Forsaking Gray (The Colloway Brothers Book 1) (24 page)

But now I’m starting to wonder…is it the secrets that will break us, or the truth?

Chapter 31

“I wish you could be here. I miss you,” I whine.

“Me too, baby. I’ll be home tomorrow night, after my meeting.” This is the first night that Gray and I have spent apart in weeks. He’s out of town meeting the CEO of a company GRASCO Holdings is looking to buy, and I’m surprised at how much I miss him already. And with how much he’s become ingrained in my daily life, even when I tried to avoid it. But I’m on the ride now, so I’ve decided I’m just going to enjoy it until it stops.

“Call me when you get home. No matter the time.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply saucily.

“Oh angel.” His voice drips with seduction. “I can’t wait to hear you say that when I have you underneath me. When I’m buried balls deep and have given you so many orgasms you can’t remember your name and I can get you to agree to anything I want.”

Oh my.
As usual, his words jump on the express line directly to my sex and my pussy dampens for him.

“Oh really? You’re pretty confident.” I hold up my finger to Addy, who’s bouncing impatiently in my bedroom door. The bedroom that I’ve not spent one night in for the past three weeks.

“I have reason to be.” His smoky voice is full of sex and sin and promise. Promises he can, and will, deliver on. And I look forward to enjoying each and every moment of the wickedness he’ll lavish on my body tomorrow night when he gets home from his meeting. I have a surprise planned that will blow his mind.

“And what are you going to sex me into agreeing to this time?” I cajole.

“Come on,” Addy whispers. “I can’t be late to my own party.” I nod my head that I’ve heard, but I can’t seem to make myself end this conversation. I want to celebrate Addy’s twenty-eighth birthday with her, but I also want to be in Gray’s arms, doing normal couple things, like watching TV or reading a book. I crave normal, and these past few weeks we’ve easily fallen back into our same routine, only this time it’s more intense. And definitely more passionate.

I’m so caught up in Addy talking in my other ear that I almost don’t hear Gray’s response. But the minute his words register, I freeze. My lungs stop working and I don’t know how long I go without taking a full breath.

“What did you say?” Because as I replay his words, I’m not at all certain I heard them correctly. I
couldn’t
have.

“You heard me, angel.”

“Gray—”

“Stop. We’re not going to have this conversation a thousand miles apart, but I mean it, Livvy. Now, go have fun with your friends. I can practically hear Addy bouncing on the floor. I love you, angel.”

“I love you, too,” I manage to say. I drop the phone into my lap and stare straight ahead, Gray’s words tumbling around and around in my head. Words I can’t believe he really meant, but I also know Gray. He doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean.

“What kind of sexual haze did he put you in this time?” She shakes my shoulders. “Wow, it must have been really good.”

“It was,” I mumble.

“Come on, let’s go. Kam’s in the car downstairs waiting.”

“Yeah, let me just grab my purse.” And give me a couple of minutes to pull my shit together. I look down at my hands. They’re trembling.

“Okay, but I’m going down. She’s got a bottle of champagne already open and I can hear the bubbles seducing me all the way up here!”

She bounded out, none the wiser of the turmoil my addled brain was now in. I spend a couple of minutes in the bathroom, getting myself together before heading down to meet my friends. I decided to put Gray’s words away for the evening and revisit them tomorrow with a clearer head.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

Chapter 32

Kam had reserved a small private room at the back of this upscale club and it’s filled to the brim with family and friends of Addy’s. The doors are open and people are milling about between the room and the club, which is already hopping for a Thursday night. And I had the unfortunate luck to run into John, who Kam invited for some reason. Apparently the asshole decided that since he couldn’t have me, he’d settle for Kam. And believe me when I say that when I get a moment alone with her, I’ll make sure she knows what a d-bag he is. I have yet to see Kam fall for a guy, but I certainly don’t want her first time to be with this vag-sniffer, no matter how good-looking he is.

“How have you been, Livvy?” a deep voice asks as I’m helping myself to a second piece of cake. It’s stuffed with some sweet decadent filling that I can’t seem to get enough of and I don’t care if it just ends up on my thighs. It’s too good to pass up.

“It’s Livia, and I’m good. Thanks.” I don’t even turn to look at the intruder because I know exactly whose brown eyes I’ll be staring into.

“My bad. I heard Gray call you Livvy at dinner.”
Gray?
Like he knows Gray well enough to be on a first name basis. This guy is such a loser.

I spin on my heels and John’s standing so close, my plate hits his chest and my cake goes flying. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” He grabs a napkin from the table, and pulls at my blouse, smearing the frosting that’s splattered on me.

“Stop,” I spit. “You’re making it worse.” And this feels too intimate. Having another man’s hands anywhere near me just feels wrong.

“Sorry,” he mumbles. I push my way past him and through the club to the bathroom. A few minutes later, with the blue stain mostly gone, and now sporting a giant wet spot on my pink shirt, I’m making my way back to the party when I spot him.

The stalker.

Only he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at John, and by the thin line his lips are drawn into he seems mighty pissed. I’m conflicted. I feel panicked, but a strange sense of relief at the same time. I haven’t seen him since that day at the café, but I’ve still felt his presence occasionally. And by the way he’s staring John down like he wants to cut off his dick, I get the feeling he’s protecting me, which is the relief part. But I don’t know why, which has my heart racing and my blood running cold. Has Gray hired this man to keep an eye on me? If so, why? Is he suspicious?

I return to the party, making it a point not to acknowledge the man watching me. Watching
out
for me…whatever. I try to stay out of his line of sight, hiding in the back corner of the room. I also make it a point to stay as far away from John as I can, which doesn’t seem too hard since he’ll talk to anything with cleavage.

“Ah! I love this song!” Addy screams as the new funky Bruno Mars tune blares through the speakers. “Alright ladies, time to shake some ass,” Addy announces, her words slurring together a bit.

“Oh, not tonight, Addy.” The last thing I want to do is put myself on display with my unknown protector watching every move I make. Besides, I can’t seem to concentrate on much of anything besides Gray’s emphatic response to my question earlier.

“And what are you going to sex me into agreeing to this time?”

“Making you my wife.”

“Making you my wife.”

My wife.

Wife.

Wife.

“Sorry, chica. Not taking no for an answer. It’s my birthday, which means you have to do what I want.” Addy grabs one hand and Kam the other and between the two of them, they drag me practically kicking and screaming to the dance floor.

But once there, the infectious smile that Addy has on her drunken face spreads to mine, and I end up spending the next hour dancing with two of my favorite people in the whole world. My friends love me, flaws and all. Secrets and everything. And I feel blessed.

“Hey, looks like you have a couple of admirers, babe. And one of them looks like he wants to eat you up.” Kam whisper-yells in my ear so she can be heard over the blaring music.

I shouldn’t turn, but I can’t help myself. I see my unconventional stalker, as I suspected I would, but then my eyes lock onto the familiar hazel ones of the man leaning against the bar next to him—eyes I haven’t seen for two years—and it makes my knees almost buckle. I feel a rush of heat so potent, I nearly melt on the spot.

Those eyes
.

That earlier sense of relief I had disappears quicker than my father’s paycheck used to. Because now I know it wasn’t Gray that sent this man.

It was Grant.

The last words he had said to me before he left me alone in this city came rushing back, as if he’d spoken them only yesterday.

“Will I see you again?” Grant is the only steady thing I’ve been able to rely on for years and he’s leaving me. Alone. I want to cry, but I don’t dare let myself because I know I won’t be able to stop.

“No, baby. You need to get away from everything and everyone, including me. If you see me again, it means you’re in danger.”

Before I can speak, he grabs my face, and he doesn’t just kiss me, he devours me like he’s trying to memorize how my lips feel underneath his, just as I’m doing. He moans into my mouth, pulling me closer. I feel his stiff erection prodding my stomach and God help me, I want him. I’ve wanted this for months, but neither of us would give in to our desires. If Peter ever found out, he would have killed us both. As quickly as his mouth was on mine, it wasn’t, and then I’m watching him walk away without so much as a backward glance or a way to contact him.

So if Grant is here, it means only one thing. That I haven’t escaped my past, as I’d thought. No. My past was now staring me directly in the face and I don’t mistake the worry and concern I see. And the only way Grant would be here, watching me, was if something was terribly wrong.

Chapter 33

“I have to go,” I mumble, making a beeline for Grant, who has now pushed himself off the counter and is heading in my direction. Our eyes haven’t left the other’s. It makes my heart flutter and I’m instantly disgusted with myself for feeling even a twinge of anything for another man.

Addy grabs my arm, stopping me. “Livia, what’s going on?” she asks, in a worried voice, alternating between Grant and me.

“Nothing.” I try to move forward, but the grip she now has on me is almost painful. “Addy, it’s okay.” I look at her, pleading to let me go and not ask any more questions. She knows this look well.

“Okay, fine, but if you don’t come home tonight, I’m calling the cops.” She finally releases her kung-fu grip.

“For god’s sake, I’m fine. Grant won’t hurt me.” And that’s true. It’s not Grant that will hurt me, but some other unknown enemy. Apparently Grant has gone to very great lengths to protect me since he’s had someone following me for a while.

“Grant?” Her brows draw together in confusion, eyes flitting back and forth between us. Grant turns his attention to Addy and you’d have to be blind not to notice that he’s looking at her like she’s prey.

I smile at my overprotective friend. “I need to go.” I give her and Kam a quick hug. “I’ll be leaving with Grant, and don’t worry, Addy, I’ll be home tonight. He’s just a friend, that’s all.”
A friend that you were once attracted to
, my traitorous lady parts remind me.