Come Fly With Me (32 page)

Grier thought about the trepidation she had felt walking toward the cemetery and the incredible rush of reassurance when she saw him standing there.

He shifted behind her, lifting his lips and resting his chin on her head. Even in that simple gesture, he understood her. Their sexy moment had shifted into one more akin to comfort, and she marveled at how easily he read her and changed to fit her needs.

“You doing okay?”

She briefly laid a hand over his before returning it to the pan. “I am. And my aunt Maeve was right. I owed my father the respect of going. Even if I had a few resentful moments.”

“Healing’s a process, Grier. You’re not expected to figure it out in a day. And when you layer on Jonas’s choices, well, you’re only human.”

“I’ll do better next time.”

As she said the words, she knew they were true. The anger she’d struggled with had calmed overnight. Although she still felt raw, the bleakness had faded, and in its place was the resolve to move forward.

For herself and for the relationship she wanted with her sister. She couldn’t change what had come before, Grier knew, but she could eventually put her feelings to rest.

“I think the eggs are about done.”

Grier saw that moment when their excessive runniness turned over into scrambled eggs. “I never cease to be amazed at that.”

“At what?”

“That singular moment when a bunch of runny eggs becomes breakfast. It’s magic.”

“It’s transformative. Sort of like the first time I saw you.”

His arms tightened around her and Grier wondered that she didn’t melt right there. Although she’d never have imagined being compared to a pan of scrambled eggs was sexy, she couldn’t imagine a better compliment.

He shifted behind her and she didn’t miss the sexy proof of his arousal pressed into her backside. Heat licked at her spine and she toyed briefly with the notion of shutting off the stove and turning into him. “You’re going to make me forget breakfast.”

She felt his smile against her skin as his lips returned to her neck. “I didn’t think anything kept you from breakfast.”

“That’s not entirely true. Nothing keeps me from pancakes.” She arched into his touch, all the while trying to keep her attention on finishing the eggs. “Bacon and eggs are a distant second.”

His fingers skimmed along her rib cage. The touch was featherlight, but it had the impact of a cyclone. Sensations swirled in her stomach as need built at the apex of her thighs. They’d made love three times the night before and still she wanted him.

With a desperation that bordered on madness.

She was rapidly losing her focus on breakfast and turned the knob off on the gas. “Just let me get these off the stove.”

“Here. Let me.”

He took the heavy pan from her and slid the eggs onto a platter she’d pulled down. After setting the empty pan back on the stove, he turned off the heat under the hash browns, then pulled her close.

“Forget breakfast for the moment. I’ve got something far more delicious to nibble on.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

His arms wrapped around her and she tilted her head up for his kiss. His breath was warm and she could taste the light hints of his toothpaste underneath the heavier tones of coffee.

She opened for him, and a light moan rose up in her throat as his tongue stole into her mouth. Sexy and intimate, they stood there for long moments as desire built into a raging inferno.

“I want you, Grier. Always, always,” he whispered against her mouth.

“Take me.” She arched against him with the sinewy grace of a cat. “Please.”

Mick obliged, pulling her up into his arms and quickly crossing the short distance from the kitchen to the couch. As he laid her on the couch, then followed her down, she gladly took his weight over her and encouraged the proof of his arousal as he pressed his lower body into hers by cradling him between her thighs.

Arousal pumped through her, vibrant and life affirming. Mick made her feel
necessary
. As if his next breath depended on her.

She ran her hands over the long, rangy muscles of his arms, enjoying how they bunched and tightened under her fingers. The lazy moments grew increasingly urgent and she shifted her legs restlessly against his. The oversized T-shirt she wore bunched at her waist and her panties were heated and damp where he pressed against her.

“While I love the way you look in my shirt, let’s get you out of it.” Mick shifted and sat up, pulling her with him.

She grinned at him. “I will if you will.”

Mick laughed as his oversized T-shirt hit him in the chest. Leave it to Grier to manage a combination of sexy and funny all at the same time. “I have to say, I like you without pants.”

He dragged his own T-shirt off and reached down to slip off his shorts.

“I’m just glad for once I’m not stuck in my clothes as I attempt to strip for you.”

Mick reached for her and pulled her close. “Baby, never apologize for stripping for me.”

“Let’s just say clumsy and oafish doesn’t scream sexy.”

He nuzzled her throat. God, what was it about that wonderful spot where her shoulder arched gracefully into her neck that drew him again and again? “You always scream sexy to me.”

He pulled them both back to the couch, settling so she straddled him in a seated position. He bent down and took one peaked nipple in his mouth, satisfied as it grew harder against his tongue. She tasted so fresh and sweet, the light tang of her skin the headiest aphrodisiac.

He felt her back muscles bunch under his hands as she arched into him, and he drank his fill as his body clamored for satisfaction. Unwilling to satiate his needs before hers, he kept one hand firmly on her back to
hold her upright while the other reached down between their bodies.

Mick found her ready for him, her hot core slick with moisture as his fingers wove through the light tangle of curls at the juncture of her thighs. Grier writhed against him, her breath growing shallow with heavy pants as he pushed her higher, driving her to take all she could.

A desperate hunger consumed him as he watched her pleasure grow. His cock was painfully stiff; yet he pushed her on, the erotic image of her in the throes of pleasure emblazoned on his mind in vivid detail.

The heated flush that covered her chest. The lush swell of her lips, ripe from their kisses. The stormy gray haze of passion that darkened her gaze.

He drank it in—drank her in—and reveled in that moment when she went over. Her tight sheath clenched around his fingers as her hands tightened at his shoulders as she rode him.

“Now, Mick. I want you now.”

Unable to deny the needs of his own body any longer, he shifted her on his lap, embedding his aching cock to the hilt. She wrapped around him, the internal aftershocks of her orgasm nearly dragging on his own right then, but he maintained his tight grip on control.

Grier’s arms wrapped around his neck and her head pressed to the side of his head. He felt her fingers thread through his hair as she pressed her lips against his ear.

“It’s your turn, cowboy.”

And then she began to move.

In moments, his own release was upon him. On a
hard, heavy thrust he rose up to meet her as she drove her body over his. And then his world went blank in a wash of pleasure so powerful he wondered if he’d ever recover.

The next few days passed in a pleasant blur of activity. Word had gotten around that she’d put together Chooch and Hooch’s taxes and, to Jess’s original observation, many others had soon followed suit.

Grier found she liked the work, the time she spent with various townsfolk an enjoyable and productive way to pass the day. Walker had offered a small conference room he kept in his office, but she found the quiet of the hotel’s conference room a suitable fit.

If her days were the height of productivity, her nights were the height of ecstasy. She and Mick hadn’t spent a night apart since the day she found him in the cemetery, and she knew every moment they spent together drew them closer and closer.

A big part of her had been fearful at first, but over the last couple of days she’d begun to relax. She wasn’t ready to give up life in New York, but she was in no rush to leave Indigo, either.

And why did she have to decide yet? Or choose?

The thought flitted through her mind as she double-checked a column of numbers and then jotted it down on a piece of scrap paper. A light knock on the open door pulled her from her task and she looked up to see Kate standing in the doorway. “Grier? Do you have a minute?”

“Of course.”

When Kate didn’t move from her spot in the doorway, Grier waved her in. “Don’t be afraid of the receipts. Just push them out of the way and grab a seat wherever.”

As if pulled out of a trance, Kate nodded and stepped into the room. She moved around the edge of the heavy leather chairs that ringed the table, choosing the one directly opposite from Grier’s.

Kate took her seat, the chair dwarfing her small frame. On a half smile, Grier leaned her head back and realized they must look like bookends. While they were by no means identical in their appearances, based on their different mothers, their physical size and shape were similar.

And then there were the eyes.

She’d yet to meet anyone who didn’t remark on the fact that they both had the same gray eyes as Jonas.

“Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure.”

The honest answer caught Grier up short. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

“I think I’m in love with Jason. And I had sex with him.”

“That’s fantastic.” The words were out before Grier even thought about them. Kate’s head shot up and a smile brightened her face before she spoke. “Really?”

“Ever since I saw the two of you sitting together in the lobby, something seemed to click. I think it’s a great idea.”

“It doesn’t upset you?”

“It did at first, but not for the reasons you think.”

Kate nodded as she picked up a lone rubber band and began stretching it. “So what are your reasons?”

“I think the two of you as a couple is an inspired idea. You can see it, looking at you both together.” Grier leaned forward and waited until Kate lifted her gaze from where she played with the rubber band. “And I support it completely.”

“Oh.”

“But I’d be a bad sister if I didn’t worry a bit that he’d do to you what he did to me.”

Kate nodded. “Yeah.”

Grier knew she was on dangerous ground. She couldn’t predict Jason’s behavior—or anyone’s for that matter—and he
had
made a major mistake. But no matter how she spun it in her mind, she couldn’t separate his behavior with his desire to get out of their relationship as opposed to a chronic character defect.

“For what it’s worth, I really don’t think Jason’s going to make the same mistake if he’s with the right woman.”

“I didn’t purposely go after him.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” Kate’s expression changed, the light blush of love vanishing as something darker covered her face. “Because I’ve done other things to you. Purposeful things you didn’t deserve.”

Grier sensed the immediate change in the conversation and knew they weren’t talking about Jason any longer. And while her usual approach to conflict was to be polite and wait for it to pass, she found she wasn’t quite able to let Kate off the hook.

“Yes, you have.”

“I’m sorry, Grier. I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve it and I don’t have any excuse for my behavior. And I’m not just telling you this because you’re okay with Jason and me.”

“I know that. And you were sad.” Grier was willing to give her that. “Any loss is hard, but you had to watch him suffer, too.”

“And you never got to know the wonderful person that he was at all, so we both got a shitty deal.”

“Did he really have a big Christmas light display every year?”

Kate smiled, the memories bringing a warm smile to her face. “Yes, he did. Lights covered the house. You would have loved it.”

“I know I would have.”

Grier paused as her thoughts from the cemetery floated back through her mind. “I want to have a relationship with you. I’d like to know my sister.”

“I want to know my sister, too.” Kate reached forward and took her hand. “And maybe if it’s not too intrusive, I could join you and Avery and Sloan for wine sometime?”

Warm heat suffused her as Grier felt the subtle winds of change in her relationship with Kate. “I’d like that and I think my friends would, too.”

The moment was broken by the ringing of her phone, Walker’s name covering the display. As she answered it, a strange premonition came over her. It shot small sparks down her spine and she sat straighter as her skin prickled with awareness.

If he called with the information she believed, there couldn’t have been a more perfect time for the news to arrive.

She was with her sister.

And they should hear it together.

Mick rapped two hard knocks on his grandmother’s front door and inhaled the warm scents from the box in his hands. He couldn’t shake the restless anxiety that crawled under his skin and knew a visit to his grandmother would help settle him.

He’d grabbed a pizza for them and ordered it loaded up just like his grandmother liked—sausage, mushrooms and a double order of anchovies. And he smiled when he realized he’d flown the anchovies in himself.

A broad smile appeared on Mary’s face when she opened the door. “Darling. Come in.”

The moment he crossed the threshold and pressed a kiss to her warm cheek, Mick knew he’d made the right choice. He followed her down the hall toward the kitchen.

“Your timing is perfect. I was just deciding between a salad and some leftover tuna casserole. A hot pizza—shared with my grandson, no less—sounds a million times better.”

Within minutes he had them settled at her kitchen table, slices laid out on plates and cold Cokes fizzing in tall glasses. Mary took a bite of her pizza and closed her eyes in ecstasy. “Perfection.”

“They order the anchovies for you.”

“And well they should. I’ve been ordering them for forty years.”

He smiled at that. “Forty years. A long time.”