Chapter 5
ALICE
I’m standing in front of him, naked. I should probably cover myself, but I don’t.
Even though I’m curvy, I’ve never been ashamed or embarrassed of my body.
And even though this is probably weird for him, I really don’t want him to leave.
I start to ramble. “I know nothing is going to happen to me here. I know that I’m safe…
I just… I know I’m safe with you, Grey… I don’t want to be alone. ”
He nods tightly at me. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I look up at him, wide-eyed. I wait for him to say more, but he just stares back at me. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him to get into the bathtub with me, but I know he’ll really think that is weird. We don’t have that type of relationship.
He’s always kept me at arm’s length. He likes to boss me around. He took to heart what Pres said about keeping the guys away from me, and even though our friends have talked about how they think Gunner and I have some kind of relationship, we don’t. Heck, we spend most of our time arguing.
“I’m sorry—” I start, thinking I need to apologize to him.
He shakes his head, and his nostrils flare. “Don’t apologize to me. You never have to apologize to me.”
I nod and slowly walk to the bathtub. As soon as I’m about to climb in, Gunn reaches for my arm and helps me in. I settle into the hot water, letting it surround me. The bubbles hide my body, and I swear he’s relieved when he no longer has to look at me.
I try not to be offended. Greyson turns his back to me, and I hold back a laugh. “You just saw me naked. You don’t have to turn around.”
Awkwardly, he turns back toward me, but he looks everywhere but at me. I point to the shelf. “Can you grab me a hair tie?”
He grabs it, and holds it out to me. I hold up my wet hands and try to shake the water off, but he squats, sitting on the edge of the tub. “Here, I’ll get it.”
He gathers my hair together and then piles it on top of my head. It takes him a few tries, but he finally gets it all up in a wild bun on top of my head. “Thank you,” I mutter.
He finally looks into my eyes and nods. He’s about to stand up, but I put my wet hand on his denim-clad leg. “No, don’t go. Can you sit there?”
He nods again.
With him sitting this close, I lean my head back on the edge of the bath tub and close my eyes. “Talk to me, Grey.”
His voice is gruff. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Do you hate it when I call you by your real name?”
He clears his throat. “No, you can call me Greyson or Grey. But nobody else better try it.”
A warm feeling wraps around me. “Do you like working at Heat & Ink?”
“Yes,” he answers immediately.
“What do you like to do in your spare time?”
“Umm, ride my bike into the mountains.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
I ask the question and hold completely still. I would think, if he had one, I would know about it, but who knows?
It feels like he takes forever, but he finally answers me. “No, I don’t.”
“Are you guys going to kill that man downstairs?”
He shifts next to me, but my eyes are still closed.
He lowers his voice. “Princess, you know what we are, and you know we’ve killed for less.”
When I don’t say anything, he continues, “Do you understand what could have happened to you?”
I let out a breath. “Yeah, I know. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
I feel his fingertips on my bare shoulder, but I don’t dare move. Hell, I don’t even breathe because I don’t want him to stop.
“We won’t kill him. But we will make sure he never touches another woman like he did tonight. And I promise that you’ll never have to look at him again.”
“Okay,” I murmur.
He rubs his finger back and forth. It’s completely innocent, but it still burns me up. “Hey, you’re going to be okay, Alice. I promise you that.”
I softly inhale. “I know.”
We sit here quietly, and I try to enjoy just having his fingertips touching me. Eventually, when the water starts to turn cold, I open my eyes, not wanting to get out yet but knowing I should.
When I look up at Greyson, he’s staring down at the tub. I see that all the bubbles have disappeared and realize that he is looking at my body through the almost clear water. I run my hand across my stomach and down to my thighs. Greyson physically jerks as he watches me.
Caught, his eyes widen as he looks at me looking back at him. He clears his throat and stands up, turning his back to me. “I’m sorry. Shit, I’m sorry, princess. I shouldn’t be… I’m sorry.”
I lift the drain so the water starts to empty and struggle to stand up. My groan has him turning around. “Are you okay?”
I nod and stand to my full height as I pull the lever to turn the shower on. When the water starts to spray, I pull the curtain but don’t close it all the way. I don’t know what it is, but I want to be able to see Greyson.
I wash my body quickly, and when I’m done, I turn the water off and open the curtain. He’s holding a towel out to me, eyes closed.
I take it from him and jostle into him as I climb out of the shower and stand on the mat. I dry off and wrap the towel around my body. “Do you have to go downstairs to… you know?”
He shakes his head. “No, Boss texted me. They’re handling it. They told me to take care of you.”
I don’t know why that grates my nerves, but it does. I breeze past him and walk into the bedroom. I pull out a drawer and get out a pair of panties and a nightshirt.
I let the towel drop and then pull on my panties and the shirt. I start to bend for the towel, but Greyson beats me to it.
In a huff, I ask him, “Does it bother you that you’re always assigned to me?”
He looks at me strangely. “I’m not assigned to you.”
I blurt out a laugh and sit down on the bed. “Yeah, right.”
He sits on the chair across from me. “Why do you think I’m assigned to you?”
I roll my eyes and scoot back on the bed. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
He stands up, and just for a second, I freak out, thinking that he’s going to leave, but he surprises me and sits down on the edge of the bed. “Is it okay if I sit here?”
I tilt my head and look at him, I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but I also don’t want to be alone tonight. “Don’t freak out.”
His forehead creases. “I won’t freak out.”
I gesture to the bed beside me. “I want you to sleep here with me tonight… I don’t want to be by myself.”
I can’t tell what he’s thinking. He just stares back at me, gulps, and nods his head. “Okay. I’ll sleep here if that’s what you want.”
I lie back on the bed, and he is reaching for the light when I stop him. “Are you going to wear your shoes to bed?”
He shakes his head and laughs. “No, I should probably take them off.”
He gets up and moves over to the chair. He sits down, and I watch him unlace his boots, take them off, and then remove his socks. He stares at his jeans, shrugs, and then comes back to the bed. I hold a hand out to stop him. “Grey, stop. What do you normally sleep in?”
“Nothing.”
I choke up. Nothing. Okay. “Uh, well, take your jeans and shirt off at least. It doesn’t bother me if you sleep with nothing on. I trust you.”
He eyes me before he removes his pants and shirt.
I stare at him open-mouthed. I knew he was muscular.
The man runs and works out a lot, but I had no idea what he was packing under all his leather and denim.
His shorts are tented as he stands next to the bed, and I can’t force myself to look away.
I swear his dick twitches, and he pulls the covers back. “You sure about this?”
“I want you to stay.” I answer him honestly.
He reaches over and turns off the light and then lies down.
I lie back and stare up at the ceiling. “I’m sorry, Grey.”
He huffs. “Don’t apologize to me.”
He turns his head toward me. “Happy birthday, princess. I have a present for you, but it’s on my bike.”
I scoot closer to him, wanting to feel his warmth. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”