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I close the door to my house. My house, wow that feels weird. The stairs are long, far away and feel like Mount Everest right now but that bath is calling my name. The thing I adore most about this house is the huge roll top bath in the main bathroom. It could easily fit two people in. I know this because I’ve walked in on Jess and Liam before which I quickly erased from my memory bank.
My heavy weighted feet pad one step at a time and stopping halfway to lean against the cool wooden banister before I force myself to trudge up the few remaining steps. When I finally reach the bathroom, I flick on the taps, empty some bath salts and my favourite cupcake scented bubble bath and I sit and watch them multiply into soft fluffy peaks on top of the water. I don’t have the energy to go back downstairs and get the wine, no matter how much I want it. My body needs this bath much more.
I begin to strip when I hear the front door unlock. Fuck’s sake. Turning the taps off, I wrap a towel around my body and shout out to who I assume is Jess or Liam. “What did you forget? If you need me to lift anymore boxes, I’m done for the day. Find someone else.”
Just as I’m rounding the landing to the top of the stairs, I bump into a wall of muscle. My body doesn’t seem to be that scared that it could be an intruder, or even Liam. The jolt of bumping into this person has made me lose my towel and my arms scramble to collect it and hold it against my body so I don’t flash whoever is standing in front of me. Still too consumed by my delirious tiredness, I still haven’t looked up at them.
Two arms wrap around the tops of my shoulders to steady me.
“Woah, it’s me Nora,” our eyes lock and I realise it’s Grayson. “I had to swing by Jess and Liam’s house after my meeting. He asked me to make sure you weren’t crying into a bottle of something.” He bends and kisses my cheek. My body deflates, I adjust my towel again sleepily. I’m dead on my feet and I might even wobble a little again because Grayson’s grip tightens on me and his eyes narrow. “You, okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just so tired. I was about to get in the bath when you came in.” I gesture a thumb over my shoulder towards the bathroom.
“Go.” He kisses my forehead. “Get in. I’ll bring you up a glass of wine.”
“Mmm, my hero,” I hum as I plod over to the bathroom again, drop my towel and drag my aching body over the side, letting it sink beneath the warm welcoming bubbles.
“Here you go.” Grayson appears with a chilled glass of white wine, and I pop open one of my eyes and take it from him, letting the sweet, cool nectar trickle down my throat as I hum in appreciation.
“Thank you.”
He takes the wine and places it on the side of the vanity. Perches on the edge of the tub. “Give me your foot,” he insists. I lift my foot out and let him guide it to where he wants it, which happens to be his thigh. I flinch, lifting my foot slightly, not wanting to get his trousers wet.
“Relax, shorty,” he insists, pulling my foot back down. So, I listen and relax as he begins the most wonderful foot massage I’ve ever had in my life. His hands are big and slightly rough as he wraps his warm hands around my heel, dragging his thumbs through the arch of my foot. It feels good. So good that I can’t stop the moan that spills from my mouth. I’m practically purring from his touch.
“Oh, my God, that feels…” I can’t even finish my sentence.
Grayson’s eyes darken. “I love the noises you make. If I could only hear one thing for the rest of my life, it would be you, moaning my name and whimpering when I touch you.”
The rest of his life? My mind gets stuck on those words, but I’m too chicken to ask what it means for him. Did he mean he wants me for the rest of his life?
His large palms flatten, and he pushes them around my calf muscle, needing my skin as I become putty in his hands and forget any and every thought that was just taunting my tired mind a minute ago.
He releases my foot and gestures for the other, repeating the process again. I watch the muscles in his arms flex and his tattoos on his hands dance with the movement. We don’t speak, but I know he feels the intimacy of the moment as it swirls around us.
“You know, you’re making it harder to hate you, Grayson King,” I admit, playfully narrowing my eyes.
He snuffles. “Yeah? What if that’s my plan?” I have to look away and break the tension with a hollow laugh because it’s too much; the weight of his words combined with the intensity of his stare is confusing, but isn’t this everything I want? So why do I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Chapter 26
Grayson
Anhourafterherbath and she’s fidgeting again. The hard work I did relaxing her has dissipated pretty quickly. The way she twitches and mumbles incoherently every now and again. She is chewing her bottom lip and her eyes are shifty as hell. I’ve come to learn that this is what Nora does when she wants to ask me something. She weighs the outcomes and options in her head before she asks me whatever is playing on her mind. We’ve been sitting in her living room for around half hour and most of that time she’s been internally freaking.
“Ask me, shorty. Give that poor lip a rest, yeah? You’ve been biting it for ten minutes.” I lean over and release her bottom lip from the torture of her teeth, running my thumb back and forth a few times.
Her eyes narrow, as if she’s wondering how I knew she wanted to ask me something. Taking a deep breath, she exhales and says, “are you taking a date to the wedding?”
I scratch the back of my neck, suddenly needing to move my arms somewhere. That’s what she’s been thinking about? “I hadn’t thought about it.” I really hadn’t, the thought of bringing someone else or her… “Wait, do you have a date?” I rush out, suddenly panicking that I’ll have to deal with watching her with another man all night, which would not be my idea of a good time.
“No.” Her nose scrunches up. “I hadn’t thought about it either, but then Jess brought it up the other day and since then it’s all I’ve been able to think about. I’m fine if you want to bring someone.” I perk up knowing she won’t be bringing anyone but also feel a pang of irritation that she is fine with me bringing someone.
I narrow my eyes. “You’d be fine with me dancing and touching another woman all day and all evening?” She shrugs, acting nonchalant, but as I lean in closer to her, letting my lips almost touch the skin on her neck, I can see her pulse flutter like a hummingbird. “Because honestly, I’d want to rip the arms off any man who touches you, let alone gets to call you his date.”
When I look up at her, those beautiful caramel eyes drink me in and she smiles the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen from her, which steals the breath from my lungs. “I think I’d want to bitch slap anyone who came near you.”There she is.I like that she’s jealous. Excitement zips around my body with the knowledge that I might have as much of an effect on her as she does me.
As we stare at each other, the humour fades from the room, the air stifles between us again, and there are unsaid words and unconfessed feelings floating around the atmosphere. Neither of us ready to give in and admit we are in deeper than we planned. It makes me feel jittery, like I need to move. My chest tightens with each breath in, and I know I can feel a line of sweat forming down my spine.
