Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (16 page)

She packed two more suitcases, and they were done within fifteen minutes. “I just want to do a final sweep to make sure I’ve got everything I’ll need for the next week or so,” she told Cam as he grabbed her last bag.

“No problem. I’ll wait for you outside.” He moved down the stairs and loaded up the last case, then leaned against his truck and chatted with Hawk.

“I really would like to be there when she finds out what a meddler you’re being,” Hawk said as he chewed on a toothpick.

“Well, she’s not going to find out, so we don’t have to worry about that, do we?”

“We’ll see, Cam. In a perfect world, you just might be correct. But since when have our lives ever gone as smoothly as we’ve wanted them to go?” Hawk chuckled.

“Okay, I’ve got what I’ll need for the week, Hawk. My house is going to be done this coming Friday, so there won’t be a problem with me staying here after that anyway,” Grace said. She was being far more polite to the town fire chief than she was being with Cam.

That only grated the tiniest bit.

“Sounds good, Grace. I hope your night goes a lot better from here on out,” Hawk said before climbing into his vehicle and taking off.

“Okay, follow me home,” Cam said as he moved to the driver’s side of her car and held the door open for her.

“I told you I wasn’t going to your house, Cam. You really need to learn to take no for an answer,” she snapped at him.

“Well, your luggage is loaded in my truck, so if you need anything, you might want to follow me home,” he said with a lazy, crooked smile.

“You’re not amusing me. I’m hungry, tired, and not in the best of moods right now. So be a gentleman and move my luggage over to my car,” she said between clenched teeth.

“We can discuss it over dinner. Climb in,” he told her, pointing to her seat.

“Seriously, Cam, you’re pissing me off,” she growled.

“Good. I like it when there’s fire in your eyes.”

He decided talking was doing him no good, so before she had a chance to blink, he pulled her into his arms and lowered his head. He was planning on kissing her into submission.

The tables quickly turned on him, though, and within seconds she was the one who was controlling him. The softness of her lips molding to his, the scent of her subtle perfume drifting between them, and the barely audible sigh slipping from her throat had his body hard and aching, and he was wishing they were already home.

After a minute or maybe twenty—time didn’t matter—he pulled back and looked into her smoldering eyes. “Follow me home, Grace.”

He didn’t give her time to answer him, just assisted her into her car and shut her door. Then he moved over to his vehicle and climbed in the driver’s side. And waited.

Five minutes passed, and he wondered if the stubborn woman would sit there all night just to punish him. Grace Sinclair was certainly tenacious enough to do just that. But then her car started and he gave a sigh of relief. Maybe he should follow her, just in case she tried to change her mind and give up on her bags.

She pulled out, and he let out a satisfied breath when she turned in the direction of his house. Cam had no illusions that she was suddenly going to comply with his wishes. Still, his anticipation grew the closer they got to home.

What a controlling jerk. Why was he doing this? Why did everything seem to be going wrong at once? Her life was in an uproar, and it had all started the moment that stupid fraud file had shown up on Cam’s desk.

Yes, Grace could see that he was trying to help her, but he was royally ticking her off. The thing was, though, that she didn’t really know where to go, and the only place in Sterling was a down-at-the-heels motel.

If she had the choice to stay there or in one of Cam’s spare rooms, though, she would probably choose the motel, because staying at his house left her open to temptation that would be hell to fight.

She had practically begged him to take her this morning, and as much as he’d wanted her, he’d said no, not unless she gave him all of her. She just wasn’t able to do that. If she did, she knew where she would be left standing—if she were still standing—when it all came to an end.

And she had no doubt that it would come to an end. He’d left her before. He would leave her again. This time, though, she was weaker. There weren’t enough pieces of her left to pick up, not after the stuff that had happened with her mother and then with the guy in New York. He’d used her. Gotten what he’d wanted and then left her broken. It seemed to be the story of her life. She’d been kicked back down too many times to be able to keep getting back on her feet. A person could only withstand so much before they were completely broken.

But even having those thoughts upset Grace tremendously. She wasn’t a quitter. Tightening her grip on the steering wheel, she drove on doggedly toward Cam’s house. If he wanted to play games with her, she wouldn’t just sit idly by while he held all the ace cards up his sleeve.

Cam had no right to try to take over her life, to try to tell her how to live and what to do. If only she were able to get that point across to him, she’d be a very happy woman. As she pulled up in front of his house, she threw back her shoulders and put her player’s face on. He would listen to what she had to say.

“You drive like a grandma, you know,” Cam said as he approached her at the car, holding two of her suitcases.

“I drive safely, unlike most of the cowboys in this area,” she replied, going to the back of his truck and climbing on the tire to reach the last bag.

“I’ll get that,” he told her with a frown.

“I am more than capable of getting my own bags. Just leave those in the foyer. I’m not unpacking here.” With that, she led the way up his steps.

“Nah. I don’t like things cluttering up my entry hall. We’ll just take them to your room—unless you want them in mine,” he said, ascending the stairs as well.

“You don’t perform to my satisfaction. I’ll take my own room,” she told him with a smirk.

“Ah, baby, you know that isn’t true. When you pull your head out of your cute little arse and admit how much you want me, I’ll perform all night and all day,” he told her, opening the door directly across from his own bedroom.

“Don’t you have a ton of spare rooms in this monster-sized house?”

“This is my favorite guest room, reserved for only the most elite of visitors.” He proceeded through the doorway and set her bags in an amazing walk-in closet.

“No one needs this much space,” she scolded him, hoping he wouldn’t notice the way she was salivating at the floor-to-ceiling shoe racks. “Especially in a guest room.”

“I like big spaces. It comes from a time when two other boys and I shared a room that was smaller than the average linen closet.”

His tone may have been joking, but she heard the underlying pain.

“I’m sorry, Cam. I always forget that your life didn’t start out as well as it’s ended up.” She turned to him and held his arm for a moment.

“My life is great, Grace. But it doesn’t matter how good it is now or how good it’s been for the past twenty years. There are some things that will never be forgotten.”

“You know, Cam, you can talk to me about it anytime you want.” Grace was almost surprised when those words popped out of her mouth.

“I might take you up on that offer, Grace. But I’m far more worried about what’s going on in
your
life right now.”

He walked from the closet and moved toward another door. When he opened it, she had a hard time holding in her gasp. The bathroom was the size of her last bedroom, which she’d considered pretty dang roomy. A soaking tub sat in the middle of gray granite, and the double vanity was a woman’s wet dream come true. The shower looked big enough to fit ten people, with multiple spray heads and smooth granite walls.

“Wow. I’ve never had a chance to see your bathroom. I can’t imagine what it looks like if this is the guest one,” she said, unable to keep the awe from her tone. Maybe she had been a little too hasty in building such a small home.

No. This was more than any person needed. Her new house certainly wasn’t too small. It was more than enough space for a single person. She hated cleaning, and couldn’t imagine how long it would take to clean this house. Not that a guy like him would clean it himself.

“I’ll show you my bathroom right now,” Cam said, holding out a hand.

“I think I’ll pass. It’s been an eventful day. I’m going to shower and go to sleep.” She turned away from him, not wanting to be tempted once again that day.

“Grace, it’s early yet—only six thirty—and before we drove out here, you said you were hungry. Take your shower and come downstairs. I promise not to attack . . . for tonight, at least.”

He didn’t try to cajole her any further, just turned around and walked from the room, leaving the decision to her. She appreciated that more than anything else at the moment. Even if she had just half an hour to gather herself together after having so much thrown at her in one day, she might begin to feel a little more human again.

Grabbing a pair of her most unsexy flannel pajamas, she went into the bathroom. She took a little more than half an hour, though, because after the heavenly shower, she couldn’t resist soaking in the giant tub, and to get out before sitting there for an hour would be a waste of good water.

She wasn’t going to admit even to herself that she was putting off the inevitable. Cam was downstairs waiting for her, and her resistance was zilch. Would they finish what they’d begun that very morning?

When Grace was all out of thoughts about how to avoid him, she sat up in the tub, an evil idea taking place in her mind. He’d left her reeling this morning. Wasn’t payback a bitch?

Cam sat on the couch trying to read a legal thriller he’d had lying around for the past four months, but he just couldn’t get into the story. Was Grace ever going to come back down, or hide out in her room? He knew she had to be hungry, and although his meal of sandwiches and chips wasn’t the best dinner ever, it was still food and it was sitting on the coffee table, waiting.

He would have had his cook, Mrs. Bateman, come out and fix up some meals, but he’d been in and out so much that he’d given her a few days off. Bad timing.

Cam finally tossed the book aside. Why even pretend to read? He leaned back and tried to listen for the sound of Grace’s footsteps.

He shouldn’t care if she didn’t come down tonight. They would talk tomorrow. Well, they would if she climbed out of bed before he went in to the office. He had meetings and couldn’t play hooky all day—although he’d like nothing better than to lie around with Grace, eating his meals off her delectable body.

The first creak of the staircase had him sitting up straight. He shouldn’t be this anxious around a woman, but after this morning, his body was still hurting. What in hell had possessed him? Why had he tried to get more from her than just the pleasure of the moment? She’d wanted him, and he’d been a fool to want more.

And now he was paying.

When she came in, Cam felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the living room. “Grace?” His voice was little more than a croak as he watched her saunter toward him.

“Yes, Cam?” she asked with far too much innocence.

“What are you doing?”

She smiled the smile of a woman who knew who she was, and knew exactly what she wanted, and what she was going to get. Her long, dark hair hung down her back; her eyes—so dark, so exotic—were bright and enchanting. Hell, even her toes were turning him on as she moved closer and closer.

She stopped a few feet from him, her short silky robe held together only by a slim belt that looked a little too loose. Yes, he’d seen her naked—that very morning, in fact—but her peaked nipples poked tantalizingly through the thin fabric and were making him pant like a dog.

Raising her arms, she ran her hands through her hair; her head fell back, and she sighed. Cam couldn’t have spoken if his life had depended on it. She had him in a trance, and if this was the show, he prayed it would never end. Maybe he’d really just fallen asleep and this was his fantasy invading his dreams.

Reaching down, he pinched his leg, sending sharp pain shooting through him and proving he was actually awake. Thank the powers that be, he thought as she finished running her fingers through her hair, brought them to her neck, and began playing with the lapels on her robe, slowly sliding her fingers up and down the edges, opening the robe just a little bit more with each pass.