Page 95 of Catch Me When I Fall

Grayson said that he would handle Michael, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Dominic typed up a story for me to memorize in case people asked me questions about Leo.

Everyone would believe that story. Leo was an obsessed fisherman who’d had a run of bad luck at sea—even his employee was feeling it. The guy wouldn’t question him going back out, especially when, according to the Red Snake team, he was so far behind on bills and payroll.

While Grayson was at the vet, I’d it read three times. After that, I straighten up the house, made a cup of tea, curled up on the couch, and waited for it to hit me.

It never did, and now, Grayson was back from the vet, just like he said he would be.

“Carrie?”

Blinking, I raised my head, meeting Grayson’s eyes as he stood over me. “Yes?”

He lowered himself to his haunches, gently took my mug from my hands, and set it on the side table before returning his attention back to me. “Talk to me,” he ordered. “What’s wrong?”

I was worried about not feeling anything over Leo’s death. Before he turned into a crazy asshole, he was a decent friend, and yet, I still wasn’t sad. I thought I’d be sad. I was sad over Robert, but not Leo, who had been kind to me. “Am I a bad person?” I blurted.

Grayson raised a brow. “A bad person?”

I nodded. “You know, for not being sad about Leo?”

I watched in awe as his face softened. His brow relaxed, the tension around his mouth disappeared, and his eyes—the darkness within them seemed to melt altogether, revealing something even more gentle and kind: Grayson’s soul.

“Baby,” he murmured, gripping my chin softly. We stared at each other for a few seconds, and when he broke our gaze, he closed those warm eyes, shaking his head. “Fuck, I’ll never understand you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked as my brows snapped together.

He leveled with me then. “After what you told me this morning, knowing what I already knew from your file and what happened last night…I just don’t understand how your heart could still be so precious—so pure.”

My lips parted as his hand shifted, cupping my jaw and guiding me closer to him until we were face to face. His minty breath skated across my skin as he rasped, “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you never lose your light.”

A lump formed in my throat as my heart drummed inside my chest, beating rapidly.

Boom, boom, boom.

“Do me a favor then?” I requested, suddenly breathless and intoxicated by his scent, his words, the look in his eyes.

“Anything,” he rumbled softly as I wrapped my fingers around his wrist.

I pulled his hand down my neck, over my collarbone, and finally stopping right over my heart, pressing his palm against it. His eyes flashed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “There’s no way to stop it. I think you and I both know that,” I whispered, placing my other hand on top of both of ours, pressing down so he could feel that little organ beating for him.

It would never beat for anyone else.

His eyes snapped down to where our hands were.

“What’s the favor?” he asked, his voice raw and rough. The air between us was thick now, vibrating with an electric current powered by need, stretching between his soul and mine.

“I need you to catch me, Grayson. Catch me when I fall.”

If someone asked me how it happened, I didn’t think I could explain it, but as soon as the words left my lips, he didn’t give them a chance to linger in the air before he struck. I was yanked to him, and the next thing I knew, I was in his lap, my thighs spread on either side of his, both of his hands holding my head.

“You saying you’re falling for me?” he clipped.

I nodded.

Our foreheads were together, and the next words out his mouth were ones I would remember for the rest of my life. “I’ve already fucking caught you, Sunshine,” he growled. “There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let you slip through my fingers.”

“Never let me go,” I croaked, wrapping my arms around his neck.

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