Page 106 of Shattered Souls
“Your Gran was not the only family you have. You have us. You have me. You haveAurora.” Holding his gaze, I lightly trail my fingers over the high rise of his cheekbones. “For once inyour life, Grayson, let yourself feel all the hard emotions. Don’t bottle it up. Don’t push us away. You’ll regret it.”
He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I’m scared.”
“I know, but you don’t need to be. You’re not alone. Isn’t that what the three of you keep telling me? That I’m not alone? Well, it goes both ways, Grayson. If I’m not alone, then you’re not alone either.”
One minute Grayson is staring at me like he’s never seen me before, his hands fisting the bed covers, and the next, his lips are on mine, his hands in my hair, dragging me closer as he swallows me whole.
“Grayson.” My hands move to his chest, fisting his top. I intend to push him away. Instead, I pull him closer, eliminating the last of the space between us. “You’re supposed to be feeling,” I get out between frantic, desperate kisses.
“I am.” His voice is a deep rasp, rougher than usual. “Believe me, Riley, I’m feelingeverything.”
I gasp as he lifts us, flipping me onto my back in the middle of his massive bed. With his hand planted on the mattress beside my head, he hovers over me, his weight a sensual comfort as he stares down at me with that stoic, unreadable expression.
Except his eyes say everything.
Despite being darkened by his pain and grief, they are also warmer than I’ve ever seen. His gaze holds mine, and in that moment, I see past the facade he presents to the world. The walls he’s meticulously built around himself are still there, but there are cracks now, letting the light in. It’s as if the loss of his Gran has stripped away some of his defenses, revealing a man who feels deeply, even if he rarely shows it. Seeing him like this, so raw and unguarded, stirs something deep within me.
“You’re the eye of my storm,” he murmurs in a voice scraped raw with vulnerability. “When I’m with you, there’s this calm…this quiet I’ve never had before. Everything stops, and in that moment, I can just be.”
Bringing my hand to his face, I run my fingers through the coarse hairs of his stubble. Lifting my head, my lips hover inches from his. “Get lost in the storm with me, Grayson.”
It’s all he needs to hear before his lips capture mine in an intoxicating, dominant kiss, and he settles his weight fully between my legs.
I moan, arching my back and fisting his hair, pulling on the ends as I attack his mouth with equal fervor. Grayson and I might have crossed some invisible impasse tonight, although that doesn’t mean we aren’t still a storm waiting to happen. That we don’t still crave that harsh and demanding outlet from the other.
It’s different, but it’s also the same.
Just like when he chased me through the graveyard. It was the same as when he chased me through the field behind their house, but it was also different because I trusted him with my body that night—trusted him to keep me safe. To make me come. To make me forget.
Now… Now, I’m trusting him not only with my body but with my heart.
With rough tugs, he yanks my top over my head. He twists the fabric, my arms getting caught inside the material as he pins them to the mattress above my head.
Pulling away, he growls, his eyes raking over my face and chest. “I love it when you’re pinned and helpless beneath me.”
I moan, arching deeper as I grind my core along the hard length pressing against his jeans. With his free hand, he pulls down the cups of my bra, ducking his head to suck a pert nipple into his mouth.
He’s not gentle about it. Nothing about Grayson is gentle despite the caged, refined appearance he puts on for the world.
And I wouldn’t want him any other way.
Only when the skin is raw and sensitive does he move on to my other breast, lavishing it with the same attention before crawling down my body until his face hovers above the soft pink panties I’m wearing.
Working his way up my inner thighs with his mouth, there’s a damp patch darkening the cotton by the time he presses his nose to the fabric and inhales, humming. He bites and sucks on my clit through my panties until they stick to me, and I’m desperate for more.
“These have to go,” he finally declares, making quick work of peeling them down my legs and stuffing them in his jeans pocket before burying his face in my pussy like he’s been dying to do exactly that fordays.
“Oh god,” I groan, lifting my hips to meet his talented mouth.
It amazes me how Grayson can infuriate me yet have me coming apart on his tongue in mere seconds. Perhaps that’s part of it. The passion between us. The explosive chemistry. It can’t only flow in one direction.
“Fucking delicious.” Grayson’s words are muffled, barely audible as he eats my pussy like it’s his job—and we all know how seriously Grayson takes his job.
His fingers join the assault, and I’m primed to explode.
“Come, Tempest. Now.”
Goddamn, I both hate and love how he just has to command it, and my body instantly obeys like it was born to follow Grayson’s orders.
