Chapter 6
So many things make sense now that didn’t before.
His violent overprotectiveness with me and with Williams’s sister.
His explosive reaction to my old boss, Jack, who cornered me but never outright touched me.
Gregory went out of his way to dig into Jack’s past and make sure he was put behind bars, where he couldn’t hurt women any more.
How he nearly lost his mind when I fell asleep in my office and didn’t call.
That he was genuinely afraid I would have harmed myself.
It seemed ridiculous then but not any more.
His fear of being loved and being in love.
All he knew was that people he loved, people who loved him back, got hurt. And he blamed himself.
There isn’t a clock in my room but I’ve been lying under the gold satin sheets for what feels like forever, a thousand thoughts spinning through my mind. Images of him as a boy. Wishing his own father would kill him and put an end to it all. Tears. Blood.
If I’d seen those things, if I’d felt the way he must have, I’d wait for the first opportunity I had and I’d kill the bastard who dared to lay a finger on me and the people I love. As I lie here, I’m glad I killed Kevin Pearson.
Finally, Gregory can be free and truly free. He told me. He let me in. He’s been terrified of letting someone get close to him for twenty years and now…
I slip out of the covers, pull my hair across one shoulder and go where I should have been for the last hour.
I bend the handle and slowly push open the door to his dark bedroom.
The dim light of the moon and the twinkle of Dubai’s lights cast a gentle hue across the space.
The satin sheets of his king bed are pushed onto one side, the bed empty, and Gregory stands in silhouette before the wall of windows.
His arms folded across his naked chest, dark loungewear hanging low on his hips.
My heart races as I move towards his back. He flinches when I slide my hands down his toned biceps as if he hasn’t heard me come in, then he sighs and unfolds his arms to his sides as my lips brush his shoulders, one then the other.
God, I’ve missed the feel of his skin on mine.
I press my chest against his back, my pelvis to his firm arse. With a sharp inhale, he turns, pulling me into him. Even in the darkness, I feel his mesmerising stare, connecting with every nerve in my body. His fingertips stroke my temple, down my cheek, then slide to the back of my neck.
His breath teases my lips. ‘Aurora.’ That one word makes my stomach flip.
He presses his mouth to mine and my body melts into his kiss. Greedily taking his lip between my teeth, I groan under the touch I’ve missed so much. His tongue matches the swirling desperation of my own.
He holds my cheeks as he whispers my name and takes my mouth again. My hands roam hungrily over the skin of his bare back then I slip my fingers into his hair, pulling him to me like I can’t get close enough.
‘I’ve been dreaming of this for five weeks,’ I say.
‘Baby, I’ve thought about you every minute of every day.’
‘How can you hurt me so badly and be the only person who can fix me?’
His forehead meets my brow and the tip of his nose grazes mine.
‘Because we’re meant to be together, baby.
I knew that the first time I met you. I think I knew I loved you the second I saw you in my boardroom.
It just took me a while to get here and I’m sorry it did.
I’ll never hurt you again, Scarlett, I promise. ’
‘I know.’
‘I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life protecting you.’
‘I know.’
‘You’re the only woman for me. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved, plain as night.’
I smile, genuinely, for the first time since he’s been here. ‘Plain as day.’
His chest chugs as a short laugh escapes his delectable lips. A sound I’d like to hear every day for the rest of our lives: his happiness.
Our mouths meet and he lifts my legs around his waist and takes us to the bed.
Sitting me on the edge, he slides my cami up my body, his fingertips teasing my skin.
I raise my hips as he slides the shorts down my legs before standing to push his own bottoms to the floor, revealing himself, proud and ready.
Raising my chin with his index finger and thumb, he pushes his lips against mine, then lifts me back up the bed.
My legs fall wide as he crawls between them.
The weight of his body between my thighs presses his hard length against my stomach, a feeling I savour.
He leans forward, resting his forearms either side of my head, and strokes my hair back from my brow.
‘Kiss me,’ I beg.
He does. At first, soft and tender. Then his pace quickens, the force of his mouth, the turn of his tongue, and I match him, stroke for stroke, both audibly drowning in each other.
‘I’ve never wanted anything so much, Scarlett. You own me,’ he whispers, grinding against me.
I shift my head to one side as he sucks and nibbles my neck, working his way to my collarbone, gently blowing warm air across my skin.
Taking his weight on one arm, he cups my breast in his other hand and tweaks the already hardening nipple.
I close my eyes when his mouth wraps around the sensitive tip, a feeling that speaks to my entire body.
I squeeze my thighs around his hips as his teeth take over and pull my flesh, somewhere between pain and pleasure, sending my insides into turmoil.
He kisses my sternum and starts working a line down my navel. My back arches as he reaches the bottom of my stomach. In my mind, I’m begging him to move three inches lower but my words are lost in heavy pants as I squirm beneath him.
He waits, hovering, not touching me, sending me into a frenzy. Then he blows gently from the bottom of my stomach. A line. Down. Down.
I gasp as his breath caresses the top of my sex. He parts me with his fingers and continues his trail of hot air, my hips jolting forward when he strokes my swollen clit.
‘Gregory.’ His name leaves my mouth as a desperate plea.
‘Tell me what you need, baby.’
My fevered muscles respond to his words, tightening.
‘You. I need you.’
He leans forward and offers two fingers to my mouth.
I take them slowly from the base, sucking them like I would his cock as a low rumble escapes his chest. Then he shocks me by moving his wet fingers straight to my arse, stroking them over my hole.
He bends towards me and my entire body stills in anticipation.
He makes me wait, enhancing my yearning to have him.
Then his tongue meets my clit and he pushes his fingers into my aching sex, the double assault making me cry out, my back arch higher, my head dig back into the bed.
‘You’re so wet, baby.’
He moves his fingers, working me in circles, stroking my spot in time to the whirl of his tongue around my bud, building me to an orgasm I’ve desired for too long.
My hands move to his hair, keeping his head right where I need him to be.
He removes his fingers and slides his tongue down, dipping inside me, tantalising the charged skin of my entrance.
My breaths speed up, coming fast and heavy, my mind clouding in a heady euphoria.
My insides tense, craving his depth. As if reading my mind, his fingers are back inside me, two, then three, taking me higher. As his tongue strikes a line over my clit, my shoulders rise from the bed, I reach out my hands and grip the bedsheets.
‘Gregory!’
‘Come for me, baby. I want to see what I do to you.’ He rams his fingers hard into me. His tongue continues to swirl my clit. My muscles spasm and he grates out a wild sound I feel against my sex, my undoing.
I call out his name as I unravel around those magic fingers on an earth-shattering orgasm.
Before I even open my eyes, his mouth captures my heavy pants. His hips push into mine, his body rests on one firm arm and the fingers of his other hand stroke hair from my damp temple.
‘How could it have taken me so long?’ He inhales the words like he’s asking himself the question.
My heart is pumping blood through my veins so hard and fast, I think it might explode. I couldn’t love him any more than I do, physically, mentally. Despite everything, I never want to be apart from him again. I want him, just as he is, flaws and all.
Hooking my arms around his waist, I pull his body closer to mine, seduced by his guttural murmur. ‘Make love to me, Gregory.’
‘Baby, you don’t have a choice.’
He slides one hand between us and guides himself to my entrance.
My legs part further and he slides slowly into me, stretching me, filling me, making me whole again.
As he draws out, his tongue wraps around mine and takes me to a world where only Gregory and I exist. A place where nothing and no one can wound us.
He moves slowly, his hips rotating with every delicious drive forward. My still-high insides work up again.
He rolls us, his hot, damp chest pressing against mine until he’s lying under me, his hands roaming every inch of the skin on my back.
I drop my mouth to his neck and taste his saltiness, smelling sex on his flesh.
I rise to my knees, pushing him deeper into me as I keep his rhythm and move in circles around his erection.
He grabs my breasts, cupping, stroking, tweaking the ends. My hips quicken, and I dig my hands into my hair as he lifts me higher. Then his hands are on my hips, slowing my rotations around him.
‘I don’t want this feeling to end,’ he whispers.
He’s so damn beautiful, I can’t resist him. I get lost in his kiss, unable to stop myself from building to the brink. My walls grip his thick cock.