Grip Trilogy Box Set - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,242

I don’t like any kind of cut on you.” His voice admonishes and caresses at once. “Jade, where are the bandages?”

“God, Grip. The girl’s fine.” Jade huffs an exasperated sigh. “It’s not like she’s gonna lose a finger.”

Grip angles a glance at her, his frown deepening. “Would you just go find a Band-Aid?”

Jade’s eyes connect with mine before she shrugs and heads out of the kitchen.

Grip watches the door for a moment, even after Jade leaves, questions queuing up in the eyes he turns back to me.

“She bothering you?” he asks. “I know she’s still coming around about us.”

Is that what he thinks? Jade shows no sign of coming around any time soon, but even irritated with her, I see the affection, the place she holds in his heart, and I really don’t want to come between them—especially not when that relationship is so newly restored.

“No, it’s cool. She’s . . . just being Jade.” I try to free my finger, but he doesn’t let me go. “My finger’s fine.”

“I’ll be the judge of when it’s fine.” He offers a lopsided grin. “And who thought it was a good idea to leave you in the kitchen with a knife?”

I know he’s teasing me about my legendary culinary ineptness, but now is not the time. I’m still a little bruised from my conversation with Jade.

“I may not be a great cook, but I’m not a child.” I snatch my finger back. “Like Jade said, it’s just a cut.”

When the words come out harsher than I mean them to, Grip grabs my finger, taking it into the warm silk of his mouth, sucking and running his tongue along the injured groove. Electric current spears me down the middle, landing in my core. He sucks all the oxygen from the room, and my lungs desperately push breath from my chest. He studies me under hooded lids, knowing exactly what he’s doing to me.

“Was Jade messing with you?” he asks, his voice husky, but his mouth a firm line. He’s abusing the sway he holds over my body. I know it, but he still makes me want to confess. I close my eyes and clear my head long enough to tell him only what I want him to know. I need to make my own way with Jade, and I won’t do myself any favors if she thinks I go running to Grip to complain every time we disagree.

“No.” I meet his eyes steadily. “I was just a little surprised. She was texting Qwest about a song they’re working on, and I didn’t realize they even knew each other.”

“Yeah,” Grip says. “I introduced them.”

His eyes are clear, free of discomfort or regret. I know he doesn’t think this should be problematic at all. It shouldn’t be, but I can’t resist pressing a little.

“You didn’t tell me they were working together.”

“Should I have?” Grip bites the inside of his cheek and frowns a little. “I didn’t think it was important. Qwest was looking for new material, and Jade’s looking for artists to work with.”

“And you thought they’d be a good fit.”

“Of course.” Grip’s powerful shoulders lift and fall carelessly. “They have a lot in common.”

“Really?”

“They both have this badass sensibility. I knew Jade’s lyrics would feel right to Qwest. They’ve both overcome a lot, lived through a lot of the same things.”

Things I have no idea about, things they can easily bond around when I basically have to negotiate a treaty just to have a conversation with Jade.

“You admire her.” It’s a statement, because it’s obvious he does. “Qwest, I mean. You admire her.”

“I respect her, yeah,” Grip says. “I mean, hip-hop’s a male-dominated industry where most of us call women bitch and ho without blinking, and she shoved her way to the top. Her drive and talent and intelligence have made her one of the biggest names in the business, and she takes no shit from nobody.”

Grip watches me carefully, probably catching on to the fact that this means more to me than it should.

“Does it bother you that I respect Qwest?”

I could just say yes, but it’s not that simple. I, too, admire everything Grip just described about her. I relate to it because in many ways, those are the challenges I face in my career, too. Those aren’t the things that bother me, and I have to be honest with him and with myself about what does.

“It doesn’t bother me that you respect Qwest. I think it bothers me that you fucked