Page 34 of Manhattan Heart

He’s content to just hold me and that says a lot about who Gray is.

The moment it moved from just loving him to needing him I knew that what we have was going to consume me from the inside and it has. For four years, I’ve fallen in Gray and he’s been there, every second with me. It was scary at first, but he showed me it was okay to love andneedhim and to give that back in return. Now I’m back in that terrified, unknown place again.

“I’m going to say something selfish as fuck right now. But you promised to always take care of me. I don’t mean with money, or all the cereal you bribe your way into my panties with or even the shoes. You promised, Grayson, so you can’t leave me alone, because I can’t do alone now that I know what it’s like to be one half of a power couple.”

“Ah, my sweetheart.” He breathes, squeezing me tighter.

I can’t cry, though I want to bawl like a baby.

I never knew a love this big could fit inside my body.

I love and obsess over Gray.

But it’s more than that.

Things I can’t put into actual words, but they all amount to the same thing of him meaning the world to me.

Every single breath that comes out of his body is worshipped.

Each smile he gives me is a treasure to hold and keep forever.

I just can’tbewithout him.

It’s nauseating to think of that day and though I can logically know the surgery can andwillgo fine, my whole body is in knots of fear of the unknown, of the most devastating thing happening.

Drawing back, Gray leads us over to the set of lounger seats we have on the balcony and he sits first, then pulls me across his lap before he skims a finger under my hair across my forehead.

He looks at me like I’m his life and I know this because I look back at him like he’s my everything.

A stray tear escapes down my cheek. He brushes it gently away.

“India, you are so beautiful and I hate to see sadness in your eyes. What can I do to fix it?”

“Give me a promise.”

He smiles slowly, kisses my lips once, then twice. Speaking against them. “I promise I’m going to be your husband for a very long time, annoying you, pestering you for sex, drinking your damn decaf coffee. Loving you for a long time, until my last breathe and even then, I’ll be waiting for you to come to me.” Oh, god. My heart goes into spasm and those tears I refuse to let free, sting the back of my eyelids. “This is nothing, baby. A few days’ time when I’m back home, you’ll forget all about this worry, because you’ll be too busy trying to climb on my dick.”

I snort a laugh and poke his hard chest before laying my head on it.

“Don’t leave me, okay? You know it’s all about me.”

“I know, baby. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I won’t leave you.”

“The way you love me, no....treasure me. It’s my air, Gray.”

Our foreheads meet, and I feel the warmth of his breath on my cheeks where the tears have dried up.

“I’m scared, Gray. Like the time I thought I’d lost my shoes in Central Park.” He laughs, kissing my nose, but this only makes me emotional again. “I shouldn’t even be making jokes right now because I’m really fucking terrified. I can’t be without you.”

“Hey now. Who said anything about being without me? If you haven’t realized by now, I’ve done everything I can to crazy glue you to me, haven’t I?”

“You really have, you deranged predator.” I half-laugh, practically curling up into a ball on his lap. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

At that, the two dogs scamper out, falling over their own little feet and try in vain to jump up with us. “I see I’m going to have to share your attention with them,” Gray hums, lifting both up to me so they can curl on my lap. “I didn’t think this through properly.”

I grin, digging him in the ribs. “You love them too, admit it. Look at their little faces, Gray.”

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