by Mia Carson
Chase wanted to spend the night discovering all there was to know about Grace, but something told him he’d be lucky to get past the mask she wore so easily. Earlier, he had seen the real face beneath, but now, the mask crept back in place and he was desperate to keep it away for a few hours longer.
He slid across the bed, resting his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and stood, taking the sheet with her.
“What are we doing, Chase?”
He frowned. “What do you mean? We’re spending a night together,” he said, hating the sudden doubt in her voice. “Grace, talk to me.”
“This was a mistake, a huge mistake! We’re just supposed to be acting, but this… You?” Exasperated she hurried away from the bed. “I can’t do this—we can’t. I’m sorry, but this wasn’t what you asked for.”
She headed to the bathroom, but Chase leapt up and caught her hand just before she could. “Wait, just wait a second.”
“No, let me go,” she whispered angrily, but it wasn’t at him. Her eyes darted away when he tried to catch her gaze, and he finally cupped her face gently in his hands so she had no choice but to face him. “Chase, please, you don’t want any part of my life.”
“Says who?” he demanded. “You? You really think you’re the only one in this room with a dark past?”
“Mine’s worse, trust me. I’m broken goods, damaged. You can’t want anything from me. This was supposed to be a business deal, and that’s how it will stay.”
But Chase didn’t let her go. He kissed her fiercely, locking her body between his arms as he backed her into the wall. She sighed against his lips, trembling at his touch, and he knew whatever inner demons she fought against told her to stay away from him before she was lost. But he was already lost in her beauty and her fire. There was no turning back for him.
“You don’t get to choose just to walk away from this because your judgment’s clouded,” he argued. “We started this together, Graceland, and I’m not going to let you drop it so easily and walk out of my life.”
“Why not? We just met, and these things… They don’t happen,” she insisted, her eyes frantically searching his. “They can’t.”
“Says who?”
“Reality! That’s who,” she said shaking her head. “Two people can’t just… it doesn’t… damn it, Chase, stop looking at me like that!”
He smirked as he bent until they were eye level. “Like what?”
“Like you’re not terrified of where this is going so fast,” she whispered honestly.
He caressed her lips lightly. “Never said I wasn’t. I’m scared out of my wits by what you did to me so easily.” He took her hand and placed it over his beating heart, which pounded like a wild animal in his chest. “Feel that? That’s my fear, my anxiety, my desire, all because of you.”
She spread her fingers against his skin, her eyes widening. “And what happens tomorrow when we wake up?”
“That’s tomorrow’s problem,” he told her. “Tonight, I’m going to love you.”
The sheet fell to the floor, and Chase enveloped her in his arms, destroying her worries and doubts with fierce kisses that drove them both to heavy breathing within seconds. Her arms latched around his neck, pressing her body hard against his as hunger consumed them both. Chase didn’t know what would happen tomorrow and feared the light of day would erase everything they found in the darkness together—how they felt all day, how easy it was to kiss her, hold her hand, just be beside her… He was not willing to let go of that easily.
She might feel she was too broken to be loved, but he’d prove her wrong, one way or another. He’d thought the same about himself before she appeared in his life—on a stage, doing those damn yoga positions and driving him crazy in more ways than one.
His kisses intensified until he turned her around, dragging her back against him. As his lips trailed down her neck, his hand cupped a breast, thumbing her nipple while the other slid lower and slipped between her legs, seeking that delicious sweet spot and all its softness. He barely ran his finger between her folds before she shivered in his grasp, whispering his name in a desperate plea for more. If it took all night, he was going to pleasure her until she believed in whatever the hell was happening between them.
With each moan that escaped her lips, he grew harder against her back, and when she reached a hand down and around to hold him, his hips bucked. Jolts of fire ricocheted through his body as her hand gripped him hard and glided up and down his length.
“Keep doing that, and you’re going to drive me over the edge,” he growled in her ear.
His touch against her increased with her movements against him. She grew slick under his hand, and when his fingers thrust up into her, he relished hearing the gasp pass her lips. “Why does everything you do feel perfect?” When his fingers twisted and found her sweet spot, she cried out, her inner muscles working to hold him there, shuddering as pleasure built.
“I could ask you the same thing, lover.” He fought hard to control himself as her hand worked faster on him, biting his lip before he lost his concentration. When her whole body released in his arms, shaking from the orgasm, he turned her around, carried her to the bed, and followed her down.
As her chest heaved and her eyes hooded, he parted her knees and plunged into her, filling her in one solid movement. Grace clutched his back, her nails scratching against skin as his hands slid down her thighs. This was what making love was supposed to feel like. Utter chaos. Getting lost in the other person’s eyes as their gazes locked onto each other’s in the midst of passion.
Chase had no idea what this might turn into or what would happen when the sun came up, but in that moment, with Grace holding him as he buried himself inside her, he didn’t give a damn. This was the here and now. With Grace, the walls around his heart shattered until nothing remained but him, and even if she hid herself from him, he’d find a way to break down her walls, too.
When they cried out together, surrounded by their hunger for each other, Chase didn’t want to let her go. He rolled to his side, and she snuggled immediately into his arms, nuzzling against his neck.
“Where have you been?” she whispered a while later when her eyes closed, heavy with sleep.
Chase brushed the curls behind her ears and kissed her forehead. “Waiting for you, love, waiting for you.”
She smiled sleepily, and Chase held her through the night, forgetting entirely that this woman was only pretending to be his fiancée and not the real deal.
Chapter 7
The sun was warm on her face and Grace smiled, not wanting to open her eyes and break the magic of the night. Chase’s body pressed against hers, and as she stirred, his lips found her stomach, kissing lower and lower still. When his warm breath blew against her clit, her eyes opened and her lips parted on a sigh.
“Chase,” she said, but no other words managed to follow.
Instead, she moaned when his tongue trailed along her already moist lips and delved deep inside her. Her back arched as he gripped her hips and dragged her closer to his mouth, touching her in unimaginable ways. Already, that edge loomed close, threatening to send her over in a hail of pleasure, but she didn’t want to let go, not without him.
Grace sat up and before he could react, rolled him over, straddling him, covering his mouth with hers. It only took a little bit of fiddling before his tip pressed against her. She lowered herself slowly onto him. Chase drove up into her the rest of the way, making them both moan from the instant connection. Her back arching as his hands roamed across her skin, she rode him hard, turning her hips this way and that until he cursed under his breath and sat up to meet her thrust for thrust.
She couldn’t get enough of his mouth or his body and needed to feel every bit of it to convince herself this was real, as the sun came up, that Chase was still hers.
So he’s yours, now? the voice whispered in her mind. Funny how that happened, isn’t it? Does that mean you’re going to tell the truth?
Chase said her name huskily, and Grace was lost as he ground into her, sending them both falling over the edge and into each other’s arms. Could she tell him the truth of why she did this in the first place? Bringing up the contract and ruining the morning was the last thing she wanted to do. He chuckled into her neck, kissing her sweetly, and she pushed the worries aside. When it came time to deal with it, she’d find a way to let him know everything. Just not yet.
“Last day on the yacht,” he told her as he stretched. She eyed each flexed muscle on his body with a lick of her lips. “Keep doing that, and we might not leave this cabin,” he warned with a wink.
“Would that be such a bad thing?” she asked, letting her fingers move down his body until they found him, already growing hard again.
He growled and nipped her lip before soothing it with a kiss so filled with desire Grace could hardly catch her breath. “If we don’t show up, they’ll come looking, sooner or later,” he told her on a sigh. “Just have to get through breakfast, and in a few hours, we’ll be back on dry land.”
Despite what he’d told her last night, Grace heard the change in his tone. What happened once they reached that dock and stepped off this yacht? Would it be so easy to try to make this really work or would they simply part ways and hold onto the memory of their one night together? Anxiety at losing this man gripped her, and she tried to push back the reality of men in her life. They always left her, or turned on her. Chase wouldn’t be the same, would he?
“I’m going to shower,” he said as he rolled out of bed. “Unless you want to first?”
“No, go ahead, Loki,” she muttered, grinning as she said it. “You could use a freshening up.”
His lips thinned at her, but he leaned over the bed and kissed her before he grabbed a change of clothes and disappeared into the bathroom.
Grace stood and stretched, muscles she didn’t know she had protesting in the sunlight, but her body felt completely new. Chase had touched every bit of her, and his caresses stayed with her. She meandered to her suitcase and rummaged for an outfit to wear for their last day out when she noticed her cell. It had been off since she boarded the yacht, but since it was her final day, she turned it on, ready to text Jimmy and let him know she had survived the weekend. Maybe even get his advice on what she should do next.
But when she turned her cell on, the last thing she expected to see was a text from her mom saying Mickey had been paid off and Grace didn’t need to worry about making any more payments to him. Frowning, she checked for any other messages or explanations about where her mom got the money that quickly, but there was nothing. The water was still on in the shower, so she called her mom, but when she didn’t pick up on the fifth try, she tried Jimmy instead, pacing frantically back and forth, trying to wrap her head around what her mom might’ve done to eliminate such a debt.
“Hey, hon, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you yet,” Jimmy said through a yawn when he answered.
“Jimmy, have you talked to my mom at all?”
“No, why? Grace, what’s wrong?”
She told him about the text and asked if he had heard anything.
“Nothing,” he said, but she heard him moving around in the apartment. “Can’t see any of Mickey’s men watching the place either. Maybe she’s telling the truth.”
“Yeah, okay, and when has she ever actually done that? I don’t know, I don’t like it,” she said, worried. “Everything’s just really weird right now, I guess. I’m a little freaked out.”
Silence met her words for a long minute until Jimmy came back on the line. “Weird, huh. That’s an interesting way to talk about your current life situation. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, just that,” she lied quickly, but his laugh told her he didn’t buy it. “What should I do?”
“About your mom or about the other thing you’re not telling me?” he asked. “Grace, did you and Chase… Did you sleep with him? Oh, hon! I’m so proud of you! You’re not a virgin anymore!”
Grace rolled her eyes. “It’s a bit more complicated than just sex, I think.”
“Oh?”
When she didn’t answer, he gasped and muttered something about falling for the first guy she fell into bed with, but she cut him off quickly. “No, it’s not like that. It’s weird, like we’ve been together forever, and I’m confused—really confused—right now.”
“About what, hon? You’re falling for the man. It happens.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t,” she argued. “We’re going to be at the dock in a few hours. What if he just hands me the money and walks away?” The thought terrified her more saying it out loud, and she hated herself for it. When had she let herself turn into such a sap?
His next words made her grasp at the hope Chase filled her with last night. “What if he doesn’t? What if he asks you for more?”
Before she could answer, the water in the bathroom shut off. “I have to go. I’ll update you when I can,” she whispered and hung up.
If her mom did pay Mickey, that meant Grace was one step closer to being free of that mess. If she didn’t need the money for that, she could stash it away and maybe… maybe it wouldn’t have to be a weird thing between her and Chase. The thought lightened her step, and when he emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, she leapt into his arms. He caught her easily, returning her frenzied kissing without question.
“What’s all this about?” he asked as he sucked in air.
She grinned and slithered down his body. “No reason, no reason at all,” she said brightly, blew him another kiss, and closed herself in the bathroom. She rushed through her shower, wondering what the next few days might be like. Without the fear of Mickey hanging over her head, or her mom’s debt, she might be able to enjoy life for a while. Maybe she’d finally be able to escape the life she’d been trapped in for so long.
When she exited the bathroom, Chase was sitting on the bed watching her closely as she donned a pair of snug-fitting high-end jeans, black boots, and a black sweater to match. She plopped down beside him, grinning madly.
“Ready for breakfast? I could use some coffee,” she exclaimed.
“What happened to Grace? Did you see her go in that bathroom?” Chase asked, glancing past her towards the open door. “I swore I saw her go in there, and then you came out.”
Grace laughed. “What? I can’t be in a good mood?”
He played with the coin at his neck and tilted his head. “The first night, you were crying. I know something’s bugging you. You sure you’re good?”
“Promise.” She chewed her lip and nudged him with her arm. “Listen, once we get back on shore… I was wondering…” She trailed off, nervous about asking in case she read him completely wrong.
“What?” he asked, laughing, resting his arm around her shoulders.
“Would you like to have dinner with me? Like an actual date?”
His face fell, and his arm disappeared from her shoulders. Grace’s heart sank and she felt like a complete idiot. This was just a job to him, nothing more than an act. She was about to apologize and rush out the door before he could turn her down when he picked her up and placed her on his lap, kissing her.
“Why did you have to steal my line, woman?” he muttered.
She let out a breath of relief and kissed him right back, running her hands through that thick hair of his, inhaling his deep, teak-wood scent. “Breakfast,” she said against his lips. “We should probably get up there.”
“Right, breakfast. Parents,” he said and pulled away slowly. “Then we’ll talk.”
***
Breakfast with Chase’s parents went smoothly, and he knew neither he nor Grace were acting any longer. He held her hand all through the meal, running his thumb across her knuckles as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do, because it was. Her smile was genuine as she talked and laughed with Margot about the weekend, and when his parents mentioned a wedding, Chase didn’t turn away in discomfort. Instead, a crazy
idea popped into his mind as he glanced at Grace. His mom suggested a holiday wedding again, which was only a couple of months away. The way he felt at that moment, he’d be more than happy to marry her then and be done with it. The ring was already on her finger. All he had to do was officially pop the question and have her say yes.
She’s still hiding something from you, he reminded himself. And the sudden change in attitude threw him off—not that he wasn’t happy to see her smile brightly and leap into his arms, but something must’ve happened while he was in the shower. Later. He’d get it out of her later when they went out on a real date and he had the chance to draw out more of the real Graceland Summers.
“Babe? Is that alright?” Grace said, and Chase shook his head, staring from her to his mom.
“Sorry, what?”
“I swear, you’re worse than your father,” his mom teased. “I said we’d like to stop by your place for dinner this week, maybe go over some more ideas for plans, if you know what I mean? How does Wednesday sound?”
Grace grinned widely. “Wednesday night would be perfect. It’ll be so great to finally have you both over for dinner.”
Chase nodded. “Really, it’ll be great,” he promised, realizing how he would get to spend more time with Grace, maybe even get her to stay at his place. He’d wait until dinner to ask her, but it was the perfect plan. He wanted more time to get to know her, and one dinner date would not be enough.
They chatted the rest of the morning and early afternoon as the yacht rumbled back to port. Their things were packed and ready to go by the time the yacht was tied up, and Chase walked her down to the dock. Dexter waited nearby, standing by the black limo, ready to take their bags and load them in the trunk.