Grace. Lily. Two reasons why I need to keep my shit together.
This never happened to me when I was in the military. I didn’t lose my control. I guess love does something to a man. When someone threatens the people you care about…
Her dad hisses and makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “This isn’t over.”
“Oh, it is.” Cade comes up next to him and rests a hand on his shoulder as if daring him to say more.
“Maybe if your mom didn’t force you away from the woman you loved, you wouldn’t be such an asshole, Dad.”
I’m not sure what Grace is talking about, but she reaches for my hand and threads her fingers with mine. It’s a little hard to believe we’re standing in front of the man who tried to rip us apart. His eyes go to our hands, and he exhales a shaky breath.
“Retire. Go enjoy a sunset. On an island—far away,” Corbin says while turning away from the window.
Silence stretches across the room for a minute before her father’s brows pinch together, disappointment evident in his eyes. After a minute, he turns his back on his kids and leaves.
Grace’s free hand darts to her stomach as her eyes close.
“It’s over. Are you sure you still want out now that Dad will be gone?” Cade asks.
“More than anything,” she says while nodding, her eyes opening.
Cade drags his hand down his jaw and throat before he extends it to me. “We good?”
I eye his hand for a moment and look at Grace. She’s observing us, probably curious how I’m going to respond.
I gently pull my hand free of hers and take his. “Yeah, we’re good.”
I stand in front of the mirror, my slacks on, but my dress shirt is still open. My gaze shifts to the scars on my chest, my side, and beneath my ribs. Some are prominent, whereas others are lighter, fading from time.
I drop my hands to the counter, bracing against it as I find my eyes in the mirror, thinking about Luke’s phone call yesterday. A few jobs a year—just a few…I’d make more money on three ops with him than in a year working with Bella.
But can I really go back into the line of fire?
“You ready?” Grace comes up behind me, places her hands around my waist, and rests her chin on my shoulder, finding my eyes in the reflection.
“I think so.”
“Everything is going to work out, I promise.” She smiles at me. “Let me help you with the buttons.” Her arms drop, and I face her. Her lip catches between her teeth and her eyes focus on my chest as she works at the buttons. “Where’s the tie?” She raises a brow.
The tie. Jesus, I can’t wait to use that again in bed with her. Maybe tonight. Well, if everything goes well in court, that is. Otherwise, I might get fucking drunk again—feel the slow burn of liquor lighting a fire in my chest.
I don’t think the idea of drinking too much even makes me nervous anymore, not with Grace in my life.
“I know what you’re thinking.” She presses a quick kiss to my lips, her hands on my chest, and I nip her bottom lip as my hand curves up to her firm ass.
“Oh yeah? What?” I arch a brow, my cock hardening against her.
“You want to tie me up this time, don’t you?” She smiles, her face so close to mine that it’s hard not to pull her back in and kiss her, to feel my tongue in her mouth.
“Grace.” I touch her cheek with the back of my free hand. “I want to do much more than that.”
27
Grace
Noah’s arms are wrapped tightly around Lily out front of the courthouse, and I can tell this big, strong man is close to crying.
I’m standing off to the side because he hasn’t introduced me to Lily yet. Today isn’t exactly the best day to do it, but the fact that he wanted me here with him means a lot.
Noah stands up after hugging her, his back to me now, but he keeps hold of her little hand as he looks at her. “Are you excited about seeing my new apartment this weekend?”
“Yeah, but I’ll miss that boat of yours. I love the water, just like you, Daddy.”
I press a hand to my chest, my heart melting.
“We’ll get another one someday.” He glances over his shoulder, finding my eyes, and it’s at that moment that I know I love this man.
It doesn’t matter how long we’ve known each other. I’ve been waiting for someone like him my entire life.
I look at Noah’s ex, who is standing off to the side, and her eyes are on me—shooting damn daggers my way. When she saw me in court with Noah, she had the nerve to approach me and accuse me of cheating.
Cheating on Patrick Pierson. Apparently, she follows social media, but she missed the part about the announcement being an error.
“Hi.” Noah is in front of me now, and I look at Cindy as she walks with her fiancé and Lily toward a town car.
“You okay?”
His face is stoic, his body a little tense. “Every other weekend isn’t a lot, but it’s better than nothing. And at least I get a couple of weeks in the summertime.”
“And you’ll make the most of that time, I’m sure.” We start down the street.
“I’m a single man now,” he says after a minute.
“Single?” I stop walking and face him.
He chuckles. “You know what I mean.” He takes my hands and pulls me off to the side near a storefront, out of the way of the foot traffic. “What are your plans this Saturday?”
“Nothing, but you’ll have Lily. Which reminds me, we have a lot of unpacking to do at your apartment before then.” I make a mental note to call his sister to ensure she’s on the job of decorating his place.
“I want you to meet her.”
I knew this would happen eventually, but that doesn’t change the fact that my palms are now sweaty.
“You sure?”
The pad of his thumb traces my bottom lip. “More than ever.”
A house. A white picket fence. Kids. A family together at dinnertime. These are things I always wanted but never thought I could have. Okay, so the fence isn’t all that important, but maybe a dog would be nice.
“What are you thinking about?” He smiles. He can always tell when my mind starts to get a little derailed. But he does that to me. He makes my thoughts race. Excitement always fills me when he’s around.
“Thinking about the future,” I say.
“Oh yeah? And am I in it?”
“Do you even have to ask?” My eyes narrow in a playful way, and he pulls me against him and kisses me.
In front of everyone.
And it doesn’t matter if all of New York sees us.
“Have you made a decision?”
Noah looks up from his newspaper as I come into his living room. I love that he’s so old school he reads the actual paper. Not the news on a tablet.
“And are you seriously asking me that question while wearing that?” he asks in a silky voice.
I smile and play with the knot of my black satin robe before untying it.
“You’re not playing fair.” He rises from the couch and stands in front of it but doesn’t come to me.
Not yet at least.
So, I allow the robe to slip from my shoulders and fall to the floor.
I’m naked now, and the blinds are open.
He looks over at the window, and his jaw tightens. He shakes his head and goes to it, and I watch as the blinds scroll down before he faces me.
“So? You’ve been thinking about the decision for three weeks now. You said yesterday you’d have an answer for Luke by tomorrow.” I step over the robe. “Well, it’s tomorrow.”
“I can see that.” His naked chest rises and falls as he takes a breath, and I look down at his black pajama bottoms. His desire, his want, is evident. His eyes are on my nude stilettos before his gaze drifts up my legs. “And you expect me to answer the question while you’re wearing only your high heels?”
I cross my arms, purposefully covering my breasts while also pushing them up and together, drawin
g his eyes.
He comes in front of me. “I won’t work with Luke.”
Relief swells in my chest.
But also guilt.
He holds my hips as he looks me in the eyes.
My fingertips dance up his chest, and my palm settles over his tattoo. “I don’t want to lose you,” I say and swallow, “but I’ll support you either way.”
“You and Lily are all that matter to me. I don’t need to live that life anymore.” He nuzzles my nose with his before kissing the tip.
“You help people. That’s who you are. So, if you want to work with Luke every once in a while, you should—”
He cuts me off with his mouth, his tongue finding mine, stealing my breath.
“What was that for?” I ask, a little breathless.
“For letting me be me. For understanding who I am.” His hands are on my shoulders now, warming my skin. “It doesn’t mean I’ll do it…but thank you.”
His hands slide up my neck and to my cheeks where he holds my face, his eyes on mine.
My damn phone rings, startling me, but he doesn’t flinch.
“Don’t answer it,” he says with his mouth so close to mine.
I press my lips to his, kissing him again—but the phone won’t stop ringing.
After our lips part, he says, “I’ll turn it off.” He grabs it off the table, but his brows pull together. “It’s Corbin.”
“Shit.”
He knows by now that if Corbin is calling me, especially this early, it can’t be good. Please don’t be in trouble—again.
Noah hands me the phone, and I answer. “Hello?”
“Hey, I have something to tell you. You might want to sit down for this,” Corbin says in a rush.
My skin pebbles and I sink onto the couch behind me, my eyes on Noah. He must see the worry on my face, because he reaches for my robe off the ground and comes in front of me, handing it to me as he waits to learn what’s going on.
“Tell me.” I clutch the material tight to my chest.
“He’s dead.”
“Dead?” Panic hits me, and I suck in a breath, dropping the robe.
“Number Four.”
Number Four…? Oh, God. “I don’t understand.”
“The lawyer called to let us know they won’t need us anymore since there won’t be a trial.”
“What happened to him?” I ask.
Noah’s squeezing my hand, offering support.
“Suicide, maybe. They’re not sure. They don’t really know how he was strangled. They didn’t find anything in the jail cell with him.” There’s a crackle from a deep breath through the phone. “It’s over.”
“It’s over,” I repeat in shock, trying to absorb the words, to make sense of them. My mind flashes back to Greece, to the man’s hands on me—the knife… “I have to go.” I end the call and drop the phone, pressing my palms to my face.
Noah is sitting next to me now, and he pulls me into his arms. “He can’t ever hurt you again.”
His words have my hands falling to my lap as I shift out of his arms so I can look into his eyes. “How—how’d you know?”
Is he so smart that he inferred what Corbin said to me? Or could he hear Corbin through the phone?
And then I take a deep breath as it comes to me—the realization hits me like a freight train.
He’d walk through fire for me.
Kill for me.
“Noah, you didn’t—did you?” I stand and hold my arms tight to my chest, freezing.
He rubs a hand down his jaw. “Didn’t what?”
“Did you kill that guy in Athens?” But that’s not possible. He hasn’t left New York. I’ve been with him almost every day.
He stands, his brows stitching together. “Of course not.”
“Did you have anything to do with it?”
He doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t need to. We don’t lie to each other—always honesty. It’s our “thing.”
He’s torn. Maybe he’s afraid of what I might think.
“I love you,” I say. This wasn’t how I planned to say those words for the first time, but they’re the only words he needs to hear right now.
“I love you too.” He places a hand on my face, cupping my cheek, and angles his head a little as he traps me with those sapphire eyes.
Hearing it back from him…my heart—there are wings there. Jesus. My eyes are blurred by tears, by the admission, by the fact that this thing is really over with Number Four.
I can move on.
A huge weight has been lifted from my chest, and whether Noah truly had anything to do with it or not doesn’t matter to me—all that matters is that he loves me.
“I’m naked, Noah.” And finally free. “Are you going to do something about it?”
He chuckles and lifts me into his arms in one fast movement, which has me squealing.
“Hell, yes.”
28
Noah
“Bella did a great job with the remodel.” I look at Grace, who’s standing in front of the fireplace—and it brings me back to the first day we made love.
Six months have passed since then, but God, it still feels like yesterday that I first laid eyes on her.
“You helped too,” she teases before looking at Lily. “What do you think? Do you like it?”
Lily frowns. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“What’s wrong?” Grace looks at me and hides a smile.
“Well, I was kind of hoping there’d be a special place for me when I visit.”
“Oh. Well, hmm.” Grace takes her hand. “Why don’t you come with me?”
Lily looks my way, and I wink at her before following them up the stairs and down the hall.
“I think we might have missed a room when we showed you around.” Grace places a hand on the knob, her eyes finding mine as she does.
When she opens the door and Lily’s little hands dart to her mouth in shock, my heart swells.
“Is this really for me?” She rushes into the room, which has a Little Mermaid theme since Lily is currently obsessed with that movie.
I nod. “And it has an ocean view.”
Lily runs to me and wraps her arms around my legs, squeezing tightly before she finds Grace and hugs her as well. “I love it!”
Lily takes in every toy, every inch of space. I walk up next to Grace and pull her tight against my side, breathing in her jasmine scent.
“Thank you,” I whisper into her ear.
She reaches for my hand that’s on her stomach and places hers over mine. “I love her too, Noah. You don’t need to thank me.”
Lily’s studying the collection of princess dolls displayed by the bay window.
“Those were my grandmother’s.” She leaves my side and walks toward my daughter. “She was kind of like an evil queen in a Disney movie, but then her heart softened, and she became—”
“More like you?” Lily looks up, smiling. “A princess?”
“I’m no princess,” Grace says while laughing a little.
“No, you’re right.” Lily’s shoulders pop up. “You’re definitely a queen.”
Grace kneels next to her, smiling. “Mm. I’ll be whatever you’d like me to be.”
“Well, good. Because if you’re a queen and you and Daddy get married, I get to be a princess!” She claps and leaves her hands clasped as she spins in a circle before purposefully falling onto the floor.
Grace tugs her lip between her teeth and looks up at me, her light blue eyes holding mine. “Come on, I’ll race you downstairs.”
Grace and Lily are on their feet, and Lily laughs as they breeze past me, their hair whipping up behind them.
“You coming?” Grace calls out to me, probably already nearing the staircase.
“In a moment.”
I look around the room one last time, seeing the teddy bear with one eye that Cindy left behind at our house in Virginia when she left me.
So much has changed in the nineteen months since sh
e told me she was leaving.
So damn much.
And I have no regrets—absolutely none.
As I start down the stairs a few minutes later, I hear Miles Davis, and when I enter the living room, I still at the sight before me.
Lily and Grace are dancing together in front of the lit fireplace.
I look at the record player I gave Grace before I lean against the wall just inside the room, my hands in my pockets as I watch them, my heart so close to exploding. I never knew it could be like this—that it could feel like this.
Loving a woman like Grace has changed me. It’s opened me up to a whole other world I didn’t know existed. And now I want to give Lily sisters and brothers—hell, I want to fill this entire house with kids. I want to marry this woman. And I will. And this time, it’s going to be forever.
Grace lifts Lily and spins her around before I join them.
“Took you long enough.” She smiles at me as she puts Lily down.
And then Grace changes the record to a song with Spanish lyrics, and Lily starts to shake her hips and move around. I tip my head back and laugh as Grace imitates Lily’s version of salsa dancing.
“I better see your hips moving too, mister!” Grace says.
I step in front of her, grab hold of her waist, and dance with her, showing her some of the moves I learned on an op in Columbia four years ago.
“Wow, Daddy, you should go on a talent show. You’re good.” Lily claps her hands to her cheeks and giggles. “Me next!”
I hold both of their hands as we dance to the music.
God, we dance.
All of us. As a family.
Epilogue
Noah
“Did you approve the plans I sent you?” Bella’s standing in front of my desk.
“I think we need to hire more people. I’m only one man.” I cross my arms but smile.
“Oh, come on, you’re like the equivalent of ten good men. Why spend more when I have you?” She laughs.
We’ve drastically expanded in the two years since we opened our own official business two streets down from where Grace’s office used to be. Well, the office is still there, but Cade runs it. Grace hasn’t worked there since that day we faced her father.
Someone Like You Page 24
