For Our Son: A BWWM Parenting Romance For Adults (11 page)

"Greg Mathis?" Grace asked, her back still facing Ryan.

"Yeah. He was being interviewed for some insurance fraud thing he
was involved in,” Ryan stated.

"Are you kidding?" Grace sat up in interest. Greg Mathis had
been one of her biggest academic rivals during high school. Unlike Grace, Greg
played dirty to get whatever he wanted, and once it was at her expense. Even to
this day, she couldn't bring herself to forgive him for sabotaging her senior
project.

"Yeah. I think he even started crying at one point." Ryan
laughed.

"Aahh, I would have given anything to see that. You should have
called me."

"Well it was a year ago…"

"So?”

"So would you have talked to me?"

"I didn’t hate you, Ryan. Is that the impression I gave you?"

"You just didn’t talk to me..."

"You didn’t talk to me either."

There was a lull in the conversation and Grace laid back down. She
resumed her position on her side.

"I thought about calling you." Ryan’s voice pierced the
darkness.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Grace turned over to face Ryan. "I thought about calling you, too.
Like, a million times. Freshman year of college was really lonely for me."

The clouds had moved and the moon was providing a sliver of light into
the darkened hotel room. Grace felt Ryan’s hand upon hers. She looked up to see
that he was watching her for a reaction. She intertwined her fingers with his.

Ryan wondered what was going through Grace’s mind. He knew what was
going through his, but Grace was hard to read. She had never been that easy to
read, even when they were dating.

"Yes,” Grace suddenly said.

"What?" Ryan asked confused.

"The question you asked me earlier – about if I had an orgasm when
you and I were…you know…the answer is yes."

"Oh." Ryan was all smiles.

Grace recognized the look on Ryan’s face from years prior. He wanted
her. She wanted him, too.

Ryan began to rub his hands over Grace’s hand and up her arm. Grace knew
that if she didn’t stop him soon she wouldn’t be able to.

"Ryan…we can’t." It took all of her strength to move her arm
away from him. But Ryan was not a free man. He had a girlfriend.

Ryan rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling. He knew Grace
was right, but his body would not take no for an answer. He hadn’t been filled
with this much desire since…well, never.

"Sorry,” Ryan mumbled.

"For what?" Grace asked him.

"I don’t want you to think I planned any of this. I didn’t come
here thinking we would sleep together."

"I know that." Grace patted Ryan. She meant to retract her
hand, but he grabbed hold of it before she could.

"Whatever happens, Grace, let’s remain friends, okay? You always
were the best one I had."

"Yeah. Okay,” Grace agreed. The moment seemed like it needed an
emotional gesture, so Grace leaned over and hugged Ryan.

Ryan and Grace held each other, neither of them wanting to be the first
one to let go. Ryan loved the feel of Grace’s silky smooth shoulder against his
cheek. In a bold move, he kissed her shoulder. When she responded by rubbing
his back, Ryan moved his lips to her neck. By the time Ryan’s lips reached Grace’s,
there was no turning back. He lifted up the thin tank top she was wearing and
kissed and licked at her breasts and nipples.

Every fiber of Grace’s being knew that what she was doing was wrong,
which made her want it even more. As Ryan kissed a trail from her breasts to
her navel, she promised herself that she wouldn’t let him go any further, but
when he gradually removed her underwear, she let him do it. And when he bowed
between her legs and kissed the inside of her thighs, she let him do it. And
when his tongue danced within her, creating sensations she didn’t even know
existed, she let him do that, too.

As Grace repositioned herself so that she and Ryan could orally pleasure
one another simultaneously, Ryan rationalized his guilt away by saying they
weren’t having real sex. But as the night progressed, his body begged for more
and more of Grace. He rolled over on top of her.

"Do you have a condom?" she asked him.

"No." It pained Ryan as he came to that realization. "Do
you have anything?"

"No." Grace lay beneath Ryan, staring up at him. He was
staring back at her, willing her to change the obvious outcome of the
situation.

"Aarrgh!" he collapsed in anguish against her. Grace laughed
as she rubbed Ryan’s back. "It’s funny?" Ryan pretended to be upset.
"I’m dying here."

Grace giggled again and kissed him on his neck. She knew it was driving
him crazy and she was enjoying the reaction she was getting out of him.

Ryan began to return Grace’s kisses as he tried to distract himself from
what he really wanted. After a few seconds of kissing, he was sure he was going
to explode. "Grace, please…" he whispered in her ear.

"We can’t. We don’t have anything,” she whispered back.

"I’ll pull out,” Ryan begged breathlessly.

Grace didn’t answer him with words. She simply continued to kiss him
until he entered her and they melted into one another.

The wake-up call
never came the next morning.

Chapter fifteen

Grace couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the numbers displayed on
the alarm clock the next morning. Not only would she not have time to make it
to the hospital to say goodbye to Matthew, but in a matter of minutes she was
going to miss her flight.

"Ryan! Ryan wake up!" If Grace was concerned about facing Ryan,
that apprehension was overshadowed by the fear of missing their flight.

"Huh? What?" Ryan sat up with a start. "What’s
wrong?"

"Look at the time! We’re going to miss our flight!" Grace
jumped out of bed and scrambled to put on her underwear. Ryan did the same.

As they bustled around, throwing clothes into suitcases and putting on
the first clean thing they could find, Ryan and Grace made a silent pact not to
acknowledge what had transpired between them the previous night.

"What about Matthew?" Ryan asked.

"I’ll call the airline and then I’ll call the hospital. I’m sure Monica
and Steve are there." Grace failed to make eye contact with Ryan.

"Okay. And I’m gonna go talk to the front desk. This is all their
fault. If they had given us our wake up call like we’d asked we wouldn’t be in
this situation,” Ryan bellowed.

Grace’s first call was to the airline. There was no way she and Ryan
would make it to the airport and through security screening in time to catch
their flight. They were able to book a flight a few hours later, but because
the debacle was their fault, they would have to pay an additional fee.

Monica and Steve were very understanding about Ryan and Grace’s
predicament. They said that Matthew still seemed to be doing well and that he
was going to be in the hospital one more day for observation. If Grace and Ryan
timed everything well, they would still be able to swing by for a quick
goodbye.

Ryan returned with a look of smug satisfaction on his face. "Boy did
I let them have it,” he said.

"So they’re going to reimburse us for the additional fee the
airline is charging us for booking us on the next flight?" Grace asked.

The egotism left Ryan’s face. "What fee?"

"We have to pay to be booked on the next flight. I put yours on my
credit card so you wouldn’t have to call back."

"What the – they are definitely paying for that!" Ryan left
the room again and headed down to the front desk.

When the front desk manager wouldn’t comply, the hotel manager, once
again, was summoned to deal with Ryan and Grace’s situation. He repeatedly
stated that usually these types of situations were the responsibility of the
guests, but since he and Grace had had such a series of problems since their
arrival, the hotel would compensate them this one time.

Now that they had a little breathing room, Grace took the time to take a
shower, brush her teeth and comb her hair. She felt much better in her clothes
as she went down to the lobby to make a private phone call. She pulled out her
cell phone and called Morgan.

"Hello?" Morgan answered quietly on the fourth ring.

"Are you sleeping?" Grace asked.

"It’s before noon on a Saturday morning. What do you think?" Morgan
asked.

"Sorry." Grace had forgotten what day of the week it was.

"That’s okay. I need to get up anyway. How’s everything
going?"

"Good. The surgery went well. We’re going to stop by before we take
off for the airport but they truly won’t know anything for a couple of weeks.
That’s how long it’ll take for the new bone marrow to take over,” Grace
explained.

"Wow. Well I hope everything works out."

"Me too. Listen, are you going to be busy tonight?"

"No. Why? Do you need a ride home from the airport or
something?"

"Yeah. We’re turning the rental car in at the airport so I don’t
have a way home."

"What’s all this ‘we’ stuff? You and Ryan? Sounds like you’re a
couple."

"Don’t be crazy. That’s ridiculous. No. No, we are definitely not a
couple. Me and Ryan…no."

"Well…you’ve certainly set me straight on that issue." Morgan laughed.

Grace laughed too, lightly. She had really come down to the lobby, under
the cloak of hunger, to tell her friend what had recently transpired between
herself and Ryan. But now she felt as if it were too big of a mistake to share.
Did she really want to admit that she had had sex with someone else’s
boyfriend? Or that she hadn’t even used protection?

The latter was, perhaps, her biggest concern at this present time. She
had no idea what Ryan had been up to in the past two years. And Sophia? Just the
thought of her left a bitter taste in Grace’s mouth. But what if Sophia was the
type of person to engage in all types of lewd acts? What if Sophia was cheating
on Ryan and had given him some disease that he didn’t know about? And aside
from diseases, what if Grace got pregnant?

"Something you should have thought about before, idiot…" Grace
said aloud.

"What?" Morgan took offense. "Why’d you call me an idiot?”

"Not you, I was talking to myself. I should have asked you a long
time ago about picking me up at the airport. I can’t believe I waited until the
last minute." Grace covered herself.

"No big deal. It’s not like you didn’t have a lot of other things
on your mind."

Grace provided Morgan with her flight information before ending the
phone call. She heaved a sigh as she thought about what was awaiting her
throughout the rest of the day. Could she and Ryan keep up the charade of
normalcy? What would they talk about on the way to the hospital, the airport or
on the long flight home?

Ryan pulled his bags and Grace’s into the trunk of the rental car while Grace
settled their bill and received their reimbursement check from the hotel
manager.