An image of him coming home to Kiera every night knocked the wind right out of him.
They’d started dating only a month ago. He shouldn’t be picturing her as his wife and the mother of his children. However, his heart had other ideas. It kept sending messages upstairs, telling his brain that Kiera was The One and he’d been an idiot not to realize it a long time ago.
Even with the contentment and happiness that filled him, his head sent his heart a counter argument. They’d gone on a handful of dates and had had sex once. All that was a long way from a walk down the aisle. His heart had love and lust confused.
Gray toyed with that thought. He’d lusted after women in the past. What red-blooded male hadn’t? The emotions that plagued him now were different. He physically desired Kiera, but he wanted more than just her body. He wanted her friendship. Her love. He wanted to see her every night before he fell asleep and every morning when he woke.
Kiera’s hand slipped down his stomach, stopping above the sheet. “You awake?” She traced a circle around his navel, and any blood left in his upper body flew south.
She moved her hand up his stomach, and he closed his eyes at the pleasure. Thoughts of love evaporated, replaced by thoughts of pleasuring Kiera again that afternoon.
“You tell me.” He grabbed her hand and slid it to his erection.
“I’d say you’re wide awake,” she said, before sliding her hand beneath the sheet and wrapping her fingers around him.
Red-hot lust raced through him, and he rolled on top of her. “I hope you don’t mind spending the whole afternoon right here.”
Kiera smiled, but before she answered, he kissed her. After that, neither spoke again.
***
“Maybe we should go back to your place. We can have dinner with Trent some other time.” Gray turned his car into his brother’s parking garage.
Kiera shot him a have-you-lost-your-mind look. “We’re here, Gray. It’s a little late now. Besides, you were the one who wanted to do this, remember?”
Gray pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. “Wanted is the key word in that sentence. I changed my mind.”
His dinner preference wasn’t the only thing that had changed in the past several hours. His view of this new relationship with Kiera had also changed. Or maybe it hadn’t. Perhaps some hidden part of his heart had always loved Kiera as more than a friend, and it had taken all these years for his heart to give up that secret.
“I think we should go in. They’re expecting us.”
“Fine, but we’re not staying long.” He yanked the keys from the ignition.
Gray and Kiera took the stairs up to the building’s main lobby where they passed a familiar-looking security guard before entering Trent’s private elevator.
“I think Jean-Paul, the owner of Mon Soleil, has an apartment in this building,” Kiera said as the elevator carried them up.
“If I lived in Providence, I’d live here, too.” Gray thought for a moment. “Maybe I wouldn’t since my brother lives here. I’m not sure I could be that close to him.”
“Oh, please. I don’t know a family closer than you Sherbrookes.”
She had him there. “That doesn’t mean I could live in the same building as him.”
“Since you live in New York City, it’s not a problem.”
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out together.
“Is your apartment in a building like this?”
“Not exactly.”
Trent’s door opened before Gray could elaborate, saving him from admitting that he lived in hotel suite and not a real apartment.
“Right on time. You’re a good influence on my brother, Kiera.”
Trent’s comment reminded Gray how late he’d been the last time he’d been expected there.
“Come on in.” Trent stepped back so they could enter. “Allison and Addie are in the kitchen.” Trent took their jackets, and then led them toward the kitchen.