However, when they burst into his hotel room, and he pressed her up against the closed door and kissed her fiercely, they both had the same thoughts in their head.
How fast they could remove each other’s clothes.
Chapter Ten – Matt
Matt always tried to be a gentleman in everything he did. In business, even when he was in the middle of a hostile takeover, he maintained his courtesy. Once the door was shut behind Grace, and he had her alone in his hotel room, all those years of maintaining a calm mood disappeared, and he tore at her clothes.
It was as if they had experienced two days of foreplay, of their attraction ratcheting up a notch until it exploded into action. Grace was also caught under the spell, her hands tearing at his shirt, dragging it off his shoulders, with only a few buttons undone. He didn’t care, it could be replaced, although Matt wondered if she knew how expensive it was, whether she would have taken more care.
“Are you sure?” he asked breathlessly, as his hands tugged at her belt, fighting to gain access.
“Do you really need to ask?”
“I am trying to keep some semblance of manners. But you make it so hard.”
“I don’t want your manners, not right now, but I do want you hard.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this hard.” He took her hand and placed it over the bulge in his pants.
“Then let’s set you free,” she said, and undid his belt and his button, letting his pants slip to the floor. “That is so much better.”
He placed the flat of his hand on the door behind her, needing it to keep him upright as he gasped under her touch. Up and down she ran her hand, squeezing him, rolling her palm over the head of his cock, until he was sure he would explode in her hand.
“It’s only fair if you are naked too,” he ground out, at last undoing her jeans and pushing them down over her hips.
As she stood naked in front of him, he felt like a kid in a candy store, with too much choice as to where to start.
“Oh, damn. If you keep that up, I’m going to come.” He closed his hand over hers, stilling her.
“Isn’t that the point?” she asked, kissing his collarbone, her teeth nipping his skin.
“I want to be inside you.” He put his finger under her chin and tipped her face up to his. “Let’s slow down a second.”
Pressing his lips to hers, he kissed her, slowly and softly, before deepening it, his tongue pushing for access. Grace opened her mouth for him, their tongues entwining, teasing each other. This wasn’t helping: he still needed to come, desperately.
The only thing he could think of doing, to ease the pressure, was to give himself something else to think about. And one thing that was more important to him than his own needs, were Grace’s.
With his arms around her, and his lips still kissing hers, he maneuvered her towards the bed. When the backs of her knees came into contact with it, he eased her down and followed, until he knelt on the floor in front of her. Grace tangled her fingers into his hair and nipped his bottom lip, sending tremors through his body that threatened to destabilize him. But he kept his focus on his goal, a thing he was good at.
No matter what, it was the end result that was the most important. And the end result tonight was the fulfillment of the promise he’d made to her on the mountain. He intended to make love to her like no man ever had, or ever would again.
Breaking their kiss, he kissed her neck, and then lower. Small butterfly kisses led him to her voluptuous breasts, and he licked each nipple in turn, before sucking her right nipple into his mouth. She whimpered, her back arching, telling him she liked what he was doing to her body and asking for more. He didn’t need to be an expert in body language to read her responses.
While he sucked on her breasts, driving her insane, his fingers slid along her thigh. Pressing his body between her thighs, he eased her legs apart, allowing himself access to the core of her need. When his fingers grazed the length of her sex, she tensed. Matt moved, slowly and deliberately, his fingers dipping into her heat, before moving to graze her clit until she relaxed.
In and out, he pushed his fingers, while his tongue rolled over her nipple. Releasing the taut bud, he kissed the swell of her breasts, and then the soft flesh of her stomach, before moving lower, to taste her intimately, for the first time.
Like honey to his bear, her juices made his mouth water. Flicking his tongue over her clit, he fingered her, sensing her orgasm building. Pressing his free hand to her breast, he tweaked her nipple, while his mouth moved to cover her sex, his tongue probing inside her, in and out.
She cried out, her hands going to fist his hair, pulling him away while she begged him not to stop. Working as one, his hands, mouth, and tongue drew her toward the abyss, and then threw her off, sending her into a spiraling orgasm that he prolonged until she pleaded with him to stop.
“Please, Matt. Oh, there.” Her words were a jumbled-up stream of contradicting thoughts.
He did stop, but only because he knew he could bring her to a more satisfying climax around his cock. Standing up, he slipped one arm around her waist and moved her up the bed, until her head rested on the pillow. Then he moved to position himself between her thighs, the head of his cock pressing against her outer lips.
Grace placed her hands on his ass, and urged him forward. “Insatiable,” he whispered into her ear.
She turned her head and nipped his ear with her teeth, and then sucked his earlobe into her mouth before letting it go, very slowly. “I want you to make good on your promise.”
“I will.” He lunged forward, filling her with one hard thrust.
She groaned, and urged him deeper, and harder. Matt rose to the challenge, taking her hard, their bond growing deeper as he impaled her on his cock.
Grace’s nails dug into him, she clawed at his ass, and scratched his back, like a wild beast, out of control. Her sex was tight; he was sure she hadn’t had many lovers, but her confidence in her own sexuality was incredibly erotic to him.
“Suck my breasts,” she urged, and he obeyed, wanting to make her happy, wanting to make her come around his hard cock.
With the flat of his tongue he licked the taut buds, while his body moved in and out of her in a rhythm of its own. Grace kissed and nipped his neck, then sucked on his earlobe again, while he nursed on her breasts. Damn, she made his heart race and his nerve endings aflame.
He’d been wrong, he had promised her he would make love to her like no other man would, but he had never expected the same in return.
Together, as one, they reached new heights, and when they exploded they rose higher. He cried out, unable to contain his need to tell the world he had claimed his mate. In and out, fast and then slow, he prolonged their peak. When one orgasm dissipated, another built to take its place. Matt ground his hips deep into her, his cock spurting his seed inside her, and he hoped they would make a child together.
Their future lay in developing a program to help other people, but that did not mean that the thought of her naked with a swollen belly, filled with their own child, wasn’t the most incredible thing to believe in.
Chapter Eleven – Grace
She ached, a deep ache in her core. He’d been true to his word and fucked her for hours. Grace certainly hadn’t complained; in fact, there were times when she had sucked on his cock to revive him so he could make love to her again. He was always quick to respond. As if her mouth could revive him even from the depths of exhaustion.
He soon proved he wasn’t exhausted, his stamina in the bedroom much greater than on the mountain as a bear.
“I need to get to work,” she said, swinging her legs off the side of the bed and searching around for her clothes. Luckily, she hadn’t dressed up to come here and once she’d showered she could go straight to work without having to go home first. Grace had no intention of letting anyone know she’d spent the night with Matt inside her. So being late for work was not an option.
“You could call in sick
,” he said, watching her dress.
“I thought you were all for helping people get back into work. Telling them to lie about a sick day is not a good start.” She lifted up her shirt, which was missing buttons too. Last night had been a little intense, OK, a lot intense, for both of them. “Damn it, I’ll have to go home after all.”
He jumped out of bed and went to his closet. “You have two options: either wear one of mine, or I’ll drive you home, and then to work.”
She turned to him, wearing her jeans and bra, with the shirt half done up. “I didn’t want everyone to know we’d been together.”
He laughed. “Honey, they are going to know.”
“How?” she asked.
“They’ll smell me on you.” He moved to stand behind her and kissed her neck, his left hand fondling her breasts, while his right hand slipped between her thighs, rubbing her clit through her jeans.
“Yuck. I’m showering at my place.” She reached for her sweater and pulled it on over her head.
“They’ll still know. It’s in the flush of your cheeks and the way that you walk.”
“It is not,” she said indignantly.
“Oh, come on, why would you want to hide this from anyone? They know you are my mate.”
“I just… You are planning to work with Dylan. I work for Dylan. I don’t want to mess that up. I don’t want any special favors.”
“If you take up my offer, you could be my partner in this new enterprise.”
“I’m still not sure about that,” she said. Giving up on her shirt, she added, “You’ll have to take me home.”
“Are you sure? I could lend you one of my shirts,” he offered again, yanking a clean pair of jeans out of the hotel closet.
“Have you seen your shirts?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him.”
“What’s wrong with them?” he asked.
“They probably cost more than I earn in a week,” she said accusingly.
“No one will know,” he said, putting on one of those expensive shirts.
“Are you joking? Anyone can tell the difference between your shirts and mine. Mine all come from a thrift store.”
“Maybe someone gave some expensive shirts to the thrift store,” he suggested, trying to be helpful. He wasn’t.
“Do you give your shirts to a thrift store?” she asked.
“No.”
“My point exactly. Now come on, I have half an hour before I’m late for work.” She tugged the hotel room door open, and walked straight into the woman who had been flirting with Matt at the wedding.
“Oh, hello,” the woman said, her eyes raking over Grace’s clothes and then darting to Matt. “I was hanging around downstairs, waiting to catch you at breakfast. Now I know why you are so late.”
Grace sensed Matt’s mood shift. Any thought that there might be something going on between him and this woman evaporated. She was attuned enough to his emotions, maybe after their claiming last night, to know he didn’t like her, or at least didn’t trust her. But why was she here snooping around?
“What do you want, Tessa?” Matt asked, keeping his voice polite but with an edge to it.
“I was wondering if you were lonely.” She smiled and eyed up Grace again. “However, I can see you found your own brand of entertainment. So, I’ll leave you to it.”
With that Tessa turned and walked off down the hallway, leaving Matt bristling.
“I’m sorry,” Grace said.
“About what?” Matt answered.
“Her seeing us together.” She folded her arms across her chest, looking down at her faded worn jeans, her obviously not-done-up-properly shirt, that even with the sweater covering it made her look disheveled.
“Everyone’s going to see us together soon,” he said, as they left his room and he shut the door, double-checking that it was securely shut.
“You don’t think I’m about to become the dirt you said she wanted to dig on you?” Grace asked, worriedly.
“What if she does?” Matt asked. He put his arm around her while they waited for the elevator. “It doesn’t matter. We’re together, we’re an item, and soon you will be my wife. Unfortunately, the press is almost certain to start speculating on how long we’re going to be together. But we know the answer to that. And it’s forever.”
“It doesn’t bother you that everyone will know that I’ve been to jail?” she asked.
“No, because when you become the figurehead for this program we’re going to set up, it gives us authenticity. The people who need our help will know that you understand where they are coming from.”
She looked at her watch. “I am going to be so late for work,” she said.
“Call Dylan now, and tell him you’ll get there as soon as you can.”
Grace tucked her shirt in. “No, I’ll go like this. I guess you’re right, everyone is going to know soon enough.”
Matt smiled. “That’s my girl.”
The entered the elevator, and he pushed the button to take them to the ground floor. “Wow, I feel nervous.” She had butterflies in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t sure why.
“So do I,” he confided. “And I mean it, we’re going to face people who don’t understand our whirlwind romance, because they don’t know what we are to each other. But you know what you have to learn to say sometimes?”
“No. Surprise me, and if it’s something to do with smiling sweetly and that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, you can forget it.”
He laughed. “No, the opposite, in fact. You have to just say fuck it!”
“Mr. Hargreaves!” Grace exclaimed. “I should wash your mouth out, I thought you were a gentleman.”
“I am, but I’m telling you there are times when you have to just open your mouth and say…”
“Fuck it!”
“You are going to go far, Grace.” He put his arm around her as the elevator opened and they walked across the hotel foyer, not caring who saw them. He’d given her confidence, and even when she saw Tessa talking to a hotel staff member, she didn’t care. In her head, she just repeated the words fuck it.
However, she couldn’t deny the niggling doubt that she would ever be that brave if Tessa did dig up her past and print it for the world to see.
***
“A minute late,” Jed said as she got out of Matt’s car.
“My fault,” Matt said. “I insisted on stopping off for breakfast and coffee to go. I can’t have my woman putting in a hard day’s work on an empty stomach.”
“Breakfast. So, you two… OK, I can let you off for being a minute late.” Jed grinned. “I thought you’d put up more of a fight than that.”
“Why would I fight something so natural?” she asked sweetly.
“The look on your face yesterday said you were going to fight every step of the way.” Jed slapped Matt on the back with his big hands, but Matt took it in his stride. “I felt sorry for you, man.”
“Well, that pep talk hit home,” Grace said.
“Then you can do one more thing for me, as a favor.”
“What? Make you coffee with five sugars and not tell Amanda?” Grace asked.
“No. Come over to my parents’ tonight, for a celebration.”
“What are we celebrating? Don’t tell me Amanda had the baby and you still came to work?” Grace teased.
“No. No baby yet.” He ran his hand through his hair, and shook his head. “I can’t wait for that day.”
“So… What’s the celebration?” Grace asked. “Or is it a secret?”
“It is a secret, and I particularly do not want you saying anything to Dylan.”
“Why?” Grace asked.
Jed put his finger to his lips. “Come tonight, both of you, and you’ll find out.”
“Both of us?” Matt asked. “Are you sure, I’ve only just met you all.”
“Of course. Not only are you Zoe’s friend, but you are also Grace’s mate. That makes you family. Isn’t that right, Grace?”
Grace opened her mouth to speak, but had to settle for nodding. Inside she was fighting the soaring happiness she felt at being part of what Jed called family. The tiny little seed that had sprouted when she started to work for Dylan was growing stronger, almost ready to bloom. She only hoped Tessa was not planning to spray it with weed killer.
Chapter Twelve – Matt
“I’m nervous,” he admitted to Grace.
“That makes two of us,” she said. “I have no idea what this is all about. Jed wouldn’t tell me any details. He only said that he wanted us all to be there, as witnesses of some kind.”
“Witnesses?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, besides that and a sworn promise not to tell Dylan, I have no idea what’s going on.”
They pulled into the driveway leading to Jed’s family’s home. There were already several cars parked outside, and despite the cool evening people were standing around drinking beer. Whatever was going on, it intrigued him, especially since it revolved around Dylan, whom only earlier today he had agreed a deal with.
Something he hadn’t had a chance to share with Grace yet. He’d been running late when he got to her house, although they managed to squeeze in more than a few sensual kisses, and he’d longed to take her, up against the wall, before they left. However, they’d parted, both breathless, and rushed here, with Grace insisting they were on time, because she sensed it was important to Jed, which made it important to her. Matt didn’t argue.
His news would wait until later.
“Do I look OK?” she asked as she got out of the car. Grace had traded her usual jeans and boots for a long purple dress that hugged her figure in just the right places.
“You look gorgeous,” he said for the third time, and he’d meant it every one of them.
“I’m not used to being around everyone. Not in a social way.”
“It’ll be fine, at least you know everyone’s names. I’m going to have to wing it.”
“I’m sure it won’t be the first time you’ve done that,” she countered.
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