“Don’t stop. It feels so good.”
Ice bent over her back, using his chin to see her face. He would never be the perfect match for Grace, he shouldn’t even be allowed to touch her, but she was a lifeline that either God or whichever twist of fate had brought into his life, and he was going to make damn sure she never thought about him leaving her again.
Inexorably, he kept lunging forward until both their bodies were covered in a sheen of sweat. She wantonly surged back on him. driving what was left of his brain to mush as they each tried to outdo the other on how much pleasure they could give each other.
The first climax they had shared had just been appetizer, not quenching their hunger that the three weeks of abstinence had built. Now, the climax he was building in their bodies was one that would not only alleviate the remnants of what was left, it would consume them in a fiery blaze.
Stroke by stroke, Ice drove them closer to the edge like a sailboat anchored to shore, waiting until he felt the flash of need that signaled he was getting close to coming before using the heel of his palm to crush down on her clit, setting her free to sail toward her own climax.
The aftershocks had them crashing down on the bed together, neither of them able to move.
“Ice…,” Grace plaintively mumbled underneath him. “I can’t breathe.”
Groaning, he managed to roll over onto his back. “Damn, woman, that was good.”
He winced when she smacked him on his chest, then grinned down at her when she tiredly climbed on top of him, resting her cheek on his chest.
“Are we dead?” she asked sleepily.
“No.” Running a hand down her spine, he then grabbed an ass cheek, giving it a loving squeeze. “But the night isn’t over yet.”
“It is for me. I have nothing left.”
As she burrowed into him, Ice saw she was already half asleep.
“Take a nap. I’ll wake you when I want to fuck you again.”
Her lips curled in a satisfied yawn. “Do that and I’ll make you regret it.”
“If you think that’s going to deter me, you chose the wrong threat.”
“It wasn’t a threat; it was a promise.”
Turning her face into his chest, she put her hands under her chin to stare at him seriously. “I’m not going to the hearing.”
“Grace… I wasn’t—”
“It has nothing to do with you. This is a part of my life that has to be over. It’s poisoning me just as surely as the poison Simone drank to escape him. I’m never going to forgive him.”
“I don’t expect you to,” he said, rubbing a knuckle across her cheek.
“I’ll write a new letter, but I’m not going to give him one more minute of my life. Not one. I’ve been so afraid of him getting out that I’ve only focused on that. The only revenge I could get was to keep him where he didn’t want to be. I hope he gets out, because he will come searching for me. And when he does, I’ll be waiting.”
“Are you sure?” Ice didn’t try to sway her either way.
“I’m sure. I need to stop listening to footsteps from my nightmares and start listening to the patter of little feet.”
Ice could feel her eyes drilling into his soul.
“Is that a hint?”
“It’s a request. That is, if you still want to have one with me?”
At the sight of her trembling bottom lip, his curled salaciously. “I thought you were tired.”
Scooting down his body, she reached for his already rising cock. “We can sleep on the way home.”
CHAPTER 11
Grace sleepily stretched out in the bed, reaching out with her hand to search for Ice’s warmth. Feeling only the cool sheets, though, she lifted her eyelids to find the bed empty.
“Ice…” She turned over, seeing the bathroom door wide open but he wasn’t in there.
Brushing her tousled hair from her face, she looked toward the clock on the bedside table and then hurriedly flipped the covers back, jumping out of the bed to get dressed.
Rushing in the bathroom, she took a quick shower. They were supposed to meet Dax at the airport for the flight back to Queen City.
Expecting to find Ice in the bedroom when she came out of the bathroom, she sent him a text as she got dressed. Anticipating that he was in the kitchen or the living room, she assumed he would come to the bedroom when he got her text.
She was taking the suitcases out of the closets when she heard a text ping on her phone.
Give me five. Having breakfast with Shade.
Disappointed that he hadn’t asked her to go, she shrugged it off, too happy in the aftermath of spending the night in Ice’s arm to resent him for taking a break for masculine company.
Wheeling the suitcases into the living room after checking that they weren’t leaving anything behind, she was about to go to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee when she heard a key in the door.
She gave him a beaming smile when he came through the door with a large cup of coffee.
“I was about to make me some.”
“Then I’m glad I saved you the trouble.” Giving her a kiss, he saw that she had the suitcases ready to go. “Did you double-check that we have everything?”
“Of course,” she said, taking the lid off the steaming coffee cup.
Ice gave her a know-it-all look, then went around her to head into the bedroom. Grace trailed after him as far as the kitchen to get some milk for her coffee.
Stirring her coffee, she flushed when Ice came out of the bedroom, carrying her favorite sneakers.
“Thank you. I would have missed them when I got home.” Taking a sip of her coffee, she flashed him a grateful smile.
He didn’t return it, coming to stand beside her at the kitchen counter.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” The seriousness in his voice had her hand trembling around the Styrofoam cup and her heart plummeting to her feet. It was everything she could do not to beg him not to leave her before he spilled the bombshell she had been expecting.
“I won’t be going back with you.”
This was it then. What she had been expecting to happen.
“I see.” She set the cup down then turned toward him, waiting for him to speak the final words, to say their marriage was over. Feeling desperate, she promised herself she wouldn’t beg. Then she immediately decided she wasn’t going to give him up without a fight. If she was hurting this badly now, how was she going to survive without him in her life? It wasn’t humanly possible to live with this pain and survive.
“Grace….” His snapped voice dragged her out of the pain-filled well she sank into. “Listen to me. I’m only going to be gone for a couple of weeks. I have to take care of some business for Shade that he asked me to do.”
Relief had her sagging and she braced herself on the counter. “Okay.”
He frowned at her. “That’s it? You’re not going to ask what it is?”
She quickly shook her head. “I trust you. Can I have a kiss?”
He put his hand behind her neck, pulling her toward him. “You’re getting as crazy as T.A.’s friend.”
She smoothed her hands over his chest. “Probably. I’ve heard love does that to you.”
“That’s for fucking sure. My head hasn’t been on straight since I met you.”
She put her arms around his shoulders as he kissed her, committing it to memory until he got back to Queen City.
The sound of her phone ringing had Ice trying to break off the kiss.
“It’s Dax. I’ll call him back. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you, too. Just think of the sex we’ll have when I get back.”
“Hopefully, I’ll be recovered from last night,” she said, finally forced to answer the insistent ringing of her cell phone.
“I’m on my way,” she told Dax when she answered.
“I was beginning to get worried,” his voice sounded from the other end.
“Don’t be. I just woke
up late. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Disconnecting the call, she placed it in her pocket so she wouldn’t forget it, then took the shoes from Ice.
“We better be going, Dax is waiting.”
She put on a brave face when Ice put her suitcase in the rental car, leaving his suitcase behind. Getting in the passenger seat, she took his hand when he got behind the wheel, holding it all the way to the small airport.
When he pulled into the airfield, she didn’t immediately get out, even though she could see Dax waiting by the plane with the door open.
“Please take care of yourself,” she said, turning to face him when he stopped the car.