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“Grayson’s parents taught us how to swing dance because they used to dance together in the kitchen all the time.”

“That’s so cute,” Farrah says.

“Their relationship has always been the gold standard for me,” I say. Not even my parents had as good a relationship as David and Caroline.

As I have that thought, it makes me wonder if I stayed in my marriage with Chris far longer than I should’ve because I didn’t want to be the one who gave up. Anytime I asked Caroline about how she and David made their marriage work so well, she always told me it took a lot of work and a conscious choice to stay even when it’s hard.

I understand now that both people in the relationship have to want to stay, not just one, but I think I had it in my head that if I just tried a little harder, Chris would want to work on our marriage too. Boy, how wrong I was.

“I feel that way about Holt’s parents. Raising six boys without going crazy? They’re superhuman,” Gia teases.

“Hey, we weren’t that bad,” Holt argues.

Knox scoffs at the same time as Gray snorts. It sends the whole table into laughter. Emmett, Gwen, and Willa show up with another round of drinks in hand, and the rest of the night is spent laughing until our faces hurt.

Gray only has a couple of beers, saying he doesn’t want a repeat of the last time we went out together. He drank enough to drown a fish, which led to him falling asleep on my shoulder on the drive home. Then when we got to his house, he threw up all over his front yard. The next morning, he had the hangover to beat all hangovers and couldn’t remember a single thing that had happened after we got home. The poor guy was miserable.

Grayson pulls me out on the floor for one more dance to end the night. It’s a slow one, so we keep things simple, moving around the other couples with gentle steps. I can’t stop staring up at him. Those deeply familiar blue eyes hold my gaze as sure as the sun rises in the east.

I’ve never wanted a man to kiss me this badly. My lips are tingling at the thought. All I want to do is press up on my toes and finally learn how his mouth will feel against mine.

The song ends before I can find the courage to follow through.

He leads me back to our table to say goodbye to our friends, and then we’re walking out to his truck.

Neither one of us says a word while he drives home. The silence is heavy when it’s never been a problem before.

He parks in the driveway and escorts me to the front door as if we’ve been on a date tonight. The light on his porch illuminates his thoughtful face. He’s so in his head that I could probably strip naked and he wouldn’t notice.

I stop him with a hand on his arm before he can walk inside. It jolts him out of his thoughts, and he finally looks at me.

“Are you gonna kiss me or not?” I blurt. I don’t even know why I said it that way. I’d planned to ask him if he wanted more than just friendship, but I guess I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him kissing me since we danced to that last song.

Grayson blinks. Once. Twice. Until finally he dives in, gripping my hair in both hands to hold me still.

Then his lips are on mine, and fire explodes through my veins. It consumes me with every press of his mouth. He licks my bottom lip, then uses his teeth to nip at the same spot until my entire body is going up in flames.

He takes advantage of my shock, licking into my mouth. I curl my tongue around his. It elicits a deep groan that vibrates in his chest and sends shivers down my spine.

“Fuck, Ladybug,” he whispers, continuing to sip my mouth. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

“I suspect it’s the same thing you’re doing to me.”

With his hands still in my hair, he pulls back an inch to pierce me with his stormy blue gaze. “You know what this means, right?”

I shake my head.

“You’re mine, Ladybug. I hope you’re prepared because now that I finally have you, I’m never letting you go.”

The possessive growl in his voice should send me running in the opposite direction, but hearing those words out of my best friend’s mouth is everything I’ve ever wanted.

“Take me inside, Grayson.”

CHAPTER 18

Grayson

“Take me inside, Grayson.” Kylie’s husky words send a lightning bolt straight to my cock.