Chapter 22
Carrie
My eyes slowly opened, and I squeezed them shut, bringing my hands up to my face. The sunlight was pouring into my room, and it was too much. I groaned and moved my legs, stretching them as I raised my arms, arching my back. I moaned through the stretch, feeling like absolute shit.
Once more, I slowly opened my eyes, letting the light in and this time, it wasn’t as bad. It took a few blinks, but finally, my vision adjusted to the morning light that bathed my room. I usually kept my curtains closed when I was sleeping. Slowly, I sat up, leaning back on my elbows as looked around the room.
I felt fabric on my legs. I pulled off the throw blanket and I looked down.
What the hell?
“Where are my PJs?” I whispered. I never slept in pants, always shorts.
“Careful.”
I jumped, letting out a yelp as I twisted my head to find the bounty hunter leaning against the door frame of my bedroom, his arms folded over his chest. He was dressed in simple, dark-washed jeans that hung on his hips like they were made for him and only him, and a dark gray Henley. His eyes were guarded, watching me closely as a muscle in his cheek jumped.
“What are you doing here?” I breathed, bringing a hand to my heaving chest, my heart pounding underneath my palm.
His features softened, sadness flickering in his dark eyes. “Carrie, what’s my name?”
I blinked, and when I didn’t answer, he bent is head, muttering a curse. When he lifted it again, he asked a different question. “What’s your name?”
My brows came together. “You just said it. My name is Carrie,” I told him, confused.
The bounty hunter held my eyes for some time before he softly demanded, “And what’s my name?”
I opened my mouth but shut it when I heard a soft meow from beside me. My eyes widened as I looked at the orange cat perched on the far corner of my bed, licking his chops. “Tic-Tac, how’d you get in?”
“We’re not naming our cat that,” the bounty hunter noted from the door, judgment laced through his deep, velvet voice.
I looked back at him. “Our cat?” I practically shouted.
That didn’t phase him. “I know what I said.”
I jerked back. “Our fucking cat—” I cut myself off and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but if you think you can just show up in my life after six months and claim my cat, you have another thing coming.” I tried standing up and walking around the bed, my finger raised to the beautiful but infuriating man.
He pushed off the door frame, his brows raised. “Baby, take it slow.”
A wave of dizziness crashed into me and goosebumps shot down my body as an unpleasant chill followed. I looked to the bounty hunter as my knees wobbled. Our eyes met, and everything—the horrors from last night—came rushing back to the front of my mind.
Leo.
Dinner.
Falling asleep on his chest.
Waking up with him on top of me, trying to—
A gunshot.
The bounty hunter saving me.
I was falling then, but before I made it to the floor, strong arms caught me, and my body was pressed against the bounty hunter’s. The room began to spin once more as I got lost in his dark eyes, pools of warmth and security as his arms tightened around my waist.
“Dammit, baby, I said take it slow,” he muttered, lifting me from the floor completely.
“Grayson.”
His eyes snapped back to mine, and pain sliced through my heart as a sob escaped me.
“Grayson,” I whimpered, tears stinging my eyes as I remembered how gentle he was with me. How he asked to touch me. How he was careful not to cut me when he released me from the binds.
Grayson moved then, sitting on the bed with me sideways on his lap.
“Deep breaths,” he ordered.
The first tear fell, sliding down my cheek quickly as he watched with agony on his face. “You remember then, yeah?”
I nodded; my hands curled against his chest as my lip trembled. “You saved me,” I whispered, my voice thick.
He shook his head, a pained expression on his face. “Sunshine, you have to stop crying. I can only take so much torture.”
Torture. My eyes drifted to his scar, starting at the top and trailing all the way down to where it disappeared into his beard. Slowly, I lifted my hand to his face, wanting desperately to touch him. I halted, looking away from his scar and back to his eyes. His intense stare had my lips parting, a small breath escaping me. I moved my hand from his face.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” I said, wiping my eyes.
“I deserved it.”
He did, but after he saved me, I didn’t think yelling at him was the best route to go. A throbbing pain shot through my head, causing me to wince.
Grayson tensed underneath me, his hands at my shoulder and the crook of my knees tightening. “What? What is it?” he pressed.
“My head,” I rasped, bringing my hand to the top of it.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he rose. He twisted and laid me back down on the bed. I watched as he ran a hand through his hair as he bit off another curse, bending his head and closing his eyes, jaw tight.
I sat up slowly. “Grayson?”
He didn’t move, but he did open his eyes, his focus on the floor. I looked at his hands hanging at his sides, wanting desperately to grab them, but I didn’t. Last night replayed through my mind, more clearly than before.
“He drugged me,” I guessed. “That’s why everything was fuzzy when I woke up.”
Grayson made a sound that came from his chest, a low growl. I focused on his face once more as he lifted his head, looking outside. He was looking everywhere but me, and for some reason, I needed his eyes on me. I needed him to see I was okay. That we were going to be okay—
A thought occurred to me then.
“Why did you say Tic-Tac was our cat?” I blurted.
His head snapped back down to me then. “Because you’re mine.”
I sucked in a breath.
“You and the cat are a package deal, I assume. That makes him mine too.”
“He’s a stray,” I blurted once more, wondering why in the hell I’m talking about the cat instead of last night. “I’ve been trying to get him to warm up to me for weeks,” I added after a few seconds of silence.
We both turned to find Tic-Tac curled up in the middle of the bed now, snoozing. “How did you get him inside?” I asked. “I was worried about him, but I hadn’t seen him in days.”
“He was on the porch. I just picked him up,” Grayson answered bluntly.
I knew I would have to take him to the vet, wash the sheets, and get his shots updated today. Then, I’d need to get him a collar with his name on it. “His name is Tic-Tac,” I stated, staring at the orange baby.
Grayson’s rough fingers slid under my chin, tilting my head back to look at him. Our eyes met, and I felt like I could breathe easier again. “Not having a cat named after a piece of candy,” he told me softly, holding me in place.
“He’s my cat,” I argued back, just as softly.
He bent down, bringing his lips inches from mine as he held my eyes. “And you’re my woman,” he returned.
My woman.
“Grays—”
“Never leaving you again,” he murmured, cutting me off.
I shut my mouth in an effort to keep my bottom lip from trembling.
He continued. “Six months ago, I left here thinking I would be back within a week’s time.”
My eyes widened, and then something he said last night came back to me. “You said you were in hell—”
“Gray!”
I jumped at the sound of the booming voice that came from downstairs, my hands latching onto the sides of Grayson’s shirt. His hand at my chin shifted, going to my face, cupping it as I looked up at him.
“That’s Jake,” he said softly. “He needs to run some tests on you.”
I leaned away from him; eyes wide. “W-what?” I breathed. “There are people here?”
Grayson left me there, walking to the door and saying something to the man— Jake —downstairs. I would’ve been able to hear him if not for the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.
And you’re my woman.
When Grayson was back in front of me, I looked up at him. “What the hell is happening?” I breathed.
He sighed and squatted down so he was eye level with me. “Sunshine, I’m going to be very honest with you right now, but you need to answer something for me.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Grayson’s eyes bounced back and forth between mine for a few moments, as if he was deciding whether to give me the truth. “Carrie, what happened to Leo?”
A chill ran slithered down my spine as the memory of the gun firing echoed in my ears. “You.”
He nodded once. “What did I do to Leo, baby?”
My answer came out as a weak whisper. “You killed him.”
“Yeah. I killed him,” he repeated, his voice hard. “I killed him because he was going to—” He cut himself off, bending his head. “Fuck, if I say it out loud, I’m going to want to kill the bastard all over again,” he said, more so to himself than to me.
I shifted, bringing my legs over the edge of the bed. “I owe you my life,” I told him.
His head shot up. “You don’t owe me a goddamn thing.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he beat me to it. “Baby, me and my guys, we would gladly kill every fucking rapist on this fucking planet if we could. Killing that fucker was easy. I’m not going to lose any sleep over him.” He moved then, his hands going to my knees and gently spreading them before dropping to his between my thighs. My breaths began to quicken, and his hands slid up my thighs and around my back before stopping at my waist, his fingers pressing in. “If anyone, man or woman, tries to harm you, that’s what’s coming to them, do you understand?”
He yanked me forward until I was on the edge of the bed. My hands shot out, bracing myself on his shoulders as he stared at me. “Been searching all my life for you. There’s no way in fucking hell I’m letting anyone get away with hurting you, Sunshine. Tell me you understand that.”
“Grayson,” I rasped. He was willing to kill for me—again?
His beard was shorter than the last time I’d seen him, which made it easier to tell when his jaw was tight—like it was right then. One of his hands at my waist snaked up my back, his fingers diving into my curls as he brought me closer to him. When our foreheads met, he growled, “Last night will haunt me for the rest of my fucking life, but I swear to you, I’ll do everything in my power to make up for the pain I caused you, the danger I put you in.”
Our lips were a mere breath apart, and all I wanted was for him to kiss me as his words settled over my heart. I knew in my soul; he meant every word. Last night, he said he’d been in hell.
He wanted to come back to me. He’d planned on it. He just couldn’t.
“Kiss me,” I begged as the guilt I felt last night made itself known again.
Would he forgive me for Leo?
Would he understand?
He shook his head against me. “No. Not with my men downstairs waiting on you.”
“But—”
“If I kiss you, I’m going to lose my shit, Carrie. I’m holding on by a thread here,” he clipped, growling at the end of it.
“Lose your shit?”
He pulled back, his nostrils flaring as his hand in my hair moved to the front, his fingers wrapping around my neck. He wasn’t adding pressure, just holding me in place like he had six months ago. His thumb stroked my jaw as he said, “I would never hurt you, and I know after last night; you need time. I will never force you to do something you don’t want to do but trust me when I say that if I kiss you right now, I won’t be able to stop until you’re underneath me with your legs spread wide, begging me to shove my cock so far inside of you that we both forget our own fucking names.”
My breath hitched, and despite everything that happened last night, my body still wanted him.
My body would always want Grayson.
He shook his head. “Stop looking at me like that,” he ordered as he released me and rose to his feet.
I watched, stunned, as he walked to my dresser and plucked a pair of light pink lace panties from my top drawer and my white bra from the second. Then, he walked to my closet and disappeared inside. Seconds later, he reemerged with a pair of leggings and sweatshirt from Rossy’s and carried them into the bathroom.
Once I heard the shower running, I stood up and made my way around the bed. Grayson came out and frowned. “Told you to take it slow.”
“Why do I feel so…off? What the hell did he drug me with?” I asked, bringing my brows together.
He came to me and guided me into the small bathroom. There, he spun me to face him. “You need me to help you shower?” he asked, his voice serious.
“No. I need to know why I feel like this,” I snapped. “I need to go to the doctor, and I need—”
“There’s no need for that,” he assured me.
I froze. “Why not?”
Grayson stared at me for a long time, neither of us giving a shit about the water I was wasting. “Jake, one of my men, ran a blood test on you last night—”
“—a blood test?” I squeaked.
He nodded and gently grabbed my wrist, bringing my arm up. My eyes dropped to where his thumb was stroking over the bandage. “I had to draw some blood last night while you were passed out,” he explained softly. “I hope to God I didn’t leave a bruise.”
“Grayson, what the hell is going on? Why can’t I go to the hospital?” I breathed, everything hitting me all at once, panic clogging my throat.
He stepped closer to me, putting his hands on my upper arms. “Leo gave you something—a date rape drug you can only get one place in the world, Carrie. If you to the hospital and get a blood test done there, it would be a shit show, and that’s the last thing we need.”
I waited for him to tell me more, my eyes searching his face, silently pleading for answers.
“Last night, I told you I’d been in hell,” he began. I nodded, remembering the pain in his voice. “That hell, gorgeous, was the same place where Leo got that drug.”