My fight against his hold is no match for his strength. His patience for my resistance growing thin as we step out into the balmy night air. “You’re not supposed to be driving.”
“River, I swear… Get in the truck.” Exasperation leaving him removing that backward ball cap to run his fingers through his hair before placing it back on his head.
“No. You’re not supposed to be driving.”
Without warning, his arms loop around my legs, tossing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The passenger side door creaking open moments later, before he deposits me in the seat and fastens my belt.
“Listen to me,” he grips my chin hard enough that I can’t break away, but not to the point of pain. “At work, you get to be a doctor. With me, you don’t. I am fine. I am going to take care of you and our home. Now, if you don’t want me overexerting myself, then stop being so difficult.”
Gray’s words sober me enough to process the moment. Rarely does he turn into this possessive alpha male character, but fuck does it make my core ache when he does.
“Fine. Then I am going to be your overbearing girlfriend instead.”
He slams the door before slipping into the driver’s side. “River,” my name a warning on his tongue.
“No, Grayson. You’re going to listen to me. You haven’t obeyed a single doctor’s order, except for not having sex with me. And the only reason we’re not fucking is because I tell you no. You’re out there ranching every day, you’ve been driving me around, you just threw me over your shoulder, and I know you were on a practice bull yesterday.” He has the nerve to flinch away from that last one.
“River, I’ve been hurt before. I will be fine. Stop fussing over me.”
“And how am I supposed to do that, Gray? How am I supposed to just let you continue to beat yourself up over and over again? How do you love someone and let them do that before your eyes?”
I hadn’t meant for the words to slip free, my hand instantly slapping over my mouth. My eyes wide as they meet his.
He’d only just pulled out on the road, immediately swerving the truck to the gravel shoulder, before throwing the truck in park.
He slowly peels his hand away from my mouth. “What did you just say?”
My eyes are wide, searching his. I’ve been thinking the words for weeks, trying to pretend like I didn’t feel them, but when I saw him in that hospital bed, and I wasn’t sure he was going to wake up, there was no denying them. There was no pretending, but I wanted to say them at the right time. I wanted him to know I meant them, and they didn’t come from a place of fear.
He’d whispered those very three words to me once in the hospital. The first day he stayed awake long enough to talk to me and the doctors, but he hadn’t said them again, so I told myself it was just the drugs.
“River, I’m going to need you to repeat what you just said.” His thumb rubs over the curve of my cheek, his eyes boring into mine through the dark. The liquor that had made me clumsy and brave moments ago no longer aiding me.
“I said I love you.”
The saddest but happiest smile spreads on his face, his mouth pressing to mine. “It’s about time you admitted it. I love you, too, baby.” His forehead presses to mine, his cap sliding back as he breathes me in. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
“Gray.”
“I know I haven’t said it since the hospital.”
“I thought it was the drugs talking. Are you still taking them? You just said you’re going to marry me.”
His chuckle is soft before he presses his lips to mine again. “I didn’t say that part before?”
“Nope. You didn’t.”
“Hmm,” he shrugs, pulling back out onto the road. “Well, now you know.”
Chapter 26
River
Gray’sadmissionringsthroughmy mind as he holds me in his arms.
When we returned home and he kissed every inch of my body, itching to get inside me, I couldn’t say no. Not after we were both open about our feelings.
I’d made him lie on his back and take what I gave him. My hips rode him at a lazy pace until we both came undone in the shimmering moonlight.
