Chapter Twenty-Six
Gray
I was lounging against the front door of my trailer that night like I knew she’d be there.
Like I knew she’d come back to me.
She’d left with that guy, almost like he’d been an out, a means by which she could rid herself of this place and all that happened here. He was her familiar, her link to her world that didn’t involve this town or me for that matter. He’d taken her away, no other words said after I hit him.
I’d hit him again any day of the damn week.
My shoulder fell from the doorframe as I watched Alicia come to me, the night around and her steps fast. I didn’t know what to say to her, if I should apologize for hitting that guy or what. My guilt when it came to that issue was limited, but I didn’t want to hurt her.
I wanted to lose her even less.
She stood in front of me, her rental car she currently drove in the distance, and she stood out of breath, her breasts rising and falling in her top. I supposed the apologies happened at this point and I would have no matter how little I regretted what I’d done. I would have done that for her if she needed it though, tail between my legs and all. Pride was only for that of foolish men and it took me learning that the hard way a long time ago to figure it out. I didn’t have time for pride, life limited. Even still, I wasn’t the first to engage her, truly not knowing how to act. After all, I may have hurt her by what I’d done to the guy she brought into all our lives.
But she cut me in two as well.
Holding herself, her shoulders shaking I nearly broke down and grabbed her, but then she stepped forward, dipping her head before pushing her arms around my torso.
She fit right in that perfect place, just below my neck and shoulder with her height. Her fingers into my open plaid shirt, she found her place, her energy and soft heat flowing through me.
I lifted an arm, accepting her. I didn’t know what brought her here, but I wouldn’t turn her away.
I guided her inside eventually like a man would his woman. Though, I had no idea what that meant for us. I remained hopeful and did what I normally would when it came to her.
Her vision panned once inside, her jacket sliding down her arms.
“She’s in bed,” I told her, assuming she was looking for Laura. By the time I got to her it had been late and I probably should have picked her up sooner.
Alicia’s hands came together, her head nodding, and I invited her to sit on my couch. I’d been sorta watching television before she came over, not really.
We sat and, instinctually, I lifted my arm, welcoming her to come over.
Sliding right away, she gathered her legs underneath her, her hands on my chest and I listened to her breathing beneath the soft sounds of the television set. She remained silent for a long time, but the first words she said were “I’m sorry.”
My eye closed softly to them, my arms sliding around her shoulders.
“I shouldn’t have hit him,” I told her, but then she looked up at me, smiling in her special way that made her curly lashes peek up at me.
“I wish I would have,” she admitted. Not knowing what she meant by that, I pressed my fingers to her cheek.
“He didn’t…” I started, vision clouding before my very eyes. I shook my head out of it. “He didn’t touch you.”
The fact I actually let her go tonight with that son of a bitch struck me hard, my shock the only reason I had. She’d looked at him in the way of showing sympathy tonight, and as I’d been the one to hurt him, I could react in no other way than to step back, give her space.
But if he’d hurt her…
“No, nothing like that, Gray,” she stated, soothing me by pressing her fingers into my chest. Her lip was chewed with her next words.
“We were lovers, Bastian and I.”
Something I suspected. Though, I hadn’t been entirely sure.
It hurt no less.
The cave in my heart settled in, a slow collapse of the walls already vulnerable to her. She had a means to destroy my insides if she wanted to, something I’d allowed her to do over time.
Her gaze searched my face and slowly she was on her knees, her essence, that power before my eyes in the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Her lids closing, she moved her body forward and kissed me in a way that pulled all emotions to the forefront, her body languid against mine. Her lips pulled at my mouth, her teeth tugging my lower lip and I massaged a hand to her hip, unable to help myself.
“Alicia…”
“Gray.”
Guiding a hand around her thigh, I brought her over my waist, pressing a kiss to her stomach.
The flesh beat with intensity under my mouth, her tummy quivering through her shirt and shaking beneath my touch.
“You’re in my bed tonight,” I told her, then took her there, my hands around her hips and her thighs locked to my waist.
We exchanged words tonight, ones I had no idea where they would lead or what they meant for us. A lot happened this evening, and for all I knew, she had that guy waiting for her when she left tonight.
But in my house, in my bed, she was mine. She was mine, as I pushed myself between her legs, kissing her folds and making her body sweat and shake. I was hers as she drove her nails into my back, branding me with red welts that’d be there long after she left me. She’d always be with me. It didn’t matter how long or by what means I tried to forget. She embedded herself in me and though I had resisted for a time there’d be no more of that. The damage was done.
She had my heart in her hand.
Pressing her thighs down to my bed, I arched up, the woman a goddess in my sheets. They already smelled of her and our lovemaking, her soft feminine scent filling the room and making it hers.
Drawing my tongue up her inner thigh, I tasted her juices, which had escaped, her thighs twitching and coming to wrap around my head. She wanted me inside her, her sweet heat, but I held her at bay, tasting her. I needed to remember this, how it felt.
My hand smoothed down the fullness of her deep-ebony toned legs, my body arching up so I could suck her tit, the dark areola peaked and ready to be laved with my tongue.
I went there, grabbing her other breast before I dipped my head, but she stopped me, her gaze on me in a way that could rip me apart. It was ripping me apart.
Cupping her cheek, I wanted to tell her to choose me, that I’d be there for her.
I really would make it everything for her.
“Gray?”
There were questions in her eyes, questions that caused me to close mine.
Peeling her fingers from my cheek, I spread her legs, filling her like I had that first time, nothing between us. It hadn’t been a deliberate thought.
It just felt right.
Her eyes rolled back as she took me in deep, her head rolling on my sheets and truly making them hers. They could be and I wanted her to take them.
I brought her arms back behind her head, extending myself and using my knees to rock into her. My thighs slapped the inside of hers, a burn with every hit to her soft flesh.
Her breasts shook, her eyes closed and I took that moment to kiss her, tell her everything I wanted.
“Stay,” seeped from my lips, the ache in my voice a fervent want. “Stay and say you’re mine.”
I wanted her to feel it, to know how it could be. We could do this. We could be our own forever.
She held me tight with every word, every kiss and thrust between her trembling legs. Her sweat, her passion, I could taste in my mouth and I almost missed the words so quickly. They’d been passion-filled, raw like mine had been.
She’d said, “Yes,” and then, “You’re my home.”