by M. J. Perry
He got up from his chair and grabbed his keys before heading to his office door, turning the lights off and locking the doors behind him. It was time to get back to Grace and show her that from now on he was in charge and things would go his way. He’d give her a chance to get used to it but not long, his patience wasn’t that great and being without her for so long he knew it would be a struggle to go slow.
He wanted her back in his bed where he could focus on getting her pregnant with his child. That thought made him shake his head. Pregnant? The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea. She’d never leave him then, she grew up without a father and he knew she would never let her child do the same. It might be an underhand move but if she hadn’t run off, they’d have a child by now and he wanted what they should have had.
Chapter Five
Just like old times Grace thought as they all sat at a table in her favourite Italian restaurant, well it would be except for the past simmering in the air. Jason and Peter had both said to put the past behind them but anytime someone referred to the last year Jason would clench his jaw and his usually warm brown eyes would harden making her heart sink every time.
“This is nice.” Peter said breaking the silence that had developed.
“Yes, it is.” She awkwardly agreed.
“It would be better if Grace wasn’t being eyeballed every minute.” Jason snapped.
Grace jumped slightly at his growled words. Someone is watching her? Her body tensed.
Peter placed his hand over her clenched fist. “Jason will you stop being a dick you’re scaring her.”
Peter’s words made little sense. She looked at Jason and he nodded his head to the left, she looked in that direction and saw a man and a woman sat at a table. The woman sat with her back to them but the man had his eyes on their table and on Grace. She shivered under his scrutiny.
“Do you know him?” Jason asked her with a rough voice.
Grace shook her head.
“Well, he seems to like what he sees as he can’t keep his eyes off you.”
“He’s with a woman, why would he keep looking at me?”
“Seriously, Babe you’re fucking gorgeous but when you’re wearing your pencil skirts that hug your ass and your blouses that show off just a hint of your perfect breasts and your fuck me heels you become something else.”
Her cheeks flushed a cherry red, and she dropped her face not sure what to make of Jason’s words, her clothes were normal; she didn’t dress to be sexy, so she didn’t understand what he meant. She liked her style, it probably made her a walking cliché librarian, but she liked her skirts and blouses she felt comfortable in them, they were her armour she supposed. They gave her confidence.
She looked down at herself and tried to see what Jason saw and nearly groaned. Her red blouse was sheer so, she wore on a red camisole underneath. Her black skirt was tight, and she’d never be able to walk in it if not for the slit up the back of it. Ok so maybe this outfit was a bit sexier than her normal clothes. She looked down at her heels, she’d got them on sale, and they were red with a delicate strap that went round her ankle and a little bow on the toe. She’d thought they were cute but thinking like a man, they probably could be called fuck me heels. Shaking her head, she caught Jason’s eye, he was still angry that was clear, but he knew she’d realised he was right so his smile was smug when he turned it on her.
“He keeps looking over here Grace, but he’s just appreciating the view.” Peter reassured her.
“I feel uncomfortable. I didn’t know he kept looking at me before you pointed it out. Can we go?” She asked.
“No, finish your dinner and ignore him.” Peter sent a glare to the man, and he looked away.
Grace looked at Jason. Why on earth was he so angry? A guy checking her out is nothing, women came on to Jason all the time and she never made a big deal of it. They weren’t even together anymore. He had no right to be so angry.
Sighing she picked up her fork. She wasn’t hungry, but she’d try to eat to keep Peter happy. He always worried when she didn’t eat enough. The tension in the air went down a notch and when she looked up, she saw Peter and Jason having a silent conversation just like they used to do before, and it used to drive her mad then too.
“What?” She snapped unable to hide her annoyance, she knew she wouldn’t like whatever had to say just from their expressions.
“We made some plans while we were waiting for you to get ready.” Jason said.
“Ok.” She drew it out slowly.
“My first thought when we were deciding what to do was to lock you up at our house while we went on the hunt.” Jason admitted.
Grace stiffened. All of that sentence troubled her, being kept a prisoner was not going to happen at all, if they pushed her on it she could probably deal with it but she wouldn’t do it nicely. She wasn’t just worried about herself though, Jason could get hurt, and her stalker had already made it clear he wanted to hurt him.
“Baby,” Jason said breaking into her thoughts. “Breathe.”
Grace took a deep breath.
“We won’t do it. Peter told me it’s a bad idea and after a bit of arguing I agreed.”
Grace knew what Jason wasn’t saying; he would lock her up in a heartbeat if he’d had Peter’s support.
“Good. I don’t want to miss work and I’d go mad being cooped up all day. I’m worried about you though, what if he hurts you?” She asked Jason.
“No faith in our abilities baby?” He teased.
She couldn’t help but smile at his cockiness. “I’m worried because we don’t know who this person is and he could sneak up on you.”
“It’ll all be fine. Going back to the topic of you working, we’ve made a decision. You can keep working as long as we have no worries about your safety but there are conditions.” Jason warned her.
“And they are?” Grace asked. His words didn’t reassure her and he acted like she was silly for being concerned about him.
“Peter or I will drop you off and pick you up every day. You don’t leave the library at all unless one of us is with you.”
“Ok. That’s reasonable.” Grace agreed.
“There will be cameras in the library in every room and covering every space in there except the bathroom.”
“What? They won’t agree to that and I don’t want to be watched.” She protested.
Jason shrugged. “If that’s what you want then I hope you enjoy confinement because that’s what you will get.”
Grace closed her eyes. It wasn’t an empty threat because she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to lock her up. Looking at Peter for support was useless because he was grinning, the asshole.
“Fine,” She forced out through clenched teeth.
Jason grinned. “I knew you’d see sense.”
She ignored his grin. “When are you putting them in?”
“We already have.”
Grace shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
Jason hadn’t dropped his grin, she was glad he found it amusing. She was not happy at all because the thought of being watched all day creeped her out.
“Who will be watching us?”
“Scott and Ann, they’re our interns of sorts.”
“Great. I better make sure Jill knows.” She’d hate someone to see her pulling her knickers out her bum or something else embarrassing.
“No need, we’ve already told her.”
“Oh. Do you think the cameras will catch him putting something on my desk?”
“Yes hopefully. Look you’re tired and we’ve talked over what needs to be done so let’s change the subject and you can order pudding.” Jason said.
“Chocolate fudge brownie,” Peter said before she could and she rolled her eyes at him with a grin.
“Why would I order anything else?” Grace loved the pudding its part of the reason the Italian is her favourite place to eat.
Jason ordered the pudding and Grace was just finishing her last bite when he
growled. Following the direction of his eyes she tensed.
“He walked past, and he didn’t take his eyes off you the whole time.” He snapped at her like it was her fault. Why on earth is he so jealous? She didn’t understand, and while she kind of liked it, it also pissed her off. He was acting like it was her fault the guy was a douchebag.
“I’m here with you…” Grace caught Jason’s eyes and her words trailed off, his eyes were full of heat and it called to her. She couldn’t look away from him.
Peter cleared his throat. “I’ll go and pay the bill.” He said excusing himself.
“We need to talk when we get home Grace.” Jason ordered, and she nodded in response.
Peter came back and whatever spell they’d been under broke. Jason helped her from her chair and keeping his hand at the small of her back he led her out into the night.
****
The atmosphere was thick with lust on the drive home. Peter pierced it by asking Grace about her job and the library. It didn’t take long for her to become animated about it all. He’d never felt so uncomfortable in his life, he loved Grace like a sister and knowing she was with Jason wasn’t anything new and he could deal with it, but the sexual tension grossed him out, he didn’t want to know she was having sex or about to have sex, he’d rather stick his head in an oven. He’d known asking her about books would distract her, she loved books. She’d been known to disappear after telling them she was going to make a sandwich or a drink and they’d find her curled up in a chair with a book in her hand. It was sweet, Grace was sweet.
“It was easy to get my job back. I can’t believe they gave it to me after I basically left them in the lurch.”
“They obviously value you. Plus Jill loves you. She always has done.”
“I know. I’m lucky she’s speaking to me after I didn’t tell her anything either.”
“She knows now, I had to tell her it otherwise she wouldn’t let me put the cameras in and I would’ve had to break in to do it.”
Grace giggled imagining Peter all in black wriggling through a window.
“You laugh but I would have done it Babe.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, be thankful I didn’t have to and we’ve told you about them. Who knows what we’d have seen you do if you didn’t know about them.” Peter teased.
“I don’t do things in public that could embarrass me.” Grace said.
“We’ll never know will we.” Jason joined in on the teasing.
“Good.” Grace grinned. She’d have to remember to think before she even took a step now just in case.
Jason had said little on the drive home and Peter knew they needed to talk so when they arrived home he kissed Grace on the head and gave Jason a pat on the shoulder before heading to his room. He didn’t want to be around them when they sorted stuff out, especially if it was like before. He’d already warned Jason to go slow because he didn’t want Grace upset any more than she already was and Jason didn’t mince his words when he got angry.
****
Grace wandered to the sofa and sat down slipping her heels off and curling her legs underneath her. Jason sat next to her and watched her silently. Her stomach fluttered with nervous butterflies making her light headed.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked softly.
“Us.”
“Is there an Us?”
“There has never been a time when there wasn’t, even when we weren’t official.”
She nodded. He was right, he’d been in her life for so long, but where Peter had always been her best friend, Jason had always been the love of her life even when she was too young to even know what that meant. They’d always drifted towards each other, Jason had tried to fight it though not feeling like he deserved her and that had caused her a lot of pain. She’d never met the women he took home with him, he’d always made sure she was away but she’d known about them and it broke her heart to know he was with them especially as she couldn’t move on from him. Until one night she’d bumped into him at a bar when he was on a date and she’d felt sick. He’d made it pretty clear he wouldn’t willingly mess their friendship up by being with her and she’d seen why. The woman was beautiful and the complete opposite of her. Blond to Grace’s brown hair and she was tall, nearly as tall as Jason whereas Grace didn’t even reach up to Jason’s nose unless she was wearing heels. The woman was also stacked, her breasts were heaving out of her dress. Grace had 34d breasts, she was no slouch but obviously she didn’t have enough for him. She’d known right then she had to stop pining over him or she would be a seriously old virgin so she said a polite hello then got out of there before she’d shown Jason how hurt she was. From then on she avoided him. Jason didn’t like it at all, neither did Peter as avoiding Jason meant avoiding him but that was the only way she could see to protect her already broken heart. She sighed remembering the fight she’d had with Jason about her ‘childish behaviour’ as he called it, she’d blown her top, she’d shouted at him to get out but instead of leaving they’d ended up kissing. Grace lost her virginity that night and even though it started in anger, it ended in love making and promises. Two weeks later she moved out of her room and moved into Jason’s. Everything was awesome until her stalker appeared.
Jason was silent, and she wondered if he was thinking of the past too. He noticed her scrutiny and his face turned serious.
“I want some promises from you.” He stated.
Grace stiffened “What promises?”
“First, you will always come to me if you have a problem, it doesn’t matter what kind of problem Grace I want to know about it. No more secrets.”
“I can do that.” She agreed. That was easy. “No more secrets.”
Jason nodded before he carried on. “Second, I’m in charge of your safety. Anything I tell you to do, you do it no arguments even if you don’t like it.”
That was harder to agree to, but she knew it was about Jason feeling like he was in control and perhaps he was testing that control over her. She would do anything for him if he asked, except stand by if he or Peter were in danger.
“Grace I’m asking you now only out of curtesy if I think you’re in danger I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and you won’t have a choice.” He promised.
Her mouth dropped open at his arrogance. “I’ll always have a choice.”
“We’ll see.” He muttered.
What the hell. She was glad she wasn’t alone now, and she had him to keep her safe but did he think that he could take over her life and she wouldn’t complain?
“Third is that if at any time we think the library is too dangerous for you, you agree to stay here where you’ll be safe.”
“Ok. That’s an easy one at least.”
“Good. So we agree then.” He crouched down in front of her and took her face in his palms looking into her eyes before he brushed his lips sweetly against hers. She opened on a quick breath and Jason took advantage sweeping his tongue into her mouth. Her whole body shuddered from the sensations he caused with just his mouth, her nipples tightened and pressed against her top. Jason tore his mouth away and rested his forehead against hers. She looked down to see the bulge in his jeans. She didn’t want to stop, she wanted him to remind her of how it felt to have him inside her but she didn’t want to rush things. There was too much between them still and she needed time to get used to him again.
“I should go to bed.” She whispered.
Jason sighed. “You should yes. I’ll let you have tonight but tomorrow we start fresh and you’re moving back into my room and that’s where you’ll stay.”
Grace searched his face. He was determined to get his way, it was written all over his face.
“I’m not ready to make love yet.” She confessed. She wanted to, god did she want to, but she wanted them to have time to get over what she did. Sex would only mask the problem.
“That’s ok Baby, we don’t have to rush but you’ll still sleep next to me every night s
tarting tomorrow.”
She loved that idea; she’d missed being in his arms when they slept and the feeling of safety when he held her.
“I’d like that.”
“I’m glad, but it wasn’t up for debate.” He kissed the corner of her mouth and stood up putting his hand out for her to take. He tugged her up and steadied her before he let her go.
She walked to the door and turned back. “Good night.” She called.
“Sweet dreams baby.”
“You too,” She said and left him standing there while she made her way to her room. Once she closed the door she leant against it and smiled because for the first time in a long time she felt happy.
She looked around the bedroom, her bedroom and she gasped. Nothing had changed it was like she’d never left, all her clothes still hung in the wardrobe and her little trinkets and photos were still on the dresser top, even her make-up and girlie products hadn’t moved.
It made her head hurt.
She’d really done a shitty thing hadn’t she? She was determined to not let her stalker win this time, from now on she’d fight with everything she had to make sure he didn’t hurt her or the people she loved.
Quickly undressing she pulled an old t-shirt of Jason’s over her head, one she’d taken with her. It had been her comfort and made her feel closer to him. She used the facilities in the en-suite and brushed her teeth. Suddenly feeling exhausted she knew when she crawled into bed it wouldn’t take her long to fall asleep and she was right.
Chapter Six
When Grace woke up she was so warm she felt sweaty, she reached out for the covers to throw them off and realised she couldn’t actually move. Opening her eyes she looked down to see a muscular thigh over her legs and an arm wrapped around her waist. It made her smile.
