Chapter Seven
Hannah
Hannah could feel Gray’s tension long before either of them crossed the threshold into his quarters.He didn’t speak during the walk back, but silence didn’t make him feel distant.If anything, it intensified the connection between them, tightening the invisible thread that had been pulling them closer since the first moment they touched hands in the square.
Every few steps, power rolled off him.It brushed against her skin like a promise, sinking into her nerves until her heart was beating too fast and her palms felt unsteady with heat.
He wasn’t holding back with her.Not anymore.
She couldn’t look at him without feeling that difference.His expression stayed focused and outwardly calm, but the air around him vibrated faintly, the way a storm made the atmosphere tremble before it broke open.And every time his intense eyes slid to her, her body responded with a need she couldn’t, and didn’t want to, hide.
By the time they reached his door, her body was humming with anticipation.Gray keyed in the code, and the door slid open with a soft mechanical sigh.Hannah stepped inside first, her breath catching as the room’s atmosphere shifted around her.
It was intimate entering his private space.It felt far more electric than crossing the threshold of a bedroom ever should.The lights were low, casting everything in warm gold, and the subtle scent of ozone lingered faintly in the air, clinging to the bedding, the walls, the quiet space that had held his solitude for years.
Gray followed her in, and the room changed again, tightening with the presence of everything unspoken between them.When the door sealed behind them, the soft sound might as well have been a lock sliding into place inside her chest.
She turned, and he was already watching her.
Not just looking.Watching.His gaze traced her mouth, then lower, lingering with a hunger that made her wet.His power rose, a slow, deliberate swell that brushed her senses.
“Hannah,” he said, and the way he said her name felt like his hands were already on her.
Her breath stuttered.“Gray...”
He moved toward her with a steadiness that belied the storm simmering beneath his skin.When he stopped in front of her, close enough that his heat reached her but not touching yet, her knees nearly weakened.His silence wasn’t confusion, it was reverence.His desire, held in check for so long, vibrated through the air like a taut wire.
He lifted a hand, hovering just beside her cheek, giving her space to step away.When she didn’t, when she tilted her head into that phantom touch, his breath caught.
“Are you sure?”he rasped out.
She didn’t hesitate.“Yes.”
His eyes softened and darkened all at once, shifting from restraint to hunger.Power blazed subtly around them, brushing her skin in delicate sparks, and then his hand cupped her jaw with a tenderness that nearly undid her.
Heat bloomed beneath his fingertips.Her body leaned into him instinctively.He lowered his forehead to hers, breath mingling with hers, and the world narrowed to just this moment, just this man, just the bond slowly tightening around her ribs.
“You have no idea,” he whispered, “how long I’ve been holding this back.”
“Then don’t,” she breathed.
The sound he made was low and wrecked.When Gray kissed her, the world fell away.His kiss wasn’t hesitant or exploratory.It was a release.A dam bursting.Years of restraint snapping all at once.The moment his mouth claimed hers, Hannah felt the shock of it ripple straight through her body.It made her knees weaken and her breath catch in her throat.
He kissed her like he’d been starving for her, like he’d held himself back for too long and didn’t intend to do it anymore.His hands framed her face, strong and warm, thumbs brushing her cheekbones as though memorizing the shape of her.When she opened her mouth to him, the low groan he let out vibrated through her entire body.
Her fingers found the front of his shirt, gripping the fabric hard enough to wrinkle it as she pulled him closer.He followed instantly, his body pressing against hers with a solid, unyielding heat that sent another shiver through her.Sparks danced across her lips where their mouths met, electricity crackling in time with her heartbeat.
Gray broke the kiss only long enough to whisper, “You taste like lightning,” in a voice thick with desire.
Hannah’s breath stuttered in her chest.“Then take more.”
That did it.
