Chapter 37
SELENA
“That wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be?” Grayson repeats, his tone incredulous, as he steps back from me.
I don’t look at him as I adjust the top of my dress. Now that he’s not teasing or touching my skin, I feel cold in the air-conditioned game room.
When I glance up at him, he narrows his eyes, and I shrug.
He looks so annoyed. Honestly, I revel in the familiarity of his expression—that grumpy face is like a lifeline and I grab on with both hands.
Because I know that this is a one-time thing, so catching more feelings is a definite no. Except, suddenly, he smirks.
Why does he look so good when his lips curve up like that?
As blue eyes pierce mine, he lifts his hand.
His fingers glisten and it takes me a moment to realize why.
I watch him, spellbound. When he sucks his index and middle fingers into his mouth, tasting my arousal, a growl rumbles from deep in his chest. I’m not prepared for the visceral reaction or the rush of heat pulsing between my legs. I have to squeeze my thighs together.
“Tastes like...” Grayson pauses as he licks both fingers clean, “...you’re lying,” he finishes. I scoff as he stalks forward. The intensity in his eyes deepens with each step.
Even though he just called me a liar, I still want him close. To kiss me and touch me like only he has. The need is unbearable! And yet, he doesn’t do any of that. Instead, he reaches for my hips. Before I can ask what he’s doing, he hoists me over his shoulder.
“Grayson!” I squeak as he carries me out of the game room, up the stairs, two at a time. “Where are you going?!”
He doesn’t reply.
I push off the hard muscles lining his back with little success. I don’t let myself get distracted by how hot his skin feels or how smooth it is. I shove at his arm, but it’s a vice secured around my thighs, keeping me in place.
“Put me down,” I demand.
“Bed or couch.”
“What?”
“I’m only putting you down on my bed or the couch,” he elaborates.
A potent combination of lust and anticipation swirls in my belly. But, I can’t let him know that.
“Couch,” I snap since we’re cutting through the kitchen towards the living room anyway.
He tosses me onto the plush cushions and squats down next to me. “Still want to do this?” he asks. There’s no judgment in his eyes, no mocking tone either.
“Do you still want to?” I ask, hating how insecure I sound. Clearing my throat, I sit up.
“This is about you,” is his curt reply.
I don’t like that answer. But, there’s no time to dwell on it because the front door swings open.
“Yo, Grayson!”
I jump off the couch, eyes wide, watching Troy disappear into the kitchen. I forgot he didn’t go to the movies with the others. Luckily for me, he never looked up from his phone, so he doesn’t know I’m here.
“What movie theater are they hitting up?” Troy yells from the kitchen. Tower Lake Cinemas or the new one in Green Cove?”
“He can’t see us together,” I whisper.
Grayson crosses his arms and scowls. Why does he look insulted?
“Do you want people to know what we’re doing?!” I hiss in a panic. Some people might assume this is happening anyway. The fact that he doesn’t reply either way bothers me for some reason, but I ignore that for now. I need a way out. Maybe I can just leave through the front door.
“I’m going. You in?” Troy hollers. “With all the movie previews and ads they show before the actual movie, we won’t miss much if we leave now.”
The refrigerator ice maker runs. A soda can pops open.
“Hide in my room,” Grayson orders and my first thought is no, I’m not doing what you tell me to do.
“Where’s your room?” I whisper instead, heading for the stairs. There’s no time to contradict him right now.
Looking over my shoulder, I catch Grayson staring at me. Or glaring.
Footsteps approach. We have seconds.
“Rhodes!”
“Second floor, first door on your left. Code...1-2-1-2.”
Without looking back, I sprint upstairs! I’ll tell him later that he has the worst code number ever. Almost as bad as 1-2-3-4.
“Was that a girl!?” Troy cries behind me. “Where’s your shirt?!” His voice is loud and clear even from inside Grayson’s room, so I shut the door.
Downstairs, Troy is freaking out. “Did I interrupt? Hold up, you never bring girls over!” he gasps dramatically and I’m not sure if he’s being serious or not. “All this time you’ve had us believing you don’t date, but secretly you’ve had a girlfriend all along!”
It sounds like one of them is pacing back and forth. Probably Troy. Grayson mumbles something that I can’t make out, but it sounds like he called his teammate a dumbass and then, “If you’re going to catch the movie you should go.”
“Bruh, I’m not going anywhere until I meet your girl!”
My ears feel warm. His girl. Grayson’s girl. I shove that silly notion away.
“Take my car,” I hear Grayson state.
“For real?” Troy sounds skeptical.
“Tank’s full.”
“Is this so you can be alone with your girlfriend?”
Grayson mutters something else. I can’t hear what he said.
“No, no...don’t do that!” Troy’s teasing tone is gone. “I’ll stop playing!”
More muffled voices. Grayson’s is too low. I can’t understand what he’s saying.
“Okay, okay! I’m off to the movies, see? Where are the ke—thanks! I’ll be sure to stay under the speed limit this time!”
Heavy footsteps grow faint and then the front door slams shut. Oxygen isn’t reaching my lungs, it’s stuck in my throat. Did Troy leave? Did Grayson?
When I hear someone coming up the stairs, I step away from the door. I’m frozen in place, afraid to move as Grayson walks in.
“So…” I croak. Seeing him makes me feel nervous, but relieved, like when I first arrived at Gibson Place tonight.
Except now, he’s shirtless. I mean, it’s not that I mind.
After all, he looks good, like really good.
His body is literal perfection. The wide shoulders, the defined biceps, that V cutting into his abs, disappearing into his jeans.
..I clear my throat. “Troy went to the movies?”
“We’re not talking about him.”
I blink.
“Or anyone else,” he adds. His eyes rake over my body and his nostrils flare.
I shiver under the intensity of his gaze. “What do you—”
“We’re done talking,” he interrupts as he comes closer. I back away—it’s instinct. Giving him space, staying away, it’s how I’ve trained myself to be around Grayson Rhodes. He keeps coming until my butt bumps the edge of his desk. There’s nowhere I can go while his body makes contact with mine.
I hold my breath, waiting for him, waiting for whatever comes next. We stare at each a long moment. When he cups my face, words I never expected to hear from him brush past my lips.
“I need to kiss you,” he breathes. My insides flutter violently. “You shouldn’t let me.”
He’s right, I shouldn’t. I was wrong before, this is not a good idea. It’s a very, very bad one. As amazing as that orgasm was, we can still walk away unscathed.
And yet I don’t want to go. Even though I’m feeling so many new and strange emotions, it’s almost like I need him to kiss me too. And touch me. And make me come again.
Without another word, without another thought, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him to me. When I seal my lips over his, he curses with a groan, the delicious sound reverberates through me.
Grayson’s tongue sweeps into my mouth and I can’t help but moan into his. Rough hands roam my body. They grab my hips and my waist. They cup my breasts, playing with my nipples. I whimper as I lose myself in his intoxicating kiss.
Curling my fingers into the soft hair at the nape of his neck, I know without a doubt that I’m ready for more. Somehow he knows this too, senses it maybe, because his hands slide down my back, curving along my butt. He squeezes and yanks me flush against him. His desire presses into my stomach.
“Tell me to stop,” he growls in between kisses. His hands cup my jaw with a mix of tenderness and torment, leaving me breathless and needy. “Selena,” he growls.
Selena. Not Alvarez. Not sweetheart. Not even princess. Selena.
“Don’t stop,” I murmur against his mouth and our tongues tangle together.
He strokes the sides of my breasts with his fingertips, his thumbs tease my nipples. Flames erupt along my skin, crawling and climbing beneath the surface.
“Selena,“ he growls again, pressing his lips along the line of my neck, sucking on the delicate skin. “I need to taste you,” he groans near my ear, the urgency, the desperation is clear. His words send a river of lust down my spine.
“Yes...please,” I whimper. “I want you to.”
“Fuck,” he rasps, his warm lips floating over my breasts, where he bites and nibbles, but my dress is in the way. I want it gone. I don’t want anything between his skin and mine.
“Help me take this off,” I say and he moves fast. Grabbing the hem of my dress, he lifts it, exposing my underwear, revealing my stomach and my bare breasts to the cool air of his room. Finally, the sheer pink material slips over my arms and head. Grayson tosses it on his desk.
My breath staggers as I stand before him. I’m practically nude except for the white underwear and sneakers.
As his eyes sweep over my body, a look of awe and something like desire settles on his face. His adam’s apple bobs up and down. “You’re so...”
“Naked?” I provide and he smirks. Some of the tension leaves his body. Mine too.
“Not yet,” he smiles. Those two dimples appear, making a part of me want to swoon and let him catch me.
Grayson steps closer, his eyes never leave mine as he places his hands on my waist with a confidence I don’t feel. My eyes shutter closed, nervous at what’s about to happen. This is unfamiliar territory for me, completely new—the whole night has been!
“Relax, princess.” He says it in that low, growly tone that has my stomach doing flips.
His chest presses against mine as he places a soft kiss to my lips, then to each of my cheeks.
His lips work up my neck to my ear and then down to my collarbone.
Murmuring something, he kisses between my breasts, his hands already cupping them, squeezing and playing.
He licks one before sucking it. I shiver and he does the same to the other side too.
“Grayson,” I moan. His nose brushes my skin as he explores my willing body.
Taking his time, as if to torture me, he kisses lower and lower, trailing a line of fire across my stomach to my hip bone. The place where my thighs meet is pulsating with a need so intense, it’s about to set me aflame.
“Please,” I whimper and he doesn’t waste time, hooking his thumbs around the band of my underwear to slip them off.
They go down my hips, past my thighs, lower, until they reach my ankles.
Grayson’s on one knee as I lift each foot so I can step out of them.
Smirking, he balls up my underwear before stuffing them in the front pocket of his jeans.
I’m about to ask what he’s doing when he drops to both knees.
Rough palms glide up the back of my legs and I stop breathing.
Blue eyes meet mine as his hands reach the underside of my butt.
“Can I taste you, princess?” he asks.
I squeeze my legs together. I’m throbbing and nervous but so, so eager.
“Yes.”
When I nod, he presses a kiss to my belly button. Then, his lips move lower, leaving wet little kisses along the way. He stops right as he’s about to reach that most sensitive spot between my legs.
We’re both breathing heavy. It’s only then I realize that I’m naked and Grayson Rhodes is on his knees. In front of me. For me.
When I nod again, giving him permission and begging him to hurry up all at once, he tilts his head and his mouth is suddenly on me. His tongue runs up my slit, tasting me.
“Oh my god!”
My legs feel shaky and nearly give out, but Grayson holds me up. I dig my fingers into his hair, while he’s licking and lapping almost reverently, learning every inch of me.
“You’re fucking delicious,” he rasps and I suck in a breath, melting at his touch.
And then it gets even better. His hot, wet tongue slips inside. My pulse grows erratic and I writhe against his mouth, pleasure building again.
“Grayson.” My voice is a hoarse whisper.
He seals his mouth to my clit. Oh my god! Oh my god. I can’t do anything except chant his name.
“How close are you?” he asks before sliding a thick finger inside me.
“C-Close,” I gasp as every sensation starts to collide, sending me higher and higher.
“You taste so good,” he murmurs, and then his tongue swirls around my clit and a second finger joins the first.
I mumble incoherent words. I think I curse. He chuckles, but doesn’t stop.
Tingling pleasure sizzles up my spine as he thrusts both fingers in and out of me. His hand and his tongue work together in a magical rhythm that makes it hard to breathe or think or speak.
“I’m...a-about—”
Grayson sucks on my clit and the world stops, shatters. I swear I see stars. I’m gasping at the sensations flooding my body, moaning with the immense pleasure rolling through me. I rock my hips as his skilled fingers and talented mouth draw out my second orgasm of the night.
“Grayson,” I pant, holding on to his shoulders as my legs tremble and my head spins. Euphoria skitters across my limbs and I regret waiting this long to feel this good.
He laps at my core, as if needing every last drop of my release. When I gaze down at him, his lips and his mouth glisten.
“Was that as bad as you thought it would be?” he asks and I giggle, still dazed, still feeling so good.
“Yes,” I swallow, trying to catch my breath. “Just awful.” He’s still on his knees, holding me up. I cannot stop my hand from touching his face. The urge is too strong and I caress his jaw. “Just terrible,” I lie.
“That’s too bad,” he says, playing along.
“It is,” I sigh as he stands, still holding me.
His lips are near mine.
“I suppose that means we’ll simply have to try again,” he states, voice low, tone serious.
“Guess so,” I reply, trying to mimic his stoic expression. “As many times as is necessary.”
That’s what makes him laugh and I watch him, completely and utterly captivated. A warm sensation fills my chest and—oh no.
Grayson kisses me then and I taste myself on his tongue. Every other thought fades from my mind as he wraps his arms around me and leads me to his bed.