Better Deeds Than Words (Words#2) (4 page)

“She’s amazing.”

“She really is. She’s had some incredible experiences. I wish my grandfather were still alive. You’d have liked him.”

“I bet you’re a lot like him.”

“So I’m told.” He squinted out at the falling snow.

“I’m so over this winter, you have no idea,” I said.

“You’re not a fan of snow?” he asked.

“Nope. Aside from Christmas, I can’t find anything redeeming about winter at all.”

“Huh. We’re going to have to do something about that.”

“Like what?”

“Hmm. I’ll think of something.”

He smiled mysteriously. Fine. Let him have his little secrets or plans. Nothing was going to change the fact that winter aggravated me to no end. Daniel made a sudden right turn.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I had an idea. Something I want to show you. You’re not in a hurry to get home, are you?”

“Not really.”

“Good.” We continued along a meandering road and then a parking lot appeared around the bend. He pulled in and stopped.

“This is High Park, right?” I asked.

“That’s right. Will your boots keep your feet warm if we were to walk along the paths?”

“My boots are fine. Yours? Not so much,” I pointed out.

Authoritative-sounding and hellishly sexy? Yes. Practical? Not at all.

“Don’t worry about me.” He climbed out and came around to open my door. “Careful. It’s slippery.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a bit of snow.”

“Okay. Well, give me a minute.”

The snow was coming down in thick, wet chunks. It was dark, peaceful, and, dare I say it, beautiful. While Daniel poked around in the trunk, I tried to find my gloves. Where had Daniel thrown them earlier? I rooted around on the passenger side floor of the car and found one, but couldn’t locate the other one.

“Crap!”

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked as I continued to dig around under my seat. “Well, this is an unexpected treat,” he said, stepping up behind me and putting his hands on my hips.

“Be serious for a second, would you? I can’t find my other glove.”

He laughed. “Wow, that’s incredible. You’ve truly got a gift.”

“Hey, this wasn’t my fault. You’re the one who threw them around earlier.”

“You’re right. I’m a cad. We’ll look for it later, though, okay? Let’s head out before it gets too late.”

I sighed. “All right.”

I slipped my single glove on and pulled my hood over my hair, tightening the toggles.

“You look adorable,” he said, dropping a soft kiss on my lips. “And completely unrecognizable,” he added with a wink. He tugged my bare hand into his pocket.

I motioned to the blanket hanging over his arm. “Do you always keep that in your car?”

“Winter survival kit.”

“Of course. Very practical. Tell me, Mr. Grant, are you actually doing something spontaneous or did you plan this?”

“Me? Do something impulsive? Surely you jest.”

“True. What was I thinking? You’re so much like your father. Not an impulsive bone in your body.”

“Well, maybe one,” he said, laughing.

We walked on in silence for a couple of minutes. “It is a lovely night,” I admitted at last.

“These are the best snowfalls, when it’s not too cold and the snow sticks to the trees. It’s so peaceful. Perfect. I missed this when I was in the UK.”

I turned to smile at him, and he frowned. “What?”

“You’re quite the sensitive soul, aren’t you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure how to answer that. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m a pussy.”

“Why do guys make it seem like caring about things is a sign of weakness? So you appreciate nature. You love poetry. You care about your grandmother. You’re sensitive and you do thoughtful things—why does any of that have to be construed as you being a pussy? I don’t understand.”

“That’s because you’re not a guy with two merciless brothers.”

“What’s that got to do with how
I
feel about you, though?”

“Nothing, I guess. Just so long as you don’t rat me out,” he said sheepishly.

Men. Regardless of how sensitive Daniel seemed, at the end of the day, he was a man. A gorgeous and incredibly sexy man. And miracle of miracles, he was
mine
.

“Okay, here we are,” he said, approaching a park bench at the edge of the path. He brushed the snow off and then stretched the blanket out on the slats and sat down.

“You wanted to show me a bench?” I sat beside him.

“This isn’t any old bench. Look.” He took out his phone, leaned away from me, and shone the display at an engraved plaque fixed to the top slat.

“In loving memory of Bradford Daniel Wright. ‘
Kites rise highest against the wind—not with it,’”
I read.

Daniel smiled sadly as he pocketed his phone and slipped his arm around me.

“Your grandfather,” I said.

“He and Patty used to come to High Park every day to walk, and they’d always stop and sit here. After he passed away, Patty made a donation to the municipality, and they put this plaque on the bench. The words are John Neal’s. Gramps loved kite analogies. If Patty ever wants to feel close to my grandfather, this is where she comes.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For bringing me here. It means a lot that you would share this with me. This place is obviously close to your heart.”

He pushed my hood back gently.

“You know you’re making quite a home for yourself in my heart too, right?”

I swallowed thickly. Speechless again. I lowered my eyes, but he tilted my face up, kissing me tenderly, his tongue slipping warmly between my lips.

“Your nose is cold,” I said as he pulled away.

“Your tongue is hot,” he whispered.

I leaned into him, eager for more. He pressed his lips against mine, his hands caressing my face.

“I meant what I said a minute ago,” he said. “You’re all I think about. Sometimes I feel like I’ve known you forever, and other times you do or say something that reminds me how much I still have to learn. I wish we had more time together.”

“I know what you mean.” I snuggled into his neck as he held me close.

“‘
I have no precious time at all to spend, nor services to do, till you require
,’” he whispered. “‘
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you
.’”

“You wrote that sonnet out for me a few days before Mary’s memorial service,” I reminded him.

“It’s a favorite.”

“The sonnets aren’t my specialty, unfortunately.”

“You’d better brush up, Miss Price. I happen to know of an assignment that’ll require some attention to Master Shakespeare’s sonnets.”

“Jeez, here we go. On with the TA hat.” I sighed.

He laughed. “Oh, come on, I’ve avoided shop-talk all evening. I’ve been good, haven’t I?”

“I’d say you’ve been
very
good.” I raised an eyebrow.

“And you, my lovely, are incorrigible,” he said, kissing me with an intensity that made my heart gallop. “Stay with me tonight.”

I gaped at him, dumbfounded. “What did you say?”

“Stay with me. I want you to come home with me.”

My heart pounded harder. “Daniel, that’s not a good idea. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I know exactly what I’m saying,” he insisted, kissing my cheek. “I haven’t forgotten your conditions and our compromise. I’m just as determined to take things slowly as you are. Like you said on Friday, I want us to spend time getting to know each other. I don’t have some master plan to try to seduce you. Well, that’s not entirely true, but I promise not to put it into effect tonight.”

I rolled my eyes, and he grinned.

“I have a pull-out couch in my office. I’ll sleep there, and you can sleep in my bed. All this sneaking around is getting old. Wouldn’t it be nice to be together without looking over our shoulders?”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious.”

He kissed me again. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t possibly be expected to formulate rational thoughts. I closed my eyes as he slid his nose gently along my jaw and nuzzled my ear. “Please say yes.”

Oh God. Yes—yes to whatever you want! Anything!

“I can’t,” I said. “I have to work in the morning. And I have a huge PowerPoint presentation that I need to finish before Tuesday.”

“I’ll help you with your presentation,” he said. “You can use my laptop. You can be home in plenty of time to get to work. I have to meet my dad in the morning, anyway.” He kissed me again. “Say yes.”

I could feel my resolve wavering. I was going to argue that I didn’t even have access to the work I’d already done on my presentation, but I’d emailed the rough draft to my group members and could easily retrieve it from my outbox.

“But I don’t have any clothes, a toothbrush…” I didn’t sound quite as convincing as I meant to.

He looked at me earnestly.

“Now you’re being silly. We’ll swing by a store on the way home so you can grab a toothbrush, and you can wear some of my clothes—sweats or something.” He paused for a moment. “Are you making excuses?”

“Maybe.”

“Why?”

“I’m afraid it would be too easy to give in,” I confessed. “You don’t understand the effect you have on me.”

My mind raced as I thought through the possible scenarios if I were to spend the night at his condo. All of the ways that everything could go horribly wrong—or magnificently right, depending on how you looked at it.

“I promise this isn’t about me trying to push you to do anything. I want to spend time with you somewhere safe. And somewhere warm, damn it!”

He shivered and held me closer, as if doing so would eliminate the chill in the air. Somewhere safe. Somewhere warm. That
did
sound awfully appealing. And he was promising not to push me. He had no expectations.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

He tilted my face up. “Okay?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“You’d better stop asking, or I might change my mind,” I said with a chuckle.

“All right, shutting up,” he said, standing and holding out his hand to help me up. He tugged my hood back over my head and tucked my hair into the sides. “Okay then. Let’s go home.”

Chapter 4

Temptation

Most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue…
(
Measure for Measure
, Act II, Scene 2)

I R
ODE
T
HE
E
LEVATOR
A
LONE
. Daniel had decided this was the discreet thing to do, heading up to the condo before me to await my arrival. The depraved part of my brain despised this prudent decision. There was something incredibly hot about a quick clutch and grope in an elevator. Thwarted again by good sense.

We’d swung by a pharmacy where Daniel had insisted I buy everything I would normally use at home, including whatever products made me smell “so fucking delicious.” He’d handed me some money, insisting that it was his treat. He smiled and winked at me when I climbed in the car with the bag full of toiletries, satisfied that I’d done as he’d asked.

Now I was at his condo, trepidation and excitement blending in the pit of my stomach. When the elevator announced its arrival on Daniel’s floor, I stepped out and stopped for a minute, resting my forehead against the wall and taking a deep breath. What the hell was I doing? Was I actually entertaining the idea of staying over? It wasn’t too late to bail. I could stay for an hour or two and then insist he take me home.

My waffling was cut short by the sound of a clicking latch down the hall. Daniel’s head popped out of a door about twenty feet away. He moved to stand in the doorway, one arm against the frame, his other hand seeking his pocket.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice echoing in the empty hallway.

I leaned against the wall. “Chickening out?”

He approached me cautiously and sighed, frowning as he twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. It wasn’t a frustrated or impatient sigh, but rather one that said, “Please don’t go.”

He relieved me of the plastic bag and took my hand in his. His eyes were locked on mine as if I was a shy deer he didn’t want to startle. My feet ignored the warning messages from my brain as he led me slowly through the door of his condo and into the entryway.

“Daniel, this is crazy.”