Tonya placed her teacup and the saucer she had used for the Danish on the tray. She had meant to rest her hands flat in as casual a pose as she could, but winded up clenching her fingers together instead. “He’s fine, I guess. I didn’t stay with him long. Like I said, I found a good position in Los Angeles.”
Aunt Linn seemed to read the tension building between Tonya’s shoulders. The woman’s pleasant gaze never wavered from her face as she sat there waiting for Tonya to elaborate. Tonya sighed.
“We were never close. I knew of him through my father and had met him a few times over the summer from the age of fourteen until I was sixteen. He was kind enough to let me stay with him after I left Charlotte, but well, he wanted more gratitude than I was willing to give.”
Aunt Linn’s eyes widened. She leaned over and squeezed one of Tonya’s hands. “Your life hasn’t been easy, has it?”
“It’s been decent, good at times. I’m happy in Los Angeles. As deeply as I loved Roman, I know now I don’t want to be that sold out on a man again. Not that I don’t want love. I do. I just don’t want to be that vulnerable.”
“So you’re over him?”
Tonya studied Aunt Linn’s face. She didn’t think there was hope, did she? Tonya blamed Grayson for his lie, but Roman’s position was far worse. She was to be his wife, and he should have trusted her above all others. He hadn’t given her a chance to speak. He’d accused her, and that was it. No, any feelings she had for him were killed the day he turned his back on her, and now, after all this time, even her broken heart had healed.
“Yes, I’m over him. What we had was a fantasy in both our minds, and now it’s over. I’m a different person, and I imagine he is too. Besides, I hear he’s married with a son.”
Aunt Linn nodded. “Abigail.”
Wow, no liking there.
Tonya smiled. “Well, I better let you get some rest, Aunt Linn. I promise to come by often while I’m in town. I love you, and I’m so glad I decided to come back.”
“I am too, dear.” She submitted her cheek for Tonya to kiss, and Tonya took up the tray to go wash the dishes.
Later, Grayson arrived to pick her up, and Tonya recalled what Aunt Linn had shared, that Grayson paid a private investigator to find her. What else had he learned? She thought about the life she had lived after leaving Charlotte and realized there wasn’t that much to find out. She had been telling the truth when she said her cousin came onto her, and when she came to the conclusion he wouldn’t take no for an answer, she had set out once again with nothing. Placing blame didn’t change the past. She was stronger for her experiences. She’d avoided what might have turned out to be a bad marriage. Gratitude should have been on her lips when she saw Grayson again. What she didn’t expect was to focus on his lips and his body, especially his big hands.
“Let me take you to dinner,” he offered when she folded into his low-slung car.
Tonya blinked at him. “Why?”
“You have to eat.”
She clicked her seatbelt into place and faced forward. Unfortunately, she could think of nothing that appeared natural for her hands to do. “There’s a restaurant at the hotel, and there’s room service. I don’t need to go out.”
“So you’re going to stay a prisoner in your room until it’s time to visit Aunt Linn?”
She scowled at him. “As if I’ve done anything to be locked up for.”
His brows rose, but he said nothing.
“You keep goading me.”
“And you keep assuming I’m trying to bully you.”
“Aren’t you?”
He shifted gears, and her mouth watered seeing his bicep flex. “No, I’m not. It’s a simple dinner invitation.”
“Nothing is simple, but fine. I’ll go. I can pay my own way.”
“No, actually, you won’t.”
She started to argue, but let the matter drop. Common sense told her she would not win, and nowadays she picked her battles. Besides, fighting with Grayson would sour her mood and sap her energy. She preferred to look at the positive aspects of life. That had been her motto from the day she set foot in Los Angeles. Sometimes she forgot the promise to herself to keep her head up, but when she remembered, she plowed on. Grayson Porter would not bring her down no matter how hard he pretended not to try.
After he dropped her off at her hotel with the promise to pick her up at six, Tonya rifled through her clothing once again. A couple hours later, she settled on a rust-orange sleeveless mini-dress with crisscrossing straps exposing her back. The material clung to her figure and was cut low enough at the neckline to show off the swell of her breasts. She spent the rest of the day napping and then going over some paperwork for her job. Two hours before it was time for Grayson to pick her up, she showered and started on her makeup and hair. By the time he called from the lobby, she was ready, and she didn’t keep him waiting.
Tipping across the lobby toward the entrance, she caught his eye and was gratified to see the interest in his expression. He straightened from leaning on the side of the car when she walked through the doors. His gaze swept her from head to foot, and he held out a hand. She took it, suppressing a shiver at the touch.
“You look incredible,” he said, and opened the car door for her.
She lowered her lashes. “Thank you. You look nice yourself.” He did, in his dark slacks and crisp burgundy shirt. He had foregone the suit jacket and tie. The shirt lay open at the neckline, flashing a bit of tanned, hairless skin. When they sat in the car together, the heady cologne hung in the air, waking her senses and giving her cravings. She licked her lips. “Um, where are we going?”
“Wait and see.”
The restaurant turned out to be a beautiful, quiet place with soft lighting and fine art decorating the walls. Tonya moved ahead of Grayson at his guiding and followed the host to their table. She allowed him to seat her, a chill racing down her back when he dared rest a hand at the base. She agreed to wine when he offered and perused the menu.
“Tell me how you have been, what your life is like in Los Angeles.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Do you want to know?”
“Of course.”
“I love my job. Mostly, I run the day to day, oversee scheduling for training classes and the like, but every now and then I instruct one of the classes.”
“Certifications?”
She nodded, warming to her subject. “I handled the boot camp for the CCDA exam prep and had something like twenty guys and one other woman. At first they underestimated me. They tested my knowledge of Cisco network architecture and came up with bogus questions about routing protocols.” She shook her head. “Please, I don’t know who they thought they were dealing with.”
Grayson grinned. “I bet you set them straight?”
“Of course. I know my stuff, and I love networking.”
“Why did you settle for a manager’s position?”
When their wine arrived, she took a sip of hers and shrugged. “I needed money to live, but once I had my foot in the door, I found out I love teaching. It’s rewarding helping others understand what I know.”
“You’re not married or involved.”
The words were a statement, not a question, making her again wonder about all he had learned from the PI. “Don’t you know? After all, you had me checked out.”
“To find you. I thought risking your anger at the invasion was worth it rather than you show up one day to find Aunt Linn gone and no one looked for you to tell you. I know you love her.”
“Yeah, but you don’t—” She cut off what she’d intended to say and changed directions. “What about you? No prospective wife or babies on the way?”
Regret clouded his gaze, and she shifted in her seat. “No. Not yet.”
“Running a company takes a lot of time. Just managing a smaller one is a huge challenge. I have to check in online while I’m here along with phone calls since I didn’t have a lot of warning about leaving. My assistant is pretty good with
everything as well, so I’m not too worried.”
“Is that what you want?”
She blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Do you want to spent all of your time working, leaving so little personal life available for a family?”
Tonya was surprised at the inflection in his tone, as if what she answered was important to him. She wasn’t about to tell him how sometimes the loneliness set in so sharply it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Family meant a lot to her, but she had none and no close friends. She could have started over in her personal life, but hadn’t developed the level of courage to do so.
“If the time comes, I will make the decisions that are right for me.”
He appeared to accept the answer, and they moved on to other topics. When her salmon arrived, consisting of Carolina brown rice, veggies, and squash, she tucked into the meal with relish. Grayson sat in silence for a few moments, watching her eat.
“What?” She licked a bit of sauce from her lip, and his gaze rested there.
He cleared his throat. “Do you always eat so healthy?”
“Man, please.” She grinned. “I love food. Don’t even get it wrong, but if I eat crazy all the time, I’ll be as big as a house. I can’t have that.”
“From what I can see, you have nothing to worry about.”
She blushed and covered her rising temperature by pointing a fork at his plate. “You can’t convince me you eat fried chicken every day.”
He leaned back and patted flat abs. “I workout hard so I can indulge.”
I bet you do.
Light conversation continued, and Tonya found herself relaxing in his presence. When he tried, Grayson could be entertaining. He had no trouble carrying on conversation, and as long as they kept away from discussions of Roman and the past, they were okay. At the end of the evening, he drove her back to her hotel and stopped in the driveway.
“Good night. Thank you for dinner.” For some reason, her voice sounded breathless, and she chided herself on the reaction to him. She reached for the handle to open the door, but he laid a hand on hers. Her heart hammered, and she licked her lips, glancing over at him.
He said nothing, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t look away. He drowned her in those eyes that she had always loved. This is ridiculous. Get out of the car, Tonya. Her body refused to obey the mental command, and then she knew what would happen. Grayson restarted his car and drove into the parking garage. He found a spot, parked, and unfolded his long form from the deep seat. While he walked around to her side of the car, she stared at him in the rearview and then the side mirror. This is a mistake. This is a serious mistake!
He opened her door and held out his hand, and she placed a trembling one in his palm. They strode up together to her room.
Chapter Seven
Tonya’s hands shook too much to get the key in the lock, and Grayson took over. He held the door wide and waited for her to pass by him. She hesitated, but taking him in, his intoxicating scent, his body—lips, chest, hands, abs, even his legs—the entire package drove her nuts. If only once, she craved to touch him, to feel him above her or behind her, driving his dick into her pussy.
She stumbled by him and walked into the room. The click of the door shutting resounded loud, but not much above the rushing blood in her ears. He moved behind her and rested his hands on her arms. She jumped and darted away. The bed loomed, threatening and giving her lusty ideas.
“Um,” she began.
“I can still leave.”
“No!” She smacked a hand over her forehead and shut her eyes. One would think she was a freaking virgin the way she behaved, but it was not so easy to give into this particular fantasy. Sure, there was nothing between her and Roman anymore, but wouldn’t having sex with Grayson be like breaking some unwritten rule? She chewed her lip, considering it, and then peered at him through her lashes. Her gaze never made it higher than his crotch because he had grown hard. She could almost feel the moisture collecting in her panties. “Just give me a minute.”
Before she could turn away, he caught her shoulders and drew her close. He towered above her, so big and sexy. She thought he would kiss her, but he did no more than keep her still. “I’m not going to hurt you, Tonya. That’s not who I am or what I want. I’m also not going to force myself on you, so don’t be afraid.”
She opened her mouth to deny fear, but snapped it closed. The whole reason she hesitated was because of fear. His gentle tone of voice and the way he seemed to think of her before his own desires went a long way to calming her down. Her sexual experiences hadn’t been many even after Roman, and she’d had a single lame encounter before him. The fact that she’d always thought of Grayson as cold made her wonder how good sex could be with him, and beside that, wasn’t this the man who ruined her life, the man she hated? Somehow, there seemed to be a thin line between hate and lust, or maybe no line at all.
As much as she doubted and nerves jumbled in her belly, she wanted to see what it would be like with him, if nothing else then to run her hands over Grayson’s body and to kiss him some more. Come to think of it, if his kiss is any judge of how the sex will be…
She brushed fingertips over his crotch and watched his eyes widen. His cock convulsed beneath her touch, and she gave it a small squeeze. His moan did things to her insides, but he stopped her movements.
“I’m going to take this as a signal that you want to do this. Am I right? If I’m not, Tonya, you’re playing a dangerous game.”
She tilted her head to the side and peered up at him. “I don’t play games.”
He jerked her off her feet, holding her around the waist. With seeming little effort, he raised her higher and kissed her belly. Bending lower, he met her pussy and caressed her there with his mouth. The cry of pleasure escaped before she could catch it.
“Gray!” She clutched his shoulders, shaking from her head to her toes. “Put me down.”
He did, but on the bed, and he kneeled above her. She licked her lips and swallowed. All of a sudden, it hit home that he was more than any of her previous lovers—more man, more virile. His coldness made him detached, hard, and oh so sexy. What would a man she couldn’t read do to her body in bed? His gaze swept her from top to bottom, and his frown made him appear angry.
“You shouldn’t have worn that dress,” he growled.
She swallowed. “Why? You don’t like it?”
“All I could think of all night was getting it off you.” His fingers curled around the neckline, and she squeaked. “You knew you baited me, didn’t you?”
“I-I-I…” She panted, and it seemed like her breasts swelled with his hand so close to them. They reached out to him, craving his caress. Grayson noticed. Instead of tearing her dress as she expected, he ran a single finger over her skin, teasing the rising swell of one breast and then the other. When he dipped beneath the material, his eyes blazed at discovering she wore no bra. As if she could with the back design. His finger brushed over her nipple, and she whimpered. “Don’t.”
“Don’t touch you?”
She shut her eyes, telling herself not to arch into his touch, but her back rose from the bed anyway. “Don’t tease me.”
“Oh, I’m not going to tease you, baby. I’m going to pleasure you.” He slid her dress higher along her thighs and reached beneath it. A moment later, her panties glided down over her ass and farther until he had them at her knees. Her pussy clenched when he raised her legs to remove the panties, knowing he got a good view. He moaned his approval. “So wet. I bet you taste good.”
“I wouldn’t know.” She bit her finger and waited for him to toss the panties aside.
“Now who’s teasing?” His hot glance tipped away from her, and then his gaze arrested on something on the nightstand. “What is that?”
She looked. Shit. “Um, nothing.”
She’d used the tool the night before and cleaned it afterward, but forgot to put it away. The green and white connected balls with a looped c
ord on one end could not be misconstrued as anything other than what they were.
“Ben wah balls,” he murmured.
Tonya covered her eyes and laughed. Her mirth died when Grayson leaned over her toward the nightstand. “What are you doing? I usually just walk around with it and—”
He threaded the one-inch balls into her pussy, and she moaned. Right away, she felt the pressure, that feeling like she didn’t even have to touch her clit to come. Grayson pushed his fingers through the loop on the end of one ball and shoved until both were inside her. Then he pulled slowly. The weights inside the balls and their round shape gliding in and out of her heat brought her hips off the bed. She raised one leg and pumped into Grayson’s movements.
“Mm, like that?” His deep, rumbling voice added to the effect.
“Y-Yes. Oh, yes!”
He flattened his palm with cord attached and began working the balls in and out of her. Each time his hand came down, he gave her clit a light slap, and her desire deepened. With an amazing rhythm going, he leaned in and licked her clit. She keened, shouting his name. He latched onto her bud and sucked hard, bringing her orgasm closer to cresting.
She knotted fingers in his hair and spread her legs wider. Riding his mouth and loving the skillful use of the balls, she didn’t think she could hold it together much longer. “Gray, you’re going to make me come.”
He looked up at her. “That’s the point. Now, let me see your pussy gush for me.”
The dirty words produced just what he wanted. She screamed, thrashing about on the bed, balling the sheets in her hands and struggling for a breath. Grayson groaned as he lapped up her flowing juices. He tugged the balls free and laid them aside then attacked her entrance. The vibration of his moan arrowed through to her core and intensified her orgasm. She reached a high beyond her previous experiences, and she wrapped her legs around his head.
Mistaken Identities Page 5
