Now or Never

back and laughed.
    Grayson was now on the way to her second one night stand within two weeks. Part of her wanted to tell him she’d changed her mind, but a bigger part of her thought, what the hell . Even her own mother said she was only young once.
    They walked through the front door of the hotel and the woman behind the counter gave a knowing glance. More like a glance of disapproval. Whatever. She’s probably just jealous.
    “My room’s a mess. I wasn’t expecting to bring anyone back.” Jerry looked embarrassed as they walked down the hall.
    “I don’t care.”
    He pushed the door open, and he wasn’t exaggerating, the room was a mess, but at least the bed was made. It was somewhat reassuring that he hadn’t gone to the bar to pick someone up.
    The door closed loudly behind them.
    They stood in awkward silence for a moment. Grayson thought about bolting. Finally, he took a step forward, and his hand slipped behind her hair, his thumb rubbing the base of her neck.
    His lips met hers and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. Where was the sense of excitement? Grayson wondered. Their clothes quickly dropped to the floor.
    Jerry stood back to take her in. “Beautiful,” he whispered. She didn’t even feel self conscious since she knew she would never see him again.
    His lips trailed down her neck. She closed her eyes. Derrick flashed through her mind, and her body tensed.
    Jerry stopped. “Everything okay?”
    She nodded and trailed her fingers down his muscular chest. Continuing down, Grayson’s fingers slid over his hard cock and felt it twitch in her hand. It was crazy how much power women had over men when it came to sex. One look, one move or touch was all it took to make them go crazy.
    He began to use his tongue to descend down her body, devouring her as if he never tasted anything so good. Why wasn’t she into it? She needed to focus. She wasn’t going to let Derrick ruin her night. He took up way too much of her mental time as it was.
    She leaned into Jerry before they tumbled onto the bed. His large hand squeezed her breast as he wrapped his tongue around her nipple and sucked hard. Her body finally responded, her back arching as she moaned softly.
    Grayson went through the motions, but wasn’t able to climax. Her mind kept wandering to Derrick. Jerry seemed to enjoy himself though. That should have counted for something.
    The sex was just okay. Nothing earth shattering, and once again, she left without exchanging contact information. She should have felt like a whore, but instead she felt confused—confused by the fact that she let Derrick cloud her chance of no strings attached sex with a man who clearly wanted her.
    Grayson rubbed the back of her neck, her muscles tight with tension.
    Maybe it wasn’t really Derrick. She could blame the call from Joshua instead. Her mind just wasn’t where it should have been in the heat of the moment. Her emotions were all over the place, so of course she wasn’t into it.
    It had nothing to do with a certain rusty-haired guy who kept unexpectedly showing up and causing the ground to tilt beneath her.
    Right?

CHAPTER 15

    The next morning, Grayson’s mom left early to run errands, and she was alone in the house. At any other time, she would have loved the solitude. Today, however, she had way too much on her mind.
    It started with a phone call while she was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast. The first ring tore through the silence like an alarm, instantly raising her body temperature. Grayson put down the towel she was using to wipe the counter and slowly made her way to the phone. She paused; her hand hovering indecisively over the cordless phone nestled in its base. Three rings later, she was glad she hadn’t answered.
    “Grace. Baby. Please come home.” Josh’s smooth voice filtered through the answering machine. “I can’t live without you. I need y—”
    On a wave of hot rage, Grayson slammed a finger to the “stop” button and cut off his message mid-sentence.
    How dare he call here again begging for her to come back? Had their conversation the day before not been enough to prove she was serious? Grayson stomped down the hall and jerked open the closet door, removing her mother’s fancy, ball-bearing vacuum cleaner. The obnoxious whir of the machine had to be better than her own thoughts; she needed something to drown out the endless clutter in her brain.
    She started with the bedrooms, tediously moving furniture