Page 46 of New in Town

21

MADDIE

“Iwant to stay,” Grey tells her through the kiss.

She clutches his bicep, catching her breath. “Is this helping, then?” she asks.

He lets out a deep laugh, and the sound seems calmer than earlier. “It is. Apparently, the trick for panic attacks is making out with your girlfriend.”

Her brain hooks on the wordgirlfriend. Is that how he feels about her? Or is he playing the part in public as agreed?

Pushing the questions from her mind, Maddie smiles up at him. She doesn’t want to debate with herself tonight, she just wants to be here with him.Whatever happens, happens, she tells herself.

“Then we’ll stay, and make out all night,” she says, trailing her hand down his chest and bringing it to a stop on his belt buckle. Tracing her finger lazily along the inside lip of his waistband, she bats her lashes up at him. He shivers in response, and it feels like a personal victory being able to get him out of his head.

Always in control, always carrying a sense of responsibility for everyone and everything, she wants him to let go of it all in the heat of the moment with her. Tonight. She wants to watch him let go tonight. But they only just got to the bar, and it feels too soon to ask him to take her home.

He raises his eyebrows as she curls her fingers around his buckle. “I don’t think we can dothathere,” he says, the corner of his mouth kicking up in amusement.

She keeps her hand locked onto his belt, but reaches over to pick up her drink with the other.Two drinks, she decides. After two drinks it will seem acceptable to leave. “Then what did you want to do?” she asks innocently as she takes a sip.

Grey turns to survey their surroundings. The dancing has spilled out onto the patio around them, the music drifting from inside. They are still protected in their own little corner. A buffer from the crowd, she notices with relief.

When he looks back at her, there is a familiar sparkle in his cool blue eyes. “I want to dance with you tonight.” And then he picks up his glass and throws it back, easily finishing the drink in a single gulp.

She finishes her drink quickly and he leads her to the edge of the outdoor dance floor that has formed. She knows this can’t be easy for him right now, and she’s giddy that he wants to do it with her anyway. A deep voice croons a slow country song from the stage inside and he takes her into his arms, moving them with the music.

She melts into his embrace, letting herself be carried by him, the song, and the moment. The heat inside her rages on, stoked further by the feel of his fingers along her lower back and the way he guides her. He never takes his eyes off her as they move, hunger in his gaze.

* * *

Three songs later, the music shifts to a faster pace, and she has no interest in joining the line dance that is starting. As if he can read her mind, he pulls her away from the dancing crowd. “Hit the bar?”

“Yes please,” she says, but glances in to see it’s as crowded as before. “Or I can just go get us—”

“No way. I’m keeping you close tonight.” He spins her towards the doorway and places both his hands on her hips, guiding her inside. They move through the crowd until they find an empty seat at the bar. Motioning for her to sit, he leans in from behind and envelopes her in a hug. Nestling into his embrace, she tries to focus on his heart rate. Last time, she could feel it racing. And while it’s not as steady as the night she slept with her head on his chest, it’s calmer than earlier.

He presses his lips to her ear. “Same thing?”

She nods, unsure how a simple question can sound that seductive. The bartender, who of course knows Grey, comes over to get their order. This time, he hovers to chat Grey up about the ranch. She can’t help but notice that as Grey speaks, his thumbs move in lazy circles along the strip of her torso that’s exposed.

As the bartender steps away, Grey spins her on the barstool to face him. His eyes immediately catch how her skirt has hiked up from sitting. He rests his hands on her bare legs, rubbing his thumbs up and down her inner thighs. She shivers in response, happily at his mercy.

“Do you know what you do to me?” he asks, moving closer so he’s almost straddling her.

With him this close, she tilts her head all the way back to see his face. As she does, she flashes him a full smile. “I have an idea, but why don’t you tell me.”

Her favorite Greyson smile, the most alluring one, stretches across his face. He lifts his hands from her legs and brings them up to clasp her face. She thinks that he’s going to kiss her.

Instead, he murmurs, “You give me that look, and I lose all ability to think. It’s just you. And those lips that pout at me to devour them, and your blushing cheeks that are like a magnet for me. I’m out of my fucking mind to feel you, Maddie. It’s getting to be too much. The more you touch me… and how you tease me. Such a damn tease, I want to show you just what will happen if you keep it up.”

“Will you do it? Show me?”

He nips at her lip in a taunting bite. “Say the word. We leave, and I won’t be the gentleman that says goodnight at your door tonight.”

Her head is reeling from his words. She wants to see him follow through. To punish her for teasing him, in the best ways.

Grey is straightening and nodding to someone behind her. The bartender, she’s assuming. He hands a glass to her, and she is eager to stick to her two-drink rule. “Should we go outside again?” she asks, her breath catching when he runs his thumb, cool from holding her drink, up the inside of her thigh and under her skirt.

---