Page 26 of Grissom
Chapter Fourteen
Grissom froze where he stood at the entry to the hallway, struck dumb by the quietly spoken words that had just poured out of Tuesday. After making sure his boys were doing their chores, he’d been quietly admiring the view. Her taut ass in those skinny jeans. How they made her mile-long legs look longer. The burnished tangles tumbling down her back, tangles he wanted to wrap around his fist. But the words she’d whispered were a no-kidding prayer, and he didn’t want to intrude.‘But God, she’s not wicked. She’s pure and innocent and… and… You know it.’
And she deserved to be wrapped up safe and sound inside the best family in the world. Maybe Mark and Libby’s. They could use a nanny with all their kids. Surely Tuesday would love working for them. Or David and Nancy Tao. They were good people and had six or seven kids, most of them boys. Surely Nancy could use an extra hand around the house. Although, now that Grissom thought of it, the Tao boys were extremely protective of their little sister, and they might not like a nanny bossing them around. Not that Tuesday was bossy. Hell, Grissom wasn’t even sure why his brain had decided she’d make a great nanny. She’d never said she wanted to be one, had she?
The loneliness pouring out of Tuesday killed. He understood every last one of those broken parts of her. The despair. The stinging sorrow for sins she hadn’t committed. Survivor’s guilt for losing people she loved. They had so damned much in common yet were still so different. She was the image of sophistication; he was a train wreck. She had brains, beauty, and friends in high places. He had a mortgage from hell, two children he treasured more than anything else, and enough debt to keephim in the poorhouse for the rest of his life. There was no way to sugarcoat it. He made good money working for Alex, but a decent life with him would still be damned near impossible.
Scrubbing a hand over his head, Grissom didn’t know how to ease the sorrow leaking out of the beauty at the sliders. Okay, so Tuesday being anyone’s nanny was a stretch. She was over-qualified. Frustrated he couldn’t easily fix her problem, he walked quietly up behind Tuesday and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He intended that hug to be nothing more than friendly.
But the moment her body stiffened at the contact, everything changed. This embrace was a mistake. He’d gotten too close, and now his nose was in her hair. She smelled like roses and Tuesday and—thank you, Lord—her lush, womanly body melted against him. Lifting her arms, she latched onto the forearms he’d crossed over her upper chest. Just her chest, not her breasts. Oh hell, no. He’d stayed clear of those luscious pillows. At least, he’d tried.
Because he was the father of two impressionable boys, damn it. Who were right then scrambling to get their chores done before game night. Single fathers had tremendous responsibilities that excluded dating, chasing women, and thinking just of themselves. Fathers didn’t do randy stuff like that. Tanner and Luke needed him to be present, to be there for them, every minute of every day. Not gadding about town, trolling for hook-ups. Not trying, in any way, to satisfy his carnal needs instead of taking care of them. No way. They deserved the best, and by hell, the best was what he’d give them. If it took forever, he’d be the father Tanner and Luke deserved. He would.
Only… The woman gathered in his arms was a lovely bouquet of delicate flowers. A heady combination of roses and fresh air and—Tuesday. Her slender fingers tightened on his arms, and he fell in love with her all over again. How could he let her go nowthat he knew what it was like to hold her? He was just a man, and men were weaker than shit. Everyone knew that and…
This had to end. Right now. He couldn’t let himself be trapped again.No. Just, no.
But… Caught in the rapture of simply holding her, of nearly surrounding her much smaller frame inside the study shelter of his larger body, Grissom inhaled the essence of the fragile, yet stronger-than-shit woman in his arms. The professional who’d loved his boys before she’d known them. Was that reason enough to entice her to stay? Grissom answered his own question by whispering, “How do you like your steak? Well done, medium, medium rare, or—”
“Just take me back to my car after I see Tanner’s pictures, please.”
“No,” he answered, keeping his tone neutral but his answer sure. “You’re as bad as me, Tuesday, setting boundaries that keep everyone away. But I see you. I mean, I see me in you. That might not make sense, but I can tell you’re scared. Well, I’m scared, too, but like I tell my boys, it’s okay to be scared, and it’s okay to cry, and it’s okay to…”
Jesus, where was I going with this?
“I am scared,” she admitted quietly, still not facing him. “I fell in love at first sight with your sons, but that’s why I have to leave. If I stay here any longer, I’m afraid—”
“That you might fall in love with me?” As conceited as it made him sound, Grissom had to know.
Tuesday didn’t answer. Instead, she relinquished her ten-point grip on his arms and twisted around until she was facing him, looking up at him. Her fingers were now splayed softly over his chest, and she was so beautiful. Her green eyes were red-rimmed and glistening, and he could feel her pounding heart against his. He’d never felt so alive. There he stood, heart-to-heart, with the angel who’d dashed to his sons’ rescue, insteadof the manipulative, malicious troll who’d only ever seen dollar signs when she’d looked at him.
Tuesday wasn’t Pam. Why couldn’t he get that through his hard head? Not all women were evil. He knew that. She didn’t fit the paradigm, not at all. Looking down into her delicate features, her pert turned-up nose, and the tiny freckles scattered over it like cinnamon sprinkles, was like diving head-first off that eighty-five-foot-high cliff in Hawaii. The one his Army buddy had called the Leap of Faith.
Grissom had been an arrogant, headstrong fool that day, cowed into a dangerous, risky dive by his pride. But when his buddy, Wade Kekoa, had explained how his last name meant‘warrior’in native Hawaiian, well, Grissom couldn’t NOT jump. He was a warrior, too, damn it, and he’d had to prove it. His reputation came down to a few foolish seconds of dive-or-die. So he’d dived.
The rush of that headlong dive from a ragged lava ledge was still the damnedest ten-second thrill of his life. The heart-stopping sensation of falling to his death, then fighting the ruthless undertow once he’d survived that fall and resurfaced, had nearly done him in. But after the success of living through the fall, came the first gulp of fresh air and the euphoria of being a no-kidding winner. Along with that realization came a powerful surge of invincibility and confidence.
For the first time in his life, Grissom had faced death and spit in its eye, and he’d won, damn it. High on that ledge, alone in the moment, he’d conquered fear and cowardice and a slew of the other negative shit in his life. By hell, yeah, he’d jumped. He’d literally taken that Leap of Faith dive by the balls and…
Speaking of leaping…
Grissom knew he’d lose Tuesday forever if he let her push away now. Very gently, ever so carefully, he pulled her tiny body flush against his chest and his damned randy cock. Thebelligerent thing thought it had a chance of seeing daylight the way it was twitching for attention. Couldn’t have been more embarrassing if it screamed,‘Here I am! Pick me, me, me, me, me!’
Shut the hell up!
“Grissom,” Tuesday whispered, her chin up and her head tipped back to maintain eye contact. “I refuse to trap you like Pam did. That’s why she called when you were deployed to Syria, wasn’t it? I can only imagine how she worded it, but that’s when she told you that you were a father, right?”
He tossed a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure his sons weren’t within range of hearing. Not that they’d understand, but kids were smarter than people gave them credit for. Thankfully, Tuesday kept her voice low too because…
Duh. She cares about your boys as much as you do.
“True,” Grissom admitted quietly. He opened his mouth to explain how he believed Pam had gotten herself pregnant, but he clapped it shut. Loose lips still sunk ships, and he didn’t want to sink the McCoy ship now that it was actually afloat again. So he nodded, then wondered if Tuesday could read his mind.
“I can’t do that to you. Yes, I care for you.” Those intelligent, alert, ever watchful, green eyes maintained contact with his. “You’ve endured unimaginable betrayal, Grissom. You’re almost as good a father as my dad was, and you say all the right things, but—”
“Forget about everything and everybody else.” Damned if he didn’t sound like his family counselor. Which was unfathomably weird. Him, imparting wisdom? Did. Not. Compute. But there he was. Willing to do anything to keep Tuesday, at least for the night. “Focus on what you feel right now, not yesterday, not even this morning. You feel it, too, the electricity buzzing between us. Don’t you?”
She blinked, and he saw it then. The young woman in his arms was afraid of him. Not that he’d hurt her, but because...
