Page 56 of The Wrangler
“Hold this?” She hands me her glass and I take it. I’d like to hold her anything. Her everything. Use my mouth over her entire body until she’s screaming and quaking under me, over me, beside me. I don’t care about the position. That’s her job to get me where she wants me. If she’d let me, it would be my job to make her come morning, noon, and night.
We ride the elevator up and trail the guys out of the restaurant. It’s a beautiful, crisp mountain night. The air is alive with the scent of trees and earth, nothing like the institutional air I’ve been breathing for the past year. It cools some of my anger. Is it even anger? More like righteous indignation at everything that was stolen from me last year. Some days, I wonder why I bothered to live. Less since I met Graci, but I’m still angry. Maybe more so since I met her and can’t have her. Not only because of the dick sitch, but because she’s my physical therapist. There are lines we can’t cross.
“Where are going Eliot?” I ask.
“You’ll see, Grumpy.”
I scowl, but it’s wasted on his back. Finally, we get to the finished four story building that holds the condos. The upper floor sold out nearly instantly, according to Tyler. He an Amy are managing the housing part of the resort, sales and rentals. The demand is huge. I’ll get my investment back easily, with a huge return. Graci guides me up the ramp to the sliding doors that open automatically. The hallways are tiled in what looks like hardwood panels. The place is elegant. Amy has great taste.
“Here we are,” Eliot stops at a door on the ground floor. “You want to do the honors?”
Graci takes her drink. I roll myself forward, and place my palm on the sensor, part of the security system I selected. The panel turns green and the door swings open. The guys step back and let me roll through first into a huge open concept living space. As I enter, the lights come on and I see a huge U-shaped sofa fills the living area with a wall mounted TV bigger than the windows. There’s even a gas fireplace. In my past life, this would be the place we would all get together and let what happens between us happen. Well here or the bedroom. But no one has touched me like that in a year.
“Dim,” Eliot says behind me and the light brightness decreases. “Everything is either voice activated or at an accessible height.”
His words hit me like a gut punch. They don’t believe I’ll ever be out of this chair. Air backs up in my lungs. The urge to destroy something or someone rises to a point I can hardly resist. I fucking hate my life.
Graci’s fingertips graze my shoulder and I exhale. “Show me your room?”
If only that was the invitation my mind twists it to be. “Where’s my room?”
Eliot points at another door. “Through there.”
The sensor works exactly like the front door, and the door swings open. “Why the internal security?”
“Fire safety. Still two units in the plans.”
Cade, Pierce, and Reed have disappeared to the back hall, so it’s Graci and me who enter the second part of the condo. The kitchen is smaller, lower. Chair height. I should be thrilled with the mods they put in for me. Instead, I’m sick. The living room is setup like a workout room. Like a physical therapy space, I amend, as I take in the details.
“Nice,” Graci says, setting her glass on the kitchen counter.
“Another place for you to torture me.”
“Someone. I’ll be four hours away.”
Is it wishful thinking, or does her voice sound kind of wistful. “Let’s find my bedroom.”
There are two, both with bathrooms attached. It’s clear mine is the bigger one based on the roll-in shower. “They thought of everything.”
Graci steps into the shower under a rain head I hadn’t noticed at first. She mimes washing her hair, her body moving to an internal sinuous beat. Naked. My brain supplies an image of her, wet, without clothes. I roll forward. We both fit in the space. She smiles and my dick twitches.
Holy fuck.
It was tiny. No stuffy, but it twitched.
“So Graci, you staying the night with us?” Eliot’s deep sexy baritone echoes in the tiled space.
I didn’t see him come in and he’s trailed by the rest of the guys. Graci is blocked inside the shower because I’m in the entrance. I don’t move. She’s mine.
No. She’s not.
And I’ve never had a problem with sharing before.
Who am I?
I roll out of the shower, pushing Eliot and the guys back. She steps out, and takes my hand. Hers trembles slightly in my grip. There’s nothing forcing her to stay. She could have a hotel booked, or a room at the resort for all I know. But the idea of waking up to her. Her sleeping in my bed. Her allowing us to make her feel extraordinary all night long. There are four gorgeous men inviting her to stay. And me. She could have fun with them. I could at least watch. She hasn’t said a word.
I glance up. Her deep brown eyes meet mine. “What do you want to do, Graci?”
She lifts her chin, checks out the guys and returns to me. Sadder now. “I can’t. I have to go.”
I release her hand. The guys part, giving her an aisle of escape. She darts through them like she’s running a gauntlet. A hollowness settles in my chest.
Eliot follows her out, but the rest of the guys are staring at me with varying shades of pity.
“Get the fuck out of my room. I need some sleep.” I don’t recognize my own voice, but I’m fine when they depart. I don’t need them up my ass. Literally or figuratively. And I don’t need Graci, offering me attention out of pity.
