Chapter 44 Jaxon

Halfway through my law class, my phone went off, alerting me to a text message. Flushing with embarrassment at being glared at by the professor, I fumbled for my phone to silence it, quickly noting that the text was from Grayce.
Can we talk?
Hiding my phone shamelessly near my crotch, I texted her back, unable to wait until class was dismissed.
Yes.
Come 2 my place after school.
I slipped my phone into my back pocket, ignoring Tyler’s curious stare-down next to me. I had no intention of letting him in on my business, not after the drama between him and Grayce. This was something I needed to do on my own, without the help of my trusty asshole sidekick, who was more ass than he was helpful. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
When class ended, I couldn’t escape quickly enough. Tyler was hot on my heels, cat-calling the freshmen girls in their mini-skirts and halter tops as we walked by them.
“Hey, we have a game on Thursday,” Tyler said. His tone had changed a little bit, as if he was now walking on eggshells and speaking to someone with a mental disability. “Are you going to come to watch?”
“I, uh … I’ll think about it, man,” I said, but I was lying. Football was the last thing on my mind for the first time in a very long time. And honestly, I didn’t care who won. Not even a little bit. My focus was on slightly more pressing matters at the moment.
“I have somewhere to be,” I said and fist-bumped Tyler. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Sure thing, man,” Tyler said, and I had to try and ignore the suspicious look he gave me as I walked away and headed towards Grayce’s house.
It was a rare occurrence that I had been this nervous seeing a girl, especially a girl like Grayce Harrison. I felt intimidated, a bit guarded, and unable to cope with the thought that she could push me away for good and that I would never see or hear from her again. The scene from last night had been playing in my head every hour. I’d spent all night going over it in my head, wondering how I could have approached it differently, envisioning what it would have felt like had she kissed me back.
When I got to the house, I stood hesitating on the front steps, tempted to turn around and go home so I wouldn’t have to face what I thought was coming. She would ream me, no doubt, make it clear how inappropriate it had been for me to try and kiss her last night. Why she insisted on doing it again was beyond me; I thought she’d made herself damn clear when it had happened.
I was about to chicken out and go home when the front door opened, and Grayce appeared. She wore sweats and a tank top, her brown hair clipped in a messy bun at the top of her head. Her skin was makeup-free, freckles glowing on her skin without anything to cover them up. She was Grayce, just the awkward girl I’d met in the bar an eternity ago; the same girl I had to carry home the night we met, the woman I’d laid into bed and bid farewell without ever imagining I’d see her face again. She was just Grayce, and she was exquisite.
“Thank you for coming,” she said and stepped aside to let me in. I hesitated, but only briefly. I still wasn’t sure if I could take another rejection from her.
Grayce shut the door behind us and turned to face me. The house was quiet, so I could only assume that Alex was in class or at work. That was a relief because I was positive I didn’t need an audience for what would happen next.
“I think we need to talk,” Grayce said. She folded her arms across her chest, and for the first time, I noticed that her skin was freckled there, too. Not just on her arms and face, they also dotted her chest, all the way down and probably past the V-neck on her tank top. The very thought of that made my mouth dry, and my hands damp with sweat.
“Grayce,” I said before she could say anything more. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about last night. It was a jerk move, and I don’t know why it happened.”
She kept looking at me. She was silent, which was worse than anything she could have said. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she took a long, deep breath, her chest rising and falling with the movement.
“Would you like a beer?” she said finally.
It took me a moment to decipher what she’d said. I had gone into this expecting something else entirely. She wasn’t smiling, which wasn’t necessarily a great sign, but the mere fact that she hadn’t slapped me across the face yet must have been progress.
“I’ll take a beer,” I said carefully. As Grayce went to the kitchen to grab our drinks, I sat on the couch, feeling oddly out of place. Being at a girl's house was bizarre. Shamefully, they’d always come to me.
“Here,” Grayce handed me a beer bottle and sat on the couch next to me. As we drank in silence, I looked around, admiring the cute, personal touches she and Alex had used to decorate. It was grown-up. Cozy. Very unlike my apartment with the trash and dirty laundry strewn across the floor.
“Grayce,” I said when she didn’t speak for another few minutes. “Why am I here?”
It was a dangerous question, of course, but I was anxious to get to the bottom of this, if only to stop putting off the inevitable rejection deep down I knew it would come. Dragging it out would only make it worse for me if not for her.
The warmth of Grayce’s fingers on my arm startled me to look at her. She turned in my direction, legs tucked beneath her, staring at me with that sincere concern in her eyes, fingers brushing my skin so softly that I wasn’t sure she was touching me.
“Are you okay?” she asked. I reeled that question over in my mind, wondering what to tell her. I was okay. In fact, I was more than okay, but how could I tell her that I was only okay because she was there with me?
“Yes,” I said. I turned my body to face her. From the way she was sitting on the couch next to me, I could see her breasts rise and fall below the open V-neck of her shirt. Those bluish-gray eyes seemed to read straight into my soul as she looked at me. I was an open book in front of this girl, and she knew it.
“Do you want to stay here?” she asked. “You can take the couch if you don’t want to be alone tonight. I don’t want you to be alone.”
“No,” I said, and Grayce looked briefly taken aback.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m sorry, I just figured you wouldn’t mind the company.”
“I don’t want the couch.”
“You don’t want—?” She drew her hand away, sensing she was stumbling into potentially dangerous territory. Before she could withdraw completely, I seized her hand in mine and held it for a moment before bringing it up to my lips. I could see the surprise in Grayce’s face, but she didn’t pull away like I expected her to. She only stared at me, the wheels in her head visibly turning as I kissed her fingers before running my hand slowly from her fingertips up her arm. She shivered, and I felt a zap of excitement shoot up my spine.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said. I took the bottle of beer from her and set both drinks aside before I adjusted myself on the couch, leaning into her, bringing my hand away from her arm to rest it on her hip. Grayce didn't pull away when I leaned in to kiss her again. Instead, her lips met mine in a shocking act of certainty, like every minute before this had inevitably led up to this very moment. Her lips parted slightly, inviting me in, and I slipped my tongue between them, drawing her body to mine.
“Jaxon,” she breathed, and for a perturbing moment, I was sure she would push me away and banish me again. I hesitated, praying she wouldn’t refuse me but knowing damn well that I would go to the ends of the earth for this girl. I would do whatever she wanted or didn’t want.
“Should we stop?” I murmured in her ear. Grayce shook her head and closed her eyes. My hand, which had been caressing the skin on her hip, slid down her thigh and between the soft crevice of her legs. I hesitated again, willing to give her time to change her mind. Instead of saying anything further, however, a soft moan escaped her lips as my hand gently massaged her beneath the pair of fuzzy sweats she wore. She pulled her mouth away from mine, her eyes closing as she pressed herself into me, small gasps escaping the lips that had once swore they hated me. As I massaged her, pleased, she surprised me by reaching her hand down to touch my growing erection getting hard against her leg. She seemed briefly surprised, not expecting she could turn me on so quickly. Granted, I hadn’t been expecting it, either.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said again and then gasped as I took my hand away from the outside of her pants and slipped it back under the elastic. She was wet and warm, and her hips reacted to my fingers' motion inside her.
“Your body tells a different story,” I said, and before she could react, I pushed her onto her back down on the couch and pulled her sweats off, revealing a damp pair of panties and beautifully flushed skin. For a moment, she was shocked, and I could practically see her trying to decide if she should let this happen or else cover herself and scream profanities at me. I paused long enough to allow her to object if necessary. When she didn’t say anything more, I reached for the wallet in my back pocket and removed the handy condom I’d been carrying around for months.
Grayce watched me rip the foil from the rubber, and I kicked my pants off, keeping my eyes on her face the entire time. As I reached down to slip it over me, Grayce sat up and went for it. She smiled, almost shyly, as she took the condom and rolled it over me herself, caressing my already aching penis as she did so. I swallowed as a shocking sensation washed over me. I needed her more than I’d ever needed someone in my life.
As I lowered myself into her, meeting her lips for another desperate kiss, I tangled one hand in her hair and supported myself with the other against the arm of the couch. She closed her eyes and wrapped her legs around my waist, silently pleading for me.
“Are you sure?” I asked, and Grayce nodded. She was sweating already, her dewy skin glowing under the lamp's shade.
“I’m sure.”