Lexi Chapter
LEXI
It seemed best to maybe not respond to that last part.
But just the thought of him doing any of that again…
she clenched involuntarily deep inside. Although a spot or two was sore, it felt delicious.
Grayson seemed to know it too, the smug gorgeous bastard.
His inner fire was lit, and it made his eyes brilliant.
For a moment, she debated calling him on his bluff.
Except it didn’t look like he was bluffing.
Fine. She’d open the damn box. But if it was some kind of choker, they were about to have a conversation he wouldn’t like.
She’d caught the scent of chocolate though, so maybe not.
She scooted off the couch to sit on the floor and edged up to the coffee table.
The box was done up with ribbons, and taped closed as well. After picking at it for a second, she dug in her pants pocket, and belatedly realized that her pants were still undone from earlier. She ignored that for the moment to grab her ballpoint pen and drag it across the freaking industrial tape.
Well aware that intense emerald eyes were watching her every move, she shoved the pen back into the pocket and slowly untied the lovely ribbon.
It wasn’t the ribbon’s fault that some take-charge guy had ordered her to open a damn present.
Without the tape, the smells grew stronger, and now she let herself get a little excited. Dessert?
With the ribbon set aside, she looked up into intense green, and realized she liked being on the floor. Weird. Was that weird? It sounded weird, but it felt right. Another question to ask him later. But for now, she got a present, and it smelled delicious.
“Thank you,” she said, and watched him smile before popping the lid.
Her mouth dropped open in shock. Over a dozen slices of different kinds of cheesecake sat waiting.
Chocolate, peanut butter, crème br?lée, vanilla bean, coffee, mascarpone, lemon…
flavors were listed across the lid inside of the box. Lexi peered over the lid at Grayson.
“What am I supposed to do with all of this?” she asked, and winced.
That might have sounded rude. But he didn’t look offended. He was still smiling.
“Eat them. Or you can leave some here in the freezer, or take them to your gym-”
“You want me to bring cheesecake into a gym?” Lexi smiled.
Grayson shrugged.
“Speaking of bringing things with you to the gym, stand up,” he demanded.
From her seat on the floor, he looked about ten feet tall standing up, and she took his offered hand without hesitating.
He pulled her up fast, so she all but flew up against him.
He bent her one arm behind her again, and held her still as he bent to kiss her neck.
A thought occurred to her when she felt his teeth.
“I don’t like hickies,” she said, and he stopped to look down at her.
“You don’t want me to mark you?”
She thought about it. Maybe she did, actually. Just…
“Maybe I do. Just not where other people can see them?” she finished on a question, and he frowned.
“And why wouldn’t you want people to see my mark on you, Miss Alessandra? Isn’t that the point of marking… what did you call it?” His sharp gaze pinned her to the spot. “What’s mine?”
Lexi leaned back from him, and shook her head.
“We’re not in this for other people. At least I’m not. So if you need to put hickies in a contract, then sorry, I’m not signing that one.”
“It’s not about the fucking contract, Alessandra!” he exploded, and let her go.
The moment was over, and she wasn’t sure why. Because she didn’t want to go to work wearing hickies? Fuck that.
“You have a problem with me not wanting a hickey?” she asked. Well what the fuck did this guy expect from her? She’d already crossed more lines with him than she ever had before, and he just kept pushing. He was pacing away from her, and ran a hand through his hair.
Standing alone again, Lexi felt a chill, and looked down - her pants were still half open and her shirt was on inside out. Fantastic. She sealed her pants and whipped her shirt off, drawing his attention before she righted it and dropped it back over her head. Grayson continued to pace.