Page 48 of Outcast
What if we got further into this and I freaked out like I did with Dallas? Gray would let me stop. He’d said as much. But I’d have to flee his house like a ridiculous coward.
In front of his brothers.
“Emory?” Gray touched my arm. “You okay?”
I’d come to a full stop at a fork in the path: driving straight would take us to the auto shop, and curving right would take us toward the house.
“Um…”
“If you’re having second thoughts, you can just drop me off and go.”
My hands clenched on the wheel. “No, I… It’s just that your brothers are all there, and I know you said they know and they’re cool, but I’m not ready for all that.”
“Okay, I get it.”
I cursed under my breath. “I don’t want the night to end like this, though.”
I shot him a pleading look, silently begging him for something I didn’t know how to express. To give me what I needed even as I shied away from it.
“How would you feel about helping me rewrite a bad memory?” he asked.
“I’m not really sure what that means.”
He pointed toward the auto shop. “No one is in the garage at this hour. Last time I had a guy in there, theonlytime I had a guy in there, my life blew up.”
I drove into the auto lot. “Is that why you left town?”
“Yeah. Foster dad caught us. Wasn’t pretty.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” Gray shifted toward me. “Tonight isn’t about reliving that. It’s about experiencing something better. Giving me some good memories to enjoy every time I go to work.”
My stomach fluttered. Gray thinking about me every time he clocked in at the shop? I liked the idea of that. Even if we only did this once, even if it was casual, it would mean something to him.
Tonight was a big deal for me. I’d never forget it. And now, Gray wouldn’t either.
“Yeah, okay.” I drove up to the garage and killed the engine. “Let’s go.”
Gray unfastened his seat belt, then drew me into a long kiss. My insides instantly liquified, and I sank into him. It was strange, leaning into a man and letting his strength hold me, but natural too. Gray was solid—in body and spirit—the kind of guy who wouldn’t let me fall.
“Couldn’t wait,” he murmured against my lips.
I smiled as he pulled away, some of my nerves calming. When Gray got out of the car, I followed. The shop building wasn’t new, but there was a code-entry lock. Gray put in a six-digit code, and it whirred, and then the door clicked loudly as it unlocked.
He pushed it open, leading me inside. “Used to just have a key entry when I was a kid, but I guess after Bailey lost his key for the third time, Holden had enough.”
I chuckled. “I don’t blame him.”
Gray hit a switch on the wall, flooding one side of the bay with light. I scanned the garage as my eyes adjusted. An older-model sedan sat in the center of the space, a tall industrial toolbox on wheels standing nearby.
A worktable covered in auto parts, rags, and other odds and ends rested against the back wall, right beside a large floor fan and a minifridge.
Gray stepped into my field of vision. “Still want to see my ink?”
All concern for my surroundings disappeared. I couldn’t have torn my gaze away from him if I’d tried. “Yeah.”
He grabbed the back of his collar, tugging his black T-shirt over his head in one smooth move. Damn. I didn’t know where to look first. His body was just as solid as it looked in that hot Instagram photo. His chest was broad and covered with dark curls that matched his hair, thinning as it arrowed down the center of his stomach and trailed behind his waistband. His shoulders were built, his arms defined by muscle, and it hit hard that there was not a single thing about Gray that was soft or delicate.
