by Lori Foster
Noah shook his head. He had more than one property now, but nowhere had really felt like home. Not until Grace. She brought sunshine into every room, and Noah had no doubt she’d somehow make a cardboard box feel cozy. He could probably sit in that same dark alley with Grace and be content.
He also had expensive clothes tailor made to fit his tall frame. Shopping had been one of the first things Agatha had taught him. She claimed the right clothes were important to make the best impression. Noah smiled.
He’d rather be naked with Grace any day than wear fine clothes.
Grace’s impact on him was disturbing, and had at first scared Noah spitless. But he was getting used to it, accepting it. Noah snorted. Hell, he’d more than accepted it, he loved it. Long before Grace had crawled into his bed, she’d been in his heart. He just hadn’t dared to recognize his feelings, because recognizing them meant all his other plans had been awry. It would mean he’d put too much importance on the wrong things, that he’d been planning to marry the wrong woman.
He wouldn’t make the same mistakes Kara made by trying to hide his feelings. He wouldn’t let Grace think he was ashamed of her.
Grace glanced up, for once oblivious to his mood in her excitement about the small trip. “Kara’s understandably afraid, but you know, I think Enrique is really in love with her. It hurts him that they have to sneak around.”
There was no accusation in Grace’s tone, nothing to indicate how she felt about their present situation. Noah had thoroughly enjoyed their little game of sex slave and master, but with every passing minute he wanted more.
He wanted everything.
“Grace, would you be involved with a man you were ashamed of?”
Her gaze flew to his. She held the colorful sarong to her chest. “No, of course not.” She looked confused for a moment, then went back to unpacking.
Noah propped himself against the dresser and watched her. “Grace?”
“Hmm?”
“You have a baby book on your shelf at home.”
Her head lifted, their eyes met and held. Hot color flooded her face, and Grace winced. “It’s an old one.”
“Yeah?” Noah couldn’t look away from her. “How old?”
She fidgeted. “Um…I got it when I was twenty.”
“Why?”
Shrugging, she said, “A lot of the other women I knew then were seriously involved, engaged, getting married. It made me think about those…things.”
Noah pushed away from the dresser and went to her. Being near Grace and not touching her was almost impossible. Especially when discussing things like babies. He could so easily picture Grace as a doting mother. The image of a tiny baby tugging hungrily at her nipple squeezed Noah’s heart and made his lungs constrict.
He needed to know exactly how Grace felt about him. “Do you think about all that still?”
Grace actually winced; Noah had no idea what to make of that. Was she uncomfortable with his questioning? Was he crossing the line for her?
She replied carefully, her expression masked. “Right now, today, I’m just happy with how things are.” She reached up to touch his jaw in a feather-light caress. “Very happy.”
Noah was at a loss. With Kara, everyone had assumed they’d marry, and it was discussed around them quite often. He’d never been forced into a formal proposal.
With Grace, it wouldn’t be that easy. Not only was she far more complex than Kara, but she was also a stronger woman. She wouldn’t marry a man for any reason other than love.
Did Grace love him?
Noah watched her, wondering if her evasiveness was her subtle way of letting him know she didn’t want to get married. He knew Grace cared about him. He could still recall in vivid detail the way she’d rushed to his defense when Agatha had disowned him. The memory of that would live with him forever.
But did Grace care enough to tie herself to him for life? What could he offer her other than mind-blowing sex?
Just as Noah’s past didn’t matter to her, he knew his present situation of wealth and influence wouldn’t matter either. What did Grace see in him? What did she need from him?
Noah tried a different tack. “My grandmother seems to think we should give marriage some thought.”
Grace stiffened, then walked away from him. She opened the balcony doors and wandered out. She’d done that several times since their arrival, continually drawn by the ocean and the balmy breezes. This time felt different.
The sound of the ocean was a droning roar in Noah’s ears. The air was humid and thick and fresh. Palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze. Noah followed her out.
Grace had her face tipped up to the sun, and as he stepped up behind her, she said, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Noah braced his hands on the railing at either side of her waist, caging her in. He pressed his chest to her back and kissed her ear. Softly, he whispered, “You’re beautiful, Grace.”
He could feel her smile. And her avoidance.
“Will we really make love out on the water?”
He kissed her neck, her shoulder. “We can make love anywhere you want to.”
She put her head against his shoulder. “Where do you want to?”
Noah considered her question before answering. “When I was a young man, I’d screw anywhere. In the alley, at the theater, in the front and backseat of a car. Once, I took this girl in the rear of the subway with passengers sitting up front.”
“Noah!”
He nuzzled her nape. “Back then, sex got so mundane, so boring, I needed the extra kick of maybe getting caught.”
Grace elbowed him hard. “So you’re saying sex in the ocean is no big deal to you?”
Noah grinned and hugged her, restraining her arms so she couldn’t prod him with that pointy elbow again. “I’m saying sex anywhere with you is great. No matter how many times we make love, Grace, I just want you more.”
Grace went very still, not even breathing. Then, in the tone of voice he now knew signaled her arousal, she murmured, “Noah.”
He reached around her and pressed his hand to her belly. Grace was always soft, warm, and giving. If all they had was sex, he’d use that to win her over. He’d get her as addicted as he felt.
“Right here, Grace?” A breeze lifted her hair, blew it back against his jaw. Noah stroked her as he felt his balls tightening, his blood heating. “You wanna watch the ocean while I fill you up? It’s deep this way, Grace, but you’ll need my fingers”—he touched her suggestively—“right here, so you can come.”
Her bottom pressed and wiggled back into his groin. She wore only a thin sundress, and the feeling was incredible. Breathlessly, she said, “Okay, sure.”
Noah almost laughed. Grace was always so willing, so eager, she amazed him. “Think you can be real quiet while you come? The people on the beach might wonder what you’re doing if you start making all those sexy little noises I love so much.”
“I’ll be quiet,” she promised, and wiggled again, trying to urge him to hurry.
Noah lifted the back of her skirt. He stroked her thighs, her bottom, slid her panties down her legs until they dropped to her ankles. All the while, he kissed her throat, her ear, the nape of her neck, her shoulders.
When Grace was ready, he opened his slacks and freed his cock. For the first time, Noah resented putting on a condom, but he knew he’d never risk Grace’s feelings that way. If and when she wanted more from him, then they’d discuss it further.
But as he slowly sank into her, he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “You’d be an incredible mother, Grace.”
Grace groaned and clenched around him. Noah wasn’t sure she’d even heard his words. If she had, she didn’t comment.
“Push back, Grace. That’s it. Now brace your feet apart so you can take my thrusts.”
Within minutes Grace was ready to climax. Noah reached between her legs and touched her just right, then had to use his other hand to muffle her shout of release. In the next instant,
he closed his mouth over her shoulder to hide his own raw groans of completion.
They both slumped forward on the railing.
After a moment, Grace giggled. “Noah,” she whispered, sounding scandalized. “We have to move.”
“No. Can’t.” His legs were awkwardly braced, and if he moved, he’d fall on his face. Thinking of babies and forever-after while Grace milked him dry had zapped him of strength.
“People are looking,” she insisted.
Noah cocked one eye open. Sure enough, people below were glancing their way curiously. He smiled. “Nosy bastards.” He was still inside her, as closely connected as two people could be, and he hated to pull out. “They’re just jealous that I’m the one here with you.”
“Yeah, right.” Grace chuckled again, but Noah also heard the hint of embarrassment.
He slipped out of her, patted her rear, and said, “Marry me, Grace.”
He nearly groaned as he heard the echo of his own words—and Grace’s stunned silence. Damn, he really had to quit blurting things out like that. Sex had never before made him melodramatic, but sex with Grace did insane things to him.
Grace suddenly whipped around to face him and almost tripped because her panties were twisted around her ankles. Her eyes were huge when Noah caught her.
“Hold on, sweetheart.” He bent and held the underwear as Grace stepped free. Without a word, she hurried around him and back through the doors to the bedroom.
“Are we playing tag here, Grace?” He followed her back inside, but halted by the door. Grace was pacing.
Noah hated to admit it, but he felt very uncertain. Grace didn’t look overcome with joy at his proposal. No, she looked dumbfounded and ill at ease. His stomach roiled.
“Grace?”
Her hands were clenched together when she turned to face him. “Mathew Dean and Jessica Marie.”
“What?”
“Those are the names I decided on, from the baby book. I wanted two children, a boy and a girl. Matt and Jessie.”
Noah watched her. “Good names. I like them.”
“I know it’d be tricky to have one boy and one girl. But remember, this was just the ideal. If it was two boys, or two girls, I’d still be thrilled. I just wouldn’t want to stop at one.” She looked up, her expression earnest. “Children should have siblings. They should never be alone.”
“I agree.” A battalion of kids would be fine by him, as long as Grace was the mother.
“I pictured them as average, healthy, happy kids. They’d run around and be noisy and play, and I’d love every single minute with them.”
Noah would love every minute with them, too. “As I said, you’d make a great mom.”
“I hope so.” She turned away, and tension radiated off her. Her head dropped, her voice lowered. “Noah, I can’t marry you.”
Her words hit him like a punch in the gut. “You don’t think I’d make a good father. I never had one, so I’ve never seen how it should be.”
“No!” She whirled to face him, now taut with anger. “That’s not it at all. I think you’d make a wonderful father. You’d love your children and guide them and…”
“Then you think I’d make a lousy husband?”
Grace rubbed her forehead. “You’d make a wonderful husband, too.” And with some acerbity, “How could you think otherwise?”
“What am I supposed to think, Grace?”
She stormed up to him. “It isn’t about you, Noah. It’s about me. All my life I’ve been boring. I’ve been ignored and overlooked.”
“I find that so hard to believe, Grace.”
She shook her head, making her hair whip around. “But it’s true. Before they passed away, my parents were disappointed with me. I was heavy and shy, the opposite of them. Other kids weren’t exactly mean, but they didn’t go out of their way to befriend me either. And guys always ignored me.”
“I haven’t ignored you.”
“No. But you’re the first man who’s ever wanted me. And now other men seem to be noticing me, too. It’s all so new and so fun. Better than fun.”
Noah barely got the words out. “You want to fool around with other men, is that it?” Like hell. He’d find a way to get that idea out of her head real fast.
“No!” She looked genuinely stunned that he’d come to such a conclusion, and Noah managed to relax. “It’s flattering, but that’s all. I’m not interested in other men.”
“That’s good, Grace, because I’m not about to share.”
She scowled. “I wasn’t asking you to. I like what we have, Noah. I like your attention and I love having sex with you.” She bit her lip, blinked hard. “It’s…it’s enough for me. Please try to understand.”
Oh, he understood well enough. Grace wanted nothing more from him than sex. Noah almost laughed at the irony of it.
Grace gave him exactly what he’d asked of her, when almost from the first he’d known it wouldn’t be enough. Grace was sunshine and happiness and loyalty, the type of woman who made a man better, more complete. She was sexiness personified, real and caring and good deep down to her soul.
She was everything to him, and he’d blown it.
Noah wanted to rage, to shake her. But Grace stepped up to him and hugged him tight. “You’re very important to me, Noah. I’ve always cared about you, you have to believe that. But this is all so new, so…unexpected.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Let me enjoy it, please?”
He’d die for her, so how could he refuse her now? Noah touched her warm cheek, smoothed her long, thick hair. “Anything you want, Gracie.”
Her eyes darkened with deliberate suggestion. In an effort to relieve the tension between them, she teased, “That’s the spirit.”
Noah managed a smile over his aching sense of loss. Amazing Grace. How long would she be content with him? The thought of her with another man put him into a rage. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that happen. He’d keep Gracie so sexually satisfied, so limp and sated, she wouldn’t have the strength to look at other men. “Tell me what you want, honey.”
“I want what you promised. Sex on the beach, on the ocean. I want to explore Florida and see your condo. I want to enjoy you, all of you. I want to pack as much pleasure into this weekend as we can.”
And then what? Noah wanted to ask. Instead, he said, “You got it.”
The panicked shadows left Grace’s dark gaze and the strain eased from her face. “Where do we start?”
He squeezed her waist and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll rent a boat.” He stepped toward the desk and the phone book. “You can get into your bikini.”
Grace blushed. “I already told you that’s not going to happen. But I did splurge and get this nice tank suit that matches the sarong.”
Noah looked her over as she pulled the suit from her case and held it up in front of her body. He nodded. “That’ll be fine.” Then he added, “I’ll have it off you in no time anyway.”
Grace drew in a shuddering breath. “I’m counting on it.”
With some trepidation and a lot of antagonism, Ben rapped on the front door of his grandmother’s mansion. He’d been to her house a handful of times and was awed by the size and elegance of it each time. In comparison, his rooms at the hotel were no more than a hovel.
He still preferred them.
Surprisingly, Agatha’s housekeeper, Nan, wasn’t the one to open the door. Agatha saw to the chore herself.
Ben was deliberately ten minutes late and he waited for Agatha to mention it, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “Thank you for coming, Ben.”
Ben tried to relax, but it was impossible. He stepped inside. “Yeah, well, you didn’t give me much choice.”
Slanting him a look, Agatha said, “Well, well. I had no idea I had such control over you. That kind of information will come in handy.” She turned and headed toward the library, leaving Ben to follow.
He scowled at her narrow, straight back. Her sarcasm was misplaced, but then, he’d ask
ed for it by dishing out his own. Ben was fair, so he said nothing.
As usual, Agatha wore an expensive silk suit, this one a stormy gray, with low-heeled pumps that made her steps echo throughout the large entryway. Her silver hair was in a severe, elegant twist and she wore a simple silver pin in her lapel with matching studs in her ears.
For a fleeting moment, Ben wondered if Agatha Harper had ever been a soft woman, if she’d ever been a loving mother. Perhaps Pierce, his father, had merely been a product of his rigid upbringing. Ben shook his head and shut the library door behind him. He’d be damned before he started making excuses for the man who’d gotten his mother pregnant, then turned his back on her.
“Okay, Aggie, let’s hear it. What dire circumstance do you envision me dealing with?”
Agatha flicked her gaze at him while tidying a stack of papers on a dark, massive desk that Ben wouldn’t keep if it were given to him. “This is serious, young man, so you’d be better served to stop baiting me.”
She was probably correct, at least partly. Ben sighed. “Yeah, all right. So what’s up?”
“It’s about your brother.”
Ben raised both brows. “Hold on here. Are you acknowledging that Noah is my brother?” His shock was only half feigned. “But Aggie, you do realize that would have to mean Pierce was my father.”
“And I your grandmother, yes.” Wearily, she seated herself behind the desk and nodded toward a chair. “Please, take a seat.”
A little numb at the turnaround, Ben scooted the padded leather chair a little closer. It was unaccountably heavy. The damn thing likely cost as much as his hotel. He dropped into the posh padding with a sigh. “I gotta admit, I’m waiting with bated breath.”
Agatha folded her old, wrinkled hands on the desktop and eyed Ben. “Noah is ruining his life.”
A guffaw of hilarity escaped Ben. “Yeah right. He’s happier than he’s ever been.”
Agatha frowned. “On the surface, maybe. He’s a proud man and wouldn’t want others to know how he really feels.”