“Betty Ford? That means no beer.”
“Mom, you have a problem and I can’t let you be around my children like this.” Charity says, her words high and rushed like I’ve just given her the best news ever. “This is your chance to get your life together.”
I think I have just given her the best news ever.
“Actually, Charity, I have a surprise for you too. My architect coming on Monday to discuss the plans to build your very own house for you and your kids.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Charity says.
“Leo?” Grace says under her breath.
“Yes, he’ll help you find a suitable piece of land and design your dream home.”
“What about me?” the mom says.
“After you dry out at the Betty Ford Center, I’ll buy you a nice little house too.”
All three of them stare at me, frozen, and I wonder if I did the right thing. But I want to help Grace any way I can and repay her sister for supporting Grace when she needed her.
“Thank you,” Charity squeals, and flings her arms around me.
“It’s my pleasure. Now, Grace, grab your things, we have to go.”
Chapter 24
Grace
I can’t believe Leo just walked back into my life and I caved. I couldn’t help it, my body can’t resist him.
Or I should say, flew back into my life, because he always seems to arrive by air. Like he’s some kind of god descending from the heavens for me.
And on a whim, I just agreed to move to New York City. And apparently right this minute.
Glancing down at the twenty-year-old couch I’ve been sleeping on, I realize how eager I am to get out of this place. I’ve only been back a week, but it’s a week longer than I swore I’d ever return for.
Charity and my mom are both talking animatedly to Leo, asking him all sorts of questions. I don’t know why he offered them houses, although I’m grateful that he’s going to get my mother to check into rehab for her drinking.
I’ll tell him later that he doesn’t owe my family anything.
As I cram my things into my suitcase, I glance up at the three of them. Charity is crying tears of joy as they discuss having a bedroom for each of her children.
Oh well, if he wants to buy her a house then I guess that’s fine with me. Although I get the impression he’s only doing it as a way to get me to forgive him.
A thought occurs to me as I zip up my suitcase.
“What about my car?” I ask.
Leo turns to me and shrugs. “I’ll buy you a new one when we get to New York. A Range Rover would be ideal for you and the baby.”
“You don’t need to buy things for me and my family. I’m not after your money.”
“I know you’re not, that’s why I want to buy you these things. If you were after my money, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“Can I have your car?” Charity asks. “Mine is on its last legs and I can’t afford a new one.”
“Do you want a new Range Rover, too?” Leo asks her.
“Oh my God,” Charity says, gasping.
“My girl went and snagged herself a rich man!” Mom announces proudly in a way that can only make sense in her drunken world.
“We should go,” I say, standing.
I rush over to Charity and my mother and give them both hugs.
“Thank you for letting me stay here when I needed you most,” I say as I squeeze Charity.
“Come back and visit sometime, don’t forget about your family,” she says.
“Definitely, I want to see this new house you’re going to build.”
She bites her bottom lip and blinks back more tears. I walk the three steps to the entrance, and open the front door.
As I step through it, I turn back and survey what I’m leaving. A verbally abusive alcoholic mother and a sister struggling to get by. My old vow to never be in a situation like theirs reignites, and I skip down the steps, knowing I’m making the right decision to go with Leo.
Following me out the door, Leo motions to the pilot. Leo takes my suitcase and we climb into the helicopter. The helicopter blades start turning, and soon we are in the air. I watch with no regrets as the small house gets tinier and tinier as we fly away.
Leo meshes his fingers through mine, and my body relaxes. I’ve never been in a helicopter before, and spend most of the flight looking out the window at the Tennessee landscape.
His grip on my hand is so tight, I eventually have to pull my hand away to relieve the pressure. Leo immediately wraps his arm around my shoulder, as if he’s making sure I’m not about to jump out of the helicopter mid flight.
Twenty minutes later, we land in Nashville. Leo’s jet is waiting for us, ready to take us to New York.
Leo takes my hand as I climb out of the helicopter and guides me to his jet. At the bottom of the steps, he presses his body against mine and holds me tight.
“This is where you belong, baby, with me,” he says, and closed his mouth over mine.
As his tongue sweeps over mine, any last trace of frustration and anger at him vanishes from my mind. Somehow being with him makes everything feel right.
Leo presses his lips against mine and he cups the back of my head. Gripping my hair, he pulls away. His eyes bore into mine, and we stare at each other for several breaths.
“I’m scared,” I whisper, my voice barely audible.
His grip on my hair relaxes, and he gently smooths it away from my face and behind my ears.
For what seems like an eternity, I wonder if this is really my life. How did I get here? Going with him to New York is my only real option — for the sake of me or the baby. But I also want to go. I want to be with him.
Even if I do barely know him. And the decision I made to move to New York with him, less than thirty minutes ago, was made on a great big whim.
Leo brushes his lips against my forehead and says, “You are doing the right thing, Grace. We belong to each other. We are a family now, and I’ve never been happier. I can’t wait to raise this baby with you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, and you walked into my life and made my dreams come true.”
My forehead creases as I digest his words. Why is this amazing man being so good to me? And not just me, my mother and sister too.
Is it really possible he feels the same way about me as I feel about him? I muster a weak smile, and squeeze his waist.
“This is pretty crazy,” I say.
“You know, one day you’re going to look back at the moment and laugh. When we’re old and watching our baby graduate from college, and you’re just as radiant as you are right now. I’m going to turn to you and say, ‘I told you so.’”
My cheeks flush and I swallow hard, but am unable to respond. But my insides fill with warmth, and I know with absolute certainty that I’m doing the right thing and that we really do belong together.
Leo takes my hand, and leads me up the steps and into the jet. He sits me beside him this time, and I do up my seatbelt.
The flight attendant, Josephine, appears a few minutes later with my suitcase and stores it in a cupboard.
“Drinks?” she asks.
“This calls for bubbles. Some non-alcoholic fizz, Josephine,” Leo says, his eyes staring into me with a mix of kindness and lust. My body heats in response. I realize just how wet my panties are, the dampness clinging against my skin.
Josephine walks away and quickly reappears with a bottle of Perrier and two champagne glasses. I can’t help laughing at celebrating this major life decision with a bottle of water.
The engines rev, and soon we are accelerating down the runway. I grip Leo’s hand and look out the window, vaguely watching my departure from my home. The home I once swore I’d never return to. Is it too early to make the same promise once again?
At once, the plane shutters and we come to a screeching halt. The force of the sudden stop throws our bodies tight against the seatbelts.
Chapter 25
Leo
“This is the place?” I say, my eyes racing over the rundown motel as I step out of the car. The wooden letters M-O-T-E-L, painted bright red, adorn the side of the building.
“Wow, I never knew life with a billionaire would be so luxurious,” Grace says, her voice dripping with sarcasm and I can’t help but laugh.
A mechanical problem with the plane became apparent as the pilots were preparing to take off. Thankfully we are in a city and the mechanics were able to get the part right away, but the plane won’t be ready until the morning.
Unfortunately, there’s a major event happening in town, and Laura struggled to find us a place to stay. She called in triumph saying, “I’ve found a place right by the airport.”
What she failed to mention was that the place looks the way it did on the day it was built in the sixties. With the cheap key, I unlock the door and swing it open to reveal the room. The smell of staleness smacks me in the face.
“Shag carpet, nice,” Grace says.
“Well, it’s nicer than any of the places I stayed in in Bhutan,” I say.
“At least you weren’t living it up in the lap of luxury all those weeks.”
“Definitely not. Although the scenery made up for the lack of hot water.”
“As long as you were enjoying yourself.”
“Trust me, I definitely wasn’t enjoying myself. Not the way I’m going to enjoy myself in this dump.”
Without waiting for her response, I crush my lips against hers and bundle her through the door. Ever since I found her at her sister’s house, I’ve been fighting the urge to rip off her clothes. Now that we’re finally alone, I can’t resist her any longer.
But when the door closes, she pulls away, her eyes searching me, for what I don’t know. I realize this is the first time we are alone together since I found her again, and I wonder what she’s thinking.
Is she about to erupt in anger?
I stroke my thumb over her cheek, trying to coax her thoughts out.
“Gracie?” I say tentatively.
She clears her throat and says, “Is the plane breaking down a sign that I shouldn’t be leaving Tennessee? Maybe I shouldn’t go to New York. Maybe I meant to stay here.”
Her words hit me squarely in the gut.
“No, baby, it’s not a sign that you should stay, it’s a sign that the flight to New York and the drive home were too long for me to wait to be alone with you.”
It’s true, getting Grace alone faster was the reason I wasn’t angry about the mechanical fault. But her doubt plants itself deep within me. She shouldn’t doubt this.
Doubt us.
Maybe she is only coming to New York because it’s a better alternative than staying here and struggling with money and her family.
Her mouth parts slightly, and I brush my lips over hers. Grace whimpers and folds her body against mine.
Deepening the kiss, I slide my hand up the inside of her top and cup her heavy breast. She responds by running her hands up underneath my own shirt, and my dick grows even harder.
There are two beds in the room, and I guide her to the nearest one. With lightning speed, I strip her of her top and pants, leaving her in only her bra and panties.
I pause and rake my eyes over the woman who is now mine, the woman who is carrying my child. Even if she did only come with me to escape the poverty of her family, I’m confident she’ll soon realize she belongs with me.
She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever been with and a million thoughts of what I want to do to her flash through my head. Unwilling to wait any longer, I rip off her bra and panties and we sit on the edge of the ancient bed.
Grace’s hands work at the buttons on my shirt, and I lean my head forward to taste her lips again. My hand connects firmly on her thigh and I flick my arm to shove her legs apart.
The last button on my shirt undone, Grace yanks it down my arms and I pull it the rest of the way off.
Her eyes drag over me, and she says, “This is surreal. Your body is surreal.” Her fingertips brush over my pecs and through the ridges of my ab muscles.
Grace’s fingers toy with the button on my pants, which is already straining from the head of my hard cock. I swear my dick is about to pop it open, but I reach down and flick open myself.
A light moan momentarily fills the room and her eyes flicker closed. She plunges her hand inside the waistband of my boxers and rubs the head of my cock.
As much as I want to explore her body, her touch is too good and I am frozen in place as she fills me with intense sparks of heat. I’ve never been at someone’s mercy like this before.
She glances up at me, her eyes coy and betraying the fact that she knows the effect she’s having on me. Her tongue pokes out between her lips, spurring me into action.
I crush my mouth against hers and pull her body against mine, relishing the skin on skin contact. I press my body harder against the soft squishiness of her body. Grace is forced to pull her hand away from my cock to keep it from being trapped between us, and our bodies press tight against each other.
Pulling away, I trail kisses down her front all the way to her tits. Her glorious fucking tits. Holding one in each hand, I kiss and nip at them and bury my face in her cleavage while my fingers toy with her nipples.
I could do this for all eternity.
While our lips are locked, my hand moves to her fleshy thigh. My tongue probes her mouth deeper, distracting her as I cup her pussy.
She’s wet and aching for me.
My fingers move through her slick folds, and a moan escapes her throat. She’s dripping for me, a fact making my cock harder. All I want right now is to be buried inside of her.
Kissing her neck, I push two fingers into her entrance. Her tight walls wrap snugly around my fingers, once again my dick throbs. I imagine it being inside her, with no condom, her wet walls bare against me.
Slowly, I pump my fingers in and out of her. Her body shifts and her face tightens as I move. Her pussy starts to pulse around my fingers, and I stop moving in order to delay her orgasm.
She nuzzles her face against my neck, and I caress her hair with my free hand.
I move my fingers inside her faster, pressing against her sensitive spot and rubbing her clit with my thumb. She wiggles and squirms, and digs her nails into my skin. My cock aches to be inside her, but I do my best to ignore it.
“Let go, you can come now,” I growl.
Grace bites the fleshy skin of my shoulder, her head pressed tight against my neck. Her walls tighten and clamp around my fingers and she bites harder as her back arches.
The biting stops as she comes undone in my arms. For some reason, I feel almost as satisfied as she does, even though my dick is untouched.
Her walls pulse around my fingers, and I know she still coming. She flickers her tongue around the bite marks on my shoulder, soothing it. Igniting it.
Pulling away from me, she snakes her tongue down my chest. When she reaches the waistband of my boxers, she peers up at me and says, “Take these off,” in a demanding voice.
I quickly stand just enough to pull my boxers and pants down and flop back on the bed. Grace slinks off the bed and onto the ratty carpet.
Without looking up at me again, she circles her tongue around the head of my dick. I swallow and watch in sheer joy as she pleasures me. Her jaw opens wide and she takes as much of my dick into her mouth as she can.
My back tenses and shudders as she bobs her head up and down over my cock. I’m instantly transported back to that first night we spent together in the closet, which excites me even more.
I’ve spent many nights and morning showers remembering that moment with my hard shaft in my hand, dreaming of the day it would happen again. My balls draw tight against me, pulling me out of the haze of bliss that I’ve been in.
As much as I’d love to fill her mouth with my cum, right now I need to fuck her.
Hooking my arms under hers, I pull her up in one swift motion and shove her onto the bed. I m
ove over her, straddling her ribcage while my eyes fix firmly on her chest. Laying my dick between her breasts, I cup each of her tits and press them tight against my cock.
Grace watches my face keenly as I begin to thrust into her tits. I can’t help groaning as I act out one of the fantasies I’ve been having over the past several weeks.
My tip pokes out of the tit tunnel, and Grace cranes her neck and darts out her tongue, licking it and flicking it with the warmth and wetness of her mouth. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is too goddamn good. I have to stop because there’s so much more I want to do to her right now.
In a quick motion, I pull away and shift my body down her body. Pushing her legs apart, I climb between them and lower myself down to find her mouth.
Our lips lock in a frenzied kiss, and my hand roves down her curves. I use it to place the tip of my cock at her drenched entrance, and shudder in anticipation.
As I move my hand away, I realize she is trembling.
“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” I ask, concerned.
Grace bites her bottom lip and nods almost imperceptibly.
“Tell me, what is it?” I say, more firmly this time.
She swallows hard and after a second says, “Remember, this is only the second time I’ve ever done this.”
Chapter 26
Grace
I am embarrassed and annoyed at myself for reacting this way. It’s just been such an overwhelming day. Probably the pregnancy hormones don’t help. Although ever since I got pregnant, everything down there is way more sensitive. And right now, I’ve never felt this good.
Or this desperate for sex.
And here I am, reacting like a fool.
“Think of it this way,” Leo says, smiling down at me, “at least you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant.”
I can’t help but laugh.
“Besides, now we get to have skin-on-skin bare sex, and it feels so much better than using a condom,” he says.
“Using a condom didn’t do much the first time,” I say, laughing.
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