"I just want to know, and Marv won't tell me. Why do you hate eachother?"
"I don't hate him,Harlow."
"You said you weren't going to answer me," I replied smugly. There was a thunk slightly up and back as Grayson leaned back and bumped his head into the wall. When there was no whine of complaint or further movement, I figured he did it on purpose and rolled myeyes.
"Come on," I pressed forward. "Give me answers. What happened between the two of you? Was it true? You being in Iris?" Iclarified.
He remained silent this time and I growled in frustration. I reached up and fisted the front of his shirt in my hands. "Grayson," I whisper-hissed. "Give mesomething, damn it." After a beat of near deafening silence, just when I thought to hell with it—and him—and was about to give up, heanswered.
"It was me," he said softly. "And...I didn't want to do what I did, but I hadto."
"What did you do?" Even though I couldn't see his facial expression, I could feel his eyes burning on my face. I wasn’t even sure if he was going to answer me again, so I tried something new. "Why do you hate Iris?" Iasked.
Grayson sighed. "It's not that I hate Iris," he finally said. "I don't trust it. How did you feel when they first recruited you? You were suspicious, weren'tyou?"
"So, that's what you are?Suspicious?"
"Marv has every right to hate me," Grayson replied. "But when he was cut out, so was Iris and yeah, I'm suspicious. I'm curious too. After...the fallout, I kept researching—thinking I could just keep an eye on Marv, but Iris is nearly impossible to learn about unless you're on the inside. I don't like that. They rarely let anyone in. Doesn't that seem odd toyou?"
I shrugged against his chest. "I don't know, it seems pretty safe to me. How else do they know who to trust and who not to trust? Anyone who stays can betrusted."
Silence reigned for several long moments. I huffed, turning towards the door—sure I had lost him. As soon as my hand closed over the knob, though, he spoke. "Do you think I can't betrusted?"
My hand turned the knob and the door creaked open. The room was dark, but I could see much better with the moonlight spilling through the window. I turned to face him. "I wouldn't have come here," I said, "if I didn't trust you to keep mesafe."
Whether it was the words or maybe the electric feeling under our skin from nearly being caught, it lit something within Grayson. And if I was honest...within me as well. Grayson took one step forward, but I never moved away. He took that as his cue and lowered his head. He paused, just a hair's breadth away from my lips, his hand hovering over my cheek. He wanted to touch me. I could feel it and I didn't want to wait anymore. I wanted to close the distance between our mouths, but my body refused to move. I couldn't do that. I couldn't start something else. Knix, Bellamy, Marv, and Texas were all waiting for me to choose anyway and I couldn't. I couldn't choose. This would just be something more, andI—
Grayson moved forward, his mouth pressing into mine and cutting off my internal argument. My eyes widened before slowly—almost effortlessly—sliding closed. Grayson's hand landed on my cheek, tilting my chin up, my head back as he bit my bottom lip and sucked on it. My heart thudded unnaturally fast in my chest. A chill rushed through my body as I moaned into hismouth.
The feel of him against me burned. His mouth moved against mine, hot and overwhelming and strong. The strength of his kiss ravaged me, left me empty and hollow and filled to the brim with his emotions. Grayson was volatile and such a...fucking asshole, I thought as he pulled away from me, dark eyes looking down at me when my own opened and met his gaze. My lips were wet from his mouth and I gulped at the darkness in hisgaze.
The room was quiet save for our heavy breathing. It was as though time was standing still, the universe waiting for us, trying to figure out what we would do next. I couldn't have said. There was no indication, no thought on my part, but when Grayson reached for me again, I went. I couldn'tnotmove into his arms. I couldn't let him be alone in thismoment.
Grayson's hands went to my thighs, picking me up and cradling me against his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he took my mouth again, burning against my lips. Our tongues slid together, the same as our bodies did. We were like two ships in the night, crashing against each other and wrecking all of the safety mechanisms that kept us from sinking to the bottom of the sea. I would go, I decided. I would go to the bottom of the sea with him. I had the feeling no one else had ever offered him that kind of friendship. But this wasn't friendship. This was the same thing it was with Knix, with Bellamy, with Marv, with Texas. This was an electric storm, through and through, and we would have to weather ittogether.
My back pressed into something hard and Grayson's body moved between my thighs like one, giant muscle. He was hard everywhere.Everywhere. I gasped as he pressed up against me. I couldn't let this happen. We hadn't talked. We hadn't done anything but piss each other off. Did he really want this? Or was this spur of the moment? I couldn't do spur of the moment. I needed toknow.
I pulled away, panting. "Grayson..."
He kissed me hard, silencing my words. I had to shake him away again. "Stop, wait." God, why was it so hard to keep him from kissing me again? But this time, he paused, his eyes meetingmine.
"You don't want it?" he asked,serious.
I gulped again, swallowing against a blocked throat. "I-I," I stuttered. Between my legs, under the fabric of my pants, I could feel something warm and wet. I shuddered in hisarms.
"Babydoll?" Grayson backed up. "Are youokay?"
I nodded and coughed. "We can't do this here," I said, looking to the side, at the door. "Someone could catchus."
I felt his gaze searing against my cheeks and I kept my eyes averted until he sighed and dropped my legs back to thefloor.
"You're right," he said. "Let'sgo."
Grayson grabbed my hand and as if nothing had happened—as if he hadn't just had me against the wall—he pulled me towards the door and back out into the hallway. We headed back through the facility, hearing low voices towards the main areas, but never going near them. We left the same way we managed to get in the first time. It wasn't until we got back to the car, that I realized we had forgotten the case that I had been trying to loosen from the shelf in the first place. When I told Grayson, he shrugged and popped open the driver's sidedoor.
"It was a handgun case," hesaid.
"What?" I was surprised. "How could you tell that just from looking atit?"