by Brynne Asher
Weston goes on. “He wants to see you, you should come with me now. I’ll book you a flight home with us and take you right to him.”
“Enough,” Grady says, as if he’s bored with the entire horse and pony show. “I’ve told Maya if she wants to see her brother, I’ll take her. She’ll talk to him this afternoon, if she wants to go, we’ll go, but I’m not going to say this again—she’s not going anywhere with you. Now get the hell out of our way before you create a scene.”
I thought Grady was going to move to leave, but he doesn’t. He’s patient and stands stock-still, holding my hand tight. Byron finally slaps Weston on the back. “Come on, you know what your dad said.” I don’t like the eerie look on his face when he turns to me, but keeps speaking to Weston. “I’m sure she remembers her last conversation with me. She knows what’ll happen if she doesn’t come home. She’ll come around eventually, I just hope it’s soon enough.”
They finally turn to leave, even though Weston seems reluctant. They walk to the same car that was parked outside my bungalow last night, and I finally exhale deeply for the first time since we practically walked into them.
I watch as they pull out of the parking lot of the Ranch until I feel Grady shift. When I look up, he’s turned to me and I feel his hand in the back of my hair again. That’s when he pulls me close, and before I know it, his lips land on mine. I may not have initiated it this time, but I sure don’t pull away even though he surprised me.
Without saying a word, he lets me go and takes my hand. Leading me quickly to his Escalade while scanning our surroundings, he opens the passenger door and makes sure I’m in before slamming it with all his might.
When he gets in, I know I should explain, try and make another excuse for all the drama, or hell, even lie like I’ve been doing since I crossed into the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“Grady—” I start, but I have no time to say another word before he holds up an index finger, gesturing for me to wait and a phone starts ringing over the speakers of his ultra-clean SUV.
It barely rings twice before I hear Crew’s voice. “Yeah?”
“Do me a favor and tell Addy that Maya won’t be in for a while. Depending on how long this takes, she might not be in at all.”
“Grady!” I yell and quickly refute his plans. “Don’t do that, Crew. I’m coming into work.”
Of course, Crew doesn’t listen to me, but says to Grady, “Done. Everything okay?”
Grady quickly pulls out of the lot and turns onto the two-lane road toward Whitetail, simply answering, “No,” before he hangs up.
I guess those two aren’t chatty phone talkers, because I didn’t have a chance to get in another word, so I turn to Grady. “You can’t do that, I need to go to work. I can’t afford to miss a day.”
Grady glances over at me before turning back to the road and states matter-of-factly, “Then talk fast, Maya. Until I figure out what’s going on with you, you’re not leaving my sight. You’ve got until we get back to Crew’s house to get your story straight, and it had better be the real one. It’s time we figure your shit out.”
Sighing, I slump back into my seat. As I watch the bare trees fly by, I wonder what I’m going to do. I think I’m out of options and have no idea how Weston found me, but he knows where I live and where I work. I’ve known him long enough to realize he’s at least been watching me, trying to leave now would be stupid. Closing my eyes, I lean my head back, and breathe. Telling Grady the truth at this point should be the least of my worries.
Chapter 10 – You’re Sweet
Grady –
I pull up to Crew’s front door, not bothering to park in the barn. The drive home was silent and I wondered the entire way what I’d get from her. The truth might be too much to hope for at this point. It’s clear she’s hidden her life from everyone—if not outright lied about it. Maybe expecting the truth is too much.
All I have to do is read the report Crew sent me to know. Normally, I’d be all over that. But for some reason, as distraught as she’s been since last night, I want to hear it from her first. I want her to trust me even though she has no reason to. I want her to open up, tell me why that fucker was in her life to begin with, especially for as long as he was. Fuck me. I’ve never felt this way before, but I want her to need me to make it right, and when that’s done, I just want her to need me.
But if I can’t get it out of her soon, I’ll be forced to read the report. I need to know what I’m dealing with.
Because after watching her for weeks, and now spending time with her, holding her, having her touch me?
I need her. I just hope to fuck she needs me, too.
She gets out of the car at the same time I do, meeting me quickly at the front porch. “Grady, please, I need to go to work. I promise to tell you anything you want to know later, but I can’t afford to miss a day. I have rent and bills to pay—I need the money.”
I pause in the middle of unlocking the door and turn to her. Her beautiful face is tense and filled with worry, and I realize I never thought about that part of her. About her working two jobs, never having a full day off, and renting Addy’s one-room house.
Money never crosses my mind. It’s just there, sitting in the bank, waiting for me to spend it. All I did was deposit it for years, meet with my broker—who I do regular background checks on to make sure he stays on the up and up—and let it grow. I’ve put my sisters through school, and if I wanted something, I bought it.
Besides that, I never think about money.
I let my eyes roam her features, and as much as I want to tell her not to worry because I’ll make sure she’s covered, she doesn’t need to know that right now.
“Doesn’t Addy give you personal time? Sick, vacation?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I’m hourly and part time. She said if I needed time off, we’d work it out.”
I grab her hand as I open the door and pull her through, making a mental note to get with Addy and work something out for Maya’s rent. “Then don’t worry about it. Addy’s a good woman, if she said she’d work it out, she will.”
“I can’t just not show up for work. It’s busy on Fridays and—”
“Maya,” I interrupt, pulling her all the way in and toss my keys on the table. “Crew will take care of it. I’m sure after last night, Addy already knows something’s going on with you.”
Maya sighs and drops her purse on the table next to my keys. I lead her into the only room with furniture, but stop because I realize there’s nowhere for us to sit. Maybe I should’ve taken her back to her place. At least she has a small sofa, but I was worried she’d run off to work as soon as we got there.
With no other option, I cross the room to my only piece of furniture—the recliner I bought when I first moved here with Crew. After I sit, I pull her into my lap. “Now we can talk.”
She’s stiff and awkwardly tries to push away from me. “What are you doing?”
“This is the only place I have to sit besides folding chairs that are on their last leg. Or my bed.” I give her a squeeze. “If you’d rather go upstairs and climb in bed with me, we can talk there.”
“You’re crazy, and now I have to worry about what Addy thinks of me.” She sighs before putting her fingers to her forehead and temples, shaking her head. “Addy’s been so good to me, I don’t want her to think I’m a drama queen who can’t show up for work.”
“Don’t worry about Addy.” I try and make her feel better, and pull her hands away from her face. “Tell me about Weston.”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, and sighs before giving me a resigned look. “We were engaged for three years.”
I feel my eyes go big.
“That’s a long engagement. What, could he not close the deal?”
She shakes her head, and I’m surprised I don’t have to work harder to get her to talk. “He pressed a little bit, but it was me who wouldn’t close the deal. I kept putting things off—wedding plans, coordinators,” she rolls her eyes, emphasizing, “my mother. When the date started getting close, I’d push it out.”
“Why?”
“I met Weston when I was sixteen and he was eighteen. He was my first … everything.”
I do my best not to respond to that, but it’s hard. The thought of him being her anything pisses me off, let alone everything.
She keeps going. “It was young love on crack, and up until about four or five years ago, things were fine. That’s when he started to change. As much as I tried to pull away, I always got pulled or pushed right back to him. Either by him or our families.”
“Your family tried to force you on a man you didn’t want?” That’s jacked. I could barely stand to see my sister, Raine, get married, let alone think about forcing her into anything.
“It’s complicated.” She pulls in a big breath and looks away from me to her hands. “Our families are complicated.”
That’s interesting. “Okay, then what?”
She shrugs and looks up to me. “Like I said, things were fine until about four or five years ago. He slowly started to change. He became controlling—domineering. It started when I was in college, he didn’t want me to go into physical therapy, he thought it was beneath me having to treat other people. After I graduated, he tried to keep me from working, saying I needed to focus on planning the wedding, move up the date, and once we were married, I wouldn’t need to work anyway. But I kept putting off the date, even pushing it back three times, much to the dismay of him and everyone around us.”
“What finally happened?”
“He’d get angry, but he always got over it pretty quickly and later on I found out why. Apparently, I wasn’t enough. I mean, it wasn’t like I made him wait for marriage, but still.” She looks up at me, widens her eyes and shrugs.
I have a feeling I know what that means and something comes over me. Rage. I’m surprised I haven’t burst out of my clothes like the Hulk. I’m overwhelmed by it, knowing what he probably did to her. I force myself to relax my expression and give her thigh a squeeze, hoping we can get past this shit fast.
Giving her head a little shake, she keeps going. “Anyway, I had to stop by his house one day and he was in the shower. There was a cell I didn’t recognize sitting in the kitchen next to his. It went off three times in a row, so while I was waiting on him, I went over to look. The message on the screen said three new pictures were sent from the same person. I probably shouldn’t have, but the phone wasn’t locked, so I did. I opened the messages, and while standing right there in my fiancé’s kitchen, my life came into focus. As I scrolled through, there were all kinds of pictures of a naked woman.” She closes her eyes and shudders from the memory. “Then there were more sent back to her, and since I’d been with him since I was almost eighteen, I knew exactly who the dick pics were of.”
My rage instantly turns into jealousy, and that’s even harder to overcome.
I pull her closer, tucking her tight into my lap, and this time she doesn’t push away, but she does bring her hands up to my chest. It’s easy to see she still hurts so I lower my voice. “This is what he meant when he said you were getting back at him with me?”
She shakes her head quickly, but her words conflict with her actions. “Yes, but I’m not. I’d never do that, not that we’ve done anything, anyway. I still feel bad about last night, but when you showed up, I didn’t know what else to do. I needed to get rid of him.”
“I told you not to worry about it.” I give her a small smile, wanting to make her feel better, but also tell her the truth. “Plus, it wasn’t a hardship on my part. Not to mention, from now until forever, I get to tell the world you made the first move.”
She shakes her head while trying to suppress a small smile.
“What?” I smirk back. “It’s true and I’ll shout it from the rooftops. Now, finish your story.”
She sighs, but keeps going. “That all happened a while ago. The months following, he was intent on winning me back. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, even though every time my answer was always no. My mom started to pressure me even when she knew what he did. I was messing up her big plans for the Augustines and MacLachlans to become one. She’s best friends with Weston’s mom. When his family started pressuring me—that’s when it freaked me out, because their pressuring came in the form of threats. Even though it killed me to not have any contact with my brother since we’re so close, things transpired and I couldn’t take it. I left months ago, moved around for a while before I finally settled here.”
“They threatened you?”
This time she doesn’t say a thing, closing her eyes and giving her head two slow shakes, as if to try not to think about it.
“Maya,” I call for her. She opens her eyes and I attempt to tell her some of the truth about what I do. “I told you Crew and I work in security, right?”
Her brow furrows in question.
“With that work comes a certain amount of access to information. When Crew left here last night, he knew things weren’t on the up-and-up. I didn’t know how forthcoming you’d be with me about what happened, so we pulled your background. Because of our work, we can put together a very comprehensive report on someone.”
She instantly tenses in my arms before really trying to push away. I hold her tight and keep talking.
“Maya, let me explain. He ran your background, but I haven’t read it yet. More importantly, he also ran Weston’s. I haven’t read it yet either, but I’ve been told his is the one I’ll be more interested in.”
“What do you do?” Her words come out fast.
I pause before explaining as best I can, even if it is brief. “I used to contract for the government—sometimes our allies. I told you I don’t work in the field any longer, but because of Crew’s company, we have clearance.”
All of a sudden her face tightens and her hands drop from my chest. “If you had all this at your fingertips, why would you ask me to rehash all that? It wasn’t fun living it the first time—I certainly don’t like to talk about it.”
I bring my hand up to her face and when I make contact, she jerks. I ignore that and pull her close, lowering my voice to a whisper. “I thought you’d be upset if I learned about your past without giving you the chance to tell me. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good. Maya, we don’t know each other well yet, but I’d never hurt you. I want you to trust me more than anything, so I gave you the chance to tell me first.”
“So you weren’t going to read that report?” she shoots back.
“Could you not have looked at your ex’s cell phone?” I ask.
Her eyes narrow, but she says nothing.
“I let your story come from you and told you I have the report. Don’t be pissed at me for something I didn’t do, baby. If you give me long enough, I’m sure I’ll do something to piss you off for real.”
That worked. Since I’ve got her close, I get to enjoy the change of her expression go from pissed to amused. It’s such a beautiful transformation, I look forward to the next time I get to make it happen.
Before I can think about how to do that, I get back to the matter at hand. “I’ll still read the report, along with Weston’s. But you trusted me with it first, and that’s what I wanted.”
Barely smirking, she shakes her head. “You’re not what I thought you’d be.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” I slide my hand back down her back, over her hip, and when
I reach the outside of her thigh, I yank her legs over the arm of the recliner, scooting her down in my lap farther.
Surprised, she grabs onto my neck. I lean over her and cup the back of her head where she’s laying across my lap when she says, “You’re sweet. When I’d watch you come into the tasting room and order food to-go, you looked anything but sweet.”
Bringing my face to hers, I run my nose up the side of hers and whisper, “That’s because I didn’t have your magic, yet torturous, touch to make me better. I’m not usually known for being sweet. If I’m sweet, it’s because you made me that way.”
“What are you known for?” she whispers back.
I shake my head and say right before my lips touch hers, “I’m not sure anymore. Lately, I’m not sure I even know myself.”
When I kiss her, it’s nothing like last night. There’s no desperation, no intensity, and no urgency.
After seeing that shithead angry with her, hearing what he did to her, and knowing he threatened her, I find myself wanting to give her exactly the opposite. Today, I kiss her the way she deserves to be kissed.
Brushing my lips across hers, I pull her head back, working my way down her throat. I hear her exhale as I kiss across her collarbone. Feeling her chest rise and fall, I continue back up the other side of her neck, tasting her and feeling her skin under my lips.
I whisper, “I feel different than I have in a while—a long while. I have a feeling it has everything to do with you, but nothing to do with you fixing my shoulder.”
“Grady,” she murmurs.
I kiss my way back to her lips, but stop when I get there. Lifting just enough to look into her light blue eyes, I ask, “You ever been with anyone besides him?”
She says nothing and I wonder if I crossed the line before she gives her head two quick shakes, confirming my earlier assumption.