Page 45 of The Devil's Deceit
Christ, I want Grace. I haven’t been with a woman since the day she glided past me at the charity ball almost seven weeks ago. This is not my usual MO. I’m a date two, possibly three guy before I have the woman beneath me, but with Grace… I don’t know, she’s different. That doesn’t stop me waking with a hard on every morning and hand-jobbing in the shower to her image lodged in my mind.
I have to have her, and soon, or I might explode. This can’t be good for my health.
It’s teeming with rain as my plane taxis to a halt on the tarmac, and a chilly wind whips through the cabin when the flight attendant opens the door. I dash down the steps and into my car that’s waiting at the bottom of the steps.
“Have I been away so long that I missed the last days of summer and catapulted right into October?”
Dawson, my driver, chuckles. “It’s been like this for the past few days. Gotta love England in summer, right, boss?”
“No, I fucking don’t,” I grumble, taking out my phone to send a message to Grace.
While I was away, my father sent me an invite to a business meeting at The Shard for tomorrow. Attending meetings with my father is always a nerve-racking time for me in case I fuck up and he’s there to witness my public humiliation. Considering the subject of the meeting is nothing to do with property, either, I’m unsure why he’s asked me to accompany him at all.
There is a positive side, though. This could be another opportunity for Grace to put in an appearance. Now I’ve decided Grace is the one, I’m keen to move things along. At this rate, I’ll be fifty before my father gets to know her well enough to decide she’s a suitable wife.
The fact Grace hasn’t been in touch with me once since we last met is testament to how much of a business deal she sees this union as. On the one hand, that’s a positive sign. The last thing I need is for her to catch feelings. I may be obsessed with her now, but fast forward a month or two, and my interest will have waned. It always does, and she won’t be any different. On the other hand, the egotistical Neanderthal in me is licking his wounds and pretending he’s fine. It hurts to discover I’m not irresistible. Let’s face it, no guy wants to admit that, even to himself.
And men say women are complicated…
I open the messaging app, then change my mind. I want to hear her voice, to close my eyes and let her soothing tones wash over me. Like meetings with my father, business tripsinvolving my peers always give me anxiety. Not that I’d ever admit as much to Dad or my brothers, but there are too many occasions where I sit in a room with the brightest minds in the world and feel like a fraud. I’ve learned over several years to play the game. To show confidence even when I don’t feel it. So far, it’s paid off.
Apart from that one time, when I needed to be on the ball, to pore over checks and balances, I failed, and two people were crushed to death because of it. I’m not a martyr, sitting here all woe-is-me. Grania and Drew have the most blame to shoulder, but paying with their lives is a cruel twist of fate neither of them, or me, saw coming. It doesn’t matter how much time passes, I keep running over the same shit day after day. If I’d been smarter, more attentive,diligent, they’d be alive today. In prison, for sure, but alive.
The ringing tone sounds in my ear, and I lean my head against the leather headrest, a sense of calm coming over me before she’s even answered.
“Hello.”
I close my eyes and consider that Grace has actual magical powers. “Hello yourself.”
“Christian, you’re alive.”
I sense the teasing note to her tone and break into a smile. “Phone calls and texts go in both directions, Duchess.”
“Yeah, but I’m an old-fashioned girl. I want to be chased.”
A groan rumbles through my chest, a vision speeding through my mind of a naked Grace running through the woods on the eastern side of our property, with me in hot pursuit. I catch her, both of us breathless and sweaty, and fuck her up against the thousand-year-old oak tree I used to climb as a kid.
“Christian, you still there?”
“Yeah,” I say throatily, palming my erection. “Just envisaging you running, me chasing, and what I’ll do to you when I catch you.”
She laughs. “That’s presumptuous. I’m pretty fast.”
“Yes, but with you as the prize, Grace, the Devil himself couldn’t stop me from winning that race.”
Another soft laugh echoes in my ears. “Where have you been?”
“Where haven’t I been?” I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a tired breath. “But I’m home now, and I want to see you.”
“Okay.”
“My father has set up a business meeting at The Shard tomorrow at 2 o’clock. I thought it would be a good idea if we bump into you accidentally-on-purpose if you’re free at that time.”
“I can be free.”
My stomach flips at the mere idea of seeing her. I have it bad for this one. The sooner I get her into bed, the faster I can move past this intense obsession. “Perfect. The meeting is only thirty minutes, so we’ll be in the lobby shortly after two-thirty.”
“What do you want me to do? He knows we know each other, right?”
