Page 34 of Her Pretty Words

He lets out a deep sound when my mouth parts, and I flick my tongue across his bottom lip. He pulls back for a moment; every emotion one can feel seems to swim in his eyes. He slides his hand beneath my shirt, his callouses scrape against my back, and then he pulls me to him.

The warmth in my belly presses lower when he folds himself over me, my back against the sandy Earth and his weight pressing in all the right places. His lips skim over my jaw, and he nibbles my earlobe, coaxing a sound from my lips.

I want more.

I arch my hips into his, feeling just how much my feelings are reciprocated. He cups my jaw, his eyes waterfalling into mine. “So beautiful,” he whispers.

“I think they’re under the lifeguard tower.” Elliot’s whisper is loud enough for us to hear.

I push Grayson away and sit up right as the spotlight lands on us. I squint my eyes against a flashlight, feeling the flush in my cheeks.

Another flashlight hits us, followed by Sarah’s laugh.

Elliot says, “You lose, Presley. I found them first.”

“Do you want to sleep on the couch tonight?”

Elliot clears his throat. He looks between us and his wife. He sighs. “Sarah won. Sorry guys.”

I force a laugh, crawling out from under the tower and brushing sand off my butt.

Sarah brings her fingers to my waves. “How did you manage to get sand in your hair?”

My face heats down to my neck. “How weird.”

“I think we’re going to call it a night,” Sarah says. “Thank you for dinner, Macy. And thanks for letting us use your grill.” She aims the last sentence to Grayson.

“Any time. Nice meeting you guys,” Grayson says like nothing is amiss.

Elliot hands him his phone to input his contact information. We say our goodbyes, and I watch my friends become smaller and smaller as they walk away. Once I’m alone with Grayson, I can’t think of anything to say. It’s as though a bucket of ice water was poured over our previous moment.

He sits down in the sand. “It’s peaceful out here,” he says. “If you’re in no rush to leave, I’d thoroughly enjoy your company.” He grins.

I can still feel his hands on my body. He’s gotten under my skin from the moment we met but now I can’t shake him. Hecovertly implanted himself within me, and I’ve realized too late because now I seem to burn everywhere, which is unacceptable.

Grayson is a maddening itch I can’t scratch.

“I’m exhausted. Have a good night,” I mumble.Have a good night? Who says that after what we just did?I drag myself from him and pull all my clothes off the minute I’m inside my house. I turn the shower on cold, and the wind gets knocked out of me the second I will myself beneath the stream. I’m scrubbing away the fire from Grayson’s touch, but it doesn’t do anything to stop my swirling thoughts. Once I’m tucked in bed, my silly, stupid heart hijacks my brain. I dream of how good it would feel to scratch that itch.

Chapter 12

Grayson

Istand in my front yard, where Macy and I meet every morning. I hardly slept last night. I’d never felt more alive than when her lips were on mine, and it took every ounce of restraint to not knock on her door and pick up where we left off.

Usually she’s here by now, so I decide to start stretching without her. I glance at her house several times. Minutes go by before the front door finally opens.

My grin quickly falls when I see wires hanging from her ears.She’s wearing headphones.She merely glances at me before stretching, then she shoots off into a jog. I follow right beside her. “You seem chipper this morning,” I say. She either ignores me or can’t hear, which I realize was her intention of wearing the headphones.

This is our routine for three mornings.

I can’t take the silence between us any longer. I grab her hand to still her running and she glares at me. I roll my eyes and grab the ear bud out of her ear.

She tries to grab it, but I hold it out of her reach. She yanks on the wire which causes it to slip out of my hand, but she doesn’t put it back in her ear, so I consider it progress.

“What’s going on?”

She states the obvious and says, “We’re running.”

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