Falling for Grace (Four Winds) (24 page)

"Don't change the subject.  You have to let it go." He gestured broadly with his hands.  "This thing with Carl and your mom.  They're adults, living their own mistakes.  You can't dwell on them all the time, worried you'll do the same thing.  You won't."

"I know."  She sighed, and felt a small weight lift.  "You're right.  I was thinking the same thing earlier, with Mom.  I'm not her.  I won't repeat her mistakes."  She took a thoughtful sip of wine, and Rafe eagerly refilled her glass.  "Are you getting me drunk?"

His eyebrows rose innocently.  "Me?  No way.  You've got to drive us home."

She laughed, and it felt really good.  "There is a park right down the street.  We can go for a walk or something to clear our heads after we eat."

His eyes softened, and his fingers reached for her hand, tracing the lines of her palm softly.  "That would be nice."  His touch sent tingles through out her body, and Grace shivered.

"How much…How often have you been inside my head?  Since you've been here?"

"Only when I’ve been sleeping, since that time you were eating those chili cheese fries, which I want to try, by the way.  They looked really good."

"Have you done that often?  With other women?"

"Done what?"  His comically innocent look sent her into giggles again, and she slapped at his hand.

"You know what you did to me that day."

"Did you like it?"

Grace blushed.  "No. You left me hanging!"

"I had to get your attention."

"You've had my attention, since the first time I saw you, Rafe."  Grace suddenly felt shy talking to him.  For the first time, his gaze made her feel something click inside and she was almost ready to admit what it was.

"I didn't want your attention, Grace."  His green gaze seared her insides.

"I want to talk to you about that."  She'd been meaning to talk to him about the sex thing.  After last night, she realized he was playing with her.  Probably not intentionally, but as a superhuman being, he really should know better.  As much as Grace should have been pissed off about it, though, she wasn't.

Rafe's expression opened up, and he looked at her eagerly, completely clueless about what she was going to ask him.

"Why are you using sex as a tool?"

Surprise etched his features.  "What?"

"You keep telling me you won't have sex with me until I tell you I love you, and then after what happened last night…It's like you're trying to get me to say the words, and you're teasing me mercilessly."

"I'm not trying to tease you…"  His voice was soft, and apologetic.  He ran his hands through his hair, as she crossed her arms in front of her.  "I've been trying to find love for so long, it's hard to explain…"

"Try.  Just for the sake of argument."

He looked her square in the eyes, and clutched her hands in his.  His eyes had a drunken glaze to them, for which Grace was a little thankful.  Maybe he would be honest with her, not that he hadn't been, but alcohol tended to erase any inhibitions.

"I've had sex before love, and it doesn't work like that, Grace.  I love you, and I want it to be different with us.  I want us to be forever.  I'm too scared of screwing it up."

"You can get inside my head, that's been established.  Have you…made me …think stuff about you?"

"No!" His answer was immediate and vehement.  "Besides the fact that I was given strict instruction not to do that, I want your emotions to be yours alone.  I don't want to be with you thirty years down the road and wonder if you really feel this way about me, or if it's my manipulations making you love me."  He squeezed her hands in his, a reassuring squeeze that made her heart pound.  "I'm not trying to use sex as a tool, although I can see why you think that.  I just want you to be sure that you love me, and not just fall in lust with my skills."  He flashed her a mischievous grin.

"Pretty sure of yourself are you?"  She smirked at him.

"Can we get out of here?  I feel the need to prove something to you."

"You don't have to prove anything, Rafe.  Finish your wine."

He raised the glass to his lips, and winking at her over the rim, emptied the glass in one huge gulp.  Grabbing her hand and throwing money on the table, he led her out of the restaurant.

The night air was cool on her skin, which had been heated in the restaurant under his gaze.  She still wasn't sure he hadn't done that head-hopping thing with her there to make her incredibly horny.  Because she was.  She wanted him so badly, she was trembling inside with need.

He clasped her hand in his and led her down the street toward the park.  She followed, willingly, wondering what exactly he felt he had to prove to her.  Her curiosity was piqued, to say the least. He wasn't walking straight, but he wasn't a stumbling drunk, either, for which she was glad.  She was feeling a little tipsy and couldn't manage to wipe the grin off her face.  Enjoying the feel of her hand in his grasp, she followed him to a clump of trees.  He led her behind one, out of sight, and promptly turned to her.

"I love you Grace.  I'm sorry for everything I've done wrong in pursuing you, but if you need me to make love to you, I will do it.  The Boss knows how badly I've been wanting to."  He lowered his mouth to hers in an urgent kiss, which she willingly returned.  Her tongue clashed with his, as her arms snaked around his neck, pulling him closer.

He groaned into her mouth, sending shockwaves down to her toes, and pulled her body flush against his arousal.  "You do this to me, Grace.  I've been hard since I met you."  He breathed the words into her mouth, leaving her gasping with need as he trailed kisses down her neck and shoulders.

Pulling her tank top straps down, he revealed her breasts and moaned a thankful prayer before capturing one in his mouth.  Pleasure streaked through Grace, and she arched her back, pressing herself into him.  His hands at her waist, he lifted her against the tree, until she could feel the bark pressing into her back.  She wrapped her legs around him, pressing against him to relieve the pressure building inside her.

Grace was gasping for air, she couldn't get enough of him.  She wanted him.  All of him.  Forever…

With a shock, she pushed him away.  His intense eyes glared at her.  "What, Grace?  Aren't I doing what you want?"

She pulled her hands through her hair.  "Yes.  You are.  It's just that I … I just realized something."  What had she just been thinking?  That she wanted him forever?  All of him?

Rafe tried to pull her towards himself again.  "Come on.  I'm giving it to you.  I'll give you anything you want, Grace…"  His voice was pleading with her, and she felt bad for sending him the mixed signals.

"Sit, Rafe."  He obeyed immediately, eyes full of questions.  She lowered her body to his lap, and put his arms around her waist.  He relaxed into the posture, and rested his chin on her shoulder.  "I just realized something.  And I need to tell you, because it changes things a bit."

She kissed him then.  A tender kiss full of promise.  His lips softened and responded hungrily, his hands snaking back to her breasts.

"Stop.  I do think you are a little drunk."  He flashed her a lopsided grin, and kissed her nose.

"Maybe.  I do feel pretty loose."

"Then tighten up and listen.  I don't want to have sex with you."  His face fell, and his eyes immediately watered.  "Not here, Rafe."  She pulled his face between her hands and kissed his eyes and nose.  She could smell the wine on his breath as it flared in her face.  "I want our first time to be special, not in a park, while you're drunk."  He lifted his eyes to hers, and the light that shone from them made her tremble with desire again.  "I want it to be special, because…I love you.  I want forever with you, not against a tree in a …"

She couldn't finish her sentence, as Rafe let out a triumphant "Whoop!" and laid her back on the grass, kissing her thoroughly.

Instead of driving over an hour back to Texas City to their hotel, Rafe got a room at a pretty fancy place close by.  As they got into the empty elevator to ride up to their room, Rafe pulled Grace into his arms and gave her a tender kiss on the nose. 

"I'm not drunk, anymore."  He whispered into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine.

"I know."  The two bottles of water they had drunk helped with that, but Grace suspected that Rafe's celestial metabolism helped a little, too.

He led her out of the elevator and down the hall to their room, opening the door before sweeping her off her feet to carry her inside.

"I've always wanted to do that.  I'll get to do it again, when we get married, but this will do for now."

Talk of marriage stilled Grace briefly, before she decided she would re-visit that comment later, when she was daydreaming about Rafe.  For now, she had the real thing, and she wanted to enjoy him.

She kissed him as he lay her on the bed, enjoying the sensations of Rafe's body on top of hers, his weight, his warmth.  She could feel him breathing as he moved over her body, covering her in kisses.  The air crackled with electricity and anticipation stole her breath, as he moved lower, undressing her slowly as he went.

Grace entwined her fingers in his hair and said softly, "I've been looking forward to this, you know."

He mumbled something into her navel, as he threw her tank top and bra behind him, grasping her waist in his large hands.

"Nobody's ever made me feel the way you do."  Rafe stopped his ministrations on her belly and looked up at her.  The way his eyes gazed at her between strands of his hair made a lump form in her throat.  Those green orbs were so full of need and desire that she almost couldn't breathe.

"And nobody ever will."  He lowered his mouth to her again and continued licking down to her thighs.

"No man has ever made me…"  His licks stopped at her inability to say the words, and he looked up at her again, disbelief in his eyes.

"You mean…no man's ever given you an orgasm before?"

She shook her head, "I've always been the lone ranger on that front."

"Well, then.  That puts a certain spin on things."

Confused, and kicking herself for bringing it up in the first place, she writhed under him, trying to get him to pick up where he left off with his mouth on her thigh.

"I have a challenge to rise to, don't I?"

He must have seen the question in her eyes, because he chuckled and continued.  "I need to break my record and then set a new one to break later."  Grace lost all will to breathe when Rafe lowered his mouth to her sex and immediately went to work, pleasuring her with his tongue and fingers.  Holding her folds open, his nipped at her bud with his teeth, sending her over the edge of climax almost immediately, before inserting two fingers and pulsing them in and out of her, while flicking and licking her with his tongue.  Grace shattered.

As her muscles contracted, milking around his fingers, a low rumble came from Rafe's chest that she could feel against her leg.  "You know, sex with other women in my angelic state won't feel anything like it will with you.  I know this, and I'm not sure I'll be able to control myself.  But I know we have all night, and I will make you come with me over and over again."

Before her breath had evened out, he captured her mouth in his and kissed her while he pulled off his own pants and shucked them to the ground.

Pressing against her opening, he looked into her eyes, and the love that she saw shining from the depths of the green pools took her breath away again.  When he entered her, slowly, she let out her air in a hiss and clawed at his back.  She felt so full, so content, right here, filled with Rafe.  His eyes never left hers, as he slowly rocked back and entered her again.  She closed her eyes to the bliss that encompassed her, but was interrupted by Rafe's husky voice.

"Look at me.  I want to see you."

Forcing her eyes open, she watched Rafe's face.  His lips curled back in an exquisite snarl of pleasure, his eyes glazed with lust, his hot breath on her face.  She could feel him fill her and empty her as he rocked, each sensation sparking emotions of elation and loss as he touched parts of her she had never been aware needed touching.  She could feel her own climax build again as he increased his pace.

"You feel so unbelievable."  He rasped at her.  She could see the veins of his forehead bulging with restraint.  She locked her legs around his hips, pushing him to fill her further, as he continued to increase his pounding into her, finally closing his own eyes and losing himself to his own sensations.

Grace felt herself teetering on the edge, and when Rafe brought his head down and nipped at her neck with his teeth, all the while pumping inside of her, she let go, and felt the muscles contract around Rafe.

"Oh!"  He swelled impossibly larger, before Grace felt him climax in spurts inside her as her own contractions evened out.

Rafe rolled off her, pulling her towards him with a kiss. 

"I've doubled my record so far."  He breathed into her mouth as she giggled breathlessly.

"That was pretty good, stud."  She loved this man.  Angel.  Whatever he was.  She pulled him closer to herself, not wanting to ever let him go again.

Rafe waggled his eyebrows at her.  "Wanna go again?"