Free The Mind (The Reluctant Romantics #1.5) by Kate Stewart Page A

was my twenty-first birthday and my sister got drunker than I did. And before you lecture me, I haven’t had a sip and got behind the wheel since.” Grant nodded as he looked at me, still chuckling.
    “We are nothing but trouble when we are together, but we can’t do a damn thing without the other. She and I are like fraternal twins with a bigger age difference. We just don’t work or feel right without the other. That’s the way it’s always been. What sweetens our future is that we’re going to build something together.” I looked up to see Grant watching me. I felt the goose bumps spread across my skin and let out all my air. God, he was beautiful. I tried to hide how much he was affecting me as I went on. “They named her Dallas because my mother hated the city. Well, and this state. After what she and my father went through to be together, Dallas is what sealed the deal...the city, not the sister.”
    Good Lord, captain obvious, could you sound any more ridiculous? God, am I drunk now? I’m totally babbling and he’s letting me.
    “They named me Rose due to my mother’s love of her yellow roses. She has this fantastic garden filled with them. And the yellow rose is ironically our state flower, did you know that? Don’t take my beer away.”
    Grant burst out laughing as he nodded at my half empty beer and gave me a wink. “I won’t take that one, I promise.”
    Our eyes danced over each other as he spoke next. “The only person I was ever that close with was my dad,” he said softly. “So, I get it. I do.” He told me of how at the age of six he started working on planes at an airstrip close to his father’s house. His dad couldn’t afford daycare and his mother had just left them, so he brought Grant to work with him every day. I watched him as he animatedly told me the story of the first time he flew with his father. Unable to control myself any longer as I watched Grant’s lips move and consumed by hunger for him, I stopped him mid-sentence when I unhooked my bra and let it fall. The condoms I’d forgotten I had stashed in my bra hit the floor. He lifted his brow in amusement until his saw my panties fly through the air before hitting him in the chest.
    I could feel the sunburn on my shoulders but ignored it. I was hungry and he was the solution. Leaning back against the edge of the float, I dipped my head in the water, wetting my hair then smoothing my hands over it. He watched the water cascade over my nipples that were already hard in anticipation.
    In response, Grant pushed his briefs down, revealing his mouth-watering erection. With hungry eyes, he stroked himself a few times, looking at me naked in front of him.
    “Do it again,” I ordered and watched him close his eyes as he took himself in his hand, stroked again, and let go. He grabbed a condom of the floor wordlessly, except for the eye fucking, and tore it with his teeth. I watched him slide it on, my center aching to be filled. “When I come inside you this time, I’m making you mine.”
    Eyes locked, I made my way to him, kneeling and naked as the setting sun pierced through the trees behind him. He placed his hand behind my neck, pulling me in. I licked my lips and met his kiss. It was slow and sweet. He pulled me away gently, his fist twisted in my hair as he spoke.
    “Rose, maybe you’ve convinced yourself you are incapable of love right now, or even worse, not worthy of it. Don't let one dickhead cheat you out of what every single person on earth deserves.”
    “And what's that?” I whispered, completely leveled by his kiss.
    “Love, baby, love. It’s your time to be loved, and I’m the one who’s going to do it.”
    “Please, Grant, give me time to—”
    “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
    He cut me with his gentle words, sincerity filtering through his eyes. Loving hands brought my hips down over him and I gasped in pleasure, wrapping my arms around his neck. I moaned his name over and over between strokes