Page 74 of Fake It Till We Fall
The mattress dipped beneath his weight, his mouth hot on mine, and all at once, I needed more.
I tugged his shirt over his head, my palms skimming the hard planes of his chest, pulling him back up to me so I could once more feel his lips on mine.
I broke the kiss long enough to breathe, my forehead pressed against his. “I was so mad at you,” I confessed. “For so long. Maybe even still. It wasn’t your call to end us, Grayson.”
He stilled, his breath catching. His thumb brushed my cheek, tender even as his body trembled above mine. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry, Harper. But I meant it when I said I’d do it again. I’d endure that a thousand times over if letting you go meant you would chase your dreams.”
A lump rose in my throat. “It did,” I said softly. “But it didn’t stop me from wanting you.”
Whatever control he had left snapped. His mouth crashed back to mine, hungry and desperate, his hands sliding under my sweater, tugging it up and off me until I was bare to him. The heat of his skin against mine made me arch into him. My need for him overwhelmed me.
“I never stopped wanting you,” Grayson breathed. His mouth closed over my nipple; a low, primal moan slipped from my throat. “Never stopped wantingthis.”
His hands skimmed lower, down my body, while his mouth sucked and teased, driving me crazy. When his fingers slipped between my thighs, I cried out, quickly muffling the sound with the pillow. His fingers stroked slowly, insistently, until my hips lifted from the bed.
“God, Harper,” he groaned against my skin. “You’re so damn perfect, muffin.”
My heart caught, and I stilled at the use of the nickname he’d coined when we were kids. He was the only one I’d ever let use it. What had started as a joke had quickly morphed into an intimate pet name. Hearing it now did something to me.
“Gray.”
He was there in a flash. His mouth hovered over mine, his hand still between my legs, still slowly stroking, building the fire inside me as he waited to see what I’d say next. But the words wouldn’t come. I opened and closed my mouth, unable to say what I wanted to. What Ineededto.
Instead, I reached up, wrapped my hand behind his neck, and, looking into his eyes, whispered, “I need you.”
He let out a low growl that let me know he felt the same. His mouth once more collided with mine, as he slipped a finger between my folds at the same time that his thumb found my clit. He pressed with just enough pressure for me to fall apart completely.
I clutched at his shoulders, breathless. Above me, the stars spun in wild constellations as the waves of my climax crashed through me.
And when he slid into me, slow and deep, filling me completely, I buried my face in his neck as I moaned his name, every part of me sparking to life.
We moved together. Not rushed, not frantic. But steady and sure, as if we had all the time in the world. Every thrust, every kiss, each whispered word carried the weight of all the time we’d lost, and everything we’d found again.
The fire that had always been there between us as teenagers flared back to life in an undeniable blaze, tempered only by the years we’d spent apart, and the ache of knowing what it felt like to lose each other.
And when I shuddered around him again, his name once more on my lips, I knew with terrifying certainty that this wasn’t just sex. It was love.
It always had been.
Only now, I was home.
Grayson
Harper was curledhalf on top of me in her tiny childhood bed, her chest pressed to my chest, her breath evening out witheach passing second. Her hair had slipped from her ponytail, lying in a dark mass of tangles over her back.
My arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close as if she might slip away if I let go.
“You’re quiet,” she murmured, her voice thick with sleep.
“Just thinking about how damn lucky I am right now, muffin,” I whispered, using the pet name I’d given her in high school after she baked me a batch of lemon poppy seed muffins for my birthday.
“It’s been a long time since you’ve called me that.”
I stroked her hair slowly. “Is that okay?”
She nodded against my chest, not lifting her head. “Very okay.”
My smile took over my face as her body relaxed against mine, a soft hum of contentment slipping from her lips. She was asleep in moments, but I refused to close my eyes.
