Page 11 of Love is Grand

Blowing out a long breath, I opened the car door and accepted his waiting hand, then took him inside my house. The one my parents put a down payment on for Ricky and me. The house I’d paid the mortgage on for years because Ricky was always coming up short. The place where Weezie had learned to crawl and walk and talk, and then watched her dad leave.

“You know why I like this place?” Cal said as we walked inside. He turned around, taking it in under the dim light I’d left on. “It smells like you. Like fresh, sweet water. I can’t explain it. They don’t have that at the Grand.”

Just like that, Cal dispelled any embarrassment I had about my house, and for the moment, any anxiety over inviting New York’s biggest player home with me for the evening, or an hour.

By the time I’d laid my purse on the rattan chair next to the door and had kicked off my shoes, Cal was close, his breath ghosting over my skin. Mint and warmth swirled around me.

“Missed this,” he said before kissing me.

My back hit the wall, and I was consumed by Cal.

At first, his kisses were slow and reserved, closed-mouthed but making me want more. Controlling the pace, he finally parted my lips with his tongue. I could feel my breath coming in pants, my chest heaving with desire.

“Open your eyes,” he murmured into my mouth.

I wasn’t even sure how he knew they were closed, he was so focused on devouring my mouth. When I obeyed, his knee moved up in between my legs and found my heat all too easily under my skirt.

My gaze met his, his searing through me, heating a fire like had never been lit.

His palm grazed my side, sliding up beneath my shirt, skin on skin now, sending tingles through my veins.

In one quick swoop, I was lifted into Cal’s arms, my legs wrapping around his midsection of their own free will.

“Good girl,” he told me.

I probably should have felt demeaned at his comment, but I didn’t.

He pressed another kiss to my lips, then murmured against them, “Bedroom?”

One word, and I was pointing to the stairs.

He carried me up, the floorboards creaking under our weight. He found my room on the first try and set me on the bed, then toed off his shoes. Gathering my silky tank, he pulled it over my head, revealing my satin bra.

A hum came from deep in his chest before he told me, “Take it all off.”

As I obliged, he joined me.

When we were left in nothing but our bare skin, Cal gently guided me back, shifting me up the bed. It was an intimate act, one I imagined was reserved for committed lovers, but it felt so right. Our nakedness felt like I was sharing my soul with him.

Surely, I’d regret this line of thinking in the morning, but at that moment, as Cal kissed his way down my body, I didn’t care.

• December •

Cal

Merry Christmas, I texted back as I stepped out into the sun and looked for my driver.

I’d cooled shit off with Sophia back in October when I got back home from my last trip to the island, blaming work. For two months, I’d been putting off having “the talk” with her about our relationship.

Then she went and invited me to her parents’ house for the holiday. Clearly, she wasn’t getting where I was at with her, which was nowhere. I’d never promised her anything other than a good time, and I’d thought she was down with the program. Apparently, though, she was hanging on for dear life when it came to me. Yeah, we’d had chemistry in the beginning, but it had faded.

Waving, I signaled to Jack, the same driver I had the last time I stayed at the Grand. I could have rented a car, but I was a New Yorker these days. We didn’t drive when we didn’t have to.

“Hey. Welcome back,” Jack said as he took my luggage and stowed it in the back of the Jeep.

“I see I’ve been downgraded from the town car,” I said, slipping into the passenger seat. “No way I’m getting into the back of this thing. The wind will blow my ears out.”

Jack nodded. “You asked for me, and this is the car Tony has me in this week.”

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