Page 16 of Keeping You

I watch her throat bob as she swallows before her eyes meet mine and she nods. I know she wants to push back, to say something, but she doesn’t. She just holds eye contact until I reach for the handle beside her. I step back and she follows as I open the door and help her in.

I spend the entire drive wanting to place my hand on the top of her thigh and feel how soft her skin is. To have some sort of connection to her. The emotions running through me have me wanting to claim her more than I did back in the restaurant.

When we pull into the parking garage, Hannah leaves the car before I can even open the door for her. I grab my bag and sticks and make it to the elevator just before the doors slide closed. Hannah has her arms crossed over her chest, pushing up her tits, and it takes everything in me not to stare. This woman has me on the edge of control.

The second we make it into the apartment, she kicks off her shoes and heads into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Well, tonight didn’t exactly go as planned.

CHAPTER 7

Hannah

When I wake up, my phone is full of texts both in the group chat and from my friends individually.

Fucking Grayson Maxwell and his big fucking mouth. Ugh.

I’m so pissed he went all fucking alpha and declared in front of everyone at dinner that I’m his wife. When he caged me against the car last night, I wanted to bite back, give him a piece of my mind, but then I flashed back to when I was a kid and heard the yelling and screaming from my parents and the anxiety the fighting brought me. So, I bit my tongue, and we rode home in silence, but I know that I’m not doing myself justice by letting him just get his way. I really need to find a way to drive him away and make him sign the annulment papers as soon as possible.

I know I can’t ignore my friends and their texts forever, but I hope I can at least make it through the morning before I have to share everything with them.

Grayson is still asleep when I step out of the bedroom, and it’s time to start phase one of scaring him off.

I’m no longer going to be a respectful roommate.

I bang around the kitchen as I gather everything I need to make myself a smoothie. I make sure to leave kitchen cabinets open and food scrapes on the counter as I load everything into the blender and turn it on. As the blender whirls, I stare at Grayson, who’s now sitting up on the couch and rubbing his eyes.

“Good morning,” he says groggily.

“Morning.”

I turn off the blender and pour my smoothie into a cup. Then I leave the dirty blender filled with water in the sink. I settle in the corner of the couch and grab the remote, putting onLove Is Blindseason 1 episode 1. Grayson looks over at me before leaving and going to the washroom. When he comes back out, his eyes bounce between me and the kitchen. With a sigh, he rinses the blender and loads it into the dishwasher, closes the kitchen cabinets, tosses the ends of my fruit into the food scraps bucket under the sink, and takes a wet cloth to the counters.

He makes himself coffee and an omelette before settling at the table. I watch him out of the corner of my eye but say nothing.

He eventually changes and says he’s going on a run as he leaves the apartment. I let out a breath as I pause the show.

Okay, I’ve started step one, make Grayson’s apartment a mess, but it’s not enough. This morning was just a tiny inconvenience. If I really want him to call it quits, I need to completely take over his apartment.

With a plan in place, I find a water bottle and fill it, leaving it beside the couch before I go into the bedroom. I grab my bag that has my romance books and movies inside and load up my arms before taking them into the living room. I place my movies on the entertainment unit. When mine don’t all fit, I take some of his out and put them in a basket underneath. I place my bookson every flat surface I can, the side table, the coffee table, the dining table, the kitchen counter, and the shelves.

I take a step back and assess. It’s a good start, you can begin to see my presence in the apartment, but it needs to be more.

I check the time then order an Uber to my place so I can grab some things from my apartment and my car. When I step inside, I realize just how much I miss having my own little oasis. It hasn’t been long since I moved into Grayson’s, but I can’t help but want to be back home in my own place. I tell myself that if everything goes well with my plan, I’ll be back here in no time.

I load up a few bags with some miscellaneous things and load my car. After parking back at Grayson’s, I take up the first load, dropping it all in the living room. Hearing the shower going, I figure I have enough time to go down and get the last load before he’s out.

I place throw blankets over the back of the couch and add a basket of them to the corner of the living room. I place candles everywhere, lighting a few as I go. I pull out a stuffed pig that I’ve had since I was a kid and place it amongst the throw pillows I set up on the couch.

I’ve just pressed play onLove Is Blindwhen Grayson walks out of the bathroom, his eyes taking in all the changes I’ve made to his apartment. He opens and closes his mouth as he looks. His eyes land on me, and he shakes his head before walking into his bedroom and coming back out dressed in a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt.

“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable,” he says.

“I have, thank you.”

“Okay, well, I’m going to go hit a few balls with the guys. Text me if you need anything.”

I watch as he leaves the apartment again.

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