Eighteen
EIGHTEEN
Greyson
“After all those nice things you said last night, I know this shouldn’t even be a thought in my head, but if you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to start feeling self-conscious.”
I couldn’t help myself. I thought I’d already gotten it all with Cierra, especially after what we’d shared in her bed last night, but I was wrong.
And now, I was beginning to think I’d barely scratched the surface of all there was to uncover about her.
Cierra was standing just a few feet away from me in her kitchen as we worked together on making breakfast, and I was finding it difficult to stay focused on the task at hand, because I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Her hair had been swept up and away from her face in a messy knot, rogue strands having escaped the confines of the band securing the mass of blonde locks.
She’d worn her hair up while we were training, but that had always been neatly groomed and purposefully secured.
This was not that.
This was haphazardly done, so beautifully chaotic.
That alone was enough to have me fighting to keep my wits about me, but there was something else that added to the problem I was having this morning.
Cierra was wearing glasses—black-rimmed, rectangular frames. Studious, sexy, and nowhere close to looking like the school librarian I remembered when I was in school.
I’d never seen her looking more adorable than she did now.
Except for, perhaps, this morning when she first woke up and in the minutes just before her eyes fluttered open.
Without even trying, my thoughts drifted back to that experience, and I felt my breathing slow as the memories took hold of me.
Knowing what I did about Cierra’s love for catching up on sleep on the weekends, and bearing in mind all the physical activity from the night before, I anticipated waking before her.
When I did, I was surprised to find myself caught beneath a mountain of emotions. I’d been imagining the moment for so long, wondering what it’d be like to wake beside her, and the fantasies that had played out in my mind hadn’t come close to comparing to the reality.
Cierra looked undeniably peaceful, like she had not a single care in the world. As I’d propped my head in my hand and looked down at her sleeping, I felt a fluttering sensation in my chest.
God, she was beautiful.
Her delicate features, that pretty mouth, and her hair spread out all over the pillow. I could have stayed like that all day just watching her.
Or, that’s what I’d thought.
With my arm draped across her waist, I allowed my fingers to stroke the skin on her side lightly, causing her to stir, and I found there was something else I liked even more than watching her sleep.
It was seeing her eyes flutter open as she stretched and rolled her head in my direction. A lazy smile spread across her face. “Good morning.”
And it was that voice that did it for me.
I felt that sleepy voice that held a low, sexy rasp deep in my gut.
“Good morning, pretty lady.”
She hummed, her eyes drifting shut again, as she turned toward me and pressed the front of her naked body against mine. After pressing a kiss to the center of my chest, she murmured, “It’s early, and you’re wide awake. What are you doing up?”
My hand drifted up and down her spine. “Watching you.”
“Can we cuddle for just a few minutes before we get up?”
I dropped my head on the pillow, wrapped my arms tighter around her, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “There’s no rush to get up. I was just enjoying how beautiful you look. We can stay here as long as you like.”
“I’m so tired from all that stuff you did to me last night.”
My body shook with my laughter as I gave her another kiss. I was fully prepared to give her the time she needed to recover. “Rest up, Cierra. I’ve got more of that planned for you.”
She didn’t open her eyes, but she did smile as she hummed again with delight.
Within minutes, with her warm, soft body pressed close, it didn’t take me long to drift off again with her feeling like I’d never felt before in my life.
It seemed crazy for the thought to even be a flicker in my mind, but seeing her like that in bed this morning, hearing that voice, I was sure I’d fallen in love.
And now, I was standing here trying to come to grips with seeing her like this. I was failing miserably, too.
Because aside from the messy hair and glasses, there was something else I was noticing about her for the first time.
Her ears.
All those amazing new parts of her I’d gotten to see and touch and taste last night… I’d been in my glory. The hair, the body, the moans. All of it was spectacular.
And now, her ears.
How did she keep getting better?
Having stood there for far too long without a response from me, Cierra tipped her head to the side, and the movement snapped me out of the fog.
“Do you know that you’ve got the most adorable ears I’ve ever seen?”
At first, she blinked with confusion, but after noting my gaze lingering on her ears, she let out a laugh. “Maybe you should sit down, Greyson. I think you’ve officially lost your mind.”
I shook my head and moved toward her. “I’m not joking. I don’t know why I didn’t notice them before now. Your ears are so cute, so little.”
She scrunched up her nose and covered her ears with her hands. “Now I really do feel self-conscious. What’s wrong with my ears?”
Wrapping my arms around her waist as the laughter spilled out of me, I pulled her close. “Are you even listening to me? There’s nothing wrong with your ears. They’re perfect, just like every other part of you.”
I dropped my head down and urged her hand away from her ear, using my nose. Once it was gone, I bit down lightly on her earlobe. Just before my tongue darted out to soothe the skin there, I heard Cierra’s sharp intake of breath.
I hadn’t intended to proceed any further and was simply prepared for both of us to return to getting breakfast prepared, but holding her in my arms, smelling her, and hearing her breath hitch like that, my mouth shifted away from her ear and moved along her jaw until I made it to her mouth.
Cierra didn’t hold herself back, seemingly just as caught up in me as I was in her. So, we both took advantage and allowed ourselves to get lost in a heated kiss in the kitchen. It wasn’t difficult to do.
Not when her body fit against mine the way it did or how her hands drifted along my shoulders, up my neck, and eventually against the back of my head, so she could keep me where she wanted me. Not when the taste of her was like a drug, beckoning me to get my next fix. Not when she seemed capable of giving me surprise after surprise like she did this morning with the glasses.
It would have been a crying shame if we hadn’t decided to take things where we had between us last night, because to have missed out on the time to do this, to have this… I shuddered to even consider it.
When I reached the point that I knew I wouldn’t be able to stick to just holding her close and kissing her, I begrudgingly tore my mouth from hers. “Every part of you is spectacular, pretty lady. Ears included.”
I caught the slightest tinge of pink on her cheeks before she buried her face against my chest.
There was that, too.
The way she cuddled close to me, doing it now and even in her sleep. And for me, my body responded with some primal instinct and gave her the comfort she was seeking as my arms wrapped firmly around her.
After Cierra took a few slow breaths, my hand rising and falling with the movement on her back, she pulled her face from my chest and tipped her chin up. “You’re not so bad yourself, Greyson. I already thought you were great, and then I got the chance to see you naked.”
My lips twitched. “Glad to know you weren’t disappointed.”
She tried to fight a smile. “Like you didn’t already know that was the case.”
I touched my lips to hers, offering a chaste kiss. “Come on. Let’s finish breakfast.”
For the next few minutes, Cierra and I worked together on finishing up breakfast preparations. And once I’d set the plates down on the table and took off toward the front door, Cierra grabbed napkins and utensils. I returned a minute later, a look of utter confusion marring Cierra’s beautiful face.
“Where’d you go?”
I pulled my hand out from behind my back. “I thought this was something you looked forward to doing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.”
Her shoulders dropped as she blinked at the newspaper I held in my hand. That gorgeous mouth fell open and snapped shut several times, a sense of bewilderment rising in her stare and causing her to struggle to find her voice.
“Didn’t you say that you liked reading your newspaper while you had breakfast?”
“Yes,” she answered softly. “But I didn’t expect you to remember that. Plus, I don’t need to do that now. It would be rude.”
There wasn’t anything that she’d said to me that I’d forgotten. Every word she spoke, every brush of her fingertips on my skin, every look she sent my way—I’d remembered all of it.
“I’m okay with you enjoying it,” I assured her. “Maybe if you can part with a section of the paper, I can join you. Who knows? It might just kick-start my own love of reading.”
“The sports section is all yours to start. I’ll happily pass the rest over as I finish with it.”
I shrugged. “Works for me.” The likelihood of me reading fast enough to get out of the sports section was slim, but I refused to trample on the excitement radiating from Cierra.
As soon as I sat down beside her and held out the paper for her, she took it and leaned close to kiss me. “Thank you.”
I smiled back at her.
It was such a simple thing—getting her the newspaper and her leaning in to kiss me to thank me for it—but I couldn’t deny the way it made me feel. That feeling continued to move through me at what happened next.
Cierra flipped through the paper, found the sports section, and yanked it out for me. And for the next little while, the two of us ate our breakfast while we read the newspaper. While I did make a valiant effort to read through a few articles, I found myself looking up often just to watch Cierra. She was so engrossed in her reading as she absentmindedly ate her food. She really did enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
As suspected, I hadn’t even managed to get through half of the sports section by the time we’d both finished our breakfast. Cierra hadn’t finished reading the entire paper, but she’d easily gotten through two-thirds of it. And the look on her face now told me she was feeling content, satisfied.
So, I thought it was safe to have a conversation with her. “Was that enjoyable?”
She beamed at me. “It was. I liked it. And maybe that’s weird, considering you were sitting right beside me.” Her face twisted with contemplation. “I think I really enjoyed just knowing you were here beside me while we enjoyed a quiet breakfast together. Was it torture for you?”
Laughter spilled out of me. “I loved it. I’m not nearly as fast a reader as you, but I enjoyed the quiet company with you.”
“Are you just saying that, so I won’t feel bad?”
I shook my head. “Not at all.” I reached my hand out for hers. “So, what’s on your agenda for today? Did you have any plans?”
“Well, um, I hadn’t known that what happened last night was going to happen, so my plan had originally been to get up, have breakfast, and go to my self-defense classes with you. Then I was going to come back here and work outside. I went to the local nursery on Thursday, and I picked up some flowers I’d been hoping to plant this weekend. But now that last night happened, I don’t mind changing plans. I still think I should train with you, especially considering we skipped last night, but if you don’t have anything else planned for today, I’d love to spend some time with you. We don’t have to plant flowers, though.”
“Why not?”
“Why not? You mean, why should we not plant flowers?”
I gave her a nod.
One half of her mouth quirked. “I don’t know. You don’t exactly strike me as the type who likes planting flowers or doing any gardening.”
“I mean, I’m the kind of guy who does the maintenance-free type of landscaping at my place,” I explained. “I cut grass when it gets long, and the only things I’ve planted are things that don’t require much work beyond the occasional trimming. It’s been years since I’ve really planted anything.”
Cierra swept her hand out, palm up, in my direction. “See? I was right.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to do some gardening with you.”
Her spine stiffened. “Really?”
“Yes.” I wondered why she found it so hard to believe. “If last night hadn’t happened, and you met me this morning for training, I probably would have tried to find a way to coax you into spending some time with me anyway.”
A satisfied smile washed over her expression. “Well, maybe we should get our day started, then. Because I think I’d like to find some time later today to enjoy other things with you.”
I released her hand, drove my fingers into her hair at the side of her head, and ran them through it until they landed at the back of her skull. Tugging her in my direction, I angled her head up and kissed her. “I was hoping we’d be able to put that on the agenda again today. In fact, I was thinking it’d be a great warmup for us this morning before we leave for lessons.”
“Ooh, I hadn’t thought about that.” She bit her lip and considered it, her eyes dancing. “You won’t mind our lessons starting even later, will you?”
It was an effort not to burst into a fit of laughter. In fact, to stop myself from doing that, I slid my chair back, urged Cierra to her feet in front of me, and pressed my shoulder into her belly to lift her over my shoulder.
She let out a yelp as her feet left the ground, but as I climbed the stairs to her bedroom, she didn’t hesitate to take advantage of her position and squeeze my ass.
Cierra
“I didn’t expect this.”
Like the gentle breeze that was rustling the new leaves on the trees, the words effortlessly slipped out of my mouth.
My hands were covered in dirt, the sun was shining, and the pops of color from the flowers all around my house were making me smile. But nothing had made me happier than being able to not only wake up with Greyson beside me today, but to also be able to spend the entire day with him. That he was content, willing, and eager to plant flowers with me was icing on the cake.
“What specifically are you talking about?”
I twisted my neck, looked up at Greyson from the flowers we’d just planted, and smiled at him. “This. All of it. The two of us meeting each other, feeling an attraction, and deciding to explore this between us, for starters. But beyond that, and probably more shocking, it’s been how you are with me. I’ve dated before, Greyson, and nobody has ever treated me the way you do. I’m not saying it was ever bad. I’m just saying that it was never this good. This wonderful. Never in a million years did I think I’d find someone who’d be happy to help me plant my flowers.”
“They make you happy, don’t they?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to do things with you that you enjoy doing?” He paused to examine me. “Look, you asked me a week ago about what I wanted when it came to dating you. I think we both made it clear that we’re not looking to play games, that we both want something serious. If that’s true, I think it’s important for me to understand and take part in the things that are important to you.”
My eyes narrowed on him.
“What’s that look for?”
“I’m trying to see if I’m making you up,” I confessed.
Greyson chuckled. “What?”
Shaking my head slowly, still resting on my shins, I straightened up. My gaze never left his. “After all that we’ve done just today, I’ve got enough evidence that you’re real, but I wonder what I’m being set up for. Because you’re perfect, Greyson. You say and do all the right things. It’s slightly terrifying.”
His expression grew concerned. “I certainly don’t want you being afraid, but I don’t know what you want me to do. I’m not going to be a dick to you. I like you, and I want to continue to do things to and with you.”
I leaned toward him and nudged him with my shoulder. He didn’t even budge. “Obviously, I don’t want you to be a jerk. I just… what if… I’m worried that I’ve found the perfect man for me, and something is going to happen to take you away from me.”
Greyson didn’t hesitate to wrap his arm around me, curling me into his body. I kept my dirt-covered hands outstretched in front of me, so I wouldn’t get him dirty, but he reached out his opposite hand to grasp them in his hold. He lifted them to his chest, pressed them firmly against his shirt, and smiled at me. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to hear you say that you think you’ve found the perfect man for you. I’ve already told you that I think you’re perfect. Not just everything about you, but for me, too. I’m not going to let anything take you away from me, and I can promise I have no plans to go anywhere. Please don’t worry about anything like that happening.”
My worries instantly melted away. I was quickly learning that the more I was around Greyson, the harder it was to be upset about anything for too long. He always seemed to know what to do or say to ease my fears.
“That makes me feel a lot better,” I revealed. He gave me a reassuring squeeze in return. “I’m just as interested in learning about what’s important to you, you know?”
He arched a brow but didn’t verbally respond.
“You’re taking the time to learn about the things I like. You’re actively involved in planting these flowers with me now. I want to do the same for you.”
“Plant flowers?”
I laughed. “No. I want to know what things you’re interested in, something I can do with you that you’ll enjoy.”
Understanding dawned in his expression, and he took a moment to consider his answer. “Let me just clarify that I’m enjoying myself immensely right now. I really do just like spending time with you. But as for things that are important to me, I’d like for you to meet my family soon.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“I know. I know that’s probably crazy, considering it’s just shy of a month we’ve known one another, but that’s what would make me happy. They’re important to me, and I spend time with them regularly. I want you to be able to take part in that with me.”
While the news came as such a shock to me, I had to admit that it warmed me to my core. I’d already learned that his family and friends were such an important part of his life, and to know he was eager for me to meet them made me so happy.
He wasn’t wrong, either.
It had only been just shy of a month since we’d met each other. But I didn’t care. I was head over heels for him, and I wanted us to do everything we could to give ourselves a chance at making this last.
“If you want me to meet them, if you’re ready for that, I’d be happy to meet them.”
Greyson grinned at me. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “They’re important to you, so yes.”
He touched his lips to mine in a chaste kiss. “We’ll make that happen soon.”
“Okay. And when my parents get home from Florida, I’d love for you to meet them.”
“Nothing would make me happier.”
I kissed him again.
Then I looked around the backyard at all the flowers we’d planted together. There was something about seeing it all done, knowing we’d done it together, that told me Greyson and I didn’t need to worry about it barely being a month of knowing each other. Maybe, having experienced the things we both had in our lives, we understood what was important.
This wasn’t necessarily about the flowers themselves. This was about two people meeting each other, feeling a spark, and doing what was necessary to stoke that fire and foster the connection.
I dropped my head on his shoulder and sighed. “You’ve been the best surprise of my life, Greyson.”
“That makes two of us.”
My mouth curved into a smile.
And for the next few minutes, I simply sat there with this wonderful man and allowed the gratitude to settle in.