He’d keep me safe. He’d alwayskept me safe.
“So that means I get to takeyou to bed, right?” I asked, already fantasizing about how nice it was going tobe to curl up beside him tonight.
And tomorrow night.
And maybe the night afterthat, too. If he’d stay.
I was starting to think hewould.
“One thing at a time,” Graymurmured, nuzzling my neck before pulling back. I wondered if his nose hurt andhe was just ignoring it, or if it really hadn’t been that big a deal. I guessedI’d find out in the morning, when the bruise bloomed. “Get your hair wet. Timeto clean you up.”
“What?”
“Get your hair wet,” Grayrepeated. “You want the head massage of your life, or not?”
I did. I definitely wantedthat. But I was so confused.
“I thought we were in herefor sex,” I said, since that was true. Why else had Gray helped me strip offand followed me into the shower?
Gray chuckled. “Later. Let metake care of you first?”
Let me take care of youfirst.
Before sex. Maybe eveninsteadofsex, though I was kind of hoping that wouldn’t turn out to be the case.I wanted Gray.
But if he was volunteeringto wash my hair…
Laughter echoed off the tiledwalls before I could eventhinkabout stopping it. Not that I wanted to.
Gray wanted to wash my hair.For me. Just because.
That had never happenedbefore in my entire life.
“Is this what having a realboyfriend is like?” I asked, wonder settling over me. Gray wanted totake care of me.
Really take care of me. Inexactly the way I needed.
“Dunno,” Gray said. “But Iwas kinda hoping we could find out together. Y’know. If you were interested insomething like that?”
My stomach swooped at thethought. Gray wanted to be myboyfriend.
Exchanging I-love-yous hadbeen one thing, but those were just feelings. Feelings we couldn’t escape from.
What he was saying now wasdifferent. It was about having something real, something beautiful between thetwo of us.
Neither of us had had a lotof luck dating, but…
If I was going to try itagain, I wanted it to be with Gray.
“Yes.” I nodded, turningaround to face him, meeting the deep blue of his gaze and holding it for longmoments. Blood rushed in my ears, my heart beating so fast I was almost afraidof passing out.
“I want that,” I clarified. “I’mvery interested in trying something like that.”
The prettiest smile I’d ever seenspread across Gray’s face.
“Good,” he murmured,eyelashes lowering as he swooped in, threading his fingers through my hair andpressing our lips together under the spray of the shower.
It wasn’tquitea big reunionkiss in the rain, but it had two benefits—firstly, it wasn’t nearly ascold, and secondly, we were both already naked.
