Page 66 of Possession

“No, dammit, it won’t be better. I want to know why you took my class for three years. Why you knew my grandmother—why she was yourbenefactor—” She said the word as if it were poison, “yet I never once met you. You never even said hello to me.”

“That’s not true. I asked you about a particular technique with copper and glass, and you explained it to me in detail.”

She brushed it off, shaking her head. “Three years, Blake. A man like you wouldn’t have bothered with a class like mine, even back then.”

“I learned from you. You were the one who introduced me to glass, who made me see it was so much more than a pretty object.”

She reeled back as if I’d slapped her. “Stop it. Was it just a lark for you? Just a free class you took because my grandmother footed the bill?”

“I told you.” I gripped her shoulders and shook her lightly until she finally met my gaze. “You’re the one who taught me how to fall in love. With glass,” I said as she went still, hating that I had to divert to safe territory once again.

Even in the truth, only lies could protect me. And protect Grace, because I’d be damned if anyone harmed her—or the memories she held dear of the grandmother she loved so much.

Chapter 17

Blake

Ikissed her.

It wasn’t fair to deflect her questions or worse, to distract her from them. I’d done that far too often. But I hadn’t been lying about keeping her safe, and the idea that someone could be invading our privacy, watching too closely, when I’d finally made her mine…

Fuck, I had to have her. I needed to feel her pulse around me while she shattered in orgasm. My name on her lips and our memories no more important than the sweat cooling between us.

Her lips opened and her tongue came out to battle with mine. Slick and hot, her mouth tempted me like no other. Just like the rest of her. Before I’d ever touched her, before I’d fully understood what true want was, I’d understood this woman would be my decimation.

She fisted a hand in my shirt, pulling until I was sure the buttons would pop. Then she shoved me back, her eyes wild. “You think my grandmother might’ve had an affair with your father and you’re just—just going to maul me?”

“Ms. Copeland, I’d maul you if your grandmother and my father were having an affair in this very room.” I took advantage of the smile that twitched on her face and stepped forward to slip a hand under her slouchy top. We’d changed after Jack left, and she’d picked something that doubled as pajamas and lounge wear. Soft, soft shirt, fuzzy pants with dancing sheep.

About the most unsexy things known to man, and yet….

“I can’t compartmentalize. You can, obviously.”

“I’d say this is a very large compartment, wouldn’t you?” Not caring if it was crude, I grabbed her hand and brought it to the steel pole tenting my pants. My idea of clothes to wear around the house and hers differed, but since we would soon be naked, I didn’t care.

Her fingers curled in and held even as she continued to try to get me to see reason. “We’re caught up in something so much bigger than us,” she said, and that hint of uncertainty swayed me more than any demands to be logical.

Fuck logic. What had it ever gotten me? Yes, I’d made more money than I ever dreamed, but I’d also spent too many years alone.

Grace had pushed me past my limits over and over, and all I wanted was more.

Nothing with her would ever be enough.

“You wanted to know why I kept coming back to your classes. Year after year. You refuse to believe it’s because of your skill at teaching, and the joy you share every time you immerse yourself in your art. It’s your gift. You make people want to experience that happiness too.” I reached back to undo her messy braid. Half of her hair had come out of it, and she didn’t seem to notice or care. “But there was more.”

She’d begun to relax under my hands, but then she stiffened. “I knew it.”

“I know it’s hard to imagine it looking at my photos back then, but I didn’t exactly have my pick of the girls.”

She made a sound in her throat and ducked her head.

“Weird thing was, I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend. Maybe I was too angry, too used to fending for myself to even think that someone would be able to deal with me. Besides, I had two hands.”

Her head came up, her gaze sharpening. I knew she was thinking about that night in my bathroom, just as I was. The night she’d asked me to jerk off for her pleasure, using my tie.

“Then I saw you. There was absolutely no reason for you to grab me the way you did. You seemed to have even less interest in the opposite sex than I did. All you cared about was what you built with your hands and your heart.”

Her lips trembled. “I was practically a child.”

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