Plans foiled

1.       Awakening the Beast Within

BELLE

The next morning, I woke up to the feeling of Grayson squeezing the absolute life out of me from behind. 

I attempted to shift my weight to find a more comfortable position, but he was making it impossible with how tightly he was holding me. It wasn’t painful, but it was very uncomfortable. 

“Grayson,” I said, trying to wake him up. I rubbed his arms that were wrapped around me.

“Grayson, wake up.” 

I noticed as I continued to caress him that his entire body was shaking and that long, dark hair was growing out of his skin. He was close to shifting. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel his hot breath on my neck and hear his low growling in my ear. What was happening?

He must have been dreaming. 

With every passing second, his grip was becoming tighter and tighter. I knew that I had to wake him up or he would literally squeeze me to death. 

I leaned down as far as I could and pressed a kiss to his arm, then another one. 

Small huffs came from Grayson with every kiss I pressed to his skin. His arms loosened the tiniest bit. 

I continued to kiss his arms and hands, then began to lick and suck. His growls turned into groans. 

His hold on me loosened to a normal level, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. 

But then he threw one of his legs over me and buried his face into my neck and hair. I could tell that he was still asleep. I could feel something hard poking my butt. Uh-oh.   

I grabbed onto one of his hands and traced the lines on his palm. “Grayson,” I whispered. He huffed and stirred a bit. I brought his hand up and kissed his palm softly. “Grayson, I need you to wake up.” 

When he didn’t move yet again, I slowly turned my body so I could face him. This proved to be very difficult as Grayson growled and tightened his arms around me once again in his sleep. 

Whatever he was dreaming about must have been pretty intense. 

Once I was facing him, I noticed how stressed he seemed to be. His face was tight and set in a frown, and his entire body was rigid and unmoving except for his rapid breathing and trembling. I didn’t like seeing him like this. I didn’t want him to be stressed out or to be having a bad dream. 

I found myself lifting my hands from between us and running them over his face. I caressed the frown lines and traced his jaw, mouth, nose, and eyes. 

His face was gorgeous, and I found myself wanting to memorize and touch every part of it.  He relaxed a little bit, but his breathing was still coming out in quick pants. I leaned my forehead against his. 

“Grayson, wake up.” 

He stirred a bit but didn’t open his eyes. I groaned. Man, can this guy sleep.   

It would have been kind of adorable, but I really needed to go to the bathroom. And Grayson squeezing me definitely wasn’t helping.  

So I did the only thing I could think of: I placed a gentle kiss on his neck. And then I continued up to his face—to his jaw and around his lips. 

I felt guilty kissing him without his consent, but I didn’t stop. I mean, I was molesting the guy while he slept, but I loved the feeling of his skin on my lips. 

It sent electric shocks through my system and made my brain all foggy. Plus, I was sure that he wouldn’t have minded if he were awake. 

I finally kissed his lips. Fireworks exploded as I moved my lips against his. It took my breath away. 

And then, suddenly, I was on my back and Grayson was on top of me, kissing the living daylights out of me. I groaned. 

Well, I guess he’s awake now. 

I had forgotten that my goal in all of this was to wake him up. I’d been too consumed with kissing him to even pay attention to his reaction.  God, this mate bond thing must be really getting to me. 

Grayson grabbed onto my legs and wrapped them around his waist, taking full control of the situation. Then he moved his hands to grip my waist under my pajama shirt. 

His thumbs were grazing the skin right beneath my breasts. 

I was running out of breath from our intense kissing. Noticing this, Grayson removed his lips from mine and moved them down to my jaw and neck, then to my collarbone and around the collar of my cotton shirt. 

He paused just long enough to grab the bottom of my shirt and yank it up. 

Unable to stop myself, I lifted my arms, allowing him to remove my top. 

Grayson stared at my exposed upper half for a long moment, his eyes trained on my breasts. His gaze turned dark and stormy as it moved over my body, seemingly memorizing every part of it. The heat of the moment left me and was replaced by shyness. He was staring at me so intensely, and I couldn’t help but hope that he approved of what he saw. 

I had never been self-conscious of my body before—I’d had other things to worry about— but now I felt myself shifting and squirming in discomfort. 

Grayson noticed this immediately and returned his gaze to my face. His expression softened. He reached a hand up and caressed my cheekbone gently. 

“Every day I wonder how I got a mate as beautiful as you, how I got so lucky.”  I blushed and squirmed some more, not knowing how to react to his compliment. 

No one had ever spoken to me like that. 

He smiled at me and lowered his face to mine to give me a slow but passionate kiss. 

It wasn’t like the kiss from before, which had been hot and demanding. 

No, this one was sweet and loving and left my toes curling. 

“By the way,” Grayson said, lifting off of me just the tiniest bit, “I expect to be woken up like this from now on.” 

I laughed. “I had to pee and you weren’t waking up. It was the only thing that I could think of. I didn’t think you would mind.”  He leaned down and kissed me again. 

“I give you full permission to kiss me whenever you want, conscious or not.”  I laughed again and rose up to kiss his lips. He growled softly. When we pulled apart I asked, “What were you dreaming about?”