Page 79 of Lessons In Grey

After a while, I looked over, and as if he felt it, his eyes found mine.

What do you need?They seemed to ask.

I inhaled and exhaled, taking him in. From where his legs stretched out before him to how his hand gripped the shifter and the wheel. I wanted to be held.

My eyes lifted back to his.

I don’t know how he saw it, but he did.

Grey turned on the clicker and pulled over to the nearest curb, shifting the car into park.

I unbuckled and carefully began to crawl over, setting the box in my seat as soon as there was room.

It was hard and painful, climbing onto his lap, settling into him, my knees on either side of him, but eventually, we got comfortable.

He stroked my back a few times as I leaned into his chest before he shifted into gear and eased back into traffic.

I closed my eyes and listened to his heartbeat for the rest of the drive, urging the feel of his euphoria to heal that shattered piece of me I couldn’t reach.

20

Emily

November 3rd, 2021

Physical touch. I wasn’t sure when it had become so important to me. But somewhere between July 7thand this car ride, it was as if I couldn’t breathe without it.

I had to hand it to Grey though. He was so goddamn comfortable. Everything about the way he held me, touched me, made me believe with everything I was that he wanted it too.

I felt the moment the car shut off, and I felt the way my body tightened around his. There was nothing sexual about this, but it could have turned that way had I pushed it.

Part of me wanted too. Part of me wanted to grind my hips in a certain way, make him understand that I needed him right now, in this moment, but another part of me knew that he would have said no.

As much as he had been teasing me relentlessly over the lastmonth and a half, he had also made it very clear over the span of these weeks that he was waiting for something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew he wouldn’t find it today.

Which was fine. I’d probably feel like shit afterwards if we did it now.

His arms slid around me carefully but tightly, and he kissed my head gently. “We’re here, Snowflake.”

I sniffed, opening my eyes to stare out of the passenger side window, seeing the people walking up and down the sidewalk, staring at the car. “Do you get all of your windows tinted like this?” I asked quietly.

He kissed my head again. “Yes. Nobody needs to see what’s happening inside the car.”

I frowned and slowly, painfully, pushed myself back until I could meet his eyes.

His eyes flicked to my lips as he reached up, carefully wiping away the tears that had fallen during the drive. “People know our names, but they don’t know what we look like. More often than not, we wear masks, but the moment we get into our vehicles, we’re supposed to be able to drop our persona and settle into our reality. The tint allows that.”

My brows pulled together as my hand slid to his chest. “A metaphorical mask?”

He smiled. “A real one.”

I sat back on his knees. “You wear actual masks?”

“Sometimes we need to do jobs that require going to gatherings or galas. We need the anonymity, so yes, we wear masks. If we didn’t, the moment we walked into a gala, everyone would know why we were there.”

I couldn’t make my brain understand what was happening. “But aren’t most criminals at least a little smart? Once they know your name, they could just look you up, couldn’t they?” I straightened. “Is Greyson Navarro even your real name?”

Light danced in his eyes. “It’s not the one I was born with, no,that name is dead. You’d be surprised how many people don’t care enough to look, and those that do, it’s easy enough for Jack to fix those issues. Even if he couldn’t, which there are some cases when he can’t, Malachi is a terrifying enough person to keep them from doing something stupid.”