by Force, Marie
He gazed into her eyes for a long moment, seeming to commit her features to memory. Then he shifted his gaze to her lips in the seconds before he kissed her.
The moment his lips connected with hers, she stopped worrying about the many reasons this was a bad idea and lost herself in a kiss that made her forget everything other than how incredible it felt to be held and kissed by a smart, sexy, handsome man.
Kisses that had been sweet and tentative the night before were hotter now, sexier, more desperate.
Emma had never been kissed the way Grayson kissed her, as if he wanted to devour her, and oh dear God, she wanted to be devoured by him. A libido that had been dormant for ten years roared back to life with an intensity that made her shiver from wanting him so desperately.
He seemed to want her just as badly, judging from the way he kissed her and how he drew her closer to him, until they were stretched out on the sofa, arms and legs entwined, lips joined and his erection hard against her belly.
Emma had to remind herself where they were and what could and couldn’t happen here. Worries about getting caught had her withdrawing, reluctantly, from the kiss.
“What?” he whispered gruffly.
“I’m trying to remember where we are.”
“I can’t remember my own name right now.”
She laughed softly, and then sighed when his lips moved to her neck as his hand dipped under her sweater. The heat of his palm on her back seared her skin, making her want so much more. She moved against him, hoping he’d touch her everywhere, regardless of where they were and who might catch them.
Groaning softly, he took the hint, moving his hand from back to front and up to cup her breast through her bra.
Emma was glad she’d worn one of the few truly sexy bras she owned.
His thumb slid back and forth over her nipple, setting off a firestorm inside her.
She went on her own exploration, sliding her hand under his sweater.
He gasped from the feel of her skin against his and captured her lips in another heated kiss. His tongue rubbed against hers as their bodies rocked together. Then he pinched her bare nipple between his fingers, and Emma nearly launched off the sofa. She broke the kiss and took a deep breath. “Grayson…”
“Hmm?”
“We have to stop. We can’t do this here.”
He made an inarticulate noise. “Let’s go to your room.”
“This is your aunt’s house. We can’t.”
“They won’t know, and they wouldn’t care.”
Emma was so incredibly tempted. “I care. I’m their guest, and it doesn’t feel right to…”
“Shag their nephew in the guest room?”
She laughed at his bluntly spoken words. “Yes, that.”
He sighed, deeply, then adjusted her bra to cover her breast and removed his hand from under her sweater. “For the record, I’m withdrawing under protest.”
“Duly noted,” she said, smiling as she kissed him.
“Tomorrow, I could show you my new apartment if you’d like to see it.”
His meaning wasn’t lost on her. “I’ll have to see what’s going on with Simone.”
He rested his forehead on hers and took another deep breath. “I haven’t felt like this in… well… ever.”
Touched by his confession, Emma ran her hand over his back. “Neither have I.”
He raised his head to look down at her. “How’d this happen?”
“I believe you put your arm around me, and next thing I knew, here we were.”
“I don’t mean just this.” He kissed her to make his point. “I mean how did this happen? All of it.”
“It’s your fault for being so easy to talk to.”
“No, that’s your fault,” he said, smiling.
“I should probably go upstairs.”
“Not yet,” he whispered, kissing her again.
“Grayson…”
“Ten more minutes.”
Could she handle ten more minutes of the kind of pleasure she’d never experienced before? “Okay.”
Grayson woke to whispered voices in the kitchen and a warm, sweet body tucked in close to him under a blanket he vaguely remembered pulling over them in the middle of the night.
His aunt and uncle were up, and Emma was asleep in his arms, which was no big deal to him, but it would be to her. He kissed her awake.
Her eyes fluttered open, and a sweet smile curved her lips when she saw him there. Then she realized where they were, and the smile disappeared. “I…”
“Shhh. They’re up. Go on upstairs, and I’ll be back to get you at noon.”
“Get me to go where?”
“You’ll see.” He kissed her again and released her, patting her ass as she got up from the sofa.
Emma looked over her shoulder and caught him checking her out as she left the room to sneak up the stairs like a naughty teenager trying to avoid her parents.
He fell back against the sofa, missing her already, and she’d only just left him. A few minutes later, he got up, ran his fingers through his hair and put on his shoes. Then he went into the kitchen to face the music with his aunt and uncle.
“Morning,” Molly said from her perch at the stove where she was standing watch over a pan of eggs. “Coffee?”
“I wouldn’t say no to that.”
She poured him a cup. “Cream is in the fridge. Sugar is on the table.”
“Thanks. Hope you don’t mind me crashing on your sofa. The snow was pretty intense.”
“Of course we don’t mind,” Molly said. “Our home is your home. You know that.”
“And I appreciate it.”
“So,” Linc said, holding his newspaper to the side so he could see Grayson, “did you and Emma have a nice time last night?”
“We did.” Avoiding his uncle’s obvious curiosity, Grayson stirred cream into his coffee. “Our evening was cut short by the snow, but we had fun. We saw Hannah, Nolan, Will and Cameron at Kingdom Pizza.” Ten minutes later, he heard footsteps on the stairs, and his heart raced, knowing it would be Emma coming down to join them.
“Morning,” she said, hair damp from the shower and lips swollen from kissing him.
The sight of her made him hard as a rock. His reaction to her was unprecedented. He’d wanted other women, but not the way he wanted her, and he’d known her only a few days. It didn’t make sense to him. How could they have gone from perfect strangers to this level of desperate need in the scope of a couple of evenings? Albeit amazing, monumental evenings.
“Morning, honey,” Molly said. “Did you sleep well?”
Grayson noticed that Emma went out of her way not to look at him. “Like a rock.”
He found her choice of words comical in light of his condition.
“Morning,” she said to him as she slid into the chair next to his, bringing a cup of coffee and a cloud of fragrance with her.
He wanted to lean in closer to fully experience her scent as much as her soft skin and swollen lips. “Morning.”
“How much snow did we get?” Emma asked.
“Only about fourteen inches,” Linc said.
Emma’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?”
“Welcome to Vermont, sweetheart,” Grayson said, amused by her reaction.
She glanced at him, and he took note of the flush in her cheeks. “That would shut down New York City for two days.”
“Just a dusting to us,” Linc said.
“How many such dustings do you get in an average winter?” Emma asked.
“We lose count,” Molly said.
“Wow.” Emma glanced out the big sliding glass door that led to the deck and yard. “It sure is pretty.”
“Yes, it is,” Grayson said, looking at her, not the snow.
When she realized his meaning, she smiled and brought her coffee to her lips. Even the way she drank her coffee was sexy to him.
The house phone rang, and Molly took the call. “Emma? It’s for you. A little girl callin
g from the mountain.”
Emma jumped up and went to take the call from her daughter. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Grayson once again noticed the way her face lit up when she spoke to her child, and her joy touched him profoundly. He caught his uncle watching him. “What?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I… um…”
Linc snorted. “It’s like that, is it?”
“Might be.”
“Proceed with caution, my boy,” Linc said in a low tone intended for Grayson’s ears only. “She’s not a woman you trifle with.”
“I know that,” Grayson said, mildly insulted that his uncle thought he needed to be told.
“No offense intended.”
“I know that, too,” he said with a sigh.
“She’s special, and so is that little girl of hers.”
“Yes, they are.”
“Okay, baby,” Emma said into the phone. “Have a great time, and be good for Colton and Lucy.” She hung up the phone. “Apparently, Uncle Colton has offered to teach Simone how to ski today.”
Grayson knew a moment of pure elation at realizing Emma was free to hang out with him. If she wanted to, that was.
“She couldn’t get a better teacher,” Molly said. “Except for Will maybe. But Colton is a fantastic skier.”
“I certainly can’t compete with her fun aunt and uncle,” Emma said.
“She’s in a new place with new things to try,” Molly said.
“She’s not going to want to go home,” Emma said. “It’s way more fun here than it is there.” She turned her potent gaze Grayson’s way as she said that, and his heart skipped a beat.
“What’re you doing today?” he asked as casually as possible.
“I have no idea. I’ve been ditched by my kid, so I’m at loose ends.”
“You can help me move into my new place, if you want.”
“Um, sure, I can do that.”
“Great.”
They ate breakfast with Molly and Lincoln, and then went outside to dig out the cars, which took well over an hour. Thankfully, Linc had a snowblower for the long driveway. He took care of that while Emma and Grayson focused on the cars.
“This is hard work,” she said.
“Vermont in the winter isn’t for sissies.”
“Are you calling me a sissy?”
“Would I do that?”
“I think you would.”
Grayson was heaving a heavy load of snow to the pile they’d created next to the driveway when something cold and wet hit him square in the face. She did not! Her squeal of laughter indicated that she had.
“This is war.” He threw down his shovel and ran around his uncle’s Land Rover, nearly falling on his ass when he slid on icy snow.
Seeing him coming, she took off screaming, heading away from the house down the driveway.
Grayson caught up to her, hooked his arm around her waist and hoisted her right off her feet.
She screamed with laughter as they landed in a snowbank. Her face was red from the cold, and their breath formed clouds around them.
He kissed her right there in the snow, mindless of his uncle a few hundred yards from them or Ringo and George frolicking in the snow nearby. The whole world could’ve been watching, for all he cared. He kissed her until he felt her surrender—and then he smashed a handful of snow in her face.
She sputtered and smacked at his arm and shoulder. “That was a dirty trick!”
“You started it.”
Raising her arm as if to put it around him, she stuffed a handful of snow down the back of his neck.
“Holy shit!” He jumped up and shook the snow out of his clothes while she lost it laughing.
“Hey, you two,” Linc called. “No playing until the work is done.”
“It’s him.” Emma pointed a gloved thumb at Grayson. “He started it.”
Glowering at her even as he delighted in her playfulness, he said, “You’ll pay for that later.”
“Promises, promises.”
The comment, the look she gave him and the meaning in her words made him hard—again. Had shoveling snow ever been so fun?
* * *
Chapter 4
Love is our true destiny.
We do not find the meaning of life by
ourselves alone—we find it with another.
—Thomas Merton
They left Lincoln and Molly’s a short time later and headed for Grayson’s mother’s home to dig her out. When he pulled up to his mother’s house, he saw that Noah had used the plow on his truck to do the driveway.
“Noah was here with the plow,” Grayson said, parking behind his mother’s sedan. “That makes things easier.”
“I’ve never seen this much snow except during a blizzard.”
“Wait till you see a blizzard in Vermont. That’s some real snow.”
“What’s this? Fake snow?”
“This is a whimper. That’s a roar.”
“It’s kind of exciting,” she said.
“What is?”
“The snow.”
Rolling his eyes, he said, “There’s nothing exciting about snow when you have to deal with it as much as we did growing up.”
“I like the way it interferes with plans and forces us to slow down. Life is so busy and rushed, but when it snows, everything stops for a little while.”
“I guess that’s true.” He ushered her into his mother’s mudroom ahead of him. They removed their boots and coats before proceeding into the kitchen, where his mom was drinking coffee and watching the news on the small TV Grayson had given her for Christmas. “I would’ve set that up for you,” he said of the TV.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing it myself,” she said. “Hi there, Emma. There’s more coffee if you’re interested.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Coleman. I had my daily quota at Molly’s.”
“Call me Hannah, please. I’m the old Hannah in this family. My niece is the young pretty one.” She tipped her face up to receive a kiss from Grayson. “You sleep okay at your aunt’s house?”
“Like a rock,” he said, echoing what Emma had said earlier. “I need to go change my clothes. Somehow I managed to get wet shoveling snow this morning. Be right back.”
Emma giggled, and he rushed upstairs to take a quick shower and change. He didn’t want to waste a minute of this day with her.
Emma took a seat at the table with Hannah. Though she and Molly were sisters, they were quite different. While Molly wore her gray hair in a pretty braid, Hannah’s was cut short, and while Molly smiled all the time, Hannah was less animated and more serious. Now that Emma knew more about the Coleman family, she also understood the tinge of bitterness she’d seen in Hannah.
“How cold is it out there?” Hannah asked.
“Not too bad.”
“Is your daughter enjoying her visit to Vermont?”
“She is. She spent last night with Lucy and Colton, and today they’re teaching her to ski. I’m afraid she won’t want to go home.”
“Surely the city is more exciting than what goes on here.”
“Simone would disagree. She loves it here.”
Hannah eyed her with obvious curiosity. “You’re cozy with my son.”
Whoa… “I like him.”
“He’s a good man. Maybe the best man I know.”
Emma wasn’t sure where this was leading, so she took the cautious route. “I agree.”
They watched TV in uncomfortable silence for long enough that Emma was relieved to hear Grayson’s heavy footsteps on the stairs.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Whenever you are.” Emma stood and pushed in the chair. “It was nice to see you, Hannah.”
“You, too.”
“See you later, Mom.” Grayson guided Emma from the kitchen with a hand on her lower back. He held her coat for her and then put on his own.
His hair was damp, he’d shaved and he smelled delicious. “What’
d she say to you?” he asked the second they were out the door.
“Nothing.”
“At all?”
“No,” she said, laughing, “nothing to be concerned about. She told me you’re a good man, maybe the best man she knows.”
“Hmm, is that right?”
“Yep. I told her I agreed.”
“Did you now?”
“I did.”
He held the car door for her. “And you already know that?”
“I knew that the first time we talked.”
Grayson smiled at her and closed her door.
After he got in the car, she said, “Was she warning me off you?”
“I’m not sure why she would.”
“Maybe because I live in New York and you live here?”
“Possibly.”
“Where’re we going?”
“I want to show you my new place.”
Emma wondered if that was code for “pick up where we left off last night,” which would be fine with her. He made her feel young again, and with Simone off having fun with Lucy, Emma was free to do something for herself for a change—and she felt a sense of urgency with their time in Vermont limited to only a few more days. “I’d like to see it.”
Grayson held her hand as they drove through town, a small thing that was exciting to her after being alone for so long. The sense of connection she felt to him after such a short time both frightened and exhilarated her. With her better judgment warning caution, her hormones had a whole other agenda. Her very own civil war.
“You’re quiet,” he said. “What’re you thinking about?”
“Civil war.”
When he shifted his gaze to her, she could see his confusion. “My brain is telling me one thing about what’s happening here. The rest of me has a whole other opinion.”
“Talk to me about the rest of you. I think I’ll like that opinion better than what your reasonable brain is telling you.”
“You’re right about that. If I were to listen to reason, I’d get out of this car at the next intersection and walk away.”
“But…”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“Which is good, because I’d follow you.”
She looked over at him, taking in the handsome face and smooth jaw. He took her breath away. “Even if I asked you not to?”