“You can’t stay here tonight. I won’t allow it.”
“Ah, there it is. The impervious king of the world tone. I knew it would make a reappearance soon.” She stopped and swiped at the hair hanging in her face. She still looked tousled from our lovemaking, and the sight both aroused and infuriated me more.
Those officers had seen her like this. Those goddamn robbers had been feet away from her. She wasn’t meant for their eyes, not in this state. Not when my hands were tingling with the need to touch her again and my arms ached with the need to hold her tight and keep her protected.
“You think I’m stupid? I knew telling you would mean you’d boot me out the door. I also knew only a fool would sleep with you again, but I couldn’t stand to hide the truth any longer. My eyes were wide open about what would happen afterward, unless by some miracle you grew a heart.” Her eyes glittered and her jaw clenched as I moved closer. “I figured if I was going to be homeless again, I might as well get another orgasm out of the deal.”
I had a heart, though hearing she thought I didn’t stung. But that wasn’t what I latched onto from her comment. “Two,” I said automatically.
She blinked. “What?”
“Two orgasms.” While she processed that, I stepped forward and brushed her hair out of her face. I trailed my fingers along the curve of her cheek and down to the angle of her jaw, helpless against my urgency to keep my hands on her at all times. Especially now. What had occurred earlier had been too close. Too dangerous. If she’d let me, I’d put her under lock and key somewhere, far from all of this.
Why was a better question. One I wouldn’t even try to answer. Not tonight.
She made a sound of derision. “You wish, Carson. More like one and a half.”
It made me smile when I didn’t think I was capable of it. Hell, I’d have said the muscles of my face had frozen into a perpetual snarl the moment we’d heard those bastards creeping around in the darkness outside Grace’s studio. But she’d always been a miracle worker, even when she was a young girl with braids and hands that shook as she demonstrated the glass work techniques that were as elemental to her as breathing. Maybe more so.
“Then I’m in your debt.” I brushed a kiss over her temple and absorbed the tremor that went through her and passed through me. “I always pay what I owe, Ms. Copeland.”
“And you also don’t play fair.”
“No. Because I’m not playing.” I tipped up her chin and smoothed my thumb over the little indent I doubted she was even aware of. She was unaffected by her beauty, and I was in awe of every bit of it. Not just the external, but the beauty of the inner strength she displayed time and again. “You won’t stay here tonight,” I said again, softly now. Cajoling. Using the tools in my arsenal to get what I wanted.
Though the aims and methods might change, at heart I was a competitor. And I always won one way or another.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The poignancy of her tone stirred something in me, and I spoke without thinking. Without realizing the magnitude of what I was about to do.
“Come home with me.”
Two
Grace was quiet on the ride back to my house. I wasn’t exactly a chatterbox either.
How could I have invited her home?
There were hotels. Or friends she could stay with. Surely she had some of those. Hell, Jack would probably be glad to take her in.
The thought of Jack taking in Grace simultaneously made me growl and caused me to dip a hand into my pocket to where I’d hidden the purloined cuff link. I couldn’t trust him with her. Couldn’t take any chances with her safety. That wasn’t even mentioning the jealousy that seized me at every time I dwelled on their close friendship. Not because I begrudged either of them for forging a bond.
I was simply envious it was so much easier for them than it was for the likes of me.
Now I had new concerns. New things to keep me up at night. Whomever had been at the house might not have realized Grace had been squatting there—or maybe they had. And then there was the tie to Jack. I had to speak to him. There would be no avoiding that conversation, as much as I wish I could.
But tonight I had other concerns.
“Where are we going?” Her quiet question tugged me out of my thoughts and gave me a moment’s hope. Perhaps we could go to a hotel. She probably wouldn’t care. In fact, she might even prefer something more impersonal—
“I mean, where do you live?”
I wound my fingers tighter around the steering wheel. “Chestnut Hill.”
She glanced out the window, her hair shielding her face so I couldn’t read her expression. “Hmm.”
“Hmm?”