LIE (Right Men Book 1)

by Mayra Statham

  He smiled to himself as he imagined what she would feel like in his arms. Soft, pliable, and so damn sweet, he’d bet everything he had she’d feel right. A soft snore with pretty regular shallow breathing confirmed she was asleep. And for the first time in his thirty-six years, he longed to hold a woman all night long.

  Not just any woman, but sweet and curvy Grace Rivera.

  ***

  “Marc?” a groggy whisper sounded. His eyes were heavy with sleep. “Marc?” that sweet voice sounded again, and he reached out toward it, only to come in contact with a blanket. He opened his eyes.

  “Marc?” He heard it again and grabbed his phone.

  “Grace?” His voice was raspy with sleep. He tried to clear his throat.

  “Hi,” she murmured, and he smiled. “We fell asleep.” He grunted, rolling onto his back. The bed was too cold and lonely. His body ached to have her close.

  “I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” he told her, a game plan forming in his mind.

  “Okay.”

  “Text me how Lexi is; if you need me to get anything on my way over.” She stayed quiet.

  “If I need anything?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Like what?” she asked in awe.

  “I don’t know, food, medicine, movies…”

  “You mean like take-out?”

  “Yeah, or groceries.”

  “You go grocery shopping?” The astonished tone made him laugh. “Are you laughing at me?” she playfully huffed.

  “Yeah, Gracie, I go to the grocery store.”

  “But what if someone sees you?”

  “Then they see me. Though, nine times outta ten, babe, no one is ever really paying attention.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Oh.”

  “Baby?”

  “I’m here.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just thinking about, umm earlier. Thanks…”

  “I should be thanking you. Though I think you lied.”

  “About what?”

  “You said you had never—”

  “I haven’t.”

  “You have a great way with words, though.” She giggled.

  “Will we be doing that a lot?” she asked, and he stopped a groan in the back of his throat. She kept him on his toes; that was for sure.

  “I’d rather be face to face, but I have to travel for work.”

  “This week?” she asked.

  “You know, I’m not going anywhere this week.”

  “And the next? A month from now?” Her voice wasn’t angry or accusatory, but she was serious.

  “I probably do.”

  “Is that what I’ll be?”

  “What is that, Gracie?” He was worried about where the conversation was going. The soft distant way her voice sounded didn’t sit well with him.

  “A late night phone call to help get you off and drift off to sleep,” she clarified, and he was no longer tired; hell, he was wide awake.

  “Grace…” The problem was he didn’t have an answer for her. He knew he wanted her, he just wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep her.

  “I just want us to be clear. I’m not sure what’s going on here.”

  “Babe—”

  “If it was just me, I’d be up for it. But I have to be smart.”

  “Gracie—”

  “But I have Lexi, Marc. I need to—”

  “You need to be quiet so you can let me talk,” he ordered. He ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes. “I don’t have a crystal ball, babe.”

  “I know that,” she clipped, and he knew she was rolling her eyes at him.

  “But I know I like you. A fucking lot. I should let you walk away; hell, I shouldn’t have let things get this far to begin with.”

  “Why?”

  “Come on, Grace. You saw that mob at the game.”

  “But—”

  “Then you thought someone was following you.”

  “Marc!”

  “What?”

  “I like you too. A fucking lot.” His heart went into triple time. He knew there was no walking away. The way she laid it out for him. No games, no lies. And way too good for him.

  “Text me anything you need.”

  “Are you still coming over?”

  “You want me there?” He gave her a chance to push him away. His heart halted in his chest. Waiting.

  “Yes,” she whispered immediately.

  “Text me. I’m going to get ready and get the chopper ready so I can get home.”

  “Okay.”

  “Bye, Gracie.”

  “Stay safe, pretty boy.” He chuckled and ended the call, then texted Donnie to clear his day, cancel his day, and help him get home as soon as possible.

  Though at that moment, he didn’t realize that when he thought about getting home it wasn’t his huge-ass house.

  It was the sweet bungalow where his girls lived.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Grace

  In an off-the-shoulder black sweater that hit mid-thigh, butter soft periwinkle leggings, my hair down and slightly wavy since I had let it air dry, I didn’t think I could have been more comfortable than in that moment. It probably had nothing to do with what I was wearing but more of where I was.

  I was sitting in the middle of my couch, Marc’s warm, strong body to my left. My head was on his steady shoulder as I stroked Lexi’s hair, while she was stretched out on my right, her head on my lap, and was currently napping while we watched Toy Story.

  My eyes were growing heavy, and I glanced at Marcus. His eyes shut, head tipped back, he looked sinfully beautiful. As if feeling my gaze, his blue eyes opened and looked at me.

  “You okay?”

  “Perfect,” I whispered in a girl crush haze over him. Shaking my head, I smiled. “Are you comfortable? I can move…” I started to offer, but he wrapped his hand around my shoulder and pulled me back to where I had been. I couldn’t help but sigh.

  “This is nice,” he murmured against my hair, and I felt my lips tip upward.

  “You were falling asleep,” I pointed out, turning to look up at him just in time to watch him shrug.

  “This is comfortable.” I smiled.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Come on, tell me.”

  “I’m just surprised someone like you isn’t bored to death,” I observed, and he stiffened

  “Someone like me?”

  “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, baby.” I snuggled into him. “I just meant you could be doing anything. Literally anything. You could jump on a plane and go to Hawaii because you want to surf, or Cabo because you’re in the mood for tacos.”

  “Best tacos I’ve ever had were from this hole-in-the-wall place in Ohio.” I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “What if I told you that out of everywhere I have ever been in my life, through work or for fun,” his hands slipped through my hair, and I couldn’t help but look at him, his blue eyes searching, “this is the only place I want to be. Right here, right now.”

  “Marc…”

  “I’m not an easy man. I know my life seems easy—”

  “Only to someone who doesn’t know any better. I shouldn’t have said—”

  “I want you in my life, Grace. Both of you.” He tilted his chin to a still very asleep Lexi.

  “Because of the book?” I couldn’t help ask and watched his face contort.

  “Fuck the book,” he hissed, and I looked at him with wide eyes. Fuck the book? Had he changed his mind?

  “What? Don’t you want—”

  “I do. I do. But I’m not stupid, Grace. I know you think I’m putting on a show for you so that you’ll hand it over. I want to bring that story to life, but I want you and Lexi in my life first.” He rested his free hand at the top of his dark hair. “So you decide when you’re ready. I just want you to realize I’m here and you’
re with me because we want to be together. Not because of an obligation, or because one person has something the other wants.” My heart tripled as my mind processed everything he said and meant.

  “You want to date?” I blurted, shocked.

  “Yes,” he confidently answered, his free hand moving from his head to my face. “I like you. Be my girl, Grace Rivera.”

  “Okay,” I whispered, taking a leap of unknown bounds. It was a risk, but then again, everything in life was.

  I quit my job after Lexi had been born and stayed at home writing romance novels. It had been a risk. But it had been one I knew in the pit of my stomach I had to take. Sitting on the couch with him next to me, hypnotized by the crystalline pools of his eyes, I knew I had to take this chance. He slowly leaned in and chastely kissed my lips. When we parted, we looked down at a slightly awake Lexi.

  “Does that mean your boyfriend is a superhero, Mommy?” Lexi asked with a yawn. I opened my mouth to answer, but he beat me to actually saying anything.

  “Would that be okay with you, Lexi?” he asked, leaning closer to her. She sat on my lap. “Though, you know I’m not really a superhero. I’m only a make-believe one. For a movie.”

  “I’m six, not four. I know,” she sassily answered. I bit back a smile. “You move fast like one, though,” she pointed out, and I coughed away my laughter, “but I know it’s not real. Only in the comic books. I think it’s good for you to be Mommy’s boyfriend.” She tilted her head up to look at him. “But you should know, I heard Tia Gabby and Gloria say that if you hurt her, they’ll hurt you.” A deep laugh escaped his lips, and he tried to straighten out his serious face. “Tell them I understand. What about you?”

  “If you hurt my mom?”

  “Yeah, will you hurt me too, with your aunts?”

  “No,” she answered, and I was about to say something, anything, to change the subject, but she kept going, “I’ll just be very disappointed in you.” Lexi answered honestly like only a six-year old could, and my hand that was stroking her hair stilled.

  I turned to look at Marc. He wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were on her. Serious and warm, and if I didn’t know better, maybe even a little proud at her answer. With a small smile, he put his hands out, and she moved hers to his. Suddenly, breathing felt difficult for me as they turned slightly blurry. His hands were so much bigger than hers. Lexi had never had a man around, and now she did.

  A man with hands so big they would move Heaven and Earth for her. I had no idea how I knew he was that kind of man, but I did. He’d shown glimpses of it at the game and earlier today when he’d brought groceries, Disney movies, and coloring and reading books, all to help keep Lexi entertained.

  “I promise like hell to try not to ever disappoint you, Lexi-bell,” he vowed, and a silent tear escaped, which I wiped away quickly.

  “Okay. But just so you know, I don’t think you’re supposed to say hell to an impressionable kid like me. That’s what Tia Gloria says to Tia Gabby all the time.” She smiled at him, hopped off my lap, and looked at me. I braced, not sure what she was going to say. “I gotta go potty.” And just like that she ran off, out of the living room and down the hall.

  I stared toward the hallway. She was long gone, but my eyes were fixed there when I felt his hands on my shoulders. His thumb rubbing just the right spot. His body shifted closer to mine.

  “You okay?”

  “Better than okay.” I turned to look at him, trying to blink the emotion out of my eyes.

  “I’m going to start dinner,” he whispered against my temple, and I gave him playful, wide eyes.

  “You sure you know how to cook? Or should I have the fire department on standby?”

  “Very funny.” He kissed me again. “Go talk to her. I’ll be in the kitchen,” he whispered, and my heart soared. He knew I wanted to talk to my girl. That alone reassured me I had made the right choice.

  ***

  "So you're okay with Mommy having a friend?"

  "You mean a boyfriend," she clarified, and I nodded even though she couldn't see me.

  We were in her room we had decorated together. Gloria had wanted to treat Lexi to the room of her dreams, and even if it wasn't what she had thought Lexi's dreams consisted of, it was exactly what she had wanted. The white walls had superhero decals on them mixed in with the Frozen Princesses. Her bedding was a sunshine yellow, and we had made matching curtains together. The moment Gloria had seen it, she’d closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten, opened them, smiled, and hugged Lex, saying it was perfect.

  Now I was in that room, sitting on her daybed, with Lexi in front of me. I was brushing her hair, while she was brushing her doll Bubble's hair.

  "Well..."

  "Jordy asked me to be his girlfriend." I stilled. Jordy was a sweet little boy in her class. They had been friends since preschool, but this was the first I had heard about Jordy's proposal.

  "Oh, and what did you say"

  "No! Duh," she sassed, and I pressed my lips together as she twirled a small piece of Bubble's hair. "I told him I was too young for those kinds of commitments and that I needed to focus on me. Then I told Tia Gloria, and she said that was a good answer and way to break it gently to Jordy." Freaking Gloria. Only my sister. We were going to have a conversation soon.

  "What did he say, when you told him that?"

  "That he understood. But that he would wait for me to be ready." I closed my eyes. "He said his grandpa told him that a real man knows when he's met the one, and Jordy says I'm it. And since I'm it for him, he will just wait, because that's what a real man does." Pressing my lips together, I stayed quiet and kept listening. "But you’re not, well, you know..." she was now talking with her hands, and I tilted my head.

  "I don't know. I'm not what?"

  "Young. I don't think you’re old old, but I think you’re a good age for you to have a boyfriend. Plus, he's nice."

  "He is."

  "And he's a superhero," she whispered in awe.

  "Lexi, he really isn't." I had no idea where the superhero fascination came from or started, but I had always thought of it as endearing and something uniquely her.

  "I know, but he plays one in a movie. And that movie is going to have another one. And he looks like the Prince in The Little Mermaid," she pointed out, and even though she wasn't wrong, all I could think about was the trouble I was going to be in with this child in a couple of years. Then she kept talking and surprised me further. "He likes you. Like I told you he did, Mom." She turned to look at me, her soft green eyes smiling, and I placed the brush on my lap.

  "He does."

  "Do you like him?" she asked, the wonder in her voice clear.

  "I do."

  "How did you know?" she asked, curiosity clear, and I took a deep breath and smiled.

  "When I'm with him, I feel butterflies in my tummy."

  "Like you're nervous?" She scrunched her face adorably.

  "Algo haci, something like that,"

  "That doesn't sound nice. I don't want to like anyone," she huffed and rolled her eyes dramatically. I smiled at her.

  "But more than that, chula. The nerves are mixed with something else... umm, you know, how when we are here at home, with your aunts, and we are super comfy. And we're just us?"

  "Yeah?"

  "That's how I feel with Marc. Like I'm home. Like I can just be me with him and not worry." She crossed her arms and looked away, her face serious.

  "Hey, what’s the matter?"

  "I feel like that with Jordy!" she huffed, raising her arms up high. I laughed, hugging her close.

  "That's good because he's your friend, baby."

  "And Marc is your friend? And your boyfriend?"

  "Yes," I shared giving her some space. “Are you okay with him being around?”

  “Yeah! Mom, he’s a—”

  “He isn’t. He is just Marc to us, baby girl.”

  “I’m okay with him being around.”

  “I might go on dates,”
I mentioned, not knowing if that was even a possibility. It was probably something I was wrongly assuming, but I had to bring it up just in case.

  “That’s good. You always tell Gloria and Gabby they should date. You should too.”

  “You know I’m always here for you to talk to me, about anything?”

  “Yes, Mom, we’re a team.”

  “We are, and nothing will ever change that,” I told her honestly.

  I watched as she brought her finger up to her mouth, tapping it against her lips as if she was in deep thought, then looked at me, holding my face with both hands. "I say go for it. YOLO!"

  "YOLO?" I giggled.

  "Yeah... you only live once. Gosh, Mom, maybe you are old," she mumbled, and I hugged her a little tighter.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Marcus

  “So you’re the pretty-boy actor,” a raspy feminine voice snapped behind him.

  He turned from where he stood at Grace’s stove, wiping his hands on a dish towel, and looked at the woman standing by the breakfast counter. From the black and white designer suit that from his experience was tailor-made for her, he knew it was Gloria. The older sister. She was taller and thinner than Grace, but there was a clear resemblance in the shape of their eyes and the hair color.

  “I am. You must be the older sister, the attorney.” She raised an eyebrow. “Gloria?” He put his hand out and saw the hesitation in her eyes before she reached out and shook his hand.

  “So you’re Hollywood’s Mr. Wright.” She frowned and rolled her eyes before sitting at the bar stool. “I expected you to be taller.” He chuckled, because she was a ball buster.

  “Sorry to disappoint.” He shrugged, looking at the pan and lowering the heat.

  “What are you making?”

  “Chicken and shrimp lo mein.”

  “Huh,” she muttered, her face clearly unimpressed, and he took a deep breath.

  “God, Gloria, knock it off! If Grace came in here, she would freak,” a softer voice said. He looked out to the living room and had no idea how he had missed her.

  Younger, slightly curvy, the woman had pitch-black, curly, wild hair that fell a little past her shoulders, and thick red glasses framed what looked to be Lexi’s green eyes. “Hi! I’m Gabby,” she said as she walked toward him. He took in her bright outfit. Wearing a mustard-yellow A-line skirt with a white blouse and Kelly green cardigan, she looked like she had somehow been transported from another time.