Chapter eighteen
Tilly
April 2024
The water laps gently onto the sand as we lie side by side in the warm sunshine.
I gaze up at the ice-blue sky and smile.
Within days of arriving in Thailand, Greyson found us this little hidden cove a short walk from our shack.
Every day since, we’ve wandered down, laid on the beach, and talked.
In the past few weeks, we’ve learned so much about one another that it feels like we’ve known each other for years. But there’s so much left to find out.
As I think back to the alleyway on the day of my wedding, standing staring at my cousin Rodion, I truly believed that our lives would end then and there.
He had approached us sitting on the motorcycle.
Greyson had stilled, assessing the situation, and I had wrapped my arms around his waist.
I would hold on to what I wanted with all my fucking might.
“Cousin,” Rodion said as he stopped beside me. “Wherever are you going? Is this not meant to be the happiest day of your life?”
“If you let me go, Rodion, it will be. How did you find us?”
“Intelligence goes both ways.” He smiled then, reflecting the boy who’d protected me from my warring family as a child. “Good luck,” he said to Greyson, offering him a hand. “Look after my cousin; if you don’t, I’ll fly to wherever you are going and skin you alive.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Greyson said, shaking his hand. “Thank you.”
“Why?” I asked him, startled that the events weren’t escalating as I thought they might.
“This arrangement suits my family also,” he explained with a shrug. “Power remains divided. I only wanted to see you one last time, Cousin, before you go and live the life you deserve. Free with someone who cares enough to die for you. No man would do what he’s done today if he didn’t want you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as tears unexpectedly cascaded down my cheeks.
My cousin still has my back after all these years, and strangely, his approval of Greyson has an importance it probably shouldn’t.
Deep down, it’s comforting that at least one person in my bloodline cares about what I want, and that matters to me.
Without another word, he turned and walked away. Greyson hit the gas, and we sped off into the London streets to catch the small, private plane that had somehow been arranged. I think back to what we must have looked like—a runaway bride on the back of a motorcycle with a villain.
Greyson rises on his elbow, and places a large hand over my still flat stomach. His fingers skim across my flesh, and that electric buzz I’ve come to love fires up my nerves. My body tenses, preparing itself for his next touch, which feels oh so fucking good.
“When do you think you’ll start to show?” he asks, his dark eyes running over me from head to toe, then settling on my stomach. I curl my toes into the warm sand. This man turns me on from a one touch to my stomach.
“I don’t know,” I say. “This is new to me too.”
“I can’t wait to look at you and see that bump in your middle. To know that you carry my child with a single look will feel fucking brilliant. Open those legs, pretty girl. I want to make you feel good.”
I spread my legs wide, and he slides on top of me. One hand on either side of my head, we kiss slowly as he grinds his dick against the outside of my bikini bottoms. He’s just starting to explore my body, greedy fingers releasing my breasts from the soft pink cups of my top, when his phone rings.
“Fuck’s sake,” he mutters with a glance at the screen. “It’s Cash.”
“It’s the middle of the night there,” I say, concerned. I know Greyson said his friend's baby is due any day. “You better answer.”
“I don’t want to,” he whispers naughtily against my lips. “I want to fuck my girl.”
“We fuck now? You told me…”
“I know what I said. That a lady’s first time shouldn’t just be a fuck.”
His fingers pinch my already sensitive nipple and twist.
My body expels air on command. “But we’ve made up for your lack of sexual experience since arriving here. Would you not say so? I can fuck you now. You are mine to do with as I please.”
I bite my lip to hide a laugh. He pushes his cock hard against my pussy again, pinning me to the ground.
I wriggle, but he holds me down so he surrounds me.
His dark eyes lock with mine, the way they always do before he pounds me.
Our time together may have been short, but I know that look when I see it.
“Answer me,” he growls, leaning down and nipping my lower lip between his teeth. “Now. Have we made up for your lack of experience? You feel like a quick learner.”
“We have certainly made up for it.” In truth, we’ve hardly been able to keep our hands off each other. “Having an older partner has certainly paid off in the bedroom. I’ve learned a lot, that is true.”
“Are you saying I’m old?” he teases, and his phone stops ringing.
“You better call him back.”
“I will, but first, are you telling me you’re dating an old man?”
“It depends how grumpy you are that day,” I goad with a grin. “Sometimes you’re a cranky asshole.”
“But you love me?” he says, watching me intently.
His face fills with hope. Even after everything we’ve been through, where we are now, and with a baby on the way neither of us has used those words.
I suppose it felt too soon. Honesty appears on his features; he smiles wide and kisses me again.
“Even if you aren’t ready to say it, pretty girl, I can; I love you.”
My mouth falls open, and I never imagined hearing that confession today in a million years.
With a final kiss, he grabs his phone to return the call, sitting up and turning his back.
Greyson congratulates his friend on the birth of his baby, and I sense genuine joy in his voice.
For everything he’s been through, all the bad he has seen, he’s excited by someone else’s good news. That’s so fucking attractive.
I kneel behind him, wrap my arms around his neck, and rest my chin on his shoulder.
His hand rises and sits over my arm. I listen silently to one side of the conversation, my heart warming with the simple excitement oozing from my man.
With a final goodbye, he disconnects the call and I kiss his cheek.
“That will be us soon,” he says. “Announcing our little one to our friends. I’m so fucking happy for him.”
“I can tell. It’s wonderful news.”
“It is,” he agrees.
I take a deep breath. The words are itching on my lips.
These are the ones I’ve been terrified to say since our time in the abandoned farmhouse, when I saw what I truly wanted from life for the first time.
When I decided what was more important than anything was having someone to be my teammate—someone I could trust. And that person was him.
“I love you, Greyson.” He stills as if under attack, so I say it again. I need him to believe it’s true and that he is worthy of it. “I love you.”
“We are going to be so fucking happy, pretty girl. The three of us. Here, living our dream.”
“Together,” I whisper against his cheek, and he squeezes my arm under his fingers.
“Together.”