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“Do you want to talk about your dream?” he asked after another long silence. “Sometimes it helps.”
“Not really. Kevin was there, and he was angry. In a way that’s not really a dream. I know he’s furious.”
The more Grant heard about this Kevin the more he didn’t like him. Guys who used fear tactics to keep a woman weren’t even true human beings.
“I don’t know why I trust you, but I do,” she went on. “My instincts are screaming to me that you’re a good person and that you truly do want to help me.”
“I do want to help you. Are you going to let me?”
She didn’t answer, instead turning her body toward him. Her expression was as stormy as the hurricane outside, her eyes dark with a strong emotion. To his surprise, she reached up and ran her fingers over his jaw and then up to his temple before tracing his brows.
He didn’t move a muscle. First from shock, but then because he didn’t want to spook her. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but this might be some sort of trust exercise. Did she think he would jump on her like a dog with a bone? Was she trying to convince herself that all men were just the same?
Her gaze was studying him closely, watching every flicker that might cross his features. That tension he’d felt earlier was ratcheted up to a million. He wanted to move closer, but he didn’t allow himself the luxury. She swayed closer to him, her gaze never leaving his face as her fingertips slowly glided down his neck to his collarbone.
What happened next was unavoidable. Weeks and months later, he’d question his own sanity, but at this moment turning away was unthinkable.
Lips touched.
Softly at first, like the wings of a butterfly, but then more passionately. The mutual hunger that had been simmering between them all evening had been set free. Her hands were clinging to his shoulders, and he’d pulled her closer so that she was sitting on his lap. His mouth blazed a trail over her cheek to her ear, all the while a lone voice in his head was saying that this might not be the best idea he’d ever had.
He didn’t want to heed its caution, but he couldn’t deny the wisdom. This woman was running for her life. Her emotions were heightened, she was scared and depending on him. It was a recipe for disaster.
He should pull away.
But damn, he didn’t want to.
* * *
The two warring voices in Mia’s head were loudly shouting at each other, but she ignored both of them to instead luxuriate in the wondrous feeling of being warm, safe, and cared for in Grant’s arms. His lips were firm and not too wet. Not too dry. Just right.
She clung to his wide shoulders as the room spun and tilted, a frisson of arousal running through her body all the way to her toes and fingertips.
One of those annoying voices was telling Mia that this was a terrible idea. She should stop all of this madness immediately. She’d never see this man again, and she wasn’t the type to jump into bed with someone the day she met him. What the voice was saying was true, but she simply couldn’t have dragged herself away if her life depended on it.
She wanted Grant too much, craved his tender touch on her skin. Even now, his calloused fingers were stroking the skin where her t-shirt met her shorts. It was sending all sorts of haywire messages to her scrambled brain, but the overwhelming feeling was one of pure pleasure.
She couldn’t remember a time when being with a man had felt this good.
The second annoying voice was telling her that men couldn’t be trusted. Whether she was the type to have sex with a man when she barely knew him wasn’t the point. The point was that she couldn’t trust her own judgment. She’d sleep with Grant and tomorrow he’d betray her in some way. She was only setting herself up for disappointment and heartache. Every man was just the same. Grant was no different. He was only pretending to be to get under her defenses.
But she trusted him. No matter what that part of her was saying. She’d been wrong about Kevin, but she’d bet everything she had - which admittedly, at the moment, wasn’t much - that Grant Anderson wasn’t just like every other guy.
She wasn’t shocked, however, when Grant lifted his head and pulled away slightly. Both of them were breathing raggedly, as if struggling to get oxygen into their starved lungs. His cheeks were pink, and his pupils blown wide. Arousal was stamped into his handsome features, but she could also feel the thick tension between them. He was deliberately keeping himself in check, not allowing them to get too carried away in the moment.
“Mia, I don’t want to take advantage of you. You’ve been through so much today, and it would be wrong?—”
“Stop,” she said, placing her fingers over his lips. “I’m not emotional or overwrought. I know exactly what I’m doing. You aren’t taking advantage of me. I’m no victim, and I’m not ever going to be a victim again if I can help it. I’m a full participant, making a conscious decision.”
For too long, she’d sat back and let life happen to her. That simply wasn’t good enough. In the future, she was going to make things happen instead of letting them happen as if she had no control over it. She’d been frozen in place, afraid to make decisions in case they were wrong.
But what she hadn’t realized until she’d left… Standing still was a decision. She was deciding to do nothing. Because of fear.
Mia didn’t want to be afraid anymore. At least not of herself and what she might decide or want.
She wanted Grant tonight. She didn’t know what tomorrow had in store for her and that was okay. There were no promises in this world, and she’d have to go out and make the best of things.
But tonight? She could spend tonight in this man’s arms. A respite from the storm outside and also the one within. For so long, she’d thought that she couldn’t feel pleasure and desire anymore. That it somehow had passed her by. She’d made peace with it even, thinking that no one could have everything good. There were tradeoffs, right? Maybe she wasn’t the type to feel the sweeping passion that she’d only seen in movies or read about.
