Page 115 of You First
“Oh holy hell,” he swore. “You don’t get it.”
She hesitated a moment. “Jamie used to call me Spider Woman because they look like webs.”
Gray rolled back on top of her, capturing her hands in his. “I should horsewhip him for that alone.”
He watched her eyes, hoping she’d smile. When she didn’t, Gray pressed his palms against hers and interlaced their fingers.
“I will give back everything,” he vowed. How he managed to master the rage in his tone, Gray didn’t know. “Everything anyone’s ever taken from you, I want to restore.” Others had dared to take her shelter. Her security. Her body. Her beauty.
He’d see those all returned, and he’d throw his heart into the bargain.
“Gray,” she whispered, her eyes welling.
He shook his head and kissed her hard before pulling back. “But I can’t let you cry,” he said, raising a brow. “Not when I’m trying to make love to you.”
This time, he got the smile. And the laugh.
Making Meredith laugh on any given day had become one of his chief joys. Making her laugh in his bed while she wore only a towel was damn near electrifying.
“You are so beautiful.” The freedom to say those words drenched him in bliss, but he wanted her to believe them. “All over… Here…” He kissed her lips. “…here…” He kissed her neck. “…here…” He kissed the tempting valley at the top of her cleavage. Her chest quaked under his lips.
Then, moving onto his side so he wouldn’t crush her, Gray released one of her hands and reached for the top of her towel. He traced a finger lazily along its edge, staring into her eyes and waiting. And he could wait like this forever, skating the tip of his finger over the swell of her breasts.
But then, his patience was rewarded when Meredith lay her hand over his and, together, they pushed the towel aside.
He sucked her right nipple into his mouth.
“Oh, Gray…”
He didn’t know which was sweeter, the way she gasped his name or the delicate flesh against his tongue. He suckled, letting his hands run along her ribs, down the sides of her waist, and up under her back. She arched against him, clinging to his shoulders before moving her hands up his neck.
Her fingers curled in his hair, and Gray moaned around her breast as pleasure rolled through him. When his mouth claimed her left breast and Meredith’s hips bucked beneath him, Gray had to force himself to breathe in measured lungfuls or he’d spend himself like a boy of fourteen.
“Beautiful here.” He panted as he moved down her belly, smooth and soft, the feminine swell a place he’d never choose to leave. The silvery translucence that laced the skin just above her bikini line was like the mark of the stars, proof she’d given life.
“So beautiful,” Gray said, worshipping her. As his tongue gloried over such delicate marks, Gray found himself thinking that if he were very, very lucky, she might one day wear his own.
The thought had him praying for such a sweet future. But when he found the peach of her sex, all notions of future and past fled. He claimed the present in the taste of her desire.
“Oh, God! No one’s—” A cry shattered her words, but he’d heard enough. No one had given her the love she deserved. No one before him. Whether he lived another week or a hundred years, he’d give her everything. And in giving her everything, she’d be his.
Mine.
His savage growl followed another cry, and her thighs tightened under his hands. He marveled at how their intimacy revealed the heart of her. In the throes of love, she was completely herself. Honest. Real. And so rare. He loved Meredith like he’d never loved anyone. And he couldn’t help but love her because she held nothing back, sharing all she had. All she was. Even in this moment, she didn’t try to hide the depth of her desire.
Gray always knew where he stood with her, and yet she was full of surprises. The combination intoxicated him.
But the discovery of her passion was more than surprising, more than intoxicating. It was perilous because it rattled his control. He wanted to bring her over the edge again and again.
“Gray.” She pulled at his hair, tugging him up. “Please… You… I want you…”
He shot up like an arrow, and he found her hands fighting his own to open his fly. A moment later, Gray’s jeans and boxers hit the floor, and their bodies met skin to skin. Meredith’s legs latched around him, and Gray had to fight the urge to dive into her without another thought. But something in his brain still worked, and he pushed up and reached for his bedside table drawer.
After frantic rummaging and cursing under his breath, Gray produced a condom, but the kisses Meredith now planted across his chest made it almost impossible for him to put it on. Her soft lips on his skin sent chills down his back and his blood rushing south, but he managed the task.
“You feel so good,” he murmured.
When he was as close as he could be without being inside her, Meredith reached up and took his face in her hands. Their eyes locked, and Gray found himself transfixed. She gazed up at him with a look that reached inside of his chest and blanketed his heart. It was a look that couldn’t be called anything but love, and it both thrilled and terrified him.
