Keeping You Forever (A Harbor Love Series) (4 page)

It was a little past eleven now, her Monday was dragging on like every Monday did for her. Grace was looking forward to the weekend because Paige was coming home to visit. It had been two years since Paige came home for the holidays and she was excited to see her sister again.

 “Oh my god, Grace don’t look up yet but the man walking in the door now is hot.”

 Of course she looked up just then, and when she did her heart skipped a beat, because the man was indeed hot. But she already knew that and she knew he was a gentleman, because he made sure she got home safety from Geddys on Friday. He was thoughtful too. He brought her a bag of sugar; she could feel herself blushing just from the thought of how her body reacted to him when he brought her that sugar.

 Tyler walked into the bank looking like pure sexiness He was wearing blue jeans with a pair of brown hiking boots, a grey t-shirt with a long sleeve button down light blue shirt. She shifted in her chair leaning forward to get a better look.

 It should have been illegal to look that good on a Monday. His hair looked like he used his fingers as a comb and it made her want to run her fingers through his hair. She was so distracted by him that she hadn’t noticed he was standing right in front of her

 “Hi Grace see something you like,” he said, with a drop dead sexy smile.

  For the love of all pennies she thought. She almost fell out of her chair when she heard his voice.

“Tyler, what can I do for you?” she asked, her voice sounding shaky from the nerves.

 He noticed her practically undressing him with her eyes.  He leaned in a little closer resting his elbows on the counter, with a sexy grin on his face.

 “I need to change the address on my accounts since they all have my old California address on them.” He kept his voice low, almost whispering in her ear.

 Just hearing the word California was enough to make Grace cringe.

“Ok I can do that for you. Do you have a debit or credit card that’s linked with your accounts it will be easier to bring it up that way.”

  He reached into his back pocket pulling out his wallet, and handed her a credit card, never taking his eyes off of her.

 The touch of his fingers brushing across her skin when she took the card sent a shiver of pleasure down her body. She already knew his address since he lived up the street, so she didn’t have to ask him for it as she deleted the old address.

 “All done, everything else is still the same so you shouldn’t have a problem. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

 He took his card back placing it back in his wallet as he looked at her and, his eyes seemed to find their way to her lips again. It was going to kill him if he didn’t get to feel those lips, taste them, but it wasn’t going to happen. He gave her lips one last glance and gazed at the rest of her. She looked pretty today he thought. Her hair was down, falling around her beautiful face, he liked that she only wore a little bit of makeup even though she was beautiful without any. She was sitting down so he couldn’t see the rest of her, but he was enjoying the view he was getting of her boobs with the pink satin shirt she had on. It was a button down pink blouse with the first three buttons opened giving him a perfect view of what was under her shirt. It was enough to leave him speechless at the sight of the see through lace bra she was wearing. What he wouldn’t give to see her without that shirt right now, but it was probably not appropriate attire for a bank. The thought of anyone else seeing her in just a bra didn’t sit well with him for some odd reason since he shouldn’t care about her that way.

“Actually I’m kind of hungry,” he said, as his eyes devoured the site of her breast peeking out from her shirt.

   Grace looked around the bank and back at him with a smile on her face. “This is a bank Tyler, we don’t serve food here.”

   Food was the last thing on his mind now, but the need to spend time with her was too strong to fight.

 “What I meant is, it’s almost lunch time and I’d like you to join me for lunch. You do eat… right?” he asked. What I wouldn’t give to have you for lunch.

   Of course she ate. It was sometimes a problem for her but her morning runs helped with her love for food.

 “Yes I eat, but I don’t go to lunch for another fifteen minutes.”

   He looked down at his watch and back up at Grace. “I can wait fifteen minutes. I’ll wait for you outside.” He was still looking at her his eyes looking into hers making her feel the flutter in her stomach again. She wasn’t drinking and couldn’t blame alcohol for the flutters this time, she knew they were from Tyler. “Ok I’ll see you in a few minutes then.”

 They both looked at each other for another second before he turned and walked out of the door.

  “My god Grace this isn’t fair you get to eat lunch with him while the rest of us have to sit in a break room looking at posters of sexual harassment laws. I would really like to sexually harass him during my lunch break,” Jessie said, as they both watched Tyler walk out the door.

 “I want all the details when you get back and I mean––every detail.”

 Jessie loved to gossip she knew everyone’s business but she was Grace’s good friend and kept all of her secrets, even the one about Denny leaving her for Miss true love.

  Grace knew people would ask at the Christmas party where Denny was since he was her date for the past three years. She didn’t want to explain to anyone that he left her for someone else, so she lied and said they decided to end their relationship mutually, but Jessie knew better when she found Grace crying in the bathroom at the banquet hall. 

  As she grabbed her purse and made her way to the door to meet Tyler, her heart jumped in her chest. It was only lunch, but something deep  inside made her want more.

 She found Tyler sitting on a bench around the corner of the bank. He looked even more handsome with the sunlight shining on his face, she thought as she got closer.

“I’m ready if you are,” she said, standing in front of him.

  In the bank he only got a look at her from the waist up but now with her in full view, he was at a loss for words. His eyes roamed up and down her body getting a glimpse of her sexy figure. She had soft curves, legs that didn’t quit and lips that drove him crazy every time he saw her. He wanted so badly to feel her lips on his, to pull her soft curvy body to his and lose himself in her, but he pushed those urges aside as he stood up.

  They had lunch at Dinks Taxi restaurant. Tyler found it harder and harder to take his eyes off of her.

 “What is it that you do for work here in Bar Harbor?” Grace asked, before taking another sip of her coke.

 “I own a custom car body shop back in San Francisco actually, I left my brother in charge to run the manager aspect of the business and I didn’t want to close a successful business for right now it’s paying the bills.

  I’ve thought about starting a business here, but will see how things work out.”

   He tried to keep his eyes distracted and focused on the décor of the restaurant but it wasn’t working he always seemed to come right back to her lips. He knew the curve of her lips, every dip and how soft they looked because he spent the last few times they saw each other staring at her mouth. He spent the last few months avoiding women. He wanted to get over his fiancé and told himself he didn’t need the distraction of a female messing with his life or plans anymore, but Grace was different, he couldn’t get her out of his head or his dreams. He spent the last week thinking of her, stealing glances of her from his kitchen window. He thought of kissing her and getting her naked and hearing her cry out his name as he gave her the best orgasm of her life.

  “Gracie, how are you? You look beautiful as always.”

  Tyler wondered who the hell this guy was that slid into the booth and sat down by Grace.

  “Denny. Hi…”

  It was her ex and he couldn’t have more perfect timing. She glanced up at Tyler who looked like he was going to kill someone.

 “Tyler this is Denny.”

  He nodded and shook Denny’s hand as they both exchanged possessive glances over Grace.

 “Gracie I was going to call you tonight I wanted to come over and see you. I can stop by later with a bottle of Dry Creek, is that still your favorite wine? I remember how much you enjoyed it when I would bring it home.” He pushed a stray hair away from her eye, making Tyler see red.

 “Denny I thought we talked about this already. It’s over between us it’s been three years.”

 He never gave up even though he was still openly sleeping with other women, but he always tried to get back with Grace even after having the door slammed in his face over a hundred times.

 “Come on Gracie we had some good times together we had over three years together doesn’t that mean anything,” he said, trying his best to act like he really cared.

  It was like a knife to her heart. She loved Denny so much, more than anyone she ever loved before, and he took that love and threw it away. Now this…the way he was pretending to care and wanting her in his life was a reminder of her heartache and she felt the tears coming on.

 “I think she said no, so back off.” Tyler’s voice was low but had a tone that said he wasn’t messing around.

“I’m sorry Gracie who is this?” Denny said, as he looked at Tyler.

       “Tyler, I’m so sorry, I really have to get back to work. Thank you for lunch, I’ll see you around.” Grace shoved Denny out of the way as she slid out of the booth leaving both men watching her walk out of the restaurant.

 It wasn’t enough that Denny cheated on her and then dumped her but now he kept bringing up their past and ripping the band aid off every time leaving her heart feeling wounded and hurt all over again.

“
W
hy does this happen to me, every time I get past the hurt he shows up again to remind me of it.” Grace muttered to herself as she finished up her last bit of work before leaving for the day. She spent the rest of the afternoon reliving the pain of Denny walking out on her and their love. She knew she wasn’t in love with him anymore, but it still hurt to know that someone she was ready to spend her life with could just throw it all away over a few nights of hot and wild sex. The bigger problem was that she spent the past three years shutting herself off from finding love again. She never wanted to feel that pain again and closed her heart off completely.

  It had been a long day and what she needed was to slip into a hot bubble bath with a bottle of wine and forget about Denny and lunch with Tyler.

  The house was quiet when she walked in; the sun was just starting to set. Autumn was probably at work. She didn’t want to have to explain why she was in such a bad mood and was glad to find the house empty.

  Skipping the usual routine of going through the mail and missed calls Grace headed straight to her bathroom kicking off her shoes at the door. She set the bottle of wine down by the bathtub and turned the water on, adding bath crystals and began undressing, leaving her clothes in a pile by the tub. She placed her phone on top of the pile of clothes in case Autumn called, she didn’t want to have to get out of the tub soaking wet to search for a phone. She slipped one foot in first and then the other letting her body sink down into the warm water. Inhaling the scent of the crystals that smelled of lavender and taking a sip of wine straight from the bottle, because it was one of those nights. She felt the tension slowly leave her body as she settled back into the tub resting her head on the edge. “Much better.” She thought as she took another sip of wine.

 The silence along with the lavender and wine had Grace floating in a sea of bliss and relaxation as the warm water heated her skin. But it didn’t last for long because the phone was ringing and she was pulled out of her moment of pleasure. Shaking her hand to get the soap suds off she reached for the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hi…”

 Grace recognized the voice on the other end of the phone. It was a low and sexy masculine voice that she would recognize anywhere, Tyler.

  “I’m sorry to bother you I just wanted to see if you were ok. You left pretty quickly at lunch today.” His voice was filled with concern and something else that Grace couldn’t figure out.