CHAPTER 30
GRANT

I looked over at Theresa sleeping in the bed, and I grinned. Seeing her naked bosom rising and falling with her breaths was peaceful to me. The bruises on her neck were finally beginning to fade, and the bruising on her thighs was following suit. Soon, the evidence of that bastard would no longer be apparent, and the only marks on her body would be ones I left behind with my mouth.

The only kind of marks she deserved.

I ripped my gaze away from her and turned it on all the emails I had. I needed to get back to Boston. Our financials were in prime condition for taking over my mentor’s company, but I would need to be there to sign off on the paperwork. Matt didn’t have the credentials to orchestrate something like that, which meant I would have to leave.

And the thought of leaving Theresa behind again made me sick.

I couldn't run my company from a hotel room, but I didn’t want to leave her. I didn’t want to risk her getting hurt again because I wasn’t around. I couldn't ask her to up and move for me. To pack up her life and come with me. She’d never go for it. A weekend, sure. That was recklessness with a deadline, which was what Theresa enjoyed. I loved her more than I could stand. My heart filled with joy at the mere prospect of looking upon her beautiful face. We’d whispered half promises all night long of exotic vacations and no more worries and a long future filled with adventure and orgasms that made us speechless.

But in the cold light of day? This place wasn’t my home.

It hadn’t been since I was eighteen.

I typed up a few responses to some of Matt’s emails and told him I was on my way back, that come dinnertime tonight, I would be back home and able to kick off this acquisition. I told him to set up the meeting, so we could sit down and draw up not only a formal purchasing document but make sure we took all my mentor’s wishes for his company into consideration. I didn’t want to dismantle what he’d built. On the contrary, I’d modeled myself after what he had done. I didn’t want to change his vision or direction for his company simply because he was ailing. I wasn’t that kind of businessman.

I wanted to do right by the only man who ever remotely saw past the barbaric, angry boy he had employed to work for him.

I sent off the email just as Theresa began to stir. Her grunting and yawning was a sound I’d grown accustomed to hearing. I turned myself toward her and smiled when she sat up on the edge of the bed. Her breasts hung against her beautiful body, and her curves made my groin throb. Her hair was crazy from sex, and her eyes were hazy with sleep, and she’d never looked more beautiful than she did in those first few moments. When her mind wasn’t right and the only thing guiding her actions was the routine she’d ingrained into herself.

Then, her eyes connected with mine.

She wrapped the sheet around her body, and I cursed her for covering it up. If she were mine, I’d encourage her to walk around naked. To let me see those curves while she did all those mundane tasks men thought were idiotic. She padded over to me and I spread my legs, accommodating her full and luscious tones as she sat against my thigh. I wrapped my arm around her and settled it on her hip, and her head fell to my chest.

I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to caress her. I wanted to slowly slip that sheet from her silky skin and pull my cock out just for her. To eat and ride and suck on for her morning meal until she was begging for her own release.

But I couldn't.

No matter how much I wanted to, I knew I was about to break her heart.

“Morning,” she said into my skin.

“Sleep well?” I asked.

“Always, with you.”

I clenched my jaw and tried to stay as strong as I could.

“What are you doing?” Theresa asked.

“Just sending out some emails.”

“Your company already falling apart without you?”

I moved my head away from her, and it caused her to look up at me. The playfulness in her eyes died and in its place was a worry I watched surface. Fuck. I was really going to do this. I was going to give up the one thing I wanted and cherished more than my fucking life.

But I loved her too much to make her choose between her home and mine.

“I’m needed back in Boston,” I said.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Yes, but nothing bad. I’m making strides to buy out another contracting company in the area and merge it with mine. I have to be there to assist in the transition and make sure things go smoothly.”

“Grant, that’s incredible,” she said with a smile. “I’ll pack my things.”

I stared at her blankly, my eyes blinking as her smile slipped from her cheeks.

“We’ll have to go to my apartment,” Theresa said. “I don’t have enough clothes here.”

My brow ticked in confusion as I adjusted myself in my seat.

“You’re packing,” I said.

“That’s sort of what I have to do if we’re heading to Boston. I can’t walk around town naked.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but she covered it with hers before I could say anything. Her tongue shoved its way past my teeth and I groaned. My hand flew to her hair, grasping her tangled tendrils and tugging her off to the side. She fell into my lap, and my arms wrapped around her back as she slid her soft arms around my neck. Our lips danced together, and our tongues intermingled, and the languid kiss sent soft flames rushing over my skin.

I pulled back and found her smiling at me as her fingertips danced along my jawline.

“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said.

“You didn’t ask,” she said.

“But this is your home. Your family, your friends, your job, your life is here.”

I saw a fire rise in her eyes as she stood from my lap. She turned her back to me and walked away, her feet falling heavily against the carpet. She turned around and stuck her finger out at me, then turned her back again and groaned. She whipped around with her fist in the air, and I braced myself for whatever she had to give me. She did this time and time again, turning around and catching herself before she approached me again.

It killed me to watch her struggle with this as much as she was.

“Are you really that thick?”

I looked up into her eyes, unsure of what to say.

“Do you really think I would let you go after getting you back?” Theresa asked. “I waited eleven years, Grant. Eleven. Eleven years of trying to make someone else into something he wasn’t. Eleven years of dreaming you would come back and scoop me up into your arms and take me away. Eleven years of wondering if I was ever going to see you again. Or if I was destined to simply love this figment of my imagination for the rest of my life!”

My eyes locked onto her angry face, and I watched her skin flush. She was panting. Seething with an anger she didn’t know what to do with.

Then she strode over to me and punched me in the arm.

“You’re an idiot, Grant Hooper. But you don’t get to get rid of me that easily,” she said.

“I’m not trying to get rid of you.”

“Yes, you are. If you think you know what’s best for me and you try to force me to stay, you’re no better than Ike. Or my brother. Or my father. In fact, you’d be worse than my father, because at least my father admitted what he was doing.”

I rubbed my arm where she had punched me as I sat up in my chair.

“But if you cared about my opinion and about what I wanted for my life, then you would give me the option. You wouldn’t tell me what to do like so many others have throughout my life. You’d tell me what my options were and you’d let me decide.”

And she was right.

“Okay,” I said. “Here are your options. You can come with me and stay at my place while I work myself to death trying to get these two companies to merge. Or you can stay here with your family surrounded by a community you were raised in and find someone to share that with. Take your pick.”

Theresa’s eyes locked with mine as I stood from my chair. With my arms hanging at my sides and a lump in my throat, I slowly approached her. I watched her stand her ground as I got to her and watched her crane her neck back to keep my face in view.

Then, I asked the one question no one had ever asked Theresa before in her life.

“Which do you want?”

“You listening? Because I’m only going to say this once,” she said.

“I’m all ears.”

“You’re taking me back to my apartment so I can pack. And then we’re getting in your car and going back to Boston. There’s shit from my place I need that isn’t here, and I’m not leaving until I have it.”

“What about your job?”

“I have a damn business degree, Grant. I can work anywhere,” she said.

“What about your apartment?”

“I’ll take the money out of my savings to break the lease.”

“And your car?”

“A heaping piece of junk. It won’t make it to Boston. I’ll sell it to a junkyard or something.”

“What about your family?”

She paused, her eyes dancing between mine before she drew in a deep breath.

“They’ve got cars of their own. If they want to see me, they can come visit.”

I chuckled and shook my head as I looked out over the ocean. I felt Theresa’s smile warming my body as I took in the sight. This beautiful woman, who was shorter than me by at least a foot, was telling me what to do. And I had to admit, I liked her plan. I shook my head and looked back down at her, finding her smile so big it was almost closing her eyes.

“I love you. You know that?” I asked.

She shook her head as her smile faded, then her hand came up and cupped my cheek.

“If you ever think about playing the martyr for me again, you’ll regret it,” she said.

Then she stood on her tiptoes, brought her lips to mine, and warmed my body with hers as the sheet dropped to the floor at her feet.