CHAPTER 29
THERESA

“You were there?” I asked.

My voice was weak. I could hear it. I tried blinking back the tears, but instead, they went the wrong way. Forced over my cheek instead of back behind my eyes.

“I was,” Grant said.

“Of course, you were there. You talked to Hollis, right? Hollis, but not me?”

“I did.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I couldn't believe it. I stood up from the chair on the balcony and brushed past him. I didn’t want to sit with him another second. He was at my mother’s funeral. He was there during the darkest day of my life, and he spoke to Hollis without speaking to me. It felt like a knife had pierced my gut. I felt my heart shattering inside my chest. If I had known that Grant had been there, maybe things would’ve turned out differently. If he had re-emerged during that time, maybe things could’ve been avoided with Ike. We could’ve started this way back then instead of trekking through all the bullshit and the lies and the deceit just to get to the moment we were at.

I could have had years with him. Years of happiness and love. Years of my life where I could’ve blossomed into the strong woman I felt myself finally becoming. I could’ve bypassed years of heartache and sorrow and manipulation if he had told me he was there. If he had wrapped his arms around me at my mother’s funeral.

But he didn’t.

And we would never know what could’ve become of us.

“Theresa, please don’t.”

Without thinking, I turned around and cracked my hand against Grant’s cheek. His head flew off to the side, and I watched his jaw clench with fury. My tears of sorrow and regret turned to tears of anger and frustration.

“You should have told me,” I said.

Grant slowly turned his gaze back to mine, and I watched as he grew in stature, hovering over me with his stoic eyes hooked onto mine.

“I was still struggling then, Theresa. I didn’t have anything to offer you.”

“I don’t give a shit about what you have to offer, Grant! What, you think I need this hotel and some oceanside view to be with you? You—you think I need money? Huh? Is that what you think?”

“No,” he said.

“Is that all I’ve amounted to? Some money-hungry gold-digger who can’t be with the man she loves without him tossing money around? Huh? Is that what you think?”

Grant’s eyes grew wild as my tirade continued.

“You think I needed anything from you back then except for you to look at me? To acknowledge that I wasn’t some ugly duckling fawning over the bad boy in a leather jacket. Am I still that stupid little girl to you, Grant?”

“I was still a kid five years ago, Theresa. A kid who barely had a pot to piss in. But I can give you what you deserve now.”

My fist came down on his chest.

“What? The truth? You couldn't even tell me why the hell you were really in town. You couldn’t tell me you were at my mother’s funeral! I was dying inside, Grant! Ike didn’t even let me stay for the fucking reception!”

I beat down on his chest again with both of my fists as he took a step back.

“He dragged me from the car and told me to stop crying,” I said as tears slid down my cheeks. “He told me to suck it up because my mother deserved my strength.”

I felt him grab onto my wrists to stop my fists from pounding into his muscles.

“And you were there,” I said breathlessly. “You could’ve done something when I was too weak to.”

“I’m sorry,” Grant said.

“We could’ve had years, Grant. Years. Ike was just a sorry substitute because I couldn’t have you. You were the only one I’ve ever wanted.”

My head fell to his chest as tears flowed unchecked. Grant dropped my wrists, and I cried into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around me, and I couldn’t handle it. I planted my hands into his stomach and shoved myself back, stumbling before I caught myself on the back of a chair.

“I deserve you,” I said. “It’s always been you, Grant. You. Just you.”

I felt my legs collapse from underneath me, and I fell to the floor. But before I hit the ground, a pair of strong arms caught my falling body. I looked up into Grant’s eyes and saw that stoic look I’d come to love so much. Riddled with the tiniest bit of worry and backdropped with the one thing I’d wanted to see all these years.

Love.

I grabbed his shirt and thrust my lips upon his. My arms clawed up his body and wrapped tightly around his neck. His arms picked me up effortlessly as he began to walk us over to the bed. I was panting. My tongue was overpowering his. We collapsed onto the bed, and I straddled him, shivering as his hands commanded my hips. I rolled deeply into his growing dick. My hands pawed at his clothes until I had his skin underneath my fingertips. I ripped his pants from his body and sank between his legs, taking his throbbing dick between my lips.

And I watched as his head fell back to the pillow.

I swallowed him down, gagging as his girth pulsed against the walls of my throat. My hands rushed up his body, rippling over his washboard abs and finding his hands. I laced our fingers together as he fucked my mouth, his hips rising from the bed as he groaned and grunted.

“Fucking hell, Theresa. That sinful mouth.”

I could taste his precum leaking onto the tip of my tongue before he pulled his dick from between my lips.

He fisted my hair and pulled me onto the bed where he stripped me naked. His lips were everywhere, placing open-mouthed kisses against my heated skin. His hands gripped my waist. My hips. My thighs. His tongue ran around my nipples and sucked on them until my pussy juices were dripping onto the bed below us. My heels pressed into the mattress and his mouth slid down my body, traveling to the place where I wanted him most.

But I was desperate for him, and I wasn’t willing to wait.

I grabbed his hair like he did mine and pulled him up to my lips. His muscles draped along my curves and molded me to him. He grinned into my lips as my legs wrapped around him, and I rubbed against his dripping dick as he lined himself up with me.

Then he slid in, inch by inch until nothing was separating us any longer.

“Grant. Fuck.”

“Don’t worry. I’m only getting started,” he said.

He drew back and slammed into me, causing me to arch into him. My hands gripped his arms, digging crescents into his skin from my nails. My moans filled the room as his cock stroked my pussy, filling me up and shooting electricity buzzing throughout my body. I raised my hips and met him with every thrust, clamoring for more as I writhed under him. I locked my legs around him as best as I could and pushed with all my might, tumbling us over until Grant was on his back.

Then I straddled his thick body and bounced in his lap.

“That’s it, Theresa. Ride that dick. Fuck, you’re so beautiful.”

My hands planted on his chest and I rode him with wild abandon. He lifted his head and kissed my tits, sucking my nipples between his teeth. I groaned his name and his eyes darkened. I felt his hands massaging my ass cheeks. He pulled me deeper into him until I was draped over him and hanging on as he lifted his hips to fuck me.

I could feel my juices dripping down his girth. I could feel my arousal coating his thighs. I kissed his neck and nibbled on his shoulder, drawing growls from his throat. I marked his skin the way he did mine, smiling at the welts I left behind. My lips captured his, and as our tongues touched he flipped us over again.

He threw my legs over his shoulders and bent me in half. My mouth fell open and my eyes bulged as his cock raked against a place I’d never felt before. He dove into me, pounding with his hips as his soaked balls smacked against my ass.

My vision was blurring with pleasure and stars were bursting in places I didn’t know they could.

“Grant! Shit, yes. Holy fuck!”

“Don’t hold back on me, Theresa. Don’t you dare.”

I reached for his face and cupped his cheeks. I tugged his face toward mine and sucked his bottom lip between my teeth. A rumble emanated from his throat that shook the whole of my body, and soon I felt his cock growing inside my pussy, pressing against my fluttering walls as his trimmed curls began raking against my clit.

Holy shit.

I couldn't stop shivering.

With every touch of his curls to my clit, my toes flexed deeper. My body pulled tighter. My pussy became more swollen. I couldn't take my eyes off Grant, off the primal look in his eyes. He was an animal, and I loved every single part of it. The sweat dripping from his brow. The cock throbbing inside my body. The way he threw me around like a rag doll in bed before making me feel like a queen.

“Grant. Oh, God. It’s coming. I’m going to come!”

“Let it go,” he said. “Come around my cock.”

My back arched, and my toes curled, and suddenly I was spiraling, falling down an endless sweet hole as low drones ripped from my throat. My entire body was convulsing, and my pussy was clamping down on his cock. He was pounding into me, bucking wildly against me. I could feel his muscles twitching as his hips began to stutter.

He rolled his hips into me one last time before our lips crashed together again.

Our sloppy kiss was the only thing we could hear. His cock pumped into my body sweet streams of cum I could feel painting my walls. I trapped him inside of me, held him in my grasp as my pussy continued to flutter around him. My legs slid off his shoulders and collapsed to the bed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me.

Closer.

Even closer.

Until his massive body was lying on top of mine.

His hot breath caught in the crook of my shoulder as we both heaved for air. My pussy sheathed his cock and I never wanted him to move. My hands danced up and down his sweating back, tracing the outlines of his sculpted muscles. Our intermingled fluids were leaking from between my legs as Grant pulled away from me, but it wasn’t long before he rolled over and was pulling me into his arms.

We tangled our bodies up in the sheets of the bed as I laid myself against the crook of his body.

“Grant?”

“Hmm?”

“I like it when you carry me to bed.”

He gazed down at me and grinned before he pulled me closer to his chest.

“I’ll do it every night if you’ll let me,” he said.

I soft smile crossed my cheeks, and I didn't want to say anything else. I didn't want to ruin the moment. So much had been ruined by so many poor decisions made from insecure places, and I didn't want to dwell on it any longer. I didn’t want to be angry at the lies and the deceit and the missed opportunities. Being angry at it would change nothing. I snuggled deeper into him and slid my leg between his. And as I sighed against his chest, his fingers found my hair and began to run through my tangled curls.

I loved it when he did that.

I was content for the moment but worried about what tomorrow would bring. I’d gotten my father on my side, or so it seemed. But Hollis was another beast altogether. He was fiercely protective and worse— Grant’s best friend.

And it would make me miserable if I ended up having a hand in ruining their lifelong friendship.