But I surely felt weak sitting here beside Gray in Anton’s empty house.
In his eyes, I was already pathetic. He knew I was homeless. He knew I was dragging a raggedy bag of my shit around. I didn’t need to add ‘weak’ to that list. I was nobody’s charity case. No one had to help me. I could pick myself up and move on with the rest of them. He sat there patiently, though. Waiting for me to say something.
“I came here a few months ago from up north,” I said. “I’d had enough of the tiny town I grew up in.”
“So you came to another one?” Gray asked.
“Believe it or not, Stillsville is bigger than my own hometown. And being just a couple of hours outside of one of the biggest cities in the country sounded exciting. A bit of the small town world I grew up in to help me acclimate into the big city life I’d lead for myself one day. But once I got here, there weren’t as many opportunities as I’d hoped.”
I looked over at him and watched him shake his head.
“I can’t imagine why anyone would voluntarily move to this place,” he said. “There has to be some reason why you stayed here.”
“I mean, the town isn’t so bad. If you look at it from a specific angle.”
The laughter that fell from his lips made me snicker. I knew how ridiculous it sounded. This town was shit and there were no two ways about it.
“Did you hit your head when I pinned you down?” he asked. “Because I think you might be a little nutty.”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek while he continued to chuckle to himself. I didn’t like where this conversation was going, and I wasn’t going to divulge the details of my life story to a stranger. I didn’t care about his life story. Who he was, why he came here, or what he was going back to was none of my concern. So why did he care about mine? I wasn’t comfortable sitting there with him any longer, because I knew if he kept prodding about my life I’d end up having to blatantly lie to him.
And I didn’t want to do that, either.
“Thanks for the cocoa,” I said. “But I think I’m going to go settle in bed.”
Gray stopped laughing immediately as I stood up.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
“Nope. Just tired. Sleep hits me hard that way.”
I took a long pull of the decadent hot cocoa before I set it down on the table. I slid past him, ignoring the heat I felt when his upper arm grazed the skin of my thigh. Just that light touch sent me reeling, and I knew I’d made the right decision. I needed to put distance between the two of us before I said something I would regret, and before I jumped the man’s bones. I walked down the hallway and darted into my bedroom, then shut the door behind me.
Then, on a whim, I locked it as well.
I turned around and looked at the massive bed in front of me and my heart hurt all over again. Anton. That beautiful man, gone way too soon. Tears flooded my vision again as I shimmied out of my shorts, then pulled back the covers. My eyes scanned the bed, making sure there were no more surprises, then I slipped under the covers and settled in for the night.
The bed felt so soft against my skin. Cradling me. Like I wasn’t alone. I pulled the covers up to my chin and turned over, allowing the tears to freely fall.
“Oh Anton,” I said with a whisper. “Why aren’t you here?”
Chapter 7
Grayson
Sleeping that night was hard. Mostly because my erection wouldn’t go away, but part of it was because I knew she was so painfully close. I’d said something last night that offended her. No woman got up and walked away like that without being upset at something. I replayed the conversation back in my mind. Was she upset that I’d called her crazy? Oh shit. Was she actually crazy? Had Anton employed some sort of crazy person to take care of his house?
After tossing and turning for three solid hours, I got up to make breakfast. As I scrambled the eggs and fried up some bacon, the sun started to come up. The chirping of crickets morphed into the chirping of birds, and as the smell of coffee permeated the house, I heard a small pair of feet pad down the hallway.
I hoped my surprise guest was hungry, because I had made enough for the both of us.
“Morning,” I said, as her feet hit the tiled floor.
“Mmm,” Michelle said.
“I’ve got pancakes, bacon, eggs, coffee, and—”
I turned around to look at her and I was stunned. She stretched her arms up to the sky, revealing those pleasurably-naked thighs of hers. Her milky skin was dotted with small freckles I hadn’t seen in the dim light of the night before. Her shirt stretched so high I could see the mound of excess that dotted her inner thighs.