Chapter 17
I ’m a little drunk. One margarita. One of Rina’s crazy martinis—though she swore it was a weak one—and two shots and I’m rocking a buzz like a college freshman pledging for a sorority. Tonight was everything I hadn’t realized I truly needed.
I will admit, I was not looking forward to this birthday.
Tony, being a lying, cheating swine of a man sort of put the damper on that.
He sent me a ring for my birthday. A diamond eternity band that looks damn similar to a wedding band.
Especially when my engagement ring was nestled in the same box.
The card and texts and phone messages were nothing short of adoring and forlorn.
But the party tonight turned it all around.
It’s somewhere close to 1 a.m. when the crowd finally leaves, many with a Tupperware of food in their hands. Everyone went all out. For me. Drinks and more food and desserts than I could consume in twenty lifetimes. Presents and fun. So much fun.
Now it’s just me and Carter staring around at the mess that is his kitchen and great room.
“Leave it,” he says just as I go to pick up a random glass. “I have people coming to clean this all up tomorrow. It was more the food and that’s either all put away or sent off with others.”
“Carter—”
“Did you have a good night?”
I beam at him. “I had the best night. Thank you.”
“Did you have enough dessert?”
“I had too much dessert.”
He smiles at that, walking around the island until he’s directly before me. “Perfect. Then you can come and see your presents.”
“You didn’t have to get me anything. This party was already more than enough.”
“I know I didn’t have to. I never have to. I wanted to.”
Oh. Okay then.
Without another word or objection on my part, he takes my hand, intertwining our fingers like it’s the most natural thing in the world for us to do—hold hands—and then leads me down the hall in the direction of my room.
My heart starts to thunder in my chest. Is he…
is he taking me to bed? Is that his present to me?
I know he teased me that I needed a good meal or whatever euphemism he used for orgasm, but this feels a bit…
I don’t know, out of left field? Unexpected? Strange? Exciting?
Before I can get carried away with myself, we continue past my bedroom, past the media room, past the extra office—goddamn, this place is huge—past two more bedrooms until we reach the large, open exercise room at the end of the hall.
So… that’s a no to the orgasms? Probably better that way, right?
“I didn’t know what to get you, so I sincerely hope you do not take this the wrong way. I realize I am teetering on a line between thoughtful and pig, but please know, it was only meant as thoughtful.”
“What?” comes out as a bemused laugh.
“I heard you mention to Amelia on the phone the other night that you were getting bored with your yoga class but didn’t know what else to do.
I also heard you tell Rina that you wanted one of these.
Both of these, actually. But if for whatever reason, you don’t like either or you think I’m telling you something that I’m not, I’ll return them and get you something else. ”
My eyebrows crease. “Carter, what the hell are you talking about?”
He steps to the side and that’s when I see the large rectangular mirror against the wall. It takes me a moment to realize just what exactly it is, but when I do, I gasp. “Carter.”
“It has this whole catalog of fitness things including yoga, Pilates, cross-fit, whatever. You get to customize what you want and inside the mirror are weights and mats and bands and a whole bunch of other things.”
“Carter.” I have no other words than his name on my lips. I amble toward it, wanting to touch it but afraid of messing with its prettiness. He bought me a fully stocked, interactive fitness mirror? Jesus Harold Christ.
“I also got you this to go with it.”
More? There’s more? I turn back to him, and he hands me a large rectangular black box. I open it to find a thick silver band tucked inside. “Carter!”
He chuckles. “You keep saying my name, sweetheart, but is any of this a swear?”
“This is too much.”
He shakes his head adamantly. “It’s not.”
I remove the decently weighted ring from its holder and place it on my pointer finger. It fits perfectly.
“You need to set it all up with your phone.”
I know I do. Because this ring is no ordinary ring.
It monitors my heart rate. My sleep patterns.
My respiratory rate. My fitness levels. I deliver babies for a living and wearing a watch when you’re wrist deep in a woman’s vagina isn’t happening.
But this ring I can wear under my gloves because it’s thin and smooth.
It won’t tell me when I’m going to have a seizure—nothing can—but it will help me monitor how my body is actively doing and what corrections I need to make.
“Do you like it?”
“Do I like it?” I parrot, staring down at the ring before meeting his boyishly hopeful face. “This is everything. The best birthday I’ve ever had. I’m not even kidding with that. You’ve turned what could have been an awful day into something extraordinary. Thank you. Thank you so goddamn much.”
And with that, I launch myself at him. My attending. My best friend’s brother. My roommate. The man I’m starting to want more and more with each passing second.
My arms around his neck, my body hugging his, I give him no room to breathe.
He just spent thousands of dollars on me and his only thought with all of that was that he wanted to make me happy.
Nothing about this gift was obligatory. It wasn’t some fancy piece of jewelry he knew I’d never wear but wasn’t thoughtful enough to consider something else.
This was all thought. All consideration. All perfect.
Which is why I can’t stop myself from inhaling his cologne as my face dives into his neck. Why my fingers swirl into the back of his hair, gripping the strands. Why my body is now completely flush with his until I pull back and find his lips. Right. There.
Lips I want to kiss. Lips I want to indulge in.
It’s been so long since I’ve felt desirable.
Sexy. Tony stripped me of all that with his cheating but it’s not like I was getting much of it anyway before I found out.
No, he was giving that to every other woman but me.
If I were a lesser woman, I would have noticed it sooner.
The things he was attempting to rob me of.
The pieces of me he almost got away with stealing.
But Carter is staring at me like he wants me more than his next breath, the fire in his liquid molten eyes an inferno I’m desperate to be consumed in.
“Grace?” He whispers it as a lust-coated question. One I’m all too eager to answer.
Staying with Tony for as long as I did was a mistake.
Knocking on Carter’s door when I thought it was still Oliver’s was too.
But this. Now. Here. Tonight. There is no mistake.
Carter is the break of dawn after waking from a nightmare.
I can do this with him. I can just have a fling with him.
A night or two of passion where I know strings won’t be attached.
Carter doesn’t do those and even if he did, I doubt he’d do them with me.
I’m a fucking mess. Untrusting and love hating, and sex starved.
He knows I’m not looking for something real beyond this and I know he isn’t either.
Screw it, it’s my birthday. What harm can one night do?
The alcohol is making me bold in ways I likely wouldn’t otherwise be with him as I clutch the back of his head and drag his lips down to mine.
He responds immediately, a throaty groan searing past his lips directly into mine, his hands coming up and framing my face in his steel grip.
Before I know what’s happening, Carter spins me around, pinning me against the wall and then his mouth really takes over.
Head tilting, tongue plundering into the depths of my mouth, seeking, exploring, tasting, claiming. His chest rumbles with pleasure as he presses deeper against me, the hard planes of his body molding to my soft ones.
And all I can think is, yes . Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been missing. Exactly what I needed. “Don’t stop,” I plead because I feel it, his brain kicking in where his brain has no business being.
“Grace. We shouldn’t—”
“We should. We absolutely should. If you want me, Carter, take me tonight. I’m yours.”
“Fuck,” he hisses sharply, his hand slamming into the wall beside my head. “It’s too soon.”
Probably. But I don’t care. If he stops, I’ll die. If he rejects me, it’s game over. “Please.” I pull back, meeting his obsidian eyes. “I need this.”
His thumb roughly pulls along my lower lip, dragging the skin along with the pad of his flesh. “I can’t say no,” he speaks gruffly against me. “I know I should. I know it’s likely wrong and I’m taking advantage, but I can’t say no.”
I hike my leg up to his hip, grinding shamelessly against him.
“It’s not wrong. You’re an adult and so am I.
You’re not taking advantage because I am saying yes.
I am begging, pleading, without shame for this.
I need a man to take control of my body and give me the pleasure I need. And I am woman enough to admit that.”
“Oh, Grace,” he hums against my lips, his eyes locked on mine. “You knocked on the right door that night if that’s what you need.”
In my next breath, he’s hoisting me up by the backs of my thighs, lifting me until my body is crushed against his, thighs strangling his hips.
Then we’re moving. Out of the exercise room, down the longest hallway in the history of hallways until we reach my room.
I’m guessing because it’s closer but not once has Carter Fritz removed his lips from mine.
They’ve been ravaging, taking no prisoners, and showing no mercy.