19. Dane
NINETEEN
Dane
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at the other boutiques on Margot’s list. I loved watching Grace show off in front of the mirror. Even better that she was doing it as much for herself as for me.
Damn, she was gorgeous.
I’d been on good behavior all week leading up to our trip. But after that kiss Grace laid on me while wearing that sexy-as-hell blue dress, I had just about reached the end of my patience. I really had been tempted to pick her up, carry her into the dressing room, and make good on my threat to get her naked then and there. But Grace was wiser than me, making sure we’d still be welcome at that boutique.
It was probably ridiculous to already be thinking about future trips to New York with her. But I couldn’t help where my mind went.
At the second shop, I made sure a pizza was waiting for us. I fed Grace bites of the best pizza in the country while she tried on fancy dresses for the wedding.
Was it a smart idea to risk getting tomato sauce on expensive gowns? Maybe not, but I liked to live dangerously. I wanted to buy her everything she tried on, anyway. Even though Grace was all kinds of picky about what she agreed to let me get for her.
But she found plenty she liked. My black card got a workout, and every time I waved it over the card reader, I got a thrill that Grace was letting me do something special for her. Plus, the longer I could avoid thinking about the actual wedding events and seeing my family, the better.
Then she surprised me by picking a tie for me at the last boutique, which carried menswear, and paying for it herself. “So you have something to remember this trip,” she said.
That wasn’t going to be an issue. But I appreciated the gesture more than I could express. “Thank you.”
By the time we were finished and the back of the SUV was full of shopping bags, I was beyond worked up. In the elevator on the way up to my apartment, my mind was going all sorts of dirty places. I had told the doorman to send up our things later. Right now, I had to get my hands on her.
I pulled her in front of me in the elevator, wrapping my arms around her middle. “Are you ready for me?” I murmured.
“I’ve been ready for a while now.” She gave me a cute little smirk over her shoulder. While I had been growing more desperate all afternoon, she had been getting more bold. “What are you going to do to me first?”
“Mmmm.” I had been pondering that exact question. I’d been picturing my first time with Grace all week. Which was a unique form of self torture, and had resulted in plenty of solo orgasms, all of them unsatisfying. “Depends. Do you want me to be sweet and gentle this first time?” I massaged her hip with a firm but easy touch, then dropped a soft kiss to her neck, showing her just how sweet I could be.
“That does sound nice.” She turned her head, eyes glinting. “But I thought you promised to punish me. “
Desire poured through my veins, heady as bourbon and equally intoxicating. Fuck .
She was ready for me, but now I wondered if I was entirely ready for Grace O’Neal. For the spell of infatuation she was already putting me under.
The elevator doors opened on my floor. I pressed my lips to her ear. “I think you’re hiding a bad girl behind those glasses and the books on spreadsheets.”
“I don’t know,” she said innocently. “Spreading some sheets is exactly what I was just thinking of.”
I laughed and grabbed her hand, fishing for my keys in my pocket. She had to rush to keep up with my long strides. Somehow I got the key in the lock, and then we were inside and I pressed her up against my closed door. I tossed my keys to the floor behind me and took her purse from her, tossing that to the floor as well.
Then I held her face in my palms and kissed her. My tongue stroked into her mouth, and my hands started to wander, moving down the curves I had been eyeing all afternoon. “I’ve been watching you model different outfits for the last several hours, but I never got to see the good parts. So the first thing I want is to watch you take off all your clothes. Show off how pretty you are for me wearing nothing at all.”
Grace bit her lip, gazing up at me.
Then a throat cleared primly behind us.
Grace yelped, and I cursed under my breath, tipping my head back in frustration. Why now ? Then I discreetly adjusted myself, thankful my shirt was untucked, and turned around.
“Apologies,” Margot said. “I texted that I was on my way.”
“I was distracted.”
“I can see that.” Margot’s expression didn’t change except for some lines appearing around her eyes, and I knew she was laughing at me inside.
I was thirty-five years old and had no reason to be embarrassed about being caught with a beautiful woman, but Margot was such a mom. Even more than my own mother had ever been.
Grace came out from behind me, holding out her hand. “I’m guessing you’re Margot. That wasn’t the way I would normally introduce myself.”
Margot laughed. “I had my moments back in my day. I hate to interrupt, but I’m afraid we are in a time crunch.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, still trying to get my heart rate under control. “I thought we had another couple hours until the rehearsal dinner at least.”
“Try forty-five minutes. That’s why I’m here. Thought we’d share a ride downtown.” No wonder she was in a black dress and heels. To work, Margot usually wore one of her trademark pantsuits.
“How environmental of you.” I smiled, even as my guts twisted, knowing my father was somehow behind this. Margot looked out for me, but this was a bit much even for her.
“I guess I’d better get cleaned up for dinner then,” Grace said. Her cheeks had turned pink. She glanced around. “If you could just point me in the direction of a shower, and I’ll need my suitcase…”
I rested a hand on her lower back and guided her to my bedroom and the en-suite bathroom. “There are bathrobes in the closet. Toiletries in the cabinets.”
“This is your room?” she asked.
“Yes. I hoped you’d stay here with me. Unless you’d prefer the guest room.”
“No. Your room is…good. Your…bed.”
I tugged her closer. “You’re not getting shy on me, are you?”
She traced her fingers down the buttons of my shirt. “Trying not to.”
“Are you going to wear your new blue dress tonight?”
“I was planning on it. Are you going to wear your new tie?”
“I am. But I was thinking about some other uses I might have for that tie later on. When we’re alone.”
Grace sucked in a breath, eyes flaring with interest. “That so?”
“I also had ideas about joining you in the shower,” I said, “but I guess we’ll have to save that for later too. I should’ve kept better track of time. I’m sorry about that.”
“Margot handled it well.”
“She’s a professional.”
Grace played with the collar of my shirt. “Has she walked in on you in an intimate position with someone before?”
“Actually, that was the first time.”
“Okay.”
“I’ve never asked her to make appointments for me to take someone shopping before, either.”
A tiny, satisfied smile played across Grace’s lips. “Good. I really had fun today. It was amazing.”
“Good. You deserved it.”
“You keep saying that.”
“It’s still true.” I kissed her on the mouth. Slow. Sensual. But not taking things any further because we couldn’t. Not yet. No matter how much I wanted to.
“Good,” Grace whispered again when I pulled back, her focus going hazy, and I chuckled.
“One of us needs to stop saying good .”
She nodded. “Until later. Then, I wouldn’t mind hearing about how good I’m being.”
I growled, my grip tightening on her again. Dammit, I wanted her right now. Wanted to skip this stupid rehearsal dinner altogether and spend the rest of today doing far more pleasurable things.
Maybe it was wise Margot had shown up after all.
“I’ll bring in your suitcase and your new clothes in a few minutes.” I forced myself to take a few steps back from her, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. “Let’s get through this dinner,” I said. “And then the rest of the night is ours.”
When I got back to the living room, Margot said, “I called downstairs to have all your things brought up immediately. Should be here any minute.”
“Thank you. But I’m a big boy. I don’t need you to manage me. No matter what my father claims.”
“You think I wanted to bother you? Your father’s assistant made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that I had to make sure you were on time tonight.”
“Of course he did.”
“Your absence at the other wedding activities this week has been noted.”
“I was absent because I was working . The Silver Ridge project is important to me. Dad already lectured me about how it had better be profitable, and I’m not going to put my entire life on hold just because Kip is getting married.”
She held up her hands. “You and me both. But you know how your father is.”
“Yeah, I do.” Everything was about loyalty. And I never managed to show enough.
There was a knock at the door. I opened it a bit roughly, making the guy outside jump. “Your bags, Mr. Knightly?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” I shoved a generous tip at him. Hopefully that made up for my shitty mood.
Grabbing Grace’s suitcase and the garment bag with her new clothes, I excused myself and carried them into my bedroom. The shower was running, the bathroom door not quite closed. Like an invitation. And did I ever want to accept it.
But my conversation with Margot wasn’t finished, and I preferred to get this over with while Grace wouldn’t overhear.
I went out to the great room again, and Margot was in the kitchen fiddling with my coffee maker. As soon as I walked in, she handed me a shot of espresso. I downed it and said, “Thank you.”
She went to make one for herself, sticking a fresh pod into the coffee maker. It was some hard-to-find European model Margot had ordered for me for my last birthday. Because she knew me. She cared.
I had very few people in my corner in Manhattan these days, but I had Margot, and thank goodness for that.
“Sorry I grumped at you,” I said. I went to pour a glass of water from the fridge.
“Already forgotten. There’s something else I wanted to share with you in person. You asked me to find out more about Dirk Lancaster.”
I snapped to attention. “Yes? Did you locate him?”
Since I’d first heard that name from Tobin the hotel manager almost a week ago, I’d been pestering Kip for info on Lancaster. The man in the blue mask. My brother had conveniently ignored my calls and messages. Margot had tracked down Lancaster’s business number, but the man hadn’t responded either.
“Lancaster’s assistant kept claiming he was unavailable,” Margot said, “and I finally learned he left the country a few days ago for a vacation in Fiji.”
“ Fiji ?”
She shrugged. “Apparently, the trip had been planned ages ago, but who knows. Since Kip’s assistant wasn’t helpful either, I decided to look up Lancaster in the Knightly Global system myself. He committed recently to a significant investment in your brother’s pet project in the Bahamas.”
“So Kip does know him.”
She nodded. “And your brother’s calendar showed he had dinner with Lancaster two weeks ago.”
Which would’ve been after the masquerade ball.
“Technically, I shouldn’t have been accessing Kip’s personal calendar,” Margot said, “but if he insists on being mysterious about Lancaster, then I had to resort to more extreme measures.”
“I assume you didn’t leave traces on the system?”
Margot smiled thinly. “I’m much too careful for that, dear.” Of course she was. Good thing I had the woman working for me . “I passed everything I have on Lancaster to your investigator, Warren Crenshaw. He’ll be able to find out more for you on Lancaster’s business dealings and travel.”
“Thank you. I can talk to Kip about Lancaster too at some point this weekend, and I’ll be sure not to give away your spying.”
She nodded. “I’d rather avoid the ire of your brother. If I can help it.”
I wanted to say Kip wouldn’t dare harass someone so close to me, but who was I kidding? Kip was a coward when it came to striking directly, but he could still make Margot’s life difficult.
“What about Nina Jamison? Anything?”
We had already concluded that her name might be fake, since Margot hadn’t been able to find anything about a Nina Jamison matching the redhead in the photo Chief Landry had shared. No social media, credit history, nothing. Ms. Scarlet was apparently a ghost.
Margot shook her head. “Afraid not. But the investigator will work on finding her too. Hopefully he’ll have more luck.”
I cast a glance toward my bedroom door, making sure it remained closed. “And the other matter I asked you to look into?”
“Grace’s eldest brother? Aside from Grayden O’Neal’s military discharge and incarceration record, I didn’t find much. He was released from prison a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t able to tell where he went afterward. Should I get Warren involved?”
“Send him the info. Just to see if we can find O’Neal, but tell Warren no contact yet.” I needed to know for sure if Grace wanted her brother in her life again. And there was the fact that Ashford would want the exact opposite, but…yeah. I would deal with that later.
“One other thing, Dane. I saw Izzy this morning. Gave her your love.”
The espresso churned in my stomach. “I was planning to visit Mom tomorrow. How did she seem?”
Margot paused. “It wasn’t the best day for her today. Tomorrow’s a new one.”
True. But I hated that I actually felt relief , knowing I hadn’t missed one of Mom’s rare moments of clarity while I’d been out with Grace.
“Has Kip taken Bristol to see Mom this week?” I asked. “Or at all?”
“Not that I’m aware of. The nurses didn’t mention any other recent visitors. Aside from your father, of course.”
I muttered a curse, but a resigned one. I couldn’t believe my brother had failed to take his fiancée to see our mother during the week of his wedding. Not like Mom could come to any of the festivities. But Kip owed it to Mom to at least try making her a part of it.
“Maybe they’ll stop by and visit your mother tomorrow before the ceremony,” Margot said. “You might run into them.”
I huffed a laugh with zero humor. “One big, happy family.”
Margot sipped her espresso. “And Grace? Are you bringing her with you to see Izzy tomorrow as well?”
Shit, I hadn’t even considered that. “Not sure. Grace might prefer to hit a museum or sightsee instead while I take care of the visit with Mom.”
“You really think Grace would prefer that?”
“She already has to deal with Dad and Kip. I can’t subject her to all the Knightly family issues. She’s here to get her mind off of bullshit like that. To have fun.”
“Grace doesn’t seem like the type to want only fun.”
“Well, maybe that’s what I want for her,” I snapped.
Margot frowned like she was disappointed in me. Couldn’t blame her. I was being an asshole.
“I need to get ready,” I said, knowing I was avoiding the issue. But I didn’t have the energy to untangle it.
“Please do.” Margot checked her watch. “Thirty-five minutes.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered as I walked away.
I hadn’t told Grace about my mom’s diagnosis at all yet, and I couldn’t even say why . Maybe because, when I was with Grace, I actually felt like happiness was a simple thing that I could reach out and hold. Something I might be able to keep.
But my mother’s illness was a reminder that nothing was guaranteed.
I could fight for everything I wanted and still lose it.