She shoved her hands in her back pockets and her frown deepened. “Oh, okay.”
“What is it?”
She removed her hands from her pockets and dashed to the front door. “Never mind,” she mumbled, reaching for the knob.
“No, wait.” Grady jumped from the sofa and slapped his thick hand on the door, stopping her. “What were you going to say?”
She nervously appraised his wide, muscular chest and then her eyes rose to his face. “Last night you said you thought I had condescending eyes. Did you mean that? Do you think I look at you that way?”
Grady’s body sagged a little, but he kept his hand on the door, never moving away from her. “No, of course not. I was drunk, Allison. I said a lot of stupid things.”
“People usually say what they mean when they’re drunk.”
He studied the creaminess of her skin, and without thinking, gathered up a tendril of her long blonde hair. The silkiness of her hair amazed him. He had never known anything could feel so soft.
“From the moment we met, I have felt like I was never good enough for you. You always seemed so … disappointed when you looked at me. That was until the other day in the car, when I kissed you. It was the first time I knew you wanted me as much as I wanted you.”
Her frown was back, and so was the anger in her eyes. “You’re a tenant, Grady. We can’t get involved.”
“Because of those stupid rules of yours?”
She grabbed for the doorknob. “No, because in four months you’ll be gone.”
He held the door, keeping her from opening it. “I won’t be gone.”
Al arched one eyebrow at him. “You won’t?”
“I’ve been offered a permanent job dancing at the club, but I think I may give finance another go. See if I can find a job here in New Orleans.” He lowered his head to her. “However, that would all depend on ….”
Al did not retreat when he inched closer. “On what?” she softly implored.
He smiled, his lips closing in on hers. “You.”
She angrily pushed him away. “What about that comment about me being afraid of letting someone in my life? Do you still believe that?”
He shook his head. “No. I was drunk and I was … jealous.”
“Of Geoff?” She sucked in an uneasy breath. “He told me you went to his office. He believes you’re out to blackmail both of us.”
Grady apprehensively searched her features. “You know I would never do that to you.”
Al dropped her eyes. “Last night, you said … you said your life was fine until you came here and met me. Is that true?”
Grady had to stop and think for a moment. “Did I say that?”
“Right after you called Geoff a pompous peacock.”
He leveled his eyes on her. “He is, you know?”
“I know. I also knew he was married when we started, but I could never ask him to leave his wife and daughters.”
“Why not?”
Al sighed and lowered her head. “Because I know how it feels to have your father walk out on you. I didn’t want to cause his daughters that kind of pain.”
Grady set his hand beneath her chin and lifted her eyes to him. “He should never have put you in that position. If he loved you, he would have left them.” He paused. “Do you love him?”
“No.” She slapped away his hand.
Grady put his hands on the door behind her, trapping her inside of his arms. “Then why stay with him?”
Her eyes tore into him. “Because he doesn’t complicate my life.”
Grady smirked, happy to get a rise out of her. “And I do? Is that it?”
Al lightly punched his chest. “Yes.”
“Good,” Grady whispered, right before he kissed her.
It was the softness of her lips that first shocked him. He had never kissed such soft lips and wondered why she tasted so much better than every other woman he had known. Then, as he wrapped his arms around her, the fragility of her tiny figure inflamed his desire. His kiss became more frenzied as his hands began to roam up and down her back. When his mouth slid down her chin and nipped along her neck, Al tipped her head back.
“This isn’t why I came to see you, Grady.”
“Why did you come?”
She ran her hands up his wide chest. “I was worried about you. Worried about what you thought of me after seeing Geoff. I didn’t want you to think—”
He gripped her small bottom and lifted her from the floor. “You know what I think?”
She slipped her arms around his neck. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“I think I really need to show you my bedroom.”
“I’ve seen your bedroom before, Grady.”
“Yeah, but have you ever slept in it?”
She peered into his eyes. “If we do this, it can only be for tonight.”
He held her close. “What if I want more?”
Al kicked off her flip-flops and hooked her legs around his hips. “Why don’t we just see how tonight goes?”
He carried her to the open bedroom door. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on a guy.”
“I want to see how you perform under pressure,” she giggled against his neck.
“I like the sound of that.” He hurriedly carried her into the bedroom, and then he fell with her in his arms on the large sleigh bed.
“The sound of what?”
Grady reached for her T-shirt. “The sound of your laugh.” He lifted her shirt over her head and his hands eagerly stroked the soft skin on her stomach and chest. “The first time I heard you giggle like that you were with Geoff, and it infuriated me.”
He kissed her stomach while he unclasped her bra. Just when he was about to slip the bra from her shoulders, his sore pinkie caught in the blue comforter.
“Damn it,” he cried out, yanking his hand back.
She sat up and examined his finger. “You should have it taped.”
He traced the outline of her slender shoulders with his left hand. “Later.” He eased the bra from her body and then tossed it to the floor.
Caressing her right breast, he kissed her nipple and then grazed it with his teeth. Moaning, Al raked her fingers through his hair. Insistently, she tugged at his sweaty T-shirt, and Grady lifted his arms to help her. After wrestling off his shirt, Al threw it over the edge of the bed. Her fingertips glided over his tanned chest and abs, making Grady tremble. She gently worked her way down to the crotch of his jeans. Cupping her hand against his erection, she nipped at his neck.
“Take off those pants. I want to see all of you,” she breathlessly begged.
Standing from the bed, Grady hurriedly wiggled out of his jeans and briefs. After dropping his clothes to the floor, he was about to climb back on the bed when Al stopped him.
“No, let me look at you.”
Her eyes slowly traversed every contour of his thick shoulders, carved chest, and washboard abs. When her line of sight settled over his erection, that sly smile he adored curled the edges of her pink lips.
“You are a beautiful man,” she professed in a voice just above a whisper.
For all the hours he had spent on the stage, dancing for women, it was the first time he actually felt sexy, and not ashamed of a woman’s lustful gaze.
“I like hearing you say that.”
He could feel himself getting harder just by looking at that damned smile of hers. Anxious to hold her, he was about to climb back on the bed when he remembered the condoms in his wallet. While he was reaching for his pants, Al sat up.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting condoms.” He opened his wallet and selected two foil packets.
Al tilted her head to the side, watching him. “Do you always carry condoms around in your wallet?”
Grady frowned at her, perplexed by the question. “Of course.”
“Are you one of those men who has a girl in every town?”
Grady dropped his wallet to the floor and came back to the bed.
He placed the condoms on his bedside table. “After Emma, it was a real long time before I was even with another woman. The few one-night stands I did have only made me want a relationship even more.”
She lay back in the bed. “Were they all like Cathy?”
He sat on the bed and ran his fingers along the curve of her slim waist. “In a way. They were all women who wanted me more than I wanted them, but none of them ever intrigued me like you. From the moment I met you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
“Ever since I saw you dancing in that club,” she murmured into his chest as his fingers unzipped her jeans, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, either.”
Grady gripped the sides of her jeans and eased them down her hips. “Did I turn you on, Allison?” He shoved her jeans away, dropping them over the edge of the bed.
“I hate to admit it, but yes.”
He reached inside the waistband of her white cotton panties. “Why do you hate to admit that?” He hooked his fingers along the edge of her panties and slowly worked them down her legs. When she was finally naked, he delighted in her creamy white skin, the slender muscles in her thighs, and the curve of her narrow hips.
“I was convinced that wanting a man was wrong. I thought it made me weak.”
Grady dipped his hand between her legs. “Still feel you don’t want a man?”
“The only man I want right now is you,” she breathed.
He tempted her folds, relishing her wet flesh. “After tonight, I promise you’ll never want anyone else.”
Al gripped his shoulder, bracing against the storm of sensations he was creating with his fingers. She opened her legs wider for him and moaned when he slid inside of her. As he slowly eased in and out, his thumb brushed against her clit.
She bit into his shoulder, arching into his chest. “You’re killing me.”
She was so sensitive to his touch. Grady found her irresistible like this. Raising her knees, he lowered his head between her legs, anxious to taste her, desperate to make her scream. When his tongue first lapped against her clit, she shuddered in his hands. As he clamped his mouth over her, she bucked against the bed and cried out.
He wanted to please her, wanted to make her come again and again. When he felt her body tensing as his tongue mercilessly circled around her clit, he anxiously waited for her to let go. As she rocked her head back and her delicious scream pierced the air, Grady nipped her clit with his teeth, heightening her climax.
After she fell back against the bed, panting and spent, he began tormenting her all over again. She was begging for him to stop when she screamed again, her wetness spilling out onto him. He eased his fingers into her, massaging that delicious spot inside of her with hard, fast strokes. Her body was quivering uncontrollably, and he knew she was ready for him.
Reaching to the nightstand for a condom package, he kneeled between her legs. Al sat up and took the condom from him.
“It’s my turn to torture you.”
Ripping the condom package open with her teeth, she smiled at him as she slid the latex condom into her mouth. When she lowered her mouth over his erection, Grady gasped.
Her mouth was better than anything he had known. She sucked him hard, teasing his tip with her tongue and then taking his cock all the way to the back of her throat. When he could feel his orgasm rising, she deftly slid the condom over his erection with her tongue.
Damn, this woman is like no other.
“I can’t wait anymore,” she whispered, guiding him on top of her. “I need you inside of me.”
He kissed her neck. “I like it when you’re impatient for me.”
“Just fuck me, Grady.”
Kissing her lips, he placed her legs around his hips. Grady lifted Al’s slim hips to his and spread her folds apart with his left hand. When he pushed into her, Grady moaned as her flesh enveloped him. He pushed deep inside her, and then slowly pulled out.
“Yes. Go deeper,” Al cried out.
Grady thrust into her slender hips again, and his body exploded with pleasure. As he moved deeper, Al’s grip on his shoulders tightened.
Spurred on by her excitement, he shifted his hips slightly and rammed into her, harder than before. She mewed with pleasure, and he repeated his deep, forceful penetrations.
“Grady,” Al screamed, and then she arched backward in his arms.
She bucked against him when her orgasm peaked, but Grady fought to maintain control over his urge to come, wanting to bring her to the heights of ecstasy again. She relaxed, but then he changed his rhythm. He began using short, fast thrusts to excite her. Al’s nails dug into his firm, round ass, begging him to go deeper, but Grady ignored her demands. She raised her hips higher, wanting more of him, but he kept up his quick, shallow movements until her body trembled with the anticipation of her climax. When she finally rolled her head back and screamed, Grady finally drove himself all the way into her. The eruption of release that overtook him was unlike anything he had known. He bit into her neck, straining to stay upright until the last vestiges of desire drained from him.
Panting into the recesses of her neck, Grady felt her hand gently caress his cheek.
“I’ve forgotten what it was like to ….” Her voice stilled.
“To what?” Grady insisted.
She sighed and lowered her hand from his cheek. “To enjoy myself with a man.”
He nestled against her side, intrigued by her statement. “You don’t enjoy being with Geoff?”
“It was never … that great between us. I thought maybe it was me, but now after being with you, I know it was him.”
“Of course it was him. You’re a beautiful, vibrant woman, who is sexy as hell and needs a man who knows how to please you.”
“Sexy?” she giggled. “Hardly. My sexy days are far behind me.”
“You make it sound like you’re ancient.”
“Well, I’m a good bit older than you.” She nestled her head into the curve of his neck.
“I could care less how old you are, Allison.”
“For now.”
He nuzzled against her cheek. “Your age is irrelevant. Now, or twenty years from now.”
She did not argue, but quietly settled against him.
Holding her in his arms, Grady felt complete. It was the first time since his marriage that he had been so comfortable with a woman. He knew then that he would never leave New Orleans. Wherever Al was, he would be. He would do whatever it took to stay with her, even continue dancing.
“You’re very quiet,” he mumbled into her hair.
“I was just wondering,” she remarked, as her hand began to stroke his chest.
“Hmm, what is that?”
She eased back on the bed, smiling. “How many more condoms do you have in your wallet?”
* * *
Grady awoke to find Al still sleeping soundly in his arms. They lay beneath the blue comforter of his sleigh bed as the sun streamed through his bedroom window. In the distance, he could just make out the rumblings of the city. He gazed down at her face resting against his shoulder and marveled at the delicate curve of her jaw and the way her nose slightly turned up at the tip. He inspected her long, light brown eyelashes, ran his fingers over her silky blonde hair, and finally stroked the creamy skin on her cheek. All the features he had long admired on many different women were all rolled up in one package with her. Her fragile looks, her slim body, and her sharp mind were everything he had always wanted.
Glimpsing the three empty condom packages on his night table, he reflected on their frenzied lovemaking. Grady found it amazing how she had taken control in bed at times, being the demanding and relentless lover he had fantasized about but never expected to actually meet. Here was a woman with every quality he had wished for. In the depths of his soul, he questioned how in the hell was he going to be able to hold on to her.
Al stirred next to him, and he smiled when her gray eyes opened.
“What t
ime is it?” she mumbled, stretching.
He checked his stainless watch on the night table. “A little after eight.”
She rubbed her hand over her eyes and sat up. “How long have you been up?”
He traced his fingers down her back, following the outline of the sleek muscles. “Not long.”
She turned to him and kissed his lips. “I’m hungry.”
“I don’t have much here,” he admitted. “We could go out for breakfast.”
“I’d like that.”
He reached around her shoulders and eased her body back against him. “We could even make a day of it,” he added, kissing her ear. “You and me, having a day on the town. What do you say?”
Her hands held on to his thick arm draped across her chest. “You don’t have to do this, Grady. If last night was all you can give me, then I am okay with that. I never expected—”
“How could you think I’d ever be satisfied after one night with you? You’ll never be free of me, Allison. That’s a promise.” He held her close. “The only question I have is … where would you like to go today?”
She was quiet for a moment as she pondered the question. “You know where I would really like to go with you?”
He held her close. “Where?”
“The zoo,” she announced with a childlike laugh. “I haven’t been there in years. We could just wander around and enjoy the day and the animals.”
“Sounds perfect. I love zoos, and I hear yours is pretty good.”
She cuddled against him. “Audubon Zoo is one of the best in the nation. It wasn’t always that way. When I was a kid, it was a pretty run down place.”
A knock on Grady’s door startled them.
“Who in the hell is that at this hour?” he griped.
Grady climbed from the bed and reached for his jeans on the floor.
“Maybe Cathy has come back to see if you’re fully recovered,” Al taunted from the bed.
He struggled to pull on his jeans and scowled at her. “Very funny.”
The Art of Sin Page 13
