by Helen Lacey
“For being so emotional,” she explained, hot with embarrassment. She was naked and exposed while he remained half-clothed.
“Making love is emotional.” He rubbed her lip again. “Or at least, it should be.”
He was right. And she wanted it to be that way. She also wanted his clothes off.
Grace moved her hands to the top snap on his jeans. “My turn,” she said, pushing past her awkwardness. “Take these off.”
It took barely seconds and finally he lay beside her, skin touching skin, arms entwined. In the dim lamplight his tanned body looked bronzed and amazing. Grace touched the soft hair on his chest with her fingernails. She felt his arousal press against her belly.
“Okay?” he asked and traced one finger along her arm.
She nodded and leaned toward him. “Kiss me.”
For the next hour he did more than simply kiss her. Cameron kissed and stroked her, using his hands and mouth to drive her toward the pinnacle of pleasure once again. When his tongue dipped in her navel and played around with the tiny piercing she had there, Grace almost bucked off the bed. Who would have thought... He groaned low in his throat and offered encouragement when she touched him, kissed him, although there was nothing particularly practiced about her technique.
And then, when Grace thought she could crave nothing else, want nothing more, he passed her the condom he’d placed on the bedside table. She sheathed him quickly, if a little unsteadily, and waited, poised for his possession as he moved over her. He took his weight on his elbows and watched her.
This is it. Some faraway voice spoke to her. This is what I’ve been waiting for. This night. This man. This feeling. And as he entered her slowly, Grace knew a sense of completion she’d never experienced before. He stayed still for a moment and she remained lost in his eyes.
When he moved, Grace moved with him. When he kissed her, she kissed him back. When he smiled against her mouth, she returned the gesture. Two people, somehow fused by more than making love. The pace between them quickened. More need, more urgency, more passion, she thought, from some dreamy place, as her body began the throb with a heady longing once again. She linked her arms around him, holding on, kneading wanting fingers into his back. And finally, when they could take no more, they came together in a white-hot frenzy of release.
When it was over, when the pleasure receded and their breathing returned to something resembling normal, Cameron eased his weight off her and lay at her side.
He grabbed her hand and held it against his chest. “Still okay?”
Grace let out a breath. “Yes.”
“No regrets?”
“Not yet,” she replied honestly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being so...” Her words trailed as an unusual lethargy seeped across her skin. “So sweet.”
“Sweet?” He echoed but she knew he was smiling. “Damned with faint praise.”
Grace shifted closer. “It’s high praise, actually.”
“Okay then.” He sat up and swung his legs off the bed. “Back in a minute.”
He left the room and Grace stretched her body. She closed her eyes, only to be roused a couple of minutes later when Cameron returned and quickly shuffled her underneath the covers before he got back into the bed.
He reached for her, wrapping her in his arms once he’d flicked off the bedside lamp. “Get some sleep, Grace.”
Grace sighed contentedly and pressed herself into his chest, trailing her fingertips up and down his rib cage. She closed her eyes again and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart as she drifted off to sleep.
* * *
When she awoke the following morning, Grace was alone. The digital clock on the table read half past seven. She could hear movement around the cottage. A door closed and Jed’s familiar whine echoed from the kitchen where he was clearly searching for food.
Footsteps came up the hallway moments later and Cameron rounded the doorway with a cup in his hand.
“Coffee?” he asked as he came into the room.
Grace pulled herself up, conscious to not let the sheet slip past her breasts. Silly, she supposed. He’d seen all of her there was to see. But she couldn’t suppress the niggling anxiety that began to knock steadily behind her ribs.
“Lovely,” she said as cheerfully as she could. Morning-afters were not her specialty.
But Cameron clearly had no problem with them, she realized when he sat on the edge of the bed and passed her the cup. Lots of practice, no doubt. That thought didn’t go down well either. He looked casual and relaxed. He wore the jeans she’d practically ripped off with her teeth the night before and nothing else. The top snap was undone and she stole a glance at the line of soft hair arrowing downward from his belly button. Color rose up her collarbone and she quickly sipped the coffee. “Mmm, good. Thank you.”
“I have to go into town this morning to pick up Pat and the kids,” he said easily. “If they release Thomas it’ll take two trips so I might be gone awhile. But later, we could do something together.”
Grace looked at him over the rim of the cup. “Didn’t we already?”
He smiled and Grace knew he was remembering how they’d made slow, seductive love again just before dawn broke. “I guess we did.”
“What did you have in mind?” she asked, trying to push aside the images in her head and the memory of his kisses. “And does that mean we get the day off today?”
“For sure. You’ve earned it.”
Her eyes popped wide. “I have?”
“For yesterday,” he explained, grinning. “And Friday you worked hard. I was thinking we could take the horses out.”
“Horses?” Her smile disappeared as she placed the cup on the bedside table. “I don’t really do horses.”
He shrugged and grinned. “Okay, what would you like to do instead? We could go into town and have lunch if you’d prefer that?”
Her smile returned. He was being very sweet and she decided to make an effort and expand her horizons. “Actually, horseback riding sounds like fun.”
He looked skeptical of her sudden turnaround. “You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
He kissed her soundly. “Great. So, what about breakfast?”
Grace groaned. “Are you always so chipper in the morning?”
Cameron laughed and grabbed her free hand. “Depends what I’ve been doing the night before.”
“Sex puts you in a good mood?”
He rubbed the underside of her wrist. “You put me in a good mood.”
They both laughed out loud. “I do not. Most of the time we seem to be working out new ways to insult one another.”
“I like this much better,” he said and brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
“Me, too.”
He took a moment to respond. “And if I said I wanted more—would that send you running?”
More what? Sex? “I told you I don’t do this casually.”
His gaze narrowed. “And I do? Is that your implication?”
“Well, I—”
“Did it feel casual to you, Grace?”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
“Last night I asked you to trust us, Grace. Whatever you think of me, you must know I would never make love to you unless it was real.”
Did she know that? Is that why her heart hammered so loudly? I’m afraid. In the cold light of day, with passion abated and only truth between them, Grace was forced to examine what she knew was her own truth. Somehow, the lines had blurred. The antagonism had gone. The feigned dislike had disappeared. She’d made love with Cameron and had felt love in that moment. From him. From herself.
He smiled and then proceeded to make love to her all over again, wringin
g the last vestiges of response from her, driving Grace toward some place where only pleasure existed.
* * *
Pat and the kids returned midmorning. Thomas was being kept another night at the small community hospital, and according to his grandmother was doing remarkably well.
She remained in the kitchen with the older woman and Emily for a while, sharing tea and talking about the children. They discussed the upcoming trail ride and Grace did her best to hide her nerves. But Pat wasn’t fooled.
“You’ll be fine,” Pat assured her and tapped her hand. “Cameron won’t let anything happen to you.”
Grace warmed from head to toe. “I know.”
It was well before lunch when Cameron came into the house. She hadn’t seen him since he’d picked up Pat and the kids. Instead, he’d been outside tending to the animals with Dylan and doing some minor repairs on the paling fence near the chicken run. She wasn’t sure if Pat sensed a change in their relationship. But Grace could feel it with every fiber in her body.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked when he appeared in the doorway.
Grace nodded. “Although I need to get my cap.”
Pat moved across the kitchen and grabbed a hat off a peg near the door. “Take this,” she offered. “Much better to keep the sun off your face.”
Grace took the battered wide-brimmed hat which looked like one her sister-in-law, Callie, often wore. “Er—thanks.”
By the time they reached the stables Grace was so nervous her hands were sweating. The horses, both tacked and tied up, seemed huge and ominous.
“The hat,” he said, motioning to the object in her hand. “You actually need to put it on.”
Grace looked at the hat. It was old and shabby and she had no inclination to put it on her freshly washed hair. In fact, she had become accustomed to her new, all-natural hairstyle. “Oh, I don’t think—”
“Wear the hat.” He took it from her and plonked it on her head. “I insist.”
Grace caught his smile and was just about to playfully protest again when his phone rang. He answered the call and spoke for barely a minute. When he was done he was frowning.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“Lauren.”
His sister. “Is there a problem?”
He shrugged. “Nothing much. Come on, let’s get going.”
It took a few minutes, but Grace was finally in the saddle. It was one of the Western types, so at least she had a horn to hang on to. And she was pleased the horse appeared to have a calm temperament and good manners.
“I haven’t done this for twenty years,” she told him.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured her. “Just follow me.”
Clearly an accomplished rider, he reined his mount to the left and headed through an open gate behind the stables and into a wide pasture. It was a picture-perfect late-autumn day. The sky was clear blue, the air crisp and clean. The ground was reasonably flat and grassy with the occasional outcrop of rock and thankfully Grace’s horse followed Cameron’s. After a few minutes she’d convinced herself to loosen up. And she liked watching him. As with everything he did, he looked relaxed and confident.
“Where did you learn to do this?” she asked as they steadily walked.
“My mother’s folks owned a farm out west. I’d go there during school break.”
How little she knew about him. A memory clicked in. “They’re both gone now?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “They died within a few weeks of one another. After fifty years of marriage they couldn’t bear to be parted I guess.”
It was a romantic notion. Fifty years together—as companions, lovers, friends, parents...what an incredible legacy to leave behind. It softened something inside her and being with Cameron got her thinking. He wanted her like she’d never been wanted before. He’d whispered words against her skin, drawn pleasure from every part of her and given her the confidence to let go of her inhibitions. And now, as she rode with him in the afternoon sunlight, for the first time in her life Grace wondered if she actually could have it all.
Chapter Ten
“So, what did your sister want?” she asked, shifting her mind from images of them making love and imagining happily-ever-afters. Her question sounded impossibly nosy and she was surprised when he answered.
“Giving me a lecture.”
Grace immediately tensed. Did his sister know they were together? Was that why Lauren had called her brother? The horse sensed her tension and responded by breaking into a trot. She caught her balance and rose from the saddle every second beat before collecting the reins and easing the gelding back.
Cameron was beside her in a flash. “Are you okay?” he asked and lightly grabbed one of her reins.
“I’m fine.” Grace took a breath. “A lecture about what?”
He released the rein. “My mother wants to know if I’m going to the Jakowski family reunion.”
Grace had a vague recollection that his entire extended family got together every year. “Oh, right. It’s tradition for you to all meet once a year?”
“Yep.”
Grace tilted her hat back. “Well, it should be a good day.”
“Maybe.”
She pulled back fractionally on the reins. “Isn’t it usually?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t been for the past few years.”
Grace eased the horse to a halt. Cameron took a few more paces to stop and then turned the toffee-colored gelding around. Head to head, the horses nuzzled one another.
She stared at him. “But isn’t the day a big deal for your parents? And all your other relatives, like your grandparents and cousins and such?”
“I guess.”
Grace took a deep breath. She sensed his energy changing. He didn’t want to talk about it. However, she did. “Let’s stop for a while,” she suggested. “There’s a spot over there near those trees. We can tie the horses up.”
Without waiting for him she clicked the horse forward and trotted toward the trees. Once they were both dismounted she handed the reins to Cameron and waited for him to securely tether the animals.
She found a rock beneath the shade of a tree and watched as he retrieved two small water bottles from his saddlebag. Once he joined her she spoke.
“Tell me why you don’t go. And tell me the truth.”
Cameron didn’t want to admit to anything. “It’s complicated.”
She took off her hat and raised her brows. “That sounds like something I’d say. You don’t do complicated. So, ’fess up.”
He smiled at her words. This was a new Grace. A little playful, even though she regarded him with serious eyes. He liked it a lot. But he wasn’t quite ready to admit the truth.
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Too bad,” she shot back.
Cameron sucked in a frustrated breath. “Because it’s a Jakowski family reunion.”
She stared at him. “And?”
“And I’m not a... I’m not really a Jakowski.”
It was the first time he’d said the words out loud. In the past he’d been asked the same question and always used excuses like work commitments, or lack of time. But he wouldn’t lie to Grace.
And she asked another hard question. “Because you were adopted by Franciszek?”
Relentless, he thought and inhaled. “Yes.”
“Do you actually believe he regards you as anything other than his real son?”
He shrugged. “I never said it was rational.”
She grabbed his hand and Cameron felt the connection through to his blood. Her nails tapped on his palm. “You were what—three years old when he married your mother? So that’s thirty-three years of being your father. Not that I’m an expert on parenting, but I don
’t imagine he’d be anything other than incredibly proud to call you his son.”
He knew she was right...in his head. But the last time he’d attended the family reunion he’d realized he was the only one there not related by blood, aside from respective spouses. The extended Jakowski clan was large and traditionally Polish, where bloodlines and birthright were important. And that blood didn’t flow through his veins. It was why he wanted his own family, his own children.
And Grace, he knew, did not.
“Like I said, not rational.”
She linked their fingertips. “You know, you don’t hold back telling me what I should do—my family not knowing about the accident as an example. So, here’s a little of that back at you—you should go. Because they’re your family and they love you. If that’s not enough, then go out of respect for Franciszek, who loved you enough to want to call you his son and give you his name. And out of respect for the man you have become.”
Shame hit him squarely between the shoulder blades. She was right. So right. He knew he hurt his parents by not attending. He had a sudden idea. “Would you go with me?”
“Go with you?” she echoed. “Like a...date?”
“Yeah...my date. My friend.” My girlfriend. He felt about sixteen years old just thinking it.
She managed a wry smile. “I’ll...think about it.”
* * *
When he leaned forward and kissed her it took about five seconds for Grace’s brain to kick in. He cupped the back of her neck as she returned the kiss, tasting her lips for the longest time. Finally they pulled apart. She was breathing hard, taking deep puffs into her lungs.
“Let’s keep going,” he suggested and pushed away the thoughts she had of lying down on the soft grass and making love with him. “The horses will get restless if we stay here.”
She nodded, grabbed her hat and stood. Within minutes they were back in the saddle and headed east. They stayed out for a couple of hours, mostly walking through fields that belonged to an adjoining landowner.
When they got back to the farm she left the horse in his care and returned to the cottage.
Grace had blisters on top of blisters. Horseback riding. A great idea—not.
