Page 26 of Broken Strings

"Fuck," he growls, yanking me into his arms.

I collide with the hard wall of his chest, clinging. "Why did I let them take you?" I whimper against his skin. "I felt you, Grayson.The whole damn time, I felt you. But I still let my dad talk me into declaring you dead."

"You didn't know," he breathes, burying his hands in my hair to press his forehead to mine. "You didn't know."

"I should have," I whisper, my throat raw.

"And I should have known you were real, that you were waiting for me," he whispers back. "We can't go back and redo it, sweetheart. We've already lost six fucking years. Our daughter has lost six years. I'm not ready to give up another day. Another minute. We've got to let it go. It's the only way forward."

He's right. I know he's right.

"Then help me," I plead quietly. "I need your skin on my skin. I need your hands on my body. Put us back together, Grayson. Please."

He exhales a shuddering breath, hesitating. My heart clenches, threatening to crack in half. He's going to deny me. He still doesn't understand how much I need this. How much I believe him. How desperately I've always loved him. I've fucked up so badly that he thinks I'll regret it. That I don't know what I wa—

"Fuck," he groans, his mouth crashing down on mine as he yanks me flush against his trembling body.

I sob in relief, in ecstasy, kissing him back with everything I have. It's intense hunger, two starving souls finding their way back to one another after a lifetime apart. We nip and bite and fall into one another, pressing closer, closer…until every inch of space between us is demolished and every breath I take is full of him, and his are full of me.

And it's still not enough.

I need him all over me, inside me. Until I can't remember what it feels like to be without him. I've been so empty, so lonely for so damn long. He's the only one who can fix it. He's always been the only one capable of feeding this hunger. I belong to him, body and soul. I have from the very first day I saw him standing in theliving room, laughing with my dad. I knew then and there that he was my future.

He's still my future. Somehow, despite everything, he's here now. My prayers were answered.

"Need to see you," he rumbles, his hand slipping beneath my shirt. "Every goddamn inch, baby. I have to touch you. Kiss you. Christ, I need to feel you all over me."

"Then touch me," I whisper. "Kiss me. You can have whatever you want. I'm yours, Grayson."

His minty breath washes across my face as he exhales before pulling back. His eyes lock with mine as he fists his hands into the sides of my shirt, slowly tugging it up my body. I shiver as his knuckles graze my sides.

We lose eye contact momentarily as he lifts it over my head. It slithers to the floor at my feet as his eyes come back to mine. The heat banked in them steals my breath.

I reach behind me, unhooking my bra.

Like my shirt, it lands at our feet.

Still, he keeps his eyes on my face, his gaze not deviating.

"Look at me, Grayson. Touch me."

"Not yet. Not until you're naked, baby." He swallows. "I'm greedy like that, you know. I want every inch of you at once."

I smile, my heart fluttering. He's always been greedy like that. Even when we were trying to hide from my dad, he'd strip me bare before he fucked me. He needed to see every inch of me, needed to worship every part of me. He didn't want anything standing between the two of us. He just wanted me.

I kick my heels off, hooking my fingers into the waistband of my skirt. And then I pause, cocking my head to the side. "Do I get to see all of you too?"

"Eventually." His eyes practically glow. "But if I take these jeans off right now, I'll be coming all over those pretty little titsas soon as I see them, Mina. You know I will because you'll have my cock in your hand as soon as you can make it happen."

My lips tip up at the corners. "Remember that, do you?"

"Oh, I've remembered a helluva lot since I saw you standing in the front row," he practically purrs. "Now, why don't you slip that little skirt off and let me see how well I remembered it, baby?"

"Okay, just…Grayson?" I swallow nervously. "My body isn't what you remember. It changed after…well…after everything." I shrug helplessly. "Pregnancy does that, I guess."

"You're even more beautiful now than you were back then, Mina. You carried our daughter. You nourished her. You kept her alive and safe, even when your world was falling apart." His expression is soft, full of awe as he holds my gaze. "You think I'll ever be able to look at you and not want to worship at your feet for what you did for our little girl? Hell no, sweetheart. Every goddamn spot you view as an imperfection is one more spot I'm going to cherish."

"Grayson," I whisper, my eyes watery again.