Beyond What is Given(56)

Both of us. How diplomatic.

“You going to try to hit me with your car again?”

“I won’t miss, and even Parker won’t be able to save you this time. Do you understand?”

“Loud and clear.”

Owen’s footsteps faded, and I stood entranced by Grayson’s back as it rose rhythmically with his breaths. He finally turned around, pinning me with his eyes.

Everything we were and could be simmered there, just out of reach—too far away to keep me warm, but dangerous enough to incinerate what was left of my heart.

“Grayson, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude. Mia just kind of dumped me here.”

His eyes flickered from mine to Grace and back again. “You…you can’t be here. It’s too much.” He shook his head like he’d answered a question that hadn’t been asked, and walked away, leaving me alone with Grace.

I blinked furiously as my eyes prickled with tears. Suck it up. You barged in where you don’t belong. This was what I wanted, right? To know who Grayson was behind the defenses he so painstakingly maintained. I just hadn’t expected the revelation to hurt so f*cking much.

“See what I mean?” I asked Grace as I picked up the largest pieces of broken glass. “The man has walls you’d need a miracle to break through.”

Because I wasn’t her. I never would be.





Chapter Eighteen


Sam


Grayson: I’ll be there in 15 to pick you up for dinner.

The text message flashed across my phone as I applied the last of my makeup. “Shitty apology,” I mumbled.

“He’s…a little difficult to read,” Paisley answered, sprawled out on my bed, flipping through a magazine.

“If there was a manual on Grayson, it would be written in a dead dialect of Aramaic and then published in Braille. He’s impossible.”

She smiled up at me. “You look stunning.”

I rubbed my lips together to evenly distribute the gloss. I’d dressed carefully, stopping at the outlet mall and picking up a new dress with thicker straps, a fitted bodice, and a flirty yet classy skirt. “Thank you. I’m still half tempted to tell him to shove this dinner up his ass.”

Paisley sat up, the scar from open-heart surgery peeking out the top of her shirt. It was a jarring reminder of how close Jagger had come to losing her. He loved her so completely that I could feel it when they were in the same room. Hell, in the same state.

“I’d use this time to snoop. If he won’t let you in, then ask his family the questions you want answers to.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Miss Southern Politeness 2015, really? You never snooped into Jagger. You wouldn’t.”

She chewed her bottom lip for a second. “You’re right. But Jagger and I kept too many secrets. We should have come clean early, and it would have been so much easier. Do you love him?”

What? “Love him? I wouldn’t go that far. I care about him. Deeply. I love things about him, but I wouldn’t rush into using that word.” No. That word got me screwed, in more than the literal sense, in the past.

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, what?” I strapped my wedges onto my feet.

“You remind me of someone.”

“Who? Morgan?” Our outspoken natures had been compared more than once.

“Me, right around the time I started dating Jagger.”

Grayson called my name before I had time to process that.

“Have fun!” Paisley called out as I headed down the steps.

Grayson waited for me at the bottom of the stairs, wearing pressed khakis and a light blue dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the top and rolled up just past his elbows.

I stopped on the second to last step, making me equal with his height, and ran my tongue across my lower lip. He looked incredible.

“Wow,” he said as his eyes scanned over me and then came to rest on my mouth. He leaned forward, and I stepped back up a step.

“Oh no,” I said. “You’re not going to kiss me and think that gets you out of what happened today.” I shook my head for emphasis.

A corner of his mouth rose. “I didn’t think it would.”

“Ugh. Don’t do that half-smile thing. It makes me think you’re back to being my Grayson and does things to me.”

He stepped up the next step. “I’m always your Grayson. Now tell me more about these things.”

I put my hands on his chest to stop his assault and nearly groaned at the feel of his muscles playing beneath my fingers. “No. You give me whiplash, I swear. Now take me to dinner. I’m not starting this with you again to get called out of it halfway through.” Hell no. I liked sex, loved sex, and the need I felt for Grayson’s body had me ready to rip his clothes off on the stairs. But I selfishly wanted all of him with me, every thought on me, every touch only for me. I didn’t want to share him for a single second, and I didn’t know if that was possible after seeing things go down today, or if I could separate sex from my feelings for him. They ran too deep already.

His arms slid around my sides, pulling me off the step and into his arms. “The next time I get my hands on you, Sam, I’m not stopping. So if you’re not sure about this, about us…well, this is your warning.”