Page 25 of Three to Fall

Grayson knelt between my legs, fitting himself at my entrance. His eyes met mine, a silent question in them, despite the fact I’d so clearly already given him permission.

But after all the times a man had entered me unwanted, him checking and checking again that this was still okay only made me want him more. I bent my knees, wrapping them around him, locking my ankles at his back and pulling him down so his cock drove inside me, landing in the place I wanted it most.

We both stilled, me full of his erection, him buried completely to the hilt.

And for the longest moment we just stared at each other, his gaze full of something I wasn’t sure I was ready to see, even though my heart beat unevenly and my breath hitched at just the idea that this was so much more than just a casual thing.

This felt like a coming home. Like somewhere I was always supposed to be. When he slowly lowered his lips on mine, it felt like kissing a man I never wanted to leave, because being apart from him would be like tearing off a piece of my soul.

I didn’t know the man he’d once been. But the man he was now was stealing my heart.

“What I said earlier,” he murmured, drawing out slowly and pushing in just as gently.

Our gazes locked. He’d said he was in love with me. I shook my head. “It’s okay. Emotions were high. I know you didn’t mean it.”

He stilled. Stared down at me. Breathed out slowly. “I meant every word of it, Kara. I’m in love with you.”

I didn’t know what to say. Or how to feel. I opened my mouth, and he silenced me with his.

“I know you aren’t there yet. I know your feelings aren’t as strong as mine, but I had to shoot my shot. I couldn’t go another day just pretending that friendship is enough. I want to be your friend. I do. I want laughter and fun and companionship. But I want more than that. I want your body.” He slid in again, harder this time, like he was proving a point. “I want your heart. I want every little part of you, just the way you are. I know you can’t say it back, and that’s okay. Just don’t tell me no. Don’t say you don’t want me the same way. Just say nothing and let me kiss you.”

He was wrong. His words dredged up emotion and feeling that threatened destruction if I hid it. A feeling too big to keep inside.

And yet letting it loose wouldn’t be fair. I was already so selfish, using his body, fulfilling a need to have him, all while knowing this couldn’t last.

I couldn’t have this happiness until I was truly free.

That freedom couldn’t be found here, in the arms of three men who’d built me up so high that losing them was going to be the worst fall of my life.

So I did as I was told and said nothing. But I let him kiss me, and I kissed him back, silently trying to explain how complicated my life had become, and wishing it could be different. Hereached between us to stroke my clit between gentle thrusts, and when I came again, setting him off as well, it was quiet. Both of us holding on to the other, like we were scared the first time would be the last.

5

GRAYSON

“And then I cut off each of his fingers…but only the tips. Because I’m not a monster. Guy needs to be able to jack off, after all.”

I paused with my hand still on the doorknob and wondered why I was even surprised to find my apartment a mess and five big guys sprawled out in various positions around the room.

X, the considerate one who’d left his last victim with most of his digits, waved a lazy hand from the rug where he was laid out amongst empty pizza boxes. “Hey, Gray!”

Ace and Torch nodded in my direction from the card game they were playing at the kitchen counter, but then went back to it like it was any other Tuesday.

Whip glanced at his watch, and then out the floor-to-ceiling windows, blinking when he noticed the time. “Shit, Gray. Sorry.” He kicked X. “Help me clean up. This place is trashed.”

X rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I do buckets and mops?”

Whip didn’t miss a beat. “Do I look like I’ll think twice about putting my size twelve up your ass? Don’t be a fucking pig.”

X grumbled but flipped onto his stomach and pushed up onto his feet. He picked up a pizza box, and when it gave the telltalenoise of a single piece sliding around, he flipped it open. “Ooh! Pineapple! Mine!”

Whip cringed, watching X shove the entire piece of cold, fruity pizza in his mouth. “Yours because pineapple on pizza is nasty and nobody else would touch that with a ten-foot pole.”

X winked at him, shoving more into his mouth. “Trig agrees with me, don’t you, Trig?”

My brother sat on the couch, arms spread across the back of it as if he owned the place, knees widespread and posture relaxed.

Like twenty-four hours earlier we hadn’t been in a standoff, Whip’s belt around my neck, his noose around Kara’s. Like he hadn’t confessed to killing my wife.

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