Midnight confessions

1.       Midnight Confessions

BELLE 

Neither of us said anything during the entire ride back to the hotel. 

Grayson kept me in his lap, alternating between nipping at the mark on my neck and licking the wound on my face. 

At first, I was completely disgusted by him licking my face, but one loud growl from him had me shutting right up. I’m sure our cab driver thought we were insane. I considered talking to him and trying to explain myself, but I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or mad because I was hurt. 

Maybe it was both. I didn’t want to risk pissing him off even more. 

It took him the entire ride home to calm down. His body returned to normal, although his breathing was still ragged. 

Once at the hotel, he picked me up and carried me all the way to our room. We got a few strange looks on the way up, but nobody said anything, thankfully. 

In our room, he immediately brought me to the en suite bathroom and set me down on the counter. He stepped between my legs. 

“Kyle!” he yelled as he grabbed a towel and ran it under the faucet. “Get me ice!”  He brought the damp towel to the part of my face that had split from Carl’s punch and gently cleaned it. I winced. Grayson growled. 

“What were you doing there?” Grayson asked as he washed away the blood. 

I hesitated. I knew I shouldn’t tell him, but I really didn’t feel like lying to him. 

“That was my mom’s house,” I mumbled. “The man who hit me was her mate.” 

Grayson nodded his head, not making eye contact with me. “Why didn’t you take me with you?” 

“I…” My shoulders slumped. I looked down at my hands. “I was afraid of what you could do to her if you knew who she was and where she lived.” 

Grayson sighed. Carefully, he took my chin with his hand and tilted my head up so I was looking at him. His eyes softened. 

“Listen to me, Belle, and listen well. I will never do anything to hurt you. Ever. I know you and your mom don’t have the best relationship, but know that I’d never do anything to her if it risked losing you.” 

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. Then he placed his forehead on mine and looked deep into my eyes. He cupped the uninjured side of my face. 

“I need you to trust me, Belle. I care about you too much to have you running off because you’re scared. Talk to me. Communicate. We’ll figure it out together. 

Always.” 

I took in a shaky breath, then closed my eyes. “Okay,” I whispered. 

Someone suddenly cleared their voice. Both Grayson and I snapped our heads up to see Kyle standing in the doorway. 

“Sorry to interrupt this touching moment,” he said, smirking at the two of us. 

“I have the ice pack you asked for, Alpha.” He handed it to Grayson. “Now I can see why you needed it. You look like hell, Luna.” 

“Gee, thanks, Kyle,” I said sarcastically. 

He laughed. “Any time,” he said. He winked at me before walking away. 

Grayson finished tending to my wound, bandaging it and lightly pressing the ice pack to it. 

“You’re keeping that on there until all the ice has melted. I don’t care how long it takes.

Your face is already swelling too much.”  I nodded. It hurt like hell. 

“I’m going to go get you some ibuprofen for the pain,” Grayson said as he tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “Stay here, okay?”  I nodded again. 

Once he had left the room, I sighed and leaned against the mirror behind me. My life had turned completely upside down in just a couple of weeks. 

I felt overwhelmed—no, I felt more than overwhelmed. 

I felt completely out of my mind. 

I felt tears form in my eyes. This was all too much for me to handle. I wanted everything to go back to normal. I wanted to jump in a time machine. Go back to staying with my dad and working at the diner—back before I’d needed to worry about money or where I would live. 

I looked around me, trying to control my breathing. 

But since a time machine’s not available... I want to go home and regain control over my life!

Even my mother, who had always seemed so well put together and in control, had been wearing a mask. She was obviously living in an environment that prohibited her from making any of her own decisions. I didn’t want to live like that. I just wanted to go home. 

I just want to go home. 

I noticed then that Grayson’s phone was lying on the counter next to me. I glanced out the door to see if he was coming, then slipped the phone into my pocket. 

Grayson returned a few seconds later, holding a glass of water and some medicine.  When he saw the tears in my eyes, he set down the glass and pills on the counter and was in front of me within seconds. 

“Why are you crying?” he asked. 

Because I have to leave you,  I thought.

“My face just hurts, that’s all,” I said. 

He frowned and brushed his knuckles lightly over my bruise. 

“I hate that you got hurt. I wish I would’ve been there before it happened. That bastard will pay for this, I promise you that.” 

I shook my head. “No. No, please don’t do anything to him. I don’t want to hurt my mom.”  Grayson sighed. He handed me the glass of water and ibuprofen. 

“Drink all the water.” 

After I had taken the medicine, Grayson brought me to the bedroom and sat on the bed so that his back was against the headboard. He took me into his lap and cradled me in his arms. 

“You have no idea how worried I was,” he breathed into my neck. 

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I needed to see my mom.” 

He hummed as he continued to breathe in my scent. “Never leave me like that again, okay?” He placed a kiss on my neck. His kisses continued down my neck before I could reply. He kissed my mark and then moved back up to my chin, placing wet kisses all along it.  Finally, he came to my lips, moving his against mine so passionately that it took my breath away. As I got more and more distracted by the occurring events, I slowly forgot to keep the ice pack against my cheek. Grayson growled and grabbed my hand, pressing it back up to my face. I rolled my eyes. 

He lay me down on the bed and hovered over me without taking his lips from mine. 

His hands moved under my shirt, tracing the lines of my rib cage. 

Wow, this escalated quickly. 

“Grayson,” I said through his kisses. He didn’t stop. 

“Grayson,” I tried again. 

He lifted off of me a bit and brushed his nose against mine affectionately. 

“We need to stop,” I said. 

“I know, I know,” he said. “You have no idea how hard it is not to ravish you every second of every day.” 

I swallowed. I could feel my cheeks turning bright red. “Um, thanks?” 

He chuckled and lifted all the way off me. He brushed a hand through his hair. 

“I need to go take a shower, probably a cold one. Would you like to join?” 

My blush intensified. “No! That was a onetime thing, buddy.” 

He laughed again. He leaned down and placed one more quick kiss on my lips before standing up. “Yeah, we’ll see about that, baby,” he said. 

“Now, are you going to be a good girl and stay here and not run away while I’m in the shower, or do I need to handcuff you to the bed?” 

I shook my head quickly. “I’ll stay here.” 

“Good,” Grayson said and then walked into the bathroom. 

I sighed and stared at the ceiling. All I wanted was to go to sleep, but I knew that now might be the only time I had alone. I took out his phone and typed in the password I’d seen earlier. 

Do I really want to do this?