My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,70

would kiss away any leftover scent of my dumbass cousin’s lips on her, and I meant it. I put my hand under her chin and placed my lips on hers. Then, I was crushing her to me and kissing her with a ferocity that demanded a return, which was granted. She wrapped her hands around my neck, tugged at my hair, and ran her tongue along the seam of my mouth.

I picked her up, and her legs went around my waist. I pushed her up against the wall and explored, with my lips, my tongue, and my hands, the pieces of her I’d been longing to explore for six goddamn months. Tortuous months. Months on the road with my uncles and their band. I didn’t want that. Any of it. I wanted this. Grace. Me. Our words and our music blending together.

She flung her head back, and I devoured her neck and tugged at my T-shirt she was wearing, running my hands under it to find she’d removed her bra somewhere along the way. My fingers were free to roam across the pebbled, tender nipples, and she moaned again.

“You’re going to be the end of me,” I muttered against her skin.

She gasped before pushing at me, pulling my face from her skin. She grabbed my chin and stared into my eyes. We were both breathing hard, our bodies aching to be joined, and she was stopping us.

“Grace,” I said her name as a plea, with longing inside it.

“Mayson.” Her voice was full of as much desire as mine. “You left,” she said, hurt echoing through the words.

“I did,” I said, meeting her pained gaze with my own.

“You can’t do that again,” she told me honestly.

“I won’t,” I replied, meaning it with every single part of me.

“What if your family needs you?” she asked.

“I promise, you’ll come first. I promise we’ll make any decisions together. I promise their need will not come before you. Before us.”

It wasn’t something I said lightly. Uncle Derek had taught me everything I knew. He’d helped me become the musician I was, and it had been impossible to say no when he’d asked me to take over for Mitch. I’d thought it would have been temporary, but it wasn’t. After Mitch recovered, he decided he was done. He wanted to spend time with his family and his grandkids. I’d been stuck when I’d never intended to be stuck.

She seemed to assess my level of honesty. As if she wasn’t sure if I would keep my word. I leaned in and kissed her temple. Softly. Tenderly. A different kind of promise. A promise to love her like she deserved to be loved.

“If it happens again, I won’t take you back,” she said. It wasn’t a threat. It wasn’t even a warning. It was the truth. Grace was that strong. She’d walk away before she’d let someone continue to trample on her. On her heart. She said it with a confidence many people twice her age didn’t have.

It stemmed from her parents. I could see it when I saw them all together. They were tough. Just like the unoriginal saying, “tough as nails.” They weren’t going to take shit from anyone.

“It won’t happen again, but, Grace?”

She closed her eyes.

“You can’t close down on me again either.”

That had her opening her eyes and staring at me. As if she was surprised I’d seen her close down. That I’d seen her surround her wounded heart with steel spikes and leather and lace.

I kissed her jawline, running a finger along her arm and over to her breasts again, which caused her to arch off the wall into me, and I sighed because this was what I wanted. Her. Moaning, calling my name, arching up into me as we took our bodies and joined them into one.

I lifted her from the wall and took her back to my bed. I placed her down on the pillows, threw off my T-shirt and underwear, and then sat down beside her, sliding the T-shirt up her body, exposing her belly button ring and her breasts. I took the ring in my mouth, tugging gently, layering it with kisses. She ran her nails over my back as my lips journeyed from her belly button to take in one nipple while my hand caressed the other.

“May… Mayson, my love,” she breathed out my name, and I stilled at her words.

“Do you?” I asked.

“Do I what?”

“Do you love me?”

She closed her eyes, trying to hide. To protect the