by L. Nicole
“Vic… tor,” she whispers brokenly. Yet, the sound is sweet, tortured and it makes me want to kiss her again, so I do. Her lips move against mine and part when I prod with the tip of my tongue. I accept the invitation into her mouth, sliding my tongue against hers and a moan escapes her. A moan that I feel all the way to the head of my cock.
“You really must stop doing that,” she chastises me, once we break apart.
“Grace, honey, I’m just getting started.” I laugh. She truly has no idea of the things I dream of doing to her. The experiences I want to give her. “Are you ready to go, or are we staying in tonight?” I ask her and I am praying she chooses staying in, but I know I won’t be that lucky. Not this time… but, maybe soon. I’m going to have her beneath me every night for the rest of my life. Now that I have truly tasted her and felt her in my arms there is truly no going back. I’m staking my claim on her…heart, mind, body, and soul. I want it all. I want Grace.
“Let me just grab my wrap,” she whispers.
She gets it and I take it from her, motioning for her to turn around. I slide it over her shoulders, she grasps the ends, clutching it to her chest. Her hair is up again. She tempting me with that. I ache to reach up, undo the clasp, and let her beautiful dark hair fall to her shoulders. Instead I lean in to kiss the side of her neck.
“You’re beautiful, honey,” I whisper against the shell of her ear, and I’m rewarded as I feel her shiver beneath my touch. I may not know much about Grace yet, but I’m a man and I can read the signs. Grace is attracted to me. She wants me, even if her body is too inexperienced for her to know what that means. I know and I’ll use it to my advantage. Grace is not getting away from me.
She’s mine.
“I’ve never been beautiful,” she denies. “I’m sensible.”
I smile and brush my lips against her temple and wrap my arms around her, pulling her back into my body. “You’re beautiful, Grace. Inside and out and eventually I’ll prove to you that I see exactly who you are,” I whisper, lips brushing her neck once more. For a second, she stiffens, and then slowly relaxes against me.
It may take some time, but I’m going to win.
Grace has no idea how determined I am.
I always win.
11
Grace
“Are you okay, Moya Krasota?”
“You keep asking me that,” I whisper, looking up at him over my shoulder.
That’s because he’s at my back. He’s been pressed against me since we got here. Everywhere we’ve gone, he’s stayed close, his hand against my stomach, holding me to him… No… he’s cradling me. He’s constantly, rubbing his hand against my stomach or my shoulder, small reassuring movements that I’m not sure he realizes he’s doing, but I definitely do. It’s as though he is marking me in front of everyone. Staking his claim on me and part of me…a big part of me, enjoys it. Victor joins in on the conversation where it’s warranted and remains quiet when it’s not. He’s smart, a heavy hitter in the business world, because everyone here knows him. Yet, not once have I felt in the way. He’s been attentive and always turns the conversation back to the reason we’re here—my mother’s charity.
Which means the man who has lavished me with bouquet after bouquet, who showed up at my door unexpectedly, who has honestly has stayed on my mind since I met him for dinner and gave him the brush off, is someone that I really like.
As in really, really, like.
I don’t know what to make of him. I want to run away, but at the same time, I want to make sure he’s with me. It’s all confusing. He did try to proposition me into marriage, but I am softening toward him faster than I ever imagined possible. I can’t help but think my father would like Victor and the intimate, yet protective, way he is taking care of me tonight.
“That’s because you are tense,” he replies and it’s probably not good how much I notice his eyes twinkling with his response, or the way his lips curve into a soft smile.
“I really don’t like crowds,” I confess quietly.
“Then, why are you here?”
“Because this charity was started by my mother and it’s important.”
“If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be?”
“Really?” I laugh because it seems like a silly question to ask me in the middle of an event when there are people all around us.
“Really, Grace. If you could be anywhere else, where would you be?”
“You’ll think it’s silly.”
“I don’t think I could think anything about you is silly, Grace,” he says, and his dark eyes are so intense, his face so gentle, that I know he’s completely serious. He means what he says. What’s more is… I think he really does like me. The realization of that warms something inside of me that’s been frozen for a very long time.
“When I was five my father took my mother and me to this small, nowhere lake in North Carolina. It was in the mountains and he rented this rustic cabin and… it’s probably the best memory I have,” I tell him, blushing slightly because I’m a little embarrassed, but I wanted to be completely honest with him. He’s easy to talk to and I wasn’t expecting that after our first encounter.
“What was the name of the lake?” he asks, his finger brushing against the side of my cheek.
“Fontana Lake,” I respond, my breath suddenly labored.
“I’ll remember that,” he says strangely, and he leans down to kiss my forehead.
“Why?” I ask, unable to stop myself.
“What do you mean why, Moya Krasota.”
I shouldn’t, but I have to admit, I’m starting to really like his nickname for me. It warms me in places it shouldn’t.
“Why would you remember something as insignificant as a vacation I had when I was five?”
“Because it matters,” he says bringing my hand up to press a kiss against it. “You matter to me, Grace. One day I will make you believe this.”
“I’m just not sure why you would bother,” I tell him honestly.
“You haven’t gotten it yet, but you will,” he says with a sigh.
“Gotten what? You’re confusing me, Mr…” I stop when I see his face. I’d like to say it’s irritation, but I think me not using his name hurts him. So, for reasons I don’t fully understand, I correct myself. “Victor.”
Using Victor gives me the gift of his eyes sparkling down at me and his smile. I feel like I won a very important race. I have to admit, if the reward is his smile directed solely at me, I’d use his first name every chance I’m given.
“You’re important to me, Grace.”
“I don’t understand why. I’m no one, even more so now, after everything that happened with my father and his finances, what’s going on with his company. I just… I don’t get it.”
“How is it, that woman as beautiful and as genuine as you fails to see how truly special you are, Moya Krasota.”
His words continue to warm me, heating me from the inside, a blush rises on my face as I feel the heat gather on my cheeks and further down my body.
“No one has ever described me like that,” I mumble self-consciously.
“Then, they were fools, and I’m glad I was the first. Someday, sweet Grace, I will make you believe it too.”
“I don’t know what to do with you, Victor.”
“That’s easy, Grace. All you have to do is keep me,” he announces and then he kisses me again, right there in the middle of charity event, while we’re surrounded by hundreds of people.
He kisses me.
Me… Plain, practical, sensible me.
He kisses me, and I let him because suddenly being sensible is the very last thing I want.
12
Victor
“You’re exhausted.”
My words are gentle as I look at Grace, her head pressed against the car window, her eyes fluttering as if they’re too heavy to remain open. She looks beautiful, but there are dark circles under her eyes that she tried to disguise and failed.
> “I haven’t been sleeping well,” she murmurs looking over at me. We’re in the back of my limo, the privacy panel is up and I’m sitting close to her—not as close as I’d like, but it at least feels like I’ve made progress with her.
“Missing your father?” I ask, taking a stab in the dark.
“Every day, but it’s worse since I moved out of the house.”
“Why did you move out?”
“I sold it,” she says, her brow wrinkling in confusion. I reach out and soothe it without thinking.
“I just meant the owner hasn’t even taken the place over.”
“How do you know?” she asks.
Damn. I need to be more careful.
“Hmmm… Charlie mentioned it in passing,” I reply, making a note to have Charlie back me up in case Grace questions him. “He said the owner gave explicit instructions that you could remain there for a year, since he was out of the country and wouldn’t be doing anything with the property.”
“You and Charles talk a lot. What happened to attorney and client privilege or whatever?”
“It’s not like you’re facing a criminal trial, and I’ve not exactly made my interest in you a secret, Grace,” I tell her, thinking I’m going to have to step up the pace of all of this. I didn’t like that she moved out and now that I know she’s not sleeping, I like it even less.
I have to quickly get her back into her house—preferably with me.
“What you need, Grace, is a vacation.”
“Yeah, right. I can barely afford rent right now and that’s if I’m living frugal. There’s no vacation in my immediate future.”
“What do you mean? I thought you got a really great offer on your house?” I keep the anger out of my voice, but barely. I don’t like the idea of Grace going without. I told Charlie to make sure that she got more than enough money. If he messed this shit up, I’ll strangle him.
“I did, much more than I was asking actually. The problem is, after I paid the mortgage off on the home, and funneled money into my dad’s business account to keep it open, there wasn’t very much left over. To be honest, I probably shouldn’t have used any of it personally, but I needed to find an apartment. I have a couple job interviews set up for next week, and hopefully those will work out. It will get better after that.”
“Job interviews? I thought you were going to work for your dad’s company?”
“I’m not really qualified for that. I’m trying to keep it up and running, because I know that’s what my father would want, but I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m hoping to find investors or someone willing to purchase the company that will also keep the employees on. It’s much more difficult to do that than I thought it would be. Dad was taking money from the company to keep us afloat personally and there are so many updates and things that need to be done, money that needs to be paid back… It honestly makes my head spin.”
“Let me take over and run it for you, Grace.”
Her body jerks with my offer, and I resist the urge to curse under my breath. My girl is stubborn. Wanting to solve all of her problems and too proud to ask for help when she needs it.
“Victor, you have to stop,” she says. “You’re not supposed to save me in this scenario. It’s not your job and honestly it freaks me out a little. I like you. Tonight was really good. I do want to spend more time with you, but the way you keep trying to swoop in and make everything better is…”
“Needed,” I grumble.
“Not your place,” she argues. “You don’t know me. You might think you like me, but what happens a month down the road, when you’ve done all of this stuff for me and realize that I’m this boring, plain looking girl that you really have nothing in common with?” she asks, and she makes it sound like she’s joking, but there’s something in her eyes that I can see despite the darkness of the car. It shines and I don’t like it. I also don’t want to argue with her. I’ll simply show her that we’re meant to be together. I told her this is our beginning and I meant it. She just doesn’t realize that now that I have her and she’s confessed she wants to spend time with me, I’m not letting her out of my sight.
“Is a month your deadline, Moya Krasota?”
“My deadline?” she asks.
“You give me a month. Give me a month to convince you that we work, that the attraction between us is real and something that will only strengthen with time.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she laughs.
“It’s what I’m asking for. You give me a month to prove to you that even a month later I will still find you the most desirable, sweetest, purest angel I have ever met.”
“You’re crazy, and I think you’ll lose interest way before the month, but whatever floats your boat, Victor,” she says shaking her head like she can’t believe me, but I won an important battle here and Grace doesn’t even know it.
“So you agree to relax and date me for a complete month?”
“Let an attractive man, who apparently doesn’t need any of the money I might get from selling my house or company—”
“That remark did hurt, Moya Krasota.”
“You’re right. I learned tonight you definitely don’t need money. Which makes all of this even more confusing, but you’re right it was uncalled for. I apologize.”
“The only thing confusing about you and me, Grace, is why you keep resisting us,” I tell her, letting my fingers drift along her jawline to settle under her chin. “I can make you happy. Stop fighting me.”
“I don’t understand you, Victor,” she says softly.
“You will. Can I take you somewhere tonight? Somewhere we can be alone and talk? Somewhere special?”
“I… it’s late…”
“You can nap here.”
“Here?” she asks, surprised.
I pull her body into mine and situate her so that I’m holding her body and her head is resting against my side, my arm draped over her…protecting her.
“Here. Rest, sweet Grace. You are safe here and I promise you everything will be okay.”
“There’s no way I can sleep on you, Victor.”
“Then, just close your eyes and tell me about your life with your father.” I want to keep holding her in my arms. She fits. We fit together, perfectly. I have it all worked out. She’ll see. I can handle the business for her, and she can marry me and have run of the household, raise the children I’m going to create with her. Soon. Very soon. I watch her relax a fraction.
“My father?” she asks, surprise echoing in her soft voice.
“Tell me about him,” I urge her, knowing instinctively that she needs time to remember him, to grieve and that she hasn’t given herself that. I want her to, and I want to be the man to hold her while she does. I just want to be her man. Her protector. Her confident. Her husband. Her everything.
I expected her to argue, instead she curls deeper into me and begins talking. Her voice is quiet, but it’s full of love and the sound of it is so powerful my heart squeezes in my chest. I want the force of that emotion she harbors to be directed at me. Her father was a very lucky man.
I wonder if he ever realized that fact?
13
Grace
“Grace.”
I hear my name from what sounds like a great distance away, but I’m warm and comfortable, and I won’t want to respond to it. So, I ignore the interruption, snuggling in deeper, smiling as the warmth intensifies. It feels like heaven.
“Moya Krasota, we’re here,” Victor says, and my smile deepens.
Victor.
He’s a surprise, one I truly wasn’t expecting. What kind of man holds you and lets you talk about your father for an hour, without saying anything more than encouraging you to continue? Really, this is like our first date and I spent it crying on his shoulder about my father. He didn’t make me feel stupid for doing it either. He held me, let me cry and dried my tears.
I didn’t mean to fall asleep on him, but after crying, I was just completely drained.
I force myself to sit up, my eyes blinking because it’s light now.
How long have I been asleep?
My head is lying on his lap, and I’m no longer in the limo. I look around and I’m in a… bed.
“Where are we?” I ask, not truly believing what I’m seeing.
I’m clearly in a bedroom… a bedroom with no windows.
What in the hell?
I should be panicking but Victor makes me feel…safe. It seems crazy and sudden, but I do feel there is a connection between us. A spark I wasn’t expecting. I don’t think he’d hurt me and that calms me somewhat.
“We’ve just arrived. You were sleeping so soundly that I hated to wake you up, but Steven needs to fly out, so I can’t delay any longer.”
“Steven?” I blink my eyes.
“Yes. Are you ready, Moya Krasota.”
“I suppose,” I answer, sleepy and stunned, which leaves me not really knowing how to react to him…to the situation I’ve found myself in. I slide off the bed, reminded once again that I wasn’t here when I fell asleep. “Victor, where are we?”
“It’s a surprise,” he says, kissing me softly against my temple, wrapping his arm around my side and escorting me out of the room. I have to admit that feels nice to have someone taking care of me. Since my father passed away, I’ve barely had time to breathe. I relax and decide to go with the flow, then it hits me. I mean I should have recognized it earlier, but I definitely know now.
We’re on a plane!
“Victor! Where are we?” I look up at this overpowering man and wonder if he could really be the one I’ve dreamed of meeting. My father raised me like a princess and like all girls do, I have dreamed of the fairytale. Meeting a man who will cherish and respect me.
“You said I could take you somewhere special, Grace.”
“I thought that meant a restaurant, your apartment, heck even a park. I didn’t know you meant a plane.”
“It’d be kind of silly to take you to a park at that time of night. My job is to protect you, not put you in situations where you might find harm,” he chastises. Before I can even focus on the fact that he thinks it’s his job to protect me, he throws me a huge curveball. “Would you have gone to my apartment with me, Moya Krasota?” There’s a hunger in his eyes that both excites and terrifies me.