“You never told me that,” Grace said incredulously. Lynette normally talked about every facet of her life, whether the subject was fit for public consumption or something most people considered an issue that should be kept private. Yet she had never mentioned the bombshell she had just casually dropped into the conversation. “Why didn’t you say anything? Did you think I wouldn’t be able to relate?”
“No, nothing like that. Even though Monica doesn’t dress, look, or act masculine of center outside of work, she still gets painted with the same brush from time to time based solely on her profession. It’s one of her sore spots. She doesn’t like talking about it with me, let alone anyone else. But that’s okay. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to be in a relationship with her.” Lynette slowly lifted her shoulders and let them fall. “How could I possibly complain about something I signed up for? I’m not going to stop loving her just because shit gets hard sometimes.”
“I hear you,” Whitney said. “Sometimes I think how easy life might be if I had fallen for someone else, but I didn’t, did I? Now I get the best of both worlds. The hardness of a man and the softness of a woman all in one person.”
“Preach, girl.” Lynette waved her hand over her head as if she were testifying in church. “You are telling the story of my life.”
In order to be with Dakota, Grace knew she would have to be willing to agree to the same emotional contract Lynette and Whitney had entered into with their respective partners. But was she as willing as they were to sign her name on the dotted line? Lynette and Whitney had only put their hearts at risk. She, on the other hand, had much, much more at stake.
“Have we scared you off yet?” Whitney asked as if reading her mind.
“I don’t scare easily.”
“If you truly mean that,” Lynette said, “what are you waiting for? I can find my own way home, you know.”
Good, Grace thought. Because I might not make it to mine before the sun comes up.
Chapter Fifteen
After she fulfilled her obligations to the press, Dakota headed to the bar to get some liquid refreshment. “I would offer to buy you a drink,” she heard a familiar voice say, “but I hear they’re free around here.”
Dakota tried and failed to suppress a smile as she turned to face Grace. “I don’t have a problem with free. Do you?”
Grace pursed her lips. “That depends on what’s being offered.”
Dakota accepted her drink from the bartender and placed a couple of bills in the tip jar. “You look beautiful tonight,” she said to Grace, “but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?”
Thanks to her four-inch heels, Grace was almost Dakota’s height. She didn’t have to stand on her tiptoes as she pressed her lips close to Dakota’s ear. The feel of Grace’s breath on her skin sent a shudder down Dakota’s spine. Her head swam from the scent of Grace’s perfume. From the warmth of Grace’s voluptuous body. Close enough to touch, yet still so far away. “The only thing I want you to tell me tonight is how good my dress looks on your bedroom floor. Do you think you can manage that?”
Grace’s words made Dakota’s knees go weak. “I can manage it, yes, but can you handle it?”
Grace raised her plastic cup of white wine to her full, luscious lips. “Try me and see.”
Dakota almost beat a path to the door so she could run out into the street and hail a cab, but she convinced herself to stay put. She had been down this road before, and she didn’t want to get her hopes up again only to have them dashed. She didn’t want to feel like she had at the street party. Elated to see Grace, then crushed by her rejection. Grace’s eyes burned with desire, but she needed to be sure Grace was enthralled by her instead of the exhibit. “I thought you came here with someone.”
“I did, but I doubt Lynette would mind if I left with someone else. Can you say the same?”
Dakota followed Grace’s line of sight until her gaze landed on Jennifer talking with a cluster of guests standing in front of a display featuring a long-haul truck driver from Jersey City. “If you mean Jennifer, I’m confident her wife will see her home. And as much as I would like to take you to my place right now and show you the lovely view of my bedroom ceiling, we need to talk about Thursday night, don’t you think?”
“I have several excuses I could use to explain my behavior, but I don’t feel like trotting any of them out so I’ll stick with the truth. I didn’t expect to see you that night, I panicked, and I didn’t know what to do.”
“But you do now?”
“No, but I know what I want.”
“And that would be?”
Grace looked her squarely in the eye. Dakota admired her directness. Her willingness to face things head-on instead of shrinking from a challenge. “To wake up in your arms.”
Dakota swirled the ice in her vodka tonic to disguise the fact that her hands were shaking. Not from fear. From anticipation. She would love to give Grace what she was asking for, but she didn’t want either of them to wake up with regrets. “I thought you didn’t do one-night stands.”
“I don’t, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, doesn’t it? I want to take that step with you.” Grace trailed a fingertip along the opening of Dakota’s shirt. “Why don’t we start with tonight and work on tomorrow when it comes?”
Dakota stilled Grace’s hand before the tantalizing movements made her come on the spot. “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Do you remember the effect you had on me during our fitting?” Grace’s eyes darkened, letting Dakota know she remembered all too well. “I will leave with you right now, no questions asked, if I get to measure you.”
Grace drained her drink and set her empty cup on the bar. “What are we waiting for?”
They took a cab to Greenwich Village. After Dakota paid the fare, they slid out of the car and began to climb the three flights of stairs that led to Dakota’s apartment. The trip took an unplanned detour at the top of the first landing when Grace pushed Dakota into a corner, grabbed her by her lapels, and said, “I can’t take another step until I kiss you.”
Grace moved toward her and kept coming until their bodies touched up and down. The contact brought back memories of the moment they had shared in Central Park, but the kiss Grace pressed to her lips made the previous one seem like an innocuous peck on the cheek. When Grace’s mouth met hers, Dakota didn’t sense hesitation this time. Only desire.
The kiss was sweet at first. Soft and warm like a freshly lit fire just beginning to take hold. Then it took a sexy turn that Dakota wasn’t expecting. Not so soon. Grace captured Dakota’s lower lip between her teeth and drew it into her mouth. The spike of pain, followed by the gentle, soothing pressure, made Dakota’s adrenaline surge. When Grace slid her fingers in gentle circles over the sensitive spot on the nape of Dakota’s neck while she stroked Dakota’s throbbing lip with the tip of her tongue, Dakota wanted to hike up the hem of Grace’s dress and take her right there in the stairwell.
She gently pushed Grace away before she lost all sense of propriety. Then she took Grace by the hand. “Upstairs,” she said with a growing sense of urgency. “Now.”
The climb was a workout on most days, but Dakota doubted the exertion was the reason she felt breathless as she unlocked her apartment door and ushered Grace inside. The rules of etiquette dictated she should show Grace around the place and offer her a drink before or after the grand tour, but she decided to throw the rules out the window. She and Grace fell on each other the instant she closed the door behind them.
As Dakota explored Grace’s mouth with her tongue, Grace slid Dakota’s suit jacket off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. Even though it was no longer fashionable to do so, Dakota always tucked the hem of her dress shirts into her pants because it made her feel more dressed up, not like she woke up, threw something on, and walked out the door without bothering to comb her hair or brush her teeth.
Grace tugged at Dakota’s shirt
until the hem pulled free. Grace let the shirt fall open, but she didn’t remove it. She reached into the opening and slipped her hands inside. Teasing, touching, exploring, but not uncovering. Dakota leaned against the door and closed her eyes as Grace’s hands slowly slid across her skin. The first time she’d had sex with a woman, it had been as fast and furious as the movie of the same name. This was different. Slow. Deliberate. Like torture, but in the very best way.
“Whitney was right,” Grace whispered as she cupped Dakota’s breasts in her hands. “This really is the best of both worlds.”
“Fuck.” Dakota arched her back when Grace pinched her nipples. The pressure, bordering on the edge of pain, was exquisite.
“Does that feel good?” Grace asked as she nuzzled the side of Dakota’s neck.
“What do you think?”
Grace unbuckled Dakota’s belt, unbuttoned her pants, and yanked her zipper down. Then she reached inside the fly of Dakota’s boxer briefs. Dakota gritted her teeth when Grace slid her fingers through her wetness. And when Grace trapped her swollen clit between two fingers, Dakota nearly came apart. “I think,” Grace said, painting a line of kisses along Dakota’s collarbone, “you got started without me.”
“Let’s see what I can do to get you caught up.” Grace squealed in surprise when Dakota lifted her off the floor. She kicked off her shoes and wrapped her legs around Dakota’s waist as Dakota carried her to the bedroom. Dakota gently placed Grace on the bed and lay on top of her. After Grace hooked her leg around hers to draw her closer, Dakota licked her lips in anticipation of what was about to happen.
“I hate to horn in,” Dakota heard someone say, “but I figured I’d better make my presence known before things got too hot and heavy in here.”
“Fuck!”
Startled by the intruder, Dakota and Grace leaped off the bed. While Grace held a death grip on her sides, Dakota grabbed the Louisville Slugger leaning in a corner and brandished the bat as a weapon.
“Wait a second, Dakota,” her unexpected visitor said. “Calm down. It’s me, Brooke.”
Dakota thought she was imagining things until she saw that her sister really was standing in her doorway instead of cooling her heels in Richmond Hill while she decided who should sit next to whom at her wedding reception. She lowered the bat, then turned to make sure Grace was okay. Grace nodded to indicate she was fine. She seemed shaken up and more than a little mortified by being seen in such an intimate position by a stranger. Both reasonable reactions.
“I’m sorry,” Dakota said in a whisper.
Grace shook her head. “Not your fault.”
Dakota turned to face her sister. “What are you doing here, Brooke?” she asked while she buttoned her shirt and fastened her pants. “And how did you get in here in the first place?”
“It’s good to see you, too, big sister.” Brooke turned her back while Dakota and Grace pulled themselves together. “I told your building superintendent I was planning a surprise party for you and I convinced him to let me in. I’ve been making myself comfortable in Rich’s room while I waited for you to come home, but it looks like the surprise was on me.” She peeked over her shoulder to check Dakota and Grace’s progress. She turned to face them again when she saw they were done. “Are you going to introduce me, or would you rather I do it myself?”
Dakota wanted to hit rewind rather than provide introductions, but she forced herself to remember her manners. “Brooke, this is my friend Grace. Grace, this is my sister Brooke.”
“Congratulations on your upcoming wedding,” Grace said.
“Thank you,” Brooke said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t have met under different circumstances, but I was born two weeks late and my timing’s been lousy ever since.”
“No need to apologize.” Grace smoothed her dress with the heels of her hands. Dakota admired Grace’s composure. She didn’t know how Grace managed to remain so dignified despite the two of them having been caught in the act like a couple of randy teenagers making out in the backseat of a car on lovers’ lane. “How long will you be in town?”
“Actually, I haven’t decided yet.” Brooke reached into the hall and dragged a large rolling suitcase into the room. “That depends on how long Dakota lets me stay.”
Dakota felt the faint stirrings of alarm. She was the impulsive one in the family. Brooke was the one who always planned things out months in advance. For Brooke to make a pilgrimage to New York on the spur of the moment with what looked like several weeks’ worth of clothes in tow meant something was wrong. Terribly wrong. “What’s going on, B?”
Brooke’s blue eyes, normally so bright, lacked their usual luster. “It’s…complicated.”
Grace gently cleared her throat. “You two obviously have a great deal to talk about, so I’ll let you get to it.”
“Grace, wait.” Dakota trailed her to the living room. “Let me walk you to the subway.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Grace stepped into her shoes, grabbed her purse off the table in the entryway, and touched up her lipstick in the mirror next to the door. “I think I can find the way.”
“But—”
“Stop.” Grace put a finger on her lips. “All I want to do right now is get out of here, but it has nothing to do with you. This isn’t good-bye. It’s to be continued. I wanted tonight to happen as much as you did, but your sister obviously needs you more than I do. Go to her. Be there for her. I’ll still be here when you’re done.” She flashed an embarrassed grin. “Next time, let’s make sure we check the apartment first to make sure we’re alone.”
“Good idea.” Dakota was relieved to hear that the interruption hadn’t managed to change Grace’s mind about the reason they had come here tonight.
“You missed a button.”
Dakota looked down to see one side of her shirt was significantly higher than the other. She unbuttoned her shirt and started over. “Yeah, well, I never learned to dress myself.”
“Apparently not. Come by the office on Monday. You’ve lost some weight since our initial fitting. I think I need to adjust my numbers before I start making your suit.”
“Okay. I’ll stop by at lunch.” Dakota opened the door and leaned against the jamb. “May I call you tomorrow?”
“You’d better.” Grace wiped her lipstick off Dakota’s mouth with her thumb. “That Southern tongue of yours is more talented than you let on. I want to see what else it can do.”
And Dakota couldn’t wait to show her. But first she had to find out why Brooke had decided to hop on a plane and fly several hundred miles without telling her she was coming.
“Okay, little sister,” she said once she and Brooke were alone. “What did you do this time?”
* * *
Grace’s phone rang as soon as she reached the street. Confident it was Dakota on the line, she accepted the incoming call and put her earbuds in without bothering to check the phone’s display. “Is it tomorrow already?”
“What in the world are you babbling about?” Faith asked.
Grace fought down a pang of disappointment not quite as acute as the one she had felt when Dakota’s sister made her presence known a few minutes ago, but close. She had wanted to crawl into a hole when Brooke had walked in on her and Dakota making out on the bed. She didn’t know how she had managed to hold what she hoped passed for a semi-intelligent conversation with Brooke after that. All the comportment lessons her mother had given her and her sisters over the years must have finally taken hold.
Thank God I was paying attention.
Dakota and Brooke sounded a lot alike, but they didn’t have much of a family resemblance. Brooke was attractive in a Southern belle kind of way, but she obviously looked like one parent and Dakota another. It was the same way in her family. Hope and Faith both took after their father while she bore the most resemblance to their mother.
“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you were someone else.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I didn’t think you meant to use yo
ur sexy voice on me.”
“I don’t have a sexy voice.”
“No, you don’t, but that was a nice try.”
“Whatever.” The word had already spilled out before Grace remembered Dakota had used the same one to describe her preferred pronoun. Dakota’s gender might be fluid, but her body had felt oh-so-solid as she writhed under Grace’s touch, then settled her weight on her.
“Where are you?”
“Greenwich Village.” Grace paused to window shop at a store that sold vintage clothing. The store was closed, but she vowed to make a return trip to buy the colorful Pucci sheath that caught her eye—and to finish what she and Dakota had started tonight.
“But I thought the art exhibit Lynette dragged you to was in SoHo.”
“It was.”
When Faith had stopped her on her way out of the house to ask why she was wearing one of her best dresses, Grace had said Lynette had wrangled an invitation to a gallery show. Even though Lynette had provided the RSVP, the invitation had been extended to her. Grace wished she had been more forthcoming about her plans for the evening, but she hadn’t wanted to deal with any of Faith’s inevitable follow-up questions. Would she ever be able to stop treating Dakota like a dirty little secret, or was this the way things would always be? Subterfuge was exciting in the short term, but it often proved tiresome in the end. She wanted Dakota, but she wanted a relationship more, and Dakota had professed to having an aversion to those. Perhaps it was a good thing Brooke had arrived when she did. She might have prevented Grace from making a big mistake. An exciting and incredibly sexy mistake, but a mistake nevertheless.
“So what are you doing in—Ah, I see. Dakota lives in Greenwich Village, doesn’t she?”
“How do you know that?”
“I think I read that in People. Or was it Us Weekly? Anyway, did she show you a good time? And more importantly, is it bigger than a breadstick?”
Tailor-Made Page 17
