Page 89 of Holding Grace

Focusing hard, I tried again. Breathe in, breathe out. In...

Grace shifted again. Her shirt rode up a little more, leaving my hand resting fully on the bare skin of her abdomen, my thumb mere inches from the soft underside of her breast.

I was dying. I was fucking dying. Any minute now I was going to burst into flames and burn to ashes within seconds.

Desperate, I tried to talk myself down. Grace was my friend. She didn’t come in here for this.

Either my body wasn’t getting the memo, or it had decided that the memo could fuck right off. Whatever. Either way, I could only lay there helpless as my dick swelled harder and harder.

I tried to ease my hips back a fraction – something, anything to keep a little distance between me and Grace. I thought I’d done it, and she’d finally settled, when suddenly she scooted directly back into full contact with me.

I held my breath, waiting for her to freak out or pull away when she felt my erection, but she did neither of those things.

When she arched back into me, I couldn’t hold back a grunt from the wave of sensation that hit me. I clamped down tight on Grace’s hip, holding her in place so she couldn’t move anymore.

“Grace,” I ground out, “we need to change positions.” Not that any position would be easy but having her firm little ass pressed against me was unbearable.

“I don’t want to.” Grace swiveled her hips back into mine the tiny bit she was able to, and I clamped my arm around her tighter.

“Gracie, fuck.” I swallowed hard, resting my forehead against her hair as my entire body shuddered with the strain of staying still and holding back. “You know I’ll give you anything but holding you like this and not touching you or being inside you is killing me. If you don’t want anything more to happen tonight, we need to move.”

“What if I do want more to happen?”

A bolt of heat streaked through me at her words. I didn’t think it was possible to get any harder, but I was wrong. I held her tight and breathed, trying to muster the brain cells to form words.

Did she still see this as a way to pay me back? I hated that thought, but in reality, it no longer made a difference. If she was willing, if she wanted this, I had no defense against her.

“I need you to be sure, Grace. If we do this and you regret it, it will wreck me.” I’d never been so vulnerable with a woman as I was in that moment. “If you’re not sure you want this – want me – we can’t do this.”

“Let me loose, Michael.”

There was my answer. I should be grateful I’d asked the question and made Grace make a decision, but I wasn’t.

A small part of me died as I forced myself to do as she asked and let her go. I braced myself for her to leave my bed and walk away from me, fighting the urge to pull her back against me.

Then she surprised me. Instead of leaving, she turned to face me, holding my face in her hands and looking directly in my eyes.

“I want this, only with you. I haven’t been so sure of something in a long, long time.”

The words were barely out of her mouth when I leaned into her, my mouth covering hers.

Maybe I should have questioned her more, made sure she was ready, but I couldn’t. I’d waited too long to have her. I’d reached the limits of my control.

I rolled her onto her back, tangling one hand in her hair while I ravaged her mouth, careful to keep my full weight off her as I skimmed my other hand down her body. She looped her arms around my neck, pulling me into her as she kissed me back.

She moved, tunneling her hands under my shirt until I sat back and pulled it over my head. I ran one hand through my hair as she stared at me, her hungry eyes racing over my upper body.

“Keep looking at me like that and you might get more than you bargained for.”

“I don’t know.” Her eyes slipped down my body and landed on the outline of my erection where it tented my gym shorts. “I’m bargaining for a lot.”

I caught her hand as she reached for me, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Then that’s what you’ll get. Your turn.”

I pulled her up to sit and she held her arms up for me as I stripped off her shirt. I laid her back down and it was my turn to stare.

“I’ve imagined this a thousand times. Seeing you like this.” My voice was rough, almost harsh. It didn’t even sound like me. “But you’re so much more beautiful than I ever dreamed.”

Grace lay still, making no attempt to cover herself as she stared back at me. “So are you. I want to see all of you, Michael.”