Authors: Christine Zolendz
"Shut up and go to sleep
,
Grace."
I dragged my humming, tingling body all the way back upstairs, smiling all the way.
That damn man
just
ruined all other men for
me.
Once you tasted that man, he made all others go sour in your mouth
.
Ah crap, I was in love with him.
Lea and I woke up to someone in the house blasting Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and I mean
blasting it
.
The walls
shook and vibrated along to the music.
I was way beyond exhausted. Sleep had eluded me the entire night. Every time I laid my head against the pillow and closed my
eyes,
I could feel Shane's lips on me.
The Dante quote echoed in my mind looping over and over, mixed with what Lea said about Gabriel being the devil himself. My knees tingled as I dressed and the grin on my face
,
whenever I remembered Shane's hands on me
,
was starting to hurt my cheeks.
Lea and I
were afraid to walk down the stairs to see what her parents had in store, but the smell of coffee and French toast persuaded us
to go
.
When I stepped off the last stair, my
eyes immediately went t
o the couch. The butterflies in my belly roared to life and flipped cartwheels. That right there wa
s a sacred couch and it should be dipped in platinum and studded with diamonds
.
I wondered if they'd let me take it home.
Lea vaulted down the stairs
behind me
, ran over to the home audio system and slapped it off. Around the dining room table sat Anthony with his head hidden behind
The Wall Street Journal
, and Conner and Shane wide eyed
,
eating
from
plates piled with French toast, and all sorts of artery clogging yummy breakfast goodness.
Shane's eyes flashed on me as soon as I stepped through the door and
he held my gaze as I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down across from him. A dangerous smiled played on his lips.
I start
ed
to fidget with my coffee cup,
when Caroline came in and gave me a harsh glare. "You're not eating breakfast, Gracie? Oh, dear. Really, sweetheart, I've seen more meat on a chicken than you." Then she slammed down a plate with six pieces of French toast
slathered in butter and syrup
, five links of turkey sausage and a freaking cheesy looking omelet right in front of me.
Shane laughed and
I
narrowed my eyes at him.
Caroline sat next to me and gave me
THE LOOK
, the one she used to give me as a teenager and thought I was doing something wrong, which was
,
at least five times a day. "Start eating, dear."
Gah
!
It's a good thing I love this woman
. I ate as much as I possibly could.
And, I had a big stupid smile on my face as I did it, because I was planning on having an entire night with Shane to work it off.
After
breakfast,
Caroline and Anthony forced
us all to try their new hot tub
with them and the
ir
eighty-year-old
neighbors
. This is not something that I am going to discuss though, because it was honestly wrong and awkward on so
many levels that I practically closed my eyes through the entire incident.
Let's just say it got worse when
other
couples were invited and some of them started to become...
frisky
. L
ea and I bolted out of the room as soon as a few tops started coming off and one
sixty-year-old
man held his boxers in the air triumphantly
asking how many licks
it takes
to get to the center of his
tootsie pop
.
I shit you not.
Shane and Conner were hot on our heels
behind us
.
We ran through the house laughing and screaming, desperate to be on our way home. Conner and Lea started
frantically
putting their bags together when Shane stopped me
in front of Lea's bedroom door
, "Got plans for the rest of the day?"
I look
ed
bac
k at him and my heart just stopped
. Then it just started
again thudding erratically. What the hell does that mean? I fee
l like I'm having a heart attack.
"No plans," I whisper
ed.
Test drive
your mattress?
Let me pretend to be a Skittle and you can taste my rainbow? Fifty Shades me? Please! Oh, holy horror, I'm freaking losing it
.
And I can just about swear to you that he might be able to read my crazy horn-dog mind at that very moment, because he smirks at me like he won a prize at the all you can eat strip club. "Good. I want to spend the rest of the day with you. Want to go for dinner?"
Yummy
,
Shane. "I'd love to," I say,
well
actually,
I squeaked it, l
ike a mouse. "I, um, was going to ride the bike back and leave the Jeep here. Do you feel up to riding or do you want to take the train back to the city with Lea and Conner?"
He reached
hi
s hand up to my
face, brushed a loose strand of hair from off my cheek,
and tucked
it gently behind my ear. I'm a puddle of goo on the floor. "There
's
no way I'm missing out on a ride between your legs
all the way back to Manhattan
.
"
Now, normally, I would run away or say something horribly mean to him, but not now. No way. My angel is gone and this is the last chance I get to live. I am 100% human and t
hose damn butterflies are flapping their wings all over my girly parts. "Um, yeah. I'm ready to go right now."
The ride back was intoxicating. The whole way I feel like my heart is floating free in my chest and hammering itself into my stomach. I have my arms wrapped around his strong waist and every time he stops for a red
light,
he runs his hands up and down my legs.
If this is what living your life to the fullest is, I want to live forever.
I don't even care how much it's going to hurt when he's not like this tomorrow, I'm just living each and every single perfect Shane moment.
He takes me along the East River to Long Island City's Water's Edge Restaurant.
From their huge open bay
windows,
the view is breathtaking. T
he Manhattan skyline
twinkled
back at us like it was
made of diamonds and light.
We were seated at a quiet table lit with tiny
tea light
candles that float
ed
in a crystal
bowl of water. He ordered
a bottle of wine and we we
re completely sile
nt. All I could
hear between us wa
s my own
heart beating. All I can see we
re those soulful eyes looking right into mine.
His phone started ringing, but he pressed ignore and shut the ringer off.
"I'm glad you cancelled on Ryan," he whispered. His eyes pulled together in a painful expression.
"Yeah, why is that?" I teased.
"I told you before
,
Grace. I want to kill any man that looks at you."
I swallow
ed
hard, "You remember saying that to me?"
"I remember everything
,
Grace."
Right there, that
moment,
I truly think I'm having a heart attack. I just turned twenty-three, it that a possibility? Does he remember my angel being in his body? Do
I ask him? Does he know what'
s going on with Gabriel? My mind is racing and careening out of control.
Holy crap. I gulp
down
my entire glass of wine.
His phone vibrated spastically on the table; he threw his napkin over it.
"Everything?"
"Yeah
,
Grace. Especially the
part when I asked you to try to find whatever it was you were looking for in me." His words hung heavy and thick around me. They blanketed me with a warmth and urgency.
All my questions just floated away from my mind.
"Shane," I breathed. "You are all I can see right now."
I don't
remember the rest of the dinner;
just the heated tension and the long pulling ache between my thighs. The ride back to my apartment seemed to stoke the fire up higher
inside me,
and when he pulled the bike to park in front of my apartment
,
I was engulfed in flames. Before he could get off the
bike,
I unstrapped my helmet, threw it o
n the ground and literally slid my entire body around his to face him. He could barely get his helmet off fast en
ough. His lips devoured mine and
the city around us, the rest of the world, just fell away. Cupping my
bottom
,
he stood up, my legs sti
ll wrapped around his waist,
I whimpered into his mouth
. My entire body ached for him.
I clutched my thighs tighter around him and grabbed fistfuls of his silky hair.
He climbed of
f
the bike carrying me, kissing me, clutching me tight against his ve
ry strong, very hard body
,
while his phone continued to vibrate in his front pocket.
Added
bonus
for me
.
Shane pulled his head away and stared into my eyes, lips parted
,
p
anting. Being the object of the
desire in those eyes was the most powerful feeling I had ever had
. He licked his perfect lips and growled deep, "Keys. Now."
Giggling
,
I stuffed a hand quickly in
my pocket and pulled out my keys
and wiggled
them in front of him. "Take me in, Shane.
Please
.
"
Holding me up with just one h
and, he grabbed the keys with his
other and slammed his lips back to mine. He walked up the front steps holding me and jamm
ed
my back against the fro
nt door. His lips never parted
from mine. His missed the keyhole a few times, until he finally opened it and we fell through the doorway. He k
icked the door closed behind us, leaned me up against the wall and slid the zipper of my jacket down.
I yanked his jacket off his shoulders and threw in on the floor. My hands clutched his shirt and I pulled him against me continuing our kiss.
"Um. Hey guys!"
We froze.
Ohnononono
!
"Wow. I do hate to
stop this beautiful thing that's about to happen, but Conner and Ethan have been trying to call you, Shane
,
for
like
an hour already."
Shane tore his eyes from mine to level a glare at Lea, "Get to the point
,
Lea. Is someone either dead or in jail?" he said out of breath.
Lea took a deep breath and blew it out loudly, "No, worse. Vixen4 just showed up at your apartment and they need a place to crash. And crash your place is exactly what they seem to be doing right now."
Shane
's grasp on me tightened. "Damn
, I forgot Ethan told them they could stay with us." He looked at me
tensed and clenching his jaw
. "They're a handful." Sliding his hands down my
arms,
he reluctantly let me go
and raked his hands through his hair
.
"Grace, I..."
Biting my lip gently I leaned forward, "Will
you
try your best to come back tonight?"
He cupped his hands around the back of my neck and pulled me in. He caught my bottom lip between his teeth and tugged gently, "God, baby. You are delicious. I'll try my best.
If not, nine o'clock practice
tomorrow, Vixen4 will be doing studio time after us
.
" He pulled away from me and grabbed his coat from the floo
r. "I'm going to need to throw
a bucket of ice down my pants," he murmured as he slipped out the front door.