Damaged (Boys of Winter #2) - Sheridan Anne Page 0,117
could have chosen a raven.”
“Well?” he pushes, his eyes never leaving mine.
I bite down on my lip, not sure I’m ready to know the answer to this. “Well, it could be the typical bird tattoo. You know, not being caged and flying free bullshit, but I don’t think you’re that cheesy.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not,” he says. “What else have you got?”
My gaze briefly flickers toward the tattoo artist before resting back on Grayson. “It could be a nod toward … you know, the family business. Andrew and Gerald Ravenwood. I don’t know, maybe you’re a little more into the whole thing than I realized.”
He shakes his head, his eyes darkening by the second. “I’ll give you one last guess.”
I swallow over the lump in my throat, not once taking my eyes from him. “Me,” I whisper before I can convince myself to back out of this conversation just like he had done in the car. “It’s a raven to acknowledge me—Ravenwood.”
Grayson doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to. I can see the answer shining brightly in his stormy grey eyes. As he stares into mine, something stronger builds between us, something solid and unbreakable.
“I’ve been working on it for the past year,” he tells me. “The boys thought I was fucking crazy, but I think they understand it now.”
“But you didn’t even know me a year ago, not really.”
His eyes bore into mine, and without even realizing it, I move in closer. “Yeah, Winter. I did,” he murmurs, his voice barely even a whisper as I become locked in a trance, unable to look away.
“Move,” a voice cuts in, breaking our moment.
I suck in a breath and have to blink a few times to realize where the hell I am and that we’re not alone. The artist steps right in front of me, getting nice and close to Grayson and forcing me to pull my hand free. She starts cleaning up the excess ink, and before I know it, he’s standing in the corner of the room, looking over everything she’s just done.
All she gets out of him is a firm nod, and just like that, she starts applying some sort of cream and then bandages him up.
After rattling off a list of care instructions, she walks out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her so she can get to her next appointment, leaving us alone with far too many unsaid truths and emotions dangling in the air between us.
Grayson grabs his shirt off the seat he’d thrown it on, but before he pulls it over his head, he stops and looks back at me, his eyes soft and full of resignation. “You were right,” he tells me with a heavy sigh, leaning back against the table that he’d just spent the last two hours on. “Since the second you walked into our lives, I’ve been too fucking scared to make a move. You and me … I don’t know. You’re already with my friends. I don’t want to be third in line, and I sure as hell don’t want to take their girl. You’re off limits to me, Winter, no matter how much I wish things were different.”
I shake my head, slowly moving into him and sucking in a small gasp at the way his hand so effortlessly falls to my waist. “I don’t want to be off limits to you, Grayson,” I tell him. “I know you feel that there’s something here, just like I do, which is why I’ve already spoken to Cruz and King. They know how I feel about both you and Carver and if something were to happen, they’re down with that, but sharing isn’t about who comes first and second in line—it’s equal. I’m not going to lie, it’s a learning curve, and as long as you’re open to it, I don’t see why we can’t make it work, or at least give it a try.”
Grayson pulls me in just a little bit more and I move into the space between his legs. “You’ve talked to King and Cruz?”
“Mmhmm,” I nod, my tongue rolling over my lips. “Haven’t you? You were down for a foursome two weeks ago.”
“That was about sex, Winter,” he tells me. “This is more than that. I want to be able to call you mine.”
“That’s not how it works,” I murmur, knowing I should pull away, but the thought silently threatens to kill me. “I won’t be yours, I’ll be all of yours.