Always on My Mind Page 0,76

with those, anyway.

But by the time he was done with making love to her, she'd understand exactly how he felt about her.

He'd make absolutely sure of it.

* * *

Lori remembered the first dance lesson she'd ever had. Her mother had taken her to the studio in downtown Palo Alto and she'd been afraid. She hadn't let on, of course, that she was scared. Not even when her legs were shaking so hard she was afraid she'd embarrass herself in front of the beautiful teacher. Because one day when she grew up, she wanted to be just like Madame Dubois, tall and slim and proud, her hair pulled back into a bun, her limbs so graceful simply crossing the room to shake hands with her mother. Madame had smiled down at her, then reached out a hand and drawn her into the middle of the room. There were other girls, older ones, stretching along the barres that were placed in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors.

"Dance for me, Lori," was what Madame had said, and then, suddenly, she hadn't been scared anymore. Because dancing was who she was, the very core of her. She'd started leaping and twirling, closing her eyes so that she could dance to the music in her head, a symphony of emotion and beauty.

Now, as Grayson drew her into him and kissed her so sweetly, so perfectly, she remembered that little girl who had danced because she loved it. She hadn't been trying to please anyone, hadn't danced for any other reason than because it made her feel whole and perfect and beautiful and so wonderfully alive.

It was just how Grayson made her feel, even in those first days when she hadn't wanted to feel anything at all.

He loved her.

Disbelief had come first, but that was because she hadn't been expecting it. And also because he so loved being cranky, even when he was saying he loved her.

But then, there had been fear. Such big fear it threatened to swallow her whole.

Fear that she couldn't love right this time, fear that she didn't know how to put love in its place and keep it there safe and pretty and simple, fear that she'd just end up making all the same mistakes she always had.

Lori clung to Grayson as he kissed her and she spun deeper into him, into everything he'd given her without ever wanting to.

She felt so raw from losing Sweetpea, and she knew she would for a long time, but she could also feel Grayson's kisses already healing her where she was torn and hurting.

He rained kisses over the rest of her face, her eyelids still damp from her tears, and then her forehead and the curve of one ear, before taking her lobe between his teeth. She shivered at the sweet pleasure of the small bite, and then the slow swipe of his tongue over the sensitive skin on her neck.

He was so big, so strong, so tough, and yet no other man had ever been this gentle in bed, this intent on drawing every ounce of pleasure out of her. He moved lower then, his tongue dipping into the hollow of her throat, and she moaned aloud as he laid her back against the pillows so that his hands could follow the devastating path of his mouth and tongue and teeth all along her skin. She arched into his kisses, his caresses, gasping at every perfect kiss.

The morning sun was coming in now through his bedroom window and bathing them both. Where she'd been so cold outside just a short while earlier, now she was warm and safe.

And loved.

He was pressing kisses to the upper swell of her breasts, and she reached out to stroke his cheek. His stubble was thick as it rubbed across her breasts and beneath her fingertips. He licked out across one of her nipples through her bra before catching lace and flesh between his teeth and she wrapped her legs around him, no words necessary to tell him what she needed. She arched her back so that he could undo her bra clasp, and a heartbeat later her chest was completely bare to the most wonderful mouth any man had ever possessed.

She couldn't catch her breath, but it was just as well, because a moment later Grayson was crushing his mouth to hers again and they were rolling over so that he was on his back and she was lying across his big, hard body. His hands cupped her