CHAPTER 23
GRAYSON
I reach up and untie Liv’s wrists from the bed. The skin beneath the belt is raw and red from her pulling against the restraints. Guilt claws at my chest as I rub a thumb over the mark, making a mental note to get her some ointment for that.
I almost stopped earlier when she started crying. And if she’d told me to, I would have immediately. It wasn’t my intention to make her cry. After she’d laughed in my face in the kitchen, I was furious. I wanted her to understand how she made me feel. How she drove me mad with desire whenever she was in the same room as me. I wanted her on the edge, begging for release. I didn’t want to break her.
I pull the comforter over her naked body before heading into her bathroom and cleaning myself up. My stomach growls at me, reminding me once again that I haven’t eaten since this morning, and I go in search of my phone.
I find the device in the pocket of my jeans and check the time. Nine-fifteen. I look at Liv’s sleeping form in the bed and briefly think about leaving, but the thought vanishes just as quickly as it came. I may be an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole.
I search the number for Don’s Pizzeria and press call as I pull on my briefs and collect the rest of my discarded clothes from the floor.
Thirty minutes later I re-enter Liv’s bedroom, my arms laden with pizza boxes. I deposit them on the foot stool at the end of the bed before approaching her.
She sleeps soundly. Her lips swollen and slightly parted as she breathes deeply. Her face is entirely relaxed, making her appear younger than her twenty-four years. I almost don’t want to wake her, but I know she hasn’t eaten all day, and I won’t be able to relax until she does.
I gently brush a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. She scrunches her nose up before swatting at her face and I laugh quietly.
“Blue,” I whisper.
Her eyes fly open in horror, and she sits bolt upright like something out of the fucking exorcist. I rear back to keep from being head-butted with a laugh. “Woah. It’s okay. It’s just me.” I say holding my hands up in surrender.
Her eyes are wild and unfocused as she searches her surroundings before they land on me. “Oh my god. I fell asleep. Was I snoring?”
I shake my head in amusement. “No. No snoring.”
She relaxes an inch before sitting up again, sniffing the air. “What do I smell?”
I stand, retrieving the pizza before walking around the bed and climbing in beside her. “I ordered pizza.”
She looks at me in disbelief. “What?”
I spread the boxes across our laps. “I didn’t know which one you’d like so I ordered a few. We have Margherita, spicy meat deluxe and vegetarian. ”
Liv just stares at me like I’ve lost my damn mind, and I wonder for a moment if I have. I’m entirely out of my element here. I’ve never done the whole after sex thing, so I have no idea if I’m doing it right, or why I’m even doing it at all, but for some unexplainable reason, the last thing I want to do right now is leave.
“What is happening right now?” Liv questions and I shrug.
“I don’t know, Liv. Let’s not make a big deal out of this. We’re just two people having pizza in bed.” I say as I pick up a slice of the spicy meat deluxe and take a bite. Flavours explode on my tongue, and I suppress a satisfied groan as I scarf down the entire slice in three bites.
Liv reaches for a slice of the Margherita and pride swells in my chest for guessing right. She eats her slice in a more polite manner than I did and finishes another two before turning to me with a sigh. “What’s going on here, Gray?”
I brush the crumbs from my fingers, returning her sigh with one of my own. “I don’t have the answer to that question. The night I came back here after dropping you off, I thought I just needed to get you out of my system. Obviously, that didn’t work. All I know is I enjoy doing this with you.”
She blinks thoughtfully. “Enjoy doing this with me? As in the sex?”
My lips twitch. “Yes. As in the sex.”
“And you want to keep doing it?” She asks and I think about it. I had been ready to proposition her before with this exact idea. A no strings kind of relationship between two people that have great sex. But there’s always that burning worry that plagues me. I don’t want to hurt her.
If we do this, there’s a very real chance that Liv could end up falling in love with me, and I’ve made it clear from the start that love isn’t something I’m capable of offering her in return. The safe option would be to just stay away from each other. But the greedy part of me isn’t ready to give her up just yet.
“I don’t know.” I release an audible exhale, scrubbing at my face with a calloused hand.
She watches me intently, her gaze burning into me. “You think I’m gonna fall in love with you.”
I shrug. “What if you do?”
“I won’t.” She replies without missing a beat, her tone sure and full of confidence. It offends me.
“How can you be so sure?” I challenge.
“Because you and I are a lot more alike than you think. I don’t believe in fate and happily ever after, Gray. Never have. I’m more than capable of keeping sex and feelings separate.” She picks up another slice of pizza and takes a bite while I sit in stunned silence.
I thought I had her figured out. I was certain from the moment I laid eyes on her at the fair that she was the kind of woman who dreamt of having an epic love with marriage and babies and the white picket fence. But as I look at her now. At the seriousness on her face. I realise that I was wrong.
Though I don’t believe that she’s incapable of falling in love. I do believe her when she says she can keep the two separate.
“Okay.” I say, breaking the silence.
Her brows shoot up. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s do it.” I say and immediately feel awkward.
“Again? I’ve barely recovered from the last time.” She waggles her brows suggestively earning an amused huff from me .
“So, are we like friends with benefits now?” I ask because I’m a fucking tool.
Liv snorts. “More like frenemies with benefits. Outside of this room we can’t stand each other. We don’t have to act any differently towards each other just because we’re having sex on the regular, Gray.”
She climbs out of the bed, her naked body on full display as she heads towards the adjoining bathroom. My eyes zero in on her ass and my cock hardens beneath the comforter. Liv pauses at the threshold and adds, “besides, pissing you off is half the fun,” before slamming the door behind her.
Fucking hell, this woman is gonna be the death of me.