Chapter 34
He had no idea if he’d even slept. Gray felt like he’d been watching the night in the bedroom as the hours slowly ticked by. They’d gone to be early and each time he checked the clock, it felt like hours when only minutes seemed to have changed on the digits.
It was around two when Riley rolled over and pressed her lips to his neck, her hand slipping down to his large erection. The cool of her palm felt delicious against its heat. He moaned and moved to give her more access to it.
“I want you…” Riley whispered against his neck. “You have no idea what you do to me, you don’t even realize…”
Gray sucked in a sharp breath, more awake then he’d been two minutes ago—hell, thirty seconds ago. What she did to him without even realizing… he didn’t care. Right now he just wanted her to quench the feral need building inside of him.
She wrapped her fingers around that thick and hot rod, pumping her hand up and down the shaft until he gasped and muttered, “That feels so fuckin’ good.”
“You feel good,” she murmured thickly. “What you do to me...”
Gray brought his head down and his sharp teeth closed over the hard crest of her nipples, his fingers closing over the white flesh around the rosy peaks. He suckled and tugged gently at her nipples, making her gasp and whimper.
Her legs spread as she rolled onto her back, her voice still thick with sleep and desire. It only turned him on more. He dipped his head, his tongue sliding along the soaking wet skin of her hood before it circled her throbbing nub and then pressed against it, hard, before whipping across it from side to side. He wanted the sensual torment to become unbearable.
He grinned against her apex when she gasped, her hands clutching the pillows by her head as she lifted her hips, trying to grind closer to his mouth and tongue. “Not yet, beautiful.” He moved upward. His body bumped against hers, his erection sliding between her legs but not penetrating her swollen passageway.
She cried out, her body writhing against the sheets. “Please, Gray, now!”
He could deny her when she sounded like that. He entered her, hard and fast.
They strained together, both of them moaning and saying each other’s names. Riley came, hard, her entire body exploding and shuddering. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him deeper inside her.
Gray moaned and swore under his breath, “Dammit Riley, slow down, I’m going to—” He came, his strong forearms shaking and his body straining forward until he went limp and fell onto the mattress beside her.
Riley watched him through hooded eyes. She giggled lazily as he lay panting beside her. “That was awesome.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He ran a finger over her breast, pinching her nipple between his thumb and finger. “You can wake me anytime in the night. You definitely should do that more often.” When she didn’t reply, he realized she’d fallen back asleep again. He wondered if she’d even remember they’d had sex in the morning. As she rolled to her side, Gray cuddled her close, his body pressed tightly against hers.
He lay against her sated and yet exhausted. Somehow, for some reason, the sex had felt a little like goodbye. Like they were grasping frantically for what they were losing. He lay there, holding her and feigning sleep because he was afraid if she woke again, Riley would want to talk. Whatever she had to say, he was sure there was an ending in it somewhere, an ending he wasn’t ready to accept.
As much as he hated to admit it, they really did have to put an end to things. There was nowhere for them to go, and he had come to grips with that fact over the last few days. He had nothing to offer her, nothing at all. Riley Teeters needed the comfort and pleasures her money could easily buy, the life she was accustomed to, and he had a feeling that he had become just one more thing she could no longer tolerate. He was beneath her, and that was the real rub of the entire situation.
He wasn’t poor, and his family had done all right, yet he didn’t have one dime to spend on her. Not only that, but he knew he would never have the money and opportunities she did, nor could he give her what she truly had to have in order to be happy.
Gray could not possibly live just as her lover, a man who bedded down with her and took advantage of her wealth and privilege. That would be fucking sleazy, he thought, and I’ve got my damn pride. Even though his parents had money, he had had to work for everything. While he knew that was a good thing and was prepared to deal with it, his work ethic had also given him a stiff-necked pride he could not let go of, not even for her. He refused to be anyone’s charity case.
As Riley slept, he kept his hand on her body, but he felt her slipping away from him with every pull of breath into her lungs.
How many more heartbeats, how many more breaths before she’ll just be…gone?