The waitress came over and asked what they wanted to drink.
“Do you have champagne?” Grady asked.
The waitress smiled. “Yes we do, sir.”
“We’ll have two glasses to start, and with dinner how about some red wine?”
The waitress showed him the list and he chose a bottle of the most expensive wine they had.
“Coming right up,” the waitress said.
She returned with their champagne and took their dinner orders. Grady sipped his drink and despite having been at some of the fanciest restaurants in the country, he’d never tasted anything so delicious or intoxicating in his life.
“You like it?” he said to Autumn.
She nodded. “You’re a very good host,” she said.
Grady smiled. He was afraid he was blushing. There was something about Autumn that disarmed him. It made him feel like he was eighteen again, on his very first date, nervous as a schoolboy. He’d been with his share of women, but it had never been like this.
This was what all the fuss was about, he realized.
He’d seen the same romantic movies everyone else watched, he’d read the same books. He knew the world made a big deal about romance, about love, about the powerful attraction that two people could feel for each other when everything was right. And he’d always rolled his eyes. He never thought it was real, or that it was worth the fuss people made of it.
Until this very moment, sipping his champagne, looking into Autumn’s sweet face.
“Can I ask you something personal?” he said.
She nodded.
“I don’t want to embarrass you.”
“You won’t,” she said, enjoying her drink.
“Is there someone in your life? A man, I mean?”
Autumn blushed. She shook her head and looked down at the table. Grady felt bad for embarrassing her and luckily the waitress arrived with their food and brought the moment to an end. She offered them freshly ground pepper, which they both accepted, and an older waiter in a black suit with white shirt brought over their bottle of wine and offered Grady a taste.
Grady nodded that it was perfect, the waiter poured two glasses, and they were alone again.
“Why did you ask me that?” Autumn said.
“Just being nosy, I guess,” Grady said. “I mean, it’s not every day I come across a woman as lovely as you.”
Autumn blushed again, looked away, and then glanced back at him.
He was still doing it, making the moment awkward, but he couldn’t help it. He had to know about her. He had to know if there was a man in her life. He had to tell her she was lovely, because it was the truth.
He wasn’t trying to pick her up. He wasn’t trying to charm her. He’d done that a million times to other women and it never made him shy or nervous. He knew he was attractive to women and he could usually read them like a book.
But with Autumn, it was like all his skills, all his experience, had come to nought. He was as vulnerable as he would have been if this was the very first girl he’d ever liked. Because when all was said and done, she was.
“Lovely?” Autumn said shyly.
Grady nodded.
“I’m sorry for embarrassing you, Autumn. It’s just, I’m the kind of man who calls a spade a spade. I never was able to hold my peace when there was something important I wanted to say. It’s gotten me into more trouble in my life than you’d ever imagine.”
Autumn looked at him as she twirled her fork in her spaghetti.
“Well, if we’re being honest, I should say you’re not too bad yourself, Grady Cole.”
Grady was chewing some steak and he laughed. “I don’t know about that.”
“It’s true,” Autumn said, holding his gaze.
“That’s kind of you to say.”
“Grady, I mean it. You must know that already.”
Grady couldn’t understand why he was being so shy, so coy. He was never like this with women. He knew it was because until this moment, there’d never been anything important at stake.
“I guess I’m a type,” he said. “A lot of women like the rugged, muscular, tattooed look.”
“A lot of women?” Autumn said, laughing. “I’d say it’s pretty much every woman that ever lived.”
“Not every woman,” Grady said, looking at her intently.
He thought back to the last woman he’d been with. She was a drug addict and had more problems than most, and that was precisely the type of woman Grady thought he belonged with. A girl like Autumn, someone kindhearted and sweet and so pretty it physically caused him pain when he looked at her, would never fall for his charms. He was sure of that.
He cleared his throat. “There’s a whole world of women out there who would take one look at a man like me and run a million miles in the opposite direction.”
Autumn looked surprised.
“You don’t believe me?” Grady said.
“Well, I guess there are some women who wouldn’t like you.”
“Take you for instance,” Grady said.
“Me?”
“Well, I’m practically old enough to be your father.”
Autumn laughed. “Please,” she said.
“It’s true.”
“I’ll be twenty in a few weeks. You’re thirty. That’s not old enough to be my father.”
“Well, it feels like it could be.”
“Well it couldn’t,” she said, standing her ground.
“Plus, I’ve got a baby. That’s a lot of baggage.”
“Destiny isn’t baggage, Grady. She’s a gift.”
Grady looked at her. “Do you really think that?”
Autumn nodded. “Absolutely.”
Grady stared at her and no matter how hard he tried to look away, he couldn’t. She simply took his breath away.
“Besides,” she said at last, “you can’t possibly be saying that you’ve ever had a hard time finding women.”
Grady shrugged. “True.”
“I bet they line up for you.”
He laughed.
“Take our waitress for instance. I saw the way she looked at you.”
Grady glanced over at the waitress. It was true. He could have bedded her in minutes if he cared to try.
“Tell me this, Grady Cole. Have you ever had a waitress in your life that didn’t ask you where you were from, or where you were headed, or anything to strike up a conversation?”
Grady threw up his hands, but Autumn went on, her passions riled up by the direction the conversation had taken.
“Me on the other hand. I’m a different story.”
“You should be glad you’re a different story.”
“Oh really. I should be glad I’ve never had a boyfriend? I should be glad I’ve never had sex? I should be glad that no man has ever so much as looked twice at me?”
“I can tell you right now that ain’t true.”
“Well it feels true, Grady. I feel completely invisible. I feel like men take one look at me and all they see is a little girl.”
“They don’t see that.”
“Even you see me that way,” she said. “I know you do.”
Grady laughed. There was some truth to what she was saying, but it wasn’t the way she thought. Men might not hit on a girl like Autumn as soon as she walked into a bar, but it was only because deep down, within every man, there was a core value, a respect, a knowledge that something that beautiful shouldn’t be taken for granted.
A man couldn’t walk up to the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen and tell her what he wanted. It was like walking into a church and handing the priest a list of demands. A man doesn’t tell God what he wants, he prays. There’s a difference. And a man doesn’t tell a beautiful woman what he wants.
He falls in love.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Grady
By the time they got back to the motel, Grady and Autumn were both tipsy.
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” Autumn sa
id.
Grady nodded and put Destiny in the bed. He decided he’d let Autumn share the bed with the baby and he’d sleep in the armchair. He stripped down to his boxer shorts and found the extra blankets in the closet. He took one to the chair and lowered himself into it, far more tired than he’d realized.
No sooner did he close his eyes than Autumn came out of the bathroom.
“It’s all yours, Grady,” she said.
He looked up at her and felt a throb in his cock. She was fresh from the shower, her cheeks flushed pink from the hot water. Her hair was wet and wrapped in one of the towels he’d bought. Another towel was wrapped around her body, covering her breasts and coming down past her waist but it still left her neck and shoulders bare. It was high on her thighs, stopping just low enough to cover her butt.
“Sweet Lord,” he said without thinking.
“What?” she said.
He was glad he had the blanket for cover because his cock was as rigid as a pole. It stood up, erect in his lap, and he wanted nothing more than to walk right over to her, lift her up in his arms, and fling her down on the bed.
She was his deepest fantasy come to life.
Her skin looked soft and smooth.
He wanted to run his fingers over her thighs, to make her shiver with anticipation. He wanted to lie her down on the bed and take the towels away from her.
He longed to run his lips over her breasts, to taste her nipples in his mouth, to kiss her so passionately she moaned his name.
He yearned to spread her legs open and slide his tongue into her wet, trembling pussy. To make her cry out in surprise and pleasure. To climb up over her and slide his throbbing, rigid cock inside her delicate body.
He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything. It wasn’t just sexual desire, it was a longing deeper and more emotional than that. It was a yearning that came from his heart.
He wanted to feel her body beneath his, to feel the surrender as she let him enter her, the clenching of her muscles as her climax rushed through her, the surprise and delight when she felt him cumming inside her. The knowledge that she’d never experienced any of that before, that she’d never even come close, only served to heighten his lust.
She looked at him, the way he was looking at her, and it was like she realized for the first time how she must have looked.
“Oh,” she said, retreating back into the bathroom. “Sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” he said.
She came back out, this time fully covered in one of the motel’s robes, the belt tightly tied around her waist.
Grady grinned. He didn’t know if she’d walked out like that by accident, forgetting herself for a moment, or if she’d been trying to get his attention, to bring their relationship to a new level of sexual intimacy, but either way it was amusing.
She had balls. He had to give her that much.
And there was a lot more he’d give her too. He knew it with a certainty that caused his cock to ache with yearning, to throb with anticipation beneath the blanket, but not yet.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Autumn
Autumn leapt back into the bathroom and shut the door, her heart pounding.
What had she been thinking?
For one insane, crazy moment she’d become someone else. She’d become someone confident and certain of herself. Someone who could walk up to a man and give him exactly what she knew he wanted.
She’d become a woman.
But only for a moment.
The second she stepped out of the bathroom and saw him sitting there, his muscular body only barely covered by the blanket, almost naked underneath, she lost her nerve. She couldn’t pull it off.
She bit her lip with regret, chiding herself for not being braver, for not walking over to him and letting the towel fall to the floor as she’d pictured it in her mind.
She knew he wanted her. She knew it with a certainty she’d never imagined she could feel about a man.
She was going to be his.
He was going to lay claim to her body and show her what it meant to be a woman.
But not yet.
It wasn’t going to be that easy.
Grady was going to make her wait. She could feel it. He was going to draw out this chase, extend the thrill of the hunt, make it last. He was going to make her watch him at every moment, never certain when he was going to pounce. He was going to put her through the torture of knowing what was coming, knowing what pleasure awaited, without ever being certain when or if she could have it.
The look on his face when he’d looked up at her.
“Sweet Lord,” he’d whistled.
He’d known exactly what she was doing. He’d been through all of this a million times. She was putty in his hands and he knew it.
But he wouldn’t make it easy.
She gathered her courage, steeled her nerves, and stepped back out, this time fully covered up in the motel bathrobe.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Sorry for what?” he said.
She didn’t look at him. She marched past as quickly as she could and got into the bed next to Destiny. She covered her head with the blanket and hid for a minute.
Grady said nothing.
At last, she peeped up over the blanket and looked at him. He was staring right back at her.
“What?” she said.
The look of smug confidence on his face infuriated and thrilled her at the same time. It was like he was telling her that he knew exactly what she wanted and would give it to her when he was good and ready.
“Nothing,” he said.
Just take me, Grady. Make me yours. Make me yours now. Please don’t make me wait. Don’t you dare make me beg.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she said.
Grady shrugged and leaned back in the chair, throwing his legs up on the wooden coffee table in front of him. He’d turned the armchair so he was facing the bed rather than the television.
“Anyone ever tell you you’ve got legs to die for?”
She felt a rush of excitement and embarrassment.
“Anyone ever tell you it’s rude to watch a girl get out of the shower.”
Grady laughed.
“Anyone ever tell you it’s damn well impossible for a man not to watch a woman like you looking like that.”
She felt the heat of embarrassment come to her cheeks and wished the room was darker.
“Shut off the light, would you?” she said.
Grady stood up, revealing his bare, muscular body to her. He was naked but for a pair of tightly fitting black boxer shorts. They left nothing to the imagination. The curve of his ass, muscular and round, was perfectly visible at the back. In front, a huge bulge spiking the front of his shorts like the center pole of a circus tent pointed right at her.
“I guess we’re even now,” he said.
“Even?”
“You saw me step out of the shower once too.”
Autumn hid back down under the blanket. The light switched off and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she gasped when she felt the weight of Grady’s body sitting down next to her on the bed.
“What are you doing?” she said, climbing back out from under the covers.
“I just wanted to tell you something before you went to sleep,” he said.
She couldn’t believe how close she was to an almost naked Grady Cole. She could smell the musk of his aftershave. She could see the texture of the skin on his arm and shoulder, the detail of the tattoos. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to pull off the blanket and let him into the bed next to her. She wanted to be loved by him.
“Tell me what?” she said, breathless with anticipation.
“Thank you.”
She wasn’t sure why he was thanking her, for looking after Destiny, for being good company, for putting a little light in his life, for stepping out of the bathroom in the towel, but before she could ask, he kissed her on the cheek.
It was a gentle k
iss, more affectionate than passionate. It was a kiss of fondness.
Even still, it sent a shockwave through her. It woke up a desire in her for more. She wanted to follow him down the path of intimacy, to finally find out what it was like to go all the way with a man, but before she could react he got off the bed and went back to his armchair.
He pulled his blanket up over himself and settled into the chair.
“Good night, Autumn,” he said softly.
“Good night, Grady.”
She lay there, motionless, her senses in disarray. She’d never felt that way before. She was lying just a few feet from a man who she wanted more than she’d ever wanted anything. He was right there. And she knew with a certainty he wanted her too.
Her pussy tingled with desire. She felt warm and wet and longed to touch herself, but she didn’t dare. What if he heard her? What if that was exactly what he was trying to coax her into doing?
She lay next to Destiny in the warm bed and tried with all her might to fall asleep.
It didn’t take long for sleep to come.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Autumn
They woke early the next morning and Autumn wasn’t sure exactly where she stood with Grady. Had last night been a date? Had they been flirting? Had they been expressing interest in each other?
Or was it all just dinner conversation?
Did Grady know what she’d been hoping for when she stepped out of the bathroom?
“How did you sleep?” Grady said, brushing past her on his way to the bathroom.
He had a towel wrapped around his waist and nothing else.
“Good. I heard you with Destiny during the night,” she said.
“I woke up for a while and thought I should hold her. She slept well though.”
Autumn nodded. She’d been so aroused when she fell asleep that she’d had explicit dreams about Grady all night long. She prayed she hadn’t made a sound in her sleep.
She sat up in the bed and watched his perfect body move around the room. He put on the coffee and got dressed right in front of her while it brewed. She was shy but not as shy as she’d been with him before. She knew him better now. They’d been through things together. She tried not to look like she was watching him but that’s exactly what she was doing. She picked up Destiny and bobbed her on her lap while watching Grady put on a clean t-shirt. He sat at the end of her bed and pulled on some shorts under the towel and then stood up, letting the towel fall to the floor.
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