"You're being difficult again."
He nudged my nose with his, his lips only a breath away from mine. "I'm always difficult. You know that."
"At least you can admit it."
He chuckled, the sound low and deep.
And then he kissed me.
Just... kissed me.
Like it was normal.
Like the dreams we shared translated smoothly and easily into the real world.
Like it wasn't my first kiss, on top of the first time I'd evernotfelt overwhelmed. Like being fated mates meant something to him. Like he wanted me in reality as much as he did in my dreams.
He parted my lips immediately, and the soft, desperate sound that escaped me at the taste and feel of him was anything other than intentional.
Grayson's grip on my hair tightened as he pulled me closer, deepening the kiss. Our mouths moved and our tongues danced, and it was so similar to my dreams, but so different, too. So real.
He was warm.
His hands were hot.
His taste waseverything. Mint and lust andGrayson.
I was lost in the sensations of his mouth and body against mine in a way I could never have imagined an hour earlier.
When he pulled away, I groaned at the loss of him.
His mouth moved down my throat with slow, hot kisses, and his fingers brushed the bottom hem of my bra. The touch wasn'tscandalous, but my body still throbbed with need at that small, simple bit of contact. The question was silent, but it was there.
"Take it off," I breathed.
I was supposed to be having a conversation with him. That was the plan.
But maybe it could wait.
Grayson slowly tugged my bra over my head, and I lowered my eyes to his hands as he cupped my heavy breasts. My breathing hitched, my heartbeat picking up as he dragged his thumbs over my nipples.
It felt so good, it was surreal.
Real world sex might actually bebetterthan dream sex.
How was that even possible? I'd thought the dreams were a fantasy, an unrealistic experience, an exaggeration—but there was no mistaking the pleasure and need and wildness that rolled through me at the feel of his hands on me like that.
"Seal the bond with me," Grayson murmured.
I slowly escaped the heat of the moment and processed what he'd just said.
Seal the bond.
He was touching me... because he wanted me to agree to seal the bond?
What the actual fuck?
"Are you trying to use sex to get what you want from me?" I asked, grabbing his wrists and pulling his hands away from my breasts.
