Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (2 page)

He was also the guy who’d decided she just wasn’t good enough for him.

“It’s good to see you, Grace. I’ve missed you.”

She stared at him incredulously for a few heartbeats, before her lips curled into a smirk. The lyrics of an old Rihanna hit, “Take a Bow,” flooded her mind. He certainly was good at putting on a show, but she wouldn’t be fooled by him ever again.

“Well, now that you’ve seen me, you can go,” she replied, syrupy-sweet sarcasm in her voice.

“Have you spoken to anyone since you’ve been back?”

“Do you listen when I speak?” she countered.

“I haven’t spoken to you in nearly ten years, so I guess we’ll find out.” He leaned against the doorframe and smiled, the smile that had haunted her for so long.

“No. I haven’t spoken to anyone because I haven’t been ready to announce my return.”

“Are you staying?”

“That’s really none of your business,” she told him.

Without taking notice of her clear dismissal, he told her, “I’m meeting a client at the offices in an hour, but I should be out of there by five. Why don’t I pick you up and bring you to my dad’s so you can visit with everyone? I’m sure they’ll be more than thrilled to see you.”

“Not gonna happen.”

He stared at her quizzically for a few seconds before speaking. “Come on, Grace. You’ve been gone a long time. The prom queen is back, and you know your court will want to hold a ball.”

He thought he was
so
amusing.

“It’s funny you should mention that particular event, considering you promised to come back and take me to the dance. But your new girlfriend most certainly wouldn’t have approved of that. No, you had become a college stud by that point.” The bitterness in her tone gave away far more than she wanted, but she couldn’t rein her feelings in. Her heart thudded like a galloping Thoroughbred at the chance to say what she’d bottled up all these years.

“That was a long time ago, Grace. I think we’re both mature enough to let bygones be bygones.”

“I don’t forget anything, Cam.”

“We were young and foolish back then, and both of us made mistakes. It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends now,” he said, and took a step toward her.

No. That wasn’t what she wanted. She needed him to retreat, not come closer.

“That’s exactly what it means, Cam. I don’t want to sit around having idle chitchat, I don’t want to reminisce about the past, and I don’t want to be friends with you.”

“What happened to the girl who used to laugh and dream and always reach for the stars?” he replied.

“That girl has been dead and gone for a long time,” she said, her voice firm, her manner stiff. “If she ever really existed in the first place. You can see yourself out.” With that, she turned back to the lonely piano and once again sat on the hard bench. Even when she heard his steps retreating down the porch stairs, she refused to look.

Grace’s shoulders sagged once she knew he was gone. Coming back hadn’t been a good idea—not a good idea at all. Camden Whitman still had far too much pull over her emotions. But hell would freeze over before she ever let him know that.

SIX MONTHS LATER

“You know, it’s customary for the best man and maid of honor to dance.”

Grace was grateful for the few glasses of champagne she’d managed to down before the music and dancing had begun at Spence and Sage’s wedding. Because with Cam in a tux standing before her with his hand out, she felt her insides melt.

All day she hadn’t been able to tear her gaze away from him, and now she was expected to fall into his arms for a romantic song. “Could I Have This Dance” by Anne Murray began playing and a shudder passed through Grace.

She didn’t get a chance to say yes or no. Suddenly she was in Cam’s arms and, dammit all, it was exactly where she wanted and needed to be.

“As we swayed to the music . . . I fell in love with you . . .”

“Don’t sing to me, Cam,” she insisted, her emotions rocky at best.

“I happen to love this song,” he told her as he dipped her backward, his arms cradling her before he lifted her back up and pulled her in tight. When his fingers slipped downward and massaged the top of her butt, moist heat flowed through her, forcing her to stifle a groan.

As he leaned forward, she had no doubt that was his hardness pressing against her boiling core. She also knew she wanted to damn the consequences and have this man again—even if it was only for a single night.

So being more bold than she’d ever been before, Grace decided to take the romance away from this situation—romance she couldn’t handle, sex she could—and she reached between their bodies and lightly rubbed her fingers across his bulging pants. He went stock-still as she reached up and whispered against his ear.

“Let’s get out of here, Cam.”

Cam immediately looked up, ensuring that no one was paying attention to them, and then the dance stopped as he grabbed her hand and led her from the dance floor, and didn’t quit moving until he found a secluded gazebo about a hundred yards away from the party.

It wasn’t far enough, but at least she could get a small taste, have his lips caress hers in privacy, have something to help relieve the ache inside her before they moved on. Without a word, his hand slid down her side and then moved below the hem of her short dress and began traveling upward until his fingers brushed against her silky panties.

She groaned against his neck as she felt her body respond. It wouldn’t take much to fall over the edge if he continued caressing her the way he was.

“You are so wet already,” he groaned before making her whimper as he pulled away.

“Don’t stop, Cam. Please,” Grace begged him.

“We need to get farther away, Grace,” he cried out as she reached down and grabbed his thickness through the pants. She couldn’t go any farther. She needed him now.

Dropping to her knees, she undid his belt, loving the panting that was escaping his throat as he tried desperately to remain quiet, fearful of them getting caught. That was only adding to her excitement.

Finally, she undid his button and pulled the zipper down, and when she freed him of his tux pants, she was the one panting. So solid. So thick. So hot. When she swept her tongue across his head and tasted the bead of moisture there, she had to squeeze her thighs together, she was so turned on. The pressure was almost too much to bear.

She was barely able to suck him into her mouth before his fingers were grasping her hair and pulling her back.

“Enough,” he growled as he dropped to the ground with her. “I need to be inside you.”

Those words were music to her ears. She fell backward and spread her thighs, needing him to cradle himself between them. He didn’t make her wait.

With a quick tug of his fingers, he ripped her panties away and pushed her dress out of the way before his weight rested on top of her.

“You’re so beautiful, Grace. I wish I could see you better,” he said before his lips began nibbling on hers while his thickness rested against her wet center.

“Please, Cam. I need you,” she whispered.

He didn’t keep her waiting any longer. With a hard thrust of his hips, he sank deep inside, and the pressure of being filled by him after so long without sent her spiraling out of control. Her body squeezed around him as she cried into his mouth, his lips now fully over her own.

He groaned as he moved in and out of her, letting her fully enjoy her orgasm, and then he rested between her thighs. She could almost feel the deep satisfaction oozing off him.

“Ah, baby, you always were so responsive,” he said before he began moving again, building the heat right back up within her.

Tugging on the straps of her dress, Cam freed her breasts while trapping her arms at her sides. She wiggled against him, but it was to no avail. She quit struggling when his head moved down and he captured her aching nipple with his teeth while he continued pumping in and out of her moist folds.

When her second orgasm rushed through her she felt him stiffen against her as his body shook, and together they saw more stars than were in the sky above them.

Neither of them said a word as they lay there together, arms linked, bodies close. Music could be heard quietly reaching out to them, but for this moment Grace was in a haven. However, soon that peacefulness evaporated and she knew she’d made a mistake.

Without a word, she stood, rearranged her clothes, and walked away, not with regret, but with great pain to once again leave this man she couldn’t seem to ever stop loving.

SIX MONTHS LATER

Camden Whitman raked a hand through his hair once again—he looked like a refugee from an ancient punk band—and let out a long-suffering sigh. “It doesn’t matter how many times I go through this file. All arrows point straight to Grace,” he snapped before leaning back in his desk chair and pushing the file away, disgusted with all of it.

“We both know she’s not capable of doing this, so you have to be missing something,” said his father, Martin Whitman, seated comfortably across from him. He didn’t seem worried at all.

“You’ve looked at it, Dad. You tell me what I’m missing.”

“The file turned up on
your
desk, Cam. I’m not the one who’s supposed to help her,” he said before pausing and throwing his son a smile. “You are.”

“I would love to know who put it there. That’s still a big mystery. Somehow I don’t think either of her parents cares enough to want to help her. But I certainly do want to. The problem is that every time I approach her about this, we end up in a fight. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

“Well, then, you’ll just have to make her listen,” Martin said, as if there was nothing easier than getting Grace to pay attention to anything Camden had to say.

“Ugh! It’s not that simple. We have history together. It’s just . . . I don’t know, it’s complicated. When she came back to town last year, I could see she was bitter, but as time has passed, nothing I do seems to change those feelings. I can only help her if she allows it.”

Camden moved to the window and looked out over the small town square. Two kids played chase in the park while their mother sat on the bench watching them. Sterling was a great place to live, to work, and to raise a family. It’s why he’d come back. At one time he’d wanted to settle down with Grace, have children, and live a happy, normal life. But the world had a way of intercepting the ball even in the best of plays.

Grace and Cam had been friends from the time he moved to Sterling. She was four years younger than he was, but tougher than any boy, and their relationship began out of respect. They stayed in contact while he was away at college.

The summer he came home with his degree in hand before going on to law school, he saw Grace in a whole new way. She was eighteen, beautiful, and going into her senior year of high school.

Their love blossomed over the summer, and when he left for grad school, he was sure their relationship could last—but he was wrong. By the end of his first year of law school, there was nothing left of them to come home to.

Now the odds seemed to be forever in their disfavor, and it appeared there was nothing Cam could do about it, nothing but annoy a woman who just might wind up in prison.

“The file landed on your desk because whoever put it there knew you wouldn’t stop until you solved this case,” Martin told him.

“I don’t think it really matters who has the case. It looks pretty airtight—seems like she did it.” Cam cringed as he said that out loud.

“Ah, but you know not everything is as it seems, son.”

“I’ve been fighting with her for a year on this,” Camden said. “It’s not long before the feds get involved, as you well know.”

“Okay, boy. Let’s take another look at the file together and see if there’s anything we can come up with.”

“Might as well.” Cam grabbed the file off his desk and sat down at the large conference table in his office.

His father joined him and they pulled out the three-inch-thick pile of papers.

Martin flipped through the stack and stopped. “Right here is where it all began.”

“Yeah, Dad, that’s the first incident I can see of the embezzling.”