“It doesn’t change a damn thing, Grace. Nothing that has happened changes the way I feel about you. Or the fact that you’re my old lady.”
“King?”
“Yeah, baby?” He looked down at me, and everything I needed to make the decision for us both was there in his eyes.
“Will you kiss me?”
“Baby, you don’t even have to ask.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
Grace
King leaned his head down and took my lips in a slow, searing kiss that made me forget everything but the way he felt against me. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t thinking about what had happened, or who had shown up tonight.
All I thought about, all I felt, was him.
Until he rolled me onto my back. Then my body stiffened. It wasn’t a conscious thing. I didn’t even realize I had done it until King pulled back.
“Grace?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not apologize, baby.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I didn’t want to stop, but I wasn’t sure he would continue. He rolled back over, and I sat up.
“I don’t want to stop. Not yet. I don’t know how far I can go, but I know I want you. I want to feel your lips on mine. I want to run my hands over your warm skin. When you kissed me, everything fell away.” I sniffled. “Everything, King. I want it to disappear again.”
He brought his hands up and locked them behind his head. The feeling of disappointment washed over me, and I dropped my eyes to my lap.
“I’m waiting, baby.”
I snapped my gaze up to his. “What?”
“Use me, Grace. Take what you need from me. I will lie here and let you do as much or as little as you want. You’re in charge, Grace.”
“I can’t...” Could I? I wasn’t a prude, not by any stretch. But I wasn’t the type of person to take charge either. I’d always allowed the man I was with to be in control. Allowed them to give my body the pleasure it craved. I’d never learned how to take.
“I don’t know how.”
“What do you want, Grace?”
I rolled my lips between my teeth. I wanted him. I wanted to feel his lips and hands on me. I wanted to feel him inside me, filling the ache that was there. But the thought of him holding me down, even with his body, terrified me.
“One thing, baby. What do you want?”
“I want you to kiss me.”
“Then come here and kiss me.”
“What?” My brow furrowed. “You have to—”
“I don’t have to do shit, Grace. I told you; you’re in charge. Take what you want from me. I’m yours to use, Grace.”
“But you need...” I couldn’t say it. He knew what he needed. I knew what he needed. He’d put his knee down, and the evidence of what he needed was tenting the blanket.
“What I need is for you to be happy, Grace. I need you to feel safe. I need to love you. I can do that without sex. Until that night when I brought you upstairs, and then in the shower, all I’d had was my hand. And if that’s all I have ever again, I’ll survive. What I don’t want is for you to push yourself too fast because you think I expect it. Or because you think I’ll leave you because of it.”
