Chapter 7 The morning after
Cassie woke to sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows and the feeling of Greyson's lips pressing soft kisses along her shoulder blade. She was pressed against his chest, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist, and she could feel he was already hard against her back.
"Good morning," he murmured against her skin, his voice rough with sleep and almost gone from the night before.
She should leave. She knew she should leave. Jake would be expecting her to call, would want to know about her evening. She had a client meeting at ten, emails to answer, a life to get back to.
Greyson's hand slipped down her stomach, fingers tracing lazy patterns on her skin.
"Greyson,"
she breathed, already arching back against him.
"I can't get enough of you,"
he confessed, his teeth grazing her earlobe.
"I've been lying here for an hour just watching you sleep, trying to convince myself to let you rest."
"I should go,"
she said, but even as the words left her mouth, she was pressing back against his hardness, drawing a low groan from his throat.
"You should," he agreed, his hand sliding lower, fingers finding her already wet and ready for him. "But you don't want to."
"God, no," she gasped as he began to stroke her with maddening slowness.
"I don't want to leave. I want to stay in this bed with you forever."
"Then stay a little longer,"
he whispered, rolling her onto her back and settling between her thighs.
"Let me worship you properly in the daylight."
She looked up at him, taking in his sleep-mussed hair, the stubble along his jaw, the way the morning light played across his chest. He was a beautiful man, and the way he was looking at her made her feel like the most desirable woman alive.
"I have a meeting at ten," she said weakly, even as her hands found his shoulders, pulling him down to her.
"It's only seven,"
he said, glancing at the clock.
"That gives us plenty of time."
His mouth found hers in a kiss that was different from the desperate passion of the night before—slower, deeper, full of promise and possibility. When he finally broke away, she was breathless and aching for him.
"I need you again,I need to feel you inside me."
"Fuck, yes," he groaned, reaching for the nightstand. "I need you too. I don't think I'll ever stop needing you.
This time, when he entered her, it was with agonizing slowness, both of them savoring every sensation. The morning light illuminated everything the way her back arched beneath him, the flush spreading across her chest, the way her lips parted on a silent cry of pleasure.
"You're so beautiful,"
he breathed, setting a rhythm that had her clutching at his back.
"So perfect. I could spend the rest of my life just looking at you like this."
"Don't stop," she pleaded, her hips rising to meet his thrusts. "Please don't ever stop."
He didn't. He took his time, building her pleasure slowly and deliberately until she was trembling beneath him, her body wound tight as a spring. When her climax finally hit, it was with a intensity that left her sobbing his name, her body clenching around him as waves of pleasure crashed over her.
"That's it," he encouraged, his own control starting to fray. "Come for me, Cass. Let me feel you."
When he followed her over the edge moments later, it was with her name on his lips and his face buried in her neck, both of them lost in the intensity of their connection.
Afterward, they lay tangled together, both breathing hard, the reality of the morning slowly creeping back in.
"I really do have to go," Cassie said eventually, though she made no move to leave his arms.
"I know." His fingers traced lazy patterns on her bare shoulder.
"But I want to see you again. Tonight."
"Greyson..." she started, but he cut her off with a kiss.
"Don't think about all the reasons why you can't," he said against her lips.
"Just tell me you want to see me again."
"I do, you make sense." she admitted, hating how desperate she sounded. "God help me, I do."
"Then we'll figure out the rest." He helped her sit up, his hands lingering on her skin. "Take a shower here. I'll make you coffee."
Twenty minutes later, Cassie stood in his bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. Her lips were swollen from his kisses, there was a mark on her neck where he'd sucked too hard, and her hair was thoroughly mussed. She looked like a woman who'd been thoroughly and repeatedly made love to passionately.
She looked like a woman who was falling in love faster than she anticipated.
The thought should have terrified her. Instead, it filled her with a kind of reckless joy she'd never experienced before.
When she emerged from the bathroom, dressed in her sweats from her gym bag. Greyson was waiting with coffee and a look in his eyes that made her knees weak.
"Your phone's been buzzing,"
he said, nodding toward the nightstand where three missed calls from Jake were displayed on her screen
Reality crashed back over her like a cold wave. Jake. Her fiancé. The man she was supposed to marry in three months.
"I have to call him back," she said, her voice hollow.
"I know."
Greyson handed her the coffee, his fingers brushing hers.
"But Cassie this isn't over. What we have, what we started last night it's not something you can just walk away from."
She looked up at him, seeing her own turmoil reflected in his eyes.
"How can you be so sure?"
" I've never felt anything like this before," he said simply.
"And neither have you. That doesn't just disappear because it's inconvenient."
He was right, and they both knew it. What had happened between them wasn't just physical it was deeper, more fundamental. It was the kind of connection that changed everything.
"I'll call you," she said, surprising herself with the certainty in her voice.
"When?"
"Tonight. After... I'll... I'll figure something out."
He smiled then, the first real smile she'd seen from him since they'd woken up. "I'll be waiting."
As she walked to the elevator, Cassie felt like she was leaving part of herself behind in that apartment. But she also felt more alive than she had in years, more herself than she'd ever been.
Her phone buzzed again another text from Jake:
Call me when you get this. Starting to worry.
She stared at the message, feeling the weight of her double life settling on her shoulders. But for the first time, the thought of going back to her old life felt more suffocating than liberating.
Everything had changed, and there was no going back.
Cassie sent a text to her father's media team informing them to release footage of Jake cheating on her with her best friend Jenna . She had to take back her life one way or another.