Authors: Kristen Ashley
Still grinning, Gray shifted, rolling us so I was on my back and he was on top of me, doing this muttering, “Gonna look forward to that.”
“You might find it unattractive,” I told him honestly and I hid it but to me, fearfully.
He stopped grinning and locked his eyes with mine.
Then he said, “Dollface, you in your fancy-ass red getup with your smooth operator that no one in a million years would believe is gay, your humongous bodyguard and your shiny Lincoln, rollin’ through Mustang, kickin’ ass and takin’ names in a classy way happened yesterday and it’s already lore. I had so many fuckin’ phone calls, from Janie, Shim, Stacy, Sonny, Ang, describin’ that shit in detail I had to turn off my phone. Yesterday, you were hell on wheels
for me.
This is not news. And I do not find it unattractive. And if shit goes down I’m gonna look forward to you rollin’ that out to have my back.”
Oh. Well then.
That was good.
“Okay,” I whispered then smiled at Gray.
Gray didn’t smile back.
Instead he asked, “You really movin’ to Mustang?”
“Yes,” I answered immediately.
“You’re movin’ to Mustang.”
“Yes, Gray.”
He stared at me.
Then he whispered, “My girl’s movin’ back to Mustang.”
Damn it all to hell!
My eyes again got wet and I whispered back, “Yes, Gray.”
He held my eyes and murmured, “Don’t cry, Ivey.”
I took in a trembling breath and murmured back, “Okay, Gray.”
He drew in a breath too. Then his eyes dropped to my mouth.
I knew what that meant.
And Gray gave me what it meant.
Five minutes later, arms locked around each other, lips locked together, tongues dancing, heart rates escalating, a knock came at the door.
Gray’s mouth broke from mine and his eyes went to the door.
“Lash,” I whispered and his eyes came back to me.
Then he touched his lips to mine, rolled off me and the bed, grabbed his tee from the floor and strode to the door pulling it on.
I watched uncertain if I should aim my eyes at his shoulders, his back or his ass.
I picked his ass.
He opened the door and I heard Lash say quietly, “I got a room, my man, but I need my shit. Gave you time. Hope it was enough.”
“It was enough,” Gray replied, opening the door and stepping aside.
Lash stepped in as I moved off the bed, my eyes on him.
His eyes came to me and he stopped. Gray closed the door and I moved but Lash didn’t.
He was worried I’d be pissed.
I smiled at him so he’d know I wasn’t. Over the years he gave me a lot and a couple of hours ago he set about giving me everything. How could I be pissed about that?
Lash smiled back, relief in his.
Seeing that, I stopped walking and ran.
He caught me in his arms and mine closed around him tight.
Face in his neck, I held him tighter then I moved my mouth to his ear and whispered, “Thank you, honey.”
His arms gave me a squeeze and he replied in a whisper, “Anything for you, babe. Anything.”
“I love you, Lash.”
“I know, babe.”
That was when I burst into tears.
Yes, again.
Two seconds later, Lash transferred me into Gray’s arms and Gray held me close as Lash wandered around the room packing.
“She do this a lot?” Gray asked, one arm tight around me, one hand sifting through my hair.
“Oh yeah, usually about you, though, never about me,” Lash answered, sounding amused.
“Told me she’s hard as nails,” Gray shared, still holding me close, hand sifting through my hair.
At that, it was Lash who burst out laughing.
Jeez.
I pulled my face out of Gray’s chest, dashed a hand across my wet cheeks and snapped, “I am!”
It was then, both of them burst out laughing.
Now I was getting mad.
“I’m a hard as nails, badass Vegas showgirl who’s been around the block,” I declared.
“Okay, babe, keep tellin’ yourself that,” Lash muttered, shoving underwear in his bag, grinning.
Right.
Whatever.
I pulled out of Gray’s arms and looked up at him.
“Have you had dinner?”
He looked down at me, dimple out which made my irritation vanish but I didn’t let on.
“No,” he answered.
“Do you want room service?”
“Yeah.”
I looked to Lash. “Do you want to join us?”
Lash looked to me then to Gray then smiled huge and answered, “Fuck no.”
“You’re welcome,” I told him.
“I’m not,” he told me.
“But –”
“Babe, you love me, I get that. But your man does not want me here and I orchestrated this so I’m cool with bein’ kicked out. Reunite. Enjoy it. You deserve it.” He came to me, wrapped his hand around the back of my head, kissed the top then he let me go and stepped back. “Me and Freddie’ll see you two at breakfast.”
Then he walked into the bedroom area and disappeared into the bathroom.
I looked to Gray and whispered, “You could have made him feel welcome to have dinner with us.”
“Dollface, no way in
hell
he’s welcome to have dinner with us,” Gray whispered back.
I glared at him thinking he was probably right.
“Baby, come here,” Gray ordered. “You’re too far away.”
“I’m two feet away.”
“Ivey, for seven years you’ve been two states away. You’re too far away. Come here.”
My heart swelled, my belly curled in a really nice way and I went there.
And when I got there I found he was again right.
Really
right.
And when I made it the two steps to him, I was right.
Right where I wanted to be, right where I belonged.
Held tight against the long, lean frame of Grayson Cody.
* * * * *
My head pressed back into the pillows as it washed over me.
At the same time, Gray shoved his face in my neck and I heard it come over him.
We came simultaneously; we’d never done that before.
It was brilliant.
The fingers of both his hands were laced through mine, holding them over my head pressed into the pillow. He was buried deep and staying right there. My legs were up, knees bent, thighs tucked deep to his sides.
We said nothing, just came down, joined, close, holding hands, tucked tight, Gray’s breath drifting against my neck, mine his shoulder. We needed no words, we’d had them, we’d need more but not now. Now was about what he’d just given me, I’d just given him, both at the same time, our bodies as close as they could be, our fingers laced, sharing space, breath, a bed, our time, our lives.
What we should have had for seven years, this, more of Gray’s dimple, his laughter, maybe children, creating a family.
We felt it, both of us, I knew it. I knew it was searing through his mind too. We took that moment after being found again to experience the loss, mourn it so we could let it go.
I loved him then and now so desperately, it hurt. But if what happened didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have Lash, I wouldn’t have Freddie. It sucked I couldn’t just have it all without the pain in between but I’d learned life didn’t have that in store for me and I wasn’t a victim, life didn’t give that to anybody.
But I had it all now.
All of it.
Everything.
Then Gray’s lips moved to my ear and he whispered, “Say you love me, Ivey.”
Yep. I had it all.
Everything.
My fingers squeezed his hands and I whispered back, “I love you, Gray.”
I felt his sigh on my neck.
Then he said softly, “You gotta clean up, okay but come back to this bed in that nightie but no panties.”
We weren’t done.
Yippee!
“We’re not going to sleep?” I asked to confirm.
“Yeah, we are.”
Oh. Bummer.
Gray kept talking.
“But when I wake up, be it morning or middle of the night, I don’t want anything in my way that wastes my time.”
Brilliant.
I grinned.
He kissed my neck, pulled out and rolled off me.
I rolled into him, kissed his chest then rolled off the bed and did what I was told.
Back in bed, tucked tight to Gray’s side, my arm around his gut, my head on his shoulder, my leg tangled in his, he’d pulled my nightie up to my waist so his hand was cupping the bare cheek of my ass and my eyes were drifting closed when Gray called, “Ivey.”
“Yeah, baby,” I answered sleepily.
“Thank you for takin’ care of Gran and savin’ my land.”
My eyes shot open.
“Pay you back,” he went on.
“Gray –” I started also starting to lift my head but his other hand came up, fingers in my hair cupping the side and he held it down.
“Not with money, baby, but swear to Christ, by the time you leave this earth, you’ll feel I paid you back.”
I started deep breathing.
Gray asked, “You gonna start bawlin’?”
“Maybe,” I whispered, that one word trembling.
“Shit,” he muttered.
That was when the tears stopped threatening and I grinned.
Then I pressed deeper.
Gray’s hand slid through my hair then went away.
“Love you, honey,” he whispered.
“Love you too, baby,” I whispered back.
“’Night.”
“Goodnight.”
And shortly after, my eyes drifted closed and it was.
A very good night.
No Stone Unturned
Lash Caldiwell
After breakfast with Cody and Ivey, Lash and Freddie were coming back from the gym after working and they both saw them. Fifteen feet ahead standing at the glass doors that led to the attractively landscaped pool.
And they both stopped.
Ivey was wearing a slightly see-through silk robe Lash bought her, its glimmer was bronze. Under it, a gold bikini.
Cody wearing his jeans, boots and gray t-shirt from yesterday.
He had his hand light on her hip, his other hand was bunching her hair at the back of her neck, his neck was bent, his lips on hers.
She was leaned partially into him, up on her toes in her muted bronze, slim strapped Havianna flip-flips, the swirly pattern visible on the soles. Her hand was to his abs, her other hand curled around the side of his neck.
Something happened and the kiss changed. Cody touched his tongue to her lips or Ivey hers to his or just the fact hit them that they were together, close, reunited after seven years of heartbreak.
So they forgot where they were.
Cody’s hand slid from her hip back and down to cup her ass. Ivey’s hand slid from his neck up and into his hair. Her body pressed close, she got up on the tips of her toes and her hand at his abs became an arm tight around his back. Both their heads slid into deeper slants. Their mouths were open and the kiss turned visibly carnal.
“Fuck me, seein’ that I see now you were never in there,” Freddie muttered at his side and Lash grinned. He and Ivey were openly affectionate but they never made out and certainly not in a public corridor by the pool of an exclusive hotel spa in the Colorado plains. “Watch that shit any longer, I’ll need a cold shower,” Freddie kept muttering.
Freddie was not wrong. Lash was gay but
that
could turn pretty much anyone on.
The kiss ended in a way it was obvious neither participant wanted it to end. Freddie and Lash didn’t move as, lips nearly touching, Cody and Ivey whispered to each other. Cody smiled, Ivey returned it, he touched his mouth to hers, gave her a squeeze then he lifted his lips and kissed her forehead.
Then he let her go and she turned to the doors to the pool. She threw a beaming, radiant smile over her shoulder at Cody then sashayed toward the pool deck.
Lash Caldiwell knew who he was and how he was for a very long time. But that didn’t mean watching Ivey Larue’s ass swaying in bikini bottoms didn’t remind him that more than once in the seven years he knew her that he considered switching sides.
Lash took his eyes from his friend and they went to Cody and he remembered instantly which side he was on.
He also saw that Cody was watching Ivey walk to the pool too. Lash’s view of him was only a hint of his profile, Cody’s head turned mostly away, but even that showed pain.
Lash barely knew the man but he knew and loved Grayson Cody’s woman. For Ivey Larue there was one man on earth for her. Seeing Cody now, that expression on his face, loss close to the surface, Lash knew with no doubt there was one woman on earth for him.
The burn he’d been fighting anytime over the last day that he thought about what was done to them fired in his chest.
He beat it back when Cody turned and started walking their way. He caught sight of them and jerked up his chin.
Lash returned the gesture, Freddie probably did too.
You loved Ivey, you saw those two together, even for a second, they won you over. It was the simple matter of fact that, at a glance, you knew they belonged together.
That said, Lash had thought that it would take Cody some effort to win over Freddie who was arguably more protective of Ivey than Lash. An occupational hazard, he’d seen many men eyeing her, he’d warned others off, he’d stepped up for her frequently, he’d had her back for six years.
But he accepted Cody easily.
Lash knew what it was. That beaming, radiant smile.
Ivey was happy.
That was all it took.
Cody stopped at them. “Gotta get back to Mustang. Got shit to do. Ivey says you guys are leavin’ tonight. She wants us all to have dinner. Know a place, I’ll call for reservations.” One side of his lips twitched and he said, “Warnin’, won’t be fancy.”
“Food good?” Freddie asked and Cody looked at him.
“Yep.”
“Works for me,” Freddie muttered and both sides of Cody’s lips twitched.
Then his amusement fled and his gaze slid between both Lash and Freddie.
“You got time before I leave, I need it. Shit you need to know.”
Lash went alert as he felt Freddie do the same.
“Do we need privacy?” Lash asked and Cody studied him before he looked over his shoulder toward the pool.