Worth More Than Money

by Lexy Timms

He wasn’t going to get one-up on me this time.

  “What are you doing? Get out of the car, Michelle.”

  “I have to get back to work. I’ve got four more hours on my shift,” I said.

  I watched him roll his eyes at my statement and it made me irate.

  “We need to get things settled between us first. Then, you can get back to your job or whatever.”

  “Or whatever? Sorry, some of us aren’t billionaires who can neglect our lives for days on end and sleep in cozy little bed and breakfasts,” I said.

  His gaze hardened on me and it made my heart still in my chest.

  “We need to talk about all this.”

  “Then we can do it in your car. You’re not getting me into your bedroom,” I said.

  “Trust me, I’m not going to touch you.”

  “Wow. Don’t look so enthused. The least you could do is not look absolutely disgusted at the notion.”

  “Would you get out of the damn car so we can go inside?” he asked.

  I knew it was a bad idea. I knew if I unbuckled my seat belt I was giving him the upper hand. But we did need to talk, and with how big-mouthed people were in my hometown, it was better if we did it behind closed doors. It didn’t look like anyone was at the bed and breakfast anyway, which didn’t surprise me. It was the most expensive place to stay in all of Williston.

  Not even the owners looked as if they were there.

  I got out of the car and followed him into the house. We scaled the stairs until we got to the third floor. The private floor. Of course, he would be on the top, private floor. I walked in and he closed the door behind me, and I could’ve sworn I heard it lock. I walked over to the furthest corner and put my back against it, folding my arms over my chest. I needed to know what he had to say for the baby’s sake and I certainly was owed an apology. But I wasn’t expecting any miracles. I didn’t expect him to be on board with any of this and I sure as hell didn’t expect him to be happy about it.

  Then again, I hadn’t expected him to come after me, either.

  “Would you like to sit?” Gray asked.

  I looked over at the small sitting area at my side and nodded. I reached for the chair and pulled it out, then gingerly sat down. My apron was still wrapped around my waist and I smelled like booze and smoke. I watched Gray carefully as he poured me a glass of water, then set a glass of wine in front of himself. He sat in front of me, his legs spread out. Taking up as much room as he could.

  Posturing.

  I knew when a man was posturing.

  “So. Talk,” I said.

  But all he did was stare at me. His eyes danced around my body and it made me very uncomfortable. What the hell did he think was going to happen? Did he think I was going to apologize? I didn’t have anything to apologize for! He was the asshole here. I grabbed my glass of water and took a long pull, then fluttered my gaze out the window.

  He might’ve wanted to stare at me, but I didn’t want to have anything to do with his presence.

  Or so I told myself.

  I was painfully aware of how long he stared at me, and I wondered what was going through his mind. What his purpose behind this intimidation tactic was. I set the empty glass of water down, shocked at how much I’d had to drink. My tongue still stuck to the roof of my mouth and my anxiety mounted. I jiggled my leg and bided my time, waiting for him to speak.

  But I couldn’t take it any longer. I didn’t have the luxury of relaxing. I didn’t have a job that worked for me and raked in millions a month while I sat in a hotel room, eyeing someone like a piece of damn meat.

  “Either talk or take me back to work,” I said flatly.

  I panned my eyes back over to his and watched a grin crawl across his cheeks.

  “You don’t need to worry about getting back to your honky-tonk,” he said.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I asked.

  “I’m taking you back to Napa with me.”

  My eyebrows hiked up my forehead as I sat back into my seat.

  “Oh really. And when were you going to discuss this with me?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “What I want is for you to take me back to my job and quit trying to intimidate me. I didn’t ask you to come after me, so as far as I’m concerned you owe me an explanation.”

  “Your job doesn’t matter because I’m giving you what you want. I’m taking you back to Napa Valley with me and taking care of you until we can figure out whose child you’re carrying.”

  My jaw hit the floor as my eyes danced between his.

  “Excuse me?” I asked through my breathless giggle. “You’re just going to whisk me away to your vineyard?”

  “If you’re carrying my child, I want what’s best for it. The best doctors, the best environment, and the best food to put in your body. None of that fits in with a smoky dive bar on dollar beer night,” he said.

  “So because I can’t afford the best, you think you can swoop in and give me the best until I pump this child out. Then what?” I asked.

  “If the child’s mine,” he said.

  “Well you won’t be figuring that out until the child comes out. So that’s been settled already.”

  His face hardened and I planted my feet onto the floor. Just in case I had to make my way for the door.

  “What do you mean, it’s already been settled?” Gray asked.

  “I’ve already had a doctor’s appointment. I’m pregnant. But the paternity test during pregnancy is invasive, painful, and the risk of miscarriage is high. I’m not putting my child at risk because you refuse to believe you could knock someone up with your precious billion-dollar semen. So once the baby comes, it’s a simple prick and test to show you what I already know.”

  “Which is?”

  “You’re the father of my child, and you’re a dick,” I said.

  He chuckled and shook his head before peeling his gaze away from me for the first time. He sat himself up in his chair, trying to make himself look bigger than he already did. He rested his forearms on the table to get closer to me, but all I did was scoot my seat back a bit. I didn’t want to be any closer to him than I needed to be. Partially because I was scared I’d slap him, and partially because I was scared I’d kiss him.

  Gray coming for me was like a dream come true. But the angry look in his eye wasn’t.

  “And anyway, I’m a gold digger, remember? You said it yourself,” I said. “Why would you want to be anywhere near me, if you’re so sure you know what I am?”

  I watched Gray draw in a deep breath before he drained his glass and set it on the table.

  “Deep down, I know this child is mine,” he said.

  I didn’t even try to hide the shock on my face.

  “You do?” I asked.

  “Though I know the risk is there—and my sordid past with women won’t let me be rid of the possibility—I know there’s a greater chance that child is mine rather than Andy’s.”

  I grimaced at the man’s name, like a bad taste at the back of my mouth.

  “This situation is far from ideal, but my child deserves the best care. Which means the woman carrying it does as well.”

  “So I’m nothing but an afterthought?” I asked. “Great. Thanks.”

  I expected him to have some sort of response. Something to inform me that I was a little more to him than a baby-making machine. But when he didn’t respond, my heart broke again. I didn’t think it was possible after our last encounter, but the last piece of it I managed to keep intact shattered and spilled onto the floor.

  So, I got to my feet to leave.

  I made my way to the door and flipped the lock, then opened it up to walk out. But before I could get out, it slammed shut with a fury and Gray’s arm wrapped around to lock it again. I was trapped. Pinned between his body and the door as his hands planted firmly into the wood in front of me. His heat was intoxicating, and it brought so many memories to the forefront of
my mind. Anton’s dusty attic. His salacious showers. The sweat pouring off his body when he bent me over that leather sofa. I reached down for the doorknob and jiggled it, but all Gray did was press his chest to my back.

  I felt his heart beating rapidly against my skin.

  “I can’t get you out of my head, Michelle.”

  His whispered words in my ear sent shivers down my spine.

  “Despite your faults and despite everything I’ve ever told myself about women, you continue to crush my expectations. You continuously turn them into dust that soars around you like a muted halo of destruction.”

  His breath felt hot, and I instinctively pressed my ear to his lips.

  Which he kissed.

  “So instead of sending my lawyer, I figured I’d come to see you myself. Because I needed to see you again, Michelle. Despite everything, I couldn’t go another second without seeing you.”

  I was angry at him. Angier than I’d ever felt in my entire life. But his words had an unexpected effect on me I couldn’t deny. I felt the hardness of his cock pressed against my ass. I felt the heat of his body penetrating my clothes and wafting over my skin. I had to be strong. I couldn’t give in to him.

  I couldn’t give him the upper hand.

  “I can’t do this with you anymore, Gray,” I said.

  I turned around to face him, and his hands dropped to my wrists. He pinned them above my head and pressed his knee between my legs. My eyes widened and I looked up into his eyes. Watching the lust and the desire and the raw passion flood his gaze.

  Then, he paused.

  “I can’t help myself around you, and I don’t know why,” he said.

  The desperation in his eyes almost hurt. But it was enough to prove to me that the kind, considerate man he’d once showed me was still there. Something inside me snapped, and my want for him took over. I crashed my lips into his, sucking on his lower lip and physically tugging his face closer to mine.

  And I felt him succumb to me.

  His hands slid down my arms and I fisted his shirt. Ripping at the seams and popping stitches as we rid one another of our clothing. My nails raked along his skin. I slammed my fists into his chest. I pushed him down onto the bed and he wrapped his arms around me, rolling me onto my back before he captured my lips again. He pulled my hair until I cried out, both in pain and in pleasure. He bit into every part of me, marking me as his while his precum painted the inside of my naked thigh.

  I hated him and loved him at the same time. In the same moment. Frustrated and begging for more, all in the same second.

  “Damn it, Gray. Why are you such an asshole?” I asked.

  I rolled him back over and captured his cock with my pussy lips. I pressed him into me, watching as he bit down onto his lower lip. I curled my nails into his chest. I bounced on his hips as fear and fury coursed through my veins. His eyes rolled back as he fisted my hips, slamming up into me and bouncing my tits for his viewing pleasure. I leaned over and smothered him with them. Pressing my tits onto his face. He moved his head back and forth, nipping and sucking and sending me into a feeding frenzy as goosebumps rushed along my skin.

  And the second I felt as if I was going to pop, he stopped.

  “Oh no. Not this again,” I said. “You aren’t doing this to me again.”

  I tried to keep rolling my hips, but he was too strong. He lifted me off his hips and tossed me onto the bed as if I was a rag doll. He fisted my hair and drew up my hips, then slammed back into me without a second thought. I cried out for him. I cried out for mercy and I yelled out for more. I fisted the sheets of the bed and bucked back into him, slapping my ass against his pelvis as his balls smacked my clit. I dripped down his cock. I allowed him to fill me in all the ways I had missed.

  I hated him.

  And yet, I felt like I was home with him.

  My toes curled and my jaw unhinged. He pounded into me with a fury that unleashed for something akin to a rabid animal. He released my hair and I fell to the bed, feeling his teeth sink into my shoulder. His sweating chest pressed into my back and I felt his heart soaring. Humming so fast I couldn’t even count the beats against my skin any longer. He smoothed his hands over my arms. Laced our fingers together before raising back up. He pulled my arms back until I was upright against him, his cock sheathed within me and his arms wrapped around my waist.

  He slowed to a painful pace as my body begged for release. Then, he pressed small kisses against my shoulder. Directly in the spots he had bruised with his teeth.

  I reached my hand back and threaded it through his hair. Feeling his soft tendrils becoming wet with his sweat. I rolled into his cock. I stroked him with my fluttering pussy. I drew in his scent as my eyes rolled back, feeling his hands cup and massage my aching breasts.

  “I didn’t mean to do this to you,” I said breathlessly.

  I felt him stop his movements as his lips pulled away from my body. I thought that was it. I thought he’d get his, remove his cock from my body, and leave again. Leave me there to stew in his juices while he flew back to Napa Valley and forgot all about me again.

  But instead, he pulled out and turned me around in his arms before we both fell back to the bed. And when he slid back into me and rolled me onto my back, his eyes connected with mine.

  I could’ve sworn I saw pain in them. Just the smallest ounce of ache.

  Chapter 15

  Grayson

  I slid into her and gazed into her eyes, trying to tame the animal inside of me. But I’d lost control of everything. My senses. My faculties. My drive to resist her. What started out as a slow rocking against her beautiful form quickly devolved into pinning her wrists down. Into suckling on her lower lip until she begged for me to stop. Into devouring the insides of her cheek with my tongue while her legs wrapped around me. Her hips rolled into mine. Her pussy pumped and pulled me deeper than I had ever been before. I relished her warmth. Her softness. Her pliability. Michelle rolled against me, capturing my cock with her body again and again until there was nothing left of myself but my want to claim her.

  My want to have her.

  My want to bring her to the edge.

  I gathered her into my arms and slipped off the bed. I pinned her against the wall and fucked her senseless, driving into her until her juices sprayed against my skin. I groaned into her neck. Felt her legs growing weak with her desperate need to cum. My balls pulled into my body and my cock began to ache. Grow. Press against her fluttering walls until the only thing I could do was bury myself deeper.

  “Michelle,” I said into her skin. “I can’t—”

  “Please let me cum. Please let me cum. Please let me cum.”

  Her breathless words were fuel to my fire and I ground my pelvis into her. Raking my curls against her clit as her head smashed into the wall. I slid into her one last time, releasing against her walls and coating her with my cum. Marking her as mine and erasing any man she may or may not have had in my absence. Behind my back. At any point in time in her life.

  “Gray!”

  I kissed up her neck and captured her lips as she whimpered against me. Her entire body trembled as I pressed myself into her soft curves. I kissed her. Repeatedly. Over and over, until my name was nothing but a muffled moan accompanied by the strokes of her tongue. I slid my hands into her palms and threaded our fingers together, our juices trickling from her body and running down my leg.

  She felt like home.

  It felt like I had finally come home again.

  I wrapped my arms around her and backed her away from the wall. And just as quickly as the moment had taken over me, the fog from my mind cleared. I quickly slid out of her and set her onto the edge of the bed, then backed away from her.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “That was not—”

  Her big, beautiful eyes followed me as I backed all the way back to my seat.

  “That wasn’t the point of you coming over here,” I said.

  “Gray?” Michelle asked.

&nb
sp; “I should’ve kept my control,” I said with a whisper.

  “What’s—?”

  “You’re not my plaything!”

  I roared it into the room, but mostly for myself. I’d lost control of my anchor again. I’d allowed my conscious mind to take a backseat and let my body rule my decision-making. I raked my hands through my hair and slammed into the chair by the window, my body covered in her scent.

  In her juices.

  In her kisses.

  “You’re the mother of my child,” I said, as I closed my eyes. “And you deserve more from me.”

  “Gray, you didn’t—”

  “You deserve a better interaction from me,” I said.

  “Gray, would you just—”

  “I’m sorry for causing issues at your job. It’s your job. And you’re doing the best you can. That’s what any good mother would do.”

  “Would you shut the fuck up and let me talk?”

  My eyes whipped up at the harshness of her tone. She slid from the side of the bed and walked towards me, her breasts swaying and her hips shifting side to side. She tugged at the sheet from the bed and wrapped herself up in it, like a goddess come down from the clouds to grace me with her presence. She sat in the chair in front of me. In front of the glass of ice water I had poured for her earlier.

  “Do you want something else to drink?” I asked.

  “No, I want you to listen,” Michelle said.

  Reaching down for the corner of the sheet, I put it over my hips, trying to garner some semblance of decency. My emotions were everywhere. My mind raced quickly, interchanging thoughts on a dime, but I couldn’t latch onto any of them. My anger, my frustration, my weakness, or my loneliness. My care for Michelle, my fear for the baby, my want for her body, or my need for her voice.

  All of it, toggling between one another.

  Rendering me silent with pain.

  “I know the point of my coming here wasn’t to do any of that. I get that, Gray.”

  Her voice was so soft. It was too good for my ears.

  “But you can’t keep popping into my life, tossing it on its head, and then expecting me to put the pieces back together. You did that twice in Stillsville. You left me, Gray. Twice. The first time, willingly. And the second time, out of anger and spite.”