The Rules Regarding Gray (25 page)

It was getting dark, and as she sat there, she took a deep breath. He exited the house moments later, carrying the suitcase. Once he’d dropped it in the trunk, he climbed in next to her, and he didn’t say a word to her on the long drive back to Austin. She stared out the window as the sky got darker. It was silent—not even the radio was on.

She was ready to take a flying leap from his car by the time he pulled up in front of her building, but she forced herself to remain calm and look at him.

“I’m really sorry, Jasper.”

He nodded so subtly, and his jaw clenched tight as his fingers constricted on the steering wheel. He glanced to her, and his face was stone hard. But it wasn’t anger. He just seemed lost, in shock even.

“Me too,” he said softly. He leaned to her forehead, kissing her gently, and as he pulled back, she could have sworn his eyes were glossy, but he looked away quickly. He cleared his throat. “I can help you in.” He reached for the door handle.

“No. Please don’t. I can manage just fine.”

He nodded.

She didn’t look back as she made her way to the entrance door to her building, but she knew he stayed until the door closed behind her. Her eyes pricked with tears as she stood in the elevator, and she exhaled deeply as she opened her door to her dark loft. She grabbed her phone quickly.

“Hey!” Anna answered excitedly. “Glad you called. How was your weekend?” She sounded entirely too perky for Gray’s mood to handle.

“Uh… It was fine. How was yours?”

“Good. Mom and Dad asked me to tell you hi.” She was silent for a moment. “You all right?”

“I’m fine. I’m just… Well, it was an odd day.”

“Huh,” she remarked. “Odd as in you wouldn’t mind your best friend’s company if she came bearing a couple bottles of wine?”

“Odd as in you would be my most favorite person in the world if you did that.”

Anna laughed. “Be there in twenty, love.”

She left the door unlocked, and she sat at the dining room table waiting, staring at the wood grain and letting her mind get lost in the randomness of it. When Anna knocked, she didn’t wait for an invitation to enter. And as promised, she came bearing two bottles of wine. She set them on the table before she moved to the kitchen and found a couple wine glasses and the bottle opener.

When she sank into the chair across from Gray, she started on the bottle. “What’s up, buttercup?”

Gray laughed for a moment. “Okay, here’s the
CliffsNotes
version. Ian left for Dallas yesterday, dumping me on Jas. Jas pissed me off and then kidnapped me to his country home. I had sex with him earlier today, then his grandmother died, and he brought me home.” She held her hands palm up awkwardly in front of her. “Tada…”

“Oh,” Anna said thoughtfully. “His grandmother died?”

“Yes, and he’s so close to her. He’s absolutely devastated. And I just felt like I was saying all the wrong things, and…” She sipped on her wine, letting it warm her stomach, and then she took another drink.

Anna nodded. “So… Well, is this considered cheating?” Her face scrunched up in confusion.

“Hmm… Well, considering my boyfriend gave us full permission to do whatever the hell we wanted with one another, and in fact, did so in a rather crude manner, I’m going to say no. But…” She bobbled her head. “…what the hell do I know? I don’t even really like my boyfriend, and I’m pretty sure he’s flirting with a co-worker. Do I care? Nope.” She let the “p” pop off her lips. And then she took a big drink of wine.

“Because you like Jasper?” Anna called her out on it.

That question deserved another drink of wine, and after she took three just for posterity, she finally opened her mouth. Then she closed it again, took another drink and shook her head. She wasn’t disagreeing, she was just stalling. “I do like Jasper, but in truth there are a lot of reasons I like him.” She nodded her head. “I feel like … he’s my friend.”

“Well, we’re friends, and we don’t—” Anna started sarcastically.

“And besides, I’m frustrated with Ian for his very own qualities that have nothing to do with his best friend.” She nodded once as if to affirm the truth of that statement.

Anna chuckled. “Are you going to break up with Ian?”

She took a deep breath. “I think so.”

“And if things don’t work out with you and Jasper?”

“If? There’s little question they won’t. He’s not the relationship type, remember? He’s not built for it, or so I’ve been told,” she remarked a bit bitterly.

“Has
he
ever told you so?”

She shrugged. “In truth. It doesn’t matter. If I end my relationship with Ian, it will be because it’s the right thing to do regardless of what happens between Jas and me. I don’t think Ian’s the man I once thought or wanted him to be. And Jasper aside, there’s no changing that.”

Anna nodded. “Smart girl you are.”

They sat in silence for a while, long enough in fact that Gray managed to finish off three glasses of wine. Her head was woozy, and her body was relaxed and numb. It was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, and it was most definitely welcome. She looked at the clock on the wall to see it was ten, and as Anna’s eyes followed hers, she sighed.

“Past my bedtime, girlfriend,” she remarked, and she stood, carrying their glasses to the sink. “And you’re cut off, lest you break something else trying to crutch drunk around your loft.” She kissed Gray on the forehead. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Gray watched her walk toward the door, and just as she reached it, there was a knock on the door. Anna turned, her mouth open wide and her eyes equally wide. She was ducking as though she could hide if she made herself shorter. Then she snuck up to the door, peering through the peephole.

Gray watched, nearly excited by the commotion in her drunken state.

“It’s him, it’s him, it’s him,” Anna hissed loudly, nodding her head like a lunatic.

“
Him
the asshole who owes you an apology, or are you referring to another him?” came Jasper’s voice as he opened the door without invitation, leveling his eyes on Gray as she gaped at him.

“No, you… You’re the asshole.” Gray commented. “But you’re not an asshole at all. It’s okay—”

“It doesn’t feel very okay to me,” he said solemnly, still studying her eyes. He glanced at Anna. “Hi, Anna. Sorry to barge in on you two.”

“It’s okay. I’m going to go.” She actually smiled warmly at him, and as she passed him, she rested her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Jas.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

Gray stood, hollering her goodbye to Anna as the door closed behind her. She started toward him, but he met her. He looked down at her eyes, and he smiled gently. He reached for her forehead, brushing her hair back.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “Are
you
okay?” His voice was quiet.

She nodded. “I might be a little drunk.”

He chuckled with a seductive smirk on his lips. “Good, then it won’t bother you at all when I stick my tongue up your ass.” He lunged for her mouth just as aggressively as she’d overtaken his that morning. And as he captured her lips, he lifted her as her crutches hit the floor and carried her to the table, setting her on the tabletop.

He had her legs pushed out wide before her butt was fully settled onto the table, and as he set her gently down, he reached for the lower hem of her sundress, stripping it off over her head in one smooth swift move. She’d not bothered finding underwear when she got home, and as he glanced down, he smiled.

“Very nice,” he murmured as he lowered his head to her neck. He kissed down her throat as she let her head drop back. His lips moved around her neck from one side to the other, quickly planting kiss after kiss on her skin, and when he moved down farther still, his palm pressed her chest back. “Back on your elbows,” he demanded.

She dropped back, and he sucked her nipple into his mouth as he kept descending. His eyes never left hers for long, and as he neared her belly, they remained focused on hers, watching as he trailed lower and lower and lower until his tongue slipped between the lips of her sex, and she cried out. His fingers spread her open, and he pushed his tongue inside her vagina as he hummed.

Her hips wriggled under his mouth regardless of how hard she tried to stay still, and when he pushed his tongue back up to her clitoris, they not only wriggled but they trembled. Her thighs shook as she held them out wide. He lashed his tongue around those nerves, pushing hard one moment and then swirling and teasing. She was gasping as she watched him, and he pulled back slightly, studying her sex for a moment, before he leaned to her again, sucking her clit into his mouth in one long wet kiss.

“Jas,” she panted out as he released her swollen tissue, and then he licked again, humming and moaning as his mouth moved and his tongue laved.

He shoved his tongue up under the hood of her clit, and she wilted, falling back to the table as her body was wracked with such an intense orgasm that she couldn’t breathe as it passed through her. He gave her time to recover, looping his arms under her thighs and resting his hands on her belly, and when she propped herself back up, he was intently studying everything between her legs.

His lips were glossy and wet, and he licked them. He glanced to her before he leaned down and kissed her sex sweetly and gently, and when he pulled back, he winked. “You’re going to be nervous now, Gray, but you’re going to give me what I want, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. “I want all of you.”

She nodded, watching him curiously for a moment. She couldn’t say she quite understood his point.

“I want to touch all of you. I want to fuck all of you. And right now, I want to taste all of you. And you’re going to let me.”

And then she understood. He focused on her as he leaned back down to her sex, but his mouth moved lower, and his hands clutched the backs of her thighs, pushing them back farther, and opening up her bottom.

“No,” she whimpered as she tried to sit up, but he held her thighs in place, letting his fingers dig into her skin.

And then she felt it. His tongue moved over the skin separating her vagina from her anus, and when he reached her puckered small hole, he moaned as he licked—warm and wet, gently massaging and exploring. He looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers from where they watched her from between her legs. She let her body go slack, and she rested back to her elbows, letting her eyes close for a moment and just soaking in the sensation.

It was incredible—gentle and soothing, and when he pushed his tongue through slightly she moaned. He was humming, moaning, and the wet laving sound his tongue made was causing her arousal to intensify in such a way. He kept his hands on her thighs, and he turned her hips, rolling her gently over to her side as his mouth stayed against her most private entry.

He licked, letting his tongue thrust and penetrate, and when he pushed her hips farther over, she ended up on her stomach, her good foot on the floor, her bad leg held up to rest on the table top. He was kneeling behind her, and she listened as he lowered his zipper. She knew the second he touched his cock by the lurching gasp he took against her skin, and he kissed softly against her anus just before he stood up behind her.

He nudged gently against her bottom. She knew this would be intense. But she needed intense. One hand held her bottom cheek open as the other presumably guided his erection to her entry. He nudged again, insistently pressing and forcing the head past her tight muscles that constricted and spasmed. She cried out, and he leaned down, kissing the middle of her back.

“Just like the first time. I need you to keep your muscles loose,” he murmured against her skin.

He pushed farther, letting his shaft penetrate deeper, and he released a guttural sigh from his chest as he invaded her. She whimpered with every inch, her fingernails curling against the table top and clenching tight on nothing at all. When he leaned over her body, he used his free hand to cover one of her hands, waiting for her to release the clutch. She stretched her fingers out, and he laced his fingers through hers, gripping tight as he pushed the last few inches in.

She groaned from the pit of her stomach, and he kissed the back of her neck, letting his tongue graze the skin between his lips. When he rocked his hips back, she gasped as the pain seared her for a moment, but as he pushed forward again, filling her completely, it oddly soothed that pain as he settled back into place. He grinded against her bottom, slow at first, barely separating from her body at all and just keeping pressure against her, but as she relaxed into the feel of him, he started pulling out and thrusting steadily back in.

He didn’t release her hand until his hips were fucking her fast and hard, and he only unclasped his hold on her then as he spoke against her ear. “Stand up,” he demanded huskily.

She pushed up from the table, leaving her hands on the edge, and he ran his fingers through the hair at the back of her head, twisting and then pulling her head back as she grunted.

“Arch your back, and keep your ass pushed out.”

He thrust hard as her fingers mindlessly moved back to grip the front of his thighs. He grunted with each thrust, keeping his lips at her ear so she could hear every guttural groan. His muscles tightened as his thighs pushed his cock up into her bottom, and she held herself still, letting him use her body ferociously with his own.