by Force, Marie
“Pictures,” Izzy said. “They’re going to need pictures.”
“Come with us, hon,” Hannah said to her daughter.
“Keep us posted,” Grayson said as he and Emma saw them off.
“You’re not coming?” his mother asked.
“I’ll help Emma with the dogs.”
“Right,” Hannah said with a twisted little smile. “The dogs.”
Grayson shut the door and locked it.
“She hates me,” Emma said.
“What? Who hates you?”
“Your mother.”
“She does not.” He put his arm around her and led her back to the family room. After he settled her on the sofa, he stepped around the game night carnage and threw another log on the fire before joining her. “Why do you say that?”
“It’s the way she looks at me, like I’m some sort of calculating gold digger out to land a daddy for my daughter.”
His smile lit up his eyes. “Are you a gold digger looking for a baby daddy?”
“No! I don’t need any of those things from you or any man.”
“I know that, and you know that, which is what matters.”
“It matters to me if your mom doesn’t like me.”
Sighing, he combed his fingers through his hair. “It’s not you. She has a twisted view of all things romance after what happened with my dad and then with Noah. She never liked the girl he married, and then she did exactly what my mother expected her to and hurt him badly.”
“What happened between them?”
“We have no idea. One minute they were happily married, or so we thought, and the next she was gone. He’s never spoken of it to any of us, but he’s different than he used to be.”
“How so?”
“He’s extremely withdrawn and antisocial. Even though he lives right down the street from Mom, she hardly ever sees him except at holidays and perfunctory visits in which he says nothing much of anything.”
“That’s sad. It sounds like he’s heartbroken.”
“Maybe so.”
“Have you tried to talk to him?”
“Many times, to no avail. When I was still in Boston, I made a pest out of myself, calling him all the time and talking about nothing for a few minutes. At least it was something.”
“It probably meant a lot to him.”
“Who knows? I keep hoping one of these days he might really talk to me. We used to be close when we were kids. We grew apart when I went to Boston and he got married.”
She could hear the unspoken regret in his words. “Maybe now that you’re back in town, you can bridge that gap.”
“I suppose we’ll see.”
“We should clean up this mess.”
“You’re right. We probably should.” He made no move to get up. Rather, he stared at her and ran his fingers through her hair. “I didn’t expect to get time alone with you in the middle of game night madness.”
“I didn’t expect that either.”
“I’m worried about Hannah and the baby,” he said. “Thirty-two weeks is early.”
“It really is, but they’ll get the best possible care. Hopefully, the baby will be fine.”
“I can’t imagine any other outcome. Poor Hannah has already had more than her share of grief in this lifetime.” As he spoke, he continued to play with Emma’s hair and stare at her mouth with obvious desire to kiss her.
She should send him home. She should go upstairs and sleep next to Simone in case she needed her during the night. She should clean up the huge mess from game night. She did none of those things. Rather, she licked her lips in anticipation of his kiss and then wrapped her arms around him as he came down on top of her right there on the sofa with the fire crackling in the background.
* * *
Chapter 9
Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.
—H. Jackson Brown Jr.
This kiss picked right up where they’d left off earlier, with all the same hungry desperation she’d come to expect and crave from him. For the longest time, they only kissed, and then his hand slipped under her sweater and up to cup her breast through her bra.
Her nipple was still sensitive from earlier, and the stimulation had her moaning against his lips.
He broke the kiss to nuzzle her neck. “I can’t believe how badly I want you again, Emma.”
Needy for more of the incredible way he made her feel, she tried to get closer to him.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.
“We shouldn’t.”
“I know, but we have so little time left together, and they’ll be gone most of the night. Even if the hospital tries to kick them out, they’ll want to be with Hannah.”
“You’re like the devil leading me astray.”
“So that’s a yes?”
Emma hesitated, but only for a second. “Yes. But we have to clean up first, or they’ll know we jumped each other the second they left.”
Groaning, he took hold of her hand and pressed it against his erection. “You’re really going to squander this perfectly good boner?”
“Something tells me it’ll keep for a few minutes.” God, this was fun. Being with him this way, teasing and flirting and kissing… She’d never had fun like this with a man and was already addicted to the feelings of elation he stirred in her. They worked together to quickly stow the games as well as the tables Lincoln had set up in the family room.
While Emma let Ringo and George out, Grayson banked the fire and closed the glass doors to contain any stray sparks.
They met up in the family room, the dogs watching them with curiosity, as if they knew what was going on and weren’t sure they approved. She wasn’t sure if she approved of what was about to happen while the Abbotts dealt with a possible crisis with Hannah and the baby.
Grayson handed her the baby monitor and then followed her upstairs, where they stopped to check on Simone.
Emma bent over the bed to kiss her sleeping daughter and tugged the covers up a little higher to make sure she was tucked in. When she was done, Grayson stepped closer to run his hand over Simone’s silky hair and then followed Emma out of the room.
“Leave the door open so you can hear her,” he said.
“What if she hears us?” Emma asked.
“Are you planning on being loud?”
She burned with embarrassment—and desire. “Stop!”
His low chuckle followed her into the bedroom next to Simone’s. His arms wrapped around her from behind, his chin landing on her shoulder. “If this is too much for you, all you have to do is say so.”
“It’s way too much for me.” When he started to withdraw from her, she stopped him. “Not in a bad way. In an overwhelmingly good way.”
“It is for me, too. I never expected anything like this when I came home for Christmas.”
“I feel guilty doing this here. Like I’m taking advantage of their hospitality or something.”
“Remember what I told you about my uncle and grandfather wanting to see us all happy and settled?”
She nodded.
“I think they’d approve.”
“I still feel weird about it.”
“I’d be perfectly content if I could hold you and kiss you and sleep with my arms wrapped around you. We don’t have to do anything more than that.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“Not at all.” With his hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. “I want you to be comfortable.”
She smiled up at him. “I’m often extremely uncomfortable around you.”
“I know the feeling.” He pressed his hard cock against her belly to make his point.
“I told you he’d be back.”
“He’s incredibly resilient, especially when you’re nearby.”
As he looked down at her and she stared up at him, her arms around his neck and his around her waist, Emma realized this must be what it felt like to fall in love. And then he made it even bette
r by kissing her softly and with tenderness that had her knees going weak under her. Only his arms tight around her kept her standing as the kiss went from sweet and tender to hot and needy in the scope of ten seconds.
He lowered her onto the bed, coming down on top of her without missing a beat in the kiss. His tongue caressed hers as the press of his body against hers made Emma want so much more than she’d agreed to.
She tugged on the hem of his sweater and drew it up, smoothing her hands over his back as she went.
Grayson trembled from her touch and broke the kiss to help her remove the sweater. “Yours, too,” he said, tugging on the fabric until it cleared her head. He took in the sight of her in only the formfitting tank top and bent his head to kiss the plump slopes of her breasts. “Your skin is like silk. If all I can do is kiss you, I want to kiss you everywhere.” He removed her top, baring her breasts to his hungry gaze. He stroked her nipple with only the tip of his tongue, but she felt it everywhere. “Are they sore from before?”
“A little,” she said breathlessly.
“Then I’ll be gentle.” He kept up the soft strokes of his tongue, driving her wild with one caress after another—and that was before he sucked her nipple into his mouth.
“Grayson,” she gasped.
“Talk to me. Tell me how it feels.”
“Incredible.”
“How about over here?” he asked, switching sides.
“There, too.” A sharp ache of desire between her legs had her moving restlessly beneath him as he kept up the sensual assault on her nipples, which were now rigid and tight from the attention he paid them with both his fingers and tongue. He kept it up until she was about to beg him to stop or make her come or do anything to relieve the aching need.
As if he could read her mind, he finally moved down, kissing her belly and taking little bites of her skin that sent the desire to the critical zone.
He tugged on the button to her jeans. “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” she said, no longer caring about where they were or how desperate she sounded.
His lips curved into a smile that she felt against her sensitive skin. “You’re sure?”
“Grayson!”
“Shhh, you’ll wake your daughter.”
“No, I won’t.” Emma tore at the button to her jeans and was wiggling out of them when he caught up and helped her get them and her panties off. She hadn’t intended to get completely naked, but she couldn’t be bothered with details like that when he was positioning her legs on his shoulders. “Whaa… What’re you… Oh my God,” she said on a long, drawn-out sigh that ended in a sound that resembled a sob.
He pushed her legs farther apart and buried his face between them, drawing her rigid clit into his mouth and making her come so hard, she saw stars and had to bite her lip to keep from screaming from the blast of heat that incinerated her. And with that, she’d had more sex in one day with him than in her entire life before him. She barely had time to catch her breath before he started over again, using his tongue and fingers to arouse her to the point of madness. Then she felt pressure against her back door and froze in shock as his finger breached her in a place where no one had ever touched her before.
“Relax,” he whispered. “You’ll love it.”
Dear sweet baby Jesus, she’d been about to lose her mind all over again, and then he touched her there, driving his finger into her as he sucked on her clit again, making her come harder than she ever had before.
“Mmm, so hot,” he whispered before withdrawing from her and pulling a blanket over her. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
Emma couldn’t have moved if the house had been on fire. Her entire body twitched with aftershocks from two powerful orgasms. She heard water running in the bathroom and then he was back, dropping his jeans and underwear by the bed before crawling in and reaching for her.
“Did I shock you?”
“Little bit.”
“Good shock or bad shock?”
“Umm, you couldn’t tell?”
“I don’t want to make assumptions.”
“Everything about this with you is a good shock. The best kind of shock.”
He cupped her face and turned her into his kiss. “For me, too.”
Like every time they kissed, this one quickly went from a light caress to a tongue-twisting duel that had them both straining for more.
Emma flattened her hand on his chest and dragged it down to encircle his hard cock. She withdrew from the kiss so she could see his face. “Show me how you like it.”
“I’ll like anything you do,” he said, sounding tense.
“Like this?” She tightened her grip and moved her hand up and down in a slow tease that had his eyes closing and his lips parting.
“Yeah,” he said. “Like that.”
“How about this?” She dragged her thumb over the head, sliding through the moisture gathered at the tip.
He gasped, and his fingers dug into her arm. “That’s good, too.”
Emma raised herself up to kiss his chest and the abdomen that quivered under her lips. “You’re going to have to show me how,” she said, feeling shy all of a sudden. “I’ve never done this before.”
“There’s no wrong way.”
She bent to run her tongue around the head. “This is good?”
“Really good.”
She drew him into her mouth, using her tongue to stroke him before withdrawing slowly. “How about that?”
“So good.” He covered the hand she had around the base of his shaft with his and said, “Do it again.”
Emma took him in again while continuing to stroke him. The combination had him raising his hips off the bed, looking to go deeper. She went as far as she could before he bumped against the back of her throat, triggering her gag reflex.
“Stop. Emma… Stop.”
Concerned that she’d done something wrong, she released him.
He moved quickly to take her into his arms and press her against the mattress as he devoured her mouth in another wild kiss.
“It didn’t feel good?” she asked when they came up for air.
“Too good. You didn’t want me to come in your mouth the first time you ever do that.”
“I thought you didn’t want to make assumptions.”
His eyes widened, and his mouth opened and then closed.
Emma laughed. “But thanks for the courtesy. Next time, I wouldn’t mind trying that.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “Watch what you say. You’ve got me right on the edge over here.”
“We said we weren’t going to do this, and here we are naked in bed together—again.”
“I can’t seem to control myself when you’re in my arms.” His hand roamed her back and down to cup her bottom to pull her in closer to him. The new position had his cock tight against her core, and Emma rubbed against him shamelessly while noting the twitch of a muscle in his jaw.
She pressed gentle kisses to the twitching muscle.
“I’ll let you sleep,” he said.
“Do you want to sleep?”
“I’d much rather be awake and kissing you and touching you, but you’re going to be tired in the morning, and you have an injured girl to care for.”
“Despite my earlier protests, I’m feeling a pressing need to finish what we started.”
When his eyes opened, she saw both surprise and desire. “Is that so?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“I don’t have any more condoms.”
She took hold of his hand and directed him to a bump under her arm. “Feel that?”
His brows knitted as he nodded.
“Long-term birth control to regulate formerly out-of-control monthly events.”
“Are you saying…”
“Back to those assumptions again… I assume you’re healthy.”
“I am. I can prove it.”
“And there’s no doubt I am, seeing as how I’d been off the horse for ten year
s before I jumped back on with a vengeance today.”
He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath. “I’m going to need a minute to get it together so it isn’t over before it begins.”
Emma shook with silent laughter.
“You think this is funny?” He pounced on her, pinning her arms to the bed and tickling her underarm with kisses that made her scream with laughter.
“Stop! I hate being tickled!”
“I hate being laughed at.”
“I’m very sorry,” she said, trying to look contrite and failing to fool him.
He grunted out a laugh. “You are not.” Taking himself in hand, he began to enter her, going as slowly as he possibly could in anticipation of her being sore from earlier.
She sucked in a sharp deep breath that didn’t sound like pleasure to him.
“Are you okay?”
“Hurts.”
“We don’t have to…”
When he would’ve withdrawn from her, she curled her legs around his hips. “I want to. Just go slow.”
He did as she asked, entering her in small increments and then retreating before doing it again and again and again until they were moving together effortlessly and all she could feel was the pleasure.
Then he curled his arm under her leg and pressed it to her chest, opening her wider to his deep strokes, and the pleasure became nearly unbearable.
“You are,” he whispered softly, his lips brushing against her ear, “so incredibly beautiful all the time. But you’ve never been more so than you are right now.”
Sensory overload. That was the only way to describe the emotions that assailed her as he made love to her with his words and his body. Linking their fingers, his gaze locked on hers as he picked up the pace. “Emma…”
He drove into her, touching a place deep inside that set off a massive orgasm that had her trembling and quaking from the power of it.
“Jesus,” he muttered in the second before he came, too. His head landed on her shoulder.
Emma curled her hand around his nape and her legs around his hips to keep him close to her. If you had asked her a week ago if a person could fall in love in three days, she would’ve said no way. Now…
Now she had reason to believe he had the power to change her life—and Simone’s—if she let him.