Page 53 of All Out of Love

“Security will be beefed up. You’ll continue to stay here with me until we get this resolved.”

“But how will it get resolved?”

“When we find out who’s behind the attack.”

“But the police is acting like I’m the problem. They didn’t wanna even hear what I was saying. I’m sorry, Gracie, but if you’re relying on those cops to solve the case you can forget it. Those cops aren’t worth a damn.”

“That’s why I’m not relying on them. I have somebody on the case.”

“Already?”

“Yes. Already. You needn’t worry about anything.”

But he could tell Toya was worried about everything. She was still so filled with tension that when she went to take another sip of her drink, she had to pull the glass back down because she was shaking so badly. Which Grayson instinctively knew wasn’t going to get any better until he made it better.

He stood up, took her glass and sat it on the side table, and then he reached out his hand to her. “Come with me,” he said. “You’ve got to release that.”

She didn’t know where she was going with him, and what he was talking about, but she took his hand, stood up, and allowed him to escort her to his bedroom.

It wasn’t until he undressed her and put her in bed, and then he undressed himself and got in bed beside her did she realize what he was talking about. Because when he pulled her into his arms and began kissing her, and then as he began massaging her pliable body as he kissed her, she could feel that anxiousness and stress and that heavy tenseness slowly began to calm down.

And when he entered her, he didn’t enter her with a burst of passion and urgency. He moved in so slowly and so tenderly that she felt it even more acutely than she would have felt it had he thrust into her.

As he moved inside of her, he still kept it slow and sweet. And the more he moved, the less stressful she felt. She couldn’t forget what happened. It was still playing in her mind even as he did her. But she was able to stop trembling because of what happened. She was able to stop being afraid that it was all going to fall apart after what happened. His decision to let his body do the talking for him worked. It calmed her down. It slowed her hammering heartbeat. And it made her trust him more because everything he seemed to do was focused on her. Even now. He was doing it for her.

But when she began to orgasm, he couldn’t help but feel it too. And then he came too. And for both of them, it was as electrifying as if they were in the throes of a passion that was verging on uncontrollable. They both came long and hard.

And when he finally stopped moving inside of her after he was all spent out, she wrapped her arms around him even tighter. She loved him. She realized, in that moment, that she truly loved him.

But just as she was coming to that realization, Grayson was having an epiphany of his own. And unlike Toya, who dared not say a word because she wasn’t sure if her feelings for him were mutual, Grayson wasn’t holding back another second. This woman almost died because of her connection to him. He could either back away for her sake, or go all in for her sake.

He decided to go all in.

And that was when he pulled back from her and looked her dead in the eyes.

Toya was suddenly concerned, because his eyes looked as if they read her thoughts and he was going to make it clear to her that she was wasting her time. And that her love for him was misplaced. She was ready for another letdown. Only she knew this letdown was going to land differently. This wasn’t about her career. This wasn’t even about her freedom. This was about her heart. And the heart of the matter was always the hardest matter of all.

But Grayson didn’t tell her any of those things she feared. He looked her dead in her beautiful, expressive eyes and told her his truth: “Jameesha Latoya Morgan,” he said to her, “I want you to know, I need you to know, that I love you dearly.”

She wanted to leap for joy. But she was hesitant. Was his other words going to be I love you dearly, but I’m not in love with you? She’d heard those words from previous relationships too many times before.

But not so with Grayson. “And I say this from the bottom of my heart,” he added: “I am deeply in love with you.”

Instead of her heart breaking, as she was bracing herself to deal with, it soared. She could not have hoped for more.

“Oh, Gracie, I love you too!” she said, equally heartfelt, and had tears in her eyes as she threw her arms around him.

He pulled her tighter against him and held her with that loving feeling so embedded in him now that he knew she was the one. She was his life partner. She was the only person alive that he could trust with his heart.

When they kissed this time, it was filled with so much passion on top of love on top of passion that he was entering her once again.

Only this time it wasn’t about relieving stress or tension. It was only about love. They made hard, pulse-pounding, passionate love.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

After they showered and put on clothes, Toya realized Grayson was a true creature of habit. Instead of dressing down the way she did in a pair of shorts and a jersey, Grayson put on a pair of tan suit and with a tan-and-white tie. When he sat on the side of the bed and put on his Oxfords, she smiled. “Do you ever dress down?” she asked him.

“Never,” he said with no emotion. Then he looked at her and smiled when he saw her reaction. “Of course I dress down. But I rarely have a reason to.”