Chapter Seven
Hannah
Hannah could feel Gray’s tension long before either of them crossed the threshold into his quarters.
He didn’t speak during the walk back, but silence didn’t make him feel distant.
If anything, it intensified the connection between them, tightening the invisible thread that had been pulling them closer since the first moment they touched hands in the square.
Every few steps, power rolled off him. It brushed against her skin like a promise, sinking into her nerves until her heart was beating too fast and her palms felt unsteady with heat.
He wasn’t holding back with her. Not anymore.
She couldn’t look at him without feeling that difference.
His expression stayed focused and outwardly calm, but the air around him vibrated faintly, the way a storm made the atmosphere tremble before it broke open.
And every time his intense eyes slid to her, her body responded with a need she couldn’t, and didn’t want to, hide.
By the time they reached his door, her body was humming with anticipation. Gray keyed in the code, and the door slid open with a soft mechanical sigh. Hannah stepped inside first, her breath catching as the room’s atmosphere shifted around her.
It was intimate entering his private space.
It felt far more electric than crossing the threshold of a bedroom ever should.
The lights were low, casting everything in warm gold, and the subtle scent of ozone lingered faintly in the air, clinging to the bedding, the walls, the quiet space that had held his solitude for years.
Gray followed her in, and the room changed again, tightening with the presence of everything unspoken between them. When the door sealed behind them, the soft sound might as well have been a lock sliding into place inside her chest.
She turned, and he was already watching her.
Not just looking. Watching. His gaze traced her mouth, then lower, lingering with a hunger that made her wet. His power rose, a slow, deliberate swell that brushed her senses.
“Hannah,” he said, and the way he said her name felt like his hands were already on her.
Her breath stuttered. “Gray...”
He moved toward her with a steadiness that belied the storm simmering beneath his skin.
When he stopped in front of her, close enough that his heat reached her but not touching yet, her knees nearly weakened.
His silence wasn’t confusion, it was reverence.
His desire, held in check for so long, vibrated through the air like a taut wire.
He lifted a hand, hovering just beside her cheek, giving her space to step away. When she didn’t, when she tilted her head into that phantom touch, his breath caught.
“Are you sure?” he rasped out.
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
His eyes softened and darkened all at once, shifting from restraint to hunger. Power blazed subtly around them, brushing her skin in delicate sparks, and then his hand cupped her jaw with a tenderness that nearly undid her.
Heat bloomed beneath his fingertips. Her body leaned into him instinctively. He lowered his forehead to hers, breath mingling with hers, and the world narrowed to just this moment, just this man, just the bond slowly tightening around her ribs.
“You have no idea,” he whispered, “how long I’ve been holding this back.”
“Then don’t,” she breathed.
The sound he made was low and wrecked. When Gray kissed her, the world fell away.
His kiss wasn’t hesitant or exploratory.
It was a release. A dam bursting. Years of restraint snapping all at once.
The moment his mouth claimed hers, Hannah felt the shock of it ripple straight through her body.
It made her knees weaken and her breath catch in her throat.
He kissed her like he’d been starving for her, like he’d held himself back for too long and didn’t intend to do it anymore.
His hands framed her face, strong and warm, thumbs brushing her cheekbones as though memorizing the shape of her.
When she opened her mouth to him, the low groan he let out vibrated through her entire body.
Her fingers found the front of his shirt, gripping the fabric hard enough to wrinkle it as she pulled him closer.
He followed instantly, his body pressing against hers with a solid, unyielding heat that sent another shiver through her.
Sparks danced across her lips where their mouths met, electricity crackling in time with her heartbeat.
Gray broke the kiss only long enough to whisper, “You taste like lightning,” in a voice thick with desire.
Hannah’s breath stuttered in her chest. “Then take more.”
That did it.
The faint control he’d been clinging to shattered as he kissed her again—deeper, hungrier—his hands sliding from her face to her hips, pulling her flush against him so she could feel exactly what she did to him.
Heat flooded between her legs, sharp and heavy, and her body arched into his instinctively.
He lifted her as though she weighed nothing, his hands strong beneath her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around his waist without thinking. Her back met the wall with a soft thud, but the impact barely registered over the sensation of Gray’s mouth moving down to her throat.
He kissed her with slow, deliberate strokes of his tongue that made her gasp. Then he nipped lightly at the tender skin just below her ear. A sharp jolt of pleasure shot through her, and a broken sound escaped her lips before she could contain it.
“Gray...”
His answering growl vibrated against her throat, primal and claiming.
She felt the sound as much as she heard it, the deep rumble sinking straight into her core.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him to her as he kissed a path down her neck, tasting her, savoring her, as though he needed to relearn every inch of her skin.
When his hands slid beneath her shirt, she sucked in a breath. The sensation of his touch skimming the underside of her breasts sent sparks dancing across her nerves. Electricity sparked where his fingers moved, glowing faintly beneath her shirt like embers catching flame.
He paused then, lifting his head to meet her gaze. His breaths came harsh and uneven, his eyes dark with desire and tenderness.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he said.
The concern in his voice hit her as hard as the heat pooling between her thighs.
She cupped his face with shaking hands, her thumbs brushing along his jaw.
“I don’t want you to stop,” she whispered. “I want you.”
The bond thrummed in response, strong and sure.
And Gray finally let go of the last of his restraint.
With one smooth motion, he pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside.
The cool air hit her heated skin for barely a second before his mouth covered her breast, his tongue circling her nipple in a slow, devastating spiral that made her cry out softly.
Her back arched into him, her hands slipping into his hair as the sparks between them intensified.
Pleasure hit her in waves. Sharp, brightness rolled through her body with every stroke of his tongue, every tightening of his fingers at her waist. The bond flooded her senses with the warm, molten awareness of how much he wanted her, needed her, worshipped her.
And when he looked up at her from her breast, lips swollen and pupils blown wide with desire, Hannah felt her entire world tilt.
She had never been touched like this. Never been wanted like this. “Gray...” Her voice trembled. “Please...”
He lifted her higher, supporting her with one strong arm, and smiled against her skin.
“I’m not stopping until you fall apart for me,” he murmured. “So hold on.”
Gray’s mouth on her breast felt like worship, but when he lowered her to the bed, Hannah realized he had only just begun. The sheets were warm beneath her back, faintly scented with ozone. It steadied her even as her heartbeat thundered wildly in her chest.
Gray followed her down, dragging his body over hers with a controlled prowl that made her breath stutter.
His weight pressed her into the mattress just enough to make her feel claimed, wanted, sought-after in a way she had never known.
His lips traced a path along her jaw, down her throat, then over her collarbone, each kiss a burning imprint that left her quivering.
“Hannah...” His voice was low, velvety, nearly reverent as he braced himself above her. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
“Oh, I do.” The boldness in her voice surprised her. It surprised him too. His breath hitched, and she felt his control slip another precious inch.
He kissed her again, slower this time, as though trying to memorize the moment.
His hand slid down her side, fingers splaying possessively over her hip, then lower, brushing the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
The touch was light, exploratory, but it sent a shockwave through her that made her hips lift instinctively.
He groaned, the sound thick and hungry, and he followed her movement without hesitation.
“Open for me,” he demanded.
She did, because her body ached for him. Denying the bond felt impossible now. Her thighs parted beneath his guiding hands, and when he settled between them, the heat of his breath against her bare skin made her gasp.
He looked up at her once more, giving her a chance to stop him, but her answer was immediate and certain.
“Gray... please.”
He lowered his mouth to her.
The first stroke of his tongue was slow, deliberate, dragging from the bottom of her slick folds to the tight, aching bundle of nerves at the top. The sensation tore a soft, helpless sound from her throat. Her back arched, fingers gripping the sheets as pleasure radiated through her entire body.