“One more second,” he cut her off.
She heard a pop she recognized as a seatbelt being released. Since she was still firmly secured to her seat, it must have been his. Then she heard a soft click—the headlights being turned off? His fingers ruffled at the back of her head. When he spoke it was right next to her ear.
“Keep your eyes closed. Just for a second.” His arm brushed her stomach as he reached to release her seatbelt.
She did as he asked, kept her eyes clamped tight, breathing in and out slowly to keep her nerves under control. The Jeep was still on and warm air swirled around her. First thing she was going to do was take her jacket off. Unless they were getting out.
The leather of Grayson’s seat squeaked and Jane imagined him shifting behind the wheel. He blew out a breath and said, “Okay, Jane. Look.”
It was her turn to breathe. She slowly cracked first one lid then the other. Her brows furrowed as she stared out the windshield. It was dark, except for the moonlight reflecting off the water of … Redmond Lake.
“You said you’ve never been here to watch the submarine races. I thought it would be fun for us to see how fast those suckers can go.”
Jane laughed a little. She was nervous. She’d never made out with a guy in a car … in the middle of nowhere. “You mean you haven’t ever … watched the … ya know.”
“Jane, I have never kissed—” He paused and turned to look at her. “I don’t think I’ve even kissed a girl here. But I can’t swear to that. I do know that I have never watched the submarine races. There was never anyone—besides you—that I wanted to do that with. Will you—”
She cut him off by launching herself across the console. Her lips crashed into his. Desperation overcame her. She kissed and tasted. His arms wrapped around her and guided her into his lap. She straddled him, her knees on both sides of his thighs, her butt resting on the steering wheel. His big hands rubbed at her rump, both pressing her against him and seriously turning her on.
If she thought she was warm before she was now going to spontaneously combust. She jerked and tugged at her jacket. His eager hands helped peel the heavy coat from her shoulders. Grayson tossed it in the backseat and took her face between his hands. His head angled and his mouth covered hers. His tongue plunged deep into her mouth, giving her an idea of exactly what Grayson had planned. Jane knew it was going to happen right here in the backseat of the Jeep or later in his enormous lodge pole bed, with another part of Grayson’s body making the same motions.
Anticipation made Jane shiver.
“Are you cold?” he asked breathlessly.
“No way.” She reached out and grabbed his vest. With a swift tug the snaps popped giving her access to his flannel shirt. His eyes were hooded as he watched her prepare to unbutton his shirt. It took every ounce of control she had to keep from just yanking it open. As desperate as she was Grayson nearly thrummed under her.
She undid the top button, letting her fingers brush his chest as she moved down to the next. He sucked in a breath, but didn’t react further. Two buttons. Three. And she kept torturing them both until she folded the shirt away, exposing the exquisite muscles of his chest and abdomen. She reached out, letting her fingers stroke the dark hair that dusted his pecs.
He leaned forward to kiss her, trapping her hands between them. His fingers slipped under the hem of her sweater and rubbed at her lower back. They moved forward around her waist and eased up her belly. Cold air hit her stomach and before she could so much as gasp or blink, her sweater was over her head and fluttering to rest in the back seat.
His lips met hers for only a moment before moving to her neck. She tipped her head to allow him better access. Every nerve-ending tingled. His teeth nibbled on her lobe and she nearly came apart by just that simple contact. His tongue flicked out and licked down her neck to nuzzle the sensitive area under her ear.
He sucked and nibbled and licked and Jane threw her head back, drowning in the ecstasy of his attentions. As he pressed his lips to the curve of her breast just above her bra, she couldn’t breathe.
She reached down for the button of his jeans … and froze.
So had Grayson.
There was a noise that didn’t belong—a tapping sound.
As she opened her eyes she noticed that light flooded the cab, coming through the driver’s window, completely illuminating them. She pressed herself against Grayson. If there hadn’t been a cop at the window she would have enjoyed the feel of Grayson’s bare chest pressed so tightly to her nearly naked one.
Icy air rolled into the cab as Grayson rolled down the window. “Evening, Deputy Brannock.”
A hard, mocking bark of laughter sounded. “Well, well, well. Whatcha doin’, Grayson?”
“Come on, Brady, you’re a smart guy. You know exactly what I’m doing.”
“Yeah, I do. What I’d like to know is who.” He lowered the light so that it wasn’t directly in their eyes.
“The who doesn’t matter,” Grayson snapped. The muscles under Jane tensed and she kissed his neck to ease him tension. He rubbed at her back, easing her as well. While his left arm held her close the right one plunged into the backseat. He shifted under her and she watched as he dug around the back seat, finally coming up with her sweater. He handed it to her and she did her best to slip it over her head without showing off her chest to the cop.
Brady Brannock was a year—or maybe it was two—younger than she and Grayson. He’d been a nice enough kid and even now, in the most embarrassing moment of Jane’s life, he was amused.
If she’d been the one with the flashlight, she would have laughed herself silly.
The sweater fell into place and Jane fluffed her hair. “Hi, Brady.”
Brady grinned, his gaze darting from Grayson to Jane to Grayson. He nodded, like he approved. Did the whole frickin’ town like the idea of Grayson bopping Jane? Jane had to admit she did.
“I’ll be damned,” Brady said. He raised a hand in a lame wave. “It’s good to see you, Jane.”
“You too,” she said. Grayson chuckled, the rumble vibrating deep in his chest.
“You two do know that it’s not cool to be out here, right?” Brady stated with censure in his voice. He didn’t wait for a response. “I should give you a ticket for loitering, public indecency … I could probably stack up the citations.”
“But you’re not going to.”
“No,” Brady said quietly, “I’m not. The laws are more for minors looking to get lucky, who are too stupid to be safe about it.” Brady shook his head. “Why don’t you just get out of here?”
Grayson nodded. “Will do.”
“I’m going to leave, but expect that you’ll go somewhere more appropriate for this kind of … extra-curricular activity.”
“We sure will, Officer,” Grayson said, smiling.
Brady leaned in the window and whispered, knowing that Jane could hear him, “You are being safe, right?”
Jane and Grayson both sat in stunned silence, her hips still straddling his, until the headlights from Brady’s SUV flashed around and lit the road in the other direction. Grayson started to laugh. So did Jane.
“I have never been so embarrassed,” she said through her giggles.
“At least your bra was still on,” Grayson noted, his gaze dropping to her chest as if he could see the bra through her sweater. “If he’d been a few seconds later, you would have flashed Brady.”
“Yeah, that would have been worse.” Her sweater was on backward and after she slid back into her own seat she hurried to turn it around. “It’s bad enough that the whole town will know … Crap! The whole world’s gonna know about this, huh?”
His head was bent, his hands focused on buttoning his shirt. “That’s not how it works, Jane. The whole town might know by tomorrow morning, but they won’t tell anyone.”
“Yeah, right.”
He turned the lights on and put the Jeep into gear. The bumps were easier to take when she could see them coming. �
��Jane, the town knows who I am. They don’t know about Derek. Hell, they probably think that the paparazzi are just out to get me. You’d be hard-pressed to get information out of them.” She raised her brows and he laughed. “Okay, so maybe you could. But only because they know you.”
“I do plan on interviewing some of them for my story.”
“Your story?”
“Yeah, my exclusive. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten. I guess I was hoping you had.”
Butterflies bubbled in her stomach and it had nothing to do with the lurch of the Jeep’s tires grabbing hold of the asphalt. “Do you not want to?”
He took her hand from where it rested in her lap. “Jane, a promise is a promise.”
“Good. ‘Cause the interview is tomorrow.”
“Really? It’s supposed to be kinda miserable. Is Nate okay to drive in the storm Molly’s predicting?”
She looked at her lap, unable to look him at his face. “Actually, Nate’s been in Richfield all week. Him and his family.” Grayson didn’t react, other than to tighten his hold on her hand. “Dale gave me a panic button that would call Nate if I needed to get out.”
“Really?” He was wounded.
Turning in her seat she watched his profile. His face was so strong, so masculine, and right now the jumping muscle in his jaw was totally hot. She reached up to gently press her fingertips to it. He flinched but didn’t pull away.
“It never came out of my suitcase,” she said quietly.
“No, but you felt the need to bring it,” he bit out, his eyes narrowing as he stared out the windshield.
She sat back, her back to the door. “I didn’t know you. From everything I did know about you—the you that Derek portrayed—I wasn’t sure I could trust that man. And I sure as hell couldn’t love him. But you’re not that man, Grayson. You’re everything I could have dreamed and more.”
The muscle jumped again, but Jane didn’t miss how the corner of his mouth tipped just a bit.
“The way I see it,” she said, turning in her seat to face forward, “you have about fifteen minutes to get over yourself … because I fully intend on picking up where we left off as soon as I get you home.”
He looked at her then, and there was no mistaking that his pouting was over.
16
JANE MOANED AND STRETCHED, RELISHING in the sensations around her. She knew she’d said it before, just as she knew she would say it again and again; she could seriously get used to sleeping with Grayson. Although the sex was spectacular, she meant the actual act of … sleeping.
The way he was possessive of her even when he was out cold was endearing. He made her feel loved because he wanted to sleep on her side of the bed, his front to her back with his arm draped heavily over her side.
Who was she kidding? She was already used to this sleeping arrangement and when she had to return to her own very cold, very lonely bed she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She did know she would miss it. Miss him.
Grayson’s hand moved up her belly and came to rest on her breast. He cradled her gently against him. “Good morning, my love.”
“Morning,” she sighed as he kissed her nape. “I’ve been thinking,” she blurted before his kisses removed all thoughts from her brain.
“Uhm-hm,” he murmured in her ear, pressing his lips to it.
She swallowed and tried to remember what she’d been about to say. “Um … about the interview today.”
“What about it?” He continued his exploration with his lips.
She moved away from him, but only enough to deter his powers of distraction. “I’d like to discuss my questions. That way if there are any you don’t want to answer then we can toss them out.”
“I trust you, Janie. Ask me anything you want.” He reached for her. “Now come here. I’m cold.”
She laughed. “Is it true that a man’s shoe size is an indication of the size of his—”
He cut her off by flipping her onto her back and pressing that part of himself to a very intimate part of her. “You tell me.”
MAKING LOVE TO JANE WAS QUICKLY BE-coming Grayson’s most favorite pastime in the entire world.
Given that he spent nine months of the year playing America’s favorite pastime that was really saying something.
This morning he’d awoken to her stretching and moaning, grinding her perfect round butt against him. It was more than he could take. She wanted to discuss serious topics, but he didn’t seem to have enough blood in his brain for so much as reciting the alphabet.
After some morning action and a shower—separately, she’d insisted—they were sitting in the recliners. She had her notebook and a pen. He had a can of Coke.
“Is there anything you want off limits?” she asked.
“My mom talks too much,” he answered without a second thought.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Anything else?”
“Maybe I should ask you if there is anything off limits. I mean … what about you and me?”
“Off limits.”
Her answer came a little too quickly for his comfort, but he tried to force a smile. This interview was her deal, not his. And besides, they’d announce their relationship to the world at some point. It wasn’t like Grayson Pierce could get married and no one know about it.
The house phone rang—which meant someone was at the gate. Grayson swallowed hard and tried to pretend his heart was pulling a double-time. The night Derek left Grayson had changed the gate code, so the guy couldn’t get in without being allowed inside. But knowing that Derek was out in the world made him nervous.
He smiled at Jane and picked the phone. “’Lo?”
“It’s Nate. Open up.”
Relief washed over him. “When you get to the fork in the road, keep going straight. We’ll see you in a minute.” He pressed the code into the keypad and hung up.
“Nate?”
“Yep, they’ll be here soon. Are we telling him about us?” He didn’t want to admit that he was relieved when Jane nodded.
“We probably should. Nate Hughes may be a lot of things but stupid isn’t one of them,” Jane said with a smile.
She walked over to the door and peeked out the little window at the side, watching for the car to pull up. Grayson could tell that she was excited to see her photographer. He knew that the two of them were tight. At first their relationship had bothered him, made his jealous as hell. But now he saw it for what it was; Jane the little sister to Nate’s overbearing, I’ll-kick-your-ass-if-you-hurt-her big brother.
Jane flung the door open, cold air rolling in like waves of ice. She raced out onto the porch in her stocking feet and Grayson cringed. It was too damned cold for her to be shoeless. He sauntered over to the door, plucked her jacket off the coat tree and walked out to stand behind her. He draped the jacket over her shoulders. She glanced up at him with love in her eyes and whispered a thank you.
Nate stepped out of the Toyota 4-Runner and walked around to the passenger side where a long-legged, model-beautiful blonde stepped out. She waved at Jane and pointed to the backseat. “We just need to get Gracie.”
“Gracie?” Grayson whispered.
“Their little girl,” Jane whispered back. “She looks just like a miniature Roxie.”
Nate carefully pulled a tiny body from the backseat. The head fell limply against his shoulder, blond curls bouncing as Nate walked. Little Gracie was out cold it seemed. Roxie rushed up onto the porch and captured Jane in a bear hug. Her judgmental eyes flicked to Grayson as she quietly asked Jane, “How was your week?”
Jane’s green eyes met his and she smiled. She held his gaze as she said, “Oh Roxie, it’s been a very, very good week.”
This time when Roxie’s blue eyes caught Grayson’s they were soft and gentle and … accepting. She stepped past Jane and stuck out her hand. “I’m Roxie Hughes. This big lug belongs to me.” Nate grinned.
“Nice to meet you, Roxie.” Grayson pump
ed her hand gently. “I’m Grayson. Welcome to my home. Let’s get inside before we freeze to death.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Nate still stood on the dirt, his load stirring as the biting winter wind swirled around them.
The defrosting began when Nate settled into the recliner nearest the fireplace. Jane and Roxie went into the kitchen to grab a few refreshments. Nate tossed a quick look at the kitchen and said, “I’m guessing since my alarm didn’t go off that you’ve been good to her.”
“Protecting Jane is my first priority.”
“From yourself?” Nate asked in a badass tone that made Grayson respect the hell out of him.
“I’m the last person Jane needs protection against,” Grayson said.
“Uhm-hm.” Nate looked skeptical with one brow raised and his mouth in a disbelieving scowl. The formidable act was seriously undermined by the gentle way he held his daughter. But it was still uncomfortable being questioned.
The women chose that moment to come back and Grayson was so relieved he could have kissed Jane. Roxie walked over to Nate and handed him a can of Coke. In her other hand was one of those spill-proof cups. Grayson guessed it was for Gracie.
Roxie took her small clone from Nate, whispering in the little girl’s ear. “It’s okay, baby girl. Mommy’s got you. Would you like some milk?”
The child snuggled into her mother’s shoulder and, closing her eyes, went back to sleep. Roxie handed the cup of milk to Nate and looked at Grayson. “Do you have somewhere I can lay her down?”
“Um … yeah,” he stammered.
Thankfully, Jane jumped in. “Come on. You can use the guest room.”
Grayson watched Jane lead Roxie up the stairs. He liked that she’d called the room he’d given her to use the guest room. That’s what it was. Her clothes were still in suitcases in that room but she slept in his bed and showered in his bathroom … and Grayson couldn’t fight the sense of accomplishment that flowed through him. He liked living with Jane. Liked sleeping with Jane. Liked waking up to Jane’s smiling face. And most of all he liked making love to Jane. He wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with the separation that was coming. Tomorrow.
In It to Win It Page 17
