Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
GRAYSON
I’m hugging Emma by the waist when we walk past the front door of my small house.
She’s trying to wriggle out of my hold since we’ve almost tripped five times now, but it’s our first time back, and it’s fun to tease her.
We also haven’t had sex or seen each other in two days, and the drive up here was torture with the little touches we kept giving each other.
At one point, I got so desperate that I ended up fingering her until she came all over my hand. Emma tried giving me head, but I refused, not wanting to risk an accident. Which, yes, seems ironic, but with how hard I come with her, it’d be more distracting than hearing her moans and screams.
“You decorated,” she finally says, breaking free from me and walking around the living room, looking at the new pictures I put up on the walls and in the small bookcase.
“I did,” I confirm. Emma constantly told me I needed to make my house more personable, and although having only her here is enough for me, I want her to feel at home, too.
She swivels her hips as she walks around and notices the new throw pillows I got.
“I got a decorator. I don’t actually know what throw pillows looked good with the changes I made.” I’m fucking nervous as hell to show her the surprise I have in the backyard.
Her big blue eyes shift to one of the large pictures, and her voice lowers. I feel completely at ease telling her the answer to her following question. “Is that one of your mom’s photos?”
Walking toward her, I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “Most of them are, but this one’s my favorite.”
“Is there a particular reason?”
Flashes of my mom, dad, Wes, and Lainey pierce my mind, and I smile at the memory. “It was the best picture my mom ever took, at least to me, and it was because all of us were there.”
The picture shows an eastern cottontail bunny eating a strawberry that Lainey left behind in our backyard, hoping to lure in some animal to watch during the summer.
I tell Emma the story about how the bunny kept coming back for more fruit, and because of Lainey, Mom ended up with about a hundred pictures of the animal on her camera. But she never said no to the request.
“We were so young back then, and she worked every summer, but she took a couple of weeks off to spend time with us, and that bunny took at least three days’ worth of our time with her.”
Emma lets out a breathy laugh. “Well, dang. Now it’s my favorite, too.”
“I called them and left a voicemail while I was in London,” I tell her. For some reason, I haven’t mentioned it yet. Maybe it’s because we’ve been feeling so light and happy that there’s never been a right time to bring it up.
Her head lifts, and her beautiful face lights up with that familiar curiosity of hers. “Oh?”
“I’d called them before Thanksgiving, too, about you.
In fact, the last four calls have been about you, and I’ve only made seven this past year.
” She hesitates to ask what I know that big brain of hers is curious about.
“The last call was on New Year’s, and I told them my entire plan.
” I laugh. “As if they didn’t already know. ”
Emma nods, understanding why I communicate with them the way I do.
“I asked my cousin to send me signs last semester. About you, that is,” she tells me.
“Including one on New Year’s.” Kissing the top of her head, I let her continue the story, knowing it’s the one thing we’ve avoided talking about after I asked her to be my girlfriend.
“Now that I think about it, maybe it was Amelia’s call.
I still find it odd that she called me weeks before the semester started.
” I smirk to myself, not telling her that I pressured Ben into talking to Amelia and Oliver for her. “You remember that night at Simone’s?”
Chuckling, I say, “How could I forget? It was the first time I let myself touch you last semester in that fucking dress with those heels.” I bite my knuckle, my cock twitching in my pants at the memory of the tight dress that accentuated every single one of her curves.
Emma giggles. “Down, boy.” She taps my shoulder, and I snort. “Going back to what I was saying, I asked her to send me a sign that night to let me know that the semester would get better. As soon as I did, you popped out of that back room all drunk and dopey.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “You’d already won me over. The alcohol only intensified what I felt.”
She gives me a knowing look. “You had me very confused then, Mr. Hayes.”
I made many mistakes last semester, one of them was not being as straightforward with Emma as I was with myself, but I wouldn’t change a fucking thing if it meant that we’d end up right where we were meant to be.
Although I know we just entered some emotionally heavy territory, I can’t ignore the carnal urge I’m feeling.
Emma’s eyes heat when her ass accidentally brushes against my semi-hard cock, but she takes a step back.
“You promised to show me something I haven’t already seen.
” Her throat bobs, cheeks flushing, tits shifting with the tight V-neck sweater she’s wearing.
She wants me just as badly as ever, and fuck, I love her for that, but a promise is a promise.
Giving her the smile I know makes her knees weak, I stick my hand out. “It’s in the backyard.” Her ears perk up, and she does a little excited shimmy that only brings my attention back to her chest. I groan. “Let’s go before I change my mind and fuck you over the new ottoman.”
Emma hums in a way that tells me she’s interested in doing it as soon as possible.
We reach the back door. “Close your eyes.”
She claps excitedly, and my heart thumps in the way only Emma can make it do.
“This is going to be good.”
As soon as she closes her eyes, I wave my hand in front of her face to make sure she’s not peeking.
“I’m going to open the door. Grab both my hands, and I’ll lead the way.”
Emma slowly takes two steps down, and we walk along a short path to the old shed I hadn’t bothered to touch up until almost two months ago.
“You can open your eyes now,” I whisper into her ear, and her body shivers as it always does when I kiss the sensitive spot on her neck.
“You repainted the shed and added some new doors.” Emma nods. “I like the color.”
“Does the color look familiar?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, it’s just a light blue…” I wait for her to say it. “My eyes.”
“Yeah, it’s been my favorite color for a while now, but that’s not the only surprise. Why don’t you open those doors?” The white wooden and glass doors are currently covered by temporary dark curtains, hiding the surprise inside.
Emma slowly turns the silver knob and gasps upon seeing the walls.
My heart thumps again, and my body stiffens, hoping her gasp is a good sign because right now she has her back to me and I can’t fucking tell what she’s thinking. The place isn’t fully done, it still needs to be decorated and painted, but I wanted to leave that up to her.
She spins around with tears in her eyes, her mouth wide open. “The bookshelves.” She points to the back and side walls, where I hired people to install multiple shelves, leaving space for natural light to come in through the windows I had installed.
“It’s a library,” I tell her, and watch her reaction carefully.
The last time I showed her something I’d bought for her, she kind of freaked out.
I don’t blame her—I was pissing my pants just showing her the property in Manhattan, but she ended up falling in love with it, and I hope she warms up to the idea of this, too.
Emma laughs. “You’re making me a library?”
“Yes,” I state simply, as if it’s no big deal. To me, it’s a symbol of making one of her fantasies come to life, a nonsexual one that is. It’s me keeping my promise to the woman I love.
“You mean to tell me that you’re going to make me a full-on library that I can come into whenever I want?” Her eyes remain wide.
I try not to grin and fail miserably. “It’ll be a library, and I was thinking of adding a small desk or a large chair for when you need some alone time to write or do whatever.
I know how much you miss the one at your parents’ townhouse, and I know I can’t beat that, but you can bring the first editions here if you want to.
I’m leaving the colors and decorations up to you—”
Emma’s arms wrap around my neck as she pulls me down for a hungry kiss, shutting me up.
I’ve never babbled until her, and she knows exactly how to make me relax, the same way I do her.
She moans into my mouth, and I groan at her eagerness.
She pushes me against a wall, more aggressive than usual, not that I mind.
I tug her front against my cock, which has been waiting for her since she couldn’t have phone sex last night, and since she stepped out of her parents’ place in tight jeans and a tight shirt, showing the curve of her perky tits.
Emma yanks my arms off her and quickly removes my belt, then drops to her knees.
She looks so fucking beautiful on her knees for me.
I lift her chin with one finger. “Does this mean that you like it?”
Emma continues eagerly unbuttoning my pants.
“This is every reader’s fantasy, Grayson.
” My hard dick springs free as she licks the shaft, and I throw my head back at the feeling of her soft tongue around my cock.
“So, yes.” She takes me all the way in, making me curse, and sucks twice before pulling her head back. “I like it.”
Her head bobs on my dick as I lay a hand on her head, not pushing her farther because she’s doing everything right as always.
Then she cups my balls and massages them, making me fucking whimper as I do for her and only her.
Emma repeats the movement, and I whimper again.
She loves it when I make those sounds, and she knows that I’m at her mercy and always will be.
Emma moves her head faster and moans around me. The feeling shoots straight to my dick and balls, making me stiffen.
“Oh fuck, Emma. I’m coming,” I breathe out.
My balls tighten before I take over and fuck her mouth, coming with a loud moan.
My vision goes black at the intensity of saving my cum for her for the past twenty-four hours.
My ears ring next, and Emma, being the amazing woman she is, swallows every drop of me.
“Fuck,” I whisper as I look down at my girl, who pumps me one more time, licking the last bead of my release. “What do I get when I buy us a house with a library?” I half joke.
She tilts her head to the side and considers. “Player’s choice.”
I smile and drag her up. Emma isn’t the least bit fazed talking about our future, and neither am I, because I know that there is an amazing one waiting for us.
“There’s one more thing,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “I don’t think I can handle—”
I reach into the back pocket of my jeans and hand her a key chain shaped like a typewriter with two keys dangling from it. Emma’s lips tilt up, tears welling in her eyes.
My sweet, stubborn, hopeless romantic always cries when she’s overwhelmingly happy.
“It’s about time I gave you a set of keys to my house, don’t you think?”
Her lips touch mine softly, and she says against them, “I love you, Grayson.”
My chest rumbles with a groan, just like it always does when she says those three damn words. I’ve had them said to me multiple times over the years, and sure, I felt something, but never this.
Over six months ago, when I accepted an invitation to an event I had no intention of going to, it led me to this amazing, unique, gorgeous, talented woman.
Emma was the greatest surprise of my life. I was put on this earth to love her, and I’m just lucky she accepts that love. She’ll always be my princess—the person I vowed my love and life to. I would get on my knees for her if I need to, and I’ll worship her every second of every day.
“I love you too, Princess.”