Chapter 22

Grant

I’d like to tell you everything went fine from then on. I’d like to say Lacey was happy. I’d like to say she was going out with Rob, and he was a great guy, the guy she’d always been dreaming of. I’d like to say he was the kind of man she deserved, the kind of man who would look after her. I’d like to say I was happy for her.

But I can’t. You know why? Because fuck Rob Crawford.

I’m not saying Lacey was my girl, because I never offered her what she wanted. But this jerkoff? Please. I didn’t like the way he treated her one bit.

He said she’d taught him how to be a man, how to treat women properly, but from what I could tell, he just wanted a piece of eye-candy he could take to parties and use to woo potential clients.

He was constantly trying to get her to do things to enhance her appearance, whatever that meant. As if she wasn’t the most beautiful creature God ever created already. He was using her as an advertisement for his clinic.

I watched her get ready for her dates with him, I watched the way she changed her style, the clothing she wore, even the way she spoke. Fuck, it was the longest two weeks of my life.

She was meeting up with him practically every night, going to fancy parties in the city, or black tie events at his clinic.

I hated watching her leave. I knew it was my own fault. I hadn’t claimed her. She was free to do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted, but fuck, I didn’t have to like it.

I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t. For those two weeks, every time I saw her get ready for a date with Rob, I felt like I was watching my own wife get dressed to go out with another man.

Is that crazy? Is that the kind of domineering bullshit people don’t approve of anymore? If it is, I don’t care. It’s how I felt, and I’m not going to hide it.

I was glad I broke his nose. The more I saw, the happier I was that I’d had the opportunity to plant my fist in his face. If I ever got a chance to do it again, if he fucked up and broke Lacey’s heart, I’d put him right back in that hospital, and it would be more than a few stitches before he got out.

And then, you know what Lacey did next? Me with all this emotion bubbling under the surface, and she tells me she wants me to meet the guy. I was working out in our basement gym when she told me. I was literally benching three-fifty, the weight of the bar pushing down on me, when she chose to tell me. She always had great timing.

“I’m having Rob over for dinner.”

I glanced at her, just for a second, and then my arms gave way. The fucking bar came crashing down on my chest with the force of a small automobile behind it.

“Fuck, Lacey,” I cried.

She hurried over. I didn’t usually need a spotter for that much weight, but Lacey had a real fine way of breaking my willpower. She pulled at the bar but it was no good. It was far too heavy for her. I couldn’t breathe. It was crushing my chest, painfully forcing down into my muscle.

“I can’t lift it, Grant.”

I shut my eyes and put my will into it. I got the bar up and into the locks.

“Shit,” she said. I knew she meant it because she rarely swore. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you’d have such strong feelings on the issue.”

“I don’t,” I lied.

She smiled at me. “I just watched you drop six plates, practically on your neck. You’ve got feelings.”

“I don’t, Lacey.”

“Then you won’t mind joining us for dinner. I really want you and Forrester and Grady to meet Rob.”

“Why? We never meet your boyfriends. You like to keep your love life private from us.”

“Yeah, well it’s not so private anymore, is it, Grant? Not after what you did to me in the barn.”

“What I did to you? From what I remember, you were just as into it as I was,” I said.

“I only did it because you begged me,” she said.

“Yeah, right.”

“I did, Grant. I’d never agree to a one night stand with you otherwise. You know that. You can see how awkward it made everything between us.”

“So you only agreed to it because I begged?”

“You really begged. Plus you had my pictures up there, hidden away. It was … endearing.”

“Endearing?”

“Yes.”

I laughed. “You craved me just as much as I craved you, Lacey. Don’t even bother lying. It just makes it more obvious.”

I was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and I saw her eyes glance over my rippling muscle.

“Does your boyfriend look like this?” It was a lame thing to say but she was infuriating.

She rolled her eyes. “No, Grant. You’ve got bigger biceps than my boyfriend. Do you think I should dump him for you?”

She was always at her sexiest when she was being sarcastic. I looked over her delicious little body. God, she could turn me on. She was the only person in the world who could make my body crave her while simultaneously making my emotions want to get as far away from her as humanly possible.

“I don’t know, Lacey. Do you want to?” I didn’t know what I was saying. I couldn’t think of a witty response with her standing over me like that, looking so sexy.

She had on a tight pair of black yoga pants and I could see every curve of her butt and thighs perfectly. She may as well have been standing in front of me naked. I was pretty sure I could even make out a hint of the shape of her pussy through the fabric.

My cock throbbed. Fuck. Not now.

I started to get up but Lacey did something that really surprised me. She leaned down, put her hand on my chest between my pectorals, and pushed me down.

“Is that a pencil in your pocket, Grant?” she said, a wicked smile on her lips.

I lay there and looked up at her. “Why don’t you climb on and find out?”

She looked at me for a second, we both looked into each other’s eyes for an intense moment, and then she turned and left.

“Dinner’s tonight. Please be there. I’m serious about this guy and I want him to meet my family.”

I watched her leave, her delicious buns swaying left and right in those yoga pants. My cock was completely rigid, pulsing with desire, eager for her pussy. But it wasn’t getting her pussy. It crossed my mind that if things worked out between Lacey and Rob, I’d never taste her pussy again.

The idea hit me all of a sudden, like a freight train. It shouldn’t have been a shock, but it was. What if I never had another chance with Lacey? What if she married this guy, Rob Crawford? What if I lost her forever?

How would I live with that?

I guess, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, during all the years I’d secretly lusted after Lacey, I’d always known there was a chance. A relationship between her and me was never as hopeless or as impossible as we both pretended.

I’d known it could happen at any minute. She was single. I was single. Sooner or later, she’d fall into my bed. I’d lived my life secure in that knowledge. Now, for the first time, I was beginning to see what my life might be like if that possibility was gone.

And I didn’t like it. In fact, I couldn’t fucking stand it.

I got up, put another plate on each side of the bar, and pumped iron like I’d never done in my life.