LIE (Right Men Book 1)

by Mayra Statham

  I nuzzled his jaw for the first time that night. He’d been very touchy feely, and I had let him. But until that moment, I hadn’t initiated anything. His hand on my shoulder crept up the back of my neck, gently tangling into my hair and cupping the back of my scalp just as I breathed him in.

  “God, you smell good,” I whispered and knew that he heard me over the music, because I felt the vibration of his growl.

  He looked at me, tipping his head closer, his forehead half touching mine. “You’re not playing fair, Gracie.”

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to.” His blue eyes dilated, making them look dark and hungry even in the dim-lit space we were in.

  “Dance with me?” he said, snapping me out of a soft daze I’d found myself in.

  “What?” My breath hitched. Dance? Was he serious? He couldn’t be.

  “Dance with me,” he whispered against my lips, and I pulled away and looked toward the stage. There was a dance floor wit maybe five couples out there, swaying sexily to the soft, seductive melody.

  “Marc…” I started to say but lost the ability to talk when he slid out of his spot and stood.

  Silently, I watched as he slowly rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, putting his sexy, strong forearms on display. Something about them made me want to squirm. A flash of how those forearms flexed above me the night before while he was deep inside me popped into my head. I pressed my thighs together at the delicious memories of how he had felt, the slight ache a reminder. He looked at me and smiled as if he could read my thoughts. My cheeks warmed over, and I knew I was blushing.

  Calmate, Graciela. I tried to remind myself to keep calm, but it didn’t work. My pulse was suddenly in overdrive, and I had no idea why. He extended his hand, and I licked my lips before letting mine join his. One moment I was in the booth, and the next I was being led to the dance floor by one of the most handsome men I had ever laid eyes on.

  My legs felt like they were made of concrete and rubber bands all at the same time as we walked. I looked at our feet and not around us. My heart beat furiously until he stopped dead center of the dance floor, making my heart drop. My gaze traveled from his great leather shoes up his sin-inducing body to his lips just as his hand pulled me gently toward him. My eyes progressed and stayed fixed at his, and it was like I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t like to dance; I loved to. But the mix of the perfect atmosphere with an incredible man was making my heart go crazy. His free hand came up, skimmed my cheek, then moved into my hair, tilting me face up so that I could see him better. And just like that my soul calmed. All without a word.

  “I’m falling too,” he thickly whispered, his ruggedly handsome face in front of mine. The second after my mind processed his words, wetness hit my eyes, and I experienced a full body shiver. From head to toe, warmth filled my body.

  “Baby…” was all I could whisper without crying.

  He’d wanted to respond to me in my room, but Lexi had interrupted us. But he’d still made it a point to bring it up.

  And not in passing. He wanted to make a point, and man, had he ever!

  “Dance with me, sweetness.” His nose was now nuzzling mine. My heart and shoulders were suddenly light, and I wondered how I wasn’t just floating mid-air.

  So I did what any woman in her right mind would do when a ruggedly handsome man asks her to dance in the middle of a sexy little jazz club. I moved into him and held on.

  I wasn’t familiar with Jazz.

  I knew it was beautiful and could be moving and inspiring, but I didn’t know any songs or melodies or rhythms. But in that moment, none of that mattered. His strong, long arms wrapped me up tight; one of his hands clasped one of mine, his other on my back pressed us so close to one another I doubted a breeze could get between us. Our bodies melted together, fusing into one as he led the way to the gentle music’s beats and strums.

  We swayed to the serene way the trumpet played, smooth yet deep, as the piano lightened the way for it. The singer sang about a Sunday Kind of Love. My feet glided, almost floating as he moved me. I looked at him, and he smiled, leaning in to kiss me softly without hesitation or a word. Everything around us evaporated. Pulling away, he broke the kiss, his face at my neck, mine at his.

  “You’re a great dancer,” I lamely mentioned and felt his lips at my jaw again rambling. I was glad he couldn’t see me as I winced. Why was I so lame?

  “Nervous, Grace?” His voice quietly timbered in my ear.

  “Mmm…” was all I could muster, because I was. I was so damn nervous. And scared. But more than that, I was excited and hopeful.

  I was head-over-heels in love with a man in a way I had never experienced. In a way I only thought was possible in the romance novels I wrote. And we were slow dancing to a soft, sweet song on our first date.

  I wrote romance and happily ever afters, but there was no way I could have written this moment. This night.

  “I’m falling hard,” he whispered, and I sucked in a deep breath. He was going to be the end of me.

  “Marc.”

  “I am. I want this. I want there to be an ‘us.’ Behind closed doors and in the public eye, baby. I don’t want you to think I’m hiding you. I want you in my life. You, Lexi, Gabby, and even Gloria.” I let a small giggle escape, smiling against his neck at his sweetness.

  “Brave man,” I mumbled.

  “Anything for you, Grace.” The sincerity dripped from the tone in his voice, and the tip of my nose tickled at how beautiful his words were.

  “Baby…”

  “I’m serious. I know you’re scared. I get it. This. You and me. Our pull to one another…”

  “Like magnets,” I whispered, and he grunted. “This isn’t about the book anymore?”

  “It stopped being about that a while ago, Grace.” I knew that. He’d said so, but Gloria’s warning terrified me. “This is about you and me,” he clarified, once again somehow in my mind.

  “Yeah?”

  “Fuck, yeah. We’re good together.”

  “We are,” I whispered.

  “I need you to really think about this.”

  “Marc.” I looked up at him. His blue eyes in the hazy lit dance floor looked like deep sapphires. “I’m already here. With you.”

  “My life is hectic.”

  “I know.”

  “I have to travel; a quarter of the time I have no idea where on the globe I am.”

  “Baby…”

  “The jobs, photo shoots, fame, interviews.” He shook his head, his determined gaze never wavering from mine. “I make the wrong movie, all that can go away,” he added quickly, nervously, as we swayed, his fingers pressing into my back, somehow making our fronts press up even more.

  “I’m not seeing Mr. Right, Marcus. I’m with you. Aren’t I?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s all I want. Just you. Just Marc. My Marc. I don’t need the rest.”

  “It’s just me. That’s all I have been since you opened the door.” Crazy how much my life had been shaken up since that moment.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he looked at my lips. “Come home with me.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Your brothers,” I reminded him, and his jaw twitched.

  He cursed before suggesting, “Hotel.”

  “Hotel?” I asked in a breathy tone.

  His face leaned in again, this time at the other side of my neck, and I had a full body shiver, from the top of my head down to my toes. Breathing in the scent of his cologne of his skin. The mixture was an extremely potent aphrodisiac, one that was not missed at all by me. My nipples strained further as a very pleasant ache ran throughout my entire body.

  “I want you, Grace.” Those four words being whispered by him made my insides turn into liquid silk. So much so, I wasn’t able to stop the soft moan that escaped at the sound of him saying that.

  “My place…” I
started to suggest but stopped talking when his grip went tighter, pulling me in closer, letting me feel his hardness between us.

  “I want you. I want to have you where you can let go.”

  “Marc…”

  “I want to be able to hear every moan, every whimper,” he kissed my lips, dragging my lower lip into his mouth, then letting it go with a pop, “as loud as you want.”

  “Shit,” I cursed, holding on to him tightly, my nails digging at his back. God, that sounded good. Better than good, it sounded amazing. I wanted that too.

  “My girl going to give me that?” he asked in a growl, and I nodded against his neck.

  He put a little space between us, and I missed his body immediately. His forehead came to mine, his nose nuzzling mine tenderly for a moment before he spoke. “We’re going to dance this song.”

  “What?”

  “We’re going to dance this song and the next one. I’m going to hold you just like I am right now.”

  “Marc…” Why would he do that to me? Tease!

  “While we dance,” he gently nipped the bottom of my earlobe, “you’re going to let me hold you close,” he pulled me in tighter as if to prove a point, his hardness nestled between us, poking my belly, “knowing that I’m thinking about every little sound, soft and loud, you’re going to make later.” I closed my eyes and took in a sharp breath.

  I licked my lips at the low sound of his voice in those words. One of his hands went back into my hair as my cheek pressed closer to his chest. “Dancing close, knowing that I’m quietly planning and anticipating exactly how I’m going to get those sounds out of you.” I shook my head, sighing against his chest.

  “You’re nothing but a tease, pretty boy,” I whispered and felt him silently chuckled, his body shaking lightly.

  We swayed back and forth to the magical melody the live band played. I’d never heard the music, but I knew I would never forget those songs sung by that beautiful voice. Not ever. Even if whatever we were building went bad, this night, those songs would be one of the few great moments in my life I would look back on.

  “What made you bring me here tonight?” I asked after kissing his neck, tilting my head up to him.

  “You like it?” he asked, and I smiled, feeling like I was in the middle of the best kind of dream.

  “Love it.”

  “I’m glad, baby.” I smiled at him calling me baby.

  He had done it before, but there was a familiarity to the way he did it, especially in the tone he said it in, that I loved. The way his blue eyes looked into mine didn’t hurt either. “I wanted a place to have a good meal and good music, but not a club where we’d have to shout at each other.”

  “Great choice,” I breathed and settled back close into his body.

  My body felt like it was buzzing. Like a live wire, lit up brightly. Every cell in my body electrified with anticipation for what the night had been so far and what would happen later. One song ended, quickly melting and molding into another. One that I was more than familiar with.

  My mom had had a love for black and white movies. Casablanca being one of her favorites. As Time Goes By’s upbeat melody started up with the piano, the woman’s voice crooning the lyrics beautifully.

  No matter what the future brings… stuck out in my mind, and I looked up at him. My chest warmed and calmed the moment I caught him staring right back at me. But this time with a look I hadn’t seen on him before. One that silently promised so much and nothing at all, and I couldn’t help grin at how happy I felt at that moment. I cupped his face, feeling his sexy scruff below my hands.

  With a sexy wink, he picked up the speed we had swayed perfectly to the beat, in command of both our bodies. He wiggled his eyebrows before twirling me, and I laughed as the room spun around me. The people around me were just a blurry haze; the only thing I could seem to focus on was his face. Back in the safety of his arms, his smiling face came down to mine. “Let’s get out of here, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I beamed so bright my cheeks hurt. He led me to our table, grabbed his suit jacket, and settled the bill. We took out dessert to go before rushing to the valet to get his car.

  He held me close when I felt him kiss the top of my head. I nuzzled deeper into his chest as we waited for valet to bring his car out. My mind was busy with the sexy thoughts of what the rest of the night would bring.

  “Marc!” a feminine voice screamed, and we looked behind him. I gasped. Katie Wells.

  “Kate…” his voice rumbled. He was still holding me, but for a second I was slightly star struck. Holy crap. America’s golden screen sweetheart was standing a mere ten feet away from me.

  “You said we were getting back together!” she shrieked, crocodile tears falling down her face, and I felt his body freeze against mine as I processed what she was saying. My own body stiffened at her words.

  “What the…” his low voice started to rumble.

  “You said it would always be you and me!” she exclaimed, and I looked at her. Her eyes were dilated. Her tall, lithe body was standing slightly unsteady. “You told me if I left Russy, we’d be together.”

  “Marc,” I whispered, and he looked at me.

  “Babe…” he started to say, but a curse escaped his lips when he looked over my shoulder. I glanced toward that direction. Two men, one with a video camera and the other snapping pictures, were about six feet away from us.

  “This is what you cheat on me with?” Katie yelled, mascara now running down her flawless face. “This FAT cow!” I stilled at her petty name calling, taking in that someone was filming this.

  “You need to…” he started to warn as he stepped forward, but I held on to his wrist.

  “Who do you think you are?” I asked calmly as I looked at her. She was completely blitzed, gone on something, high as a kite.

  “Fuck you!” she spat, and I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath. Gripping a hold on some weird calm that was flowing through me.

  “No, thanks. But seriously, who do you think you are?” I asked calmly, holding on to Marc’s wrist.

  “Fuck you! You slut! Homewrecker! He’s mine!” she repeated, and I almost wanted to laugh as I looked at Katie yell and cry, all while Marc’s jaw twitched.

  “No, he isn’t,” I shared, standing tall, moving my hand from his wrist and to his forearm, feeling secure as his hand covered mine.

  “Really? Where do you think he was two weeks ago?” she asked with a smirk, and I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows at her.

  “With me. And if not with me, he was a phone call away,” I calmly answered, never looking away from her shifty blue eyes.

  “He was with me. In Palm Springs!” Kate crazily answered, and I heard Marcus laugh.

  “You’re crazy,” he mumbled, and Katie smirked, placing her hand on her almost nonexistent hip while I watched them.

  “Yeah, is that what you said when your dick was in my mouth?”

  “You’re disgusting,” I told her, somehow keeping my cool and my head together. I knew she was lying for whatever reason. I had no doubt she was.

  “No, that’s you, fucking slut! Do you really think he wants you over me?”

  “That’s enough.” Marcus started to step forward, but I held on to his arm. When his eyes looked down into mine, I shook my head and watched the edges of his frayed nerves smooth out.

  “You need to grow up,” I told her, unable to stop myself from standing there and not say something to her.

  “You need to shut the fuck up! Marcus, I left Russ, just like you—”

  “I haven’t talked to you in over a month.”

  “You love me!”

  “Not even close.”

  “You loved me…”

  “Wrong again.”

  “You did! We were America’s IT couple! We can be that…”

  “Not at all.”

  “You can’t be serious about this fat bitch here!” she yelled, and I winced at her words.

  They didn’t hurt
necessarily, but knowing that cameras would get this was embarrassing. Marcus’ large body tried to move toward her again, and again I stopped him, this time wrapping one arm around his waist and the other over his abs.

  “You can’t behave like this,” I told her softly, hoping she would understand she was on camera. That somehow in her drug- or alcohol-induced stupor she’d realize it and stop. I didn’t think she would behave like that if she knew.

  “Did you think him taking you to photo shoots and to the set of movies made you special?” she asked, tears drying on her face. The surprise at her knowing that made me go still. She hit her mark. She smiled wickedly at me. “You did, didn’t you?” she humorlessly laughed, and my heart sped up, but I cleared my face of emotion. “Honey, you are nothing but a means to an end for him.”

  “That’s enough, Kate.”

  “A normal girl to ‘ground him.’ Has he told you that line yet?” A gleam in her eyes told me she was fishing.

  “You can’t behave like this. People, normal people, don’t do things like this. Don’t you see that?” I asked her, trying to act like what she had said hadn’t affected me.

  “I can behave any fucking way I want! I’m America’s fucking Sweetheart, bitch! I can do anything I fucking want!” she shouted, and I rolled my eyes and looked up at Marc.

  “Do you guys really refer to yourselves with tabloid nicknames?” A grin started to play on his lips.

  “No one does that,” he clipped, and I could tell he was pissed at the situation. His scruffy jaw was twitching.

  “She just did,” I pointed out to him, trying to lighten the mood.

  “Hello!” Katie stepped in closer. “I know all about you, bitch.”

  “You really need to grow up,” Marcus growled.

  “Fuck you,” she spat, swaying slightly as she stepped forward, her eyes on me. “You don’t know me! But I know all about you! You’re nothing but a fat single mom!” she slurred, stepping closer, and something about the fact she knew about Lexi bothered me. How could she know anything about me? How did she know about being on set and the photo shoots?