Authors: Milly Taiden
“My mother doesn’t know. She feels very strongly that I push men away.” Lyss still didn’t understand how telling her exes she wouldn’t tolerate cheating and lying was pushing them away.
She glanced up from where he massaged her feet, to his face.
“Do you think she will mind when she finds out? We are agreeing to possible offspring here.”
“Since she’s not the one having the babies and I don’t live in her house and haven’t for a long time, I don’t really care what she thinks.”
So maybe that came out a little harsh, but she was tired of listening to other people try to run her life. Her mother didn’t have a man. Didn’t want a man. And somehow knew better than Lyss on what she should be doing to keep a man. All her advice revolved around Lyss sucking up the stupid shit men did and letting it slide. Not happening.
EIGHT
Gray left Alyssa alone for the first time in three days. He didn’t like it. The tiger inside pressed at his skin, searching for a shift, in agitation.
“She’s fine. Try and focus on what we’re doing,” Stripes said.
“She’s alone.”
“Tynder is with her. She’s far from alone. If she can ever get him to shut up then we might owe her big time.”
“She’s great, isn’t she?” he said with a smile.
“She’s fantastic. I’m not sure what she did to make you so receptive lately.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
Stripes chuckled. “You have never done more than grunt a word or two. You don’t hold long conversations and you don’t like people. But for the past few days you’ve been talking, interacting and communicating more than you have in the past ten years.”
He didn’t realize he’d changed so much since Alyssa’s arrival. He didn’t know what to think. Her company brought out a new side of him. He enjoyed talking to her. She was funny and smart.
Her addiction for reality TV still puzzled him, but he laughed whenever she watched something and yelled at the TV like the characters on the show could hear her.
“Do you see anything?” Stripes asked, his gaze focused on the ground.
They’d been searching for anything to show that intruders had come near his home. “No, nothing.”
“This doesn’t mean they won’t come back.”
Stripes was right. Eli and Lucas had made it known they wanted him out of the way. One or both wanted the pride and the only way to get it was to get rid of Gray.
“She needs to go home,” he said, once again thinking of Alyssa.
Stripes whistled low. “How are you going to handle her being gone?”
He wasn’t. “I’m going with her.”
Stripes laughed. “I had a feeling that would be your answer. You’ve got it bad. If I didn’t know better I’d say you’re in love.”
His chest compressed. Love? Nonsense. He’d recognized his mate and needed to protect her. Wanting to spend his time with her did not mean he was in love. Her smile flashed through his mind. He loved when she smiled. It made him happy to know there was joy in her life.
That still didn’t mean he was in love. Grayson Green did not do love. Gray knew that since he’d been a kid. It had been drilled into him first by his family and then by the military. Love was an emotion that could destroy a person.
“I don’t do love.” He said the words more to himself than Stripes. He didn’t need love. He had Alyssa. “Emotions can be messy.”
Stripes sighed. “That’s true. But love won’t hurt you. I think you loving Alyssa would only make you happier. You should think about it.
“We can’t help who we fall in love with, Gray.” Stripes slapped him on the shoulder. “Sometimes we fall and don’t even know it.”
Not Gray. He was pride leader. He was stronger. Tougher. Love made a person weak. It messed with areas of the heart Gray never looked at.
“I don’t.”
“Just remember that falling in love doesn’t make you less of a man,” Stripes said. “It makes you whole.”
* * *
“David?” Alyssa asked, confused. “What are you doing here?”
They’d gone into her house to pick up some of her stuff. After requesting last minute vacation time, she had gotten Gray to take her to her house. She’d inquired about her car, but apparently it needed a lot more work than just a tire replacement. They’d been inside the house for all of thirty seconds when her ex came out of her bedroom.
David stared at Gray with a shocked expression. Gray, on the other hand, pushed her behind him, his stance pure dominance.
“I need somewhere to stay, Lyssie.”
She winced. Had he always sounded so whiny? She stared at him through new eyes, wondering what the hell had been wrong with her to allow this man to do whatever he did and not send him packing. “I’m sorry, David. You can’t stay in my house. We broke up over a year ago.”
David looked so confused she almost felt pity for him. Almost. But David had cheated on her repeatedly and blamed his ‘inability to feel adequate with women’ for his inability to keep his dick in his pants.
“Do you want me to wait until your guest leaves?” David asked, trying to see more of her without Gray in the way.
He just didn’t learn. Looking at David now, after being with Gray, she noticed two things. The first was that David was an immature, pathetic excuse for a man. One who gave women terrible sex, no orgasms and wasn’t faithful. The second was that Gray might not talk to her as much as David had, but at least she knew whatever came out of Gray’s lips was real. He didn’t sugarcoat. He didn’t try to buy her with words. He was rough, tough, and had a great cock. That was more than enough for her.
She grabbed Gray’s shirt and continued to peek at David around his side. “David, you need to go.”
“But—”
Gray, who had been quiet for the past few minutes suddenly spoke up. “You need to go. Now,” he said, his voice a mere growl.
David paled, took a step back but did not run out the door like she’d expected. Not a good time for him to decide and grow a pair. Considering he’d been such a dick during her entire relationship with him, she wondered why he was pushing things now.
“David, you really should go. We’ve been done for a long time now. I still don’t understand what you’re doing here.”
“Okay, I know we ended things awkwardly—”
She shook her head and laughed drily. “I found you with your dick in my neighbor. Not sure awkward is the right word, but okay.”
“That was an accident.”
She laughed. The nerve of the man to give her such a sad excuse. “Wow. You need to watch it. Falling and landing on a woman’s pussy will definitely get you into trouble. Some women won’t be receptive to a stranger’s penis up in their business.”
David flinched but gave her a pleading look. “I just need to lay low for a while.”
She snorted. “What did you do, sleep with your boss’s wife or something?”
He scrunched his face in a grimace. “I didn’t really think he’d find out.”
Holy shit. What a fucking idiot! Thank God she’d finally decided to give David the boot before he’d brought that kind of bullshit into her life. “I’m sorry for your stupidity, David. But you should go before Gray decides to take a bite out of your ass.”
David ran backward to the back door, tripping on his own feet and landing on his ass. “He’s one of those shifters?”
“The really dangerous kind.” She nodded, smiling at David’s fear. Who knew she was such a sadist? “He’s really possessive too. Doesn’t like anyone near me.”
Gray glanced over his shoulder at her. “If he isn’t gone in the next thirty seconds, I will not hold the tiger back.”
The smile fell from her lips. “David, go. I’m trying to help you stay alive. Get out!”
David ran out of the house with the duffle bag he had set by the door in his hands. She raced to the open entrance to shut the door. When she turned around, she lost the air in her lungs. “Why do you have that look on your face?”
He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides, standing stiffly. “Why did you wait so long to send him away?”
She blinked. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
“If you didn’t want him,” he growled. “Why did it take you so long to tell him to get out?”
“Hey!” she snapped. “I didn’t invite him here!”
“He had a key. Clearly you gave it to him,” he threw back, his eyes starting to glow bright gold.
“Yes, I did. But we broke up and I got my key back. That means he must have made a spare without telling me. I don’t know why, but I didn’t give him permission to.” What the hell? When did David showing up out of nowhere become her fault?
“You didn’t seem bothered that he was here. In fact, you appeared amused.”
He was jealous. She inhaled and let it out slowly. She didn’t have much experience with men being jealous. Okay, she didn’t have any experience with anyone being jealous. It was new. Refreshing. It was awesome!
“I wasn’t expecting him. You need to relax there, tiger. We came to see about getting my clothes. David is not important. I don’t want him.”
“I disagree. I know what I saw.” He said the words in a low animalistic growl.
Anger flooded her veins. Being sexy and the leader of his pride didn’t mean she was going to let him insinuate bullshit. She stomped up to him and poked him in the chest. “You asshole! I might not be in your pride where women throw themselves at you and decide they’ll sacrifice their ovaries to bear your children for nothing, but I’m not brainless.”
She had principles. And she had never been unfaithful in a relationship, which she had a feeling was what he suggested with his short clipped words and that frown she wanted to smack off his too sexy face.
“They don’t sacrifice themselves.” His lips quirked in what looked like an attempt at a smile.
She rolled her eyes. “My bad. They just throw themselves at you and beg for the chance to be your baby mama. Your pride is weird. Most women value a relationship and want to have children with a single man. Do you ever have multiple men get told they’re the father of a single child? I bet there’s a list of visits to the Maury show with you guys,” she snapped.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
She sighed. Ah, well. It was only fun if he understood. She better not mention how full her DVR was of Jerry Springer and The Real Housewives or he might start to wonder about her.
His brows shot down in a furious glare again. “What about you, Alyssa?”
She took a step back, not liking the way he said her name. There was too much brightness in his eyes. His gaze roamed her face and focused on her mouth. No way. He wasn’t just going to insult her and then switch shit up so they’d have sex. She wasn’t
that
easy. Okay, she was, but not this time.
“What about me?” Still, she couldn’t stop the giddiness at knowing he wanted her again. Gray was a very sexual man with magical hands and a tongue she could worship even in her sleep.
She continued moving until her back hit the door. He’d marched forward, closing the distance on her. She bit her lip and waited.
“What is it you want from me?” He raised a hand to cup her breast over her shirt and she whimpered.
Panting as if she’d run a marathon, she glanced up and met his gaze. “Me? I just want you for your cock and tongue.”
He curled his lip in a small grin. “Sex? You just want me for sex?”
He squeezed her tit in his grasp, rolling her hardened nipple between thumb and forefinger. Sex was good, but she wanted so much more from him. Too much. It’s why she’d focused on sex because if she started to tell him how her stomach did flip flops when he kissed her or how her legs shook when he looked at her a certain way, she’d be telling him too much.
“I,” she moaned. “I want you for sex, yes. But also for whatever else you want to give me.”
Love. I want your love.
She refused to voice her thoughts. Love would come with time. If he was open to it, she assumed he was seeing as he’d signed up to find his perfect match.
He pressed his body closer and she loved it. Every time he was this close she felt his body heat drain her tension away and fill her with a new expectation.
“What about your ex?”
She frowned. Her mind had already started to focus on the need to get naked so it took her a few seconds before the words clicked. She shoved at his chest and moved out of his hold. Stomping away from him, she yelled over her shoulder, “I told you I don’t want him. I told you I didn’t invite him. You either believe me the first time I say things, or get the fuck out and forget this—”
She had reached the sofa when he grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.
“Don’t run from me,” he said before tugging her into his arms and slamming his lips over hers. The kiss was bold, filled with an angry spark she didn’t normally experience. Was this what people called make up sex? Technically they hadn’t made up. Holy shit! She was about to have angry sex. That sounded even better than make up sex.
Gray’s tongue pushed past her lips and stroked her with command. He showed her with his mouth and tongue he was in charge. That she was his. And she wasn’t going to fight it. He tore at her clothes. The sounds of material ripping filled the air. She gasped when he deepened the kiss. He nibbled and sucked on her lips then plunged his tongue back into her mouth.
His hands weren’t soft or careful. He yanked the torn clothes off her. Instead of being outraged or scared, she got more turned on the wilder he got. Men didn’t do that with her. They didn’t lose control. They didn’t have angry sex with Lyss. This was surreal.
Her own hands weren’t idle. She tugged on his shirt, sliding her hands under the Tee and feeling the smooth, warm muscles beneath. His abs contracted and a six pack formed under her fingertips. She grazed her nails down to the waistband of his jeans. His already erect cock pushed at the zipper, wanting out.
She undid his jeans and pushed them down, filling her hand with his velvety hot flesh. Christ he was hard. Hard and big. Both great since he knew how to do amazing things with his cock.