CHAPTER SIX
“First order of business: laundry,” she said matter-of-factly once they had wended their way back to the house.
Grace gathered up her meager pile of dirty clothes and asked Henry where the machine was.
“I can do it for you,” he offered, holding out his hands. Was it pathetic that his bear considered holding her personal belongings to be a consolation prize since he wasn’t allowed to hold her yet?
“Do I look helpless?” she asked irritably.
“No, I just . . . this way,” he sighed. Why was it that everything came out all wrong when he tried to speak to Grace? Normally he was rather talkative. Articulating his thoughts had been as easy as breathing. But his mate, well, she was making him tongue tied, which was embarrassing to say the least.
He was striking out on all fronts, with no hope of ever impressing her at this point. Fortunately, his ego had been swollen to begin with, so he would survive the loss of a little hot air. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why he turned into a bumbling fool whenever she was near. Maybe it was the fact that all the blood went rushing down to his fevered groin every time he so much as glanced at her.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that none of the other women he’d encountered before her had really mattered. Whatever the cause, he needed to find a way to get over it and fast. Because Grace, well, she meant everything to him. It didn’t matter that they’d only just met, because he knew she was the one.
“It’s in here,” he said, opening the door to the laundry room.
It was a small space, and Grace couldn’t decide if she wanted to yell at him to get out of her way, or to pull him in closer for a hell of a lot more than a kiss. She could feel his eyes on her as she lifted the lid to the stainless steel energy efficient monstrosity. The thing was so high up, thanks to the giant matching drawer located beneath the unit, that she could barely reach in.
But she wasn’t the type of person who would willingly ask for help. Requesting assistance left a person open to rejection, and that was a bitter pill she refused to swallow. Trying hard to act like she knew what the hell she was doing, she rapidly scanned the labels on the detergent bottles because she wasn’t familiar with the brands and she didn’t want to look like an idiot. It should have been a simple task, but it was taking forever.
To make matters worse, Henry didn’t appear as though he had any intention of giving her so much as a moment of privacy. The last thing she wanted was someone getting a close look at the disgusting undergarments she’d been wearing all week. She wadded her panties up inside of her bra and tried to toss them in fast before he could take a closer look.
Then she pulled the belt out of her jean skirt so that the washer wouldn’t ruin it. When the individual components of a single outfit add up to the sum total of all your worldly possessions you learn to be careful with them. The belt had been mainly decorative before, but she had plans to coordinate it with some of Henry’s clothes to cinch them in so that they would better fit her petite frame.
She selected a small cycle and started the machine. By this point she was in a hurry to get out of the room, because being trapped in such a cramped space with Mr. Sinfully Good-looking was doing unexpected things to her hormones. Her foot caught on the rug and she went flying, right towards Henry. He reached out and caught her, pulling her in tight. When it came to keeping her safe he acted solely on reflex.
Her eyes were drawn to his lips, and she couldn’t seem to tear herself away. Caught up in the chemistry of the moment, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth impulsively to his. Her touch was feather light, almost as though she was expecting rejection on some sort of subconscious level.
She was surprised when he didn’t seek to disentangle himself from her grasp. Nor did he tell her to stop or call her harsh names. Instead he gripped her tighter, opening his mouth with a moan as he deepened the kiss. She raised a hand, preparing to stop him, but when her fingers met the muscled contours of his shoulder she found she didn’t want to sever the intimate contact.
Touching him made her feel alive, something she hadn’t experienced in longer than she cared to remember. These weren’t feelings any other man had ever evoked in her. She clutched him firmly and teased her other hand up under his shirt so that she could feel all the flesh she’d been drooling over from the moment she’d opened the car door to discover his faultless naked body. He nudged himself against her mound, sliding a heavily muscled thigh between her quivering legs.
And then his hands were sliding up under her ass and shifting her up higher so that she was straddling his thigh. He broke the kiss, but only so that he could move his sensuous lips to the slender column of her throat where he laved her skin with his tongue. He could smell the moment she became fully aroused, and he wanted to rip down the baggy sweat pants and lick every dewy drop straight from the source.
His fingers kneaded her backside, tenderly squeezing the flesh until she was reduced to nothing but a needy mass of cells. He began to tug on the baggy shirt, eager to see her perky little breasts bared before him. He had already hiked the shirt up halfway when the doorbell rang. He swore loudly when he felt Grace’s body clamming, shutting down instinctively because of the intrusion. She froze in his arms, instantly wary.
Whoever had rung the bell might as well have flung a bucket of ice water at them because they’d effectively ruined the mood. He was angry, and his bear was ready to tear the flesh off the jerk who’d dare interrupt when they’d been so close to claiming their mate. He made no move to leave, he didn’t want to step away when things were still so volatile between them.
“Grace, I . . .” he began, unsure of what to say next.
“Just answer the door,” she muttered, pulling out of his grasp. “And do me a favor and stop grabbing me every five seconds. This,” she said, gesturing with her arms to encompass both of them. “This just isn’t happening.”
She held her head up high as she walked away and wondered if she might start believing her own words if she repeated them often enough. This was not the time to start a new relationship, not when she’d only just begun to get her life under control.
While Henry was busy dealing with whoever was at the door she snuck into his bedroom. Technically she had a legitimate reason for trespassing on his personal turf. She really did need to borrow some clothes. Of course, the right thing to do would have been to tell him that, and let him pick stuff out for her, or at the very least escort her in. But deep down she simply wanted to snoop around a bit on her own so that she could find out more about the man that she may or may not have the hots for.
***
“God hates me,” Henry whined as he willed his erection to retreat on his walk through the house. He threw open the door and growled at the person waiting impatiently on the porch. “You have the worst timing on the planet.”
The visitor’s eyes widened as he processed the less than cordial greeting he’d just received. His brother didn’t typically go around yelling at people. He was the type of guy that always had a funny story or a joke to share. He was having a hard time reconciling the brother he knew and loved with the irritable man standing before him. Something was going on and he couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of the juicy mystery.
“Someone needs to get laid,” he said obnoxiously and then leaned in closer and inhaled sharply. “Yikes,” he winced when he scented the heady scent of arousal in the air. “Looks like I interrupted something, huh? Who’s the girl? Maybe I should come in and introduce myself, you know. Maybe see if she wants to trade up for a real man?”
Henry growled and Jackson backed up with his hands in the air. “Dude, I was just kidding. I’m here to help you. You called me! Remember?”
“The car is in the garage,” Henry snarled, struggling to spit words past the partially formed fangs in his mouth. Great. Suddenly he couldn’t control his urge to shift into a bear and launch himself at Jackson any more than an adolescent could stop their voice from cracking mid-sentence.
“You’re welcome, butt-face,” Jackson taunted him before quickly darting inside. “I’ve just gotta see whoever it is that has made you so damned aggressive.”
Jackson ran wildly through the house, doing his best to evade the larger male. He stopped abruptly when he saw her, because all it took was one glance for him to see it. She was a total knockout. Being a typical male he didn’t notice how big the clothes were on Grace, or the fading bruises on her skin. All he saw was the way the belt cinched in at her tiny waist and how much of her legs were exposed by the impromptu shirt dress. She had long blonde hair, and the fact that Henry was so into her just made it all too difficult to resist.
“Marry me instead, our mom says I have lots of potential,” he said, unsure of whether or not he was even joking any more.
Henry cuffed his brother sharply on the side of the head. He was proud of himself for showing so much restraint, because at the moment he gladly would have torn his brother limb from limb. The only thing holding him back from his mindless rage was the fact that then he’d have to tell his parents that his idiot brother was dead. His mother would never forgive him . . . even if the fool did have it coming.