Chapter 27
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.
—William Blake
From the second she came home with Simone, Grayson had sensed a change in Emma.
Something was wrong. They’d shared their deepest secrets, so why wouldn’t she tell him what was bothering her?
Had she changed her mind about him during the day they spent apart?
Was she wishing she hadn’t allowed him to invade their home and their life in the city?
He wanted to relax and enjoy this evening he had planned for them, but how could he do that when she was obviously upset about something? Though he told himself to leave it alone the way she’d asked him to, he couldn’t do it.
“Em,” he said, running his fingers through her long hair, “I can’t stand that something’s upset you and I don’t know what it is.”
“I… It’s nothing to do with you. Not really.”
“Not really? Come on. Talk to me the way you have from that first night. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
She took a deep breath and looked up at him with those blue eyes that gave away her every emotion. “Lincoln offered me a job in Vermont.”
Grayson felt like he’d been sucker punched. “He did? When?”
“Today. He called and told me their admin, Mary, is leaving the company and asked if I might be interested in her job.”
“That cagey bastard,” Grayson said, smiling.
“Did you know about this?”
“Nope, but I’m not surprised. With him and my Gramps on a quest to get us all coupled up, they’ve apparently set their sights on us.” He looked down at her. “What’d you tell him?”
“That I’d think about it, but really… There’s just no way I could do it.”
“How come?”
“Many reasons, but mostly because I couldn’t leave my dad here alone. He’d be heartbroken if Simone and I moved away from him. And Simone is doing really well in school and has a great group of friends. Their parents are a huge source of support to me. I just… I can’t…”
He laid a finger over her lips. “I understand, sweetheart. It’s too much to even contemplate.”
“I want it,” she whispered, her eyes filling. “I want the job and I want you and I want Vermont and… I want it all.”
“Aww, baby.” He kissed away her tears. “Maybe you should talk to your dad and see what he says before you make any decisions.”
“I can’t. He’d tell me to go and that he’d be fine, but I’d never be able to do it knowing he’d be here by himself. We’re all he has, and with Lucy in Vermont more than she’s here these days… I just can’t.”
It meant so much to him that she wanted to, and it made him determined to find a way to make this work for everyone.
That was what he’d done for his entire professional life—figure out the details and get people what they wanted.
He needed to approach this situation as if it were the most important case he’d ever worked on.
“I need to tell you something,” he said, deciding to lay his cards on the table even if it was far too soon for such things.
“What?” she asked, her brows knitting with concern.
He rubbed the furrow between her brows with his index finger. “I love you, Emma. I love Simone. I want both of you in my life to stay, and I’m very determined to make that happen one way or the other. So I don’t want you to worry. We’re going to figure this out.”
“You…”
“Love you. I think I fell in love with you that first night at Linc and Molly’s when you trusted me enough to tell me something you’ve never told anyone else.
And every minute I’ve spent with you since then has only made me want more—of you and Simone.
” He cupped her face and compelled her to look at him.
“I’m not going anywhere as long as you want me here.
I’ll figure out my work situation, whether it’s here or there or whatever.
I worked my ass off for years in Boston, and I socked away a lot of money that I didn’t have time to spend.
If you want me the way I want you, you’ve got me. I’m right here.”
“I still can’t believe this is happening.”
“Believe it. This has been the best week of my entire life, hands down, and all I want is more. If that’s what you want, too—”
She kissed him. “Yes, it’s what I want. You’re what I want. I love you, too. How could I not love you after this incredible week we’ve spent together and how amazing you are with Simone?”
Hearing she loved him was the greatest gift he’d ever been given. “Promise me you won’t worry about how it’s going to work. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“I’ll try not to worry.”
Grayson could tell he took her by surprise when he stood with her in his arms and headed for her room. He’d waited forever to find a woman who looked at him the way she did, as if he’d single-handedly hung the moon just for her. He laid her on the bed and came down on top of her.
She welcomed him into her embrace by wrapping her arms and legs around him. “Grayson…”
“What, sweetheart?”
“Tell me again. Tell me this is real, and I’m not dreaming.”
“You’re not dreaming. It’s so real, and I love you.
” He kissed her with all the love and desire and passion he felt for her, wanting to reassure her that she truly had nothing to worry about where he was concerned.
Was it too soon for words of love and commitment?
Probably, but with so much at stake for both of them, he didn’t see the need to hold back.
What had Linc and Molly said about knowing the first day they met that they were going to change each other’s life? The same was true for him and Emma.
That first night, when he’d found himself spilling his guts about his father and she’d told him about the violent act that had resulted in her precious daughter, he’d known she was the one for him.
With hindsight, that was patently clear to him.
He withdrew slowly from the kiss and rose to his knees to help her out of the scrubs she’d worn to work.
“There was supposed to be dancing,” he said.
“Doesn’t this count as dancing?”
“I suppose it does.”
As he undressed her, she watched him with expressive eyes gone soft with emotion. When she was bare, he whipped his sweater over his head and tossed it aside and then reached for the button to his jeans.
“Let me,” she said, sitting up to do the honors. She pushed the button through the hole and unzipped him slowly, working around the huge bulge, and then pushed his pants and underwear down until they were around his thighs.
His cock was so hard, it ached, but he held off, waiting to see what she would do.
She wrapped her hand around the base and drew the tip into her mouth, making him see stars as he tried to find some control.
“Lie back,” he said gruffly.
Without releasing him, she did as he directed, and he leaned over her, hands on the headboard, watching as she took him as deep as she could, until the head bumped up against her throat. Fucking hell… “Emma… Babe.”
“Mmm?”
The vibration of her lips against his shaft was nearly the end of him. Then she sucked on him and shattered any semblance of control he might’ve had. He came hard, and she was right there with him, never letting up until he was completely wrecked.
“Ah, fuck, Emma,” he gasped when he’d caught his breath. The sight of her swollen lips, flushed cheeks and satisfied smirk started the fire burning all over again. “That was… God, I can’t even tell you…”
Her husky, sexy laugh was his new favorite sound. “Did I do it right?”
“You couldn’t tell by the way I completely lost it?”
“Just making sure. I’m not very experienced in these things, so you have to tell me if I do it wrong.”
He stretched out next to her and gathered her into his arms. “There is nothing you could do where I’m concerned that would be wrong.”
“So the next time I do that, teeth would be okay?”
“Ahh…”
She laughed. “Didn’t think so.”
He cupped her breast and rolled her nipple between his fingers, watching with fascination as it hardened. Moving so he was between her legs, he bent to take that hard tip into his mouth.
Her fingers in his hair kept him anchored to her chest.
“You are so sweet and so soft and so sexy,” he said as he kissed a path to her belly. “I’m completely addicted to you.” With his hands on her thighs, he pushed her legs apart and dipped his tongue into her heat.
She moaned and raised her hips in encouragement.
Grasping her bottom with both hands, he feasted on her, sucking her clit into his mouth and drawing a screaming orgasm from her.
He pressed two fingers into her to ride the waves of her release and triggered a second wave when he pushed a wet finger into her anus.
He kept his finger buried deep inside her as he drove his cock into her, filling her from both sides as one orgasm rolled into another.
He loved the sounds she made, the gasps, the moans and the way she gave him everything she had every time they made love.
Her every thought and emotion was on full display.
With his Emma, there was no artifice, only truth.
He rocked into her from the front and the back, and when he dropped his head to suck on her nipple, she exploded all over again, her muscles clamping down so hard on his cock and finger that he came, too, rocking into her again and again, lost in the purest bliss he’d ever experienced.
She clung to him, their bodies damp with sweat, both of them breathing hard.
He needed to withdraw from her, to get up, to clean up, but he couldn’t seem to get the message from his brain to muscles gone lax with satisfaction.
Emma held him close and ran her fingers through his hair, even as her body continued to throb.
Gray couldn’t believe it when he felt himself begin to harden again inside her.
She groaned when she felt it, too. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
Chuckling, he withdrew from her slowly, going for maximum effect and loving the way she quivered from the aftershocks. He placed a kiss on her soft belly. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“I couldn’t move if I had to.”
He went into the bathroom, washed up and brought a warm washcloth back to bed for her. When she would’ve taken it from him, he said, “Let me.” He eased her legs apart and pressed the warm cloth to her sensitive flesh, loving the flush that overtook her body when he touched her so intimately.
“I had all these plans for tonight,” he said. “We were going to get dressed up and dance and have dinner, and then I was going to sweet-talk you into bed.”
“You started with the sweet talk, and look at where we ended up.”
“I can’t help it if I’m powerless to resist you.”
“Likewise.”
“Simone told me to order shrimp pad Thai from the place down the block if I wanted to make you happy.”
“My daughter knows me very well.”
“It’ll be here in about twenty minutes.”
“Mmm, perfect. Best New Year’s Eve ever.”
“Is it? You wouldn’t rather be dressed up and out dancing somewhere?”
“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here with you.”
“Me, too, honey.”
After getting up to eat the dinner he’d ordered, they spent the rest of the night in her bed, where they watched the revelry in Times Square on television. As the clock ticked toward midnight, Gray rolled her under him and was deep inside her as one year rolled into the next.
“I want to begin every year for the rest of my life just like this,” she said.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Let’s do it.”
Emma ran her hands over his back and down to grip his muscular ass as he pumped into her.
They were awake all night. At three o’clock, he introduced her to the finer delights of shower sex, and at five thirty, he took her from behind.
This was utter insanity, she thought, as the sun began to peek through the blinds.
Curled up to him, she hoped her dad would take Simone to brunch the way he often did when she spent Saturday nights with him.
That was the last thought she had before a ringing phone in the other room woke her hours later.
“That’s me,” Grayson said, disentangling from her to answer it.
Facedown in bed, Emma was on her way back to sleep when she tuned in to the tense tone of his voice.
“Are you sure?” After a long pause, he said, “Well, yes, I guess I can do that. Wednesday at ten. I’ll be there.”
Emma waited for him to come back to bed, but when he didn’t, she got up to check on him. She put on a robe and tied it around her waist. “Gray? Is everything okay?”
When he looked up at her, she could see that he was upset.
She sat next to him on the sofa. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I’m a match for my dad. An almost perfect match, the doctor said.”
She took his hand and held it between both of hers. “They called you on a holiday to tell you that?”
Nodding, he said, “Apparently, his situation is somewhat precarious. They want to do it right away, and they need to harvest the actual marrow, which is a surgical procedure.”
“What does that entail? How long does it take to recover?”
“They’re going to talk to me about the details on Wednesday. This means I have to go back to Vermont Tuesday night.”
“Of course. You have to do this.”
“I want to be here with you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here waiting for you to come back to me.
” As she spoke the words, though, she wondered if there might be a way for her to be there for him when he had the surgery.
Her dad could stay with Simone for a couple of days, and Emma had personal time she could take.
She hoarded her time off so she could attend functions at Simone’s school and take her to doctors’ appointments, but she’d gladly make the sacrifice for Grayson.
He put his arm around her and leaned into her. “Let’s go back to bed for a while.”
She went with him, but Emma couldn’t sleep. She looked over to find him staring up at the ceiling, too. “What’re you thinking?”
“I’m pondering the humor of it all.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father left our family twenty years ago, forcing me to step up for my mother and siblings, and now he’s asking me to step up again. History is repeating itself.”
“And you find that funny?”
“I find it ridiculous. If I don’t laugh, I might scream.”
She reached for him and drew him into her embrace. “Don’t scream. Hold on to me.”
He put his arm around her and rested his head on her chest.
“You’ll do what you need to do to be able to live with yourself,” she said, running her fingers through his hair.
She didn’t mention that she was going to try to be there until she knew for certain that she could make it happen.
“And then you’ll come back to me knowing you’re a far better man than your father will ever be. ”
“Keep telling me that, will you?”
“Any time you need to hear it.”