Chapter 5
Chapter Five
NADINE
I take a long shower, wash my hair, and shave my legs while Grayson makes dinner, something he insisted on doing.
He actually told me to take a bath, likely knowing that I haven’t had sex in a while and my center would be sore.
It is.
But I want him again already.
I’m sure there is something wrong with me, at least mentally, because I loved it when he choked me.
I love the feeling of the pain between my legs and the tenderness of my throat.
All of it.
In fact, I’m ready to feel him inside of me again.
I want more of it, more pain, more aching, more of everything.
It’s better than I could have ever imagined.
Closing my eyes, I can’t stop my hand from trailing down the center of my body.
Slipping my fingers between my legs, I hiss at the sensitivity there.
Grayson has awakened something inside of me that I didn’t even know existed.
Sex was never for pleasure.
Landon used it only as a means of control.
Not that I didn’t come, because I was forced to orgasm a lot over the years I spent with him.
So there was a semblance of pleasure, but it was not pleasurable.
Then, after I left him, I made myself orgasm a few times over the years.
Nothing ever felt the way it did with Grayson.
What happened between us was magical.
I’m sure he doesn’t feel the same, but the buildup inside of my head was one hundred percent on point.
I knew it was going to be the best ever, and I was right.
Now I have to figure out what it means, if it means anything.
And what to do next, or at least how to act around him.
Because I’m pretty sure that the dynamic between us has completely changed.
I’m no longer under the impression that our flirtations are harmless—I don’t want them to be.
I want all the harm, the good, and the bad to bring it on.
Because I really loved what we did, and I already want more.
There is a loud knock on the door that causes me to squeal and my hand to fly from between my legs, slamming it against the glass to brace myself.
“Time to eat,” Grayson calls out.
Catching my breath, I thank him before I turn the water off.
Then I grab the towel from the holder beside the shower and quickly dry off, then wrap it around my hair.
I tug on my sleep shorts and also pull on the matching cami.
It’s my favorite combo, navy blue with soft off-white lace trim on the legs of the shorts and the hem of the tank.
After combing out my hair, I open the door and toss my towel in the small hallway laundry room before I walk into the living room.
I stop in the middle of the room and suck in a breath at the sight in front of me.
There, in the kitchen, his back to me, is the man of my dreams.
He’s shirtless, his muscles working as he moves around the space.
I don’t know what he’s made.
My senses can’t take in the aromas around me.
Mainly because right now, the only part of me that is actually working is my eyeballs.
They like what they see, and the rest of me can’t comprehend anything else happening in this apartment.
“You coming to the table?” he asks.
My nipples tighten at his gruff voice, and I know that they poke through my camisole.
I should have put on a robe or something, maybe a heavily-padded bra.
He slowly turns his head, looking back over his shoulder at me.
His eyes flick down to my chest, and I watch as his lips curve up into a smirk.
“Come to the table, baby,” he purrs.
My heart races at his words, his soft-spoken tone, all of it.
Pressing my thighs together, I stay rooted in my spot, unable to move even an inch.
A million things swirl around inside my head, but one thing bursts out of my mouth without a second thought.
“Why now?”
He turns fully to face me, his face laced with confusion.
“Why now?” he repeats when I don’t say anything else.
“Why all of this now?” I ask.
“We’ve been sharing the safe house for months.”
He tilts his head to the side.
His gaze never leaves mine, but his eyes are searching.
He doesn’t speak immediately.
Instead, he walks away from the kitchen and begins to move toward me, stopping when he’s so close that I can feel his body heat.
My breath hitches as he lifts his hand, and his fingers dance down my throat as his eyes continue to stay connected to mine.
“Baby,” he rasps.
My lips part, but no sound comes out because I have nothing left inside my lungs.
My air has all been sucked from my body by this man.
He consumes me.
Grayson lowers his head, his lips barely brushing mine before he lifts his head slightly, and his eyes find mine again.
“I’ve wanted you since the moment you walked into Securus. I did think my chance had finally come when you had to go to the safe house, but I knew there were still things you were hiding.”
I snort before I speak.
“And you were what? Waiting for all the truths to come out? Like you’ve told me your deepest, darkest secrets or something?”
“No,” he says, his lips twitching into a smirk.
“But what you were hiding was big. If I had fucked you like that six months ago, not knowing anything about your past, I would not have known what signs to watch out for.”
“Signs?” I ask on a shaky breath.
“Signs,” he confirms.
“I needed to know that you were with me. That you were aware and not lost somewhere else. In a different life.”
Something about his words hits me harder than I think it’s probably meant to.
In a different life .
I’m pretty sure he knows so much more about my circumstances than I could imagine.
He hasn’t told me in so many words, but it’s there, lurking just beneath the surface.
“Were you with me, Grayson?” I ask.
GRAYSON
“One hundred percent, Nadine.” My thumb gently glides up and down the center of her throat.
I can already see my marks on her pale flesh, and I can’t stop the way my cock twitches at the thought of her wearing them always.
“I was with you one hundred percent.”
“I would have been with you a month ago and even a year ago,” she breathes.
I want to believe her, but I’m unsure I can.
However, I also know that I would not have been with her the way we were today.
If we had fucked months ago, it would have purely been surface level.
But this was different—deeper.
Something shifted inside of me when I found out the truth.
When she exposed her vulnerability, when she told me some of what that fucker did to her—it changed everything.
We’re not as different as I thought.
In some ways, she’s not as unblemished as I had imagined, also not as painfully shy as I assumed.
In other ways, she’s just that—pure innocence.
“Let’s focus on right now, Nadine.”
“Right now,” she agrees with a single nod.
With a hum, I lower my face so that my lips touch hers.
“Food, and then dessert.”
“Dessert,” she exhales.
She sounds like a sexy little breathy parrot.
And as much as I try not to smile, I fucking fail because it’s sweet as fuck.
Just like her.
Every part of her is sweet, and I can’t wait to taste all of her.
Clearing my throat, I school my features so I appear serious when I speak again.
“I’m going to eat your sweet cunt on the dining room table, baby.”
She shivers, and my lips twitch into a smirk.
I can’t hold on to even an ounce of seriousness.
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I bite down and try to keep from throwing her ass on that table and eating her right here and now.
But I know she’s hungry, and I’m fucking starving.
So, food first.
Cunt second.
Jerking my chin toward the table, I turn away from her.
Because if I don’t, I’m going to have dessert first, and both of our stomachs will be growling the entire time.
“Sit down. I’ll bring you a plate.”
She does as I demand, and I watch her walk over to the table and sink down in one of the chairs.
Only then do I walk back into the kitchen to finish plating our dinner.
Thankfully, I had groceries delivered so we could eat, because while she was cleaning, Nadine emptied out the entire fridge of its contents.
Though not a bad idea, because I’m pretty sure everything was rancid since it had been sitting in there for months, untouched.
But that left the fridge bare.
Since we’d technically been living together while she was in the safe house, I also got an idea of the food she enjoyed eating, so I was able to make something that I knew she’d like.
Carrying two plates in my hands, I walk over to the small dining room table and set one down in front of her, then the other across from her, and sink down in my own chair.
“You made my favorite,” she whispers.
It’s nothing special.
Dinner is just a Tuscan chicken thing.
I saw a video about a year ago while I was scrolling social media and started making it with a side of pasta.
I’ve tweaked it to make it my own and made it a few times for Nadine in the safe house, but Vaughn enjoys cooking a hell of a lot more than I do, so he usually has something going on up in his condo.
“Your favorite?” I ask as I pick up my fork.
She smiles, and I watch as her cheeks tint pink.
She clears her throat before she lifts her gaze to meet mine.
That shy woman from the office appears in front of me.
She doesn’t want to tell me, but she does.
“It was the only thing you made.”
“So it’s your favorite?” I ask.
She hums, nodding a couple of times.
“Because you made it for me.”
I’m not sure how I didn’t see just how absolutely into me she is.
Sure, we flirted, and I knew that she liked me.
I also knew that just her scent made my dick hard, but beyond that, I didn’t realize just how infatuated she was.
I see it now, and I want nothing more than to feed it—feed her.
All of her.
In every goddamn way possible.