All I Ever Wanted

by LuAnn McLane

  “Arabella,” answered Jenna. “What’s up, girl?”

  “Are you sitting down?”

  “I am now.”

  “Okay, you know how you wanted to invest in Hip, Hop, Health but I refused?”

  “Yes, silly girl. Have you changed your mind? Then you could give Maxine the heave-ho.”

  “I’m one step ahead of you. Maxine is history.”

  “Yes!” Jenna said, and Arabella imagined her friend doing the same fist pump and Snoopy dance that she’d done moments ago. “So, are you finally willing for me to invest? I have the money ready and waiting and a business plan in place. We’d make great partners.”

  “No, I don’t want an investment, but I am offering to sell. The company is worth about what I borrowed from the bank, so if I sold, I’d most likely come out about even. In other words, I’ll sell the business to you for a dollar.”

  “What?” Jenna sputtered. “That just doesn’t seem fair.”

  “It’s my fault that I overextended myself. If you don’t want it, then I’ll put it on the market, but I wanted to give you the first shot. Are you in?”

  Jenna squealed. “I’m stunned, but yes! Oh, wait, but with one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “I would like for you to stay on as dance coordinator. I need you to come up with new and innovative routines. There’s no one better.”

  “Done. Call Dean and get the paperwork going.”

  “Are you sure, Arabella? You’ve worked so hard and risked so much.”

  “Jenna, I’m positive,” Arabella insisted, and it was amazing how very right this move felt. “It would be a lot harder if I weren’t selling to you. You’ve got a great head for business.”

  “Wow, I’m floored. Wait, does this have anything to do with a certain boy-band hottie?”

  “Yes,” Arabella admitted, knowing that Jenna would feel better taking over the business if she knew there were reasons other than financial ones behind Arabella’s decision to sell. “Don’t breathe a word, but I think we might get a second chance.”

  “Oh, this is a hard secret to keep, but my lips are sealed,” Jenna said, and let out another little squeal.

  “Get the paperwork started,” Arabella said, laughing with one of her best friends.

  “Will do!”

  Arabella ended the call and felt her heart beating fast. Now, instead of using the money she earned from the Heartbeat choreography to invest in Hip, Hop, Health, she could buy her grandmother’s little house and keep it in the family. Arabella knew she didn’t spend enough time in Cincinnati, and having her own place up there would make it easy to visit. Her mother and father might not have given her the perfect childhood, but they loved her and she loved them too. She’d learned from loving Grady that forgiveness went hand in hand with love and made bonds between people even stronger. She needed to stop running from her childhood.

  Now all she had to do was call her father and tell him not to sell Granny York’s house, but she could do that later, since she’d gotten a voice mail from him letting her know he’d put selling the house on the back burner. “This calls for a glass of wine,” she said, and headed inside the beach house. She uncorked a bottle of cold chardonnay and gave herself a generous pour. She took a sip of the buttery, oaked wine, sat down on a barstool, and then smiled when the most important thing on her list walked in the front door.

  Arabella jumped off the stool and put both palms in the air. “Stop right there!”

  Grady’s eyes widened as he stopped in his tracks. “Why?”

  “Get ready for the Dirty Dancing catching-me-and-lifting-me-in-the-air move! Here I come!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE?

  “Holy shit!” Grady planted his feet but wasn’t quite prepared when Arabella came flying at him. He caught her and hoisted her above his head, but when she spread her arms he lost his balance, staggering sideways and narrowly missing the coffee table. With a grunt, he grazed a potted plant, maneuvered past a floor lamp, and came to a standstill in the center of the room.

  Still, Arabella squealed with delight and looked down at him. “Not quite perfect, but an A for effort! Keep going into the bedroom.”

  “I kinda want a beer.”

  “The beer can wait.”

  “Okay, bossy pants.” He grinned up at her.

  “I won’t have pants on for long. But I’ll still be bossy,” she said with her arms still in the flying position. “This is cool. I want you to carry me around like this all the time. Can we do this at the grocery store? The view from up here is sweet.”

  Grady laughed while he headed for the bedroom. “Well, you’ve whipped all of us into better shape. I couldn’t have done this a couple of months ago. But I think doing this in the grocery store might get us some odd looks. And test my strength.”

  “Who cares when you’re flying high?”

  Grady tossed her into the middle of the bed and she laughed when she bounced. “You’re in a good mood. Wait, have you been day-drinking?” he asked.

  “Just a little bit of wine, but the celebration will continue when I tell you what I just did.”

  Grady felt a surge of anticipation. “What did you just do?”

  “Not yet, first things first.” She tugged her shirt off and shimmied out of her jeans, tossing them over the side of the bed. “Get on over here, heartthrob.”

  “Come on, have a heart.”

  “I’m about to.”

  Laughing, Grady pulled his shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor. “You can’t say that and leave me hanging.”

  Arabella pointed at him. “You’re not exactly hanging.”

  Grady glanced down. “You’ve got a point. Actually, I’ve got a point.” And all it had taken was looking at her lying in the middle of the bed wearing nothing but a baby-blue satin push-up bra and matching thong. “Okay, you win.” He quickly shed his shoes and the rest of his clothes. “But don’t expect me to go slow.”

  “I don’t.” She gave him a saucy smile and then unhooked her bra, letting her breasts spill out for him to see. She arched her hips. “Take my panties off.”

  “Gladly.” He tugged the barely there wisp of satin and lace down her smooth legs and tossed it over his head.

  Arabella laughed. “You somehow managed to land them on top of the ceiling fan again.”

  “Another superpower of mine,” he said, and then, kneeling above her, leaned over and cupped her breasts in his hands, loving the soft skin, their firm weight. He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples, making her moan. Then, in one swift move, he rolled over and pulled her on top of him.

  She yelped but then laughed down at him. “Nice one.”

  “Thank you.”

  She reached between their bodies and stroked him.

  “Ride me, Arabella,” Grady said, and she rose to straddle him. He held her waist and helped guide her while she slowly sank down, inch by inch, onto his cock. Closing her eyes, she sat there for a moment, relishing the feeling of having him deep inside her.

  “You feel so good.” Her chest rose and fell with each breath. She swallowed, groaned, and then opened her eyes and locked her gaze with his.

  Sunlight reached through the tall window, picking up the highlights in her hair. She looked down at him, smiled, and then ran her fingertips oh so lightly over his chest until she reached the intimate place where their bodies joined. Her breath caught, and then she started to move. Coming up to her knees, she stroked his cock with her body, warm, soft, wet. Her breasts bounced with the movement while she rode him hard and fast.

  Grady held her firmly around the waist, helping to lift her high enough so he could watch while she stroked him from root to tip and then slammed back down. He felt her thighs quiver with the effort, and a trickle of sweat slid between her breasts. She tilted
her head to the side and her eyes fluttered shut. . . .

  “Grady!” she said in a low, throaty whisper, and he felt her body pulsing, gripping, and clenching. He watched her body become flushed while she rode out the orgasm. She tilted her head to the side and pushed her shoulders back, and he knew he’d never see a more alluring sight. With a groan, Grady thrust upward, holding her ass while white-hot pleasure ripped through his body and shot into hers.

  Arabella looked down at him and laughed, breathless, shaky, and gorgeous. “That was . . . God . . . intense. Hold on to me so I don’t topple over.” Leaning forward she splayed her hands on his chest, still breathing hard.

  “Just when I think there’s nothing you can do to surprise me,” Grady said.

  “The perks of dating a dancer,” she said with a chuckle. “Limber and with stamina.”

  “I’m a lucky man.”

  “And don’t forget it.”

  “I don’t plan to.” Grady knew she was joking, but he reached up and brushed her hair to the side. He didn’t want to scare her with talk of the future. “What were you going to tell me, my little dirty dancer?”

  “Oh.” The smile left her face and her expression grew serious. Arabella shifted to the side and then rested her head on his chest. She drew little circles but remained quiet.

  “Are you going to leave me in suspense?”

  “No.” Arabella rolled over to her back. “I sold Hip, Hop, Health today.”

  “What?” Heart thudding, Grady moved onto his side and propped his head up in his hand. “Why?”

  “I was stretched to the limit. I expanded too fast.”

  Grady frowned. “Why didn’t you come to me?” He felt a pang of hurt that she hadn’t confided in him.

  “Because I knew you’d offer to bail me out. And I didn’t want that,” she replied slowly.

  “Arabella, it’s okay to need someone, to ask for help,” he said gently, but not without some irritation. “We needed you to get Heartbeat in shape and you came to the rescue. Without you we’d never have been able to pull this off. Needing help is okay.”

  “That’s different,” she answered a bit defensively. “You’re paying me.”

  Grady reached over and cupped her chin. He ran the pad of his thumb over her full bottom lip. “I don’t just love you, want you. I need you. How can I get through to you that there’s nothing wrong with needing someone? It feels good to have a soft place to land and a rock to lean on. I want to be that for you too.”

  She looked at him with stormy eyes. “You already are in so many ways.”

  “And Arabella, I also need your complete trust. I don’t care how the hell something might look or sound. I have never and will never cheat on you or betray your trust.” When she remained silent, he persisted. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes,” she replied, but there was enough hesitation in her voice to give him pause. “Trust doesn’t come easy to me, but I do trust you, Grady. I should have always trusted you.”

  He sighed. “I wish you had come to me on this. We could have figured out a solution rather than you selling your company.”

  “Well, I’m selling it to Jenna Clark, who has been with me from the beginning. She wants me to stay on as creative director, so I’ll get to keep my hand in the business. And I get the satisfaction of knowing she’ll keep the same format and values. She’s a sweetheart, and all the years of work and planning won’t go to waste. Not to mention that it will remain a fun place to work out and keep fit. I imagine she’ll be able to keep expanding when things stabilize, and she has the funds needed to keep the business going until then. I’m not sorry I started the studios, so don’t feel bad for me.”

  Grady nodded, but he was still visibly upset.

  “And there’s an upside,” she said brightly. “I can use the money you’re paying me to buy my grandmother’s house. I’m going to call my dad tomorrow and tell him not to put it on the market. I’m so excited about that, so more good is coming from this decision.”

  Grady’s heart thudded, and he wondered if he should tell her that the house was already hers. Or should he call her father first and come up with some sort of plan to keep it a surprise until Christmas? “Wow,” he said, uncertain and a little blown away by her news. “Why did you come to the sudden decision to sell your fitness studios? At least, it seems sudden.”

  “Actually, I had a chat with Jimmy earlier, and he made me realize that I needed to prioritize what’s most important in my life.”

  Grady felt another stab of hurt. “So Jimmy knew about this? You went to my brother instead of coming to me?” He couldn’t keep the pain from his tone.

  “Of course not!” Arabella sat up. “No, he stopped by here.”

  “Does my brother make a habit of stopping by here?”

  “Did you really just ask that? Holy shit, Grady.”

  Grady sat up too and shoved his fingers through his hair. “That was seriously stupid. I’m really sorry.”

  “And you just asked me about trust?” she asked with a frown that he wanted to erase.

  “A moment of insanity. Look, all of this is just difficult to process. You blindsided me. It just seems . . . out of the blue.”

  “Why? Jimmy simply helped me put things in perspective. I just lifted a big burden off my chest and it felt pretty damned good until you ruined it for me.” She scooted over to the edge of the bed and then reached for her clothes. He could see by the set of her back that she was pissed. Well, he might as well go for broke.

  “You don’t need to buy your grandmother’s house.”

  With her clothes held in front of her, she stood up and whipped around. “What?” she asked, but he could see by the look on her face that she’d already guessed what he was about to say.

  “I bought it for you as a Christmas gift.”

  “A house?” She clutched her clothes harder. “Who does that?”

  “Not just any house. The house that meant so much to you. Surely you can’t be angry? You should be thrilled that I didn’t want you to lose it.”

  “You can’t tell me what I can’t or should be or do.”

  “Come on, Arabella.” Grady stood up and pulled on his boxers and jeans. “It’s not like that, dammit, and you know it.”

  “Really?” Arabella shook her head hard, making her hair fly around. “I work for everything. I don’t want things given to me.”

  “Well, get used to it.”

  “That’s so . . . sexist!”

  “It’s me loving you,” he said, but she didn’t seem to have heard him.

  “I’ll buy the house back from you,” she said hotly.

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Oh, now I’m ridiculous?” She began getting dressed so violently that she started staggering around, cursing her head off when she looked up and saw her thong dangling from the paddle fan. She jabbed a finger in his general direction. “You’re the ridiculous one here,” she shouted, and tried to put both legs into one pant leg, nearly falling over.

  “Arabella, calm down,” Grady said, and then remembered a second too late that telling a woman to calm down was like adding fuel to a fire. Oh God . . . he could nearly see steam coming out of her ears. Should he run and duck for cover?

  “ ‘Calm down’!” She put her sweatshirt on inside out and backward, not even bothering to search for her bra, which was located at her feet. “Are you serious?” She shot daggers at him, and damn, she was somehow turning him on. “Ha, ‘calm down.’ ”

  “Well . . . yeah,” he said, and she fisted her hands on her hips, staring at him. “Look,” he said, taking a step toward her, but she backed away.

  “No, don’t even touch me.”

  “Wow.” Grady stopped and took a deep breath. “Explain what’s going on here, because I’m pretty much clueless.”

  “What’s
going on here is that I decided to eliminate stress. To scratch off the things that were bothering me and to make what matters most go right to the top of the list.” She demonstrated by making a big X in the air and then pointed upward. “And you robbed me of that.”

  “What?”

  “I wanted to buy my grandmother’s house.” She tapped her chest. “Me.”

  Grady raised his hands skyward. “Now you don’t have to. And you didn’t have to sell your business either!”

  “I did!” She stomped one foot and cringed.

  “Why?”

  “I just told you! Don’t you see?” She pointed to her eyes.

  “See what?”

  “I put you on the top of my damned list!” she shouted, deflating Grady’s anger. In two long strides, he was standing next to her and pulling her into his arms. She put her head against his chest and he could feel the warm dampness of tears.

  “Bella . . . please don’t be mad at me for buying the house. I did it because I love you.”

  She sighed and then sniffed. “’Kay.”

  “Ruined my Christmas surprise, though. I’ll have to come up with something else.”

  “It was going to be pretty difficult to wrap, anyway.”

  Grady laughed lightly. “I’d planned on a big red bow on the chimney. Your mom wants you home for the holidays. She was going to decorate the house. We had plans. Well, she had plans. Lots of them.”

  “Oh, so she knows?”

  “Well, yeah, and of course your dad too.”

  “So it was one big conspiracy?”

  “I’m afraid so.” He hugged her closer. “Don’t get mad at me for asking, but can we still save Hip, Hop, Health?”

  “Well, truth is, I pretty much suck at the business side of things. The money part, the business side, always made my stomach go haywire. I would much rather stick to creative endeavors. And doing the choreography for the concert made me realize how much I missed dancing.”

  “So there’s a silver lining,” Grady said, and then had to ask, “Does that mean you’re going to stay here?”