She pulled back from the hug but remained standing between his knees. “So I thought maybe tonight, I should stay at my house instead of coming back here. I have to meet him early, and it doesn’t make sense to come all the way back out this way.”
Grant frowned. “I’m not leaving you unprotected, Charlotte. Even for one night.”
The little shiver she gave at the use of her full name, her sub name, brought Grant more pleasure than it should’ve. She shrugged. “So stay there with me.”
The suggestion was a simple one on its surface, but the idea of sleeping next to her in her own house had tension gathering in his shoulders. He didn’t sleep with anyone. And his nightmares wouldn’t care if he was alone or otherwise. They’d come anyway. He rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen some of the tightness. There was always the couch, and he could pull an all-nighter, keeping guard. God knows he’d pulled enough of them in his military career.
“All right, we’ll stay at your place.” He slid his palms along her waist, then over the curve of her ass. “Hope your neighbors aren’t too close. Having you on my arm all night, looking this edible, is going to have me ready to get you screaming the minute we’re alone.”
Her nipples hardened behind the soft material of her dress, her body instantly responding to his suggestions. She poked his chest. “Hey, you said this was going to be a normal date. Strictly business.”
“What? Vanilla people have sex after dates, too,” he teased. “Just with less…bells and whistles. Or ropes and violence, as the case may be. Poor bastards.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”
“So I’ve been told, but we’ll see how the night goes.” He stood, pulling her fully against him, letting her feel how hard he was for her already. “And we’ll see if I give good enough date to be asked in for a nightcap.”
“Cocky cowboy.” But the desire in her eyes belied her flippant response.
Reluctantly, he released her. “I need to get changed and pack an overnight back. Feel free to pour yourself a glass of wine. I shouldn’t be long.”
Before he realized what he was doing, he leaned over and kissed her on the corner of her mouth. Just a quick I’ll-see-you-in-a-minute peck, but it was the kind of comfortable kiss lovers share when they’ve been together forever.
He froze for a second afterward, and Charli blinked at him, obviously surprised.
“Wineglasses are in the cabinet above the sink,” he said gruffly, trying to cover his own shock, then turned on his heel and headed toward his bedroom.
Maybe it was for the best that Charli was about to walk out of his life. He liked his world steady and solid beneath his feet. And right now he was balancing on goddamned Jell-O.
TWENTY-FOUR
Charli fiddled with one of her bracelets as Grant drove along the two-lane highway. They’d made small talk about her story for a few minutes, but as dusk had settled in around them, cocooning the truck’s cab in hazy blue-and-orange light, Grant had gone silent. Clearly, that little peck he’d given her had sent him retreating into his cave.Author: Roni Loren
She shifted in her seat, the quiet becoming suffocating. It was a long ride into the city. Broody silence was only going to make her more nervous about the event tonight. She scrounged her mind for some neutral topic. “So who’s getting married?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “What are you talking about?”
“You had an invitation on your kitchen counter. I didn’t read it, but I could tell what it was for.”
That little muscle in his jaw twitched. “My mother, apparently.”
“Oh,” she said, sensing that she’d picked anything but a safe topic. “I didn’t realize your parents weren’t together.”
He kept his eyes on the road, but his grip on the steering wheel seemed to tighten. “My dad passed away a few years back.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, knowing that was the pat response, but truly meaning it. Losing her father had been one of the hardest things she’d ever faced. She still had trouble thinking about him without getting teary. “Were you close?”
“Very. Talked every day until…well, until I lost my wife. I went into the army after that and didn’t really want to talk to anyone,” he said, regret tingeing his voice. “He died after I joined the CIA. My family owns a dairy farm, and Dad always insisted on being hands-on. He had a heart attack while checking on the herd one morning.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said again, wanting to reach out and give his hand a squeeze but sensing the sympathy wouldn’t be welcome. “I didn’t mean to bring up sad memories.”
He shrugged, though the move seemed stiff. “It is what it is. The truth is, I should’ve been there. I should’ve been home running the farm so he could retire. But I was too caught up in my own shit to take on the responsibility.”
She frowned. “You were serving our country. That isn’t exactly shirking responsibility.”
He glanced over at her, then back at the road. “Yeah, that’s what I told myself, too. It sounds so brave and noble. But all I was doing was running—running fast and far. I let my family down.”
“Grant—”