Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Layla accepted my offer of wine, but turned down my suggestion of a bath together. When we climbed into bed that night, I held her in my arms as tightly as I could without hurting her. But even through my iron grip, I felt her slipping away.
Chapter 27
* * *
Layla
I woke up to the sight of a sleeping Gray. He looked so peaceful. My heart ached for everything he’d lost: three years of his life, his business, his reputation, experiencing the birth of his daughter—her first few steps, her first haircut, first words, first…everything. So I wanted to be here for him, to stick it out. But the thought of building a new life that now included a three-year-old and her mother who was about to die scared the living shit out of me.
The self-protection mechanism in my heart wanted me to run the other way as fast as I could. But the part that beat wildly every time Gray walked into the room kept me here watching him sleep.
Last night I couldn’t stop thinking about something my mother had always said. After I’d realized we weren’t my father’s only family—that she was actually the other woman and I was her bastard child—I’d asked my mom on more than one occasion how she could put up with something like that. Her answer was always the same: “When you love someone, sometimes you need to put their needs first.”
I’d always thought that was a cop out, that her accepting that my father needed to have two families was bullshit. Yet I always kept my tongue in check, never wanting to upset her or speak badly about my father, who was so good to me…when he was around.
But inside, every time she said love meant having to put his needs before her own, all I could think was Yeah, and you just taught him that your needs always come second. Growing up, I’d vowed to put my own needs first if I ever fell in love.
Gray’s eyes fluttered open on that thought.
“Hey.” He reached out and ran a thumb along my cheek. “You’re still here.”
“Did you think I’d be gone?”
He gave me a soft smile. “I was afraid to fall asleep and have my grip on you loosen for fear you’d slip away.”
“Well, I do have to get my ass up and go to work. I need to go to my apartment to shower and get clothes, too. So I better get moving.”
He reached around to my back and hauled me flush against him. “Shower with me.”
“That isn’t exactly conducive to getting to work on time.”
Gray buried his head in my hair. “We can be fast.”
The way his hot breath on my neck made me instantly aroused, I knew that was a crock of shit. “How about, I’ll take a shower here, and you can make us some breakfast?”
“Let’s negotiate,” he grumbled against my skin before trailing a line of kisses up my neck. “We shower together, and I’ll eat you for breakfast while you wash. Multitasking.”
I bent my head back to allow him better access and smiled. “Nice try. But I have a ten o’clock deposition that will go most of the day, so I need something to fill my belly.”
“I’ll give you something to fill your belly.”
Laughing, I pushed him away so I could get up. “I’ll have to take a rain check.”
After a quick shower, I wrapped my hair in a towel and put on the shirt Gray had worn yesterday. It hung to my knees like a dress as I followed the smell of bacon to the kitchen. Gray stood in front of the oven shirtless, wearing a pair of black sweatpants. His back muscles were ripped without him even flexing, and they tapered down to a slim waist. No matter how confused my head happened to be at the moment, my libido knew exactly what it wanted.
I walked behind him and scratched my nails down his back, not so lightly.
Gray groaned. “You have no idea the willpower it took to stay out here, knowing you were naked in the other room. Scratch me again, and I’m going to say fuck the self-control, and you’re going to be up on the kitchen counter with your legs spread and late for work.”
He plated the bacon, grabbed some toast as it popped from the toaster, and turned around to face me. His eyes looked down to a noticeable bulge in his pants.
I covered my mouth and giggled. “That just happened now?”
“I woke up in bed next to you. It had started to go down a minute before you dug those nails into my back. Now you’ve made it rear its needy head again.”
I took the plate from his hands and tried to ignore my own needy head—although mine was north of my waist. “Bacon and toast?”