Chapter Two
Grace Rivera
I had just got back from dropping Lexi off at school as I walked into the living room. I eyed my laptop, my mind running with ideas of where I was about to take my new characters. But of course, Murphy’s Law prevailed the moment I sat down. A knock came at the door, and I shut my eyes tightly. It was Monday. Typical.
Too bad. Whoever it was, was shit out of luck and would have to go away.
None of my sisters were supposed to come over today. Therefore, in my book, it couldn’t be important. The doorbell chimed only a second before another knock thudded against the door, this time a little louder. I couldn’t help but sigh. I had so much work to do. I was already behind on my word count; I didn’t have time to deal with religious sorts or salesmen.
Looking through the peephole, I saw the back of a very tall man with wavy, dark hair.
“Can I help you?” I asked, opening the door slightly. I watched the man turn, and my mouth went dry. Middle of the Sahara Desert dry.
Baby blue eyes met mine, and at that moment I knew I had never seen a nicer blue. They were soft, and warm, and a million times prettier than any island waters I could have ever imagined. And they made me want to drown in them. Drown in them? Hmm, side note for a future book!
His eyes left mine as they took me in from head to toe, and back up again. Mentally recapping what I looked like, I knew it wasn’t anything special. Old bootcut jeans, faded olive green Ninja Turtles shirt that was cute but stretched valiantly at my more than full chest. I worked it and it was comfy, so I didn’t care. My hair was up in a high ponytail, and I wasn’t wearing a bit of makeup, was barefoot with only clear nail polish over my toes. I could only imagine what a mess I was, not to mention what he must have thought. But it was when his blue eyes met mine again that I realized there was something very familiar about the man in front of me; I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
“Can I help you?” I asked again, clearing my throat, trying not to gawk at him. Gorgeous was not anywhere close to the word to describe the very masculine yet beautiful man at my door.
Tall with the broad shoulders that begged to be held on to for dear life as he pounded in and out of you at whatever speed he wanted, because you knew he knew how to take care of a woman. Dark, wavy hair that looked soft and tousled and made a woman who hadn’t had sex in a very long time wonder if that’s what it’d look like after they were done setting the sheets on fire as he held her close. His magnificent wide chest that was unfortunately covered by a crisp white dress shirt with its top two buttons undone, giving you more than a hint at the severe masculinity below.
“I… I think I have the wrong place.” His deep voice rumbled around me, and I watched him pull out his cell phone and frown as he looked around my quiet neighborhood.
“Everyone around here is pretty close to each other. Who are you looking for?” I asked, thinking he was probably looking for Hailey, who lived two doors down and had lots of male company. For a moment, I wanted to wallow in the fact that a man like this would never be interested in a woman like me.
“Grace Rivera.” My name said out loud in his voice made me shiver, and I shook my poor, deluded, sex-deprived mind.
“Oh...Umm...You have the right place,” I informed him nervously, and his blue eyes met mine again, though his were in a slight scowl.
“Oh. Is she your mom?” he asked, and I tilted my head to look at him.
“No.” I fought from smiling. “I’m Grace.” His expression went from scowling to a wicked grin as he brought his hand out toward mine.
“Grace Rivera, I’m Marcus.” I shook his hand and waited for him to tell me more. Something about the way he looked at me made me feel slightly confused, like he was waiting for something.
“Hi Marcus.” His smile deepened, showing a dimple on the left side of his face, and something whispered through my mind. He looked really familiar, but I couldn’t make out why, “How can I help you?” I asked. He might have been hot, but I didn’t have all day to be out here shaking his hand. A hand I realized I was still holding. His hand wrapped around mine felt good. Really good.
“You don’t know who I am?” he asked almost warily, and I looked away from our still joined hands, our eyes meeting.
“Am I supposed to?” I asked, and he laughed.
“I ... Umm…” His laughter died down slowly, and he tilted his head at me. “I wanted to talk to you about your book.”
“My book?” This had to be a joke. Thinking about how my older sister, Gloria, was always on me about getting laid, and my youngest sister, Gabby, always egging her on, this made sense.
I had to hand it to them. He was worth whatever they paid him to prank me. I would pay twice as much for him to just stand there. It had to be a joke, because there was no way a man that looked like he did read romance novels. Unless he was gay. Looking at him, I bit my lip, thinking what a shame it would be to women everywhere if he were. A loss of epic proportions to the sisterhood that not one woman could claim him. He was sinfully hot, like a cupcake on the third day of a strict diet.
“Yeah. Listen, can I come in and talk?” He smiled, but instead of being genuine it felt arrogant and slightly off. Almost practiced, and it made me snap out of my hormone-driven thoughts.
“I don't think so,” I told him, placing my foot behind my door just in case he was a loony bins. Lexi and I lived in a nice area, but unpredictable things happened even in nice areas. “Look, tell whoever sent you I thought this was super funny, but I have work to do.” It was Gloria who had sent him. For all I knew he was the mail guy at her law firm.
“Gloria?” he asked, raising his eyebrows, and I closed my eyes, realizing I must have said the words out loud.
“It just sounds like something she would do. Send hot man candy to her sexually deprived sister…” I couldn’t believe I had said that out loud, but I was beyond caring. “Or was it Gabby?” I asked, my finger to my mouth, and noticed his eyes moved to my lips, making me smile. “I would have never expected Gabby to go in on something like this, but she has been kinda loopy with finals lately, so who knows. And really, who cares? Just tell them I’m busy—”
“Look, I have no idea what your friends Gloria or Gabby have going on—”
“Sisters.” I felt the need to clarify, and he looked at me like I was crazy.
“What?”
“Gloria and Gabby are my sisters.”
“Okay, whatever, I came because of your book…”
“My book?” I asked incredulously. “Right. Because you've read it,” I scoffed, trying to resist rolling my eyes, and he gave me a mischievous half grin.
“Every page.” Then he raised a thick, manly eyebrow. “Four times,” he said seriously, though he was still wearing a sinfully sexy half grin.
“Okay, which book?” I decided to humor him. His grin turned into a smile.
“Beyond the Stars.” I frowned. Man, Gloria and Gabby must have grilled this guy. “Though, I will tell you, I ordered the others. I’m just waiting on them to be delivered.” His voice dripped confidence, and all I could think about was where the hell did my sisters even find this guy?
“Okay, look, I’ll double whatever my crazy-ass sisters paid you, so that you can go back to them and tell them I let you in my house.”
“Really?” His lips twitched and he tilted his head, his baby blues still on me, and I grinned, shaking my head. He was obviously looking to make a quick buck.
“Yeah. Tell them I brought you in and we went wild. Like totally crazy on the washing machine during the spin cycle, then we continued round two and three in my bedroom… Oh no! Better yet, tell them we didn’t even get to my room, that we just went at it in the hallway. Like bunnies. And not to worry, my lady bits are all in working order and a little rug burn never hurt anyone.” To this, he swallowed what sounded like a chuckle and his arms wrapped around his middle.
“Rug burn?” I met his stare head-on and licked my lips,
imagining what that would be like with a guy like the one in front of me.
“Yeah. From us doing it on the ground. Just tell my sisters that or whatever you want, really.” I cleared my suddenly slightly dry throat.
“Your sisters?”
“Yes.”
“Gabby and Gloria?” he asked, that damn brow still up like he thought I was slightly crazy. I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah.” He slipped his hands into his pockets, and I took a deep breath that made him look at my chest. I rolled my eyes again. Typical man. “Anyhow, what do you say, pretty boy?”
“I’m going to have to say that I seriously have no idea what you are talking about. But the washing machine could be fun, and if you’re okay with it, round two in the hallway, three against your wall, four in bed and four and a half in the shower.” My eyes grew wide, my nipples tightened beneath the cotton of my bra, and I was dumbfounded.
“Half?” I stupidly asked, and he leaned down, his face closer to me.
“I have stamina, sweetness, but I’d need a break after four rounds. Though, I would sure as hell make sure to take care of you. Especially if you haven’t been serviced in a while.”
“Ummm…” My cheeks grew warmer. Whatever Gloria had paid, this guy was so worth it. Completely. His deep voice talking to me the way he just had, confident, slightly arrogant, almost made me have an orgasm on my doorstep.
He cleared his own throat, and the heated way he was looking at me more than surprised me. I wasn’t the type of woman to get attention from a man. Especially not from a man like him. I was curvy, soft, and short. Nothing like the Barbie dolls you would expect at his arm. But his eyes were warmer pools of island water now, and the way he was breathing sounded off.
“I really am here to talk about your book.” His voice sounded thick and rough, and something about that made me shiver with lust and confusion.
“Beyond the Stars?”
“Yes.” Wow. He really was adamant about this prank. I had enough though. I was more than turned on and didn’t have the battery power or time to take care of it the moment he left.
“This charade is cute, but I’m sure you don’t even remember the supporting character names, much less the main couple, so—”
“Mitzy, Leah’s mom, was intriguing and funny as hell.”
“What?” My heart rate picked up. Maybe, just maybe, my crazy-ass sisters didn’t send him over?
“And the way you used Phil to help Max get the girl was genius.”
I stood still and watched him as he talked about my book, listening to his thoughts about the small details I had written into not just one of my books, but my personal favorite.
And he didn’t stop.
He kept talking.
The excitement shining through his blue eyes was clearly visible. I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to him. I hadn’t genuinely smiled at a man in a long time. Too long. Then he did this thing with his mouth while he talked, as if trying to cut out some kind of natural accent, and it clicked why he looked so damn familiar, turning my stomach into tangled knots.
The night before, Gabby had watched Lexi so I could go grocery shopping alone, and I’d purposefully chosen the longest line available so that I could skim through a trashy tabloid. When I’d gone to set it back on the rack, I’d sighed at the masculine eye candy that had been on People Magazine’s cover.
Holy Shit.
Marcus Wright, Hollywood’s current bad boy, was on my porch. Mr. Right!
He was standing on my porch, talking to me about my book after I’d talked to him about going at it on my washing machine. Where was a black hole when you needed one?
Chapter Three
Marcus
She had no fucking clue who he was, or if she did, she didn’t seem to care. He wasn’t sure if he should feel good about that or be insulted.
“Grace. Can I call you Grace?”
“What?” she asked, as if just realizing he’d been talking, and instead of being annoyed like he would have been with anyone else, he thought it was cute.
If he was honest, she was fucking adorable. Her big, brown eyes hypnotized him, and his hands were in fists in his pockets because he had been dying to touch her from the moment she’d opened the door.
He hadn’t been able to believe his eyes when the door had swung open. His first thought was what those curves would feel like beneath his hands, and the ways he would enjoy her. How he would take his time with her.
She had a sweet, girl-next-door vibe. She was curvy and soft, utterly feminine, but it was her dark eyes. Fuck! They made him swallow hard. Their shape, the way she looked at him with a devilish sparkle in them. He had a feeling she was hiding a bad girl beneath who needed to be brought out from the shadows and be shown a good time. Bedroom eyes.
Shit. He hadn’t gotten any in over three months after giving up easy pussy, and it was seriously kicking his ass.
Though now, standing here in front of her after her little show in that sexy voice of hers about how many rounds they would go and where they would do them, he was harder than he’d been in a long time. Somehow he knew it had nothing to do with the fact he hadn’t had a woman in a while.
“I was hoping we could talk.”
“About my book?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Yes.” He fought from smiling as he watched her pretty, dark eyes flash in horror when recognition clicked in her mind.
She recognized him, and he wondered if this would be good or bad. The tabloids had finally left him alone, but it had only been a month since his bitch of an ex and her ass of a new man had played him and he’d stepped right into a stupid-ass fight in front of cameras.
“Beyond the Stars,” she repeated, her eyes up on his, and his lips twitched.
“Exactly.”
“What do you want to talk about?” she frowned, making cute little lines at her forehead. There was a hint of attitude in her voice that made his dick strain with need.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
“I would like to make it into a movie,” he told her for the second time, though he figured the first time she hadn’t heard him, probably lost in her own thoughts.
“What?” The frown deepened, and he fought from sighing. Shit. This was going to take forever. She was lucky she was cute.
“Maybe if we can sit and I—” Her phone rang, and she waved him in while she went to the kitchen, grabbing a cordless headset.
“Hello?” she answered as he walked into the living room, leaving the door open so as not to scare her.
He had noticed how she’d put her foot at the door and knew that as good-looking as people thought he was, he was also tall and somewhat intimidating. More so to someone as tiny as Grace Rivera. The top of her head reached his collarbone, if that.
He heard her speaking rapid-fire Spanish and picked up a few words here and there as he looked around her living room. It wasn’t huge, but it was far from tiny. It had a cozy, lived-in feel.
Pictures of her and what looked to be her sisters and maybe a niece or daughter hung on the wall and shelves throughout the space. From what he could tell, she didn’t have a man, and if she did, it was obviously not serious, since you couldn’t see signs of him anywhere in her space.
His eyes went to her, and he almost groaned at the way her plump, round ass hugged those faded jeans. He couldn’t help but lick his lips, his mind racing at what fabric might lie beneath the denim.
By the casual look of her, his first guess would have been cotton, but the sneaky glint of her eyes hinted at a naughtiness she kept at bay. Maybe lace. A lace thong? Or fuck, what if she didn’t have anything on? At that thought his mouth went dry, and he tried to think about his fantasy football draft coming up to fight his erection from tenting his pants.
She looked wearily up at him over her shoulder while she kept speaking, and he gave her a smile. He couldn’t help himself. And it wasn’t his cocky SOB smile he was famous for, either. It was a real one.
/> She gifted him with a shy smile in return before looking away again, and his nerves calmed slightly. Taking in the way she stood in her kitchen, he liked what he saw. She was like a breath of fresh air. Different from the women he saw day in and day out. She was fucking pretty in a natural way. Soft, dark hair that was up in a long ponytail and healthy smooth skin that had a natural tan to it. By her last name and the way she spoke Spanish, he knew her roots were Hispanic. She was short and curvy. Not at all his usual type, but something about her made it hard for him to look away.
“Sorry about that,” she said as she walked toward him, her hands in her back pocket bringing up her very generous tits higher under a sweet vintage Ninja Turtles shirt. Damn, he didn’t think turtles could be part of making him hard, but his dick said otherwise.
“No problem,” he told her, his eyes set on hers, trying like hell not to look at her rack again like some kind of pervert.
“Please, sit,” she said, tilting her chin toward the couch, and he noticed she went to sit on the recliner. “Where were we?” She eyed her laptop on the coffee table, and he felt like an ass. A completely arrogant, cocky asshole. She was probably busy, and he had just busted in without a heads up.
“Can I apologize?”
“What?” Surprise was evident in her voice.
“I should have contacted you first instead of just showing up here.”
“How did you know where I lived?” she asked, clearly mystified with his just showing up on her doorstep.
“My people got me your information.” The look on her face made him realize that sounded bad. “I was in Montana, and my best friend, Donnie, who’s also my manager, made me read your book.”
“Beyond the Stars?” she repeated, and he fought hard from smirking at how freaking cute she was.
“Yes.”
“Okay…”
“We’ve been waiting, biding our time to find the perfect project to start our production company with.”
“Okay…”
“Beyond the Stars is the story we want to tell,” he told her, and she looked at him. Her eyes trained on him, he didn’t move.
LIE (Right Men Book 1) Page 2
