13. Grant
13
GRANT
Grant
I hugged Elise to me as she caught her breath. She sagged in my arms, limp and lax. Her sigh was a long, deep one of satisfaction. It made me grin, tucking my head on top of hers.
I felt like a god. A king. I was the luckiest man alive to have her with me. I made her lazy like this. I was the one who treated her to a quickie in the waves. She was sated and drowsy because of me . No one else.
The heady sensation of feeling her tight pussy gloving my fingers was—so far—the highlight of this whole weekend.
Past her, on the beach, Ginny waved to get our attention. I wasn’t prone to fooling around with women in broad daylight in public places. I was the anti-fun, risk-averse one. But something about hearing this sexy blonde doubting that we could be together pushed me over the edge.
“Uh-oh.” Elise turned, resting her cheek on my chest. She heaved out another sigh, still so lax and sluggish from coming. “Do you think she saw us and knew what we were doing?”
“No.” We were too far out.
“Oh.” She winced a bit. “I know.”
“What?”
“She was asking me if I had any more sunscreen, and I told her I was out. We planned to walk back to the resort and get some more when the volleyball game was over.”
“Ah.”
Ginny stepped into the beginning of the waves, and I released Elise.
“Shit. Better go catch up with her.” She lowered her lids, biting the corner of her lower lip in that sexy way she was wont to do. “Can’t have her coming out here and seeing…”
I chuckled, catching on quickly. Can’t have her coming out here by us and seeing the massive erection tenting under my swim trunks? No. We can’t.
Nodding, I gestured for her to go. “I’ll catch up with you in the room,” I promised.
“You sure?” She blushed, glancing between us.
Seeing her coy and unafraid to acknowledge that I was hard for her turned me on even more.
I pulled her in for one last kiss, letting her feel my dick pushing against her leg. “Yeah. I’m sure. I’ll… cool off for a bit here.”
“Think about baseball,” she advised.
“I hate baseball.”
She laughed as she swam away from me, looking back at me. “True. But maybe it’ll help tame that bat you’re wielding down there.”
I snorted a laugh as she headed to shore. Once she could stand, I was tortured with the tease of watching her fine backside. Her juicy ass. Those firm thighs. A quiet growl left my lips as I watched her join Ginny.
The moment she was gone, walking with Vince’s wife, I realized how much harder it would be to share a room with my assistant and resist the temptation of having her.
She wanted me. I didn’t miss how she ground against my hand and participated in seeking her orgasm. It was a mutual effort, our kissing like air had ceased to matter, my fingers pushing deeper into her needy cunt.
The erection I waited to die down was evidence of how badly I craved her, too.
Our desire was a fact, but I couldn’t be as certain if it was a good idea to give in to it and let anything more happen.
She seemed so distant earlier, and it rubbed me the wrong way.
Why would she ever assume that she didn’t look like someone who could be with me? Sure, we came from different socio-economic backgrounds, but we had been “together” for six years. Even though she was my assistant and I was her superior as CEO, we did work for the same company. She’d seamlessly fit the role of being a “work wife”, and it boggled my mind that she’d lose sight of how well we meshed in a bickering manner at the office.
I dunked under the water, cooling off and waiting out my erection. Already, it began to go down with the thoughts of Elise’s previous distance.
I wanted her for real, and this weekend away from the workplace we were always at cemented that concept. I looked at Elise and struggled with the reminder that she wasn’t mine. That the ring on her finger was a decoy. It was becoming harder and harder to remember that this trip was supposed to be for business only, to further improve the likelihood that Vince would sell to us.
The more I fell for her, the harder it was to stick to my role. To the script.
What if we said fuck it? What if we surrendered to this connection and just went with what we wanted?
Given how eager she was to explore with me in the water, I bet she’d be convinced to consider it.
Later, as I trudged out of the water, I rehearsed how I might be able to paraphrase what I set out to prove to her in the waves. I wanted her, yes. I’d shown her how much. But we needed to talk about how she mattered and how deeply I knew she was the one woman who really should be with me.
When I went to the room to speak with her, I found the place empty.
“What the hell?”
I wasn’t surprised she’d try to hide after that “swim”. Her hesitance to act on her desire for me mirrored my reluctance with her. We both were well aware of how forbidden this whole fiasco was turning out to be, but it seemed she needed to shore up a little more courage to own up to her feelings.
We couldn’t avoid each other all night, though. We were due to show up for the rehearsal dinner much later. Until then, I decided as I prepared to shower and change, I had plenty to think about—namely, how to frame my case for our trying to be together for real. If not as an engaged couple, then as two people exclusively dating. As lovers. Anything more than boss and assistant.
My phone buzzed before I got into the bathroom, and I checked it to see that she’d texted me.
Elise: I wanted to check out a yoga thing at the gym. I saw a poster about it when I worked out earlier.
I frowned, hating that she’d be unavailable. Then again, we’d been with each other nonstop. I would be an ass to begrudge her wanting some time and space away from me. Especially after what we did in the ocean. Maybe she wanted a chance to process and figure out her thoughts.
Elise: I’ll be ready for the dinner, though. No worries there.
Of course not. Elise was always punctual and showed up for the assignment.
It would’ve been nice to kill time with her until this dinner, but I wouldn’t push her. Time to think and strategize how to make her realize that we had something true building here would help me, too.
Once I was cleaned up and changed, I left the room to get an iced coffee. It’d be a late night, and I couldn’t break my sort of unhealthy habit of an afternoon caffeine fix.
I whiled away the time at the café, drinking my coffee and checking on odds and ends with work. That SNAFU with Pete had been resolved already. I couldn’t procrastinate any longer. It was time to shape and organize my thoughts where Elise was concerned.
But I didn’t need time or energy to pick my mind.
It was simple.
I wanted her. And I wasn’t going to wait. The second we were alone, I’d come clean, dammit.
Finished with my drink, I got up and left the café. Hours remained until the dinner, and I wondered if I’d get lucky and catch up with Elise beforehand.
Someone else seemed to have the same idea. Samantha called out after me in the lobby. “Grant! Honey, wait up.”
I looked back at her over my shoulder and grimaced. “No,” I mumbled to myself. I’d had it with her. She couldn’t hear my muttered reply, but my actions would speak loud and clear. I turned and rubbed my face, groaning as I stalked away to return to the elevators.
“I was never your fucking honey .” She’d started that bullshit with cheesy endearments after I found her cheating on me. Ever since that incident three years ago, she’d consistently tried to worm her way back into my good graces. It hadn’t worked. I refused to budge. She was dead to me. This weekend, though, she was more and more determined to break through and reach me.
Probably because she sees me with Elise and is so jealous she can’t stand it.
I shook my head, wanting nothing to do with this woman. Picking up the pace, I strode away to give her my back. A clear signal I didn’t want to be polite and do the bare minimum of acknowledging her.
“Grant.”
She ran faster, so swift that she was able to lurch forward and snag my arm. Halted from escaping, I turned back in such a manner that I could yank my arm down and free her hold on me.
Grinning, she seemed unfazed by the fact that I scowled at her after trying to walk away from her.
“Grant, baby.”
“Enough with those fucking names,” I warned. “I’m not your honey. Your baby. Sugar pie. Any of that shit.”
“But you could be.” She sidled up to me, failing in the most basic lesson of human nature. She could not take a hint. That, or she was stubborn to ignore them and try to get what she wanted—my attention.
“No. I won’t be.” I stepped back as she trespassed closer into my personal space.
“Why?” She scoffed. “Because of her ? Because of your assistant?”
“Elise is far more than my assistant.” Maybe our engagement was a joke, a lie, but my feelings for her were very significant and real. I suspected her feelings for me were just the same.
“You’re downgrading to be with someone like her.” She smiled, raising her brows as though she thought I was slow to follow the joke. “Elise? You can’t be serious.”
I deadpanned at her, letting her see how unamused I was with her interfering like this.
As I glared at her, daring her to badmouth Elise or to suggest that she was inferior, things clicked into place. It made more sense now. How Elise was down and distancing herself because she thought she wasn’t someone I’d want to be with. How victorious and overly enthusiastic Samantha was when she joined that damn volleyball game.
Has she been bothering her? I couldn’t pinpoint when Samantha could have gotten Elise alone to spew this nasty vitriol to her. But I wouldn’t put it past her. That first dinner we had here, Samantha had been so eager to pick at the story that Elise and I were engaged. She was like a hawk, determined to pluck at us and watch it fray apart.
“I’m sorry, Grant.” She softened her expression, trying on a remorseful frown. I’d witnessed this act too many times to be fooled. Regardless of how long ago it had been since we dated, I recalled with clarity how this woman would try to twist words and pout to get her way.
“I’m sorry that I cheated, Grant. You were just so busy, always at the office and never making time for me.”
I rolled my eyes. What a dumb ass excuse. She claimed to want to date me in the first place because she felt like we were matched in our drives with our careers.
Elise wouldn’t ever bitch about my being too busy or holed up at the office on long days and late nights—because she’d be right there with me at my side.
“I don’t care.”
She huffed. “What?”
“I don’t care.” I slashed my hand through the air. “I don’t care whether you’re sorry or not. Your feelings about your infidelity don’t matter to me. I’ve moved on.”
She curled her lip in disgust. “With someone like Elise?” As she brought up her phone and scrolled to something on it, she snickered in a malicious, haughty way only a cruel person would.
“Someone like this?” She held up the screen, showing an old, dated video of Elise doing karaoke with her cousin, Claudia. They butchered the lines of a classic eighties ballad. Drunk and goofing off, they looked silly. I could see how this footage might be embarrassing now, and I knew that was Samantha’s intention.
“You’ll never compare to her,” I warned.
“Bullshit. I’m calling your bluff.”
“She’s tighter than you.” I couldn’t wait to feel her wrapped around me again.
Samantha gaped at me, turning redder. Out of humiliation or anger, I could only guess. I didn’t care.
“She kisses like she means it,” I added.
“I—” Samantha bared her teeth, pushed too far with my taunts about how I’d moved on to someone far better than she’d ever be for me.
Her fingers gripped the front of my shirt. She tugged hard, and if I wasn’t distracted by seeing Elise walking through the lobby, catching her glancing at me, I would’ve been quicker on my feet.
To step back. To ward off my ex. But I wasn’t. I nearly fell with how hastily and desperately Samantha lunged at me.
The first touch of her mouth against mine filled me with rage.