Gray
“I just want to say, you have a beautiful body.” She did. It was all lean muscle and bone. Like a runner. She didn’t need extra curves to be sexy, but maybe it was in her mind to get back to the way she was before the accident. “A spectacular ass.”
“Ha! Scars are not sexy.” She was lying on her stomach, her face turned toward me on her pillow. We were in Tessa’s bedroom, the room across the hall from the one with the hospital bed. This room was smaller, but I guess it wasn’t crowded with bad memories.
She’d stripped down to her panties—a very sexy barely-there scrap of pink silk.
“Got news for you…” I reached down, grabbed her hand and placed it against the fly of my jeans covering my rock hard cock.
Her head popped up in surprise. “Is that because of me?”
“All because of you. And not the first time.”
“Well, sure, over at your place.”
“That wasn’t the first time either.”
Her eyes went big, blinking at me. It was like she didn’t know how fucking beautiful she was.
“Okay, tell me where it hurts.” I squeezed some of the cream on my hand, then rubbed my hands together to warm it up.
“Um…everywhere.”
I hated that she was in that much pain, and you can bet I was going to make sure I hit everywhere.
“Wait! That was a fib. Mostly I hurt on my right side. Right arm, shoulder, ribs, hip, leg. That’s were all the breaks and the pins are.” Her eyes flicked up to me before her long lashes hid them. “I just said everywhere so you’d, you know, touch me…everywhere.”
“Naughty girl.” I grinned. “Sounds like there may be a spanking involved now.”
“What!” She rose up on her elbows.
“Kidding. Relax. Here we go.” I started at her feet and ankles, moving up to her calves. I focused on her right side, but every inch of her body got some attention. I pressed my thumbs firmly into the muscles while massaging with my fingers as I worked my way up to her thighs.
I discerned two different moans. One when I hit one of her aching spots. I’d ease up a little but spend some extra time on it. The other moan was breathier when I hit a sweet spot. For those, I’d add my lips and tongue.
“Time to flip,” I said, my voice rough and edgy. I’d just finished massaging her lower back and ass, so yes, I was on the edge.
She rolled over, her eyes dark with desire.
“Beautiful.” I ran my gaze over her face, down to her breasts, her stomach and pink silk. “And I thought your back side was my favorite. So wrong.”
I ran my hands and fingers over her shoulders and down her arms, kneading her muscles before stroking lightly along to the next spot. I added another squirt of cream to my hands and moved on to her right thigh—the one she said was the source of her worst pain.
“Close your eyes,” I said, and she did with a sigh while I massaged into her thigh until I felt her give the pain over to me. I moved on to the other leg when she moaned, her eyes fluttered open, glittering up at me. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. No. I feel…really wonderful. I’m just”—her hips wiggled restlessly—“uh…I guess you could say needing attention other places. You know, other places.”
“Other places?” My eyes took in her flushed cheeks, her tightly pointed nipples, and the way her teeth nibbled at her bottom lip. I looked back into her eyes, hot with desire. “Ah, other places.”
She nodded. “I mean, if that’s something you want.”
“Oh, I want.” I lifted her pelvis, pressing her legs wider, and placed a kiss against her pink panties where she was damp. Using my tongue, I licked her clit through the silk. It only took a few swipes of my tongue before she shattered.
“Tessa? Are you good now? Or do you want more? We can stop right here.” Bringing her pleasure, watching her lose control, had me rock hard. I was damn close to going off too. Fuck, I was torturing myself, but even if she called the whole thing off right now, it would have been worth it. “You tell me what you want.”
“I want more,” she said, her voice soft, but sure. “I want you.”
Whew. Okay. I was more than ready. But… “That sounds excellent, but maybe we should talk about any limitations—I don’t want to hurt you…and you—”
“Gray, can we just go with the flow. I promise if anything hurts, I’ll let you know.”
“You have to mean it. The slightest twinge, you let me know so I can stop.”
She drew an “X” over her heart and her lips quirked up into a sexy smile.
That worked. I was already bare foot, so I tugged my shirt over my head and tossed it, unzipped my fly, grabbing the condom from my wallet, I ripped it open and rolled it on before pushing my jeans off with my boxer briefs.
Tessa lay watching me. Her eyes luminous and intent and focused on my cock. “Oh my. Now I understand your cocky attitude at my mention of making comparisons when your pants came off that first night we met.”
“Me? A cocky attitude? I have no recollection of that.” I pressed a knee on the bed, moving up and over Tessa, resting my weight on one elbow.
I moved my hand to her face, the pad of my thumb gliding whisper soft on the skin along her cheekbone, my eyes looking into hers, seeing her beauty, yes, but her strength too. Sliding my hand down, cupping her jaw with my hand, I tilted her head back, bent my head, and touched my lips to hers. She smiled, her green eyes bright with wanting me.
There was a rush of panic, a heart-stopping moment when it felt like she was seeing more than anyone else ever had. But then I looked in her eyes and something moved in my chest. And the unsettling realization that for the first time, I didn’t feel a need to protect the deepest parts of me. Or maybe I just wanted her more.
“Gray, I need you now. Inside me.”
I rolled away, dragging her panties down her legs, before moving back over her, carefully keeping my weight on my forearm next to her shoulder.
I ran the edge of my teeth down the line of her neck.
One hand wrapped around her rib cage, my thumb stroking the underside of her breast. Moving down to caress her hip, while I took my time kissing, tasting, and licking back and forth between her breasts, teasing her nipples into hard aching points. I slid my fingers down her quivering belly, slipping them between her thighs. She moaned, dark and needy while I ran a finger along her seam, feeling her arousal, ready for more of me. I looked down into her face, felt something catch deep within me. She nipped my bottom lip telling me she was ready. Fuck. I was more than ready too. I kissed her again.
Her legs wrapped around my hips. Her fingers gripped my shoulders, her head fell back, and her legs tightened around me as I slid into her heat. A soft moan tumbled from her throat. I pressed in slowly, eliciting a groan of pleasure from Tessa. I stilled a minute, letting her adjust before I began stroking her, long and slow.
I grabbed her hand with one of mine, interlocked our fingers, pulling her hand up over her head, holding it there as I rocked into her. Harder. Faster. Absorbing the feel of her—of us together.
“You good?” I checked.
“Never better,” she gasped and bit my chin.
My other hand slid up the back of her left thigh, pulling her leg tighter around me.
Her spine arched on a gasp. “Gray!” I tilted her face to mine and our gazes met and locked.
Her eyelids began to flutter down.
“Tessa…stay with me.”
She panted, but her eyes came back to me.
I pulsed hard into her. Again. And again. Our breaths spiraled up and out of control.
Tessa cried out, her body shuddering under mine. My own orgasm ripped through me just after, squeezing my balls and sending a current through my gut up into my chest, shaking me hard and deep.
I shoved my face against the curve of Tessa’s neck and breathed her in. Settling. Coming back down. Finally able to move, I dropped down on the bed next to her.
Hell, that was…like nothing I’d ever had before. The sex act by itself, when two people were seeking mutual pleasure, had always been physically satisfying. But nothing more. I’d given women my cock before—but kept myself disengaged. Closed off.
I’m not sure I could even put a name to it—a label on it—not sure I’d dare to. All I knew was for the first time ever, my heart felt satisfied too. Can a heart have an orgasm? Because I think mine did. Which I was keeping to myself, thank you, because I knew how whack that sounded. Maybe the best way to describe what just happened in this bed was that it felt like I cracked open my chest and gave Tessa free access.
So not entirely comfortable, since I’d never let a woman this close before. But weirdly not uncomfortable. Any other time…any other woman…I’d be long gone by now. I didn’t feel the need to get up and out of Tessa’s bed. I didn’t want to. And yes, that scared me just a little.
“Tessa?”
“Still here… Although I think I’m floating somewhere up near the ceiling.”
“I like hearing that.” I wanted to be able to give her orgasms that shot her over the moon. I was on my back, one arm wrapped around Tessa, my other hand resting on my chest. I rolled toward her, shifting us both until I had her tucked against me, her back to my front, our legs comfortably tangled, and one hand on her belly. “Do you mind talking about it?”
“No. That was the most amazing sexual experience I think I’ve ever had.” She sighed and it ended on a happy hum.
I felt a smile spread over my face. “Yeah, I’m going to have to agree with you there. But, I was talking about your accident. And your recovery.”
As if on cue, her body went stiff in my arms. Just the slightest bit. Just enough to let me know how hard this was for her still. Which, yeah, because three years was nothing. Three years was yesterday when it came to pain.
“It’s not easy, but I can talk about it. A little. But…I have a few questions about your brother. The one who’s missing.”
“Fair enough. I guess this sharing thing and opening up is a two-way street. So, about the accident…”
“I’m not sure how much more there is to tell. You already know the details: A truck driver fell asleep behind the wheel and crossed the center line.”
“Not those details. After the crash…what happened after.” I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms tighter around her. I couldn’t think about Tessa lying in the twisted metal wreckage.
“Some of the memories after the crash are sketchy. I was in a medically-induced coma for a week while the doctors tried to reduce the pressure in my brain. More surgeries than I want to or can remember. Eventually I moved from the regular hospital to a rehab hospital.”
“You were at Meadowbrook.” One of the nurses at the front desk had said Tessa was one of their success stories and one of their favorite patients. It was easy to see why with the way she and Sully had lit up the faces of other patients. Patients still immobilized in bed and those relearning to walk on the parallel bars or treadmills in the large exercise room.
“Yes. For six months. I had a TBI. Needed to relearn how to feed myself, walk. Remap the connections in my injured brain. Months and months of pain. But a lot of love too. I wouldn’t have made it without my dad and my grandma Gigi. And Laura. It’s been a long three years.”
The question I still wanted answered was, where did her ex fit in?
“What about Paul? Thought he was an old boyfriend with the territorial pissing thing he did.” Any man worth his salt would have gotten his ass over there to help her no matter how long ago they’d broken up. The only excuse I’d buy was if he was an astronaut stuck on the International Space Station.
“We broke up.” It was subtle, but the carefully flat tone of her voice said it wasn’t that easy.
“Before the accident?”
“No.”
“Who broke it off? You?” I hoped to hell it was Tessa. I could see her doing that. Breaking up with him so she wouldn’t be a burden. But what kind of man would let her? What kind of fucking guy wouldn’t want to be there for her when she was about to face a walk through hell?
“No.”
The fucking weasel. I was pissed. Did I like the idea of Paul and Tessa together? No. No, I fucking didn’t. But what I liked less was the idea of Paul fucking abandoning her when she was at her lowest point.
“He’s a fool. He’s a fool if he had you in his life—and threw it away.” Tessa’s head twisted around to look at me. Her eyes luminous in the soft light. She rolled in my arms until she faced me and we lay chest to chest. I pulled her further up, wanting her weight, so she was half-sprawled over me, one arm around my waist, her head resting on my chest. Damn, she felt good in my arms. “He’s a damn fool. He didn’t deserve you.”
“Thank you. To be honest, it hurt at first. But it didn’t take me too long to realize he’d actually done me a big favor. I mean, it isn’t really love if a person can’t stick during the hard times, right?”
Right. And then there were the times when even love wasn’t enough. Sometimes you love a person and the hard times hit like a tidal wave. And you try to hang the fuck on, but end up failing them anyway. Was that what had happened with her ex? Was he a nice guy who’d just been hit by the tidal wave and missed his chance to stick during the hard times? Like I had with Ryker?
“You’re looking very serious up there.” Tessa ran her fingers over my chin and along my jaw. “You doing okay?”
“Never better.” I turned my head and pressed my lips to her palm, surprising myself that that wasn’t a bullshit answer.
“Good. Because now it’s my turn.”
“Go for it,” I said. I was an open book, if you didn’t count the opening chapters I’d ripped out and stashed away.
“Okay. I realize we’re lying naked in bed, but your lips, sadly, aren’t on any part of my body, so I’d like to hear about your brothers. And the one you lost track of…”
Damn.