Rm W/a Vu (33 page)

His hand moves down over his face, maybe trying to wipe the shock from his expression. “Good god, Juliette. While I realize now’s probably not the best time to have this discussion, I have to wonder what the hell was going through that jackass’s head.”

The somber tone in the room shifts again, inviting levity. I glance up at him, feeling a little more relaxed. His hands are on my thighs again, pulling me closer to the edge of the bed. I sit up and look at him, using my fingers to push his hair off his forehead.

“Do you trust me?” He kisses me lightly and gives my thighs a squeeze.

“Implicitly.” His hand drifts toward my inner thigh, and I inhale a shaky breath when his fingers slide home.

“I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” I smile. “So if this is absolutely something you don’t want to do, I won’t press the matter.” A finger slips inside, and I moan, digging my fingers into his shoulders. “But if you’ll let me, I promise to make it an experience you’ll never forget.”

My eyebrows pull together as I push my unease aside and nod my acquiescence. “Okay,” I whisper. “But if I don’t enjoy it—”

He interjects quickly. “Just tell me to stop, and I will.” He kisses me softly, then eases me back down onto the bed with his free hand while the other continues to move between my legs.

I clutch the blankets as pleasure consumes me again, my body tingling. Greyston kisses the inside of each thigh before slowly removing his hand, and I whimper at the loss. He adjusts our position until my legs rest on his shoulders, and then he lowers his head. My gut reaction is to push him away the second his tongue makes contact, but instead I tighten my grip on the blanket and instill all the trust I have in him.

I don’t know why, but I lift my head off the mattress and watch him. It’s strange at first, but then his tongue slides over a sensitive spot that turns me into a simpering mess, and I gasp, my hips pushing into his face out of instinct, seeking out even more. His eyes snap up to find me staring down at him. Like a gentleman, Greyston waits for me to give him the okay to continue, and I nod—I think. I’m honestly a little disoriented.

He proceeds slowly, and my breathing becomes heavy—labored. My legs tighten around him, pulling him closer and encouraging him to keep going. Greyston increases his efforts, using a little more pressure, and I fall back onto the bed with a moan, unable to keep my body upright anymore. He was right; this is incredible.

“
Oh, god
.” Pressure continues to build like a storm in my belly. Everything gathers in the middle, swirling around, and it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. I’m no longer in charge of my body, succumbing to pleasure, and my hips rock against Greyston’s face.

My legs tremble, and I think my moans of approval are growing louder—honestly, it all sounds so far away as I get lost in the fog of ecstasy. One of my legs shifts, my foot pressing against Greyston’s shoulder, and I feel him pull back slightly before I weave my fingers into his hair and hold him in place.

“Don’t stop,” I plead. “Please, god, don’t stop.” It takes my brain a minute to register what Greyston does next. It’s so many different sensations at once as he guides me closer and closer to the edge. My body is in that zero-gravity stage as an orgasm prepares to push me. I’ve been here before; I’ve just never been given the chance to fall.

“Juliette.” His voice sounds far away, but I find my way back to it, focusing on it and using it to ground myself. “Look at me, baby.”

I prop myself up onto my elbows again and look down at him. I watch as his right hand and tongue work simultaneously, and it’s almost too much. My senses are completely overloaded as I watch him, feel him, hear him… And that’s all it takes before I’m free-falling.

I collapse back onto the bed, wave after wave of bliss washing over me. The bed shifts, and Greyston is making his way up my body, a confident smile on his face. “That was…” I can’t even find the words to describe just how incredible it was.

Thankfully Greyston seems to still have his wits about him. “Amazing.” He leans in to kiss me, and I balk, my eyes widening and darting between his and his lips.

The thought of kissing him after he’d just… It gives me pause. But then it makes me curious. Bringing a hand up, I place it along his jaw, my thumb moving across his full lower lip. It’s soft, still a little wet, though from his tongue or going down on me, I can’t be sure. My curiosity continues to climb, and I can see he really wants to kiss me, so I curl my fingers, drawing him forward. I’m still hesitant, but I finally press my lips to his.

The kiss is quick, pulling back just as Greyston’s lips part and his tongue slides along my lower lip. I gaze into his excited blue eyes and lick my lips, tasting myself as he had for the first time. It’s…different, but not awful. Greyston watches me as I appraise the situation, and his eyes darken with desire. I pull him back to me without warning, and kiss him, plunging my tongue between his lips and moaning as I slip my hand between us and around his stiff length.

He groans into our kiss, his hips moving into my hand before I pull it free. Our lips part, and I scoot back on the bed, making room for Greyston to be a little more comfortable. I am ready to take this final step with him. We both are.

He joins me on the bed, kneeling between my legs, and then he lowers himself on top of me.

Kicking his boxers off, Greyston looks excited as he prepares to rejoin me on the bed, and then he stops, glancing toward his bedside table. “Shit.”

“What?” I ask, my eyebrows arching.

He seems upset with himself. “I don’t have any condoms.”

“Oh.” My hope plummets at a frightening rate. Greyston looks absolutely devastated. I offer him a smile and drop my eyes to find him still standing at almost-full attention. “Well, we can wait until later, then. In the meantime, maybe I could help you take care of that?”

It doesn’t take long for Greyston to throw me over his shoulder and carry me toward the bathroom. Once we’re in the  where I help him alleviate his not-so-little problem before Daphne shows up to go paint-balling with us.

Chapter 21

W
e’re about ten minutes late from when we said we wanted to meet, but Greyston insisted we stop by the store so he could grab an energy drink. When we finally arrive, we find a parking spot in the lot, right next to Toby and Callie’s luxury SUV. Xander is with them, having been picked up after getting settled into his room. None of them seem annoyed by our tardiness, and we still have about five minutes before our reservation, anyway.

Smiling, Greyston takes my hand and leads me forward, Daphne following. “Juliette, Daphne, I’d like to introduce you to Xander Richland.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I tell him.

When he smiles, I notice the shallow dimple in his left cheek. He’s about five inches taller than me, slender and athletic. His curly dark hair is long, hanging just above his chin, and his dark brown eyes are soulful. He looks trustworthy, and his energy reads the same.

Xander nods his head curtly, the left side of his mouth turning up as he looks down at Daphne. “It’s a pleasure.” He reaches out for her hand, and I have to bite my lip to keep from giggling when I see Daphne blush as he kisses her knuckles. She’s not a blusher—not ever—so this is
huge
.

“So, um…” Daphne stumbles for words—another first. “You play baseball, right?”

Xander’s smile widens, and he nods. “I do.”

“And do you like it?” she asks before cringing and shaking her head. “That was stupid. Of course you do.”

“It wasn’t stupid.”

“So, Xander, how was your flight in?” Daphne asks, reaching for a sandwich.

“Pretty good, thank you.” Xander turns to Greyston. “And the hotel is incredible. Thank you and Toby again for taking care of everything. Y’all have officially gone above and beyond.”

“We’re just trying to show you everything Phoenix has to offer,” Greyston tells him.

“Guys, we should head in,” Toby announces.

As we walk toward the building, Greyston can sense my excitement and reaches over and places his hand on my lower back. This of course only invites back a different kind of excitement, even if he doesn’t really mean for it to—or maybe he does—and I find myself thinking about earlier and what we might do once we’re alone again. Even just remembering the intensity of his stare when he first arrived home sends shockwaves through my veins.

The sexual tension between us continues to mount with every second. I feel like I’m going to burst at the seams if we wait any longer. Glancing over at him, I bite the inside of my cheek and wonder if maybe he’s thinking the same thing…

“You’ve been awfully quiet,” he points out. “Plotting out your war strategies?”

“Something like that,” I say with a sly little shrug. “You scared?”

Turning his head, he arches a brow and gives me that crooked smirk that I love. “You gonna take it easy on me?”

“Aw,” I coo, reaching out and placing my hand on his cheek. “Not a chance.”

Greyston laughs. “Didn’t think so. Thought it was worth asking, though.”

Behind Greyston, Daphne starts laughing as she saunters up to us. “She is going to
destroy
you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Greyston grumbles, shaking his head and rolling his eyes, all while smiling.

My excitement continues to escalate with every step, and I’m practically pulling Greyston behind me. The minute we walk through the doors, I can hear a game in progress, and a rush of adrenaline surges through me. I’m shaking.

“Hi,” I enthusiastically greet the man at the counter. “I have a reservation for six at two.”

He checks his computer and nods. “Juliette Foster?”

“That’s me.”

“All right, well the last group is just wrapping up, so we’ll just go over everything you’ll need to know while we wait. Do any of you have your own equipment?” he asks, looking at each of us. “No? Well then, full equipment rental is nine ninety-five per person, and that gets you everything you’ll need for the afternoon, including one hundred rounds of ammo. Should you find you need more ammunition, we have price packages for them.”

After he gives us the low down, I reach into my vest for my wallet when Greyston stops me, placing a hand over mine. “I’ve got this,” he says.

“No, it’s okay,” I assure him. “I want to.”

“Maybe next time?” he offers gently. “I was going to expense it to the agency.”

Smiling, I push my wallet back into my pocket. “Oh, right. Of course.”

Greyston gets everything squared away, and we all collect our equipment. Once we’re suited up, I begin to explain how to use the guns. It’s not a surprise for me to learn that all three guys have done this before while Daphne and Callie haven’t. So, as we make our way to the field, I walk ahead with the girls and tell them how everything works.

“So, you can shoot one paintball at a time,” I begin to explain, showing them how the trigger mechanism works on my unloaded gun. “Or, you can use the double trigger for rapid-fire shooting. You go through more rounds, but I find it a little more fun.”

“Of course you do,” Greyston quips from behind me.

I turn my head to look back at him, narrow my eyes, and smirk. “You want to be my guinea pig?”

“Nope,” he says quickly, holding his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. Please, continue.”

“I have a question,” Callie pipes up. “How bad, exactly, is this going to hurt?”

“Well, if you get hit—and you will—you’ll be sporting a pretty sizable bruise tomorrow.” Thinking back to the last time I went, I try to figure out how to explain the feeling. “The initial impact stings like crazy, but you’ll be so hopped up on adrenaline that you’ll barely even notice.

“Now,” I continue, stopping and turning around to face everyone as I load my paintballs into the chamber atop the gun, “do we want to play as individuals? Or in teams?”

“Teams!” Callie and Daphne cry out simultaneously, and I snicker.

It isn’t shocking that they would want to team up, especially considering they’ve never played. Truthfully, it would be pretty cruel to set them loose when the rest of us have. I’m sure the guys would go easy on them, but I can’t just send them off alone their first time out.

We continue talking about how we should split up, deciding to switch up the teams every round to keep it fair. Once we arrive at the field, we discuss the first set of teams. Callie and Daphne seem to be more than willing to play guys versus girls when I suggest it.

The guys all seem confident that they can win—even Xander gets in on the testosterone-fuelled comments they fling our way as they affix their masks to their faces and walk backward away from me and the girls.