All In (Cedar Mountain University #2) (16 page)

I don’t even have time to feel my body tighten before I explode,
and I swear for a moment I can actually see the fireworks exploding out of my
body and lighting up the room, the feeling is so powerful that rushes through
me. He follows me over the edge of sanity only seconds later, his body dropping
down on top of mine, and it’s the most wonderful weight in the entire world. He
tilts his head to the side, just enough for his lips to brush against the skin
right behind my ear.

“That was,” he pauses, “I don’t have words,” he finally says.

“Orgasmic?” I offer, feeing the rumble of his laughter before he
says, “To say the least.”

He rolls onto his back, pulling me snuggly up against his side. I
love to cuddle. I know it’s such a girly thing to admit, but there is nothing better
than aligning my body up to his, my softness against the hard planes of his
body. My hand snakes up to rest on his stomach.

“I just want to say, this wasn’t what I had in mind when I came
over.”

“No?” He drops another kiss to the side of my head. “Because I have
this in mind pretty much every time we’re together.”

“Ha! Smart ass.”

His fingers dance up and down along my spine, eliciting a shiver.
“What did you have in mind?”

“I can’t remember, but this was a million times better.”

The phone rings in the middle of the night, the pulsing beat of
some song I couldn’t remember setting as my ringtone shattering the quiet of
the room. Lifting my head, I look on the floor through half closed eyes for my
jeans, where I had left my phone. The phone finally quiets, and I drop my head
back down on Jacob’s chest. His arm tightens, pulling me closer against him.
I’ve just snuggled back in, closing my eyes again when the phone goes off
again.

“Jesus.” I mutter, before sliding over Jacob. I move across the
floor, listening to the music playing to help me find my phone in the dark.
It’s a number I don’t recognize, but I swipe my finger over the screen anyway
pulling it up to my ear so I can bark a quick, “What the fuck?” into the phone.

There is music for background noise, but I can barely hear it.
Someone has obviously placed their hand over the speaker because everything is
muffled. I hear a muffled voice saying, “What did you say her name was again?”

“Who the hell is this?” I demand. Who’s calling me without even
knowing who I am at two in the fucking morning? The music becomes louder, as
the hand covering the speaker obviously drops away. “Is this Grace Marsh?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“Grace?” Jacob has propped himself up on his elbows in the bed, and
is watching me. He looks gorgeous all sleep rumpled, and sexy. “Who is it?”

“Is this Grace Marsh?” The feminine voice demands again before I
can answer Jacob.

“Yes, this is Grace. Who’s this?”

“My name is Collins Riley. I work at The Black Heart. I have a guy
here by the name of Grant Michaels. He’s in no shape to drive, and he told me
to call you for a ride.”

I close my eyes, rubbing one hand absently along the nape of my
neck at the tension I feel building there. Of course this is about Grant. Why
wouldn’t it be? My life so very obviously sucks.

“I’ll be there soon.”

“He ran up quite the tab
,
” she
says before I can hang up. “I don’t think he can cover it, or I would have just
put him in a cab.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll take care of it.”

I push end on the phone, my head dropping. I know that I’m the only
one in town available to go and get him. Cole and Delaney had opted to stay
with my parents for the rest of Thanksgiving break, Holden had gone off with
Ally, and Robby was visiting family in Georgia. So that left me.

Perfect.

“Everything okay, Pix?”

I lick my dry lips before turning to look at him. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s
all right. That was a bartender at The Black Heart. I need to go pick up Grant.
He’s too drunk to drive.”

Silence stretches heavily between us. Then I hear his gruff voice
say, “You can’t be serious.”

I’m shimmying back into my jeans, eyes scanning the room for my
socks and shoes. I scoop them up, settling on the bed to pull them on. “What am
I supposed to do, Jacob? He’s drunk. He can’t drive.”

“Tell him to call a fucking cab.”
Jacob
mutters under his breath, but he’s moving, too. Stalking across the room to
grab a pair of track pants out of his dresser
.

“I can’t tell him to call a cab.”

Jacob yanks a henley over his head, pulling it down across his
chest. “I know you can’t.”

I finish tying my shoes before dropping my feet back on the ground.
“
He
can’t
afford it for one, and because no matter what else, he was my friend, Jacob.”

“I get it, Grace.” Jacob settles on the bed next to me so he can
pull on his socks. “Give me a second and I’ll go with you.”

Oh, won’t that be a lovely experience, I think. My drunk
ex-boyfriend, the guy I just slept with, and me all in a car together. Because
that’s not a recipe for disaster. I
push to
my feet,
moving across the room to
find my purse and dig out my car keys. “I appreciate that, Jacob, but I can go
by myself.”

He pulls up short. “What?” It’s honest confusion on his face as his
eyes meet mine. “That’s crazy. I’ll go with you.”

“I’m going to pick him up
by
myself
, Jacob.” I grab my
sweatshirt off the bed, yanking it down over of my tank top
.

“What the hell, Pixie?”

I pull up short at the hurt in his voice, turning to face him.
“It’ll be better this way.”

“Better for who?”

I run my fingers through my hair, trying to tame the curls into
some semblance of order. “God, this is awkward.”

Frowning, Jacob moves to stand in front of me. “Only because you’re
making it that way. I’m really not thrilled that he’s calling you for a ride in
the middle of the night, but it is what it is. Let’s go get him and come back
here.”

He runs his hands down my arms, and more than anything I just want
to say ‘fuck it’ and crawl back in bed with him. Sensing my hesitation, Jacob
tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “What are you doing, Grace?”

I shake my head. “Nothing,” I whisper, pulling my hands out of his.
“I’ll come back after I get him dropped off, okay?”

His silence tells me that is, in fact, not okay that I don’t want
him to go with me. Having never seen an angry Jacob, I’m not quite sure what to
expect.

But I think I’m about to find out.

“What are you doing, Grace?” He asks again. “Why are you pulling
away?”

Because the swirl of emotions swirling around inside of me scares
the hell out of me. Because beautiful Jacob Ross barely hesitated before
rolling out of bed to go with me to pick up Grant, and it’s a startling
reminder that he is probably too nice for me.
“Don’t
do that.” I whisper. “Don’t make this about us.”

“Isn’t it? You’re leaving my fucking bed to go and pick up your
drunk ex from a seedy bar in a shitty part of town. How is that not about us?”

“I can’t argue about this now.”

His entire body is tense. “That’s right. You have to go to him. Alone.”
His clipped voice is like daggers piercing my skin.

“That’s not fair, Jacob. You’re not being fair.”

“What in the hell are you talking about, Grace?” Jacob asks,
clearly exasperated. His movements are jerky as he shoves one hand through his
hair, sending the scattered strands into further disarray. “You’re the one
walking out of here in the middle of the night. Why won’t you let me help you?
Is it because it’s him?”

 
“Please.” I whisper again.
“Please don’t be mad at me, Jacob. I’ll come back as soon as I drop him off. We
can talk about this then. Please, Jacob.” Maybe by then, I’ll have a handle on
the myriad of emotions threatening to swallow me whole.

He crosses his arms over his chest, the muscles bunching and moving
with the motion. I lick my lips, waiting for his response. But I can see it in
his eyes before he answers. I can see it in the way the ice blue of his eyes go
to frost.

“So you can leave me to go to him the next time he calls?”

“That’s not what this is.”

He arches one brow, “isn’t it? You’ve left me before to go to him.”

“That wasn’t about him. I went for Delaney.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He runs a hand through his hair, scattering
the strands. “What matters is that you’re leaving me to go to him. Again.” His
words sound so final. “If you aren’t all in, Grace, then you need to let me
know now.”

“I’m all in, Jacob. I’m so fucking all in.” I lay a hand on his
arm, feeling the muscle bunch and strain under my touch. “But I don’t think
walking into that bar with you beside me is the smartest idea right now. Tell
me you understand.”

“What I understand is that you’re walking away from me right now.
To go to him.”

He moves away from me, and God help me I feel the shift in our
relationship as if it’s a tangible thing. Now I want to go pick Grant up from
the bar if for nothing else than to kill him myself.

“There’s no one else to get him.” I try to keep my voice even, but
the tears are threatening still, and I hear the catch, as I blink furiously to
keep them inside. I take a step towards him, reaching out to touch him. He
moves further out of my reach so I drop my hand. “I’ll come back after I drop
him off.”

He doesn’t even hesitate. “No.”

“Jacob, please.”

“Not tonight, Grace. Don’t come back tonight.”

I stare at him for a few more moments, but he’s not looking at me. “Okay,”
I whisper, licking my lips again. “Okay, I won’t come back tonight.”

I quietly pull the door closed behind me, and head down the stairs
and out of the frat house.

Collins Riley is not what I was expecting.

Not that I had given her a lot of thought since she’d called, but
I’d been picturing some mid aged woman edging towards fat, wearing clothes that
belonged on her sixteen
-
year old daughter, and a bad
perm in her bleached out hair.

The bar is encased in shadows, broken up only by the occasional
beam of light from
dimmed
lamps. There’s music still
spilling into the room out of a juke box settled against the far wall behind a
couple of pool tables. The room is empty, except for Grant who is sitting at
the bar, his head dropped down on his folded arms, and a pretty blonde who is
wiping glasses out with a white rag.

Not that pretty really describes her accurately at all.

Her wheat colored hair hangs halfway down her back in a cascade of
loose curls, and she has eyes that I swear look violet in the dim light. She’s
wearing a skinny black tank top that just barely reaches the top band of her
low rise jeans. Full lips, high cheekbones, and I’ve never in my life been
jealous of how another girl looks.

I’d trade my looks with hers in a heartbeat.

Grant’s head is turned toward me, and I can see the bandage over
his eyes has been removed. His nose looks swollen, when it hadn’t the last time
I’d seen him, and the faint edges of a bruise swirl around his right eye.

Collins glances up as I step up to the bar, a half smile pulling
her lips up as she sets one glass down and reaches for another. “You Grace?”

“Yes.”

She nods her head towards Grant, sending her hair swinging against
her bare shoulders. “I’m pretty sure he’s out cold so I’ll get one of the boys
to help you get him out to the car.”

“They couldn’t have given him a ride home?”

A deep voice comes from the other side of the bar. “We’re not that
kind of bar, sweetheart.” I glance behind Collins as Lincoln Montgomery comes
striding up behind the bar.

“Don’t call me sweetheart.”

Collins snorts. “He calls them all sweetheart so he doesn’t have to
remember their names. Isn’t that right, Linc?”

“Makes things easier,” he says with a quick shrug, obviously
unrepentant. “Give me a couple minutes to get Grant squared away then I’ll come
back to walk you to your car, Collins.”

She rolls her eyes. “My car is five feet from the back door. I
think I’ll be okay.”

Lincoln shoots her a look, eyes narrowing in on her. “You’ll wait
for me like a good girl.”

“Sure thing, Dad. Here’s his tab, Grace. I mentioned on the phone
he couldn’t cover it.”

“Right.” I hand over my credit card. “Just put it on here.”

Lincoln comes around the bar, asking for my keys. I hand them over
and watch as he shoves one shoulder up and under Grant’s, lifting up so he can
maneuver him out to my car. Grant’s a pretty tall guy, and though he’s slender
I know for a fact that he’s solid muscle and no light weight. Lincoln doesn’t
have any problems shouldering the weight.

“Here you go.” Collins lays the receipts on the bar in front of me,
along with a pen so I can sign. Three hundred dollars
!
Good God, what had he been drinking all night? How was his liver
still functioning?

“He bought a few rounds for some girls.” Collins says, watching my
face. “So he didn’t consume all this on his own. I cut him off a while ago,
switched him over to water. He was too drunk to notice.”

“Great.” I mutter. “Just perfect.” I sign the receipt for her
before shoving the copy in my pocket.

“He talked about you a lot.” She’s stopped with glasses, and is now
wiping the bar down with her rag. But she’s eyeing me. “The one that got away.”

I snort. “The one he threw away.”

She arches a wheat blonde eyebrow. “Yet you came to get him, that’s
awfully nice of you.”

“No, it just makes me an idiot.”

Collins chuckles under her breath, and then her eyes wrinkle, just
briefly at the corners, as a small smile flirts with the edge of her mouth.
She’s looking over my shoulder, and when I turn around it’s to see Lincoln
coming back into the bar.

It seems the very pretty Collins Riley has the hots for her boss.
Not that I can blame her. It’s less than fifty degrees outside but he’s walking
around in a black T-shirt, the sleeves stretched tight over his biceps, the
beautiful colors of his ink on full display. He is a beautiful specimen of
male. “He’s in the back seat, lying down. He came around some. I’d leave the
windows open, hopefully the cold air will sober him up enough that you don’t
have any trouble getting him out of the car.”