Page 93 of Stars and Scars

But Charlotte has shown me the truth.

She yelps in surprise as I sweep her off her feet, and carry her toward the bedroom.

I’ve lived my whole life in the shadows. Made friends with the darkness, and invited it into my soul.

I thought it would always be that way…until Charlotte pulled me out of the shadows and into the sunlight. Kicking and screaming, maybe, but I’m out now.

If my sister Sabrina could see me now, I think she would be happy for me.

“Thank you, for saving me,” I say, kissing her on top of the head.

“When did I save you?” she asks.

“Every day since we met.”

I pause outside her room as we indulge in a long, lingering kiss. I don’t have to spend the rest of my life in darkness. Charlotte has shown me the way.

Which is just one of the million reasons why I love her.

25

CHARLOTTE

It feels so right for Gray to carry me into my bedroom. He belongs here, in my most intimate place.

He pauses in the doorway, inadvertently turning his face away from my attempted kiss as he scans the room. His silver-gray gaze falls on all of my recording equipment.

“Don’t worry,” I purr, kneading the taut muscles across his shoulders. “No cameras tonight. The only people who will know what happens in here are you and me.”

A smile springs onto Gray’s visage.

“I rather think everyone at Platinum Security knows exactly what’s going on in here.”

“Oh, they can guess, but they’ll never know…besides, look at all the pregnant ladies you’re surrounded with. It’s not like any of them can cast any blame on you for sleeping with a client.”

“Former client,” he says firmly.

“Former client, current…what?”

He tilts his head to the side.

“You heard me tell you I love you, right?”

“I mean, if my parents ask who you are, what do I tell them?”

Gray tenses up, or tries to. I nuzzle my cheek against him and sigh.

“You can tell them I’m your boyfriend,” he says firmly.

“That works for me.”

A low, animal growl escapes his throat as he rushes toward the bed. He throws me onto the mattress and climbs on top of me. Our lips meet in a moment of pure ecstatic connection. We exist only in this moment of pure bliss. Past and future don’t matter.

Gray rears up, intense gaze pinning me to the mattress as surely as his sinewy body. He slides out of his shirt and tosses it aside before diving back in. A shuddering moan forces its way out of my lips. Gray showers my neck with kisses, his hand hiking up my dress.

He strokes me through my panties, lifting his body to look me right in the face, gauging my reaction. I throw my arms over my head and lay back, luxuriating in the attention.

“Do you like that, Sunshine?” His throaty whisper sends a tingle through my body, the first signs of a brewing thunderstorm.

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