The Seduction Vow (2 page)

Tara threw an arm around her shoulders, and
Graci inhaled the familiar scent of her perfume, something spicy,
exotic, and intrinsically Tara. Her friend’s perfect white teeth
gleamed against dark skin, and Graci couldn’t help but smile too.
Tara’s vibrancy could lift anyone’s mood.

“
Look at you.” Tara tucked
a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “That gorgeous black hair,
those dark brown eyes, that beautiful smile. Some guy is going to
fall hard for you, Graciela. The perfect guy, who will be
everything you need him to be. But in the meantime, you’re gonna
shop around.”

“
Yes, I am. But first thing
on my list is a makeover. Next time you see me, all of this”—Graci
tugged on a handful of her long wavy hair—“will be gone. I’m trying
something new.”

Tara’s eyes widened. “Really? How short?
You’ve never done more than trimmed your hair since I’ve known you.
How will I recognize you?”

Graci winked. “I’ll still know our secret
sign.” She gave the crossed fingers to the eyebrow salute she and
Tara had invented when they were ten.

“
The second thing I’m going
to do is call Corinne,” Graci said. “Although if she tells me ‘I
told you so,’ I may scream.”

Tara shook her head. “She wouldn’t. That’s
not her way. All this time, she’s wanted to be friends with you
again.”

“
But she wouldn’t while
Joey was in the picture,” Graci finished the thought.

“
No. She couldn’t because
you weren’t ready to forgive her or the others.”

“
Well, to be honest, Adya
never said anything against Joey. It was only Corinne and Bree. But
none of that matters now. The point is, I have fences to mend, and
that’s the second thing on my to-do list.”

“
It’ll be great to have all
of you make up in time for Bree’s wedding,” Tara said. “I still
can’t believe that’s happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if she
cancels at the last minute. The woman’s incapable of
commitment.”

“
Maybe she’s changed. I
can’t say I really know her anymore. We’ve only exchanged Christmas
cards.” Graci gazed at the torn sugar packets littering the table.
“We’ve all grown up. None of us are the same people we used to
be.”

Tara nodded. “True. There
was a time none of us would consider having a wedding in which the
others weren’t bridesmaids. We
have
grown apart, and not just because Bree and Adya
live so far away. It’ll be good to all be together again. We’ll
throw Bree a big blowout bachelorette party.” She laughed. “Still,
you have to admit it’s amazing that out of all of us, Bree would be
the first to get married.”

“
Yes, it is.” Memories of
Bree flashed through Graci’s mind. In every one of them, her friend
was laughing. Bree was like Tara in many ways—dynamic, a hugely
magnetic presence. All that personality was packaged in a tall,
blonde, blue-eyed Amazon.

As a teen, sometimes Graci had felt like a
shadow beside Bree and Tara, and to a lesser extent Corinne and
Adya, who each had her own special style. Graci wasn’t at all
noticeable. She was a rule follower and a list maker. Case in
point, she’d chosen accounting as a profession and was happy
working with numbers. There was no room for error, no deceit in
simple math. The figures must add up.

Tara moved around to her side of the booth
and dug into her pancakes. “Corinne is back from Korea, so she’s in
range if you want to call or text her.”

“
How did her trip
go?”

As an adoptee, Corinne had always been
curious about her heritage. There was a time when she would’ve been
in touch with Graci every step of her journey to find her roots.
But that had changed after the Joey intervention. Now Graci could
see that every point Corinne and Bree had made was true, but when a
woman is in love, she doesn’t want to hear her friends suggest her
boyfriend is a dick or a douche bag.

“
Good, I guess,” Tara said.
“But you know that girl was raised whiter than white bread, and she
said she didn’t feel the sense of connection she hoped to
feel.”

Tara gestured with her fork, which dripped
with syrup. “It sounds like she could use a girls’ night as much as
you. The three of us are going to get together as soon as you two
make up.”

“
I’m going to be busy this
week. I’ve got to line up another apartment, but after that, any
night is fine.”

“
You’re going to move?
That’s good. You need a complete change. I wish we could live
together, but I just locked into my lease for another year and my
place is too small to share.”

Graci smiled. Much as she loved Tara, she
couldn’t think of a worse match for sharing space. They’d be like
The Odd Couple with Graci’s neatness and Tara’s messiness.

“
I’m ready for a change.
Even rocks eventually move from their spot. An earthquake comes,
and they tumble down a hill.” Graci referred to the old nickname
her friends used to call her. She’d been The Rock, because they
could count on her to remain unchanged. She was never quite sure if
it was an insult or not.

Bree had once told Graci
she was the anchor of the group. But being an anchor wasn’t
particularly exciting. Maybe if she’d had a little more of Tara’s
or Adya’s creative natures or Bree’s and Corinne’s social game,
Joey wouldn’t have lost interest. She’d bored him to death. Damn,
she bored
herself
to death.

It was definitely time for a change.

Chapter Two

As she entered Shaughnessey’s, Graci’s pulse
raced as if she were about to give a speech to a room full of
people or maybe face a guillotine instead of walking into a bar.
Wasn’t going out in the evening supposed to be fun?

Her head felt weirdly light, like it might
float away, except it wasn’t a fever coming on. She pushed her hand
through her hair, which was now cut in a bob, a little shorter in
back, longer in front so it framed her face. The loss of all that
weight still felt strange after a couple of days.

Her long black hair had been a part of the
old Graciela, but she was a new woman tonight. She’d bought new
clothes, a shorter skirt, and higher shoes than she’d ever worn.
Even her underwear was sexier.

More importantly, she’d called her mom and
told her about the breakup, then steeled her nerve and called
Corinne. If there was so much as a glimmer of smugness in Corinne’s
acceptance of the news, Graci never heard it.

“
I am
so
sorry. I know how much you loved
him. Anything I can do for you, just let me know. I’m here for you,
Graci.”

Corinne’s words had choked her up so she
could barely speak. “You always have been. Even when I wouldn’t
talk to you, I knew you had my best interests at heart. I
apologize. You called it like you saw it, and you were right. Can
we please put this whole Joey debacle behind us and make up
now?”

“
Absolutely.”

So, Graci had already accomplished four of
the things on her list: a new apartment, a new hairstyle and
partial wardrobe, and making up with one of her friends. Bree would
be next, and Adya, although that was more a matter of Graci and
Adya naturally drifting apart through time and distance.

No hang gliding scheduled yet, but Graci was
currently working on a bigger item on her list. She’d come to
Shaughnessy’s to practice her flirtation skills and maybe hook up
with some hot guy. She’d come alone because she didn’t want
outgoing Tara to do all the work. Tara could walk into this place
and have a half-dozen guys flocking around her within minutes, not
because she was so beautiful but because she was so lively. This
was Graci’s chance to try to shine on her own, to see if she had
any “game” at all.

She glanced around and saw that everyone was
either in groups or pairs. Maybe she could pretend she was alone in
town on business. This makeover stuff was hard, but she’d made it
her mission to change in every way, including having casual
hookups. People did it all the time. It wasn’t a big deal.
Right?

She joined the queue at the bar and waited to
be served, scanning the room for any likely candidates. There were
a number of men in packs, talking, laughing, watching sports on one
of the TVs or checking out the women in the room. She’d forgotten
how awkward the courtship dance was. She hadn’t dated anyone new
since college. Now she must strike up a conversation with a
stranger, make small talk, flirt, and assess his interest in her
and hers in him. It was all so overwhelming, and she hadn’t even
begun.

She ordered a cranberry martini and clutched
the drink like a life raft. The industrial style of the place, with
its high, acoustically unfriendly ceiling and cement floor, made
for a noisy atmosphere.

Graci stood by one of the tall tables where
she could set her drink—seats were at a premium in this
standing-room-only hot spot—and within seconds, her feet began to
ache. The floor was too hard and her new shoes too unfamiliar. The
heels were much higher than anything she normally wore. Beautiful
red shoes, but uncomfortable as hell.

“
Hi. How’s it goin’?” A
deep voice startled Graci.

She looked up. Way up. The guy who’d
approached her was basketball-star height and good-looking in a
square-jawed, clean-cut kind of way. Maybe hooking up wasn’t going
to be so hard after all.

He leaned close to be heard above the clamor
of voices, and she caught a whiff of cologne. He smelled good. Her
heart began fluttering like wings.

“
You here alone?” he
asked.

“
Yeah. My friend called at
the last minute and said she couldn’t make it.” Graci held up her
drink. “So I’m just having this, then I’m going home.”

“
No way. You shouldn’t end
your night early just ’cause your friend bailed on you. You’re way
too pretty to spend the night alone.”

There it was. The line. Graci smiled at his
attempt. Well, this was what she’d come here for, right? What else
did she expect?

The tall, handsome man smiled down at her.
“You look tired of standing. I’ve got a spot over there. Want to
sit?”

“
Sure. Why not.”

“
I’m Mike, by the way.” He
offered his hand to shake.

She took it. “Graci.”

Was she Graci? Right now she felt like a
stranger as she followed him across the room to a nook under the
stairs to the upper level. A couple of sofas were arranged in a
cozy group. People were stuffed hip to hip, friends of Mike’s,
apparently, because one of them gave up his seat and accepted the
beer Mike offered him.

There wasn’t really room
for two, so Graci had to perch on the wide arm of the sofa with one
leg across Mike’s legs. His arm slid around her back, too
intimately close for someone she’d just met. She felt a lot
uncomfortable
…
and
quite a bit turned on.

Because she was short and he was tall, their
positions put his head nearly level with hers, making it easier to
talk. He leaned close and asked the standard litany of questions:
What’s your story? Where do you work? Likes and dislikes,
hobbies?

Graci asked the same questions in return.

Real estate. Fairly new to the city. Played
basketball in college. Fishing and boating in his spare time. And
did she want another drink?

Before she knew it, Graci was three martinis
in and sitting on Mike’s lap rather than on the arm of the sofa.
She had an arm around his neck, and he whispered close to her ear.
He kissed her earlobe, then her jaw.

This was all right. This was good. It was
going exactly as she’d intended. She was more buzzed than she’d
been for a very long time. The warmth of the liquor filled her head
to toe, and all her lady parts were starting to hum with interest.
Mike smelled good. His arms were strong and warm around her. She
liked being nestled against all that hard, manly muscle and
bone.

And the best part? He was nothing like Joey.
For one thing, he was taller than her ex. He wasn’t dark-haired,
dark-eyed, or Latino. His skin was pale, slightly freckled, she
noticed, since their faces were inches apart. And his eyes were a
greenish color. Or maybe gray. He had a pleasant voice, a nice
laugh. And he wasn’t Joey.

He stopped talking as he nuzzled along her
jawline, and then his mouth covered hers. How strange to kiss
someone who wasn’t Joey. How different those thin lips felt from
Joey’s soft, full ones. But the difference was good. She liked
it.

Graci closed her eyes and kissed him back,
this stranger she clung to as if she knew him. As if he knew her.
She surrendered to the basic needs of her body, her breasts tender,
the nipples peaking against her bra. Her pussy throbbed, a low,
steady tingle of anticipation. She wasn’t broken at all. She could
still react to a man.

A stranger.

Who
wasn’t
Joey.

Suddenly, her throat felt thick and her eyes
prickled with tears. Good God, it was amazing she even had any left
to shed. Graci squeezed her eyes more tightly shut and kissed
harder. She would not give in to this fresh wave of sorrow. She
would continue to have FUN, damn it.

But that chance was past. He wasn’t Joey, and
she wasn’t ready. A second later, Graci ended the kiss with a
muffled sob. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

“
Huh?” Mike gazed at her
with lust-glazed eyes, her words not quite registering, his hand
still working its way underneath her top.

Graci pushed his hand away and slid off his
lap. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”