Chapter 20 #3
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Linda said with a breezy wave on her way to the big garage doors that opened the restaurant to the pier. “I’ll see you both after work.”
“Bye, Mom.”
“Bye, Linda,” Stephanie said. “And thank you.”
Grant got up and stretched. As he came toward her with a predatory look in his eye, Stephanie planted her feet and lifted her chin, letting him know she couldn’t be intimidated.
“Why are you thanking my mother?” He put his arms around her and squeezed her ass. That was all it took to make her want to crawl all over him. She settled for resting her hands on his muscular chest.
“Because she invited me to dinner. Why else would I be thanking her?”
“Maybe because she butted in and took your side against me? She likes doing that kind of stuff.”
Stephanie would’ve giggled at his laser-sharp insight, but his lips had found the spot on her neck that drove her mad.
It had taken him no time at all to figure out just how and where to touch her to ensure maximum results.
She should probably be worried about how easy she was where he was concerned, but with his lips working their magic on her neck and his hands gripping her ass, she couldn’t be bothered with worrying about much of anything.
“Is it later yet?” he asked gruffly.
Stephanie took his hand and led him back a few feet so she could reach up to untie the drop-down board that would render the takeout counter closed.
His eyes lit up with unrestrained lust. “Are we closing early?”
“Looks that way.”
“Let me grab your computer from the table.” He darted out to the dining room and was back in two seconds flat, putting the computer on the counter. “Now, you were saying?”
She smiled at his childlike glee and stepped into his outstretched arms, holding on to him and the hopeful feelings he inspired in her.
Maybe . . . Just maybe . . . Wanting to show him how much he’d come to mean to her, she tugged at the button to his shorts and pushed them and his boxers down, freeing his erection.
Using both hands, she stroked him and ran her thumbs through the pearly fluid that suddenly appeared at the tip.
He tightened his grip on her ass. “Steph . . .” His eyes were closed, his lips parted and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.
She loved rendering him helpless with desire. “Sit up here,” she said, patting the countertop.
His eyes popped open. “Seriously?”
Nudging him, she encouraged him to do as she asked. After he reluctantly raised himself onto the counter, she bent her head to take him into her mouth.
“Oh, God,” he whispered, his fingers tightening into a fist in her hair as he sucked in a sharp deep breath. “God.”
Stephanie opened her throat to accommodate him and lashed at his shaft with her pierced tongue, knowing he loved the combination. The second time, she squeezed his balls, too.
He held out for a long time before he finally bucked his hips, moaned and flooded her mouth. “Holy shit,” he said through gasping breaths.
She stood up straight and was pulled into a deep, possessive kiss. “You’re amazing, and you blow my mind.”
“That’s not all I blow.”
Grant laughed and cupped her face, looking at her with a curiously intense expression on his handsome face.
“What?” she asked, unnerved all of a sudden.
“Just looking.”
She took the opportunity to look her fill, too.
Would she ever get enough of his superbly beautiful face, the dark hair, the gorgeous blue eyes?
Probably not. As they drank each other in, Stephanie felt a subtle shift take place between them.
What had begun as a casual fling during a tropical storm had turned into something much more significant.
When she could no longer stand the intensity that arced between them like a live wire, she diverted her gaze and rested her head on his chest.
“You okay?” he asked, stroking a hand over her head and neck before kneading her shoulders.
She nodded, unable to speak over the riot of emotions storming around inside her. With her hands propped on his hipbones, she breathed in his scent, committing every detail to memory for the inevitable day when they’d go their separate ways.
“I’ll never look at this counter the same way again,” he said drolly.
Of course she laughed at that, which relieved some of her tension. She wondered if that’s why he’d said it.
All at once, he hopped off the counter, pulled up his shorts and reached for her, lifting her and curling her legs around his hips. “We’ve got time for a nap before dinner at my parents’ house.”
“Do we?” she asked with a smile, crossing her hands behind his neck.
Nodding, he said, “Plenty of time to even the score.”
“What score is that?”
“The orgasm score. I owe you one.”
Laughing as he walked them into her room, Stephanie knew she’d never love anyone the way she loved Grant McCarthy.
This was the all-consuming, last-forever deal his parents seemed to have, and the greedy little girl who lived inside her wanted the same thing with him that they had.
For now, though, she’d take what she could get and file away the memories to sustain her when it was over.