Page 9 of Reignite

Not All Who Wander

We woke several times throughout the night and next morning, needing each other again and again.

I loved this turn in our relationship, but I was also worried. We laid together in a tangle of sheets after a rather creative bout of Who’s-on-Top when I decided I had to say something. That damn worry wrinkle in his forehead was back. “Gray, are you all right?”

He kissed the top of my head and held me tight. “I’m always all right when I’m with you, my love.”

He was placating me. “You’re sweet and adorable, but I’m worried about you.”

He pinched my butt. “Don’t be.”

And now he was trying to distract me and dismiss me.

“I can’t help it.” I was losing him to that dark place again already. I could feel it. The alpha man who’d been by my side through my own journey to find myself was still in there, and I hoped that straight up asking him to come back to me would help him stay in this new state of being we had.

I cleared my throat, finding nerves blocking my words. He held me tighter in his arms, stroking my skin, lending me his strength.

“Gray, will you do something?” I tilted my head up and kissed his jaw in that very spot that had become the Gray’s-Mad-o-meter. “Something for me?”

“Almost anything.”

“Take me away from here. Let’s make a new start far from Foster, far from these lessons of life we had to learn. We can open that club of our own and let people be themselves, have fun.”

He was quiet for longer than I wanted him to be. I counted my breaths just to keep from blurting anything more out. Seven, eight. He’d answer when he was ready and pushing him wouldn’t make that any sooner. Eleven, twelve.

He took a sharp breath and I held mine. “You’ll be a great club owner.” He sat us up and studied my face. “Are you sure that’s what you want, after you’ve seen the damage that can be done to a person at a place like the Asylum?”

Making something new and better would be as good for him as I was for me. Maybe deep inside he knew that, and it had led him to suggesting the club idea in the first place.

“I do want to create a place of our own. Gray and Angel’s. Not like The Asylum, and not like The Ranch. I’m thinking more French Boudoir and pleasure than Marquis De Sade and pain.”

I wanted a place where women, regardless of shape, size, or sexual prowess—women like me—could go to explore the kinky side of life. Where men like Cade, Dominic, and Ilario could find real partners in life. Where Gray could be master of the domain and let his guard down.

Plus, it was the perfect way to take the next step in throwing off the old world of the New York socialite and embracing my still new independence.

Thus far in life I hadn’t done anything productive with my time or money, if you didn’t count starting a harem of my own. For once a Cruz wasn’t going to put up a building or start a business for the profit, but instead for the community she could have.

“You really want to do this? Own a club?” He didn’t say it, but I heard the ‘with me?’ question in his voice.

I got up on my knees and held his face between my hands. “Only with you.”

For a brief shining moment, the worry lifted again from his face and he lit up like a kid getting a pony. “Okay, baby. Let’s open a club.”

I jumped up to standing on the bed and bounced with excitement. I squealed. Out loud.

Gray laughed and tugged me down from my cloud nine for a kiss. “I want to keep you happy, by my side, and in my bed. If this will make you happy, let’s make it happen.”

I kissed him back and grinned. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

I scrambled off taking the sheet and blanket with me, wrapping them around my body.

Gray sat naked on the bed. “Right now?”

“Yep. Ever since you put the idea in my head, I’ve been looking at locations. I’ve got a file I started of the best potential listings here somewhere.” I riffled through the desk drawer and pulled out a folder. It had print outs of commercial real estate listings in half a dozen cities across the country. I climbed back in bed and spread them out so we could both see.

“I don’t want to go back to the city. There’s a lot of people, but there are already several clubs and the competition is tough.”

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