Cold. Bored.
Vicious.
Goose bumps rose.
“Five minutes, Snitch.”
He pushed me off him and I stumbled into West, grasping his arm so I didn’t fall. West turned around, steadying me. His eyes narrowed on the now empty steps.
What kind of excuse could I make?
But I believed him.
Thirty
STORY
I knew where to go instinctively—our room.
I first saw the flash of gold, glimmering in the low light. Grayson sat on the ground, one arm on his knee, the other rolling the coin from knuckle to knuckle.
“Grayson?”
“You’re late.” He slammed the coin beside him into a priceless painting.
“I couldn’t…I had trouble getting away.”
A lot of trouble. In fact, I didn’t really get away. I kind of just never went back to West.
“I could take you from him.” He scratched the coin into the paint. “I could use this and take you from him and he couldn’t stop me.”
He knew why he couldn’t do that. He was stuck on the web with me, and didn’t need me pointing it out.
I took a step closer to him.
“I have all the luck in the world…” Scratch.
In the dark, his reckless hair falling over his eyes, and his profile illumined only by the stars outside, Grayson reminded me of a Byronic hero.
Yet even more wild and unhinged.
“You were on your knees. He put you on your knees. I don’t like you on your knees. For him. For anyone.” Scccratch.
I tried to think of what I could say to him, what words would pull Grayson out of this and prove I was his and his only. Then I realized, words could never do it.
So I dropped to my knees. “What about for you?”
He paused, coin mid-scratch and pulling up paint. A thousand looks ran through his eyes.
He exhaled slowly. “You’re cheating.”
I looked up at him from beneath my lashes. “Is it working?”
He stood up and walked in a slow circle around me. “You look like the day you came to me.”
“You didn’t look at me this way then,” I whispered.
He slid his fingers through my curls, twisting my head to the side. Examining me like I was one of the priceless pieces of art in the room.
I swallowed the needy ache spiraling through my gut. “You didn’t touch me this way, either.”
“Is it fucked up that I like you on your knees, Snitch?” He kept twisting my head around in his grip, back and forth, the subtle possession of it stoking a slow burn inside me.
“If it is…” I licked my lips, and his eyes dropped to that, grip tightening just a little. “Then I’m just as twisted. I like dropping to my knees for you, Grayson.”
“Not for him.” The growl got twisted in my throat, cutting, and his grip turned vicious.
“Never for him.” His eyes softened, and his free hand dragged along my bottom lip.
“I can see you as queen, little wife. There’s nothing hotter than a queen who kneels for her king.”
“I can think of something hotter…”
He arched a brow.
“A king who kneels for his queen.”
He grinned, crooked and feral, then fell to his knees. Even on his knees, I had to crane my neck back to see into his icy eyes.
“The first time we made love, you stood above me like a god, as the Grayson Crowne of myth…and then you fell to your knees.” I pressed my forehead to his. “You’re the only one who ever knelt for me.”
He inhaled a shaky breath. “Little nun, let me do it.” He bruised his forehead into mine. “Just let me end him now.”
“And then what?” I whispered. “What happens to you? You go to jail? Worse? You’re so close to being everything you want, Grayson. The hero. Don’t let this ruin it, don’t let anyone ruin it.”
His eyes were crackling blue electricity. “I’m going to get you out of this. The world will know you’re mine.” His palm seared my stomach. “This is my baby. My fucking baby.”
“Yours,” I breathed, an incantation. “Fuck me, please.”
“Do you want to know how many times I’ve rubbed my cock raw to you? I picture you sitting on my face, fat with my kid—” He swallowed.
My words were shallow with need. “You’d like that?”
“I think about lying in bed with you. Sideways, holding your belly as I slide my cock inside you.”
“Ungh…” A broken, needy sound left my lips as flashes of heat assaulted me. I was burning up, burning up beneath the blurring gold and silver antiques and scent of black cherry leaking from the hallway. I knew he had more to say, because he looked away as if just saying the words took immense control.
“Tell me,” I begged, addicted to this fantasy. “Please.”
His eyes flashed back, dark.
“You sucking my cock.” He gripped my stomach, bruising. “Covered in my fucking teeth. Every inch of you marked and owned by me. On your knees begging for more.”
His lids hood with shame and desire, hungry even now, as if picturing it.
Oh God, I can’t breathe.
“I like you so much like this, I think I’ll have to keep you pregnant.”
Oh, fuck, how many kids does he want?
His pink lips stretched cruelly across his white teeth—he could read the words in my head, in the way only Grayson Crowne could.
“With you… When we’re living happily ever after. When I can hold your hand, wake up next to you, and I can drag you to me and kiss you in public and not have to worry about who will try to hurt you…”
I closed my eyes at the mental image.
“When I can fuck you and fill you with as many babies as I want…” His palm seared my flesh. “I’ll never stop. I’m going to fill you with so many fucking babies, Snitch.”
I opened my eyes to his dark ones, eyes popping. “What if I don’t want any more?”
He growled into my ear and it melted down my spine. “You shouldn’t have kissed me if you didn’t want to be filled—”
The door behind us opened, and Grayson stopped cold.
“I’ve been looking for you.” West’s eyes trailed to me.
Grayson’s grip bruised, and I could feel his need, feel the anger and heat and angst in his touch. This was ripping him apart—it was ripping me apart. We weren’t even a day into this shaky truce and it was starting to crack and crumble.
Could we withstand another day like today?
“We just have to survive it,” I whispered, low enough for only Grayson to hear.
West shut the door, leaning against it. “You’re going to have to accept that we’re a team now.”
“What are you bringing to this partnership, West?” I snapped.
He leaned back, folding his arms. “I could tell you that whatever you plan to do, if you wait, my father won’t be around to watch. He’s leaving before New Year’s.”
“Why?” Both he and Beryl? None of this felt right. Grayson and I shared a look.
“He expects me to continue looking on my own.” West rubbed his jaw. “I think he’s following Beryl.”