Tyler knew she did.
Sliding next to her into bed, he gathered her carefully in his arms and whispered nonsense at her until she awoke. Reluctantly, her eyes opened, looking dazedly around her until her gaze tangled with his and a slow smile broke over her face like dawn.
"Hey." Her word was barely audible as she kissed him sleepily.
"I love you, Grace." Her smile stretched even wider as she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, presumably in joy. He knew this was a bit of a shock to her, but he wasn't done yet.
"I love you, Grace," he repeated, and then put his lips up to her ear. "And I want you to be my partner in the pub."
Nine
She was having the most amazing dream.
Wrapped in warmth, the soft murmur of her lover's voice whispering in her ear, she reveled in the security that enveloped her, the love that surrounded her. Love. He slid his lips along her cheekbone, raining kisses on her face, and she knew she loved him. She tilted her head back as his mouth wandered to her throat and...
...spoke of contracts?
Visions of clouds and soft sunlight vanished into a rolling screen of legal documents, all bearing Tyler's name and her own, surrounding Grace's dream haven.
She opened her eyes.
Tyler leaned above her, a satisfied grin on his face. Clearly he was waiting for a response from her. Unfortunately, she had no idea what was going on.
"Did you say something?" Maybe she could buy time.
A slight frown shifted his face. "Didn't you hear me?"
She bit her lip and tried not to look guilty as she shook her head no. She hadn't heard him, or at least she hoped she hadn't. But she was very afraid that he'd said something dangerous.
"You spoke to me," he said, slightly accusing.
"I've been known to have entire conversations with people while still sleeping," she whispered, and leaned up to kiss him. Maybe distraction would work better. "Sorry. I'm awake now." She snaked her arms around his neck and pulled his face back to hers. Sinking deep into the kiss, she gave herself over to the soul-destroying feeling of his mouth on hers. Her hands fisted in his hair as desire crackled like brushfire through her body.
Tyler's open mouth scraped against hers fiercely as his own hands raced up her sides to close with devastating familiarity over her breasts. He fit her so well. Every touch of his body on hers was as natural as if they'd been making love for years, and yet each moment was an aching burst of new amazement that he could make her feel like this. Treasured and gentle, fierce and demanding.
A moment later he pulled his mouth from hers. He manacled her wrists in his hands and pulled them away from his body to trap her beneath him on the bed.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to stop." He groaned the words out between harsh breaths.
"I don't see why," she answered, wrapping a leg around his waist and clamping him to her. She arched her pelvis to press herself hard against him. Uncontrollably, a short moan broke in the back of her throat.
"Grace, I love you." He slid his hands up her arms until he cradled her face, and his eyes shone above her in the dim light. "I love you."
Joy exploded like sun in her heart. She blinked sudden tears from her eyes and her hands trembled as she laid her hands against his. Love drowned out the voice in her head telling her. No, no, this is too soon. He can't say this yet. He doesn't know.
"Please tell me you're crying from happiness," he said, his voice low and unsteady.
"Yes, oh, yes." The tears fell. Her throat ached. "It's just that sometimes you can be so much in love with someone that it makes your heart hurt."
She kissed him, blindly, over and over again, repeating the words, loving him so desperately in this moment that all of her lies and fears didn't matter. Her mouth sought his, begging reassurance, claiming forgiveness for all the hurt she would yet cause him. She read the confusion in his body as he tried to pull away from her.
"Grace? What's wrong?"
She didn't answer, determined to love him so much in this one moment that he would never forget it, no matter what happened.
"Shh." She pressed a finger to his lips, then let it drift softly to the corner of his mouth. Teased the crease there until his mouth opened and turned in search of her fingers, which she pulled away to run across the ridge of his brow and then drift down over his eyelids, closing them softly. She trailed her hands gently down the entire length of his face, each sensitive pad of her fingertips registering the slightest change in the curves and valleys of his face, until she was running her hands down his neck and over his shoulders, still feather-light.
With a sudden push of her palms, she rolled Tyler off her and over onto his back as she propped herself up on one arm and gazed at him. He kept his eyes open this time and she skimmed his features again, traced a finger lightly over his ear, outlined his jaw, dragged her hand softly down his cheek. When he started to speak, she hushed him again and sat up beside him.
"Shh." She started painting the muscles of his shoulders and arms with the sensitized pads of her fingertips, moving slowly, barely touching him, drifting over and over every square inch of his arms.
"I'm memorizing you," she said, and barely registered the huskiness of her own voice. His body twitched at her words and then she felt him deliberately relax beside her.
She made her way down his chest next, still using only her fingers on his skin. Though when she leaned over him and the tips of her hair brushed against his skin and Tyler's back arced reflexively, she allowed herself a little smile.
His stomach quivered beneath her hands, his hips rocking slightly and his breathing growing harsh as she nearcd his sex.
And passed it, moving the air a millimeter from his skin, but not touching him where every fiber of his being craved her hands, her mouth.
Tyler felt as though she was tearing the soul from his body, inch by inch.
When she skimmed a lingertip over the sensitive skin at the top of his thigh, where his leg met his hip, Tyler's harsh gasp startled her into glancing up at his face.
The tendons in his neck stood out sharply, visible proof of Jhe control he was exerting over himself to simply lie still while she touched him.
Long, shallow indentations ran down his thighs, sharply defining the muscles there and fascinating her for several minutes, until she found the silklike skin at the back of his knees and lingered there for a while. The ridge of his calf muscles was next, and the straightness of his shins, trailing down into ankles that were surprisingly ticklish.
And with each stroke of her fingers over his skin, she took him into herself, memorized his every texture, every hard angle and gentle slope of his body, and knew she would never forget any of this. With each stroke of her fingers, she could feel his hands tracing the same paths over her skin, as she knew he wanted to.
The ghosts of his fingers curling around the roundness of her arms, stroking down her breasts, across her stomach, tracing the length of her legs, and finally nearing the core of her hunger for him. As she stroked her way back up his legs to the center of his wanting for her.
One of her legs draped across his thighs, the other curled beneath her, she leaned over him. At last. Still her fingertips barely touched him as she moved her hand up the silky, strong length of him. There was moisture, which pleased her and she painted it in slick circles over the tip.
"I'll never forget this," she murmured, and her warm breath on his sex nearly undid him.
Then her mouth closed over him, and he was undone. Lost in the heat of her, in the dazzling sensation of feeling each touch of her hands on his body, every inch of her memorization, burst into flaming awareness. A tracery of light mapped out over his body and burning now, as her mouth set him on fire.
Tyler's control snapped. With a savage yank, he dragged Grace up his body, locked his mouth on hers and thrust deeply into her.
And as his body rose into hers, she clung to him. Wrapped herself around him and held on as her
soul raced to meet his in a crash of light and love and shuddering bursts of pleasure that pounded through her.
Grace drifted slowly back to herself. Tyler's weight was a sensuous heaviness pressing her into the bed. Then he rolled onto his back with a groan, pulling her with him to lay sprawled across his body. His eyes were still closed as he spoke.
"I should have told you I loved you ages ago."
His eyes blinked open and he looked up at her, an exhausted smile barely lifting the corners of his mouth. He pushed sweat-damp hair behind her ears and she arched her neck into the touch of his hands. She was still without words.
"It was just so clear. After you left the bar tonight. That I'm only completely happy when you're with me. So I knew."
But was love supposed to be like this? Grace wondered, as her heart broke wide open. To be so perfect in its beauty that it caused pain? She rested her head on Tyler's chest and traced the words of her happiness on his bare skin with her fingertip.
I love you.
"Me, too." He crushed her to him. "God, Grace. Me, too. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." His breath moved her hair. "Not to mention my business. I was prepared to fail, completely and totally. And I was prepared to succeed beyond my wildest dreams and go crazy trying to solve all the problems brought by that success."
He lifted her head off his chest and focused on her.
"But I never thought it could happen so easily, so smoothly. Because I didn't know there was someone out there to be strong where I might be weak. To solve problems before I even imagined they existed. Someone I could rely on and trust to back me up, in everything. You're an amazing woman, Grace, and I don't think you know that. I don't think you know how incredibly talented you arc, but I'm going to keep telling you until you believe it."
With his words, the light went out. Her body felt numb and cold and she wondered that Tyler couldn't feel the chill radiating out from her skin, from her heart.
Because it was lies. All of it, lies. She did know her own talents. But Tyler did not. He didn't know anything about her. About the life she was even now plotting to get back for herself. For the right reasons, of course, but the fact that he didn't know any of it turned all of the shiny golden glow of his words into muddy dross.
Talented, was she? Well, with a degree from Stanford, an M.B.A. from Kellogg and a lifetime spent working in her family's conglomerate of restaurants, she certainly ought to be. Of course, Tyler thought she was a diner waitress making good, probably with a high-school education. He could be proud of her, because he only knew enough about her to make her look good.
How much would he love her if he knew she'd been lying to him since the day she'd walked in the door of the pub? How proud would he be, if he knew that she'd run away from her own responsibilities and obligations, leaving hundreds of people employed by the Haley Group in danger of losing their jobs? She didn't think he'd find her so amazing if he knew the truth.
And if her dream earlier was any indication, things were about to get worse.
"Tyler, listen, I'm not what you think—"
"Stop. You are." His finger pressed lightly on her lips. "You're smart and capable and beautiful and caring. And I want you to be my partner. You called it your restaurant earlier tonight, and I want that to be true even when you're not on the floor."
She started to protest, but he talked over her words.
"I know you won't just let me give it to you. So we'll set something up where you can buy into the business gradually, over time, until you're a full partner. Meanwhile, everything will just keep going like it is now."
"Stop! Just stop," she interrupted, rolling off of him. Knowing that she could buy his business with the funds in her smallest money market account only made things worse. The sheets were twisted beneath them. She pulled at a cover in frustration until she could wrap it around herself and get out of bed. Being naked felt too vulnerable right now.
The blanket trailed behind her as she paced, tripping her when she turned to face, the bed. Tyler was sitting up, leaning against the headboard. He looked calm, but clearly disappointed.
"Tyler, there's so much you don't know about me," she began, and then stopped as the gross understatement threw her off stride. She wrapped the blanket more tightly around herself and shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other. If she had a free hand, she knew she'd be refiexively tugging on her hair at that moment.
"You're right," he said steadily. "But I know you're afraid of something, or someone. Hell, I'd have started with a marriage proposal instead of a business one, if I didn't think that would scare you off for good." He grinned.
"Don't joke," she snapped, and saw instantly by the hurt in his eyes that he hadn't been. She closed her eyes for a moment and stood silent. A night for many pains, apparently. "I'm sorry. I don't know how I let things get so out of control. I'm a mess, Tyler. And the last thing I want to do is to hurt you or disappoint you."
"You won't."
"Don't say that. You can't know that."
"You said the same thing to me earlier tonight. It was true then and it's true now. I don't know who you were, but I know who you are now, Grace. You would never hurt me."
"I don't want to. But I'm afraid I will."
There were miles between her and Tyler, continents with unassailable mountain ranges and unbridgeable crevasses. In the middle of the room, she fell very alone. The gap between them .seemed impossible to cross. If only he'd waited until she was free to tell him everything. Free to come to him as a woman in charge of her own life.
But now she couldn't even remember why she'd decided to wait. She knew in an instant that she'd made a terrible mistake. Tyler would have been able to handle anything she could have thrown at him. But not now. Not when he'd just laid his heart bare in his trust for her. She couldn't say anything right now without shattering that moment.
"Maybe I'd better go."
She turned to collect her clothes, only to be caught by the naked roughness of his voice.
"Please. Stay.".
His words called to her. The moonlight spilled through the uncurtained window to skim a glow along the outline of his arm as he stretched a hand out to her.
"December thirty-first, remember? No questions asked until then. Just stay."
It was wrong. With every breath she took in, she knew that it was wrong to stay with Tyler under such blatantly false pretenses. She knew that she risked everything, including his hatred when he found out the truth, if she continued to be with him now. She had so much to lose.
Her body moved toward him, pulled by the force of his desire, his love, and she didn't stop herself. It was unthinkable to leave. Her hand found itself clasped and a final tug pulled her neatly to his side, where she'd found so much security such a brief time before. She felt anything but secure now.
"I want to help you, Grace."
"You can't help me with this." Her body arced to merge with his. "Just love me. Love me no matter what."
His promise was written in the strokes of his hands on her skin and he loved her as she wept.
Standing at the door of the penthouse suite at the Drake Hotel, her hand clammy on the doorknob, she held the memory of Tyler's loving in her mind and took strength from it. Her heartbeat slowed, her thoughts stopped racing around in circles, her muscles unclenched. Two deep breaths and she opened the door.
Conversation halted instantly and heads swiveled toward her as the thirteen men and women in the room rose to their feet.
"Good afternoon. Thank you for agreeing to this impromptu meeting, particularly on such short notice. If you'll all take your seats, please, I'd like to get right down to business."
Her voice remained calm and steady, she was pleased to note as she moved to the head of the conference table around which they all sat themselves.
"I've asked you all here to clear up some unfortunate misunderstandings regarding the availability, individually or as a whole, of the restaurants of the Ha
ley Group. As I understand you have had face-to-face meetings with various representatives of my firm, I thought it more appropriate to break the bad news and to express my regrets in person. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is that none of the assets of the Haley Group are for sale. I know you have all been led to believe otherwise, and I apologize for that."
She paused to let her words sink in. Almost immediately, the clamor began.
"Not for sale?"
"I've got the paperwork in hand—"
"My investors are already prepared to—"
Grace allowed them to rattle on for a minute before raising her hands. Several more minutes passed until the prospective buyers settled down to silence, or at least to muttering under their breath.
"As I stated," she emphasized, "I am aware that you have all been recently engaged in negotiations to purchase one or more of the Haley properties. And I am very sorry that said negotiations were entered into by one of our board members under false pretenses."
A portly gentleman whose suit buttons were straining to contain a belly that evidenced a great deal of time spent in the dining industry was the first to speak directly to her.
"Madam, it was your very own fiancé who offered me first refusal on the purchase of any and all of your restaurants."
That damn word again.
The rising level of grumbling indicated that he had not been the only one present to receive that same offer.
"Corporate infighting is so irritating, isn't it?" She smiled coldly. "Our publicity department was mistakenly instructed to print that engagement announcement. Mr. Huntington is merely the visible president of the Haley Group, and a minor shareholder at that, who has allowed his personal greed to overstep the bounds of good sense, not to mention the bounds of his authority."
"Are you telling us Charles Huntington is not authorized to sign off on business deals for the Haley Group?" This from a sharply creased woman in unrelieved black. Her pinched expression indicated severe displeasure, not to mention skepticism.
At Your Service Page 15
