Found by Love (46 page)

"I really need to get home so that I can take a shower and change. I was not expecting to stay the night but I'm sure glad that we did. I had a lot of fun and it was nice to not have to worry about anyone waking up to your screams down the hall."

I smirked at him knowing full well that it was I that was screaming out his name all night. Just when I think that sex can't get any better he takes me to places I've never been before and it's the biggest turn on. He walked over to me and kissed me hard on the lips and pulled me to him and then whispered into my ear while grazing his teeth down my neck.

"Oh baby. I'm surprised that the police didn't come barging through the door from your screams, especially when we were out on the terrace. You liked the possibility that people were watching you didn't you?" I shamefully looked the other way because I didn't want to admit it out loud but turned back around and nodded my head. "I could tell because you completely let yourself go and didn't hold anything back." He looked towards the door leading to the terrace and looked back at me questionably.

"No! It’s absolutely not happening in the daylight!" I walked around his naked body to get my purse and leaned up to kiss him. "Baby, I need to go. I'll be waiting for you at home alright?"

I knew if I stayed another minute in the room with him it would be hours before we came up for air. That's how it always is when we get started and Grayson was waiting for us. He grabbed my arm as I started heading for the door and the heat in his eyes made my knees weak.

"Cru... Are you sure you don't want to stay? I could call room service to bring us some breakfast and maybe some chocolate covered strawberries and whip cream and oooh…. honey and biscuits. I'm not sure that I'll put the honey on my biscuits though and probably not the whip cream either!" I moaned and leaned against him and when he went to pull me closer I ducked out of his arms and practically ran to the door.

"You don't fight fair ya know that?" I tugged the door open while he was standing there grinning in his birthday suit. I heard someone behind me and one of the maids was looking into the room and she squealed and jumped into the wall. She looked to be in her sixties and was staring right at his package with a big grin on her face. I stared her down as she continued down the hall. He was still standing there grinning from ear to ear begging me with his eyes to stay. "Well you just made her day! I'm not gonna lie. I'm a bit jealous that another woman has seen what you have down there. It'll be all over the hotel by 9 o'clock this morning."

"Oh I'll fire her right now if you want me to. Let me go get my clothes on. I'm so sorry baby. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"What? I don't want you to fire her! Oh my God Caleb. Just... Just..." I pointed between his legs. "Put that humungous thing away before you make me change my mind and end up staying." I let out a big breath and sighed. "I really need to go home so that I can get ready. Do you promise to be good? Don't fire the maid Nerd Boy." I leaned up and gave him a quick peck on his cheek and walked out before he managed to change my mind.

As soon as I was in the hall I leaned against the wall waiting for the elevator to come up and let out a deep breath that I didn't realize that I was holding. I looked around and the maid is heading back down the hall and she locked eyes on me and looked down. I couldn't help but giggle at what she saw and her reaction. When she passed me she looked me in the eyes finally and I could tell that she wanted to say something.

"You are a very lucky woman. I would hang on to that one if I were you and never let him out of your sight." I put my left hand up in the air to show her my ring finger.

"Yes I am and he only has eyes for me. Sorry you had to see that." She chuckled and nodded her head.

"Oh don't apologize sweetheart. Thank you, for opening the door, because that made this old woman's day and made me reminisce time that I had with my husband. He passed away a few years ago and he was a fine specimen of a man, like yours, and reminded me of how lucky I was to have him. Congratulations on your engagement and have a good day."

As she was walking off I said the only thing that came to mind and told her thank you. I could have said more because I could tell how lonely she was to not have her husband but it didn't seem appropriate because of the sweet smile on her face. I chuckled under my breath because somehow without even trying to Caleb had made her day in the same way that he always makes mine. Just for being him. The elevator doors opened and I gasped at who was standing inside and when we locked eyes he looked away. I hesitated and slowly walked in and stood beside him.

"Good morning Mattie." I looked over and saw that he was heading to the first floor as well and let the doors shut us into our confinement for the next 14 floors. I felt his body tense up and his vein about pop out of his neck from the shock at seeing me.

"Morning." Someone didn't seem too happy to see me this morning. I wanted to laugh but held it in because by the gruff way that he replied to me letting me know that he definitely didn't want to talk.

"Are you heading to the house? You can catch a ride with me if you are. Caleb already has a limo waiting for me downstairs." He looked up to see how much longer our little ride was going to last and shook his head.

"I have a cab waiting for me but thanks anyway."

Wow! Not only does he not want to talk to me but he doesn't even want to ride in the same car with me. His demeanor has definitely piqued my curiosity and I wondered if he and Josie had spent the night together or if he stayed by himself all night. Maybe he's just hung over because when Caleb and I left to head to our room, he and Josie were still dancing and had the waiter refilling their drinks back to back.

"Okay. I mean it's not like we aren't going to the same place and would save you money but if that's what you want to do then okay." The elevator doors opened and I rushed by him as quickly as I could to get away from his bad mood. "See ya at the house." I wanted to remind him that we were spending the day again with Grayson but maybe he needs some time to himself to think. I sure wasn't going to beg him.

I walked through the lobby and saw Josie at the front desk looking bright eyed and ready for the day. She truly is a beautiful woman and the way that she is dressed today is more casual but sophisticated in her pant suit that accentuated every curve she has. I stepped up to the desk to say hello.

"Good morning J. How's your morning going so far? Caleb should be down here in a few minutes. Congratulations by the way. I'm sure you're pretty excited huh?" One second she was smiling and the next second her eyes about popped out of her head and I noticed that she had looked behind me with a look of dread in her eyes. I casually turned to look and Mattie had finally walked by me. Yeah. Something definitely happened between them and it wasn't good from the body language that they're both throwing off. I looked at her waiting for her to compose herself and she shuffled some papers in front of her to distract herself.

"It's going great and thank you but please call me Josie. I don't like nicknames Claudia." I laughed and shook my head.

"Um okay, I’ll just call you Josephine then. Well, I guess I'll see ya around. Have a great day girl. You look really nice by the way." I turned and walked away as she told me thank you back and I nodded my head to let her know that I heard her. Talk about friction this morning, geez!

I'm starting to not feel too offended that Mattie refused my offer of giving him a ride home. That was until I walked outside and I saw someone else getting into his cab and he was standing by the limo waiting for me. He shrugged his shoulders at me and opened the door for me.

"So... Does that offer still stand? I felt sorry for the guy that's trying to get to the airport before his flight leaves so I was nice enough to give him my cab." I stood there and stared at him and looked him in the eyes and I was worried about what I saw back and wondered why he seemed so upset.

"Sure. Do you think you can handle an hour long drive with little old me?" He shrugged his shoulders and motioned for me to get in.

"Probably not but I think I'll survive. Maybe the driver has a lead foot and we'll get there faster." I let out a big sigh and climbed into the limo and put my seat belt on and waited for him to get in while he did the same. I looked up into the front seat and noticed that our driver was quite elderly and pointed at him to Mattie.

"Oh I doubt that he has a lead foot, haha. Looks like you're stuck with me for the duration." He finally smiled at me and seemed to relax in his seat. I shot a quick text to Caleb, letting him know that Mattie was riding with me to the house, because I sure didn't want him having any jealousy issues if I forgot to tell him and he found out later and he texted me back immediately.

That's fine baby and tell him to

keep his hands to himself! Haha

JK. I'm not worried. Why

is he still here I wonder?

Well great! Me and my big mouth and I'm not even going to ask Mattie in the mood that he was in earlier, especially since he's finally sort of talking to me. I shot him a text back with the most logical explanation that didn't include Josie.

It was late and he didn't want to

wait for a ride home so he decided

to get a room. No biggie. See ya

when you get home. Muah!! Xoxo

There! That should keep him from asking any further questions. I put my phone in my purse and looked over at Mattie who was looking around everywhere but at me.

"Claudia? Can we please just have a quiet ride home? I really don't want to talk about it." He finally looked at me and I could see how tired and stressed out he was.

"Sure we can but what IT are you even referring to because I don't remember asking a question." He shook his head and smiled his devilish grin at me which had me laughing. He pointed his finger at me and laughed and leaned back in his seat and let out a big sigh.

"Good. Let's keep it that way. What are the plans for the day? We are going to the cemetery right? I guess I need to get things started on my end to have Thomas and Jane moved here."

"That would be great because I know that Grayson wants them here as soon as we can get it done and yes, we are going to go to the cemetery so that he'll see where they're going to be laid to rest." I felt him tense up and immediately look out the window. "Are you okay with all of this? I've been so worried about Grayson that I haven't thought to ask you how you feel about moving them here." He shook his head and looked back at me with a sad look on his face.

"I'm not going to lie to you Claud. I feel like I'm losing them all over again and I don't know what to do about it because I know that it's the best thing for Grayson." I reached over and grabbed his hand and he squeezed mine in return.

"I'm sorry Mattie. I really am and the last thing that I wanted to do was have you hurt in this whole process. Have you.... Have you thought any more about moving here?" I hated to bring it up so soon because he's only had a couple of days to process Grayson's request but I wanted to see where his head was at.

He looked away again and started to say something but closed his mouth instead. I tightened my squeeze on his hand in the hopes that he could feel that I was sending strength for whatever it is that he was struggling to talk about. He looked over at me again and let out a long sigh and half grinned at me.

"Do you mind if I tell you a story? It's not that I'm trying to avoid your question but I need to talk to someone and if anyone can keep a secret it's definitely you. I promise that after I tell you this little story, I will answer your question." I started to nod my head at him but then I remembered my promise to Caleb that we wouldn't ever keep anything from him.

"I'm assuming that you don't want me to tell Caleb. We have made a promise to each other that we would never keep anything between us or have secrets between each other."

"Well, considering that this will have nothing to do with your relationship with each other and something that I need to talk to a friend about concerning my life then I don't see why he has to know. I have no one to talk to about this and you're who I'm choosing to share this with." I could tell how desperately he needed to get something off his chest so I nodded at him.

"I understand and I won't say a word and you're right. If I could keep a ten year long secret about myself I can for sure keep a secret for you. What's wrong Mattie?" He started to tense up again and he looked ahead of him and asked the driver to close the partition so that we could have some privacy. As soon as he did, he turned towards me and started talking.

"What I'm about to tell you, I'm not proud of, but I have to tell you some things about my private life in order to tell you the whole story. Private stuff that only Thomas and Jane knew, but you have to understand that we've known each other since we were all kids."

"It's alright Mattie. I get it and you're not going to hear any judgment’s from me so spit it out." He scrunched his eyebrows at me and I could tell that he was about to change his mind so I grinned at him and waved my hand out to have him spit out whatever it was that he needed to talk to me about.

"Geez. I can't believe that you're the only person that I have in this whole world to talk to. Maybe I should just go see a shrink." I punched him in the arm as hard as I could because his remark pissed me off. "Okay, okay! Please don't hit me again! Damn that hurt!"