“Of course not.”
“And I wouldn’t ask or expect you to either,” I said seriously. “I just have my own stuff I need to work through, and I will. But it’s going to take time to stop responding the way I have for so long.”
Gray’s brows were drawn close with some indescribable emotion by the time I finished, but he didn’t say anything as seconds posed as an eternity passed.
Just when I was getting ready to snap at him to saysomething, he breathed, “I’ve craved this side of you.”
My head shifted back at the unexpected admission, but he spoke again before I could.
“I know you, Mallory. To everyone else? You’re ice and steel. You’re almost as guarded and emotionally closed off as Briggs. With me? You’re light and carefree. You’re able to relax and you smile and laugh in this way that makes me want to live in those moments. More than that? You share things with me.”
Gray’s palm slid around my neck, his thumb tipping my head up to better search my eyes. “But even I’d never heard you apologize before yesterday, and now you’re doing it reflexively. You’re painting in front of me, when that was something you kept from me. You’re offering new, surprising pieces of yourself to me, like you’re ready for me to knoweverythingabout you—baring your soul to me in ways you would’ve claimed were weak just a couple days ago. I’vecravedthis side of you,” he repeated softly, meaningfully.
But it had every insecurity rushing back.
Because what ifthat sideof me went away tomorrow? Or the next day?
“And if it isn’t what you think?” I challenged, my voice not nearly as steady as I wanted it to be. “If it’s just...due to things I can’t currently control?”
If I hadn’t been studying him so intently, I might’ve missed the slight hardening of his features. But I was. I always had.
“You’re cutting open veins and bleeding in front of me, Mallory. That has nothing to do with what’s going on in your body. If you want proof? Go back to your memories of Aruba because, from what you told me, you did the same then. But even if it was only a result of that?”
His throat shifted with his next swallow, but he just cocked his head as he straightened and shifted the truck into reverse. Seconds passed as we idled there before he said, “Fight me, Peach. Fall apart in my arms. Argue everything I say.” Gray’s eyes drifted to me again. “Tell me things you won’t let the rest of the world know about you, or hide them from me because you’re worried you’ll appear weak. It doesn’t matter what you do, I’ll always crave every part of you—especially the parts you keep from me—because I love you.”
I sat in the following silence, the chaotic pounding of my heart threatening to give away everything I was feeling.
Just as I began, once again, wondering how it’d taken us so long to get here, to confess truths we never should’ve buried, Gray glanced out the windshield before looking over his shoulder to back out of the spot.
But just as he let his foot off the brake, the truck jerked to a stop again when his head whipped forward, his expression hardand eyes narrowed as he searched for something that already had me on alert.
“What?” I quietly asked as I straightened in my own seat, my movements slow and careful.
“David home?” he asked on a low murmur.
“Davis,” I corrected irritably, even as my attention swept across Davis’ empty parking space, as well as the surrounding ones. “Why?”
“Thought one of the slats on his blinds was lifted.”
“His car isn’t here,” I said as my focus went to the condo beside mine, which looked like it did every other day. “The blinds aren’t even moving.”
Gray didn’t respond or look away from the condo for nearly a minute before sighing in acknowledgment.
“Look, I know you’re waiting for him to give you a reason to fight him, but I’m telling you, he’s harmless. I put him in the middle of us when I shouldn’t have, but the only faults you’re going to find with him are that he’s extremely nice and a little awkward.”
“He doesn’t have a problem with repeatedly asking you out,” Gray mumbled as he finally reversed out of the spot and started driving away.
“I said he was awkward,” I reminded him bluntly, “not afraid of me.”
Gray just grunted in response, then released a conceding breath when I twisted in the seat so I was facing him again, waiting expectantly.
“I made it clear we were married, and he was still there this morning,” he explained, his gaze briefly flashing my way. “Standing with you. Trying to protect youfromme. I’m allowed to hate the guy.”
I let my own hum respond for me and sat in the clashing emotions that rose up. One side relishing in the wings flutteringin my stomach over this jealous side of Hudson Gray. The other bristling at the thought of anyone protecting me when I’d always protected myself.
“If it helps at all, I’d just told him that I’d lied to him—that you were actually my husband,” I offered on a sigh. The corner of my mouth twitched when Gray’s eyebrow ticked up. “But then he pointed out that we don’t live together and asked if I was afraid of you and if I was safe...right before you showed up.”
At that, Gray’s chest pitched as a smile stole across his face, forcing those dimples to make an appearance. “How has he missed that you’re terrifying in your own right?” he mumbled before putting the full force of that heart-melting smile on me.
