Page 20 of Grant’s Blaze

“Nothing’s wrong.” She leaned up and peppered my cheek with fervent kisses. “Not a single thing, my love.”

“Errr…huh?” I muttered.

“I just mean that I’m done fighting this, Grant. I’m done fighting us.” She threaded her slender fingers through my hair, scraping her fingernails along my scalp as she went. Shivers ran up and down my spine—as fireworks and angels chased back and forth through my senses. Yeah, they smashed the neon sign. And no, I didn’t give a fuck.

Barely believing what I’d just heard her say, I whispered, “Rio. Oh. God…”

I pressed my forehead to hers, savoring the seconds in which she held me even tighter. Nothing else came to mind but her name, again and again, like the litany I’d been praying to utter for so long. I couldn’t stop repeating it, as though she would disappear if I stopped calling out to her.

“Rio.” Kiss. “Rio.” Sigh. “Rio.” A kiss, longer and openmouthed, my tongue finding and dancing with hers. “Oh Rio, baby.”

And finally, letting her say something too.

“I was so scared, Grant. So scared you wouldn’t come back to me.”

The frantic race of her words became intense kisses from her gorgeous mouth. She gripped me with violent need, pulling my hair at my nape. It was more than her usual lust, filled with a dark kind of desperation and a needy sort of command. I didn’t mind the extra pricks of pain—to be honest, they were welcome distractions—but I grew concerned by the intuitions from her rising energy. She wasn’t passionate anymore. She seemed…frightened.

“Baby?” I tried to pull back a little. Not very far at all. But she dug in her fingers, forcing my face close.

“No,” she rasped. “No, Grant. Stay with me. Don’t go. Please, don’t—”

“Baby. Hey. I’m not leaving, okay? You couldn’t make me leave if you tried.” I finally made my way to the sofa and lowered to it, not letting up on the cocoon of my arms. She felt so small there. So shivery and frail.

Shit.

That was when the full revelation struck me.

She’d been backsliding. Not to the point that she’d set half the city on fire or anything but enough that her psyche was bruised, her heart unsure. I could feel it as if it was tattooed across her forehead. The ways, small but accumulative, in which she’d abused herself in the days I’d been missing.

Damn it. After all the hard work we’d put in during the cruise.

Well, I was no stranger to hard work. Not doing it myself or delegating it to another. In this case, it was a mix of both. A journey we’d just have to start all over again.

And what better time than now.

With that determination behind my every move, I laid her down beneath me on the sofa. At once, Rio began to soften for me. Expose herself to me. Also at once, I showed her my gratitude for her vulnerability. After bestowing a long, sweet kiss across her mouth, I let my mouth continue on to the delicate skin of her neck. She mewled with delicious abandon as I gently sucked.

“You taste like heaven. I missed this skin.” I kissed her neck again, ending with a little bite. “And yeah, these lips.” I moved back to her mouth, kissing her again, but pulled back when she clutched me and tried to deepen things. When she whimpered again, this time with urgent protest, I chuckled. “Greedy little kitty. Patience, patience. I’m worshipping you, woman. Just enjoy it.”

“Can’t,” my beautiful girl whined. “I want all of you right now. I don’t want to wait. I’ve been waiting for too long.”

I didn’t give her a laugh, soft or otherwise, for that one. Instead, I slid to my knees alongside the sofa. She cried out again, but there was method to my madness. I wanted to survey her entire body, reacquainting myself with all its mystery and angles, stretched out before me. “Hmm. Now, look at this gorgeous little girl who needs worshipping.”

“Well, you got the need part right.”

As I soaked up every drop of her adoring gaze, I took on new strength. Fresh desire. And even better, a surge of something that felt like…me. The man I used to be. The lover who reveled in a mantle of complete control…

Especially when it was given by a formidable female like my Rio.

“So…which end should I start with?” I tapped my chin with my forefinger in playful contemplation. “I think I need a solid plan here…”

“Grant!” She squirmed like a kitten batting at a yarn ball. “Come on! Please.”

“Please what, baby?” I crooked my finger, turning the movement into a slow and elegant tease. She nearly undid me by licking her lips, but that shit was on me. I was extending this fun foreplay, not her. “What do you want me to do?” I murmured then. Having to focus on words was always a good way of setting boundaries for the gang below my belt. At least for now.

“I—I don’t know. Just something other than sitting there, looking at me like I’m a Playstation on Christmas morning.”

I chuckled. It just couldn’t be helped. “Rio Gibson, you are better than a thousand Christmas mornings.”