by SJ McCoy
She met his gaze. “I’m not sure I want to tell you.”
He wasn’t sure if she was a crazy, or if she was playing him somehow, but he couldn’t resist going along with her. “How about I persuade you to tell me?”
“What do you mean?”
He took her glass from her hand and set it down on the table then leaned closer. Her full red lips had been tempting him since he’d first seen her at the end of the hallway. “I can be very persuasive,” he breathed as his hand slid farther up her thigh and leaned in closer still. He lowered his lips to hers and then stopped less than an inch away. “If you want me to.”
She nodded and closed the final distance between them.
~ ~ ~
Alarm bells were ringing in Grace’s head, but they couldn’t pierce the fog that had descended on her brain. He’d leaned in ninety-five percent of the way. Some magnetic force drew her the last five. He brushed his lips over hers, and his hand moved up her thigh. Some tiny part of her mind tried to direct her hand to push him away; instead, it diverted course and reached up to cup his head, pulling him down closer for more. He obliged, tangling his fingers in her hair and tipping her head back. She moaned as he dropped his lips to her neck and nibbled the soft spot behind her ear. All the muscles in her stomach and lower tightened, making her seek out his lips with hers. With his fingers caressing her thigh and him nibbling her neck, she was terrified he could make her come right there and then. She had to divert him back to a kiss. It worked. He cupped her face between his hands and crushed her lips with his. He slid his tongue inside, and she was a goner. She could feel herself moan as he claimed her mouth. The alarm bells managed to pierce through with a dead certain realization that he could claim her whole self just as easily if she let him.
She broke away abruptly. This wasn’t what she’d come here for. She edged away from him, aware that she was breathing hard, and there was no hiding just how aroused she was. She slowly lifted her gaze. Would he be angry? Guys who were used to getting what they wanted didn’t like it when a woman called the shots—she knew that. Would he be mad? Or would he dismiss her since she wasn’t proving to be the easy lay he’d obviously thought she was?
The last thing she’d expected was to see a look of amusement on his face. Was he laughing at her?
“You don’t like it?”
She pursed her lips. She wasn’t a liar.
His smile grew wider. “Good.” He handed her the drink, and she downed it. She needed it after that.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“Well, I didn’t come here planning to spread my legs for you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
He chuckled. “The thought had occurred; you wouldn’t be the first.”
Arrogant prick. She scowled at him.
“I’m sorry. I’m an asshole when it comes to women.” He poured them both another and ran his hand through his hair—a gesture that for some reason had her squirming in her wet panties. In that moment all his arrogance was gone, and he was even more attractive.
“Why?” She couldn’t resist asking.
He met her gaze and shook his head. “No one ever asks why. Usually, they either agree or tell me that I’m not, that I’m just misunderstood.”
She let out a short, harsh laugh. “They play you, just the same way you play them, then. I’m not interested in playing the game. I’ll just say it like I see it. You’re an arrogant prick, and yep, you can be a real asshole when it comes to women.”
His expression changed. “You’re not here to get vengeance for a girlfriend I’ve fucked and forgotten, are you?”
She pursed her lips. “No. I’m speaking purely from personal experience and projecting a general assumption from there.”
“Fair enough. I’d say it’s a logical assumption.” He winked at her again. He really needed to stop doing that. She wanted to hate him for it, but there was something so damned sexy about it.
“Do you get lots of vengeance visits?” she asked, just to move past the wink.
He shrugged. “There have been a few. I don’t understand why women can be so vindictive. I’m always up front; I like sex, and it’s all I have to offer. I’m not going to call you afterward, and if you come back in here, you will see me with someone else.”
She stared at him. There was no way on earth she’d tell him, but she thought that was admirable, at least the fact that he’d admit it. Most guys pretended to be interested in more just so they could get a girl into bed. Honesty was a much better policy, as far as she was concerned.
“So, are you interested?”
“What?” Her head jerked up, and she met his gaze. She’d thought he was explaining why some girls got mad at him, not laying out his terms for her.
He chuckled. “I had to ask.”
“And I have to say no.”
He heaved a big sigh and looked up at her with big puppy dog eyes. “Aww, are you sure?”
She tried to hide a smile, but she couldn’t, not completely. He was gorgeous, and he played it so well. If the future of the center wasn’t on the line, there was no way she’d have been able to resist him. She shook her head. “I’m sure.”
“In that case, are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
She stared at him for a long moment, then finally shook her head. This was all wrong. She’d come here with two options that she could see. If he seemed like a nice guy, she’d planned to appeal to his better nature, and see if he’d be interested in making some kind of donation to help rehouse the center. If he seemed like an asshole, she’d thought it’d be easy to make some veiled threats about going to the media with the story of how he was ousting kids and vets and single moms. She’d figured that would be enough to make him throw some hush money their way or maybe even get him involved—looking for good press instead of bad. Now she didn’t know what to do. He did kind of seem like a good guy, but at the same time, he was, by his own admission, an asshole. And besides, none of her contingencies had accounted for him being Big Cat, the arrogant prick from the elevator, and they certainly hadn’t factored in the possibility of her kissing him, or him asking if she wanted to have sex—or her desperately wanting to. “No, you know what? I’m just going to leave. I will need to talk to you at some point, but this is neither the time nor the place.” She got to her feet.
He scrambled to join her. “You haven’t even told me your name.”
“Grace.”
He chuckled. “Amazing Grace.”
She sighed. “I thought you might be more original.”
He shrugged; his cocky smile was back. “You’ve thrown me off. I admit it. You win this round.”
She smiled. It was good that he thought so. She was feeling like a failure, but she needed to figure out a plan of attack before she put anything to him; if she tried talking to him now, she’d get nowhere—except maybe underneath him.
“Can I call you?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t playing hard to get. She was just making sure she stayed in control. Growing up the way she had, she’d felt powerless about so many aspects of her own life. These days, she did whatever she could to stay in control—empowered, as Louise had put it.
He gave her a puzzled smile. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
He grinned. “If I give you my number will you call me?”
She took his card with a smile. “When I’m ready.”
Chapter Six
By Thursday morning, Oscar was growing impatient. He hadn’t expected Grace to call him on Sunday, that was too soon. Monday had been a possibility, but he hadn’t been too surprised not to hear from her. Yesterday, he’d smiled every time his phone had rung—and had been disappointed every time it wasn’t her. He’d gone to bed in a bad mood and had stared at the ceiling for twenty minutes. He’d almost called Kendra—she could have helped relieve some of his frustration, but she wasn’t what he
wanted.
TJ popped his head around the office door. “Are you busy?”
“No. Come on in. What’s up?”
TJ came in but didn’t take a seat. He never seemed able to relax long enough to sit down. “I was going to ask you the same thing. You’ve been Oscar the Grouch this week. Is something wrong?”
Oscar smiled. TJ hadn’t called him that since they were kids. “No. Nothing serious anyway. I’ll tell you if you want a laugh.”
His brother raised an eyebrow. “I’m intrigued.”
“Remember when we went over to see Dressel to make the offer on Gascoigne Street?”
“Yeah.”
“Remember when I said I couldn’t find her?”
“The office girl?”
Oscar gave him a rueful grin. “Yeah.”
“What about her?”
“She was in here on Saturday night.”
TJ groaned. “And you slept with her, and now she’s stalking you?”
“No. She refused to sleep with me.”
TJ gave him a skeptical look.
“She turned me down.” Oscar shrugged. He didn’t want to admit, even to himself, just how big a part that played in his frustration.
“I know you’re not used to hearing no from the ladies, but seriously? That’s enough to put you in a bad mood?”
“No. It’s not just that. She came in here looking for me. But she didn’t expect me to be me.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I’m not sure I know. From what she said, I think she came here looking for Oscar Davenport.”
“Well, yeah, that’d be you.”
“No, listen.” He needed to spell it out, not just for TJ’s sake, but so he could get a better handle on what she’d meant. “She said she probably wouldn’t have come if she’d known I was me.”
“I ask again—what does that mean?”
“I think it means, that she was looking for me as Oscar Davenport, but she didn’t know that the guy she’d met in the elevator was Oscar Davenport. I think it was some kind of weird coincidence.”
TJ’s eyebrows knit together. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. On Thursday, the two of you had some kind of missed connection in an elevator. Then on Saturday night, office girl goes out looking for Oscar Davenport, and gets the shock of her life when she realizes that Oscar Davenport just happens to be the same guy she already met a few days earlier.”
“Yup.”
“And why was she looking for you?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me.”
TJ shook his head. “That makes no sense.”
“I know, but it kind of does. She was looking for me to tell me something or ask me something, then she discovered I was the guy from the elevator, and that threw her off.” He smiled as he remembered the way her lips had parted to let him kiss her, the way her fingers had sunk into his hair.
“Are you sure you didn’t screw her? The look on your face says you did, and that might explain why she left without telling you what she came for.”
“No. I did try to persuade her.” He grinned at TJ. “And it almost worked, but she came to her senses and walked out on me.”
“So, why haven’t you tracked her down and figured it out? If it’s bothering you, do something about it.”
Oscar brought his hand up to his face and rubbed his thumb across his lips to cover the smile that was playing on them. “This is the part where you get to laugh at me.”
“Because?”
“Because she said she’d call me, and she hasn’t yet.”
TJ laughed. “Man, that’s got to be a first.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. It is. And I don’t like it; it’s frustrating as fuck.”
“It’ll do you good.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, I do. She’ll call you before the week’s out.”
“I hope so.”
TJ laughed. “I do, too. It’s good to see you put in your place a little, but I prefer the happy, cocky version of you to the sour, grumpy version.”
“Okay. Point taken. I’ll put her out of my mind. Do you want to grab some lunch with me, help distract me?”
“Sure. Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~
Grace stood in Harry’s doorway. “Do you need anything else before I leave?”
“No, thanks. You go on.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Harry held her gaze. “I’ve been asking around for you, Gracie. I’m confident I can help you find something before I close the doors here.”
“I know. Thanks, Harry. I’ll find something. Don’t you worry about me. You need to focus on making plans for you and Susan. I bet she can’t wait for you to retire.”
Harry made a face. “She’s not as thrilled as I thought she’d be. She seems to think I’m going to be under her feet.”
Grace chuckled. “It’ll take some adjusting to, I’m sure, but you’ll love it. Both of you. Anyway, I need to get going. I need to get over to the center.”
Harry pressed his lips together and sucked in a deep breath. “How’s it going?”
She shrugged. “We’re doing what we can to raise money. The church over on Driscoll has a room we can rent a couple of times a week, but it’s not cheap, and it won’t work long term.”
Harry looked uncomfortable.
“I’m only telling you because you asked. Don’t look like that. We’ll figure it out. It’s not your responsibility. You’ve done more for the place than most people ever would. Don’t feel bad because you can’t keep it up.”
“Thanks, Grace.”
She nodded. “See you tomorrow.”
She got off the bus right outside the center, just as she had most days for what felt like most of her life. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that in a few more weeks it’d all be over. Time was running out, and that thought made her finger the card in her pocket. The card she’d carried with her ever since he gave it to her on Saturday night. She needed to call him. She couldn’t afford to waste time just because she didn’t want to seem too keen to talk to him again. This was about so much more than that.
She pushed on the front door and almost fell through it as someone on the other side opened it at the very same moment.
Spider caught her.
“Are you falling for him?” asked Reese who was coming out with Spider.
She shook her head. “Nah, I’ve got better taste than that, and he wouldn’t have me even if I did.”
Spider nodded. “You’re right there.” He made a face and shuddered. “It’d be like doing my little sister.”
Grace laughed. “Yeah, err no.”
Reese eyed them both. “Sometimes I wonder. You two seem like you’d make a great couple.”
Grace and Spider both laughed. People often said that, but she didn’t see him that way. Spider was the closest thing to family she’d ever had. Her dad had died when she was a few months old, and her mom had gone on to have more boyfriends and more kids. Grace didn’t even know how many half brothers and sisters she had. There’d been four of them when child services had come for them, but she’d heard there were more after that. She looked up at Spider. “No. We have way too much history for that.” It was true. They’d first met when they were both in the same foster home. It’d been a rough one, to say the least. Spider had looked out for her, and to his surprise at first, she’d looked out for him. They’d been sent to different homes after that but had gone to the same school. “Are you guys leaving already?”
“Not yet. We’re just unloading. Do you want to help?”
She followed them back out to Spider’s van. He’d started expanding the kitchen at the coffee shop a couple of months ago, and now he delivered sandwiches to the center whenever he could.
“What have you got going on tonight?” he asked as he handed her a tray.
“Dinner by
the looks of it,” she said, as she eyed a sandwich.
He scowled at her. “You know I’ll feed you anytime you come in.”
“And you do, but I’m not just going to come strolling in for food when I’m not even working.”
He shook his head. “I don’t see why not.”
The three of them carried the trays back into the center. Grace smiled and nodded as she went. People broke away from their conversations and got up from their seats to follow them through to the kitchen area. This would be the first time that most of them had eaten today. Grace stood back and watched with a smile as one of the kids grabbed the donut she’d had her eye on. It’d do him more good than it would her.
Spider caught her eye and shook his head with a smile.
“Hi, Grace.” She turned to greet Terry, one of the vets who’d started coming in last winter.
“Hey, Terry. Did you get a license for that thing yet?”
He made a face and turned the wheels of his wheelchair, zooming toward her and then spinning away at the last minute. He whirled back around and gave her an almost toothless grin. “Nope, it’s more of an off-road vehicle, but I’ve got the hang of it.”
She laughed. “You sure have.”
Terry was a Vietnam vet. From what she could gather, he’d been living on the streets for more than a decade. When she first met him, she’d thought he might have severe mental health issues, but it turned out that he just chose to act crazy to keep people away. He didn’t like people, didn’t trust them, in general. Grace could relate to that. He’d walked with a stick but could barely get around. The first morning she saw him, she’d arrived at the center just as he was sneaking out. She’d tried to talk to him, but he’d gone full-blown crazy acting. When he finally limped away after yelling and screaming at her, she’d followed him a little way, offered him her coffee and when he took it, said, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He’d met her gaze and nodded, and their friendship had grown from there. It had been solidified for life when Grace had found the wheelchair advertised for fifty bucks on Craigslist and bought it for him. Of course, she’d told him it had been donated to the center, but that was just to avoid both their embarrassment, and he knew it.