State of Grace Read online

  “Hey, you OK? Are you sober?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Just get me home,” she sighed.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  She was thankful they’d been able to hail a cab quickly. She could get home more quickly which meant she could leave the presence of his unsettling company sooner.

  He held the door open for her, and she slid all the way to the very end, nearly pressing her body against the door.

  “Two stops!” she said quickly to the cab driver before reciting her address, then his.

  It was only ten minutes back to her place, but her torture that night knew no boundaries.

  Sean rolled his window down half-way. The temperature outside was perfect. Not hot, not cold, and just a light breeze.

  “It’s gorgeous outside tonight,” he commented.

  “Yes.” Her response was curt and brooked no invitation to continue the conversation.

  “You guys fight?” the cabbie asked. “All the couples, they fight when they drink the liquor,” he said disapprovingly, his voice lightly accented.

  Nosy bastard.

  “We’re not a couple,” she huffed. Sean snickered next to her.

  “You not married?”

  “No.” She wanted to tell him to just shut up and drive, but taxi drivers in New York City drove crazy enough already, and she didn’t want to piss him off any further. Right now, the man held her life in his hands, and anyway, she was too tired to deal with a verbal altercation.

  “You should marry,” the cabbie advised sagely. “If you want the kids, you can’t wait long. In New York, the problem is the boys and girls, they have too much choice. My parents picked my wife from a good family. We married twenty-five years,” he said proudly. “You have too much to choose, you never satisfied, always looking for something else better. You have only few choices, you make the decision—” the cabbie trailed on, spouting his pearls of wisdom while inserting random articles where they didn’t belong. Even though she was incensed, she stayed quiet. If he was talking to himself, then he wasn’t talking to her.

  She snuck a glance at Sean, and he gave her a secret smile.

  Okay, the cabbie was more than a little ridiculous. She gave him a tiny smile back and something warm and pleasant unfurled in her belly as they shared the moment.

  Her eyes soaked up his strong features. Angular planes graced a face that would otherwise be labeled as a pretty boy. She wondered what it would be like to feel his unshaven jaw against her skin, underneath her fingertips. Shivering lightly, she almost jumped when he spoke.

  “Cold?” he asked gruffly, quietly. The cab driver was still babbling on.

  She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

  “Good.”

  She trained her gaze out the window, realizing that the drive was coming to an end in less than five minutes. She swallowed, hating the tug-of-war she felt inside. She needed to get away from him, but she didn’t want this to end, whatever this was.

  She knew he was a playboy. Even if she hadn’t grown up with him, she’d have known it just by the way he walked, the way he could smile so disarmingly, his persistence …

  He was a playboy, she repeated in her head. M-A-N-W-H-O-R-E, she spelled out silently. He was nothing special, even if every time he looked at her, she got warm in places that had no right being warm, and her heart felt like it was going to pop out of her chest.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when the driver pulled up outside her building. She pulled out some cash and nearly threw it at him in her haste to exit the taxi. She gave the doorman behind the desk a shaky smile and walked quickly through the lobby to the elevator bank. Distance. She needed distance, she thought numbly, stepping into an elevator that pinged open. Even though he was already gone, she needed to put distance between them. She needed to hop in the shower and wash away—

  The doors to the elevator stopped mid-way, right before the devil himself entered.

  Her pulse raced, and she lost her ability to form words.

  “We need to talk,” he said lowly.

  She continued to stare at him mutely as the elevator started to move. He held her gaze unflinchingly.

  She turned away from him, biting her lip softly. “Look, I’m sorry I ran out. But I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

  His eyes bored into hers. “Why did you?”

  “Listen, we don’t even like each other. It was just a crazy night. Can we please just forget about it?”

  He stood silently, listening as the words escaped her beautiful mouth, but intent on not paying any of them a whit of attention. The elevator stopped on her floor, and he followed her lead, uninvited. When she reached her door, she turned to face him. Vulnerability shone through her dark gray eyes, and he hardened uncomfortably. To combat the pressure he felt building inside, he tightened his lips in a straight line and didn’t respond for fear of what would come out.

  At his hard expression, she felt her heart sink, so she focused on digging her keys out of her bag. One hand on the door, she leaned over and pressed a soft kiss against his cheek. “Let’s just call a truce, okay? Thank you for seeing me home. You didn’t need to come up.”

  He still didn’t say anything, and she turned back to the door. Movement shuffled behind her, and her heart sank when she realized he’d probably left.

  Silently reassuring herself that she did the right thing, she fumbled in her bag for her keys, cursing when they slipped out of her hands and onto the floor. She bent to pick them up, but a large hand with a light sprinkling of dark hair covered them first. Her stomach flipped when she turned to find Sean's face level with hers.

  "We need to stop meeting like this," he drawled.

  She straightened as she stood up, and he followed suit.

  "Give me my keys," she demanded, refusing to meet his eyes.

  "You know," he began pensively, "I don't think I've ever seen your place."

  "Keys," she reminded him, hand outstretched.

  Instead of handing them over, he slipped his hand into hers, curling his fingers into hers, while he deftly slipped the key into her lock.

  Before she could protest, he was inside, tugging her after him. She quickly recovered from her momentary shock, stalking in after him to give him a piece of her mind, only for him to spin around to face her as he shut the door.

  Something dark in his eyes made her back away. Every time she stepped backward, he moved forward, until she felt the hard press of the wall behind her. He closed the distance in quick strides before bending his head to hers and cupped her neck in his hand. His index finger danced over her frantic pulse, and he began to trace lazy circles.

  "Why was it a mistake, Gracie?" he whispered.

  She tried to look away, whimpering helplessly as he tipped her chin up so she couldn't escape his eyes.

  "Because we don't like each other," she muttered stubbornly.

  "I think we disproved that a few months ago, don't you?" he pointed out quietly, his voice husky.

  "That was just sex," she argued lamely, feeling her blush extend to the roots of her hair.

  "It was just amazing, mind-blowing, fuck-me-into-the-next-universe sex," he murmured wickedly as his lips ghosted over hers while his hands settled firmly over her ass, bringing her pelvis to rest right against his groin.

  Every alarm bell in her mind went off when he pressed her against his rock hard erection, but then he traced his tongue over the shape of her lips.

  She let out a little moan, her lips opening up just a little, but it gave him the perfect entry to sweep in, plunder, and take. His mouth fit perfectly over her lips as his tongue explored inside the warm cavern of her mouth. As he took her mouth, he rocked his hips against hers, and she felt her panties go damp. Needing to touch him, to get her hands on him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and wound one hand into his thick hair, humming as their bodies pressed closer.

  She raggedly tore her mouth from his. "This is a really bad idea."

&nbs
p; His hand slipped under her shirt, caressing the sides of her waist and ribcage, and she drew in a sharp breath at his hot touch against her skin as he once more pressed his lips against hers.

  "Really bad idea," he agreed. "But doesn’t it feel good being bad?" Wicked blue eyes dared hers, and any remnants of resolve she had slipped completely away.

  It stung to hear him say it was a bad idea, even though she had said it first. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t have answered his question because he pressed inside her mouth again. Dimly, she became aware as she felt the soft material of her skirt slide down and air hit the skin of her thighs. His mouth never left hers, even as his hands plunged into the waistband of her lacy boy-shorts.

  “Love your choice of underwear,” he muttered against her lips.

  His thick finger rubbed lazily around her mound, touching her everywhere except where she needed him the most. She growled demandingly in her throat, arching against him in pursuit of delicious friction.

  Still standing in her living room, he hiked one of her thighs around his waist, opening her for even more access to her throbbing flesh. Magic fingers swirled around her clit before plunging into her wet heat. Delirious, she tore her mouth from his, desperate for air as he stroked her to the edge.

  “More, more,” she heard herself groan, barely recognizing the gritty need in her own voice.

  “More what?” he asked huskily as his hands continued to tease her to distraction. She ignored his question, pressing her center into his hand. He ripped his hand away, the other one holding her steady at her throat, and she mewled in protest.

  “More what?” he repeated his question, and a thrill ran through her as his eyes darkened intensely.

  “You, more you. Please,” she panted feebly, too far gone to think of anything at all. Not their mutual dislike, not the consequences, not the awkward morning after. Words escaped her mouth, but she had no idea what they were. Shamelessly, she begged with her body, arching into him.

  His eyes flared in satisfaction at her plea, but he still didn’t give her back his hand. She whimpered in distress as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet.

  “One second,” he muttered. He tore out a condom before tossing his wallet on the floor. Deftly, he rolled it over his hard, extended length before hiking her leg up once more and driving mercilessly into her wet heat.

  She screamed at his invasion, a tangled mess of nerves as his thick length pushed inside, stretching and stroking her canal. Mindless of everything but the moment and how stunning he felt inside her needy body, her head fell back against the wall, and she reflexively tightened around him. His mouth ate from hers once more, his tongue mimicking the thrust of his body into hers where their hips joined.

  Rhythmically, he slid in and out as his mouth dominated her. He slowed down momentarily, lifting her other thigh so that both wrapped against his waist. She moaned softly into his mouth, clinging to him. He disconnected his mouth for a moment, dark blue eyes piercing into her shocked gray ones.

  “Better than I remembered, baby. Gorgeous. You feel amazing.” He peppered her face with tiny kisses as he spoke and shifted some of her weight from the wall into his embrace. Stepping back, he turned, holding her tight to him.

  “Bedroom?” he asked gruffly.

  She could do no more than point faintly. Clutching her body tightly so he remained deep inside her, he followed her pointed finger. She panted, staccato breaths escaping her parted, swollen lips as he shifted inside her with every step he took.

  Before she knew it, she was on her back, her hips arching up to meet his as he ground down into her. His hand slid up from its place on her hip to the hem of her shirt. He kept up his relentless pace as he pushed her shirt up.

  “Take it off,” he ordered.

  Mindless with pleasure, his command filtered through the fog of her brain, and she gasped, twisting to yank her top off. He pulsed inside of her, helping her pull it off completely. He sat on his haunches, pulling her closer, and he groaned at the sight of her pretty, plump breasts straining at the lacy red of her bra. He let out an impatient growl as he yanked first one, then the other, cup down before bending his mouth down so he could pay homage to her flushed, hardened nipples.

  The sensation of his warm mouth sucking at the sensitive tips of her breasts while he ground his hips into her was too much. She bucked mindlessly underneath him, her nails scoring down his back as he went impossibly deeper.

  The pleasure tightened as it rose within her. He stroked in and out and she felt herself getting closer.

  She cried out when he suddenly withdrew.

  “One second, baby,” he murmured against the skin of her shoulder, before flipping her over onto her belly. He kept her thighs spread in a v before tunneling back into her.

  She didn’t think it was possible, but he went deeper. She whimpered at the sensation as he resumed his pace, knifing in and out of her body.

  He rained kisses across the back of her neck, pulling her hips even closer and pressing down on her belly, intensifying the feeling of full pressure she already felt.

  “Come on, baby. Come for me,” he said against her damp skin, sliding his hand down between her lips to stroke her clit. He bit softly into the skin of her nape, sucking gently before thrusting hard into her welcoming body.

  She flew apart, panting between sobs as the pleasure electrified every nerve ending of her body. Slick heat poured out from between her thighs as she rode the waves of her climax.

  “That’s it baby, keep going,” he encouraged roughly, growling with satisfaction as he plumbed her depths. Lost in her orgasm, her muscles gripped and pulsed around his driving length, and he groaned at the sensation.

  A moment later, he followed her into oblivion.

  Chapter Five

  She woke to slow, teasing touches against her hip. Unhurried and deliberate, like her skin was a canvas being stroked by the finest of brushes. Her eyes fluttered open, and despite the darkness in her room, she could see the sun lighting the perimeter of the blinds. The hand on her hip stopped stroking and tightened in a firm grip.

  “Why the hell do you always wake up so early? It’s annoying,” he grumbled from behind her.

  “You’re touching me,” she pointed out.

  She closed her eyes and prayed for patience. Somehow, they’d fallen asleep spooning. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, given the first time she’d waken up next to him, but she had to fight down mild shock nonetheless.

  “So?” he grunted. “It’s early, Gracie. Why can’t we sleep while I touch you?”

  She sighed, pretending annoyance, but didn’t move away. “Why is it that we’re always arguing unless we’re having sex? And the fact that we’re always arguing means that we should not be having sex.”

  While she thought her reasoning was clear and sensible, he obviously disagreed. In a heartbeat, he’d rolled over so she was pinned beneath him. Blue eyes burned into hers, and she realized he was much more alert than he’d let on.

  “Why is it that you’re the most contrary, frustrating woman I’ve ever met?” The corners of his sexy mouth twitched, but the intensity still beamed down at her from his gaze.

  Amused, she traced a fingertip over the sharp plane of his jaw. “Because my brain cells haven’t been overtaken by silicone or sucked out with my fat?” she asked sarcastically. “Ouch,” she yelped as his hand came down on the side of her ass.

  “Wrong answer,” he intoned.

  She glared at him, but he kept his hand right where it was.

  “Wrong answer. What’s it going to be first? Breakfast or sex?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Just because I made the mistake of sleeping with you a second time doesn’t mean th—”

  She broke off once more as his mouth slammed over hers. After he’d kissed her into a quivering mess, he lifted his head. He winked at her as he rolled her over him. “Wrong answer again, baby. Guess it’s sex first, then food.”

  She groaned
, helpless to resist him as he fit his body into hers, and they started yet another intense, shattering session. Much later, when she’d come down from the throes of yet another orgasm, she couldn’t help the snarky thought that if it meant he’d fuck her mindless, she could deal with being wrong every now and then.

  Maybe more than every now and then.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  A few hours later, when he’d finally deemed it a reasonable time to get up, she sat on a barstool at her kitchen counter sipping at the mug he’d placed before her. She stifled a groan of pleasure as the hot brew swept down her throat.

  The man could make a mean cup of coffee.

  But of course, he didn't need to know that. Especially after all the screeching she'd done last night and this morning. Honestly, it was a miracle his ego could fit through the doorway, she thought sourly. After their morning session, or bout, or whatever the hell it was, he’d dragged her into the shower with him. Every time she’d opened her mouth to speak, he simply sealed his mouth over hers until she forgot what she was going to say.

  Once they’d emerged from the shower, he’d placed a finger over her lips, signaling for silence. At her mutinous expression, he shook his head with a slight grin. “Just give me this. Just for a little bit is all I ask. I kinda like not arguing with you when I’m not banging you.”

  Her eyes grew wide, and she slapped away his hand, opening her mouth to unleash a diatribe, but that five-second window was all it took for him to invade her mouth and kiss her into sublime stupidity.

  By the time he drew away, she realized he’d managed to somewhat towel-dry her, and he had grabbed her robe from the hook on the back of the door. He bundled her into her robe, leaving her speechless as he sauntered out of the bathroom, a white terry towel slung low around his lean hips.

  Even though they’d now been intimate more times than she could count on both hands, Sean’s nude body never failed to make her mouth go dry. Taut, golden skin stretched over lean muscles with only a light sprinkling of hair across his chest. His broad shoulders were sculpted and strong, and he moved with a lithe, sexy ease that made her want to swallow her tongue.