Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
We’re oblivious to our audience. It’s just me and him. It’s us. And I’ve weighed us down with the very baggage we’re trying to leave behind.
Chapter fifty-six
Mia
Grayson catches my arms. “Don’t do that,” he orders, his voice gruff in a way Grayson is rarely gruff. “He wins if he tears us apart again. Listen to Blake. He had a plan even before they came at you and me together.”
“Maybe breaking us up would have been enough. Maybe it would have been enough. Now, your family business, your father’s heart and soul, your heart and soul, is at risk.”
“Everyone who needs to know, knows,” Blake says. “And the bad players, as you called them, don’t know we know.” Grayson sucks in a breath, his broad chest expanding and when he releases me, his hands don’t return to me. I want them on my body, but they’re now on his legs, his fingers pressing into hard muscle.
“Grayson is not going down,” Blake continues. “The bad players are. And the most important thing you can do is act like this is behind you. We need them to think that we’re oblivious. This is why we wanted to meet tonight. You and Grayson together tells the world good things will follow. Show off that rock I’m seeing on your finger. Enjoy your life. We got you. We got this.”
“We do,” Kara says. “We have this and you.”
I nod, but I’m aware of Grayson not touching me and not looking at me in such a deep, gut-wrenching way, that that’s all I have to offer. I listen as Blake covers the plan. Open security until the press dies down. Then Walker will go covert operation on us. They’ll watch us. We’ll communicate our steps with them, but no one will know that we’re still protected.
“We’ll leave you two to your night,” Blake says, and he and Kara stand. Adrian does as well and Smith steps into our circle as Grayson and I push to our feet.
“We’re in the next room over,” Smith says. “We being me and Adrian, but we’ll likely rotate in some other men. Don’t go anywhere without us right now.”
Grayson gives him a nod and Kara catches my attention. “Lunch this week?”
I like her. We connected easily when we first met. And I trust her. “I’d like that.”
“It’s a date then,” she says. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Oh, and we brought you a couple of suitcases full of things. Sorry. I know that’s kind of an invasion of privacy.”
“Thank you for doing that,” I say quickly, but she’s right. It is. It’s weird but still appreciated.
“The bags are by the door,” Blake offers.
A few more words are exchanged between everyone and Grayson walks them all to the door. And he does so in that controlled way I know well. His spine is extra straight. His stride extra measured. He’s owning the moment. He’s forcing his control. He’s angry. He’s really angry.
I sit down. I grab the cushion from beside me and hug it to me. I toss the pillow away. I cannot sit here a minute longer.
Rounding the table and couch, I walk to a large half window behind the living area and stand there. I know the minute Grayson returns, and not because of his soundless footsteps. I feel him. My skin tingles. My belly flutters. Don’t ask me why, when he’s angry and I’m upset, but my sex clenches. And then he’s there, his hands on my body a blessed relief, turning me around to face him. “We are either forever or not at all. Decide now.”
“Don’t do that, Grayson.”
“Do what? Ask you to marry me? Ask you to spend the rest of your life with me? Because that is all I’m guilty of right now.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to be the reason you, you who are such an amazing person, suffers.”
“I suffered without you. I suffered just hearing you say I might be better off without you. I can’t do ‘maybe’ with you. If that’s where we’re headed, you need to tell me right now. If you weren’t ready, if I pushed—”
“You didn’t. God, no. You didn’t.”
“And yet, those words came out of your mouth. Those words I never want to hear again.”
Somehow in that moment, he’s the refuge I seek and everything I’m running from. He wants to protect me. I want to protect him. I can’t be his destruction, but as I stare into his green eyes, the shadows there drenched in torment, I know that I am his refuge, too. His soul fills my soul as mine does his.
A tornado of emotion rips through me, the debris of a year of heartache and hell leaving me bleeding inside in ways that I won’t survive without this man. I throw my arms around him. “I’m sorry. I’m scared. I need you and love you.” I pull back to look at him. “I’m sorry.”