant—I tuned out at that point.
It was cuter when Gray reached a hand into my hair and scratched my scalp.
With our next girl lunch-date arranged, I hung up and winced when I switched positions on the stool. Damn, my thigh muscles ached.
Gray kissed my shoulder. “Did I hurt you again, baby-girl?” Why did he always sound so pleased? Whiskers shadowed his jaw, I let my eyes wander. He was a sturdy built guy, ropey and fitted with nice handfuls of muscle over his body I still couldn’t get enough of looking at. I wondered if I ever would.
Gray Ellison was hot as fuck. And he was hot to fuck.
He’d turned me inside out not just physically but emotionally.
I allowed him to poke the secret places my heart had hidden for a long time.
“You know you did. And it’s time to make it better.” I was shameless.
Gray grinned slowly, raking his hot gaze over me. He ducked his head, ghosted his lips to mine giving me the barest hint of his taste.
He was already hard. Yay for me.
Not so yay for my sore pussy, but I couldn’t stop the flood of arousal, wanting him again.
Gray’s expression, as if he could sense my thoughts, smoldered with red-blooded hunger.
He came off his stool and hauled me off mine rougher than expected and I squeaked in surprise. Luckily, I wasn’t holding my coffee or we both would have been caffeine showered.
“Put your belly on the stool, baby. Place your hands on the counter, stretch up on your toes if you need to. And don’t move.”
Jesus. When he got that commanding quality to his throaty voice I wanted to lay at his feet and beg for attention. What was he turning me into? Better still, what part of me had Gray exposed that I complied with his command promptly and he shoved the shirt I wore until my ass was bare to him.
I moaned, shimmied in place. My toes curled.
“How can I make it hurt less?” Persuasive fingers slipped under the shirt, stroking the length of my spine, over the knobs and dips and back down again to squeeze my ass. A garbage trucks worth of doubts couldn’t have st
opped my shiver or wanting him like this. Gray’s power was magnetic.
“Just a few inches will do.” My skin screamed for attention. Inside needed him filling and soothing the ache with the splash of his hot pleasure. I sounded gross, but god, that first hit when he came was its own aphrodisiac, especially since watching Gray come was about the hottest thing I’d ever witnessed before. He wasn’t loud, but his languid grunt was music.
“Is that all you need, sweetheart? Just a few inches.” He notched his cock head, stroked it around my entrance causing my back to dent in the middle in hopes of sliding him home. I whined, popped my ass up.
He thrust hard enough to shunt me halfway across the kitchen if not for the granite island stopping me and my steady hands holding me up while he gave me the fuck of a lifetime with sharp, steady thrusts.
His grunt shuddered through me. “Or do you want all the inches?”
The feeling was mind-blowing, every nerve ending sang in tune as I cried out my answer.
Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.
How had I lived a whole adult life without this indescribable feeling he demanded in me?
How was it possible? We met over a coffee table, for god’s sake.
How were we this perfect in such a short time?
His movements cued by my sounds. His whispers fueled my arousal.
Gray had me hungry constantly. For his affection, for his sex. For the way he rolled my name as if it’s the only name he ever wanted on his tongue again.
I didn’t understand this brilliant connection between us. I just knew I needed it badly.
Gray grunted, fingers drilling into my hip bones to hold me for his thrusts. He twisted this way and hit a spot inside me that made me see stars. “You’re so tight. Who owns this too-tight pussy, baby-girl?”
“Ughgn. Me.”
He thrust slower. Torturing me from the inside as my walls tried to fold in and grab onto the thick length scraping me into a frenzy.
“Always stubborn, can’t you give me something, my wilful girl?” He doubled over my back, letting me have all his heat as his bare chest grazed the shirt rucked up somewhere around my torso. Each slam delivered was measured as he cooed sentiments in my ear.