Did he just?...
I held Grey's gaze waiting for him to tell me that he was joking.
He had to be.
There was no way Greyson McNamara wants to date me?
"Mia?" he spoke my name softly.
I felt like I was on the brink of having heart failure. Why did it feel like all the oxygen had suddenly been sucked out of the room?
Oh gosh! The tiny people in the control room located in my brain must be receiving a lot of "warning" and "error" messages.
"Y-y-you..." Damn it! Where were my words? I tightly closed my eyes and tried to take a few deep breaths.
I felt Grey's hands cradle my face, and my eyes slowly flickered open.
There was this unmistakable electricity zinging from his fingertips.
"Yes, Mia. I want to be with you." The words flew out of his mouth like it was the easiest thing for him to say.
I inhaled sharply.
I was not freaking out.
I would not freak out.
Who was freaking out?
NOT ME! NO! NO! NO!
"Do you like me too?" Grey rushed to add. "I mean..." He took a deep breath as if he was trying to muster the courage to continue. I almost found it hard to believe that Greyson was all nervous. That was totally not like him. "Do you like me as more than just your best friend?" His Caribbean blue eyes searched mine for the answer that I was having trouble giving him.
There were a crap ton of words dancing around in my head, but my brain was malfunctioning to the point that I couldn't seem to put any of them together to form sentences.
I wanted to ask if he was for real. Never mind the fact that he straight up confessed. I still couldn't believe it.
"No. No, you don't!" I blurted out, and I wanted to slap myself for it.
Grey's eyebrows knitted together, creating that cute little wrinkle in the middle of his forehead. I was confusing him.
I had confused my damn myself.
I felt one of his thumbs gently brush across my cheek, giving me goosebumps up and down my spine.
"You don't believe me?" Grey caught on quickly.
I shook my head. "All of this is quite unbelievable," I murmured.
Maybe even too good to be true.
"No, it's not. And you didn't answer my question, Mia." He gave me a hint of a smile. Small enough to express that he was trying to be patient and understanding.
How did he make confessing look so effortless?
"I don't know how to say this...?" I started. Instantly, I knew that was the wrong way to begin when a frown formed on Grey's lips, and he tore his eyes away from mine.
His hands slipped from my face, and he began to pull away.
"Are you saying you don't have feelings for me?" he mumbled under his breath. His shoulder's dropped with defeat.
God, I was an idiot.
"Grey..." I tried again.
"It's fine," he replied in a clipped tone before he got up. "Never mind. I'm going to my room." He began to walk off.
I launched myself off the couch. "How can you think that I don't have feelings for you?" I hurried to say as if my life depended on it.
Grey paused mid-stride, then he slowly turned to look at me over his shoulder. "What?" he asked cautiously.
I told my rapidly beating heart to calm the heck down so I could say this without butchering my words or causing any more miscommunication. "How can you think I don't have feelings for you when there's no one else in my heart that occupies the space that you do."
He turned, fully facing me. Frozen in that exact spot, he made no moves towards me. So I took that as my cue. I stepped forward until I was standing mere inches away from him. I craned my neck up to meet his gaze, and I watched his eyes dance all over the features of my face.
From the looks of it, his brain was working a lot like how mine was a few minutes ago.
I smiled at the thought. I placed my hands on his shoulders and stood on my tippy toes to place a kiss on his cheek.
When I pulled back, a handsome grin lit up his face. The pure radiance from it brought a calming warmth that confirmed everything I already knew.
This really wasn't one side.
Everything I felt, Grey felt it too.
But there was a reason I never said anything until now, and what if...
"Nope. Nope. Nope. Whatever you're thinking in that pretty little head of yours don't."
"We need to talk," I said sternly.
Grey shook his head adamantly. "Not if you're going to give me all the reasons that you think we shouldn't be together."
"I wasn't going to do," I trailed off, sucking in my bottom lip.
He raised a brow and pinned me with a look that I instantly knew meant, "Really, Mia?"
"Could you blame, though?" I fired back. "All my reasons are probably the same reasons you didn't tell me how you feel."
Grey opened his mouth, then closed it, then repeated the action once more.
"HA!" I poked his chest. "I'm right, aren't I?" I said, awfully pleased with myself right now.
He rolled his eyes while crossing his hands against his chest. "That's beside the point!"
"That IS the WHOLE point!" I threw my hands in the air from pure frustration.
"So what are we supposed to do then?" he asked exasperatedly. "You want us to go back to pretending we don't feel anything for each other because doing that for the past year has sucked."
I sighed harshly, fidgeting from one foot to the other. "I don't know," I replied truthfully, not hiding the distress in my tone of voice.
That answer appeared to calm Grey. He seemed like he needed a minute to recollect his thoughts before he said anything else. He rubbed his chin and ran his fingers through the wet strands of his hair.
"How about we make a deal?" he proposed.
I narrowed my eyes. "What kind of deal?" I asked hesitantly.
I knew my reaction to his question had him amused when the corner of his lips tipped up into a smile. That same smile was usually followed by trouble.
Oh no.
"Let's spend the summer acting on all those feelings. We don't hold anything back. And see where that takes us and how we feel when it's all over. If it's all over." He gave me a smug grin.
I had to play the devil's advocate. "And what if it ends?"
"Then we go back to being friends like nothing happened," Grey said, adding a casual shoulder shrug for good measure.
Being friends was one thing. We've been doing that for years. Being something more meant we'll practically be playing a whole other ball game, on a completely different field, getting ready to bat curveballs out of the park, or simply striking out of the game.
No pressure or stress there.
"So what you're saying is..." I needed clarification as I processed this whole idea. "You want us to date for the summer? And if it works out then, it works out, but if it doesn't, we'll magically go back to being friends, somehow avoiding the awkwardness of just having broken up with each other from over the summer. And we'll continue to live our lives with the knowledge of this, but it won't change anything?"
Greyson began with a slow nod like he had to make sure the words I had spoken lined up with the terms of the deal. "Yup. Pretty much."
I stood staring at him like deer in headlights.
There was no way this would work.
The words were easy to say, but if it got to the point where we had to put them into action, would I be able to hit the rewind button and go back to the way we were?
"Come on. It's a win-win." Grey tried to convince me. "We were afraid of our friendship ending if we were ever to get into a relationship, and now, we don't have to," he said it like it was the most genius solution.
"Because we'll always be friends no matter what?" I repeated the words he used to tell me when we were kids, and I would ask him if he would grow up and start hanging out with more guys instead of me.
"Yup. We got noth-"
"Don't say it!" I held up on hand. "Are we really bringing that phrase back?"
Greyson smirked. "Of course, it's my catchphrase!" He winked.
"Yeah, when we were like ten, and I'm way over it now." I rolled my eyes.
"Every awesome person has one."
"I don't have one," I countered.
He chuckled under his breath. "Who said you were awesome?" he teased.
I folded my lips into a thin line and sighed. "Wow. Way to charm the girl you're asking to date you for the summer," I said dryly.
Grey grinned, closing the distance between us. He wrapped one arm around my lower back, drawing me close up against his broad chest. If I wasn't acutely aware of his half-nakedness before, I was now. I tried not to be a creeper as I low-key sniffed the scent of the shower gel that lingered on his skin.
Irish Spring? I guessed.
I sniffed again. Yup, totally Irish spring. The scent of the heavens and gods themselves.
Grey's free hand tipped my chin up to meet his gaze. "Go out with me, Mia?" There was no hesitation. Now, that was the confident Grey I knew.
I cast my gaze off to the side. "Eh... I have to think about it." I decided to mess with him a bit.
He pouted adorably.
I tried to cover up my laughter as I cleared my throat.
"You just want to make me grovel, huh?"
I gave him an evil grin. "Maybe."
Grey exhaled a long breath. "Okay, fine. Then you leave me with no choice."
I looked back to him, just in time to see the flicker of mischief glowing in his eyes. I knew that look, and much to my dismay, I wasn't quick enough to avoid what came right after seeing it.
Grey's fingers slid over my stomach, and I erupted in giggles.
Damn it!
"Greyson! Greyson!" I pleaded, but he kept a firm yet gentle grip around me.
"What's your answer, Mia!" he asked over my squealing.
"This... This..." I said in between breaths. "THIS IS SO WRONG!" I told him as my legs began to give out beneath me.
"And I'm okay with that," he whispered in my ear.
After a few more seconds of torture, I gave up. "OKAY! OKAY!" I yelled.
Grey stopped his tickle assault.
I brushed a few loose strands out of my face and stood up straight. My eyes drifted up to Grey's again, taking in his ridiculously smug grin.
"Okay. Yes." That was all that I said.
"Yes, what?"
My eyes flickered to the ceiling as I feigned annoyance. "Yes, we have a deal." I held out my hand for him to shake.
He looked at my extended hand and said, "I think we should add in another clause."
"What?" I asked in horror. What more could he possibly want?
"From now on, I think we should seal every deal with a kiss."
Before I could comprehend what he had meant, I was pulled into his embrace. I peered up at him, and without hesitation or any stalling, Grey's lips crashed into mine.
There was nothing soft or slow about how he completely consumed me. When he traced my bottom lip with his tongue, I let him in. I felt molten lava as I melted into him, finally unafraid of holding back and giving him everything.
Grey pulled back only a few inches as the two of us tried to catch our breaths.
"Deal," he whispered before taking my lips once more.
A/N
Dedication= @peachymariee, I think you've been waiting for this moment.
And as always, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING!
-H