Now, as Grayson drew her into him and kissed her so sweetly, so perfectly, she remembered that little girl who had danced because she loved it. She hadn’t been trying to please anyone, hadn’t danced for any other reason than because it made her feel whole and perfect and beautiful and so wonderfully alive.
It was just how Grayson made her feel, even in those first days when she hadn’t wanted to feel anything at all.
He loved her.
Disbelief had come first, but that was because she hadn’t been expecting it. And also because he so loved being cranky, even when he was saying he loved her.
But then, there had been fear. Such big fear it threatened to swallow her whole.
Fear that she couldn’t love right this time, fear that she didn’t know how to put love in its place and keep it there safe and pretty and simple, fear that she’d just end up making all the same mistakes she always had.
Lori clung to Grayson as he kissed her and she spun deeper into him, into everything he’d given her without ever wanting to.
She felt so raw from losing Sweetpea, and she knew she would for a long time, but she could also feel Grayson’s kisses already healing her where she was torn and hurting.
He rained kisses over the rest of her face, her eyelids still damp from her tears, and then her forehead and the curve of one ear, before taking her lobe between his teeth. She shivered at the sweet pleasure of the small bite, and then the slow swipe of his tongue over the sensitive skin on her neck.
He was so big, so strong, so tough, and yet no other man had ever been this gentle in bed, this intent on drawing every ounce of pleasure out of her. He moved lower then, his tongue dipping into the hollow of her throat, and she moaned aloud as he laid her back against the pillows so that his hands could follow the devastating path of his mouth and tongue and teeth all along her skin. She arched into his kisses, his caresses, gasping at every perfect kiss.
The morning sun was coming in now through his bedroom window and bathing them both. Where she’d been so cold outside just a short while earlier, now she was warm and safe.
And loved.
He was pressing kisses to the upper swell of her br**sts, and she reached out to stroke his cheek. His stubble was thick as it rubbed across her br**sts and beneath her fingertips. He licked out across one of her ni**les through her bra before catching lace and flesh between his teeth and she wrapped her legs around him, no words necessary to tell him what she needed. She arched her back so that he could undo her bra clasp, and a heartbeat later her chest was completely bare to the most wonderful mouth any man had ever possessed.
She couldn’t catch her breath, but it was just as well, because a moment later Grayson was crushing his mouth to hers again and they were rolling over so that he was on his back and she was lying across his big, hard body. His hands cupped her br**sts as she sat up to straddle him while pressing the vee of her legs into his enormous erection.
“Come for me, Lori. I need to see you come apart for me.”
His kisses had heated her up so much already that his erection throbbing between her legs and a handful of sexy words were a potent combination. So when he leaned up, pressed her br**sts together, and took both ni**les into his mouth at the same time, she went spiraling all the way over into a mind-blowing climax.
Long before she had her breath back, he had her lying back on the bed again, and was peeling off her panties. She shook with continued need as he brushed his fingertips between her legs, then lowered his mouth to press as soft and gentle a kiss to her sex as he had earlier to her mouth.
Lori had never been so overwhelmed, so completely swamped with desire—and pure, sweet emotion—for anyone. She’d always thought she’d given all of herself to her family, to her friends, to dancing. But when she was in Grayson’s arms, when he was loving her so beautifully, she knew she hadn’t even come close to the true depths of what she had to give.
Until he’d come into her life—or, rather, before she’d forced her way into his—she hadn’t known it was possible to feel this much.
She opened her mouth to tell him he was right, that she loved him, when he slid his fingers into her at the exact same time that his lips and tongue amped up their seduction of her most sensitive flesh. And if he hadn’t been there to gather her into his arms and hold her steady as she shook from the force of the pleasure of yet another shockingly strong climax, she would have slid all the way off the bed.
But nothing was forever. Sweetpea had taught her that. So she couldn’t wait another second to tell him how she felt, couldn’t take the time to find her breath, her voice, to wait until they weren’t naked and sweaty and wrapped up in each other.
“I love you.” She slid her arms around his neck but she didn’t kiss him again, not until she’d said it at least one more time. “I love you so much.”
His grin came fast, and was so darn beautiful that she was already grinning back as he said, “I knew it.”
How could she declare her love for him in one breath and want to growl at him in the next? “I wouldn’t have if I could have stopped myself.”
His smile grew even bigger. “You never stood a chance.”
She used her dancer’s strength to roll them over to straddle him once again. “Of course I did, you farmer.”
“Oooh, baby, you know I love it when you call me names. What else have you got?” he taunted.
“Big bully.”
He stroked her br**sts and cupped her hips with his deliciously big and calloused hands. “So hot. Give me more.”
“Blockhead.”
“You sitting on me naked, calling me all those names, is better than p**n .”
She laughed despite herself and had to poke him in the chest to try to show him he hadn’t gotten the better of her. “You’re the one who never stood a chance.”
She expected him to laugh again, to tease her again. Instead, his expression grew serious.
“I never did, Lori, not for one single second.”
No matter what happened from here forward, she knew she’d never stop loving Grayson. It wouldn’t matter that their lives didn’t fit together. It wouldn’t matter that he deserved someone who could be a full-time farmer with him. It wouldn’t matter when she was three thousand miles away from him on a stage in a big city, dancing for a crowd of strangers.
She would still love him with her entire heart.