“Grayson…” she sighed my name with so much emotion it bled into my chest.
“The only thing I care about are you and the baby, Snitch. That’s all this has ever been about. Promise me you won’t do anything to put yourself in jeopardy. My family isn’t worth it. My happiness isn’t worth it. Without you, I don’t even have a chance at either.”
“I promise,” she whispered. “I know it feels like we’re so behind. Like everyone knows more than us, like we’re failing. But I’ve decided this isn’t a loss. It’s a win.”
A reluctant smile quirked my lips. “You’ve decided, huh?”
“I’m so furious for Josephine. For the life she was forced to lead, the life they took so easily. I want to get revenge and avenge her. But…she didn’t die in vain. They just showed their cards. They’re nervous. They’re scared…of us. We’re going to win, Grayson. We’re going to get a happily ever after. We will. It’s kind of romantic, if you think about it. We’re closing the circle. This whole thing started with a stolen kiss and a coin, and now we’re ending it with one.”
“Story, what you want to do is impossible. Our happily ever after? It’s only been done in myths and legends.”
“But you’re Grayson Crowne.” She smiled. “You were born to do the legendary.”
I loved her strength, her determination.
But it scared me.
Death surrounded us.
“Fuck me,” she groaned. “Please. More. While you’re here, while we can.”
She arched into my cock and, fuck, I wanted her. There was a piece inside of her that she wouldn’t share with me. A piece of him that was hurting her.
And it just felt…wrong.
Wrong to fuck her when she was still keeping secrets.
Wrong to fuck her when I wanted to rip them from her, bloody and raw.
I pulled her against my body. “Sit with me. I want to get drunk on you.”
Twenty-Four
STORY
Grayson pulled me against his chest, and for a while, we lay like that as he absently stroked me—my hair, my shoulders, my back…everywhere. He slid his arm under my shoulder, wrapping it across my chest and bracketing my entire body from neck to stomach. He slid his other between my thighs, hand digging into my hip.
I sucked in air at the position.
He held me like that for I don’t know how long. Caged and at his mercy, tight against him, like he was afraid I would vanish into smoke.
“He’s going to try to screw us, going to try to double-cross you,” I said.
“I’m counting on it,” Grayson gritted. “But the day before you left for Scotland, you said we have the one thing he won’t see coming. The one thing none of them will see coming.”
I lifted my head to see his sparkling blue eyes, like an early ocean morning. “Trust, little wife.”
Wow.
I melted back into his chest.
“I missed your tired voice,” I whispered. “I missed falling asleep to the gravel in my ears and waking up to the sun and your smile.”
He pulled me closer, pressing his lips to my neck. “Yeah? What else did you miss?” Goose bumps rose along my arms at the low hitch in his voice, as much as the way he hardened beneath me.
“You. This. Us in the dark.”
“Did you know she’s about the size of a Meyer lemon now?” He trailed his nose along my neck, a dark possession wafting off him.