Chapter 9
When we first get back to the apartment, and I tell the twins goodnight, I change into one of the sexy, little nightdress things that has a robe that goes over it. To have given them such a fuss today about it, it does feel great sliding against my smooth skin.
Walking out into the hallway, I wonder if I'm going to run into anyone on the way to Grady's room, but I don't. However, after a few knocks, I determine he's not even in there. Making an educated guess, I try his work room at the end. I don't have to knock on this door since it's standing wide open like he's waiting on me to arrive.
"What are you doing in here this late?" I ask, walking over to where he's pressing shirts and laying them out on a table.
He looks at me from behind these plastic glasses that should make him look like a dork, but makes him all the more sexy instead. "I had a lot of orders to catch up on tonight. I can put it all away and finish tomorrow, though."
"Orrr," I say, dragging out the word and closing the distance between us. I put my arms around his waist from the back. "I can help you finish these off so that you don't have to worry with them tomorrow."
"And you want to spend your free time doing that for me?" he asks.
I nod. "Teach me the mighty Grady ways, master."
He snorts, making me laugh before he shows me how to read the orders and how he wants them packed. I do my part as he does his as he talks.
"What got you into doing this, anyway?" I ask as we work.
"One of my pack brothers was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was young," he answers.
I turn to look at him as he works. The muscles of his back flex as he moves things around and gets it ready for the next one. The hunter-green Henley he's wearing has the sleeves pushed up to his forearms. Occasionally, he stops and rubs his hands against his hips.
"That must've been really hard on your pack," I say.
"Yeah," he tells me. "Our mom took it harder than anyone, but she was as solid as a rock for us. But she always worried about what would happen to Gage if something happened to her or the pack as a whole. He can't take care of himself. So, she helped start a foundation in his name that would help parents or packs through a situation like that. We lost him a few years ago."
"I'm sorry," I say softly, wanting to go over to comfort him but not knowing if he'd be accepting of it.
"It's okay," he replies. "He lived a good life, and it took a while but my mom was finally at peace with his passing. Didn't stop her from doing everything that she could for the foundation, though. So, when I needed a change from construction and being out in the sun building stuff with my hands, I started doing this on the side. It got enough of a following that I decided to do it full time. Part of the proceeds go to the foundation with every purchase."
I swallow hard. "Why do you have to be a saint?"
He stops his machine and turns to look at me, folding his arms across his chest. "What do you mean?"
"It's not enough for you to be incredibly sexy, or super sweet selflessly helping a confused college with laundry dilemmas, or have a car that every girl dreams of taking a ride in, but you have to be a freaking saint, too." I tell him honestly.
Ripping the glasses off his face, he tosses them with his gloves on the table in the middle of the room as he stalks over to me.
"How is it that you've managed to not snag someone as perfect as you are?" I ask, feeling like prey now that I've got his full attention.
When he gets close enough to press our chest together, he leans down to lock eyes with me as he says, "Because I was waiting for you."
Then his lips close over mine, and the warm vanilla scent of him once again invades my sense to the point of me pulling away to lick up his neck to see if he tastes as good as he smells. He growls into my neck where he's got his face buried. Reaching down, his hands close around my bum just like Raine's did earlier and he lifts me in the same fashion. Only he doesn't stop walking as he does it. The friction of his rock-hard abs rub against the spot Kinkaid licked last night, making me rub harder against him to get more of it.
I don't really care where he's taking us as long as we get there quickly. We walk past Raine's room and straight into his where he shuts the door behind us and flicks the lights on before laying me on the bed. I want him covering me and more kisses, but what he does is so much better. I raise up on my elbows as he pulls off his shirt, tossing it on the floor before moving his hands to his belt. It's torturous watching him slowly undress, but the end result is so worth it as his manhood springs up when he takes off his pants and boxers. I drink his whole body in, lingering on all of the muscles of his stomach and arms, but my attention keeps dropping back between his legs. Then my breath catches as he reaches down to grasp it, giving it a couple tugs.
He watches my reaction, probably waiting for me to freak out in all my virgin-ness. But that's the last thing I'm doing. To prove it, I open the robe, slipping my arms out of the holes and exposing the tiny nightgown underneath. The best part, I don't think he even noticed carrying me in here is that I'm not wearing anything underneath. Pulling my knees up and letting them fall open, rewards me with the best reaction ever.
His eyes widen in surprise before he grabs my ankles, yanking me to the edge of the bed before he drops to his knees and buries his face between my legs. It happens so fast that I don't have time to prepare myself for his attack. I cry out his name as he sucks on that spot and instantly sends me over the edge. But he doesn't stop. Gently working one finger and then two inside of me, he gives me a moment to breathe before returning his mouth to the spot that I'm learning to love. The feeling is intense and has my back arching off the bed while my fingers find his hair.
"Grady," I plead. "I can't take it. Oh, God, Grady. Please."
When his head lifts to meet my eyes, he's got slick literally dripping down his chin and onto his chest. I whine as his fingers slowly retreat, but he makes up for it by helping me scoot back up the bed and replacing them with himself.
"This is going to be uncomfortable for a few minutes," he warns gently. "Then it's going to feel so good. I promise."
All I can do is nod. I've been researching since leaving the center, so I know what to expect. Here in the moment, though, I'm a little more nervous. He must sense it, or smell it, because he pauses and covers my body with his, placing small kisses over my face.
"Are you sure?" he asks.
Just the fact that we've made it this far and he's willing to stop long enough to ask, risking not going further couldn't possibly make me any surer than I am. "Yes."
He reaches between us and lines himself up again, keeping as much of his body pressed against me as he can. Our skin-on-skin contact makes the nerves less. Even as he begins to stretch me uncomfortably where no man ever has. I let out a quiet whimper from the pain, but he kisses it away.
"Do you trust me?" he asks after a moment of discomfort.
"Yes," I repeat without hesitation.
He slams into me with a bite of pain that has me grabbing onto his back and holding onto it for dear life as I catch my breath. "You okay?"
My forehead is buried against his shoulder as I say, "I think so. But I need you to start moving."
Those few words are all he needs to hear. He slowly withdraws and pushes back in. After the first few times, it starts to feel so good that I don't ever want him to stop. Then he starts picking up his pace until we're both sweating. His face drops to where one of my nipples has slipped out of my gown and his mouth closes over it. He bites down on it gently, making me moan in ecstasy. Stripping both of the tiny straps down my arms, he showers both breasts with attention until I start begging.
His movement becomes almost frenzied as he pulls out and pushes back in quickly. I raise my hips to meet him thrust for thrust. It only takes a few more before he's sending me over that edge again, and this time I can feel my walls clenching down on him as he keeps moving. Only not for long, because his manhood starts jerking inside of me, and I know that he's releasing his cum. Not like I can pretend to know how it all works just yet. All I know is that it feels amazing, and I don't ever want to stop.
Letting his head drop to my chest, he tries to catch his breath and asks if I'm okay again.
I think about it before I answer this time. "I'm pretty tired and sore, but I'm okay."
"I'm sorry if I was too rough with you," he apologizes, his warm breath blowing across my still hard nipple at his mouth.
Ever the sweetheart worried about everyone else. "You weren't. I promise."
"Mmm," he hums into my chest. "We should go put you in the bath. I just really don't want to move right now."
I laugh softly, running a hand through his dark hair. "So, don't. I don't want you to move, either."
We chat and doze for at least an hour before he says that he doesn't want us falling asleep without taking care of me. So, he walks across the hall naked as the day he was born, not caring that I'm watching it swing between his legs as he does so.
"Stop looking at me like that," he warns. "Or we'll be going for round two."
"A threat I'm willing to risk it all for," I tease.
He drops a kiss to my lips before lifting me up like he did carrying me in here and taking us over to the bathroom. I could tell him that I know how to walk, but I like the way he's treating me as though I'm something precious. He pulls the gown down the rest of my body, letting it fall to the floor as he sets my feet down. We step into the warm water of the tub, and I lean back against his chest.
We spend a good long while in the tub talking while he washes my hair and body. I confess to him that I love having my hair washed like that, and he vows to do it at any time I want him to. I tell him some of the harder things about the compound, like the punishments and how I felt knowing I was to be given away to a pack with no choice. He simply listens and talks when he needs to as he offers comfort in ways of his hands massaging my tense muscles.
By the time that we're done, I have nothing left in the tank and have to be up in a few hours for class. We crawl into his bed naked, and I have a good internal laugh at Raine being right about the gown and the nakedness before I pass out draped across Grady's chest with his arm holding me tight.
The next morning, I wake up in the same position we fell asleep in. Probably because it's only been a few hours. Unfortunately, I can tell by how much sunlight is blinding me through the windows that I'm going to be so late. Jumping out of bed, I grab the robe I wore in here last night while Grady groans from the bed.
I give him a quick kiss and run from his grabby hands trying to keep me in bed with him. Booking it across the living room, I don't stop to look at who's in the kitchen, though I can see out of the corner of my eye that someone is in there. Possibly two people. Grabbing the first jeans and shirt I come to in my closet, I take them out with me while I throw on some panties and a bra before yanking them on after. Stuffing my wallet, keys and phone in my pockets, I grab a pair of socks and my shoes and race back out into the kitchen.
Raine and Emerson are standing in the kitchen staring at me in surprise while I pull my socks on and stuff my feet into my shoes. Kinkaid sits at the table wearing the same expression.
"Can anyone give me a ride to campus?" I ask hurriedly. "I'm going to be so freaking late."
"Come on, babe. I got you," Jameson tells me with a quick, light smack to my bum on the way by.
He can smack me on the bum whenever he wants for being my savior. Once we get on the elevator, it's a waiting game to get to the bottom floor. The whole ride I'm bouncing on my toes. I take note to remember later how good he looks this morning in a pair of tight jeans and one of those half button down shirts that hug his muscles. He smells so good, too. Like he just stepped out of the shower then went and baked a blueberry pie.
"Any other day," I say out loud. "Any other day and I wouldn't care."
"What's so special about today?" he asks, spinning his keys around his fingers.
"The fact that this is the one class where the professor takes attendance and will fail people for missing," I tell him, worry settling in my gut. "I can't fail. I'll lose my scholarship and have nowhere to go."
"Well, I can't speak for the first part of that, but I can for the ‘having a place to go’ part," he says. "You're always welcome at our place."
I would kiss him for that, but I feel puke-ish from stress and I'd rather not. We finally make it to the garage, and he matches my speed as we run across to where I know they park. All too late, I realize he's heading right for the skinny motorcycle parked between the SUV and convertible. He unlocks the SUV and fishes two helmets and leather jackets out of the back, handing me one of each. I watch in stunned silence as he throws a leg over the bike and backs it up to where I still stand flabbergasted.
"You're going to have to put those on if you want a ride," he says, pointing toward the stuff in my hands. I copy him, pulling the jacket around my shoulders.
"I've never ridden a motorcycle," I confess quietly.
"Until last night, you hadn't ridden anything," he teases.
I'm not sure if it's a ploy to trick my mind into forgetting what I'm about to do, but it works. I'm shockingly not as embarrassed as I thought I'd be, either.
I get ready to pull on the helmet then stop. "Why was everyone being weird this morning?"
He snickers, pulling his helmet on. "We're just not used to beautiful girls running through our apartment first thing in the morning, flashing us."
My eyes widen. "Oh, okay." I slam the helmet over my head, hoping it'll somehow swallow me whole before we make it to campus.
I throw a leg over the bike, and he shows me where to put my feet before he adds, "Don't be scared. Hold on and lean into the turns."
For the first bit of driving in the city, he keeps a hand on my thigh reassuringly. Once we hit the highway, though, he takes his hand back, needing it as he hits the gas hard. I swear to God it feels like we are flying. I keep a tight hold around his stomach, loving the way his muscles flex underneath my hands. We make it to campus in half the time it would've taken in a car. I may not actually be late at all now. Slinging a leg over like I did to get on, I step off his bike and onto the curb.
Pulling the helmet off, I go to hand it back to him as he pulls his off, too, and says, "Keep it. I'll come pick you up today after your classes are over."
"Practice," I remind him.
"Oh yeah," he says. "Just shoot me a text when you're ready, and I'll be here."
"Okay," I tell him. Closing the distance between us, I grab the front of his jacket and yank him to me as I slam my lips against his. To his surprise, I've got total control, even going as far as being the first to part lips and use my tongue to my advantage. His free hand grabs the same cheek he smacked a short while ago and squeezes.
When I go to back away, he gives it another smack and watches me through lust-filled, half-lidded eyes.
"You're my hero today," I tell him, walking backward. "Thank you."
I'm rewarded with a smile that has me understanding why he's in front of the lens so often. "I'll see you soon, babe."