Page 27 of Grissom
Oh, my God!Grissom nearly smacked his forehead when his messed-up brain solved the biggest riddle in his life.
Tuesday, the ballsy woman who’d taken down Maeve Astor...
Tuesday Smart, the savvy, sophisticated, world-renowned photographer…
The woman who’d captured some of the planet’s most amazing, powerful images of different peoples, animals, and the effects of changing climates across the Earth…
The barely out of high school young lady who’d made headlines when she’d married that older-than-dirt guy from New York City…
Oh, my God!Grissom should’ve known! He should’ve guessed! Or something. But at last, he was finally seeing past the very mature woman in his arms to the little girl behind that sophisticated mask, pressed against his bigger, stronger, definitely, all-male body. He got it. He finally got it.
Taking a full step back, he crouched to her eye level to see into those intelligent green depths when she answered his next question. “You’ve never been with a man, have you?”
One of her hands knifed up, shielding her face from his scrutiny. “No, I, uh…”
He knew it! He was right, and it made sense, given her messed-up history. She’d gone from being an average high school girl to an orphan, and from there, she’d been sucked into a phony marriage with that billionaire dude. Most recently, she’d worked for yet another older man, who’d sent her to the farthest, most isolated parts of the world. Where she’d had a gnat’s chance in hell of meeting a man of her caliber, much less dating anyone. Much less experiencing…that.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
“Tuesday, look at me,” Grissom urged, gently cupping her jaw and using the soft pressure of his thumbs to tilt her chin up. “Please, love. Take a chance on me. I don’t bite.”
It took a few seconds before she blew out a soft breath and summoned the strength to do what he asked. By then, she was a leaf fluttering in the wind, her mask gone and tears on the verge of streaming down her cheeks. She knew that he knew her deepest, darkest secret. The sweet knowledge of who and what he had in his arms was inexplicably, magnificently, all Grissom had ever wanted. He could barely make out the details of her pretty face through the blur brimming his own eyes. God, he was a sap, crying like a two-year-old in front of this woman. But the idea that, here stood the most remarkable person he’d ever met, and that she was untouched and pure, floored the hell out of him. He should have run the other way and never looked back. He was still who he was, and Tuesday Smart deserved so much better.
But there he stood, once again looking over the edge of the biggest drop-off of his life, facing another Leap of Faith. Was he brave enough to take the jump and encourage Tuesday to jump with him? To stay with him, maybe forever? Oh, hell, yes. If a simple, frightening plunge off some cliff in Hawaii could fill him with euphoria like it had, he could only imagine what falling in love with Tuesday would bring.
He’d already fallen several times today. Now, he just needed her to fall with him.
Cautiously, trying his damnedest not to frighten her, Grissom pulled Tuesday under his chin and wrapped his arms around the sweetest woman he’d ever met. “Don’t cry, love. I’ve got no resistance, and my boys will think you hurt me, if they see me bawling like a little baby, and—”
“They adore you, Grissom.”
“I think they actually adore you more. Me, they justendurebecause I feed them,” he murmured into the top of her head. “You wouldn’t mind hanging around a little longer to find out what this feeling between us is, would you?” He felt like his boys when they begged, ‘Please, oh please.’
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered into his neck, her breath a warm balm that threatened to unman Grissom. “It’ll give Tanner and Luke the wrong impression, and they’ve been through enough. They deserve better than us leading them on.”
He played the only card he had left, simply lowered his head and placed a whisper of a kiss on her forehead. Keeping his mouth there, he begged, “Stay with us, Tuesday. Just for one night. Please. I’ve got extra beds. You’ll be safe and sound. I’ll stay in my room, or better yet, you can sleep in there. The bed’s bigger and my boys will love sleeping with you. We’ll tell them it’s too late for you to leave so we’re having a sleepover. It’ll be a good way to end their day. What have you got to lose?”
Tuesday looked up at him then, blinking hard, trying to keep her tears from falling. “My heart,” she whispered in a soft, tired voice. “I’ve only ever given it to my dad. What if…?”
And Grissom melted. Tipping into her, he pressed his lips to her forehead again and asked, “You didn’t love that older guy you married, did you?”
“Not like that, no. He was good to me, but Freddie was more like a grandfather. He spoiled me and he took care of me. He paid for me to attend the best university and he… he kept me safe.”
Thank God.“I’m not asking for forever, love. Just one night. After Walker and Persia go home, and once the boys fall asleep, we’ll talk. Just talk. I think once we get a few things out in the open, you’ll feel better, at least, more at ease. Okay? Give me a chance to prove I’m not always the idiot I was earlier.”
Her chest heaved with a silent chuckle. “I never thought you were an idiot.”
“Well, I am,” he declared. “What do you think? Stay a little longer? It’d sure make Tanner and Luke happy. Err, damn it. I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to use them to get you to stay, but I just did that. Shit.” He raked his fingers over his head.
“Shush,” she soothed, her fingers intertwined with his, in his hair, massaging the scalp he’d just scraped.
“Fu-u-u-u-ck…” whispered out of his mouth. “Don’t stop.”Please, for the love of God, don’t stop.
With one touch of Tuesday’s gentle fingers, Grissom’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he became the ugly dog that hadn’t been petted in years. Maybe never, sure not the way she was touching him. And just that fast, he knew why dogs’ rear legs thumped when someone finally stooped down to talk to them and pet them. To reach out, take a chance, and touch them. His inner dog’s leg wasn’t the only thing twitching.
“You like that?” she asked, her breath warm and moist on his chin.
“Not as much as I like this,” he replied huskily, his mouth hovering over hers, not quite touching, but giving her the chance to decide for herself. When her chin tipped up, Grissom lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her as chastely as she deserved. Thoroughly, yet gently. Not a hint of tongue against her tightly-sealed lips. Could this be her first kiss? How was that possible? But a man could hope.
