Chapter 13
Jessica POV
“Yes. She’s with me. We got stuck here in the cabin, man. I’ll take her home early in the morning.”
My lips purse as I stare at Gray talking to my brother. He’s got one hand braced against the wall, the other gripping his phone tight, jaw clenched like he’s barely keeping it together. He sighs through his nose, runs a hand through his drenched hair, and says something else to Pierce, but I don’t hear it.
I’m shivering.
My teeth are clenched so hard my jaw aches. I’m trying not to show it – trying to sit still on this damp–ass wooden crate like I’m fine. Like my legs don’t feel like they’re made of glass. Like I’m not five seconds away from curling into a ball and falling the fuck apart.
I’m not fine.
I feel it in my fingertips
that numb buzzing that happens when you’re too scared to admit you were scared. When the
adrenaline fades and all that’s left is the echo of it.
He could’ve taken me.
That rogue.
He was on top of me.
I could still feel it–his breath, his weight, that fucking snarl-
I swallow hard, but it catches in my throat.
A flash of lightning cracks outside. A second later, the thunder rolls in, deep and slow like the sky’s growling back at us.
I flinch.
Gods.
Grayson hangs up.
He turns around, and I straighten automatically–like I wasn’t just falling apart over here like a damn child.
His eyes meet mine.
Don’t look at me like that.
Soft. Controlled. That whole Alpha thing that makes you feel small and safe and like he could kill the world if you asked
him to.
I cross my arms across my chest. I can feel how hard I’m shivering. My clothes are soaked. My skin’s freezing. I want to move, but I don’t trust my legs.
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Chapter 13
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t fucking cry.
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He takes a step forward. I press my palms against the crate to ground myself, try to hide the way they’re trembling. Gray stops in front of me. Kneels. Eyes locked on mine.
“Cold?” he asks, quiet.
Inod. Yes. Freezing. Scared. And so fucking close to breaking I could scream. But I don’t say that. I just nod.
I feel Grayson shift in front of me. His thumb drags slow over the damp fabric clinging to my thigh, tracing a line that makes my skin prickle under it. “You’re freezing,” he says again, quieter this time. His gaze drags back up to meet mine.
“You need to take that off.”
I blink. Stare.
What.
“What?” My voice comes out sharper than I mean it. “Are you–are you crazy?”
“I won’t look,” he says, low. Flat. “There’s a clean blanket over there, You can use that.” He jerks his chin toward the corner
some old stack of supplies, a folded wool blanket sitting right on top like the universe wants to laugh at me. “You’ll
freeze in that,” he adds, still crouched in front of me. “Take it off.”
I exhale, tight and shaky. “You’re ridiculous,” I mutter, glaring at the floor like it personally offended me. I glance at him – still standing there like a wall between me and the rest of the world. “You said you won’t look.”
Grayson doesn’t even blink. “I won’t,” he says again before I saw him get up on his feet and turn around. This is stupid. This is humiliating. However, he is right. ” Take it off, woman. Atleast one of us won’t die tonight.”
Yeah and it is me because I am so embarrassed right now. I felt him moving, probably getting the blanket. I drag the wet fabric up slow, wincing as the cold air hits my skin like a slap. My arms are goose pimpled. My whole body feels too small, too raw. i sit there for a second–shaking, breathing like I’m choking on my own heartbeat – arms crossed over my chest like that’s going to do shit.
“Okay,” I say. It barely comes out. Pathetic little whisper. ” Grayson.”
I feel him shifted. “Okay?”
I’m never going to recover from this. “I’m naked now,” I blurt and immediately want to slam my head against the nearest wall. Shit. Fucking shit. “I mean-” I close my eyes, mortified. “Shit. I mean-”
My heartbeat feels like it’s fucking everywhere – in my throat, in my head, in the tips of my fucking fingers where they’re curled tight against my legs trying not to shake.
“Can you just throw the blanket?” I manage. It sounds pathetic. Small. Beaten down and defensive all at once. “Please.” Grayson didn’t answer. I waited for him to say anything when I felt his hand barely touching my shoulder. “W–What are you doing?”
I felt him sigh behind me before the blanket come up around my shoulders, rough and dry and warm against my skin that still felt raw and to expose and then his chest hit my back.
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Chapter 13
I freeze. “G–Gray?”
“I thought I’d lose you.”
My stomach flipped so sharp it made my ribs hurt.
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“I thought-“He exhaled hard like he hated even saying it. “When I heard you scream–fuck, Jess–I’ve never moved so fast in my life.”
My throat went tight. Burning. Stupid. Soft in the worst way.
I didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t know how to breathe around words like that coming from him.
“You didn’t,” I whispered.
Gray nodded and then he dropped his head to my shoulder- so sudden, so heavy – it knocked the air straight out of my
throat and made me gasp like he’d just touched skin I didn’t know was bare.
“Gray…” breathed – small, shaking, wrecked.
His arms came around my waist – rough, claiming – yanking me back into him like he didn’t give a single fuck about
space anymore.
His breath hit my neck – hot, shaking, pissed. “I was so fucking gone for you, Jess,” he snarled low, voice wrecked, gutted,
like it cost him everything just to admit it. “Losing you? Fuck – it would’ve gutted me clean.”
His grip on my waist got harder – fingers digging in like I was the only goddamn thing keeping him upright.
“You think I care if I scared you?” he muttered against my skin – rough, bitter, breaking. “I’ll take you scared. I’ll take you mad. I’ll take you fucking fighting me-” He exhaled so hard it damn near shook me. “But goddess, Jess…” His head dropped lower–right at the curve of my neck. “I won’t take you gone.”
That did something awful to me. Like my heart stuttered sideways. Like my knees forgot how to exist. And what do I say to that? What in the actual hell can I say to that? “Wow,” I blurted – stupid, small, the kind of word that fills up space when my chest’s too tight to handle real ones.
That’s what I manage.
Fucking wow.
I clenched my hands like maybe if I held myself hard enough I wouldn’t fucking shatter.
“Turn around, Jess,”
NOWO
I shook my head small, pitiful. I couldn’t. I felt him move. Fast. Closer. Boots scraping hard against the floor as he closed
space I thought I needed.
that
“I want to kiss you.”
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Chapter 13
I
My eyes shot up–wild, stupid, wrecked–snapping straight to him like I misheard, like maybe my brain was short- circuiting from hypothermia or trauma or whatever the fuck this was.
But no.
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No.
Grayson Westwood stood there – close, huge, looking down at me like I was both the problem and the solution to every goddamn war he’d ever fought.
My throat went dry. My whole fucking body locked tight. “W–What?” It came out stupid. Weak. I hated it.
His jaw ticked. “You heard me,” he said–voice low, gravel–deep, like it was dragging straight from his chest without permission. “I want to kiss you.” Another step. Closer. Too close. “I want you.”
“You-” My voice caught. Stupid. Pathetic. A whole damn mess. “You can’t just-”
His eyes dropped to my mouth again. I swear I forgot how to breathe. “I want you, Jess and I’m so fucking tired of pretending I don’t.”
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