His Grace

by Aya DeAniege

  “Grace!” the floor manager snapped.

  I slipped my phone into my pocket and turned to him, making a little sound at the back of my throat.

  “What?” I asked. “You want me to blow you too?”

  “I expect that kind of lip from the others, but from you?”

  “Well, given the fact that today I found out that I’m called the nun, and you’ve already accused me of drinking on the job?” I snapped, turning on him. “You can all go fuck yourselves. I’m here for my pay. I’m here to serve customers and do my job. I’m not here for niceties.”

  “Don’t need to be a bitch about it.”

  The entire kitchen went still.

  A kitchen never went still.

  I looked around the kitchen, then to the floor manager.

  “Better a bitch than your whore,” I said, then shoved my way past the floor manager and back to where I belonged.

  I finished with my tables, I cleared my money, and then left the restaurant, absolutely pissed. Still angry, still annoyed. Then I looked down and registered what I had in my pockets.

  More tips than I had had in months, and my phone.

  I had gotten better tips because I had been in a good mood. Because Sam was distracting me and for the first time in a really long time, it wasn’t just a job. It wasn’t just life. I had something to look forward to that wasn’t watching a television show or eating ice cream.

  As I reached for my phone a car door opened and someone walked toward me. I slipped the phone away without checking my surroundings.

  I didn’t think I’d get robbed, by why risk it?

  I looked up and made eye contact with the person walking toward me.

  “Sam,” I gasped out.

  He smiled at me slowly. “Busy night?”

  “Uh, why are you here?”

  “You told me when you got off, I assumed that was because you wanted me to pick you up for our date,” he said. “I also assume you’d like to shower and change as most women do after work and before a date, but that’s fine with me. I have two options for you. The first being that I drive you home and you shower there and change into whatever you please.”

  “And the second?” I asked.

  “Why date a rich man if you can’t experience the pleasures in life once in a while?” he asked.

  “Because there’s always a price to everything.”

  “I have waterfall shower,” he responded steadily. “You look stressed. I will not push the issue, but I think my shower with just the perfect amount of pressure would help ease your tension.”

  “I haven’t got any clothes at your place,” I said.

  “No, again, two options. Well, three I suppose. The first is that we could stop by your place and pick up a dress, or you could use your tip money from tonight to buy a dress. Or, I’ve got a dress that I may or may not have bought today because I thought you would look pretty in it.”

  Say yes.

  I should have said no, but as I opened my mouth to decline, the floor manager came out of the restaurant.

  “Grace,” he snapped as I turned toward him. “Good, I caught you. You ever come to work drunk again. I’ll fire your ass and call the cops, have you arrested for trespassing and then have you sober up in a drunk tank. Don’t you ever come in on my floor and act like that again.”

  Then he spotted Sam and frowned.

  As the cook came out of the restaurant, mouth open and hand out. Probably because he had just heard what the floor manager was about to do and came out to stop him. His eyes fell on Sam, and then he stiffened and made a little motion with his hand as if he could stop the floor manager from speaking.

  “What the fuck are you looking at?” the floor manager shouted.

  Sam looked up at the building, to the floor manager, then pulled out his phone. He had an annoyed sort of look on his face as he dialed a number. It was that look, the one of someone who was pissed off but knew they could make someone’s life a living hell.

  The phone went to his ear, and he looked the floor manager up and down. It was the sort of look that I half expected to be accompanied with the verbal, ‘bitch, I’m going to take you down.’

  He was silent for a moment, then lifted his head as if the other side of the call had been picked up.

  “Yes, this is Sam Angelica, I believe I’m standing outside one of my investments. I don’t know, I don’t want to say it, it’s such a run-down place, here let me send you a picture,” he took the picture and then put it to his ear. “Yes, that one. It’s not mine? Fine, buy it. There’s a man here,” he then proceeded to take the floor managers image and put the phone back to his ear. “I just came across him assaulting one of the employees, he then turned on me and assaulted me verbally. If this is how he behaves toward possible customers, I want him fired and blacklisted from anything that I invest in. Yes, yes, fantastic. Make it so.”

  Sam slipped his phone into his pocket.

  Yes, that was definitely some kind of overstepping of bounds, but it was satisfying at the same time. The floor manager hadn’t quite managed to catch up to what Sam had said yet.

  Sam studied the floor manager for a moment, then turned to me.

  “Grace, please allow me to see you safely home,” Sam said quietly, holding his hand out to me.

  I reached out and took his hand, allowing him to pull me to the car and then to slip into the car beside me. The door closed before I turned to him stiffly.

  His phone went off with that same sound from the cafe, the weird two trill thing that sent a shudder through me.

  He pulled out his phone, sighing and shaking his head before putting it to his ear.

  “Gabe, I have an infestation it seems. I need you to leave the club in the hands of others and fix it for me, please. No, take them too. Tell Mike whatever is necessary, understand? I need this cleaned up by morning. No, I’m busy. No, Gabe. Gabe. I’m with Grace. Yes, like I said. Of course, keep me updated.”

  The phone went away, and Sam took a moment to compose himself before he turned to me.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yes, and I’m not drunk,” I said.

  He pulled away slightly, eyebrows drawing down just slightly as he studied me. Same forced himself to relax and gave his head a little shake.

  “I never said you were, nor would I. Those who might not know the difference between happiness and drunkenness obviously have their hearts it the wrong place, or are trying to hide something of their own. But you’re all right, you’re certain?”

  “Yes, just, upset. He’s always been pushy, but nothing like that.”

  “Some people just snap,” Sam said, settling an arm around my shoulders. “How about I take you to Lilly? You’re probably shaken up after that.”

  “No, she’s out tonight, she always is,” I said.

  “Well, I’d rather not leave you alone. I’m guessing you have the night free because you were going to spend it with me.”

  “We can still spend it together,” I said. “Just because he’s a jerk, doesn’t mean that I can’t go have fun. Though, I’m not feeling like going to another restaurant.”

  I didn’t want to see people. I just wanted to be alone, or almost alone.

  “That’s fair enough,” Sam said. “I can’t imagine spending the whole day where you work, then going to the same place after work, would be very fun. But what can we do instead?”

  I glanced up at the driver, then to Sam.

  “Well, since my last text, I’ve been thinking.”

  “The last thing I got from you was you going down on your knees,” Sam said.

  I pulled out my phone and looked. My last text was still there, saved as a draft but not sent. I grimaced but showed Sam my screen.

  “Mm,” he said in response. “I’d strongly encourage that. You know, that shower of mine? Has a little wand, a moveable head to rinse your back. The few women I’ve had over swear by it.”

  “Swear by what?” I asked.
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br />   “By its tenacity,” he said.

  By the tenacity of a wand? I frowned at Sam, not quite understanding. Then I realized what he meant and shook my head, giving the only verbal response that I could come up with.

  “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t you see to that?” I asked.

  “Well, yes. But the women I take back to my place are usually the type who might be classified as nymphomaniacs,” Sam said. “They’re just never satisfied.”

  “So…” I tried not to laugh as I turned to him. “Are you telling me that you’ve never satisfied a woman?”

  “That sounds like you’re challenging me,” he said.

  “Maybe I am.”

  Sam had pulled out his phone as I spoke. He frowned at his phone, then seemed to look up at the driver. The screen of his phone was dark. I knew that he didn’t have that look on his face because of a text that he had received. Slowly, Sam turned to me.

  His eyes flowed down my form, then back up and locked with mine.

  And I knew I was in trouble.

  But it’d be so fun.

  I stepped into my bathroom with Grace right behind me. Moving to the side, I motioned around as Grace’s eyes went wide. She turned stiffly to me, her eyes still wide. She motioned around the bathroom with a finger.

  “Wow,” she said finally, hugging herself as she became tense. “Wow, really?”

  I didn’t understand why she had made that motion. The bathroom was very large. As I considered that fact, it dawned on me that my bathroom could very well be larger than her apartment. The idea of that made me feel self-conscious, like I was a bad man for having such a large bathroom when I worked a quarter as much as she did.

  Grace worked constantly, she put her all into everything, and her apartment could very well have been smaller than my bathroom.

  Know how I closed my last business deal? By golfing. It wasn’t straining in the least.

  But I couldn’t allow that to change how I reacted. Grace would see the awkward hesitance, but not understand why I was feeling out of place in my own home.

  I shrugged a little. “I like space.”

  “Why?” Grace asked. “You got wings under there or something?”

  Say yes.

  And then she went bright red. I frowned at her, wondering if Lilly had told her something. As I frowned at her, she glared down at her feet, that red taking over her to the point that I could see it in the line of the part in her hair. I heard her mutter something, but didn’t catch the words.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s something Toby said I should say,” Grace said glumly.

  “He told you to suggest that I have wings?” I asked.

  “Because you must have fallen from Heaven,” she said to her feet.

  A dreaded cold flowed through me, then, as Grace looked up and away, I realized that she didn’t know. She wasn’t trying to make sly comments or let me know that she knew my history.

  She was hitting on me.

  “Well, only an angel could recognize another angel,” I said.

  Her blush turned to startled embarrassment. She met my eyes for a moment, then away again. I slipped up beside her, my arms wrapping around her as she lowered her head, which placed her forehead against my chest. I dared to lower my head and kiss the top of her head.

  “I couldn’t help myself,” I murmured. “You left yourself wide open.”

  I raised her face upward and kissed her. As we kissed, I reached for her shirt, unbuttoning it. Slowly, steadily, I popped one open, then grazed my fingers over the flush skin that was revealed. I tried to pay attention to both that and what my lips were doing, but the sensation of her under my fingers was nearly overwhelming.

  That same electric spark of the first night crackled along my nerves.

  As her shirt fell open, I slipped my hands under the fabric, feeling her stomach, down her sides, and then up to that lace bra she had worn the night before. I broke the kiss off, pressing our foreheads together with a small smile.

  Her skin was flush with need. Reaching up, I brushed my hand over the side of her face, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. I pulled away and looked down at her chest and stomach. Making a sound, I met her eyes once more. Grace looked away, that blush coming back to her cheeks.

  “I’m just wondering what to do first,” I said.

  Kiss her, hands on. Skip the shower and throw her in bed. That’s what I wanted to do, but there was that little voice at the back of my mind.

  Enjoy her while you can.

  In our lives, time with a lover was fleeting. While they would grow old and die, we would remain. I wanted to be overly eager, but at the same time, I wanted to take every second I could with her, to take my time and enjoy every bit of Grace’s flesh.

  I found myself realizing that I was like a dog with a squirrel. I had caught my prize but didn’t know what I should do with her now that I had her in my hands. It was normally a straightforward process. Find a woman, let her body lead me to the point.

  I found myself wondering what I wanted to do first. I was wondering it, thinking about it.

  “Well, while you wonder, I’d like that shower,” she said, moving away from me. “Do you mind?”

  She wants to shower alone.

  I wouldn’t allow that to happen unless she outright told me no. The response that I should have had to her words was clear, even to someone who was as out of the loop as I was.

  “No, not at all,” I said, reaching for my tie.

  We both stripped. I said nothing about it. I didn’t make any suggestion as to what I was planning on doing. Like trying to draw in a frightened animal. She was in the shower first, playing with the taps to get the perfect temperature. I stepped up behind her and reached around, warming it to just a little hotter than I liked.

  Women were always cold, right?

  I smelled her hair as the water rained down on us, taking in the last of her scent before the water washed it away. With our bodies close together, it was difficult to ignore the reaction of my body to hers. I kissed the side of her head, then her neck, turning her until she was facing me.

  We stared at one another for a moment.

  She wasn’t possessed, and we had just met. There was no reason for this to happen. I should have broken it off, taunted her a little as we washed. That was how things should have gone because she’d appreciate it a great deal more.

  But as I ran my fingers across her cheekbone, I found the thought of resisting fading away. I kissed the tip of her nose, meaning only to be cute, to do something adorable for her to think fondly of later on.

  Pulling my lips away, I watched Grace tilt her head back, and I couldn’t fight that urge.

  Our lips locked, tongues exploring one another’s mouths as I pushed her against the shower wall.

  That pushed her out of the hot water, leaving it streaming down my back as I pushed up against her, spreading her legs with my knee. I ran my hands down her wet arms, watching her shiver.

  Grace opened her mouth, possibly to protest, but I didn’t give her the chance to make an excuse.

  I leaned in and nipped her bottom lip, taking it between my teeth and biting down just enough to make her gasp. Then I released it, kissing the abused flesh, flicking my tongue over her lower lip. We kissed again, the tingling becoming stronger.

  She stiffened, pressing against the tiled wall as if that would put distance between us.

  “What?” I said.

  “I’m not,” she sucked in a breath.

  “Not this kind of girl?” I asked.

  She gave me an annoyed look. That was the annoyed woman look.

  Perhaps she thought that I was judging her based on her sleeping with the others. It was a fair enough thought, but she hadn’t slept with them because she was that kind of girl.

  “I’m not on any birth control, and there’s enough thought in my head to stop this time,” she said.

  “Ouch,” I said with a shake of my head.
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br />   She shouldn’t be able to resist.

  “No, I mean,” she shrugged and looked away.

  “With them, you weren’t naked, you didn’t take the time to think,” I responded because it had happened to us before. “I get it, but you don’t think a bunch of men who sleep with women at my club wouldn’t carry condoms if they didn’t have another solution?”

  Grace blushed again.

  “There’s a male contraceptive, it is a hundred percent effective, but not technically legal,” I responded. “You don’t have to worry about pregnancy. Now, if you’re worried about the fact that we might have had a lot of partners and carry something, I could get a condom. Or…”

  I grabbed the wand off the wall and slipped it between her legs. Grace looked down at it, then up at me, an eyebrow raising slightly. When I turned it on, she jumped, her hands grabbing my shoulders, nails digging in.

  Thank goodness she didn’t have long nails, but it still hurt.

  She moved and writhed as the water thrust at her relentlessly. When her mouth opened in surprise, I leaned forward and captured her lips. Grace moaned as I moved the wand. Back and forth, with each stroke of the water from the wand, the tremble in Grace grew a little more. She was pressed tight against the wall, tension vibrating through every part of her.

  I kissed her again when she opened her mouth.

  My tongue thrust into her mouth, I pushed tight against her, moving the wand out of the way. Letting it hang to the side, I grabbed her hips and lifted her. With the wall to her back, I slipped between Grace’s legs.

  There was no denying my need to possess this woman. I ground my hips against her as she made a little sound. The taste of her on my lips, the smell of her skin after the water had washed away the smell of the restaurant, filled me with a flaming desire that I could not deny.

  My hands firmly on her hips, I lifted Grace just slightly, then pulled her down. She made a little sound as I slipped into her, gliding between her legs and spearing her to her very core. Buried within her, I raised my hand and braced it on the cold tile of the shower. I needed that cold, to offset the heat of her body tight against mine.

  We were both panting, her skin glistening with sweat as our eyes locked. It seemed to dawn on us both at the same time, just what position we were in.