Page 158 of The Holiday Clause

He carried her into the back room and followed her down to the bed, his mouth savagely staking its claim over her chest as he yanked away the towel. The soft cotton sheets cooled her heated skin, a stark contrast to the furnace of his body above her.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

She arched into him, pulling at his clothes. “I want all of you, Grey. Take this off.”

He sat up, fumbling with the buttons of his flannel as his boots hit the floor in two hard thumps. Thick ropes of sinew bunched at his arms as his shirt pulled off, revealing thelandscape of scars and muscle she’d glimpsed but never fully explored. His abdomen flexed in tight rows of muscle as he reached for his belt buckle, and she couldn’t help but stare at the trail of golden hair that disappeared beneath his jeans.

She grinned and sat up to see the big reveal.

“Something wrong?”

She grinned and shook her head. “I…don’t want to miss anything.”

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest. “Believe me, baby, you aren’t gonna miss it.” He flicked the button of his jeans loose, showing her just how constrained he was.

Her eyes widened as he lowered the zipper and gripped his engorged flesh. Meeting his gaze, she hid a smile and teased, “You could make a Viking jealous.”

He pushed her down to the bed and kissed her, his weight settling over her like a claim. “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.” Her humor turned to nervousness as he pushed off the last of his clothes. Nothing between them but a lifetime of unspoken sexual tension and her own shallow breaths. The fading light painted his skin in shadow, every muscle defined, every scar telling a story she wanted to learn by touch.

He calmed her with slow, hungry kisses, his hands framing her face with reverent touches. “Look at me, Wren.”

She lifted her gaze to his familiar stare, and the last of her nervousness shifted into something manageable. This was Greyson. Her Greyson. The man who’d protected her, comforted her, loved her in silence for years.

He caressed her cheek, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw. “We have our entire lives to get it perfect. Don’t overthink the first time.”

She bit her lip. “I waited too long.”

“You were waiting for me.” The certainty in his voice made her heart skip.

When he said it like that, all her regret disappeared. “You’re worth the wait.”

He kissed her in a way that put love before urgency. He grounded them in the moment, slowing time, laying their emotions bare, until they were both shivering as they edged closer to the precipice of this next chapter together.

“Just relax. Let me take care of you.” He bent to capture her nipple, pulling tenderly at the tip.

The longer he touched and kissed her, putting her at ease but also working her up, the more her body responded. His hands mapped every curve, every sensitive spot, as if memorizing her for all time. Soon enough, she was arching into him and panting toward her first climax.

“That’s it, baby. I can feel your body clenching around my fingers.” He teased his hands between her thighs, driving her closer and closer to that edge of ecstasy. “So wet for me already.”

“Ah,” she cried, rocking her hips as he sank his fingers deeper. His mouth closed over her nipple, and her fingers knotted in his hair. “Greyson…”

He sucked and teased her into a state of erotic delirium. Every touch awakened another part of her. Dragging her nails over his shoulders, she clung to him as heat and desire coiled tighter and tighter at her core. The scent of his skin, soap and something uniquely masculine, drenched her senses.

When he kissed a trail down her stomach, she tried to slow him. It overwhelmed her. But he forced her legs open and showed her how much more she could take.

“There’s no hiding from me now, baby.” His warm breath teased her drenched folds as he crouched lower, pressing her thighs open with firm hands. “I told you.” He licked in warning. “You’re mine.”

Again, she cried out his name, too drunk on lust to choose her words carefully. He devoured her in long, languid licks, sucking her clit, fingering her to an ongoing state of ecstasy. Driving her higher and higher until she was rambling gibberish and clinging to him with a sort of desperation she hadn’t known she could feel.

He was an addiction she couldn’t satisfy. The more he gave, the more she wanted. “Please, Greyson… I need…”

“I know what you need.” This time, when he kissed her again, his tongue rich with her taste and his body hard and ready, all the words fell away.

Her breath caught as the smooth head of his cock pressed against her sex and their eyes met. The moment held and she nodded, then he pressed forward and the world aligned on its axis, everything coming into balance the way it only did during moments of divinity and the purest truth.

The pressure overwhelmed her as he sank into her, inch by devastating inch. His weight grounded her when she might have tried to otherwise pull away, his forehead pressed to hers as he gave her body time to adjust.