Grayson comes in and shuts the door behind him. “We need to talk.”
I snort. “Like you talked to me last night?”
“I deserved that,” he says from way too close to me.
He reaches around me for the broom, but I hold on tight. We end up playing tug of war with it. Ugh. Whatever. I let go and Grayson grunts as the broom smacks him in the chest. I don’t smile. Too much.
While he leans the broom against the wall, I cross my arms over my chest and prepare to do battle. “What do you want?”
“I came back to tell you I forgive you, but then I saw you sitting all cozy with Sam and I got mad.”
I try to not let the shock show on my face. He came to forgive me? And he was jealous? It’s upside-down world today, but no one warned me. I take a deep breath and dive in.
“We’ll get back to the whole mad thing in a minute. Forgive me?”
His throat moves as he swallows. “Yes, I forgive you for nosing into my life and going to talk to Liz.”
My stomach warms and the tension I’ve been carrying around in my shoulders for weeks releases. “I was only trying to help,” I explain.
“I know, but it took me some time to see it. Liz and my mom were pretty adamant you were fantastic for trying to help me.”
I wink. “I am pretty fantastic.” I allow him to chuckle for a moment before I tackle the second part of what he said. “Why were you mad because I was talking to Sam?”
He growls. “You weren’t talking to Sam. You were flirting with him.”
“Excuse you? I was not flirting with him. He’s a married man. I would never flirt with a married man.”
“You sure looked animated.”
“He asked about my beer, and I probably bored him to tears with my tales of brewing.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You talked openly about your brewing?” I nod. “Does this mean you’re ready to take the next step?”
I wag a finger at him. “Don’t distract me. Why were you mad when you thought I was flirting?”
Grayson steps closer until I can smell him. Mmm… mint and vanilla never smelled this good before. My entire body wakes up and Little Susan gets out the pompoms and starts cheering. Here we go!
He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. Goosebumps erupt where he touches me. “I think you know why,” he whispers.
His eyes drop to my lips and my tongue peeks out to wet them. He groans. “Say you want me. Say I’m not alone in this thing.”
Maybe I’ll regret it in the morning, but I can’t stop myself from nodding. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more than to feel his lips at this moment.
His mouth crashes down on mine. I gasp and his tongue immediately seeks entrance. I grab hold of his shoulders to stop myself from melting in a puddle of goo on the ground. He tastes like the coffee he drank for breakfast and something else. Something unique. Something all Grayson.
Grayson shoves a hand into my hair and angles my head until he can dive deep into my mouth. I moan as his tongue explores every inch of my mouth. I can feel myself growing wet and he hasn’t touched me yet.
My hands start exploring. If this is to be our only time together, I want to taste and touch every inch of skin and muscle I can. He’s wearing a skintight long-sleeve thermal allowing me to feel his muscles beneath my fingers as I run my hands over his shoulders and arms, but I want to feel his skin.
I tug on his shirt until Grayson ends our kiss and leans back. He reaches behind himself and grabs a fistful of shirt, which he whips off. My mouth drops open at the sight in front of me. His skin is brown and smooth with ripples of muscle. I flatten my hands on his chest, but he circles my wrists and removes my hands. I mewl in protest.
“I want to feel your skin, too.”
Oh, goodie! I raise my arms to allow him to remove my sweatshirt and t-shirt leaving me in my off-white utility bra. Damn. Had I known this was going to happen today, I would have worn a sexy bra.
Grayson’s eyes zero in on my chest. “Even better than I expected.”
I reach around to unhook my bra, but he stops me. “Allow me.”
My bra falls to the ground on top of my sweatshirt and Grayson’s hands immediately cup my breasts. “I need to taste.” I squeal when he picks me up and places me on the table. I forget all about the cold table and why I shouldn’t be sitting on the sanitized surface when his mouth finds my breast.
His tongue swirls around one nipple while his hand kneads my other breast. My back arches and my head falls back on a moan. I place my elbows on the table to support me before I collapse.
Grayson lifts his head and looks me in the eye. “These are fantastic and wonderfully sensitive.”
Words desert me. I couldn’t talk if I wanted to. His mouth returns to my breast while his hand sneaks down my chest past my stomach. He snaps open my jeans before shoving his hand down my pants. He doesn’t mess around and immediately zeroes in on my pulsing clit.
He moans. “You’re already wet for me.”
Of course, I am. He’s touching me in all the right places. All the places I’ve dreamed of him touching me since the first time I looked into his whiskey-colored eyes.
“I want to taste you.” I am down with this plan. “But I’m too impatient. I can’t wait to be inside you.” An even better plan.
He removes his hand from my pants, and I whimper. He smirks. “I need to get you naked before I can get inside you.”
Good idea. I use my feet to push my slippers off my feet while he yanks my jeans down my legs. The table is cold when my naked ass hits it, but I could care less about a little discomfort right now. I unsnap Grayson’s jeans and lower his zipper.
“Careful,” he cautions.
I release his cock and wrap my hand around it. I need two hands to fist him. Shit. He’s more than big. He’s huge. Lucky me.
He kisses my shoulder and trails his tongue to my ear where he bites the lobe. I shiver.
I pump his length a few times before he moans and grasps my wrist to stop me. I lean back on my elbows and watch as he lines himself up.
“Condom.” I remember right before he enters me.
“Shit. I nearly forgot.” He places his forehead against mine. “Need a second before I explode the moment I enter you.”
I do a full body shiver at his words. No one has ever said anything as sexy as his words to me. He takes a deep breath before reaching down to remove his wallet from his jeans, which are now sagging around his knees. He finds a condom and sheathes himself.
“You ready?” he asks as he lines his cock up with my opening.
I bite my lip and bob my head. I am more than ready. He enters me slowly, inch by delicious inch. “You’re so tight. I’m not going to last long.”
I run my nails down his back and squeeze his ass in an effort to get him to move faster. “Me either,” I whisper.
He finally bottoms out and pauses. I grunt. “Move. I need you to move.”
“If you want this to last more than five pumps, you’ll wait.”
His words cause excitement to build and leak out of me.
“I can feel how wet you are,” he says as he retreats at a snail’s pace. I can feel every single ridge of his cock rubbing against me. It’s amazing.
When only the tip of him remains inside me, he pauses before slamming into me. The entire table moves with the force of his thrust and bumps against the wall. I lay back on it. The smooth cool surface is a direct contrast to the heat emitting from Grayson’s body. He pulls out and strokes in again. My back arches of its own accord as I moan his name.
“That’s it,” he grunts. His hands are now grasping my hips tight enough I can feel his fingernails digging into my skin. “Take all of me, Precious.”
My belly heats as the excitement builds and my walls begin to tighten.
“I can feel how close you are. Come for me, Suzie. Come all over my cock.”
My body is totally on board with the idea. I moan and my head drops to
the table as my entire body convulses with my orgasm.
When I come down, Grayson starts pounding into me. “Nothing better than seeing you take me.” His strokes become erratic. “Gonna come. Fuck,” he moans as he plants himself deep and stays there.
Drips of sweat roll down his chest and I lick my lips. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” I bat my eyelashes like I don’t know what he’s thinking.
“I need a moment before round two.” He looks around my brew shack. “And I need a bed.”
I giggle. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Chapter 24
It’s all fun and games until the beer runs out.
“Wow,” is all I can say. I’m lying naked on my bed covered in sweat and gasping for air. My entire body is tingling from the most recent orgasm Grayson gave me.
The man of the hour is laying next to me trying to catch his breath. I swivel my head to look at him as every other muscle in my body is too exhausted to move at the moment. He looks magnificent. I was not wrong to be enamored with his shoulder muscles, but the rest of his muscles aren’t anything to sneeze at either.
His hand raises to cup my face. “We need to talk.”
I know he’s right. We just leaped into a mess of sexy complications but talking is the last thing on my mind. “Dude, don’t crush my buzz.”
He chuckles before rolling off the bed. “Come on. Get up. Get dressed. I’ll make you something to eat and we can talk.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re going to cook?”
He shrugs and my eyes can’t help devouring his muscles as they bunch with the movement. He must have been first in line when they were handing out muscles and didn’t bother leaving any for the other poor shmucks.
A smack on my belly wakes me from my Grayson muscle trance. “What?”
“Stop objectifying my body and get your smoking hot ass up.”
I force myself off the bed. “If my body is smoking, I blame you and your love stick.”
“My love stick?” He chuckles.
“I thought you were going to make me food,” I comment when he stands there watching me walk around searching for the clothes we threw on the floor as we made our way to the bed.
I should be self-conscious. After all, I’m completely naked with my boobs hanging out there, but this man has literally licked every inch of me. There’s nothing he hasn’t seen.
Heat flares in his eyes before he blinks and – poof! – it’s gone. “Pizza okay?”
I snicker. “By making me food you meant ordering take-out, didn’t you?”
He steps into his jeans and I can feel my bottom lip forming a pout as all those delicious muscles disappear. He bops me on the nose. “Food now. Sexy times later.”
I’m down with that plan. “Meat lovers for me.” He nods as he takes his phone out and leaves the bedroom.
When I enter the living room, he’s sitting on the couch playing with his phone. As soon as he sees me, he sets it down and pats the place next to him. I snort. Does he think I’m an obedient dog? He should know better by now. To be contrary, I sit on the armchair next to the couch.
Grayson shakes his head but doesn’t comment. “Before the pizza gets here, I want to clear the air.” I grunt. I hate ‘talks’. “I want to apologize.”
Hey now. This is a talk I can get into. “Apologize for what?”
“I may have overreacted when Liz showed up at McGraw’s.”
I raise an eyebrow. “May have?”
“I was shocked, and I took it out on you.” He swallows. “Will you forgive me?”
“Considering everything we’ve done today; I think it’s pretty obvious I forgive you.” I wink.
“Thank you.”
“But I won’t put up with you ghosting me again. I get you were mad, but I was completely freaking out. I didn’t know if you were okay. Hell, I didn’t know where you were.” I’m not proud of it, but I may have kind of sort of stalked his apartment when I didn’t hear from him. A whole lotta good it did me. He was nowhere to be found.
“I drove up to Merrill.”
I stand and move to the couch to sit next to him. “Did you talk to Liz?”
“Yes.” He pauses, and I bite my tongue to stop the barrage of questions banging around in my head from coming out of my mouth.
He looks down at his hands fidgeting with his phone. He obviously doesn’t want to talk about this, but I can’t let him off the hook. Not after how he ghosted me. And, okay, maybe I’m a teensy-weensy bit nosy.
“How did it go?”
“Okay, I guess. She doesn’t blame me for Bill’s death.”
I squeeze his hand. “Of course not. She doesn’t blame you because it’s not your fault.”
He flips his hand and laces his fingers through mine. My stomach clenches and warmth flows through my body. I am in deep doo-doo if holding hands with a man is causing stomach clenches.
“I saw my parents, too.”
I guess the topic of Bill and his guilt over Bill’s death is off the table. Does he not realize how tenacious I can be? But I let it go – for now.
“How are they?”
“Good. They helped me realize a few things.”
I wait, but he doesn’t fill me on what those few things are. He’s silly if he thinks I won’t come out and ask. “Like what things?”
“Stuff about Liz.”
Could he be any more vague? Before I get the chance to ask him to be more specific, he moves on to another topic. “What do you want to tell the others?”
“Tell the others?”
“I won’t be your dirty little secret, Munchkin.”
“I don’t know how you jumped from having sex to being a dirty little secret.”
He raises our hands. “This is happening.”
I try to snatch my hand away, but he holds tight. “I thought you didn’t want a relationship.”
“Maybe I’ve changed my mind.”
Nothing can keep me from yanking my hand away from his now. “But I haven’t. I told you I don’t do relationships.”
“Help me understand why.”
I growl. I don’t want to talk about my ex. It’s embarrassing.
“I get it. You can’t get over him,” he goads.
“Get over him? I don’t need to get over anyone.”
“Really?” He raises an eyebrow. “Then you don’t do relationships because …”
“Why is this any of your business?”
He snarls and grabs my chin to force me to look at him. “I spent the entire morning inside of you. It couldn’t be more my business.”
Shit. He’s right. It’s only fair I explain to him why I don’t do relationships. It’s freaking unfair, though. He said he didn’t want a relationship either. If I had known his opinion had changed, I wouldn’t have slept with him.
Adult Suzie laughs and laughs. She falls off her chair she’s laughing so hard. Yeah, right. She manages to say between bouts of laughter. I guess Adult Suzie is not adulting today.
I jump to my feet. “I need a beer if we’re having this conversation.”
I stomp to the refrigerator and grab two bottles of beer. I take a gulp from one to give me some Dutch courage for this conversation. It doesn’t help. I take another gulp before the bottle is taken from me.
“There’s no need to be afraid. I won’t tell anyone your deep, dark secrets,” he says and then mutters, “unlike you.”
“Hey! I didn’t tell anyone your secrets.” It’s true. I didn’t. Wally’s the one who uncovered the secrets. I may have talked to Liz about Grayson’s guilt, but I didn’t tell anyone else about it. Except maybe I did tell the girls. Well, shit.
Grayson takes my hand and leads me back to the couch. He forces me to sit. “Come on. It can’t be that bad.”
I snort. Easy for him to say. I take a deep breath and dive in.
“I was dating this guy, Toby. We dated all through college. After we graduated, we talked about starting the
micro-brewery together and getting married. I thought it was a done deal. I bought this house for us.”
“For all the babies,” Grayson growls. What is he growling about?
“Except it turned out Toby didn’t want children. At least, that’s what he told me after we’d been together for years. I was devastated, but I loved him, you know. I wasn’t going to break up with him because he didn’t want children.”
Grayson chuckles. “And you thought you could break him down over time.”
I don’t bother denying it. He’s right. I figured once Toby and I were married, he’d change his mind.
“Anyway, he asks me to marry him, and I am over the moon. Literally, over the moon. Of course, I say yes.”
I fall silent. This time it’s Grayson who doesn’t have any patience.
“What happened?”
“Something felt off. Call it a hunch, call it women’s intuition, call it what you will, but I knew something was wrong. I went to Hailey who was substitute teaching drama classes at the time and asked her to look into it. It took her less than a day to find out Toby had another woman. Another woman who was pregnant. Mr. I Will Never Want Children got another woman pregnant while engaged to me!”
Grayson gathers me into his arms.
“I’m sorry, Precious. But he’s not worth your tears.”
I push him away. “I’m not crying.” It’s true. I’m not. My eyes may have welled up, but no tears were shed this day by Suzie. “Now do you understand why I don’t do relationships?”
“Are you going to hit me if I say no?”
I narrow my eyes on him, but I don’t hit him. “Let me spell it out for you. Men betray you. I can’t handle getting my heart broken again.”
“I get it. You’re protecting your heart.”
“Yes.” Finally, he gets it.
“But, Munchkin, the best way to protect your heart is to give it to me. I will guard and protect it with my life.”
He is out of his danged mind if he thinks I’m giving my heart to him. Adult Suzie clears her throat and lifts one eyebrow, oh, so slowly. Shit. She’s right. I may be lying to myself. My heart is already longing to be his. Nope. I can’t allow it to happen. I shake my head at his crazy ass.
His grin is sly. “It’s okay. I’m patient.”
A Soldier for Suzie: A Military Romantic Comedy (Love will OUT Book 3) Page 13