Love in the Light - Laura Kaye Page 0,17

his face like this had reached inside his chest and his brain and his heart and stirred it all up again.

Stirred it up bad.

Jesus.

Breathe, Grayson. Just fucking breathe.

He braced wet hands on his knees, lowered his head, and counted backward from ten. Ten. Deep in, deep out. Nine. Deep in, deep out. Eight. If it hurt this bad to imagine Makenna with someone else, how much would it hurt to lose her? Seven. Deep, in, deep out. Six. I’ve lost everyone else, why would she be different? Five. Deep in, deep out. Four. You have her now, focus on that. Three. Okay, okay. Two. Deep in, deep out. One. Deep in, deep out.

Shit, his shoulders and chest were just as tight.

He did it again from ten, this time blocking out all the non-stop commentary racing through his head.

When he was done, he stood up and rolled his neck, his shoulders. She’d only agreed to think about what Cameron had said to her. She hadn’t agreed to be with him and she’d made it clear that she was serious about Caden. Focus on that. Right. Okay.

Except hearing the echo of Cameron’s declaration of love in his ear added another layer of stress to the whole situation. Because that dickhead had said it to Makenna again when Caden hadn’t said it once yet.

In fact, the prospect of declaring how he felt scared the shit out of Caden. Because it felt like tempting the fates. Hey, lightning, let me show you what I really care about so you know where to strike next!

The past. Anxiety. Fucked-up fears. He knew it.

Didn’t change that he felt that way though.

Which brought him back around to the gut check that maybe he wasn’t good enough for her.

Because didn’t Makenna deserve to hear those words? And if Caden couldn’t give them to her ….

Then what?

Stop it. Get back in there and be with her. That’s how you keep her.

He scrubbed his hand over the scar on his head. “Fuck,” he bit out. And then he turned on his heel and got back in the house. He could pull himself together. Nothing had happened, nothing had changed. She’d show him.

“Hey, there you are,” Makenna said, standing at the kitchen counter stirring a cup of hot tea. “I was looking for you.”

“Just needed a little air,” Caden said, joining her at the counter.

“Family proving a little too much?” she asked with a smile. She wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, you’re so chilly. I better warm you up.” Pressing herself tight against him, she held him closer and tucked her head in against his throat.

The embrace was fucking life.

He hugged her back. “Not too much,” he said, clearing the roughness out of his voice. “I like your family. It’s been a great day.” And it was. He’d meant it when he told Mike he hadn’t had a Thanksgiving this enjoyable in years.

“Would you like anything?” she asked.

His appetite for that turkey sandwich was long gone. “No,” he said. “I’m good.”

“Would you like to go be alone, just the two of us?”

He didn’t even have to think. “That sounds like heaven,” he said.

Makenna’s smile was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. See how she’s looking at you? Trust that look, Grayson. Nothing else matters.

She grasped his hand. “Then come with me.”

CHAPTER SIX

When they made it to her room, Makenna closed the door. “It’s only a double bed, so I hope you’re not too cramped tonight with me.”

“We’re sleeping together?” he asked, looking around her childhood room. Pieces of her youth remained tacked to the lavender walls and hung from her mirror. Ribbons, photographs, posters of bands. The room spoke of a person who grew up in the warm embrace of family, happiness, wholeness. “Your father doesn’t mind?”

Chuckling, Makenna shook her head. “We practically live together, Caden, which he knows. I’m sure he’s figured out that his twenty-five-year-old daughter has had sex before. Collin and Shima are sleeping together, too.”

“Shima’s pretty awesome,” he said, wondering if Makenna would say anything to him about her conversation with Cameron.

“She really is,” Makenna said with a smile. And then she unbuttoned her jeans, pushed them down, and took them off altogether, leaving her standing there in an oversized, faded red and blue Penn sweatshirt that was just long enough to cover her panties. “You should get undressed, too,” she said, coming to him and starting on the buttons of his shirt.

Press and release, press and release. Until she was pulling his shirt