Saving Grace

by Christine Zolendz

  "I'll meet you guys upstairs!" I snapped at Lea. My body was on fire, and I launched myself down the hallway towards the studio, I didn't even look to see if he was following me, if he didn't, I needed to calm my body down somehow, but Go d, if he did, I wasn't saying no. I flew down the steps and I heard him follow, "Grace, wait!" Oh, thank you GOD! Now, please let the studio be empty!

  I slammed open the studio door with open palms, and he was right behind me grabbing his hands around my waist pulling me against him, kicking the door closed behind us. Our clothes were icy cold against our hot wet skin. We tore our coats off and I shivered under the touch of his hands on my hips. My eyes lifted to his and we stared at one another; drops of rain still falling from our hair onto our skin. My heart crashed against my chest and pulsed hot and fast through my body. Reaching up and pulling him down to me, I kissed him and I swear the earth fell out from underneath me. He pulled me in tighter with a deep hungry growl and held his body hard against mine so I could feel every inch of him.

  He pressed his body against mine walking me through the darkness of the studio. Every part of my body tingled. With his lips still on mine, hungrily kissing me, we stumbled our way through the dark until my body slammed up against one of the big speakers.

  My breath came out in short gasps, "We're on the speaker."

  "Uh huh," he chuckled lifting up his arms and clicking the power switch on. The speaker came to life and vibrated underneath my body. Oh my God! It sent shockwaves of pleasure over my skin.

  The sweet tequila taste of his tongue flooded my mouth and I moaned. His arms slid over my cold wet skin slowly leaving trails of fire behind. He had to have been able to hear the pounding of my heart as it echoed off the vibrations of the speaker.

  "Grace," he whispered pulling his lips from mine. He tugged at my lower lip and leaned his forehead against mine. Cupping the back of my thigh, he slowly lifted my leg and wrapped it around his body. His skimmed his fingertips over my skin as my small skirt rose up over my hips. He stopped his fingers, letting them tease and linger along the lace trim of the backside of my panties. Oh my God, my panties were about to catch on fire and I needed him so much.

  "Please, Shane. Don't..." I whimpered, gasping for air, rocking my hips against him. This was the closest I've been to heaven in a long time.

  He slid his thumb under the lace and pulled his face away. His blue eyes searched mine.

  "Please...don't sto p, Shane," I begged softly. Arching my body towards his, I rocked my hips against him, "Shane if you stop, I swear I will kill you."

  His raspy laugh melted my insides. "Grace, I'm going to touch you until you scream my name. Then I'm taking you to the party with your scent still on my fingers and your thighs still trembling," he whispered hovering his lips over mine. "I'm going to make you so damn crazy right now that I'll be sure that every single moment you're not with me like this you'll be thinking of what it might be like when I'm deep inside you." He brushed his lips along mine, just barely touching them.

  Oh yeah.

  Our lips collided. Frenzied, intense, passionate, desperate deep kisses. I raked my hands under his shirt and up his chest. Skin so smooth and hot. He moaned into my mouth and his breaths quickened.

  His breath slid hot over the wet skin of my neck and across my collarbone. He yanked the material of my shirt away, lowered his mouth over my breasts, and took one of my nipples in his mouth, his heavy lidded eyes still locked on mine. He licked and sucked my nipple, and it felt so damn good, I cried out his name. His tongue was pure ecstasy and his lips had complete power over me, I was his, all of me, for the taking. A hot ache filled between my thighs and I could barely catch my breath.

  He bit down softly on one of my nipples and looked up into my eyes. "Say my name again," he whispered.

  "Shane," I whimpered.

  His hands slid all the way under the lace of my undies and his fingers pressed inside me effortlessly. My body just melted over his fingers and he sucked in a husky breath. I cried out and rocked myself against him. He tugged at my nipple with his teeth and slowly slid his fingers deeper inside me, his thumb rubbing small circles against me. My head thudded itself back against the speaker, the vibrations of the bass hummed over every inch of my body making every movement of Shane's erotic as all hell.

  He slowly eased his fingers in and out, pushing and pulling inside me and I moaned deep in my throat.

  I needed to feel more of him. I skimmed my hand over his body, unbuttoned his jeans, and tore down his zipper. A small moan escaped his from his mouth as he brought his lips back up to mine.

  I arched my hips away from him and slowly pushed his pants over his hips and heard the change spill out of his pockets when they fell to the floor. I yanked at his boxers until they hung low on his legs and he panted for air.

  I slowly grasped my hands around him. He was swollen and throbbing. With his fingers still slowly moving inside me, I rubbed him against the slick tender parts of my flesh that was wet from his touch.

  "Oh, God, Grace," he growled. "I want to be inside you so damn bad right now it hurts."

  "Don't stop Shane, please," I begged.

  "Grace, I'm not taking you here, baby. Your first time ain't going to be on a speaker in the studio."

  I licked his lips and slid my hand up and down him, "You want to be my first, Shane?"

  " N o, baby, I'm going to be your last," he breathed.

  I completely shattered and fell apart in his hands and I cried out his name over and over. My insides clenched so tight around his fingers I thought I would break them. Waves of unrelenting tremors rocked my entire body from my head to my toes and I never wanted the feeling to stop. He was right, I would not think of anything or anyone until I could completely have him inside me again.

  Then, as I tried to even out my breathing, still sliding my hands up and down Shane, the door to the studio slammed open.

  "Hey! Shane are you in here?" Bliss's sharp shrill filled the studio. The hum of the speaker echoed an answer, vibrating along the walls. She flicked on the light and I looked down at Shane in my hands. Um, wow. There were just no words. Shane was perfect. Small sublime spasms rippled through my core as I slid him slowly and quietly along my wetness. So hard.

  Bliss clicked the light switch back off but she stayed in the dark waiting for something, probably to see if he was hiding somewhere. Well he was definitely somewhere. In my hands, ha Bliss! Childish, I know.

  Shane nuzzled his face in my neck and took long deep breaths, "Grace," he growled into my ear. "Don't. Move." Shane was begging. His voice sounded so desperate it made me ache.

  I slowly slid my hands up and down him again and his teeth pressed into my shoulder making my body tremble for more of him. He brought his hands up to my hair and grabbed fistfuls of it, his body rocked with small tremors.

  Bliss huffed. Then we heard her heels stomp down the hallway and the door click closed.

  Shane pulled his head back, eyes pleading with mine, "Don't move, babe. Please."

  But I did. I slid my body down his and took him deep in my mouth until he tickled the back of my throat. His fingers threaded in my hair, his body shivered. I slid my tongue around him and skimmed my mouth slowly up and down him until he tried to pull away. I tightened my grip on his hips and let him explode; hungry for him; starving. His knees buckled and I swear I felt faint from the noises he made from coming undone inside my mouth. Because, seriously, I'd be damned if I was going to let him think of anything or anyone but me until the next time he could be inside me either.

  Chapter 27

  I sat next to Lea in Shane's apartment where it looked like someone vomited pink glitter and confetti all over the walls. Above me dangled long iridescent streamers that tickled my hair whenever I stood up. I held an icy cold beer in one hand and I could still taste Shane's kiss on my lips, his hands on my skin.

  Thankfully, Shane had dried my clothes and I wasn't dressed in one of his white tank tops and boxer shorts for m
ore than twenty minutes. Yeah, that got me a lot of stares.

  The entire apartment building was packed; mostly with people we knew from the bar, but there were more than a few people that we had never seen before. Shane tensed up as soon as all the people started arriving; he locked his bedroom door from the outside and stood against the window of the living room, on guard. One of his hands was shoved deep in his pockets while the other held onto a beer that he'd been sipping for the thirty minutes we had been there. Brilliant blue eyes fixed on mine, barely blinking. His dark hair looked wildly dish eve led , heat pooled low in my belly, and my pulse quickened knowing that it was my hands that had run through his hair that made it look like that.

  "I can't hold it in anymore, I have to use the bathroom," I said leaning on Lea and forcing myself to break eye contact with Shane.

  "Yeah, me too," she nodded. "Let's go."

  I watched Shane's eyes follow me to the hallway and I could feel them still watching me when I turned my back to him to get into the bathroom. Lea closed the door behind us, locking it, and immediately someone was knocking to get in.

  "Give us five minutes! We've having hot lesbian sex in here!" she called out through the door. She whipped her head around and smiled, "YoubettertellmewhatthefuckhappenedbetweenyouandShanerightnow!"

  "I was wondering when you would jump on me. Nothing, well we definitely fooled around, but I didn't, he wouldn't, you know..."

  "Do you even hear yourself right now? What does that mean, Shane wouldn't?"

  I couldn't help the smile that crept across my face, "Said he didn't want my first time to be on a speaker in the studio. Then, get this, I asked him if he wanted to be my first and he said no Grace, I'm going to be your last."

  "On a speaker in the studio? You ASKED him if he wanted to be your first? Are you in tenth grade again?"

  I hung my head in my hands and laughed, "God. Lea, I'm so not good at this. I feel like I'm fifteen. This was the first time I've ever let anyone, ever felt anything, ever thought about anyone, other than Shamsiel. What the hell am I doing wrong?"

  "Grace, he said he wanted to be your last. Seems to me you're doing everything right," she offered.

  I just hoped I had more than a week left with him.

  We emerged from the bathroom to a bunch of strange guys cheering at us. I had no clue what they were yelling about and then I remembered what Lea had said we were doing when people were knocking on the door. Why are men such idiots?

  We crammed our bodies through the crowds of people dancing to someone singing badly on a karaoke machine. As we shoved through the crush of people, I could feel an all too familiar foreboding chill travel down my spine. Gabriel. My entire body tightened and I balled my hands into fists. I am not done here, my time is not up; I won't let it be. Bitter cold hands met with the skin of my waist, grabbing hold of my flesh, digging their fingers in deep.

  My eyes involuntarily blinked and Gabriel was in front me. He held me in a cold, calculating blue stare, locking right onto my eyes and chilling me to my bones. "Grace," his voiced whispered in my ears without his lips moving.

  The hallway seemed to shift and move, becoming hypnagogic and dreamlike. Bodies that had shuffled and surged around me before turned shadowy and distant. And the karaoke that had been playing transformed morbidly into harsh discordant carnival music that grated at my insides and made my hands fly to cover my ears.

  Gabriel lifted his hand to my face and brushed my jaw with his thumb, "You are as breathtaking as when I first laid my eyes on you." He squeezed his eyes shut tight, and whispered through clenched teeth, "Do not hide from me any longer. They won't be able to save you."

  "Leave me alone," I whispered.

  "Impossible. I want you too much."

  "The feeling is not mutual. Why do we have to go through this over and over? I will not go with you willingly. I do not love you. I do not even like you. I do not believe anything you say. I don't care about anything you say. You are nothing to me!" My voice grew louder and louder until I was screaming.

  The hand that had been caressing my face grabbed the back of my neck violently and pulled me towards him. Falling into him, I held my hands out against his chest to push away, but he crushed me to him anyway. He muscled my head to his face as I struggled to break free of his hold. "I will kill them all, my little one. All the ones that take up residence in your heart, until there's no one left for you to want to stay here for," he hissed.

  The thousands of veins and capillaries that ran through my body turned, frozen with a deep icy chill, "Then I will do everything I can to destroy you," I whispered.

  Gabriel's beautiful angelic lips curled their corners into a devilish smirk, "Yes my heart, you are becoming more like me each day. It just proves how we are so well matched." He raked his hands slowly down my neck, dragging them along my shoulders and down my arms.

  "Leave me alone."

  He laughed, "You're like my little Job Grace. Will you stand true to your choice of never being with me when everything is taken from you? Come with me no w, Grac e, so I don't have to hurt you."

  "LEAVE ME ALON E, GABRIEL!" I screamed yanking my body away from him and stumbling hard against the wall.

  Shane was in front of me instantly and suddenly a tension filled the hallway , something alive and dangerous that you could feel thick against your skin. His eyes caught and held my stare. Terror spiked through my body, if he hurt Shane I would turn into something as evil as Gabriel. Gabriel was right, if he hurt any of my friends I would never rest until I destroyed him, and that made me just as vile as him. My body began to shake with rage.

  "Grace," Shane whispered. "Grace, get behind me." He gently shoved me behind him, shielding me from Gabriel.

  Lea, Conner and Ethan were next to me before I could take my next breath.

  Gabriel's smirk turned more sinister as he glared at me, "How sweet, Grace." He bumped his body against Shane's and whispered into my face, "There are so many ways to torture a perso n, Grace."

  "Get the fuck away from her," Shane growled blocking Gabriel's advance at me. Ethan lunged forward towards Shane to help, but Gabriel just turned around and we lost sight of him in a rush of dancing people.

  I flung myself at Shane's back wrapping my arms tightly around the front of him so he wouldn't run after Gabriel. I felt his muscles strain and twist against me, "Don't go after hi m, Shane, just forget him. He's all talk." Tears stung my eyes from the sheer terror of Gabriel's words and my blatant lie. I needed to keep my friends safe, and I had no idea how I would accomplish that. I had no idea about anything anymore.

  Shane swung his arm around my head, grabbed me by the shoulder pulling me in front of him, and smiled down at me. He planted a kiss on top of my head and laughed, "Oh, Grace. I've seen you pummel guys a hell of a lot scarier than him. Come on, you need a drink, you're trembling."

  He let go of me and handed me to Lea, who was trembling herself. "Are you okay?" she whispered. She asked me nine times before we made it to the kitchen for a drink.

  I kept telling Lea I was fine, but all she had to do was take one close look at me and she would know that I was lying.

  Once we were in the kitchen, Ethan grabbed a bottle of something from the back corner of one of the cabinets. He twisted the cap off and made us all drink from the bottle. It went around in a circle between the five of us, each taking three giant gulps.

  Lea whipped the back of her hand over her lips after the third round, "Holy germ swapping backsplas h, Ethan! No cups?"

  Ethan leveled a serious stare at her. "Sorry, Lea, but this is one of Vixen4's parties. There is no way any of us should drink anything unless it's from a bottle you have opened yourself."

  Lea's eyed bulged and her lips shaped themselves into a small o.

  Ethan turned his attention to me, "Who was that? And what did he say to you?"

  Shane cut me off before I could come up with a lie, "That's was her ex's best friend. He's been harassing Grace into going out with
him and she doesn't want to have anything to do with him." He scanned my face with furrowed brows, "You don't want anything to do with him, do you?"

  Butterflies ripped through my stomach and heat splashed across my cheeks, "Shane, I thought I made it perfectly clear in the studio today what I want."

  His eyes widened and the corners of his lips lifted into a breathtaking smile, "Damn, Grace. I completely forgot what you said in the studio. You'll have to repeat the conversation to me again sometime, if you want." He handed the bottle to me and brushed his index finger against the back of my hand.

  I brought the bottle to my lips and took a drink without breaking my stare with him. "That's not a problem at all. I remember everything I said to you, and everything you said back. I would definitely love to have another discussion on the subject, because I've really been thinking about it and there's so much more I'd like to add."

  He chuckled, a deep, throaty, sexy sound that tickled every nerve ending in my body, "I'm going to hold you to it."

  My cheeks heated more, "Yes, please do. Hold me to it."

  "Bam-chicka-waa-waa" Lea slurred. "Watch out Conner, the porn's about to fly!" She slumped against me giggling, "Does anyone think it would be a fuck of a lot safer for Grace if we all went back home? Seriously, ex-boyfriend's friends, Vixen4, I've had enough tonight."

  Shane shook his head laughing, "Let's forget about ex-boyfriend's and their douchebag best friends, we're not letting anything happen to her, so why don't we dance or something? This is a party isn't it?"

  Lea clapped her hands, "Karaoke?"

  "Let's go!" Ethan yelled making a path through the dancing bodies into the living room.

  Shane stepped into the living room and pulled the karaoke microphone from some poor gir l's hands right before she was about to sing and he handed me the list of songs to look through. "Pick something that means something to you, forget what happened before. Just live and have fun. I promise nothing will happen to you, I won't let anything hurt you," his hands settled themselves on the small of my back possessively and my butterflies intensified their wing flapping.