“Since it’s almost morning as you said, there’s no reason for you not to just drop me off at the gallery. Phil is an early riser. She’ll be in soon and—”
“And you’ll tell her you don’t have a place to stay, right? Because you’re nothing but forthright in all things.” I gripped her elbow before she could slip back into the car and shut her door with a decisive click. “Finding a new place requires funds.”
“Funds I now have, thanks to your purchase of my angel.” She dipped her head and her hair fell forward again, an effective screen for her to hide behind. “I don’t appreciate charity. Or you attempting to buy me.”
“How could I, when you’re beyond price?”
She lifted her chin and met my gaze head-on. “I’m also immune to lines or false flattery.”
“What about the truth?” When she didn’t reply, I rubbed a hand over the scruff on my jaw and tipped back my head. “Since you’re already here, you might as well come inside.”
“Now that’s the kind of invitation I can get behind.” Shaking her head, she slipped out of my hold to skirt around the car and walk up the walkway to the front door.
I followed her and unlocked the door, then disarmed the security system as she entered the foyer. Her intake of breath made me glance over my shoulder. She was dividing her attention between the sparkling chandelier above and the bubbling fountain while she worried the strap of her purse between two fingers.
“Now this is more in line with what I was expecting.” She circled the fountain, her soft-soled shoes whispering over the granite floor. “The outside is lovely, but it hides all of this.” She waved a hand and turned slowly to take everything in. “Big windows, of course.” She moved to one and ran her fingers along the frame, making me shift from foot to foot. I would’ve adjusted myself if that wouldn’t have been hopelessly crude.
Still might need to, because her habit of touching everything always set me on edge. And when it was my things she had her hands on, a primitive part of me stirred that I couldn’t ignore. Every time her hand swept over a column or table, I imagined pressing her against it or stretching her out on top of it. Imprinting it with the unforgettable brand of her flesh.
“I’ll go get your bag,” I said, and escaped back out into the fresh air.
I inhaled deeply and dropped back my head to stare up at the stars winking out in the sky. Dawn would come soon, and with it, the reality of what last night had set into motion. Not just with me and Grace, but with Jack. The larger implications that I couldn’t hide away from, no matter how much I wished to.
There could be an innocent explanation for why that cuff link had been at Annabelle’s home. Why it had been dropped by the intruder. I just couldn’t figure out what the fuck it was.
I grabbed Grace’s small overnight bag out of the trunk. She hadn’t taken much. The contents of her studio had seemed rather sparse. Living out of boxes and bags when you expected to be found out and evicted at any time probably had something to do with that. She’d probably ditched the nonessentials long ago.
When I stepped back inside, Grace wasn’t in the foyer. I moved to the living room and through it to the dining room, barely resisting the urge to call her name. After tonight, I didn’t want her out of my sight for even a moment. Not until the panic that she could be in danger subsided. That was part of the reason I’d insisted she come home with me. No one could keep an eye on her like I would. No guard would be as relentless in ensuring her safety, and she wouldn’t have tolerated one nonetheless.
The other part of my reasoning was much more basic. I simply wanted her enough to forget that I didn’t invite women home. I definitely didn’t have them spend the night. But she wasn’t just any woman, and I couldn’t take back the offer once I’d made it.
Now I needed to find her.
I moved past the windows in the dining room, scanning the woods beyond by rote. Unless I was mistaken, I’d be looking over my shoulder and checking in corners everywhere I went until those men were caught.
Until I caught them.
I moved soundlessly to the second floor and headed first toward the guest room, one of several. Perhaps she’d decided to just take a room and keep to herself. But the spare rooms were empty too. So was my bedroom. I was about to give in and call out for her when I heard the water running in the master bath.
A shower. Of course. She’d want to wash the night away. What had happened had been a violation. I should’ve thought of that.
Should’ve thought of so many things.
On the way to the bathroom, I ditched my jacket and tie. It had been silly to dress in that night’s clothes after the break-in, but that’s what I did. I always presented a certain image. Ties were as much a part of my regime as my watch, as the pocket square in my jacket. I didn’t know how to relax, and that was never more true than when Grace was in my home, in my bathroom, doing God knows what but all of it probably involving nudity.
Loosening my collar, I stepped into the doorway. And stared.
Grace was naked, all right, her clothes tossed in haphazard piles on the floor that offended my innate sense of order. But it was hard to be too annoyed when all her fair s
kin was on display, from the constellation of freckles on her lower back to the delicate vine tattoo that climbed up the back of her thigh. Small blue flowers in mid-bloom opened along the trailing green, inviting the eye to climb higher. As if I wasn’t looking higher already, to where the shadows between her thighs turned into swollen pink flesh.
She bent over the tub she’d begun filling with hot water and bubbles, testing the temperature with her hand. Steam was already floating lazily on the air. Her hair was in a loose topknot on top of her head, secured with pins she’d probably had in her purse. Curling strands cascaded over her shoulders, rolling up in the heat. The same heat that had me undoing another couple buttons and moving toward her, to grip her hips and pull her back against the straining placket of my pants. “I see you found your way to the bathroom.”
She glanced over her shoulder and blew a springy curl out of her face. “And I see you found your way to the other side of violence.”
I smiled, helpless not to. That was the gift she gave me. No matter how fraught or fucked up our situation was, she gave me back the light. “You inspire me to new heights.”
“Not yet.” She rose slowly, drawing her backside up the length of my erection. “But I always enjoy a good challenge.”