The Player by Jessica Bird

Author:Jessica Bird
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760379124
Publisher: Mills & Boon Series Special Releases
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The next morning Joy woke up alone in the big bed, still wrapped tightly in the comforter. Next to her, there was a deep indent on top of the duvet and a pillow wadded up into a ball.

She pushed her hair back, threw off the covers and got to her feet. When she returned from the bathroom in a robe, Gray was standing at the bed, fully clothed. And staring at the small spot of blood on the sheets.

He looked over his shoulder, eyes dilated.

“Are you okay?” he said roughly.

In a flash, she remembered what he’d felt like on top of her. Heavy, hard, strong. She was dying to have him again.

“Joy?”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

His eyes traced over her body, but there was no heat in them. “May I bring you some breakfast?”

This was said as if she were a houseguest and not someone he’d been naked with the night before.

Joy shook her head. “I’m not hungry, but you can answer a question for me. How is it possible that we made love and now you look at me with clinical detachment?”

He closed his eyes, withdrawing even further. As if that were possible?

“First of all, that was sex last night. You deserved to be caressed and worshiped and entered gently. All you got was laid and laid badly. I will never forgive myself. And secondly, my primary concern is taking care of you, not making you feel awkward because I’m a leering son of a bitch.”

Joy put her hands on her hips, taking strength from frustration.

“You know, I really need you to ditch the hair shirt you’ve strapped on.” Her voice was strong, direct. She couldn’t believe she was talking to him with such authority. “I still want you. You gave me so little of what we both needed—”

“I gave you every inch and then some. Until you bled.”

“Will you let me finish? You pulled out so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to get used to you. To feel you. I want to know what it’s really like. With you.”

“Someday, a man will love you rig—”

“Spare me the fairy tale, okay?” she snapped. “Just because I haven’t had a lover before, doesn’t mean I can’t make my own decisions. I want you. I chose you.”

“I didn’t deserve the gift!” His voice boomed through the room, self-hatred rolling off him in waves.

“I think you did,” she said quietly.

Gray leaned forward on his hips and spoke in a low, dangerous tone. “Then you don’t know me well enough.”

She thought of him refusing to let her ride home from his house in the dark on her bike. Of the respect he had for the way she treated her family with kindness. She remembered him lying beside her in the dark last night, his big body so tense as he pleaded with her to stay. She saw him staring down at the blood on the sheets just now, looking as if he were going to cry out.

He was a hard man. But never a bad one.

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