🥊 Hate or Fate 💕 {Enemies to Lovers}

.25.

Inexplicable disappointment washed through me at Gray's prudent suggestion.

I wasn't ready to go home, yet I felt as though I'd crossed some invisible line. I tried to get close to Gray, and that was the last thing he wanted to happen, obviously. 

"Let's get you warm in the car," he coaxed. "And then, let's get you home."

"Yeah," I bobbed my head, breathing through my mouth to escape his heady scent (and the poop in the air).

The anticlimactic end of our conversation smarted like a slap, which was almost as extraordinary as the bewildering lure of being so close to him.

I slid off the cooled hood to plop down in the dirt on the opposite side of the car.

"You drive," he amended, opening the driver's side door and waiting patiently for me to come around. "I'm still on pain killers."

I scooted over the uneven road in front of his bumper, watching my ghoulish shadow dance like the Slenderman in his car's low beams.

Then, my heel came down on a loose stone a few feet from Gray. Without any warning, my ankle rolled and my legs collapsed out from under me.

My startled yelp was absorbed by Gray's jacket as he darted forward. His chest was as blazing as the panic in his eyes when I smacked against his lean torso.

"Woah!" Gray huffed, squeezing me in a formidable hug as if I'd spooked him more than myself with my clumsy fall. "Are you alright?"

Too startled (and mortified) to answer, I looked up into Gray's arresting eyes. His powerful arms were pressing me against the ridges of his manly physique.

His potent scent wound its way into my nostrils. That luscious smell of tobacco, and musky spices, and tangy bergamot, and heated conversations that push your buttons in all the right ways, and the sweet excitement of indulgence. It was too much.

Our uneven panting mingled the piquant energy that seemed to shimmer in the millimeters between us.

"Isla?" his low pitch reverberated through my ribs.

Our noses were almost touching, giving me full access to his evocative gaze. The tendrils of amber and gold woven through his verdant eyes glistened in the soft starlight.

Wordlessly, I reached up to touch the slit above his eye, tracing the fresh stitch. 

Gray inclined his head, relishing the brush of my fingers with a sharp inhale that excited my insides. When my hand reached his temple, I ran it through his silken hair.

"Isla," his deep groan broke my resolve.

I pushed my lips against his, fully expecting Gray to jerk his head back or drop me altogether. Instead, we moved in frenzied sync, our lips parting to let our tongues explore.

Another deep moan vibrated in his throat, igniting our fervor.

Gray's hand tightened against my back, as my tongue slipped over his gums on my way to nibble on his lower lip.

Tilting my head to take the full heat of his passionate embrace, I wound my legs around his hips as his hand ran the curve of my back to palm my ass.

I responded, eagerly pressing my pelvis against his lower abdomen.

His other hand laced through my hair, giving it a quick tug that sent a fissure of pleasure-laced pain into my sex, intensifying the ache between my legs. He pulled just hard enough to push the sensation to a new level of recklessness.