Page 23 of (Un)Rivaled

“What are you doing here, Gray?”

He sighed as he stepped closer, studying my expression. “Already told you, Ace. I was worried about you.” He walked past me and sat down on the couch—err, my bed. I cringed at the thought, hating that all it took to imagine Gray naked was that simple connection. I moved over to the armchair, propping myself on the edge. There was no way I was getting any closer to him, not when my mind and body were on such different wavelengths.

We’re getting divorced, I reminded my libido, but she didn’t care. Being around Gray always affected me, but this was an all-time low.

“I’m sorry,” Gray said, breaking me out of my head. “For so many things, but mostly what I said last time. You were right. Whatever’s going on between us, I never should have told everyone else. It was just...” He sucked in a sharpbreath and leaned back on the couch. “Tell me you aren’t with that guy.”

“Jack?” I snorted. “Hell, no. I might not have a lot of self-respect right now, but trust me. I’d rather cut off all my fingers than ever touch him again.”

“But you were with him?”

Anger rose in my chest. I stood, crossing my arms over my chest. “Yes, I was. Nothing serious, but we hung out a couple of times before he decided to use my sister as a stepping stone.” I tapped my nails against my arm. “Do you really want to do this, Gray? Dig into each other’s past hook-ups? Want to share the name of every woman you’ve been with lately?”

“Don’t go there, Devyn. Not with me,” Gray shook his head. “You want a fight, I’ll give you one.” He stood, walking over to me. “But right now, I just want to make sure that asshole can never come near you again. I don’t give a shit about your past, Devyn, but your safety? That’s something I do care about.” He leaned in. “So promise me he’s not going to show up here looking for you.”

I tilted my head back, needing a break from the intensity of his gaze. Gray’s steel eyes had turned into molten silver, almost like the thought of someone causing me harm brought out another side of him. I always thought I was safe with Gray in the past, but seeing it now filled some empty part of me.

I shook my head, my voice barely over a whisper. “No. He doesn’t know where I am. We haven’t spoken since that night.”

“Good,” he breathed, and I felt it like a caress on my cheeks. My hands thrummed with the need to touch him, to feel Gray’s heart beating in his chest. This was the closest we’d been in years, and now, I remembered why I neededdistance between us. It was too hard to keep my word when only inches separated us and I was aching to hold him again.

But he snapped the tension between us when he stepped back. I would have thought it was one-sided, but there was nothing calm about the look on Gray’s face. If I knew him like I thought I did, he was barely holding onto his control as well.

“Get your coat.”

“What?” I bit back in surprise.

“Get your coat. There’s something I want to show you.”

“No thanks, Anders,” I scoffed, walking back to the couch. “This momentary lapse in judgment doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you. You saw me. You know I’m fine. Now, go away and leave me in peace.”

Gray chuckled, moving closer to me. “Like I said, don’t lie to me, Devy. You are anything but fine. If that’s what you need to tell everyone else, go for it. But don’t think I’m buying it for a moment.”

“God, you are infuriating.”

“If you think that now, just wait.”

“Wait for?—”

But my words were cut off as Gray picked me up and slung me over his shoulder, just like he used to do when we were kids and I was stubborn. I’d never told Gray, but I’d always loved being handled by him—probably why I’d often fought him on things I really didn’t care about.

However, that was at a different time in our lives, and right now, the last thing I needed was Gray’s hands on me. It was fucking with my head. Standing in the room with him had been hard enough. With him caressing my thighs as I stared at his toned ass, I was about to start purring—butI couldn’t let him know that. I had a reputation to uphold, you know.

My hands smacked into his back, which—holy shit—was even more muscular than I thought. “Put me down, you asshole.”

“No can do, Ace.” He smirked over his shoulder. “Now, hold on. We’re going for a ride.”

Fucking hell.

TWELVE

SIXTEEN YEARS OLD

“You’re doing it again.”

Wade shifted his arm away from my shoulders and sat back in the red vinyl booth. The arcade downtown was a relic, a staple of the community since the sixties. Usually, I loved coming here with Wade. We’d play for hours, spending all the quarters we could find, and then split a plate of disco fries before heading home.

But tonight, what had started as a typical Saturday had shifted into a double date, and everything had felt off since we walked through the door. And the worst part? I only had myself to blame.

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