A Risk Worth Taking (10 page)

After buttoning up her blouse, she said. “Come shopping with me tomorrow. We can talk then.”

“Sure.”

She reached for her coat, but he got to it first and held it open for her to shrug into.

“I’d like for us to spend more time together without other people around.”

“Hell, I’ll hold your purse and wait outside the dressing room if you want.”

Abby shook her head. “You really do know how to say just the right thing.”

“I’ll remind you of that the next time I put my size thirteens in my mouth.”

“It’s a deal,” she said a smile playing at her lips. “But, you’re in luck. It’s not that type of shopping. I have to go to the hardware store, the party supply place, and a bedding store. It’s all things either for the Help and Hope’s family day or the bedroom I’m redoing for the two little Griffin girls.”

A jolt of urgency fired off in his brain at the reminder she’d be leaving in three months. But, since she was getting ready to walk out his door any second now, he shoved down-the-road worries to the side in favor of the one staring him in the face.

When she took another step toward the door, he lunged for her, taking her by the shoulders. Taking advantage of the chance to hold her a little longer, he began fastening the buttons of her coat. Then because she was letting him, he eased her hair from under the collar of her coat, fanning it over her shoulders. “I’ll pick you up around noon?”

She stood on her toes to press a light kiss against his lips. “No. I’ll meet you at the North Atlanta Avenues.”

Chapter 11

“See if I buy you new floor mats.” Abby chuckled as she slammed the car door. After twenty minutes, several promises, and threats to get the jumper cables after her car, she admitted defeat. Harvey the car was DOA and Grant was going to get his way. She palmed her phone on her way back inside. It rang once.

“Beautiful lady, you’re not cancelling on me,” he stated in lieu of a greeting.

“No,” she laughed. “My car died.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” he said in mock sympathy. “I guess I get to chauffeur you around after all.”

Abby sat down at her desk in the corner of her living room and powered up her laptop. “Somehow I knew you that would make you happy.”

“Only because it gives me another chance to get you into a confined space where you can’t escape.”

The purr in his voice shot her thoughts to the butler’s pantry, the point when she realized not only could she no longer resist him, but she didn’t want to. “I’ll see you in a few minutes then,” she said as a spark of heat bloomed in her at the deep rumble of his voice.

Fanning herself with a stack of papers, Abby opened her email’s inbox. After cleaning out the notices from the neighborhood watch and the ads the spam filter didn’t catch, she opened one from the woman with whom she’d be trading places.

The majority of Laura Griffin’s cheery letter contained a dozen questions about life in Atlanta, but her closing included the number eighty-three: the number of days until they met in Washington D.C. for orientation. Already amped up from her conversation with Grant, Abby now practically vibrated in her seat. She’d always wanted to visit London and now she was getting to live there for a year. Envisioning red phone booths, glimpses of Will and Kate, and traveling to school on a double decker bus, she fired off a reply with questions of her own.

Just as she was hitting the Send button, another thought pushed the tea and crumpets imagery to the side.
Why was she starting something with Grant when she was leaving in three months?

A knock at her back door got her feet moving. “I wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem,” she muttered to herself on the way to the kitchen.

Her belly clinched, as she opened the door to let in the hottest thing to ever set foot in her house. She was beginning to really enjoy that wicked grin of his. To say nothing of the rest of him. His acid washed jeans hung low on his hips. He’d rolled up the cuffs of his white dress shirt that was also open at the collar, revealing just enough of his pecs to get her blood pumping.

She’d barely gotten the door closed when he clasped her by the wrist and pulled her hard against him. Strong arms fenced her as he murmured low in her ear. “Good morning, beautiful lady.” He tilted her head back and claimed her mouth hard and hungry.

That’s how she’d gone from “this isn’t a good idea” to “kiss me, please.” Like water wore down rock and wind toppled oaks, Grant was an irresistible force of nature. Abby eased her arms around his waist and breathed in the heady scent of his aftershave as she buried her face into his chest.

Kisses trailed tantalizingly slow across her jaw and when he brushed back her hair and began devouring her neck, she thought she’d go up in flames. She tried not to pant as his mouth moved to her collarbone but gave up when he began to nip at her skin.

“Damn, woman. You taste good.”

She needed to either stop him now or let him take her on her freshly mopped floor. She pushed against the hard plain of his chest without budging him. “Stop.”

He pegged her with a look that asked if that was what she really wanted before loosening his grip on her.

“Good morning to you, too.” She slipped out of his arms and moved to the coffee pot. “Wants some?” she asked, trying to give her a second to collect her wits.

Grant shook his head with a grin. “I’m plenty awake.” He took a deep breath then surveyed her kitchen, his brow furrowed. “Smells like paint, furniture polish, and chocolate chip cookies in here.” He crossed the small room in one long legged stride, hooking his fingers into the belt loops of her jeans to pull her into him again. “Something keeping you awake?”

A smile pulled at the edges of her lips at his naughty suggestion. Despite his having loved her into a state of relaxed bliss, once in her own bed she’d slept fitfully and woken early. “A couple things.”

“Tell me.”

She shook her head. “Just stuff. School, chores that need doing…” Her voice trailed off.

He tilted her chin up, his blue eyes softening to color of worn denim. “Us?”

Her stomach did a backwards flip. “Yes.”

He brushed his thumb over her cheek before kissing her lightly on the lips. “Me, too.” Suddenly, the megawatt smile was back. “I needed a six-mile run this morning, followed by a very long, very cold shower.”

The return of Mr. Sex-on-Legs eased her worries. Maybe what he’d said last night pinged around in his head as well. She didn’t regret making love to him, but she wasn’t ready to think long term either. Standing on tip-toe, she gave him a quick peck back and announced, “I think what the two of us need this morning is to keep busy. The mall should be open by now.”

With Grant on her heels, she grabbed her coat and stepped outside. After locking up, she turned to see a pearl colored sedan. “How many automobiles do you have?” she said, trying not to gape. “I don’t think I’ve seen you drive the same thing twice.”

Grant opened her door, holding her hand so she could ease into the low slung auto. “Four,” he answered, as if everyone in the world had a fleet of planes, trains, and automobiles at their disposal. “I don’t drive this one much, but I thought you’d be more comfortable than riding in my truck.”

She took in the chrome and wood dash as he moved around the hood. His door barely made a sound as he closed it and when he started the engine, she could barely hear it either.

He flipped a switch on the dash and her seat warmed beneath her. “Hmmm. It’s like sitting on a hot, buttered biscuit.” She ran her hand along the blond leather. “This is beautiful. Are you going to be okay carrying around paint cans and brushes?”

He looked over his shoulder and shrugged as they back out of her drive and onto the street. “It’ll be fine in the trunk.”

They rode in comfortable silence, his thumb skating across the back of her hand till they reached the highway. The four-lane road was nearly empty and he eased the car into the far left lane and opened up the throttle. In a pair of seconds they were doing the speed limit and then some. He cut his eyes at her. “Why don’t we have Katie and Jackson meet us for lunch?”

Her eyes widened. It was way too soon for that. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Because?”

This would be so much easier if they weren’t barreling down the highway. She squeezed his hand and hoped she could find the words to explain something she was still trying to wrap her head around. “I’m not ready to go public.”

Grant took his hand off hers to grip the steering wheel. He turned to her, his face a cross between anger and hurt. “Are you embarrassed about us?”

“Oh God, no. I’m dying to talk to Chris.”

A wry smile softened his hurt expression. “I’m crazy about you. If it were up to me, I’d be sending out mass-mailings.”

Her heart thumped against her chest for more than just the fact they were barreling down the road and his attention was on her and not on the cars in front of them. She pointed to the semi they were rapidly closing in on. “Watch the road, please.”

Grant whipped the wheel to the left. She let out a breath. “Can we keep this between the two of us for now? I want us to figure this out on our own without our family putting in their two cents worth,” she explained.

He examined her from the corner of his eye. “You’re very logical when it comes to romance.”

She shrugged. He made her sound cold, but her cautiousness was born more from experience than logic. “I guess,” she said thinking of a couple relationships she wished no one knew she’d had. With her mind fixed on the past, she wasn’t tuned to things outside the car until she caught a glimpse of the mall as they sped past. “You missed the exit.”

“We’re making a detour first,” he announced, looking over his shoulder for traffic. At the next exit they pulled off and headed north on Peachtree Industrial. Only then did Grant slow down to a semi-legal speed. The wicked grin made a return appearance as they turned into luxury auto dealership.
Boys and their toys.

Abby didn’t even try not to gawk as they passed row after row of impressive sedans and coupes. She thought about the car she’d drive till the wheels fell off. Grant lived in a whole different world than she. “I can wait in the car if you’re not going to be long.”

Grant killed the engine and turned up the power on his smile. “It will make picking out your new car awfully difficult if you do.”

Chapter 12

“You have lost your ever-lovin mind,” she shrilled. Not only did he live in another world, he was losing touch with the one the other ninety-nine percent of humanity lived in. She shook her head wondering what the monthly payment would be. “I couldn’t even afford the tires on one of these cars.”

His grin never wavered during her tirade. When she finished, he took both her hands in his and pressed kisses against them. Then calmly, as if he were talking to a temperamental child, he drawled, “It’s okay, I’m buying it for you.”

Abby felt her jaw go slack. They’d had made love one time and he thought he needed to buy her a car. Didn’t that make her a kept woman? An uglier word popped into her head. Mistress. She pulled her hands away, crossing her arms. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long while. I have a perfectly good car.”

His smile evaporated and he cocked an eyebrow as he retorted, “Perfectly good huh? So, how are you getting to work Monday?”

Abby clenched her jaw. So it’s okay for him to be logical. “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

As if she hadn’t said a word, Grant exited the car, walking around to her door. He opened it and tugged her to her feet. Before she had a chance to put the brakes on the speeding train she was riding, a bright-eyed salesman in a badly fitted suit approached. “What can I show you two this morning?”

“Nothing. He was only looking.” She smiled sweetly then took several steps away from the two men.

Still ignoring her, Grant told the salesman, “I want to see what you have in an sedan.”

Mr. Bright Eyes beamed. “I have many to choose from.” He turned to Abby. “What color did you have in mind?”

This was getting way out of hand. She stalked back to Grant, pulling him out of earshot. “Are you crazy?” She pegged him with a look that had been known to cause hardened ten year-olds to quake. “Do you have any idea how much those cost?”

He blinked, his face impassive. “About sixty thousand depending on the upgrades.”

“That’s more than I make in a year,” she hissed. Abby looked at the salesman, offering an apology. “Perhaps you could give us a minute.”

Mr. Bright Eyes smiled, waving them off. “Don’t worry, husbands and wives argue all the time over cars. I’ll let you two talk amongst yourselves.”

He thought they were married.
Abby blinked at the man as he walked toward the showroom, then turned to stare at the epitome of All-American handsome. Her morning grew more surreal by the second.

Grant suddenly pulled her into his arms and lifted her chin. His blue eyes darkened to midnight. “I want to take care of you.”

She couldn’t miss the determination in his voice, or the glare that had turned her smiling Sex-On-Legs into a scowling warrior. Abby swallowed hard.
So much for taking things slow or letting her have her space. This was a full scale invasion.

“I take care of myself,” she responded then reached up to run her fingers through his hair to take the sting out of her words.

Heat flashed in his blue eyes and the wicked grin returned. “I can be very persuasive.”

Her breath caught and everything below her navel roared to life.
Yes, he could.
But, a new car was a bridge too far. “I can be very stubborn,” she countered then flashed her own grin. “And I’ve had five years more practice.”

Seconds ticked by while they stood in the parking lot, neither willing to bend but also not wanting to hurt the other. She saw it in his eyes, the internal battle he waged. He only wanted to see that she was okay. Finally, his blue eyes softened to the shade she loved so much. He stroked her cheek. “Okay, you win.”