Page 29 of Yours, Always

“I’m not going anywhere, Grey. I can wake you up every hour after this now, so I’ll be going to sleep in Gabe’s bed.”

“No, please stay, I always sleep better when you’re with me.” Greyson moved over, making room.

“Grey, we haven’t shared a room since college, and we haven’t shared a bed since North Carolina. You have no clue that you’d sleep better with me.” Still, instead of leaving, she hesitated. It really was nothing new, they’d often shared small spaces—camping in high school, movie dates throughout college, sleepovers in general. But it had been a long time since college and there was something different about this request. A yawn broke through her thoughts, and she realized how tired she was. Sleep was needed, so rather than argue she slid in next to him.

“That’s better. My dreams are clear when I’m with you.” He reached out to put an arm on her, but she scooted a few inches away, confused.

“What do you mean, Grey?”

“Do you know there are days that you’re the only thing that keeps my world spinning? There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that I haven’t thought of you. Thought of what it would be like to come home to you, to kiss you, to hold you, to make love to you. Whenever I wanted, that you were there, and I could call you mine. There is absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Tell me what I need to do to call you mine.”

“Oh, Greyson.” Prudence breathed. He gripped her hip, pulling her closer to him, and this time she didn’t resist.

“Prudence, my beautiful girl.”

Greyson slowly lowered his mouth to hers. The soft pressure of his lips on hers was pure bliss. He moved his hand from her hip to her backside, pulling her straight against him. She gasped at the contact, at the intimate intrusion of him pushed against her, the short T-shirt doing nothing to cover her. She instinctively parted for him and threw one leg over his hip as Greyson’s tongue plunged into her mouth, sweet bliss giving way to intense passion. She’d had no clue how much she’d wanted him until this very moment.

As she tilted her hips closer to him, she felt him pull away. Greyson stopped, kissing her once more on the lips, then on the forehead. He tucked her close to him and murmured, “That’s better,” before promptly falling asleep.

Prudence lay in stunned silence for a long while.What just happened? She listened to his even breathing, in and out. In and out.Did we just kiss? The most panty-wetting kiss of her life, and Greyson was lying next to her, concussed and sleeping. As sleep eventually overtook Prudence, she thought she should extract herself from Greyson’s embrace, but it felt so good. So right. She’d think about it in the morning.

The next few times Prudence woke Greyson up nothing unusual happened. He answered her questions and fell asleep, unconcerned, if he noticed at all, that she was in bed with him. When Gabe came home, he said he’d do the last few checks, six a.m. being the final one, then he was going to sleep as long as he could, having been awake for almost twenty-four hours. He didn’t bat an eye at finding Prudence in Greyson’s bed rather than his, though. Prudence slept through Gabe’s questions but was conscious of snuggling back into Greyson’s arms when he lay back down in bed each time.

Greyson had the most wonderful dreams. Prudence had been soft and willing in his arms. She fit against him perfectly, just as he’d envisioned a hundred times. He lay there with his eyes closed, basking in the feeling that he was satisfied beyond reason, more so than he should be from just a dream.I can even smell her. Then, the bed moved, and awareness rushed back to him. He remembered last night, Prudence coming into his bed. Prudence kissing him with wild abandon. Prudence rubbing herself against his erection. Greyson’s eyes popped open, and he tried to sit, only to have a lightning bolt pierce his skull, his eyes slamming back shut.

“Greyson!” Prudence exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Oh shit. It was real. It had been real. What did I do? He put his hand to his head, covering his eyes and blocking out the light. “Can you shut the shades, Pru? My head is killing me.” Did he really spout off that speech from the movie script yesterday?

He felt her bounce out of bed and dared a peek. He groaned. He didn’t imagine it. She was in his favorite T-shirt, the hem barely covering her ass.Holy shit, that was a nice ass.

“I’ll grab you some water for the Tylenol, I’ll be right back,” Prudence said, interpreting his groan as pain.

Oh, Greyson was in pain, all right. His cock was more swollen than it had ever been. Prudence had spent the night with him, in his bed, in nothing more than a T-shirt. He had to get her out of here, she couldn’t see what state he was in. His mind was racing. Last night shouldn’t have happened.Not like this. She was with Chuck, and he was not that kind of guy. Well, he was that kind of guy, hehadbeen that kind of guy, but didn’t want to be that guy with Prudence. He was so embarrassed he let it get to that point last night, hell, he thought it had been a dream. He had to do this right, to get this right, and that meant starting over. She couldn’t know he remembered last night. He would pretend nothing happened.

“Here you go, Grey,” Prudence said, leaning over him and handing him two Tylenol, putting the cup of water to his lips. Greyson could see her breasts swaying under the T-shirt, unbound and free. He sputtered on the water.God, I hope I’m making the right choice.

“Oh!” Prudence yelped, setting the cup on the table. She pulled the wet shirt away from her breasts. “Crap! I’m going to get dressed.” She felt embarrassed as she walked into his closet where her change of clothes was. The T-shirt had felt short last night in the dark, but it was positively scandalous this morning. “I had to borrow a shirt.” She raised her voice to be heard through the closet doors. “I forgot my pajamas when I packed my overnight bag.”

When she came back out, Greyson was sitting, looking at his phone. “I’ve got at least a thousand missed calls and texts. Word does spread fast.” He set his phone down. “Thank you for staying last night, Pru. You must be exhausted.”

“Last night was certainly memorable.” Prudence smiled, shyness washing over her.

Greyson smiled back, apparently unconcerned, still scrolling through his phone. “It was all a blur to me. I hope you were able to sleep okay, that I didn’t toss and turn too much.”

Prudence stood there. He wasn’t saying anything about last night? She shifted awkwardly on her feet, not knowing what to say. If he didn’t remember, should she say something? He’d just had a concussion and possibly didn’t know what he was doing.There’s no way he really wanted me, even with that grand speech. Old insecurities bubbled to the surface. She was just Prudence.No. Prudence slammed that door in her mind shut. She was an amazing woman. No man was ever going to make her doubt that. Not even Greyson Atwood. Especially not Greyson Atwood.

“I’ve got to go. Try torest, Grey.” She turned and sauntered out, her hips swaying as she did.

Chapter Fifteen

By that afternoon, Prudence’s mind was racing. After her afternoon and subsequent night with Greyson, her world seemed to be spinning on an axis that was far too tilted. All throughout the morning, while she was trying to finish her proposal for a high-profile kitchen remodel, she battled the feelings of euphoria quickly followed by nausea, and vice versa. More than once she buried her head in her hands while groaning out loud, and it certainly wasn’t due to the fact that this particular couple had polar opposite tastes she was supposed to appease. Her warring mind was running at full speed as she decided to break early and walk to the diner to meet Annabelle for their weekly lunch rather than driving.

This is Greyson! She set out, finally letting the details from the night before permeate her brain now that her work was no longer a suitable distraction.He’s a huge Hollywood actor that not only has been my friend for over thirty years, but has had such a varied personal life that, due to his fame, I’ve been privy to reading and hearing about for almost as long.Even above Annabelle, despite the distance and years away from each other, he was the one person she reached out to when she needed help, a conversation, a pick-me-up or a confidence booster. The one constant in her life, besides her immediate family, had been Greyson. He was like a worry stone, who she longed for when she needed something comforting to touch, in the figurative sense of course, until last night.

When she’d decided to break away from her steady job and start her own business, Greyson had been the first person she called to talk it over with. Even though he was in the middle of filmingThe Night You Didn’t Want to Die, sequel toThe Day You Didn’t Want to Die, he’d had enough Hollywood clout by then to break for as long as he needed to talk with her before she came to the foregone conclusion that it was time to be a small business owner.

How did her feelings go from one of platonic comfortableness to attracted botheredness?Oh yes, I’ve always found him attractive.It was impossible not to notice as they had got older how he’d topped out at a comfortable six-feet-three-inches, or how well he’d started to fill out that tall frame as the trappings of adolescence wore off. What had changed, though? Was it one look, one incidental graze of skin? Her face grew warm as she flushed all the way from her roots to her toes, her skin prickling in gooseflesh as she thought about the kiss last night. She had never gotten wet before while thinking of Greyson.That does not sound like a worry stone.

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