“It’s no fucking excuse. I’d spent days with you, had already gotten to know you and experienced your sweetness. Not one bit of you is manipulative or unkind. You are so good, Westin. So, so good.”
I blinked quickly, emotion rising in my throat as Gray spoke the words I so desperately wished to hear.
“I can’t get you out of my mind. Even when I sleep, my dreams are filled with you, and I never want it to stop. I wantto be the one by your side, supporting you, protecting you.” He leaned in so our faces were almost touching.
His words were a dream, but I couldn’t forget the pain he’d caused me, the despair I’d felt when he’d looked at me like I was trash.
“You really hurt me.” My lip trembled even though I tried to stop it. God, I felt so weak right now.
“I know, princess.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I will regret that until the day I die.”
“You’re still calling me princess.” I pulled away from him. “Is that because you think I’m spoiled?”
“I’m fucking all this up.” Gray ran his hand through his hair so the ends stood up. “I’m calling you princess because youdeserveto be spoiled. Not because you are. It fucking kills me that you let yourself stay at home in the dark instead of asking for help.”
Tears dripped down my cheeks. “I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”
Gray’s expression was one of anguish. Just then, my stomach rumbled embarrassingly loudly. His eyes softened. “You need to eat, and I need to explain myself.”
He picked me up, my arms and legs automatically going around him. It felt so right being in his arms, and it scared the shit out of me. I had barely survived his rejection the first time, and I knew I wouldn’t again.
“Are the others asleep?” he asked as he sat me on the kitchen counter. I wiggled so the oversized shirt I was wearing—one of Liam’s—was covering my ass.
I nodded. “I guess I tired them out.”
“Amateurs,” he scoffed as he started pulling food out of the fridge, and I couldn’t stop my grin.
“Are you going to cook for me?” I asked, unable to stop the flutter in my belly at the thought of my alpha—well,analpha—taking care of me like this.
“Don’t sound so shocked.” He put the eggs down on the counter and rounded on me, pressing his hands to my bare thighs. “I want to spend the rest of my life taking care of you.”
I shifted with discomfort. “Gray, you can’t say things like that.”Because I want them to be true.
He pressed the softest kiss to my lips before pulling back. “Can I tell you a bit about my past? It’s not an excuse for how I treated you, but maybe it will help make some sense of it.”
I nodded, fidgeting with the edge of Liam’s shirt, breathing in his honey scent that still clung to it.
Gray started preparing the food, heating oil over a skillet and chopping potatoes.
“Can I do something to help?” I asked.
He glanced up at me, a small smile tugging at his lips. “No, princess. You sit there and let me take care of you.”
I blushed before forcing a scowl onto my face. “Start talking.”
He nodded, taking a deep breath as he decided where to begin. “I guess I’ll start with growing up. My family lived a couple of hours from here in a small town. I had three close friends through elementary and middle school, and we all revealed as alphas in the same week of high school.”
“That’s a lot of testosterone,” I muttered.
Gray snorted. “It definitely was. But we quickly formed a pack. We all went to college together and then we all started working. We decided we wanted to find an omega and buy a house together.”
“What did you major in?” I asked, unable to curb my curiosity about my mysterious bodyguard.
“I actually majored in security and guarding, believe it or not. There were some alpha-specific majors and I liked fighting andshooting, so it seemed to be a good fit. I started working with a security company after college, but quickly moved into freelance work. I liked the freedom of it.”
Gray was slicing up strawberries and held one up to my lips. I ate it out of his fingers and his eyes flared with heat.
“So what happened?” I asked, trying to distract myself from the heat building in my core.
