He swallowed past the need that welled in his throat.
Gracie.
Steam wafted from the inch wide crack of the open bathroom door. He quieted the urge to barge in there and casually pushed at the wood instead, widening the opening.
Grace stood in front of the glass paneled steam shower, her back to him, t-shirt bundled in her hand and pressed against her naked breasts, jeans slung low on her hips. Her bare feet poked from beneath the hem.
The smooth skin of her nude back drew him forward while the running water masked his footsteps. He had to kiss her. Had to kiss her right there in the hollow of her spine.
He bent at the knees, wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his mouth to her warm skin.
She flinched and spun around, dropping the t-shirt in the process. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
His eyes strayed to her breasts. “I’m well trained,” he said biting off a grin as he desperately warred to keep his hands off her. He nodded to the shower. “Having second thoughts?”
“No.” The simple sweet word sent a sharp tightness to his heart, and to other parts of his anatomy as well.
“Good.” He reached for her then, he couldn’t put it off any longer. His fingers trailed down one breast, stopping to circle her nipple.
She gasped. “Just waiting for you.” Her head fell back, exposing the long column of her smooth neck.
He kissed her in the hollow of her throat. His tongue drank in the taste of her skin, a combination of salt and the sweet cinnamon vanilla scent he’d come to associate solely with Grace.
His palms skittered across her nipples as he moved to grip her shoulders. He took her mouth, his need for her making the kiss rough and demanding rather than gentle and sweet.
Grace’s fingers curled around the top of his pants and tugged, her fingertips dipped below the waistband. He sucked in a ragged breath.
“I want to see you,” he rasped against her mouth. “All of you.”
She unhooked his belt. “Only if I get to look at you.”
He dropped his hands to the snap on her jeans and undid it with a flick of his fingers. She fumbled with his until he brushed her hands aside and dropped his pants and boxers in one smooth motion.
She smiled, the affection behind it nearly his undoing. God, he wanted this woman. Wanted her smiles and her laughter. Wanted the feelings of contentment that buzzed inside him whenever she was near, drawing him home.
Home.
She was home. This beautiful strong woman was everything he’d longed for and never thought to have.
“Keith...”
He blinked and realized that Grace had shed her own jeans and panties. Her huge sparkling emerald eyes studied his face uncertainly.
His gaze slid down her body, taking in her smooth stomach, the apex of her thighs, her long, silky legs...and he just about swallowed his tongue.
“God, Grace, you’re...beautiful.” He trailed a hand down her stomach touched the soft mound between her legs.
She shivered.
“Honey, you’re cold.”
“N—No—I—I’m not.”
He wrapped one arm around her waist, slid the glass back on the shower and stepped inside with her. Warm steam enveloped them immediately. He closed the shower, cocooning them in the almost tropical atmosphere of the rainfall showerhead and humid mist.
Water dripped in his eyes and he swiped it aside to watch Grace tip her face to the spray. Eyes closed, features rapt with pleasure she let the moisture roll across her face.
Keith’s arousal strained painfully. He knelt and licked water off her breasts, tasting her, suckling her. Her eyes popped open with a gasp. She smiled and sighed, her eyes drifted closed once more as she melted into him.
He kissed his way to her stomach. His tongue touched a light silvery thread beneath her belly button.
“Stretch mark.” Embarrassment clouded her voice.
He shrugged and touched his tongue to the same spot once more. “I like it.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right.”
“I do.” He reached around her and cupped her bottom, drawing her even closer. “I think it’s sexy.” He punctuated the statement with a kiss between her thighs. “I think everything about you is sexy.”
“Keith.” His name came off her lips in a moan loaded with desire. She tugged on his hair. “I can’t...I want you...up here.”
“Hot damn.” He grinned and shot to his feet. “I’m all yours.”
She reached for him. Pain and pleasure shot through his groin.
Water cascaded over the both of them as he kissed her. His tongue mated with hers in a hot, wet kiss. Her hips strained toward him. He answered her silent plea with a brush of his fingers. She was ready for him. Ready for his touch.
He slid a finger inside her and watched her expression turn intense as she rode against him. Her palms rubbed his chest, his nipples and then dipped lower.
“You’re killing me.” He drew in a garbled breath.
“Then stop torturing us.”
He smiled and set her against the glass wall.
With a nudge of his knee, he parted her thighs wider. She shifted her hips to accommodate him. He bit the inside of his cheek, cupped her butt and drew her forward, entering her with one slow thrust.
“Grace. You feel so good. So damn good.”
She cried out. “Oh...God...Keith...”
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he moved inside her.
“Gracie.” He slid his hands up her body to her face where he smoothed several wet strands of hair out of her eyes.
Grace moaned, tossed her head to the side and lifted one of her legs higher, locking it around him.
His control slipped. He had to slow down. Had to make this last. But he hadn’t had nearly enough of her. Wouldn’t ever have enough of her.
She was air, and sunlight. His entire ration of MRE’s or the God sent helo rescue when all was lost.
She was everything.
He choked on the words as they threatened to find a voice. To ensure they’d stay buried he grasped Grace’s chin and covered his mouth with hers, thrusting his tongue into her mouth with all the frustration and longing that speared his traitorous heart.
He could never tell her. Never. She wanted to move on. Hell, he wanted to move on. What good would it do to watch her throw the words back in his face?
Her body quaked with the onset of her orgasm, her fingers raked down his back. He lifted his mouth and watched her as he thrust into her, making her tremble harder, faster.
God, she was beautiful.
Her gorgeous eyes fixed him with an intense stare that revealed so much. Too damn much.
He clenched his jaw to school his features into a mild expression. Fought the emotions that pulled him under like a drowning man.
Grace’s mouth turned down at the corners. “You okay?”
An unfamiliar sting nailed him in the eyes and he squeezed them shut. He swallowed. “Yeah.” The word passed his lips in little more than a hoarse whisper.
She leaned forward and pressed the sweetest kiss in the hollow of his throat, her warm, wet tongue, tasting his skin.
His own climax ripped through him. His teeth hurt from the force he exerted to keep from voicing the truth.
He loved Grace.
Keith touched a strand of Grace’s silky hair. Sunlight filtered through the window of the hotel room, giving Grace’s body an ethereal gray quality that made her seem like a mirage. He ran a finger down her cheek, just to make sure she was real. Her cheekbone was delectably soft under his rough skin.
“Mmm...” Grace moaned and snuggled closer.
He smiled. The woman made love the way she did everything else, with fire and determination. No holds barred.
Except when it came to forgiving him. Then the walls came up and she refused to budge. What would she say if he told her? Just flat out looked her in the eye.
I love you, Grace.
He’d never sa
id those words to another soul. Not even to his mother for fear she’d spit on them.
“Hi.” Grace’s sleep-roughened voice planted a fist deep in his heart.
“Hey.” He shifted to draw her closer but she bolted upright out of his grasp.
“Oh, my God. Ryker.”
He ran his hand down her arm. “He’s fine. Out like a light. It’s early yet.”
She shook her head. “I should check on him.”
He leaned in and kissed her bare shoulder. “I already did. He’s okay.”
She dropped her arm, effectively removing it from his reach. “I know, but...it’s just...he needs me.”
Cold shoulder time.
His heart dropped into his gut but he pressed the issue with a kiss to her ear. “I need you.”
Again, she dodged his kiss. “It’s not the same thing.”
A hot ball of tight ash lodged in his chest. “Grace, look at me.”
She kept her focus on the window for far longer than necessary. Her stricken eyes clashed with his then skittered back to the window.
Her reluctance to look him in the eye spoke louder than any words.
He pounded a fist on the bed. “We are not doing this shit.”
“What?” Her mouth gaped open, eyes wide.
“This...oh, no what have we done crap. Don’t ask me to regret making love to you, Grace. I can’t. I won’t.” He jabbed a finger in her direction. “It was your call. I was prepared to walk away.”
She shot to her feet, trapping the sheet around her body. And still he could see every sexy little curve he’d kissed and adored last night. Arousal stirred, which only made him all the more angry. He hopped off the bed and advanced on her.
“You’re—right.” She shuffled backward. “But, I have Ryker to think of.”
He stalked to her and curled his hands around her shoulder. “What is that supposed to mean?”
For a moment they stayed locked like that, immobile. At an impasse. But then her chin quivered. She jutted it in the air with a shake of her sleep-tousled hair and forced her way past him into the living room.
“I can’t do this,” she said, the slap of her bare feet on the carpet punctuating that damning final statement.
His hands clenched. Build the wall higher, Grace. Sooner or later no one would even attempt to scale it.
Not even him.
He ran after her. “Grace, wait—”
She rounded on him. “No. Last night was...wonderful, Keith. But we both know that’s all we’ll ever have. I have to find a way to move forward, to forget about the past.”
“Oh, that’s real mature of you, Grace. All that moving forward, forgetting the past shit. Coming from someone who refuses to forgive me for something that happened years ago is laughable.” Only he couldn’t find a damn thing to laugh about at the moment. He pointed an accusing finger at her. “And just for the record, I knew you were going to get all stiff and self-righteous on me. You’re good at that.”
She crossed her arms over the sheet, which had slid low enough to reveal one taunting nipple. “And you’re good at not taking responsibility for your actions.”
He threw his hands wide. “Who’s not taking responsibility, Grace?” He deliberately appraised her body. “We had sex. I admit it. Hell, I’d even do it again. If that makes me a bastard in your eyes...well, it’s not anything I haven’t been before.”
She tipped her head, a frown creased between her brows. “You’re not a bastard.”
You’re not a bastard. Hell, those words meant so much. But they weren’t enough.
He closed his eyes in an effort to avoid watching her deliver the final blow. I could never love you, Keith. I could never want you.
“Then...what, Gracie?” he whispered. “Why are you running?”
No answer. Nothing. But he knew she stood in front of him. He could smell her, feel her, feel the need to touch her churning his gut.
He opened his eyes and met her shining emerald ones.
“I can’t...this won’t...” She swallowed. “If my sister knew what we...” Her breath shuddered through her body.
A sharp knock on the door interrupted them. Grace paled, spun on her heel and fled to her room, slamming the door.
“Grace, wait—”
The knock grew more insistent. Tension and frustration hummed throughout Keith’s body. He stomped to the door and flung it open.
Cam stood on the other side, his smile far too damn chipper as he pushed his way into the room. Keith glowered and resisted the urge to plant his fist in Cam’s face.
“What do you want?”
“Well, buddy, I’m here for your debriefing. Although—” Cam lifted a mocking brow, “it appears I’m too late.”
Keith glanced down his body. “Aw, shit.” He stalked past the couches to his own room and closed the door in Cam’s face. Wasn’t as satisfying as wiping the smile off it, but it would do.
“Where’s Grace?” Cam’s muffled voice was filled with intense curiosity.
“Hiding,” Keith bit out. He grabbed his boxers off the floor and shoved his legs into them.
“Scared her off with your nakedness, huh?”
“Cam?”
“Yeah, Keith?” The laughter in Cam’s voice was palpable through the thick door.
“Shut up.”
Chapter Nineteen
She couldn’t face Keith.
Not after she’d run from him like...like some sort of coward.
Grace twisted the thick gold and burgundy comforter in her hand, strangling the bed instead of making it.
What other choice did she have? If she’d have let him see...no, she couldn’t betray her sister that way. Loving Keith was the equivalent of plunging a knife into Becca’s back. Waking up in Keith’s embrace and enjoying it only twisted the blade deeper.
Becca would never forgive her. Never understand.
And what about Ryker? Grace punched the pillow and glanced at her son immersed in the carefree throes of a Spongebob cartoon. He was already far too attached to Keith.
Better to cry rivers of pain now than oceans of regret later.
Ryker didn’t need that kind of heartache. Neither did Becca.
Get over him. He’s leaving today. It’s better this way.
At the sharp rap on the door, Grace’s heart lodged in her throat. She wasn’t ready. Her gaze snapped to the mirror that hung above the dark cherry wood desk. How could she manage to hide her feelings from Keith? Blatant love shone in the deep set of her eyes, spilled from the large tears that coursed down her cheeks.
“Grace.”
Keith’s low voice rumbled straight through her heart.
She dashed the wetness from her cheeks with her palms. “Coming.”
She dragged the door open until a sliver of Keith’s face was visible between the opening. “Yes?” The single word barely slipped through the thickness in her throat.
“They’re ready for you.”
She nodded, and with a shaky breath opened the door further. When she would’ve brushed past Keith, he detained her with a light touch on her shoulder, a gentle touch that she felt run straight through her heart. She lifted her chin and met his intense stare with one of her own.
“I’d like to have a few minutes to say goodbye to Ryker. If that’s all right with you.”
Her lips parted. Why did he have to be so damn considerate? It only made her resolve to stay away from him, for Becca’s sake, harder.
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “Thanks, Grace.”
She could only nod, for the golf ball in her throat had grown to grapefruit proportions, as she watched him disappear into her bedroom.
“You really need to tell her, man.”
Keith released a pent up breath and stared at Grace. She stood with her back to him and Cam, studying the view of Camelback Mountain from the huge picture window. She’d pulled her hair back into a tiny ponytail and left the sexy curve of her neck bare.
He’d kissed her in that very spot last night. Touched the silk of her skin and breathed in her unique smell that never failed to set him on fire. Why couldn’t she see they were good together?
He angled his body so he wouldn’t have to look at her. “I don’t want to worry her,” he said, carefully keeping his voice low.
“Aren’t you worried?” Cam’s hushed tone matched his.
“Hell, yeah, I’m worried. We need to find out what’s on that paper, and more importantly, why someone would give it to Ryker.”
“Could Victor have had a partner?”
“Possible. But Victor struck me as a one man band.”
Cam rubbed his brow and frowned at the water-stained paper in his hand. “I’ll run this through my analysis program and see if I can get a workable imprint from the ink. It might take a few days.”
A few days. What if they didn’t have that long?
“All right, keep me in the loop.”
Cam nodded and tucked the paper in his briefcase on the table. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to hire round the clock security for her until we figure this out.”
Cam tucked his tongue in his cheek. “Your dime?”
“Yeah. Whatever it takes.”
“In that case, I might know some people who will go a little easier on your finances.”
He couldn’t care less about the cost. Grace and Ryker were what mattered. He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, buddy.” Cam gestured to the two MPs that stood guard by the Suite’s front door. “Curly and Moe are chomping at the bit to get you to Fort Huachuca for your lynching. Look at them. They look like they want to drag you out of here by your balls.”
Keith huffed out a laugh. Curly was tall and burly with a handlebar mustache that curled upwards against his cheeks. Moe was the exact opposite, short and bald with a permanent scowl etched on his face.
“They do look a little wild-eyed.”
Cam grinned. “Let me see if I can get rid of ‘em for a few minutes.” He jerked his head in Grace’s direction. “Talk to her.”
Talk to her.
Keith ran his hands along the creases in his pants. What more could he say? I can’t love you if you won’t forgive me?
Her Own Best Enemy (The Remnants, Book 1) Page 23