Once Forbidden, Twice Tempted

by Karen Booth

  Grant shrugged and sat forward, drawing a circle with his finger on the pad of paper before him. He wanted so badly to touch her. To kiss her. To take her to bed. “I’m the one who should be saying I’m sorry. I knew from the night of the baseball game that you had an incredible vision. And I should’ve stayed fully on board with that. I should’ve backed you up, rather than letting you sink or swim.”

  “You were protecting your position within Sterling. As the person carving out her own spot in that company, I have to admire that.”

  She was being gracious and Grant was exceptionally tired of the obstacles they’d faced. He really wanted to strip it all away until there was nothing left but the two of them. “It’s not more important than our friendship.”

  “Do you mean that? Because there are times when I doubted that.”

  “Our friendship? When?”

  “The last few weeks. You were so cold to me in the office. I felt like I’d been demoted or something. It was so clear that you’d drawn the battle lines and saw our relationship as combative.”

  He shook his head and sat back farther in his chair, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I only felt that way because we went from sharing the most amazing night ever to you being too worried about what Astrid and Miranda might think.”

  “You were equally worried about office gossip.”

  “And that died back pretty quickly. Which means my attitude toward you at work did its job.”

  “I still didn’t like it.”

  Grant swallowed back the emotion of the moment. “I didn’t like it either. I hated every minute of it. I don’t like being cool to you, Tara.”

  Tara bit down on her lower lip like she was fighting a smile. “Our night together was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?”

  “The absolute best.” He answered a little too quickly, but it was exactly the way he felt. “And I’m not exaggerating.”

  “But the business is standing between us.”

  “Only if we let it.”

  She eyed him with suspicion, scanning his face like she was looking for clues. Did she not trust him? Was she truly more loyal to the wives than she was to him? Or would it all come down to being nothing more than business? “You don’t really mean that,” she said.

  Grant pushed aside the papers and stood. He easily took the two short strides to Tara’s side, but it felt as though he was crossing a dividing line. He placed his hand on her upper arm and walked behind her, not letting go as he used his other hand to pull her hair back from her shoulder. All the while, ocean breezes streamed in through the open slider door, heightening every sense—touch, smell and sight. He lowered his head and spoke into her ear. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my entire life.”

  * * *

  With his breath hot against the nape of her neck, Grant was taking charge again. And Tara was completely powerless against it. She wanted him just as much as she’d wanted him before. Possibly more. The last several weeks of fighting back her attraction to him had been pure hell. He’d been cold to her and she wanted him warm again. She wanted his white-hot body against hers.

  She turned her head to make eye contact, to be sure that he wanted what she did, but he countered not with his gaze, but with his mouth on hers and his hand at her nape. He pulled her head back to deepen the kiss, their tongues quickly finding the satisfying dance they’d discovered mere weeks ago. Tara’s entire body flooded with heat and desire. Craving. Unlike before, this wasn’t about curiosity, this was about another taste of this man she couldn’t get out of her system.

  She stood to be closer to him and he walked her back to the kitchen island, pressing her backside against the counter. She grabbed him by the waist and tugged him closer, wanting him to flatten her right then and there. He was hard already; she could feel it through his jeans, and it made anticipation bubble up inside her.

  Tara lifted one butt cheek and eased herself up onto the countertop, wrapping her legs around Grant and muscling him close. His erection rubbed right against her center, and even through several layers of denim, it made her so hot. He kissed her deeply, their noses bumping into each other, and she placed her hands on either side of his face, rubbing her thumbs against the thicker texture of his facial hair. It was somewhere between silky and scratchy, and she loved the contrast in sensations. It so perfectly mirrored her inner conflict about making love with him again. She knew she shouldn’t, that sex would only make things more complicated, but she also knew that she was tired of waiting for happiness, and if this was the only blip of it she got for the foreseeable future, she’d better grab it while she could.

  She pulled at the lightweight sweater Grant wore, tugging it up over his head. She spread her hands across his chest, kissing his warm skin. His muscles seemed to twitch beneath her touch, and she loved having that effect on him. “You are too sexy, Grant. Working with you while staying away from you is impossible.” That was an issue she was going to have to resolve, but not now. Not when she had a one-way ticket to his bedroom and they had an entire weekend stretching out before them. Astrid wouldn’t find her here. Not this time. They could be all alone.

  Grant growled into her ear. “You have no idea how much I love hearing that.”

  Before she could respond, he’d lifted her off the kitchen island and was walking her to the back of the house. Tara was a tall woman—she’d never been whisked off to bed like this, and she loved the way it made her feel so desired. She spent so much of her day trying to be tough and formidable. It was wonderful to feel as though she was at someone else’s mercy.

  When they arrived at Grant’s bedroom, he didn’t bother with the light, but instead laid her down on the bed and put all of his body weight on hers. The kiss they fell into had no limits—she could have kissed him forever and she would have made time for more. She didn’t want it to end. She also wanted him to know that she was his equal partner in this endeavor, so she rolled to her side, taking him with her. He eased to his back and she straddled his hips, grinding her center against him as she sat up, crossed her arms at the waist and lifted her top up over her head. She wanted Grant’s hands all over her, but he instead folded his arms back behind his head.

  “Don’t you want to take my bra off?” she asked.

  “I like watching you do it,” he answered playfully.

  “Fair enough.” He’d made the first move. He deserved to have his way at least a little bit. She reached behind her and unhooked the garment, then teased one strap from her shoulder, then the other, before she flung it aside. His hands found her breasts, and molded around them, teasing her nipples and causing her breath to hitch. His touch was pure magic, his hands warm and purely focused on her pleasure. It felt so good that she gasped, and she dropped her head back, letting her hair cascade down her naked shoulders. Grant took his chance to unbutton and unzip her jeans and Tara realized just how impatient she was for the main event. She wanted Grant naked and she wanted the same for herself.

  She hopped off the bed and quickly shucked her jeans, while Grant followed her lead, climbing off the mattress and leaving his pants on the floor. He pulled back the silky duvet and picked her up again, this time sweeping her legs up with his arm. He planted a knee on the bed and placed her gently against the cool sheets. She swished her hand against the smooth fabric, but arched her back. The need for him to be touching her and weighing her down again was too much.

  He reached into his bedside drawer and pulled out a condom, which he rolled on himself. She waited in anticipation as he climbed into bed and kissed her again, but this time there was something about it that truly made her breath catch. It was so intense it felt like he was sending a message. Perhaps he was trying to say he was sorry for the cold shoulder all of these weeks. Sorry for the many arguments they’d had.

  He put his arms around her and urged her on top of him. Tara eagerly accepted the challenge, rising
up onto her knees, and then taking his length in her hand. She guided him inside and sank down against his body, soaking up every blissful second of the way he filled her so perfectly. They began to move together and he took his time with the rotation of his hips, hitting her center in just the right spot, already pushing her close to the edge. She struggled to stay in the moment and not let her mind wander. The pure ecstasy made it a difficult proposition. He felt too good inside her, and she slipped into a daydream about what it would be like to actually be with a man who was her match. Was Grant that man? Could they work past all that stood between them?

  She struggled for her breaths as the pressure began to build. She kissed him and caught just how shallow his own breath had become. It was clear that they were both close, and she was torn between wanting to cross the goal line and wanting it to last forever. This right now was perfect. As messy as everything around them could be, being in bed with Grant at this moment was where she belonged. No question about that. The orgasm barreled into her from out of nowhere, shattering the tension between them. Grant followed almost immediately and they were both calling out, a chorus of pleasured and breathless words.

  She collapsed at his side and spread her hand across his chest as he wrapped his arm around her. He smoothed her hair back, and kissed the top of her head. Over and over again. Each kiss came with a tiny tug, bringing her closer to him. Contentment blanketed her body just as his body heat poured into her. She couldn’t remember feeling like this with a man before. Not with anyone who’d come before him. She and Grant were equals. They were friends. And they would always have a connection. Now deeper than the one they’d had before.

  Fourteen

  Tara slept over for two nights. There wasn’t much sleeping going on, but that was better than fine with Grant. He wanted this to go on forever—Tara in his bed, giving him untold pleasures and welcoming his touch. They’d quickly reached the point where he could simply walk up to her, take her in his arms and kiss her. He didn’t want to call it a fantasy brought to life. It was more like a dream, and it felt like that, seeing her walk around his home in bare feet, watching her wrap her hair up in a towel after a shower, bearing witness to the moment when she woke up in his bed. She was what this house had been missing. She was the missing puzzle piece in his life.

  He had to find a way to tell her before she had the chance to go home. It was Sunday morning and they’d already made love twice and had breakfast. They’d long since finished as much of the Seaport proposal as they could without Clay’s help. It was only a matter of time before she’d be gone, they’d return to their previous arrangement at Sterling and he’d be in the hot seat. If she was successful with the Seaport pitch, he might lose his hold on the company. He was essentially standing in her way, and he already knew that her relationship with Astrid and Miranda had grown stronger.

  But there was another way out of this, at least as far as Grant saw it. They could run the company together, as a true partnership, in the office and out. Could Tara ever see them that way or had this been just another instance of him being lucky enough to get her into bed? Would she ever want to share that lead role at work? Or would strong and determined Tara, the woman dead set on winning at all costs, simply decide that Grant didn’t measure up? Would she ultimately reach the conclusion that she was too much for him?

  “This weekend has been amazing.” Grant put the last plate from breakfast in the dishwasher.

  Tara was seated at the kitchen island, still hugging her mug of coffee in her hands. She turned her sights to the backyard and the Pacific. The palm trees rustled in the wind, the sun casting short shadows on the grass. He studied her profile, and it was hard not to see her through the lens of everything she’d been through. She’d had so much loss in her life, and still she kept forging ahead. She was a survivor and that was not only what he adored in her, but it was the quality he feared most. Could she ever need him the way he needed her?

  “It really was.” She took a sip of her coffee and turned to look at him. “Thank you so much for saving my butt with the Seaport project. It remains to be seen whether or not Clay and I can actually pull this off, but I couldn’t have put us in that position without your help. So thank you.”

  Grant walked around to her side of the island and stood next to her. “I think we make a great team.” He believed that in every sense, and he wanted to tell her as much. I love you. I have always loved you. The words were swimming around in his head, but he couldn’t begin to imagine he would ever have the perfect chance to utter them, to say them in a way that wouldn’t scare her off and send her running.

  “About that. I know you’ve been against this project from the beginning, but would you consider coming with me to the presentation on Friday? We could use a heavy hitter like you.”

  Grant wanted to be supportive, but he also wanted to give Tara the chance to shine. He hadn’t been in on this project from the ground floor and plenty of people in the office knew he had reservations about it. If he was going to convince her that they should run Sterling together, she would need her own win to show the staff that she was there because she’d earned it. He didn’t want to put her in the position Johnathon had all those years ago, of being marginalized because she happened to be romantically entangled with the CEO.

  “I don’t think you need my help. I really don’t.”

  Tara frowned and peered up at him with those big blue eyes that somehow seemed to reflect the whole world. “After all of the work we did? You don’t want to take credit? I thought you wanted to step out from behind the shadow of Johnathon. I thought it was time for you to put your career first.”

  “Maybe I’m tired of doing that. Maybe I want you to have your own win, Tara.”

  “Or maybe you’re trying to save your own hide because you don’t truly believe in this project.”

  He had to be honest. “I’m still not sold on Seaport. I’m sorry. I wish I was. But I am sold on you and your vision. If anyone can make this work, it’s you.”

  Tara shook her head and got up from her seat, the barstool leg scraping against the floor. “I was worried about this. You don’t want to put your name on this project. You don’t want to put your stamp of approval on it.”

  He reached for her, over what felt like a monumental difference. “I told you. I want you to have your own win.”

  She scanned his face as if she was looking for answers or perhaps some hint that he wasn’t being truthful. He wasn’t sure what he had to do to convince her. “I know you, Grant. You’ll always put your career first. That’s why you never got married. That’s why you could never settle on one woman.”

  He almost wanted to laugh at that. The assumption she’d made was remarkably off base. “That’s not the reason.”

  “Johnathon always said you were the perfect partner because you were married to your work.”

  Grant didn’t want to get angry with the dead. He’d already done plenty of that as far as Johnathon was concerned. But he greatly disliked that his best friend had painted him in that light. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. “I worked hard. That much is true. But that was because I believed in the vision of the company and I enjoyed the challenges I had set out before me. But it’s not the reason I never got married.”

  She smirked and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Right. Too many fish in the sea.”

  He shook his head. “No. I never settled down because I couldn’t have the perfect woman.”

  “You mean you couldn’t find the perfect woman. That’s a myth, by the way. There is no perfect person.”

  But there was. At least for him.

  “Look, Tara. This weekend has shown me a lot. You and I work well together in every sense. But I have feelings for you. Strong feelings.” That was as far out on the ledge as he could go. He was still gun-shy. Her rejection stung that badly.

  Tara swallowed hard. “How am I supposed
to believe that when just last week you were being truly unkind to me? How am I supposed to believe that when you won’t stand by my side and make the presentation with me?”

  “You have to believe it because it’s true. I know that you said you only want to see me as a colleague, but I need you to at least try to see me as more than that. And if you don’t, I think we’re at an impasse. I can’t work with you and feel the way I feel about you. I couldn’t do it when Sterling was first getting started and I can’t do it now.” As soon as he’d said the words, he realized that he’d finally let the cat out of the bag.

  “What did you say?” There was already an edge of betrayal in her voice, like she knew what was coming.

  “I don’t want to dredge up the past. I want to talk about the here and now. About us. About everything that happened this weekend. It has meant something to me. I think I’m falling in love with you.” The words had been tumbling around in his head for so long that it was liberating to finally say them. It was also scary as hell.

  “No. Don’t muddy the waters by saying that to me. I want you to tell me what you were talking about when you said that you couldn’t work with me when Sterling was first getting started.”

  It was time to finally come clean, even when he knew this might be the point of no return. She might never forgive him for what he was about to say. “When Johnathon told me his concerns about having you work at the company, I sided with him. I told him that it was better if you went.”

  Tara’s jaw tightened and her eyes blazed with a hurt he’d never seen. “Excuse me? You bought into that whole idea that we couldn’t work together because we were married?” She shook her head and crossed her arms, as if she needed to protect herself from him. “I can’t believe you backed him up on that. It was the stupidest excuse ever.”

  He sucked in a deep breath to steel himself, hoping against hope that he could make a plausible argument for why what he’d done before was wrong, but he was prepared to make amends now. “That wasn’t the argument he made, Tara. He may have told you that, but that wasn’t what he said to me.”