And. Don’t. Fucking. Talk.
“You know exactly where Grayson is,” I blurted. “Shocker. You know, even if Grayson did get enough brain damage to go for one of you, you would never be his number one choice.”
They both tilted their heads, as if seeing me for the first time, eyes sharp and venomous.
“So, what’s it like going from wife to mistress?”
“I’m sure she feels…relieved,” Pipa said, tilting her head at me. “Right? It’s hard trying to fit in where you don’t belong.”
“It’s kinda sad, though,” Aundi said. “Everyone came to their senses and kicked you out and you…what? Clung to the family for dear life?”
I blinked quickly, looking at the floor so they didn’t see the pain they inflicted.
I didn’t want them to have the power over me and I resented it deeply.
I knew all the reasons I was doing this and I thought that should be enough to bulwark me from judgment. I thought about this moment a lot—how others would react to me. I knew I’d confirm all of the whispers, and that whatever smidge of respect I’d managed to scrape together in their eyes would disappear.
“Shut up,” Lottie mumbled.
Aundi swiveled. “What?”
“You guys are kind of assholes, you know that?”
Aundi’s eyes popped, then Pipa patted her. “Pregnancy hormones make you crazy. My stepmom turned into a total fucking bitch…”
They walked away, laughing and stumbling into each other.
“I suddenly feel really sick,” Lottie said, emotionless.
I blinked. “Do you need help getting back to your room?”
“I’ll make my mother take me.”
Like a waif, Lottie walked away without another word.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her, pregnant and abandoned. She told me not to say anything about what I saw, but every day she seemed to disappear more.
With her gone, and West distracted, I slipped out of the ballroom. It was only eleven, but I thought…maybe I could hide in our room. If I stayed long enough, he might find me, and I could have a midnight kiss.
Thirty-Five
STORY
The room was so dark, I could only see the outline of him—a silhouette against the velvet sky.
“You’re already here,” I said, more breathless than I intended.
Grayson turned instantly at my voice, closing the distance in seconds. He dragged me to him and kissed me raw, breathless.
With his lips still pressed to mine, he said, “I’ve been waiting an hour for you, Snitch.”
He pulled at the elaborate lace and tulle that had taken my girl thirty minutes to put on.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “I hate these dresses.”
“Me too.” I breathed.
“I miss my dirty nun.” Shivers slid up and down like melted ice at the desperation in his voice. “It was so much easier to fuck you in them.” He spun me around, pressing me hard against his cock, and jammed his hand down the front of my dress, grasping my tit.
I gasped, holding his neck for balance, head falling back.
“Ah, well…” He massaged my breast, tweaked my nipple. “This is okay too.” I heard as much as I felt the grin in his voice when his teeth found my neck—the underside of my jaw, my ear, my everything.
“Tell me a secret, Snitch,” he growled against my flesh.
I tried to think of something I hadn’t told him as his bruising touch drove my brain to mush. The only secret was Lottie’s, and it felt…wrong to spill that. That secret wasn’t mine.
“I have.”
His growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating against my back.
His touch turned punishing, twisting my nipple until I arched up on a breath. Hand to my stomach, he pressed me back against his cock.
Prisoner.
“Tell me your words. They’re mine, right?”
I nodded eagerly.
“All your fucking words, Snitch,” he gritted, a harsh snarl. “Give them to me.” He bit my ear, dragging it out.
“I have,” I gasped.
Everything froze, teeth mid-bite.
He shoved me off and I stumbled forward.
I don’t know what I did wrong, but something happened. Grayson sat back on the windowsill, dragging his hands through his hair as the fireworks started to go off.
“Grayson?”
He ignored me, massaging his hands through his rose gold hair like he was working the solution to a problem he couldn’t figure out. The fireworks illumined his silhouette.
I said his name again, and again, as I moved closer to him. It fell on deaf ears.
So I dropped to my knees.
His hands froze in his hair and he looked down at me. Dark. Suspicious. So much emotion in those blue eyes that I couldn’t read.
I dragged my hands up and down his thighs. “Can I suck your cock?”
He groaned at that.
I undid his pants, and he didn’t stop me. I was mesmerized by every coiled inch of him. The deep muscled V pointing down to his cock, all the vining veins.
He was so hard. Purpled.
Wet.
Like me.
I feathered my touch along his cock and Gray threw his arm over his eyes, growling and arching his hips off the window and into my touch.
I kissed the throbbing muscles. “Please?”
Another groan.
I don’t know why he was holding himself back. Why he was acting like this. And I was so crazy with lust I didn’t care to find out.
I kissed his cock—Grayson fisted my hair, halting me, my lips just on the tip of him.
He lifted his arm slightly, just enough so I could see his shadowy lusty glare. His eyelids hooded, pupils dilated.
“I want you,” I groaned, aching with it. Desperate. “Let me swallow you, and then cover me in teeth, Grayson. Mark me, own me, I’m begging for more.”
He curled his fist in my hair. “Then tell me your words. Tell me everything, dammit. Bloody and raw!”
“I have.”
Emotion flashed in his eyes, brutal and bright and gone too quick, replaced by the darkness.
Like the fireworks in the sky.
He slammed me down onto him, cock bruising the back of my throat.
“Is this what you want?” he growled.
I tried to say yes and he jammed his cock harder against my throat. My yes was a slobbery, muffled mess. He grinned, mean.
He fucked me onto his cock.
Sloppy. Hard. Vicious.
“Snitches who don’t tell me their secrets get gagged with my cock.”
I couldn’t have asked what he meant if I tried.
Thrust.
Slam.
I gripped his muscled thighs for balance.
“I want your throat raw,” he growled. “I want it to hurt, so every time you speak, you feel the secrets you’re keeping from me.”
One last bruising thrust, tears sliding down my cheek, then he threw me off him without coming.
I fell back onto my hands.
He buttoned his pants over his still hard cock, and left me like that, with the fireworks pounding, with the taste of him still lingering on my lips.
Lingering like whatever was between us.
I want your throat raw. I want it to hurt, so every time you speak, you feel the secrets you’re keeping from me.