Then Came You (The Wilde Sisters #2) (14 page)

Again, more questions and no answers.

She couldn’t leave the poor girl with a stranger. Not that it mattered. It was all out of her hands anyhow. Thyme plopped herself down on the sofa in the Davenports’ living room with a bowl of popcorn and a steamy mug of hot chocolate.

So much for her wild night out with her girls.

“Find a babysitter for the kid. You haven’t partied with us in months, Wilde,” Jackie whined into the phone, loud music barreling in the background.

“I can’t leave her with just anyone.”

“Make your sister do it. Doesn’t she have a house full of brats?”

Had Jackie always been so rude and Thyme never noticed it before? “Rayne has one baby and she’s busy tonight. She and her husband are out and her sister-in-law is watching Owen.”

“So toss Maggie over there.”

“It’s Maddie.”

“Yeah, whatever. Come on. The guys have been asking where you’ve been. Aaron dumped Lisa last week and wants to hook up with you.”

Aaron had been every girl’s conquest. Hot, funny, a DJ at a local radio station, and a total playboy. Not the kind of guy that appealed to Thyme.

Anymore.

“Kim got wasted the other night and got tossed out of Primo’s. You should have seen her go at it with the bouncer. So freaking funny. Pete got it on video and posted it to Facebook. I thought you would have seen it by now.”

“Sorry, Jackie. I’ve been working and haven’t checked Facebook in a while.”

“It’s not work. You’re babysitting a kid down in Rocky Harbor making a shitload of money. Not a bad gig. I don’t see why you can’t hire some teenager to watch the kid sleep so you can go out and have a good time.” Thyme apologized one more time for missing the party and hung up. Were these the kind of friends she wanted to hang around with? The kind she wanted to expose Maddie to? No. And they were one more reminder of how different she and Grayson were. Their lives were more than a few hundred miles apart. They were worlds apart.

She picked up the remote and scrolled through the guide for a good movie. A Bruce Willis action flick should keep her mind off Mr. Green Eyes.

***

Thyme bolted upright, discombobulated. Bruce had been replaced by an infomercial, her popcorn bowl sat half-empty, and her hot chocolate completely gone. Then she heard it again. Someone knocking on the front door.

Images of Freddy, Jason, and all the other crazy slasher-killers entered her mind. Geesh, she’d picked shoot-‘em-up-bang-bang movies over scary, but still her thoughts went to low budget horror. Not that she was really scared.

The knock. Again. She brushed the popcorn kernels off her shirt, looked down to see if her braless chest was too evident in her gray t-shirt, and tiptoed to the door.

“Thyme? It’s me. Are you up?”

Grayson.

She unlocked the door, pulled it wide open, and hurried him inside. “It’s freezing out there. Do you know what time it is?”

He closed the door behind him, stomped the snow off his loafers, and hung his coat on the back of a chair. “I’m still on California time so, no. Sorry. But I had to see you. I know it’s late.”

“Ya think?” Thyme walked back to the living room, picked up her bowl and cup, and carried them into the kitchen. She took a quick glance at the clock on the microwave. “Two-thirty? I didn’t know planes landed that late.” She put her dishes in the dishwasher and turned. “Oh, that’s right. You have a fancy jet to bring you places at your beck and call. I bet you even have a fancy phone that can call people on the other side of the country. It can probably even send a text message or two.”

At least he looked ashamed. Grayson ran a hand through his unusually disheveled hair and pulled off his already loosened navy tie. He looked exhausted. Like crap, really, if you considered tousled hair, a day’s worth of stubble, and a rumpled thousand-dollar suit slovenly. He also looked like he hadn’t eaten in days.

Her sister had taught her to be hospitable, though. “Do you want something to eat?”

His look of relief shouldn’t have made her feel tingly, but it did.

“That would be amazing. I’ll eat anything so don’t go to too much trouble.”

Thankful for a distraction, Thyme opened the fridge and rummaged through the leftovers. “How about some lasagna?”

“Seriously?” His beautiful eyes grew with the hunger of a man who had been stranded on an island for weeks.

“We had it for dinner last night and again for dinner tonight. I don’t think Maddie’s up for eating it three days in a row.” She cut a huge square, slid it on a plate, and put it in the microwave. “Drink?”

“Whatever you have is fine.” Grayson stood on the other side of the kitchen, seeming distracted and uncomfortable.

“It’s water, milk, or juice in this house. Unless you want coffee or tea?”

“Water is perfect, thank you.”

When the microwave dinged she brought the plate to the table. He finally sat, licked his lips, and dug in. She watched him in silence. In less time than it took to warm up the food, it was gone.

“They didn’t feed you in San Diego?”

“No time,” he said into the napkin he used to wipe his mouth. “I’ve been in meetings or brainstorming sessions for the past fifteen hours. And today was my short day.”

That was a long day, but no potty breaks? No time to let her know he was thinking of her? Thyme slapped her inner romantic—she meant, no time to let
Maddie
know he was thinking of her?

Grayson slid the plate away and reached across the table for her hands. The sudden movement and change in air startled her.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“I’m very sorry, Thyme.” He stared down at their entwined hands and brushed her knuckles with his thumb. “There was a crisis and I needed to stay focused. It’s not that I didn’t think about you and Maddie.”

Oh, she was such a goner. Thyme kept her shoulders straight and her eyes fixed on his downcast emeralds, resisting the urge to crawl in his lap and purr like a kitten while her angry self worked diligently to be angry at him.

“Maddie asked where you were.” Cop out. She actually didn’t. When Eva told her that Grayson had to go back to work she seemed sad but carried on with her days just fine. Thyme, however, was having difficulty with his absence.

“We never got to talk about…what happened.” Thyme gasped and Grayson looked up. Oh God, she couldn’t refuse that face. “Why did you run from me?”

She licked her lips and shrugged.

“You don’t know?” He gripped her hands more firmly, tugging her body toward him. “Or you don’t want to tell me,” he whispered.

“I…” Her gaze dropped to his lips. “…don’t…” What was the question?

Grayson slipped his hand from hers and gently cupped her cheek. “I’m going to kiss you again,” he said, just inches away from her lips. “And I’m not going to let you go so easily this time.”

Oh, gush. She clamped her legs tighter and felt an instant stirring in her chest. Her headlights pointing straight at him, lighting the way to her heart. Slowly, painfully slowly, Grayson lowered his head inch by inch until his breath mingled with hers.

“If you don’t want me to do this,” he whispered, “you better say so. Fast.” His gaze devoured her alive.

She moaned before they even made contact and leaned into him, knowing he’d hold her tight. The meeting of their lips could not have made her inner romantic any happier. Parts of her body she had no idea were erogenous tingled with glee and her underused libido sang out with joy as his tongue met hers and reunited in a glorious slow dance. There were so many reasons why she shouldn’t be doing this, falling for Grayson, but they all slipped away as he deepened the kiss and she clung to him, heavy with need.

He smelled like…Grayson. Manly and clean. Thyme slipped her hand out from his and slid it up his chest and in between the buttons on his shirt. She felt his undershirt. Not good enough. She needed flesh. As she started unbuttoning the first button, then the second, Grayson stilled and drew back.

“Are you sure? Because once we start I don’t think I’ll have the willpower to stop.”

Thyme pulled back more, needing to see his face, the honesty in his eyes, and tried to steady her heart. She never felt nervous about sex, but making love to Grayson Montgomery wouldn’t be like anything she’d ever experienced before. She knew there were a bazillion reasons why she shouldn’t strip him naked but none of them came to mind.

“Hell, yeah,” she said before attacking his mouth.

Keeping their lips locked, Grayson stood and wrapped his arms around her, gripping her rear and pulling her into his very impressive groin. “Oh,” she moaned. They needed to get to her room or they’d be christening the kitchen table.

Thyme broke away, grabbed his hand, and ran up the stairs to her room. Before he could turn and close the door, she had already reached around him to untuck his shirt. “Get naked. Now.” His startled expression made her smile. “Please?”

“As you wish.” Grayson whipped his button-down and undershirt over his head in one swoop and kicked off his shoes while Thyme made fast work of his belt and zipper. When he stood before her, gloriously naked, he scowled. “This isn’t fair. You’re way too overdressed for this party.”

“Oh, yeah?” Thyme slid her hands up and down his chest and stomach, stopping just below his navel. “What are you going to do about it?”

Grayson growled and stripped her of her t-shirt and pushed down her pants before she could blink. “There. Now we’re even.” He picked her up and placed her on the bed delicately, as if she were a fragile flower that he didn’t want to bruise. “Let me show you how much I missed you,” he whispered in her ear before trailing kisses down her neck and claiming her breast.

When her eyes crossed from pure delight, his mouth moved further south, sending her into a wild frenzy.

Chapter Eight

Grayson

It was still dark outside, but the glow from the clock next to Thyme’s head shed enough light so he could just barely make out her features. The woman surprised him, that’s for sure. Not only in how she acted but how she made him act. And react.

Sex had always been satisfying, an itch being scratched, but it had never been fun. Round one with Thyme was fast and furious; he didn’t spend much time on foreplay. She came quicker than he expected. But round two took longer. She explored every inch of his body, and then some, while he readily returned the favor.

They’d touched and groped and scraped with reckless abandon into the wee hours of the morning. Thyme didn’t seem to mind the sweat and rumpled sheets, the pillows on the floor. She’d surprised him when she flipped him over, riding on top until he nearly screamed and woke Maddie and the entire neighborhood.

Never before had he been with a woman who literally rocked the bed. Hell, she rocked his world. They’d rolled around so many times they fell to the floor, laughing and kissing and not stopping their lovemaking.

It was exhilarating being with a woman who laughed at life, loved life, and wasn’t caught up in the world loving her. Thyme was truly insouciant. No, that sounded like a word Sophia would use as an insult. Thyme Wilde was carefree, uninhibited, and indifferent to the stuffy, overrated rules of etiquette.

Grayson should be exhausted, getting no more than four hours of sleep a night for the past few days. But he didn’t want to miss a minute of the curvy little body that curled into him. He stroked her back lightly and she moaned, nestling into the crook of his arm, draping a leg over his.

Wow. His body was ready for round three already. No. They both needed sleep. Maddie would be up within the hour and he didn’t want her to see him like this. Carefully, Grayson extracted his body from Thyme’s, scooped up his clothes, and made his way into the guest bedroom. The sun had just started to rise when he finally fell asleep.

***

Thyme

Holy monkeys. First it was wild monkey sex, then sweet, slow lovemaking.

With Grayson Montgomery.

Maddie’s father.

Her…boss? Ugh. Thyme still didn’t know where they stood in their professional and personal relationship.

If he took Maddie back to New York with him and she stayed in Maine, they could do the long-distance thing. If he took Maddie to the city and asked Thyme to come as her nanny, then she could never, ever sleep with him again. It would seem too whorish. Granted, she’d be getting paid to babysit, not to have sex with him, but still. For her entire life her parents and sisters thought she was careless, reckless. The exact opposite of responsible. If she slept with her boss, she’d only be solidifying their opinion of her. Not a good idea. When he came to his senses and realized that Thyme did not fit in to his upper crust life, he’d have to fire her. There’d be no way she could remain working for him after that.

It was a lose-lose situation. And Maddie mattered too much to her. She wanted to continue being her nanny. But to do so would mean she’d have to end any and all romantic encounters with Grayson.

And damn if he didn’t make it nearly impossible to keep her slutty thoughts to herself. For a man who had to forgo sleep for the past week, he sure woke up perky. Grayson spent the morning outside making a snow fort with Maddie while Thyme worked on prepping supper in the crockpot. After lunch the three of them went shopping for gloves and a winter coat and even picked up a pair of ice skates for Grayson. They skated on Goosepond for hours, laughing every time Grayson fell down. He was such a good sport and never got upset, even when Maddie started getting cranky around naptime.

Thyme’s goal was to keep her hands to herself, but Grayson looked so sexy coming down the stairs after putting Maddie down for her nap that she couldn’t do the responsible thing. He grinned at her as if he knew her thoughts. Without saying a word, their mouths met, their hands tugged on each other’s clothes, and they fell to the couch in a naked, sweaty tangle.

Just one more romp and then she’d turn their relationship into a professional partnership.

***

Grayson

Grayson couldn’t believe he spent so many years not knowing the warmth of a woman’s skin. The women he slept with were cold and had hard angles, no extra flesh on their bodies for him to grip on to during sex. Thyme showed him what he’d been missing. The thought of lying in a tangled mess of naked limbs on a sofa in the middle of the afternoon had never crossed his mind before.

Before Thyme. Or maybe it was because he never met a woman he wanted to get down and dirty with. Or make love with. Or sleep with. Sleeping with Thyme last night was…comforting. Not something Grayson ever thought he needed—the comfort of a woman’s arms. Or rather, breasts. He enjoyed the feeling of her soft, supple, naked breasts squashed against his side all night. He hoped to relive it tonight. And tomorrow. And the next night.

After a eating a homestyle dinner of pot roast, potatoes, and biscuits, he played Candyland with his girls, and then cleaned the kitchen while Thyme gave Maddie a bath.
His girls.
Yeah, he could get used to that. Grayson finished scrubbing the crockpot—an appliance he’d never seen before—and made his way to the living room. Trying to get comfortable on the sofa, he picked up the remote and channel surfed.

There were only a few hitches he needed to figure out. Or maybe it was just one.

Sophia. His grandmother was the monarch of the family; everyone feared and obeyed her. Why his father succumbed to his mother-in-law’s harsh, controlling ways Grayson would never understand. But then, who was he to judge? Grayson found himself under the same trap. It was ingrained in him from birth to obey and never question Sophia Buchanan.

She was Sophia of
Sophia Buchanan
. The high-end clothing line that only the richest of the rich could afford and couldn’t be found in stores, only specialty boutiques. No
off-the-rack
shopping for his grandmother’s family. It was simply the way Eva grew up. The way Grayson grew up. What would Sophia say when he introduced her to his illegitimate daughter? He shouldn’t care, but he did. Complying with his family’s wishes had been ingrained in him since birth. He’d been programed to act a certain way. To like certain foods, music, women. To live the future mapped out for him.

One that didn’t include an illegitimate child and a sexy nanny.

And Thyme. What was she? His girlfriend? His nanny? They’d have to figure that out soon. She’d be happy in New York with him. He’d take care of her, spoil her like she’d never experienced and so definitely deserved.

It was easy to forget about the added pressures of his personal and professional life when he was in Aruba and in Maine. Could he maintain his current new outlook on his future while in New York, was the question.

“Hey, beautiful,” he called to her as she entered the living room. He picked up the remote and turned off the television. There wasn’t anything that interested him anyway. Never was. Grayson never had time to watch anything other than the early morning news while he ran on his treadmill. “Is Maddie asleep?”

“She’d like you to read to her,” Thyme said shyly. Something was off. She seemed distant. Grayson got up from the couch and walked to her.

Kissing her lightly on the lips, he cupped her chin in his hand and stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “I’ll be right back.” Thyme nodded and slipped away from his hold.

After reading two princess stories and playing five games of Thumb War, he finally shut off Maddie’s light and treaded down the stairs. He found Thyme curled up on one end of the sofa, a quilt wrapped around her body.

“You cold? I can build up the fire.”

Thyme shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Grayson frowned and sat on the coffee table, hoping it would hold his body, facing Thyme. “Are you okay? You seem…sad.”

Pulling the quilt tighter around her body, Thyme sat up and looked down at her hands. “We need to talk.”

Grayson laughed. “Isn’t that a bit cliché? Don’t all bad conversations start this way?”

“Grayson, I…I like you.”

She made it sound like a bad thing. “Thank you. I like you too.”

“But—” and this is where the ball drops “—if you want me to be Maddie’s nanny, we need to set some ground rules.”

Okay. He could do that. “Of course.”

“We can’t sleep together anymore.”

Hell, he didn’t have plans on sleeping. Well, not until after. “By sleeping, you mean…”

Her cheeks turned pink. “Sex. No sex. I can’t do it.”

“I thought you did a wonderful job at it. I rather liked it a lot. In fact, I’d like to do it again and again.” He hoped a bit of teasing would lighten the moment and hopefully change her mind.

“You’re not making this easy.”

“No, actually, it’s quite hard.” He laughed at himself. He had to. Only Thyme Wilde could turn straight-laced, stuffy Grayson Montgomery into someone who flirted and sputtered inappropriate sexual innuendos. If Sophia could see him now.

Unfortunately his inexperience in this realm didn’t help him any. Thyme stood up, keeping the quilt wrapped around her as if a shield to protect her from him. “It’s inappropriate for us to have…sexual relations while I’m working for you. It’s not fair to Maddie. When we…when we move on to a different relationship, it will be heartbreaking for Maddie. And quite uncomfortable for us.”

“Who says I want to move on to another relationship? I’m quite content being with you.” He stood but didn’t approach her.

“For now. But we’ll never last. You and I both know it. You’ve said it yourself a dozen times, as have I. We come from different worlds. I don’t fit into yours.”

“Why are you so down on yourself, Thyme? You fit in beautifully. Scott Barry invited you to California and Italy, for crying out loud. He doesn’t open his vineyard to just anyone.”

“Scott is a very nice man, but I don’t want to spend my evenings schmoozing on yachts, afraid to bump into some priceless artifact or spill food on his thousand-dollar dining room chairs.”

“Can’t we just take it one day at a time, see how things pan out for us?” He stepped closer to her and reached out, grabbing hold of the quilt. It was slight, but he heard the quick intake of her breath. Pulling her toward him, the quilt still acting as a barrier, he wrapped his arms around her mummified body and touched her forehead with his. “I like being with you, Thyme Wilde. Clothed and naked. But naked is…wow.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers.

She let him nibble on her lower lip but didn’t open for him. He could feel the tenseness of her body and pulled her closer to him, pressing his hardness against her. She gasped and pulled away. “No, no. This, this…this can’t happen. If you want me to be Maddie’s nanny then we can’t…we can’t…we just can’t. I feel like…” Thyme flung the quilt on the couch and clenched her fists by her side. “I can’t have sex with you in New York. I’ll feel like a cheap whore.”

“What?”

“Don’t.” She held up a hand to stop him from moving forward.

“I can’t be near you and not touch you. And Maddie needs you.”

“Well then…I quit. I know you plan on taking Maddie to New York in a few days. I’ll pack her things and have her ready for you, but don’t expect me to go with you. I can’t.” She stormed past him and up the stairs, but not before he saw a tear streak down her cheek.

***

Thyme

Thyme shoved her face in her pillow and attempted to muffle her cries. Maybe she should have seen the therapist two years ago when she was working in his office as a receptionist. It sounded rational at the moment, but thinking back on her behavior of a few hours ago, she couldn’t remember why she said no to Grayson. Why couldn’t she be Maddie’s nanny and sleep with Grayson on the side?

Because she’d just be a filler, once again. He didn’t
want
her. He
needed
her. Oh, what a psycho mess she was. Most women wanted to feel needed, but not her. Thyme was needed by everyone to fill some sort of gap. No one ever wanted her ahead of time, just needed her to cover for a sick employee, babysit, or scratch an itch. What did it feel like to truly be wanted? No strings attached, but one hundred percent want for no other reason than to be with her?

Hell, her parents didn’t want her either. And to make matters worse, they never even needed her. At least her sisters worked hard to make Thyme feel needed. Bless them, but they had no idea that their overcompensating actually made her feel worse.

And Grayson. He needed her and it wasn’t his fault she had so much emotional baggage. Too bad being needed by him wasn’t good for her psyche right now. She had to figure out what the heck she was going to do with the rest of her life. If being Maddie’s nanny had taught her anything, it was that she had to find her place in the world. Her permanent place.