Saving Grace (33 page)

"Grace," Shane whispered. "Grace, get behind me." He gently shoved me behind him
,
shielding me from Gabriel.

Lea, Conner and Ethan were next to me before I could take my next breath.

Gabriel's smirk turned more sinister as he glared at me, "
How sweet, Grace." He bumped his body against Shane's and whispered into my face, "There are
so many ways
to torture a
perso
n,
Grace."

"
Get the fuck away from her," Shane growled blocking Gabriel's advance at me.
Ethan lunged forward towards Shane
to help, but Gabriel just turned
around
and we lost sight of him in a rush of dancing people.

I flung myself a
t Shane's back wrapping my arms
tight
ly
around the front of him so he wo
uldn't
run after Gabriel. I felt his muscles strain and twist against me, "Don't go after
hi
m,
Shane, just forget him. He's all talk." Tears stung my eyes from the sheer terror of Gabriel's words
and my blatant lie
. I needed to keep my friends safe, and I had no idea how I would accomplish that. I had no idea about anything anymore.

Shane swung his arm around my
head, grabbed me by the shoulder pulling me in front of him,
and smiled down at me. He planted a kiss on top of
my head and laughed, "Oh, Grace. I've seen you pummel guys a hell of a lot scarier than him. Come on, you need a drink, you're trembling."

He let go of me and handed me to Lea, who was trembling herself. "Are you okay?" she whispered. She asked me nine times before we made it to the kitchen for a drink.

I kept telling Lea I was fine
, but all she had to do was take one close look at me and she would kn
ow that I was lying.

Once we were in the kitchen,
Ethan grabbed a bottle of something from the back corner of one of the cabinets. H
e twisted the cap off and made us all drink from the bottle. It went around in a circle between the five of us, each taking three giant gulps.

Lea whipped the back of her hand over her lips after the third round, "Holy germ swapping
backsplas
h,
Ethan! No cups?"

Ethan leveled a serious stare at her. "Sorry
,
Lea, but this is one of Vixen4's parties. There is no way any of us should drink anything unless it's from a bottle you have opened yourself."

Lea's eyed bulged and her lips shaped themselves into a small o.

Ethan turned his attention to me, "Who was that? And what did he say to you?"

Shane cut me off before I could come up with a lie, "That's
was
her ex's best friend. He's been harassing Grace into going out with him and she doesn't want to have
an
ything to do with him
." He scanned my face with furrowed brows, "You don't want anything to do with him,
do you?
"

Butterflies ripped through my stomach and heat splashed across my cheeks, "Shane, I thought I made it perfectly clear in the studio today what I want."

His eyes widened and the corners of his lips lifted into a breathtaking smile, "Damn, Grace. I completely forgot what you said in the studio. You'll have to repeat the conversation to me again sometime, if you want." He handed the bottle to me and brushed his index finger against the back of my hand.

I brought the bottle to my lips and took a drink without breaking my stare with him. "That's not a problem at all. I remember everything I said to you, and everything you said back. I would definitely love to have another discussion on the subject
,
because I've really been thinking about it and there's so much more I'd like to
add
."

He chuckled, a deep
,
throaty
,
sexy sound that tickled every nerve ending in my body, "I'm going to hold you to it."

My cheeks heated more, "Yes, please do. Hold me to it
."

"Bam-
chicka
-
waa-wa
a
" Lea
slurred. "Watch out Conner, the porn's about to fly!" She slumped against me giggling, "Does anyone think it would be a fuck of a lot safer for Grace if we all went back home? Seriously, ex-boyfriend's friends, Vixen4, I've had enough tonight."

Shane shook his head laughing, "Let's forget about ex-boyfriend's and their
douchebag
best friends, we're not letting anything happen to her, so why don't we dance
or something
? This is a party isn't it?"

Lea clapped her hands, "Karaoke?"

"Let's go!" Ethan yelled making a path through the dancing bodies into the living
room.

Shane stepped into the living room and pulled the karaoke microphone from some poor
gir
l's
hands right
before she was about to sing and
he handed
me the list of songs to look through. "Pick something that means something to you, forget what happened before. Just live and have fun. I promise nothing will happen to you, I won't let
anything
hurt you," his hands settled themselves on the small of my back possessively and my butterflies intensified their wing flapping.

"Oh," Lea said taking one of the list
s
of songs
. "Conner, let's do
You
're the One That I Want!
"

Conner laughed and smacked her bottom, "No way, do they have
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
?" They huddled together and scanned the songs with Ethan standing over them.

As I looked through the songs o
n the
laminated pamphlet,
I noticed a beautiful
,
busty
,
brunette approach Shane next to me.
She gave me a small glance and rolled her eyes,
and
then laughed
,
setting her sights on Shane
.
"Hey, Shane. Long time no...see. Why don't we find somewhere a little more private?
You know...to catch up.
"

I felt my face frown. Did she seriously not see me standing here with him?

The girl sashayed past me and stood
right
in front of me like I didn't exist. She focused her eyes solely on Shane giving him a sultry smile and a wink.
"I have a girlfriend who would love to join us."

I sucked in a small
,
soft breath and dozens of thoughts raced frantically through my mind.
Shane wasn't going anywhere with her and what did I have to offer him?
What if Gabriel had his way and I did only have a week left with Shane
?
I felt like I could cry because I wanted so much more. My heart was so tired of being broken. I was tired of being broken
. Balling up my fist I wa
s about to hit the leech
trying to latch onto Shane
,
but instead
,
I
pushed the numbers to the song I wanted to sing.

Shane looked the girl up and down and shook his head turning his lips downward. "Sweetheart," he said. "You're about two six packs of beer to
o
soon for me. Come back in about thirty minutes after I get myself totally trashed, then maybe you'd be half as beautiful as the woman standing next to me." His eyes locked on mine and something pure and beautiful flickered inside them, making me
utterly
breathless. "Better yet, don't bother coming back in thirty
. I have everything I've ever needed right here."

That,
that
right there
. That's
it
, that
feeling
, that moment of
breathlessness
, that little surge in your chest, the prickle of heat along your skin and the
low hot
roll of your belly;
that's what being alive is all about
.

I handed Shane the other microphone and switched it on, desperate for him to sing with me. I needed to tell him how I felt that very minute with my voic
e, my melody. And I need
ed
to hear
his voice sing back to me.
I needed it more than I
needed him to touch me.
I
needed him to love me
.

The girl stormed away and the
intro
guitar
rhythm to
Broken by
Seether
featuring Amy Lee
filled the room and
slowly
quieted the voices of the crowd.

The beautiful corners of his lips pulled up into a smile when the music reached his ears and his raspy voice sung
to me about taking away my pain, and I sung back I'd hold hi
m up high. We were both broken and
somehow, somewhere along the way
,
we found each other.

He silenced the room with the first word he sung, and our voices together pulled the crowd closer. Our
voices were raw and savage,
filled with an ache that dripped off every note. We were fixed in each other's eyes, all I sa
w was blue and I knew all he saw
was gray. Our smooth powerful voices blanketed the crowd as we slowly danced around in a tight circle
focusing just on each other
.

Clenching and unclenching his
fist around the
microphone,
his voice melted harmoniously with mine as we exploded in chorus.

Reaching toward me, he hooked his index finger around one of the loo
ps of my sk
irt
,
which caused a cool breeze to
skim against my bare belly. H
e slowly, sensuously,
pulled me against him
. With my body against
his,
I could feel his pu
lse race and his heart hammered against his chest
as fast as
mine did
.

When the song
ended,
s
creams and hoots erupted and thundered throughout the apartment pulling us from our own little world.
Shane held his arms up high and the crowd roared louder. Whooping loudly
,
he brought the microphone to his lips, "The stunning Grace Taylor of Mad World!" His face flushed with color and he leaned forward and kissed the top of my head.

I tilted my head back
laughing, jumped on his coffee table,
and raised one arm to point to Shane, "The sexy Shane Maxton of Mad World!"

Everyone in the apartment chanted for more, but I shook my head and tossed the microphone to Lea. Shane held out a hand to help me down off the table and I took it, jumping into his arms
,
smiling up into his eyes.

Bringing his lips to my ear and sending electric bolts of heat down my neck he whispered, "
She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit
.
"

"
Nathaniel Hawthorne
, Shane? You kind of amaze me," I sighed.

"Yeah, well you kind of amaze me too."

Lea and Conner's off-key rendi
tion of Meatloaf's song was
a
lmost the
highlight of the party
when
they actually acted out all the parts with dramatic
facial expressions. I say
almost
because when they were done, Alex and Ethan sang
You're the one that I Want
together, which caused me to laugh so hard I had to, um, throw away my panties in the kitchen garbage. And if you've never laughed so hard you had to do that at least once in your life, well, that's a damn shame. Besides, it wasn't a big thing, there seemed to be a pile of panties in there before mine were tossed on top of them.
Oh, and yes, I borrow
ed a pair of Shane's boxer briefs to wear under my skirt. I'm not daring enough to just go commando,
because then
all I would be think
ing
about woul
d be sitting on Shane's lap the
whole time.

After changing into his
shorts,
we all stayed in his room and finished the rest of the bottle we were drinking.

When we all walked out of Shane's
room,
Bliss and Cream were standing there waiting for us hidden amongst all the sweaty bodies in the hallway. Bliss jumped on Shane. "There you are!" she
scream
ed, pulled his face into hers,
and kissed
him full on the lips.