Free Grayson by Delores Fossen

the tree.
    For just a moment, she registered the rough bark against her back and bottom. His raw grip. The harsh profanity he was mumbling. Then, he thrust into her. One long stroke that was nearly as rough as the hold he had on her wrists.
    Her body gave way to his sex. Welcoming him. Yes, he was rough, and the thrusts inside her didn’t become gentle, either. Of course, he knew her body as well as she knew his. And Grayson knew her. Gentle didn’t work for her. She had always been in such a hurry to have him that she had begged for hard and fast.
    Exactly what he was giving her now.
    The man knew what he was doing, that was for sure. He’d learned to make love with her. He knew how to bring her to climax within seconds. Normally, Eve would have gladly surrendered to that climax. She would have surrendered to Grayson, but she instinctively knew that would make the aftermath even worse than it already would be.
    And it would be bad.
    This would cut her off from Grayson forever. Once he’d had time to apply his logical no-shades-of-gray mind to this, he would feel that she’d manipulated him. And she had. Later, Eve would deal with it, too. But for now, she pressed her mouth to the spot just below his ear. She whispered his name.
    “Grayson.”
    The trigger, he had once called it. To finish him off, all she had to do was say his name. It had just the effect she knew it would.
    He thrust into her one last time and said her name, too. Almost.
    “Damn you, Eve,” Grayson cursed.
    And he finished what he’d started.
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
    Grayson got up as soon as he could move. He fixed his clothes and then put some distance between Eve and him. He couldn’t go far, but even a few yards would help.
    He hoped.
    Behind him, he could hear Eve milling around. She was also mumbling. Grayson didn’t want to figure out what she was saying. He didn’t want to figure out anything except why he’d snapped and done the very thing he’d sworn he wouldn’t do.
    “If you’re waiting for me to say I’m sorry, then you’ll be waiting a long time,” Eve let him know. “Because I’m not sorry, and I hope you’re not, either.”
    Oh, he was. Sorry and stupid. But that wouldn’t change what had happened. There was no way he could justify having sex with Eve. Yes, she might get pregnant. She might finally get that baby she wanted, but that put him right in a position he didn’t want to be.
    He didn’t want to be a father.
    Of course, the odds were against Eve having conceived. Grayson had no idea of the stats, but even with her at the prime time of the month, this had to be a long shot.
    Hell.
    That bothered him, too.
    He wanted Eve to have this chance at motherhood, but Grayson wanted what he wanted, as well. Too bad he couldn’t quite put a finger on what he did want. Nor did he have time to figure it out. His phone beeped, and he glanced down at the message as it came onto the screen.
    “Is it Dade?” Eve asked, hurrying to his side. She was still fixing her clothes, and she smelled like sex. Looked like it, too, Grayson noticed when he risked glancing at her. He looked away as fast as he could.
    “Yeah.” Grayson worked his way through the abbreviations Dade had used in the message and gave her a summary. “He used my cell phone to pinpoint our location and will be here soon.”
    She made a sound of relief. So different from the sound she’d made just minutes ago when he’d taken her against the tree. The memory of it flashed through his head, and Grayson knew that memory would give him no peace.
    His phone beeped again, and there was a new message from Dade. “He wants me to take a picture of the body,” Grayson relayed to Eve. “As soon as we have a better signal, I can send it to the Rangers and they can feed it through the facial recognition program.”
    Something that Grayson should have already thought of, but then he’d had sex with Eve on his mind.
    He cursed himself again.
    “Wait here,” he