by Cara North
“Do you have a license?” Grace looked toward the man, who assumed that not speaking to a woman still entitled him to drive her new car. His confidence annoyed her.
“Yeah, of course, I do.” He gave the waitress his credit card before anyone else had a chance to move. “You don’t trust me to drive across a bridge and down the block?”
His eyes were intent on hers now. They were playful, hopeful. They were hard to resist. Before she could protest, the waitress was back. He signed the check and thanked the waitress with a smile.
The girl had to be a teenager, yet she smiled a full tooth smile and blushed. Grace looked from the goo-goo eyed girl to her goo-goo eyed cousin and felt a pang of jealousy. Why can’t I have goo-goo eyes? Am I less deserving than the next woman, destined to die with only three notches on my belt, three lousy notches at that!
Ethan could see her eyes fixed on Megan, who was buried deep in his brother’s neck at the moment. He thought for a moment she may burst into tears again or throw something at them the way her hand was gripping the napkin she held.
He couldn’t help but wonder if that passion translated the same in the bedroom. He thought of her hands gripping a sheet the same way. He felt a twinge of the old Ethan inside just then. The man he was before his mother nominated him for the top ten bachelors list, before the Broadway starlet left him, before the gossip columns hounded him. His mother never intended to make his life hell. She just wanted him to get out there and seriously date. He did, he dated Emma, fat lot of good that did.
“Grace.” He confidently placed his hand on hers. He was ready to push the issue. “Let’s go for a walk.” He eased the napkin out of her death grip and tugged her reluctantly from the booth.
“Hey wait up,” Megan called after them.
“This isn’t a double date.” Ethan tugged at Grace again before sliding his arm around her waist and pressing his hand in the small of her back.
“We’ll be around here.” Chase circled his fingers pointing out the window.
Ethan’s fingers were long and strong, like the rest of his body. They seemed powerful lighting her with fire like when he put the sun-block on her. He pressed into the small of her back guiding her out the door. No man led her around like this, yet it came naturally to him.
Grace never really spent time at the beach. She now discovered that as the sun sets, the wind over the ocean cools quickly. Her T-shirt and shorts weren’t doing much to keep her comfortable.
They kept walking into the sand and along the shoreline. She hadn’t said a word though neither had he. She wanted to ask for that jacket he was wearing but refused. There would be no show of weakness, well, not another one anyway.
When Grace felt the warm cotton fabric draping over her shoulders, she wondered if he really could read minds.
“No,” he said aloud as if answering her. “I can’t read minds, but I can read body language, and your body is cold right now.”
“How did you know that?” Grace stopped and peered up at him. He looked so masculine with his strong jaw, the line of his nose, his eyes perfectly proportioned. He was like art. Grace never really enjoyed art, but if Ethan had been the subject to study, she had an idea it would have taken on a whole new meaning.
His cheeks and nose were pink from the sun already, but the color deepened. He was blushing.
“Well, you’re either chilly or really excited to be here.” He briefly glanced at her breasts then off to the ocean. “Looks like we’ll catch a good sunset.”
He began walking again. He knew he was blushing, damn it. She had him all inside out again. Her innocence and total disregard for the effects of her sexuality drove him mad. Grace never tried to be sexy or get his attention like most women did. She just breathed, and he got aroused. She got angry, and he wanted to apologize, his fault or not. She dressed in natural fitting clothes, and he felt like he was looking at a girly magazine. It made no sense, but he couldn’t ignore her.
“Thanks,” Grace said as she slipped her arms into the jacket. The cotton material was almost like a sweatshirt. It was warm and carried his scent. She inhaled deeply. Ethan had started walking again.
“Wait for me.” She caught up with him.
“Grace, we need to talk.” He turned to her, looked into those hazel eyes briefly then out to the ocean. She looked good in his clothes. Real good, but the specifics of this relationship needed to be hashed out. She was a moody woman, and he couldn’t read her like he could other women. It made him curious about her. It lured him in. Then, she chopped his head off, and like a fool, he walked back up to the guillotine.
“Dumping me already? And we’ve only been pretend dating. This is a record, even for me.” Grace tried not to sound sarcastic, but those words were always followed by a break up. This was going to be bad. They should have never started this game. “Talk.”
“What? I don’t understand.” He gazed back at her. Did she want to throw in the towel already? That would not do. He needed her in New York. This would be a great way to throw Chloe off his trail. “What are YOU talking about?”
“It was a joke, just a bad one.” She shrugged. “Please tell me what you were thinking.” She actually wanted to know and still anticipated the—this was a bad idea rap.
“This was a great idea,” he started. “As a matter of fact, I think we need to work out a few kinks, and I would like to propose a sequel. If you’re up to it?”
“What?” Grace couldn’t believe her ears. She had a crying spell today. She had been moody and withdrawn. As she thought about it, she realized she had shut down all attempts he had made to talk to her since the water.
Her eyes wandered all over him. He was like any other surfer right at home. Ethan was watching the waves again now engrossed in the sunset. His brown eyes flickered with red specks reflecting the sun he focused on so intently. “What are you talking about?”
“Us.” He turned to her now. “This whole lovers thing. I think we need to get a good back story on each other and then really run with this.”
“Are you serious?” Grace couldn’t take her eyes off of him. His shoulders and chest were barely contained by the T-shirt he wore. His long legs pushed out from the board shorts and into his sandals.
Where had he learned to surf like that? Surely not in New York, he had mentioned Hawaii. Her hands began to fidget with the sweatshirt sleeves as her mind wondered if he were as agile in the bedroom. Not that she could meet his demands. She was sure he was accustomed to experienced women.
“Yes, dead serious. See I have a stalker back home in New York, and unless you had other plans arranged, I was hoping you would be my date for the wedding. We could act like a real item, you know, and hopefully that might signal her to back away and let me be.”
Ethan wished he hadn’t been so blunt about it, but when they changed over, he had received a call from his lawyer, and indeed Chloe was not pregnant. She tried to bribe him into not serving her the restraining order, several ways. No wonder she could get access to him. She could get access through other men.
“Are you serious?” Grace meant about the stalker, not the play along part. She knew it was the same response she already gave, but he made her into a broken record. She couldn’t believe he was serious. He wanted to be with her at the wedding? Well, if he wanted to be her date for that monster of a wedding Megan was throwing, hell yeah, she’d play along. “Stalker you have a stalker? Like unsolved mysteries crazy psycho lady stalker?”
Ethan couldn’t tell if she was scared or just in disbelief. He gazed down at her. Those eyes were both green and brown in a kaleidoscope of color.
His own heart was pounding. He couldn’t believe he had just proposed such a ridiculous offer, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and though he liked Grace, more than he probably wanted to admit, she was free of New York. Uncorrupted by society, hell she probably didn’t really know who his family was.
“I can explain everything, but later, for now.” He hel
d out his hand. His voice was low and seductive. “Let’s just look at this sunset.”
She didn’t know what made her obey him when he did that, but she turned to face the sunset not taking his hand.
He stepped right in behind her. His chin rested on her head, and he wrapped her comfortably in his large arms. Damn her body betrayed her at every turn with this man. She sank right into him telling herself one thing, Don’t swoon!
Just swoon. Ethan rolled his eyes in thought. The woman had a will of steel, and he was set on breaking through to the other side. Her soft body lined up against him made his knees weak and his heart thunder. He wanted to taste her everywhere, and it was becoming a driving force. She smelled like her shampoo, the beach, and salt water. Each inhale drew her fragrance into his lungs, settling inside him.
Once the water had fully taken the sun beneath its fold, the pair trekked back toward the pizza place where Chase and Megan were sitting on a concrete table enjoying a bottle of wine and the blanket from the back of the SUV.
Though Grace was truly happy for Megan, she was sad for herself. She had started to believe the rumor that she would end up an old maid. A prudish school teacher all she lacked was some more age and glasses. What she had to do was believe that wasn’t her fate and change it, she hoped. Ethan followed quietly behind her and was happy to accept when Grace held out her hand. This man wants to put on a show, then a show he’ll get. Nominate me for an Oscar.
Chapter 6
Later that night, Grace lay in the hammock out back. She was scribbling away in her journal when the weight shifted, and Ethan, fresh from his own shower, worked his large frame in beside her. She immediately dropped the book to the ground. If he saw what she had written, it would all be over. Somewhere somehow she had to get her thoughts on him out of her system. Writing always helped with that.
“This won’t break will it?” He lay back nervously and settled in. “I love the night sky.” He stretched his arms above his head and folded them neatly under. “Don’t you?”
Grace wiggled her way to a more comfortable spot. He was so damn big she could feel the entire length of his body along hers. It was a double hammock, but he seemed to fill most of it. The silk of her pajamas and cotton of his did their best to control the heat between them that dared to catch the hammock itself on fire.
“Okay.” Grace let out a deep breath. “I’m in.”
Ethan smiled.
“Back story.” He started, “In Drama, Art, or Music just about any end product has a story behind it that no one but the artist knows, right?”
“I got a C in drama, and you don’t want to know what I got in art,” Grace said quietly. He seemed to know a lot about the arts. “I like literature though.”
“Okay, you live here. I live in New York. We’ve hit it off as friends, yes?” She doesn’t know about art. This will never work. My life is art. How can it be possible, she’s a writer?
“Yes.” She nodded.
“So here, my dear friend, is my back story, no holds barred. I would never tell a woman I was trying to sleep with any of this, and I ask you to do the same.” Of course, he had never had a conversation like this with ANY woman before. Since technically he was already sleeping with Grace, what could it hurt?
“Well, I rarely tell women I sleep with anything.” Grace surprised herself with such a fresh statement.
“You’ve been with women?” Ethan looked at her as his eyes narrowed. That could explain why she hadn’t thrown herself at him like every other woman he encountered.
“It’s a joke, no. I’ve barely been with any men.” Grace laughed. If he only knew how little she experienced, he would know how ridiculous her statement was. Hell, she had only experienced the missionary position.
“This is serious.” Ethan smiled. Even from the porch light, he could see her face was blushing. She was trying to flirt. That reassured him. Maybe she was just shy.
“Must be the stalker thing?” Grace shifted to her side to look at him and lost all contact. Damn.
“I was seventeen when I had my first woman, and I say woman because it was a thirty year old woman.” Ethan lifted a brow and waited for a reaction. She gave away nothing. “She was our housekeeper, and my parents were in Italy or somewhere, so she had offered to keep an eye on the place and ensure their two teenage boys did not throw a party.”
“Go on.” Grace was interested and shocked, but she wasn’t going to let him know that.
“Well, Chase had gone to bed, and I was watching TV when Maria appeared in the den. She was upset her boyfriend broke up with her. I listened, and then before I knew it, she was kissing me, and then...” He waited.
“Then?” The hammock swung a bit as Grace moved closer to him. The man was pure scandal, women at seventeen, stalkers now. He had her attention.
“Then, she taught me many things over the next few evenings.” He heard Grace gasp. This was good. She was listening.
“So, I grew up, building quite a reputation along the way, and then I met this actress, Emma.” He took a breath. This was the short version. He skipped all the hound dog days in between.
“Your fiancé?” Grace knew how she left him, at least Megan’s version.
“Yes, we lived in my loft with Chase. He was still there after college. She proposed to me, caught me off guard, but I accepted,” he said nonchalantly.
“Wait a minute. She proposed to you?” Grace could hear the disbelief in her own voice.
“Ugh, yeah, is that so hard to believe?” He sounded cross, offended. Why wouldn’t a woman want to spend her life with him?
“No, I just imagined ... never mind, please go on.” She wiggled in the hammock again and set her chin on his chest while her foot now slid along his leg. She imagined Ethan making a romantic night of it all. She didn’t want to admit to herself what else she had imagined Ethan doing.
“Well, fat lot of good it did to accept anyway. Within the week, Chase moved into his own place. Later I found out he had met Megan, and Emma begged me, no actually, they double teamed me to let her best friend Chloe take Chase’s room until she could get on her feet again.”
“Chloe?”
“Yes,” his voice drifted. God she feels amazing, her chin, her foot, those soft hands. Stay on task. “Chloe is a model. Well tries to be, she is only six foot tall and skinny, sick skinny. I agreed because she showed up with a black eye from an alleged boyfriend.”
“Oh my.” Grace felt her weight and his slowly melding together in the hammock. Gravity did have its way like that. She had her hands over his heart and her chin upon them. He was warm and smelled so good. It was all she could do not to climb over him completely.
“So weeks went by, and Emma became weird. She accused me of cheating. She decided I was holding her back. She said if I didn’t move with her to LA, then the wedding was off.” His voice was matter-of-fact at this point.
“I can’t leave New York. My life is there, my business, my family...” He had freed his arms from his head and waved it in front of him as he explained.
“I understand,” Grace said softly. That was that then, no real reason to ever move past the friendship now. She would never leave her home, her legacy, her mother, but maybe she could still kiss him.
“So, long story short, Chloe was there when Emma left. She took me out like buds, got me drunk, then when we got home, well, she was there.” He stopped waving his hands and let out a remorseful sigh. “I always got the vibe she was into chicks but ... If I only knew then what I know now.”
“Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.” Grace understood. She had her own experience with that theory. If she had any inkling that Mitchell Patterson would fly her to Vegas then bolt, she wouldn’t have wasted years with him.
“I tried to explain it was a mistake since I was drunk. She said it was no big deal, but then she seemed to be wherever I was, and things started disappearing from the loft. I kicked her out and had the whole place remodeled and re-keyed.”
He seemed to think out loud now. “I never would have thought she could have pulled a stunt like the reception though. I felt safe there, amongst family and friends.” Shut up, Ethan. Now is a good time to skip to the part about you should just act like my girlfriend.
“What happened?” she whispered. His heart was pounding. She could feel it. This is serious whatever it is.
Grace was leaning on his chest resting over his heart, which was beating like he was running in Central Park rather than lying in a hammock in North Carolina. Should I tell her? No. This was not a thing a guy tells anyone. His lips betrayed him. He trusted Grace. He didn’t know why, damn it, but she opened him like a book, and he just read aloud. Megan and Chase knew Chloe showed up at the reception, and he had left with her. They didn’t know why.
“She had gotten a date to bring her, obviously not invited. I remember she brought me a drink and introduced me to him. I was so relieved I toasted them and wished her the best. I felt free somehow, no more looking over my shoulders.” He swallowed hard. “She must have slipped me something because I felt weird, disoriented. She offered to help me out to a cab. I woke up the next morning in her apartment, naked.”
“Oh my God.” Grace felt the tear escape her eye. He had been assaulted. A man had been used and abused. It took her back to Megan and the college incident, her cousin crying all morning in the emergency room in her lap. Grace had driven all the way to New York in record time.
It reminded her of Evelyn, her best friend in college. She had been abused by her own father. It left her bitter and evil toward men. Grace learned a lot from Evelyn, but she knew she could never completely give up on the idea of love. So many women had been hurt. Now, for the first time, she realized that women really did have the power to hurt a man, even one Ethan’s size.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I told you that,” he whispered in a low voice.