Grant’s ordinarily bright-blue eyes turned dark with sadness, and I wanted to recall every word I had so selfishly let pass over my lips.
With both hands, I reached up and tugged his thick hair. “Please don’t be sad for me. I can’t stand that look of pity on your face right now.”
“It’s not pity, Blaze.”
“No? Are you sure?” I pressed, not convinced, and tried so hard to keep the bitterness from my voice.
“It’s empathy,” he answered and then kissed me once more. “And there’s a big difference. I don’t want to talk about my shitty childhood right now.” He rolled his eyes dramatically toward the moon. “I mean, talk about a hard-on killer, but there’s a lot about me you still don’t know. So, for now, you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that I know about heartache. I know about survival and how hard it can be to learn to trust love again.”
For a few moments, he just stared down at me, and the air was charged with something more intense. Something lusty and primal that was nearly palpable. I felt like a rabbit in the middle of circling, ravenous coyotes. Except I didn’t mind being the rabbit in this situation, and there was only one coyote. A very tall, very sexy coyote.
“Blaze,” he rasped, stretching his entire body out above mine.
“What?” My voice was needier than I intended, but Grant’s next comment quickly took away any concerns about showing all my proverbial cards to the man. Or about anything else.
“I have to be inside you.”
Trouble was, I was unable to do anything but stare back at him. Luckily, my body seemed to have the answer though. It took the wheel without input from me or my brain, and I gladly let it. I parted my legs to let him settle there, and slick arousal rushed to my core.
“Such a good girl,” Grant rumbled from low in his throat, and the sound resonated in my chest too.
I wanted to protest immediately. The praise that many women fell all over themselves to receive had the exact opposite effect on me. I fought most of my life to be an individual. I didn’t need another person’s approval of anything I did.
“Stop.”
“Stop what?” I whispered.
“The war you’re having with yourself over a few simple words.”
“I’m not—” I began to explain but stopped the moment Grant sank his teeth into my bottom lip. With his blue eyes boring into my mahogany ones, he kept the pressure on the tender pad until I whimpered.
“I think you’re stunning when you hand your body over to me.” Finally, he soothed my throbbing lip with a slow swipe of his tongue. “If praising you is part of the process of enjoying it for me, that doesn’t change who you are fundamentally.”
I continued staring up at him and memorizing the details of his beautiful face. The man had the bone structure of a Greek god and the swagger of a Hollywood A-lister. It didn’t go unnoticed how quickly he offered that answer and how polished it sounded when he did. Way back in the corner of my mind, a nagging voice told me this wasn’t the first time he’d recited that answer to a woman—and likely wouldn’t be the last.
Silently I told that nagging voice to shut the fuck up and let me enjoy myself for a change. Grant must have noticed my shift to acquiescence, because precisely at the moment I decided to let my guard down and scratch the itch that had been building between us again, he covered my mouth with his.
The aggressive, possessive, demanding version of Grant Twombley was present and accounted for. His kiss had equal parts teeth and tongue as it did lips and whispered promises. I wanted to moan and writhe seductively, but all I managed was a feeble whimper of desperate need. Jesus, holy son of God. I knew from my past time spent with him that he was an excellent lover. Fine, he was capable of blowing the roof off with just a clever twist of his hips.
But when we had been together the day before, he had been cautious and measured. I had worried that I would never see this side of him again. Concerned that he would treat me like I was fragile, damaged goods that couldn’t handle his Dominant nature. Not only could I handle it, I craved it. And while I struggled with the finer points of the dynamic when he was in this particular frame of mind, I definitely did not desire vanilla sex.
No—I was more of a Rocky Road with sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry on top kind of girl. I’d let Grant see a little bit of this side of me once before, but he had yet to see the whole picture of my cravings. Even Sean had never seen this side of me. I’d kept it hidden from him our entire marriage, instinctively knowing he would’ve never understood my darker fantasies. This part of me that so desperately needed to be satisfied…
But Grant would. In fact, he was one of the few men who would not only understand but could also satisfy my needs.
Just as the thought vanished from my mind, Grant shifted his weight so he could give me a lingering look, from head to toe. “Something just changed in your whole body,” he stated, sounding more like an investigator than a high-powered businessman or even a horny playboy.
I twisted my face and looked at him. “Are we role-playing as a detective and suspect right now?”
His grin was contagious as some sort of plan seemed to gain wings in his devious mind. “The idea has merit, Blaze. I probably have a pair of handcuffs in my luggage somewhere.”
“I’m game if you are,” I said mischievously.
He stood up, never taking his eyes off mine. “Are you okay if I look around in the cabin for a few things? It’s pretty dark out here, and I don’t want you to freak out.”
“I can turn the light on my phone on. Do you need help? Maybe if we both look—”
He held up his hand to interrupt me. “Baby, criminals don’t help their interrogators collect supplies they’re going to use to torture confessions from them.” Grant waggled his brows as he finished his sentence, and a giggle sprang from my lips and echoed out across the water.
“Oh, do you find that funny?” Somehow his voice had become deeper and more menacing, and I snapped my mouth shut so fast, I nearly bit off my tongue.
My new playmate leaned in close—so close, in fact, the tips of our noses brushed each other’s. “Now you sit here and come up with a plausible defense. I’ll just be a minute.” He winked and followed it with a forceful kiss, nipping my bottom lip with his teeth and tugging until I moaned.
When he stepped back, his eyes glittered with mischief and his erection made the front of his pants fit in a deliciously snug way. True to his promise, within a few minutes he was back, surprising me by coming up from behind. I still wasn’t completely familiar with the layout of the boat, so I had expected him to return the way he had gone.
Grant climbed back onto the sunbed with me and knelt beside me. “Close your eyes, little criminal,” he instructed, and I sat up taller, making a big show of squeezing my eyes shut.
Grant chuckled before saying, “Don’t think eagerness is going to get me to go easy on you now, lady. You had your chance to cooperate with the authorities earlier and chose not to. So now, just answer my questions when I ask them. Got it?”
“Fuck you.” I popped my eyes open just to glare at him, channeling all the rage I had felt the day we sat in the downtown conference room with the LAPD investigators. “I don’t have to do anything without my lawyer present.”