Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (24 page)

“I have a job to do, Cam!”

A week had passed since someone had left that note on Grace’s door, and she still wasn’t any closer to finding answers. Cam had leads, and she was just going to have to allow him to do what he did best, although it wasn’t easy for her to let go of the control she was so fond of having.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be at a very public party right now,” Cam told her, pacing the room in front of her.

“I’ve had to put up with your babysitting me all week, and, yes, I know that’s what your family has been doing. But now I’m done with it. I have a business to run, and in three days I’m throwing my client’s rehearsal dinner. You can either keep your mouth shut and come with me, or you can stand down,” Grace told him. “But make no mistake about it: I
am
going. Would
you
give up a case because someone had threatened
you
?”

Cam glared at her for several moments, but she wasn’t relenting on this one. He’d already insisted on being in the restaurant when she’d met with Kitty a few days earlier to finalize the plans for the party. And she was more than willing to compromise, because she knew he really did care about her safety.

She was not willing, however, to let him ruin her career. Planning events might not seem important to Cam, but she loved what she did, and it allowed her the freedom a nine-to-five job would never grant her.

“We still don’t know who left the note, Grace, and we don’t know how serious the person is about hurting you. I just traced some of the checks to a bank account yesterday. If the person is aware that we’re closing in on them, they might get desperate, might want to eliminate you as a witness,” he said, his voice calm as if trying to reason with her. That only irritated her more.

“I am cooperating fully with you, Cam. But I told you from the day I agreed to let you look into this case that I wasn’t going to let it change my life, that I wasn’t going to hide in some corner. You either accept that or don’t. I really couldn’t care less. I’ve compromised and I’m staying here at your place or at Sage’s place when I have to get away from here, but I’m sick of being coddled.”

“Is it really such a bad thing to have people care about you?”

Because he looked so confused, Grace felt a smidgen of sympathy for the man. Enough that she decided it was time they had a chat.

“Sit down, Cam.”

“I don’t know if I want to, not while you’re using that tone.” He continued pacing.

“You will either sit down and speak to me, or you can watch me pack my things up and go back to my house. I’m done with this.”

“What do you mean you’re done with this?” He stopped pacing, at least, and he turned, giving her his full attention.

“I’m done being overrun. I’m done with you and your brothers telling me exactly how to live my life. I’m done living in fear.”

Maybe it was the fact that she was so calm, or maybe it was the seriousness of her tone, but her words seemed to penetrate his thick skull. He finally moved toward her and sat down, although he kept a distance of several feet between them.

“I’m not trying to run your life,” he told her. “Nobody is.”

“Yes, Cam, you are. I don’t care if your intentions are honorable. The outcome is still the same.”

“What outcome? Having you stay alive?” he snapped.

“No. Having me die a little more inside.”

Cam was completely silent at her words. He sat there looking as if he wanted to reach out for her, but he was obviously unsure whether that would be a smart move.

“You’re going to have to explain that, Grace.”

“I told you most of my past, Cam, and about the relationships I’ve been in. Jimmy was the worst. I realize that now. Still I was stupid enough to then date Vince, who was just as bad, although he was smoother about his deceptions. Both of them took something from me, something I’ll never be able to get back. But when they took that, I swore I would never put myself in a situation like that again. I would never allow anyone to tell me how to live my life. I’m too good for that. And even though I care about you, the way you treat me chips away at that feeling until I’m not sure if I care more or despise you more.”

“I can’t believe you would compare me to Jimmy or this Vince.”

“That’s what you’re choosing to hear, Cam? Really? That’s all you heard from everything I just said?” Frustration was making her voice squeak. She didn’t want to show any form of weakness just then, not any at all. If she did, he would never listen to her.

“No. I heard what you said, but I’m nothing like either of those men. I honor, love, and respect the people I care about. I don’t lie, cheat, or steal. So for you to compare me to them is a total insult to my character, Grace.”

“And for you to not trust me enough to live my life safely is an insult to me. I can’t be controlled. I don’t know how many times or in how many ways I have to say this before you will understand that.”

Tears threatened, but Grace would not give in to them.

Cam held her gaze, emotion burning in his eyes. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling most—frustration, anger, sadness, confusion . . . or any number of other things. But if he didn’t speak soon, maybe it was time for her to throw in the towel.

She started to rise, but Cam’s hand shot out and he grabbed her arm.

“Please,” he said quietly. “Just give me a minute.”

Grace didn’t resist when he pulled her down into his lap and wrapped her in his strong arms. Even though she didn’t want to feel like she needed anyone, it was too hard to resist the warmth that flowed through her when Cam held her. It was everything she didn’t want to feel, but that didn’t erase the fact that it was true.

She realized he really was her hero. He just needed to learn how to trust her enough to save herself sometimes.

“I know I come across as stern or controlling. I don’t want you to think I don’t trust you. It’s just that I love you, Grace,” he said, making her want to cry. “I don’t expect you to say it back to me. I don’t expect you to even believe me, not fully, but a part of you, a big part, knows what I’m saying is true. I love you and I don’t think it makes me a monster to want to protect the woman I love.”

Grace took a breath, and then another one. Her throat hurt from the effort it took not to reply to him, not to tell him what he meant to her. But she wasn’t ready for that right now. She wasn’t ready to fully trust him. When too much time elapsed, she decided to focus on the way she’d begun this conversation.

“If you care about me at all, you have to promise to start trusting me to take care of myself. You have to stop commanding me and instead be my partner.”

She waited for his reply, waited to see what he would say next. It seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds.

“I
will
try. But can you also allow for mistakes?”

She wasn’t expecting that at all. “What do you mean?” she asked, leaning back so she could see his eyes.

“I’ll respect you, Grace, but I’m human. I’ll make mistakes. Can you be understanding of that and give me more than one chance?”

“I’ll give you everything if you give me a reason to.”

That hadn’t been what she’d been planning to say. The words had slipped from her tongue involuntarily. But when joy lit his eyes, she didn’t regret saying them. He was trying to do right by her. She certainly could give him the same amount of effort.

“I’m going to make love to you right now, my beautiful Grace.”

“Finally,” she sighed.

Letting go, if only for a few moments, was liberating. As Cam kissed her, Grace gave him everything of herself in her response. His lips were unyielding as they captured hers, melting away the last of her resistance to this man she couldn’t let go of.

They tugged at each other’s clothing as their impatience to feel, to touch, to relearn each other’s bodies ignited their passion. The warm air breezed across Grace’s skin as Cam tossed her shirt away and then dragged off her pants, taking her panties with them.

Breaking their kiss only long enough to lift her into his arms, he rushed up the staircase and into his master suite, and set her down gently on his silk comforter.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” she said as she sat back up and reached for his jeans, leaning in and running her lips across the flat plane of his stomach before undoing his zipper and reaching inside, feeling the full strength of his hardness.

Moans were wrung from his throat when she bent lower and kissed his erection, the fabric of his underwear the only barrier between his satin skin and her hungry mouth. “Mmm . . .” She couldn’t get enough of this man.

“Grace, this isn’t going to end like it did before,” he warned her as she freed him from the confinement of his clothes and he scooted them down his legs and kicked them away.

She dropped from the bed, kneeling in front of him. “You’re so beautiful, Cam,” she sighed before sliding her tongue along his entire length, then drinking the moisture from the tip.

“Men aren’t beautiful,” he said as he dug his fingers in her hair.

“You are so wrong,” she told him before closing her lips around his manhood. “Because there is so much about you that can only be described as beautiful,” she said a few moments later.

“I’ll be anything you want me to be,” he said before a guttural groan tore from his throat.

“You like this, Cam?” she asked, leaning back to look at him while her hand moved up and down his throbbing arousal.

“Yes, baby, I like it.”

“Good, because I like tasting you, touching you, stroking you,” she said, and bent forward again to swirl her tongue around his tip.

“Enough!” He grabbed her arms and pulled her up, fire brewing in his eyes, danger in his features. “My turn.”

When he pushed her back, she stumbled on the bed, and before she could say a word he was on top of her, his thickness caressing her folds while his mouth devoured hers.

They broke apart only long enough to take a breath, then their lips found each other’s again. She ran her hands along his back, her nails scraping him as she tried to hold on.

“I want you inside me, Cam,” she cried, lifting her hips to meet his. “Right now!”

“Yes, Grace, yes,” he groaned.

He spread her thighs, and then with one deep thrust he was buried inside her. It had been too long, and that one thrust had her right on the edge of losing control.

“Not yet, Grace,” he said between gritted teeth. “Let’s do this together.”

Then, hard and slowly so she could feel every inch of his penetration, he moved within her body. She shook in his arms as his lips ravished hers while his manhood consumed her.

The two of them climbed higher and higher, then his movements sped up, and it was too much for Grace. She clung tightly to him as her body released the exquisite tension. She squeezed him tightly as he continued to thrust in and out of her.

And a cry spilled from his lips as he rested against her and shook with the power of his orgasm. All the while, she was riding wave after wave of pleasure, sensations she had only ever felt with Cam, intensity that couldn’t be explained. It was all good, it was all perfect, and it was only Cam.

When Cam finally rolled off her, then pulled her tightly into his arms, Grace didn’t resist. Why should she even try to fight him? She was exactly where she wanted to be.

When Cam came down the stairs looking devastatingly handsome in his custom tuxedo, Grace’s mouth not only dropped open, it also watered.

“You’re a vision, Grace.”

It took a moment for his words to process, and then she smiled. “I was going to say the same thing about you, Cam. Boy, do you clean up well.”

“I wear a suit daily to work,” he reminded her.

“Oh, a suit and a tux are two totally different things. You could stop traffic. And I shudder to think about the hearts you’ll be stopping at this engagement party. Don’t get any ideas.”

“You’re going to give me an inflated ego,” he said as he approached and pulled her into his arms. “I hate to wrinkle your dress or screw up your makeup, but I have to taste these luscious red lips.”

She got no more warning than that, and then he was kissing her with so much hunger, she was ready to call in sick and go back upstairs with him. When he pulled back, her body was flushed and her lips so red that they no longer needed lipstick.

“If you keep kissing me like that, you can wrinkle me anytime you like,” she said huskily as she smoothed the front of her dress with her hand.

“It will be my pleasure, but a woman as beautiful as you look tonight needs to be shown off to the world. The future bride doesn’t stand a chance of getting any attention as long as you’re in the room.”

“Mmm, Cam. Keep speaking to me like that and I might need to find a private corner at the party to show you just how happy your words make me.”

“I’ll find the location.”

Her stomach quivered with arousal—even though he was saying it as a joke, she had no doubt that he would do just that if given the opportunity. Either way, Grace knew she would be well loved tonight. The sooner they went to the party, the sooner they could come back home. Now that she had been making love to Cam for three days in a row—three
solid
days, she joked to herself—she was afraid she’d never be able to stop. His lovemaking was addictive.
He
was addictive.