Page 32 of Anders and the Girl Worth Fighting For
I waited in the silence for her answer. Shame wormed through me that I didn’t tell her my suspicions earlier. She didn’t look up from her plate, but she didn’t continue to pretend to eat, either. She was still. I kept waiting.
“I think I knew it would come down to that,” she finally said. She stared at her plate, not even moving the food around anymore, frozen while she processed the information, and my heart sank at the trust I must have lost.
She pushed her plate away and stood up suddenly.
“Thank you for telling me.”
I watched her walk away, my heart in my throat.
I didn’t see her again for a while. My dinner sat forgotten on the island. I kept picking up my phone to message Tink for an update, but I knew he would message as soon as he had one. So I would put it down for a minute and then start the process over again. I don’t know how long I sat in this limbo, trying to give Grace space to process, but desperately wanting to go in there and see how she was.
When I saw Grace again, she had changed. She was in a new dress, one I hadn’t seen yet. The hem was shorter than I would have expected based on her other clothing. I tried not to stare at the exposed length of thigh, or at the low cut of her top. I don’t think I succeeded. It was the perfect shade of red to bring out the gold in her hair.
Fucking fuck.
“I’m tired of being afraid of them,” she said as she strutted into the living room. My jaw clenched tight. I was afraid if I didn’t do that, it would be on the floor. This is a whole new Grace to the one I first saw a week ago. I’m not even sure if this Grace lurked in her letters. I loved it.
“I don’t blame you for not telling me before,” she said. “I think if I had learned it earlier I might not have been able to handle it, but now that I know who I’ve been afraid of, I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I want to live my life again.” She walked towards me and stood before me by the end of her speech.
“You may take me to dinner.” She said that last bit like it was an order and not an acceptance of my earlier, desperate attempt at redirection. I wanted to jump up to comply. I wanted to skip dinner entirely and keep her hidden, so only I saw this side of her. I wanted to show her off to the world. I stayed seated and settled for some teasing instead.
“You sound like a queen giving a command,” I said with a smirk. One I knew would make her blush. I kicked my legs out and stretched my arm across the back of the couch while I waited for her reply.
“Well, if you don’t want to go.” She shrugged. The move tested the limits of her top and my control. She sauntered over to the door and my eyes were drawn down her back to the heels that graced her feet. I registered what she was doing the moment she started unbolting the door. I jumped to my feet and made it across the room to her in a flash.
“And just what do you think you are doing?” I asked as I came up behind her. I spun her around and pinned her to the wall. She didn’t shake me off. No, she just smiled at me. Slow and seductive.
Holy hell.
“I’m living my life,” she said. Her voice was soft. “After nearly30 years, I think I’m entitled to it.” She shrugged again, and the move brushed her chest against mine. Her voice steady while I was rapidly losing my fucking mind.
“Yes, you are.”
My gaze went from her eyes to her lips. She swiped her tongue on them, and I lost it. I bent to kiss her, rough and hard. I couldn’t be gentle, not right now. Not with her in that red dress. Not with her teasing me and testing me.
I teased her lips with mine and drove my tongue in to tangle with hers when she opened on a gasp. Her hands had moved up to knot in my hair while mine remained bracketed around her. I think if I touched her right now, I wouldn’t be able to hold back.
She wasn’t scared and vulnerable anymore. She had shown me that much over the last several days. I moved from her mouth down to her jaw and along the pulse behind her ear.
“Anders,” she said on a low, breathy gasp when I freed her mouth.
A guttural groan vibrated the air around us, coming from a place deep in me where all my pent up desire for this woman lived.
Chapter Fifteen
Do you know what you do to me?” Anders asked as he pressed me against the wall. His body pressed against mine, a solid weight. His breath whispered against my skin. His voice was rough and perfect.
“No,” I said.
His hands were still on the wall beside me and my hands were tangled in his hair. He stopped kissing me, ripping away a piece of me with the loss of contact. He rested his forehead on mine. His breath brushed my lips, tasting of the spice still lingering from lunch andhim.
“Me neither,” he said when our breathing evened out.
I untangled my hands from his hair and ran them down his face to his chest. I didn’t push him away, but I didn’t pull him closer like I wanted. We existed in this liminal space between what we were and what we could become, neither of us pushing one way or another.
“Grace.” He said my name like it was precious. When he said it like that, I could believe it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
His harsh, rapid breath tickled the hairs around my face. His massive biceps flexed beside me, filling my periphery withhim. Have they always been so… big? Tension radiated off him, and I didn’t know if he wanted to pull me close or push away.
