Saving Grace (16 page)

Lea placed her hands on her hips shaking her head, "Con, I told you
.
Grace and I are going to my parents. We'll be back tomorrow. Grace is going to pick up her bike
and
maybe we'll go out dancing tonight." She winked at me, "What do you say
,
Gray? You up for dancing at one of the beach clubs?"

"Now that sounds like a good idea, I'm going to need to pack a little skirt and some heels then." I poured myself a cup of coffee and stirred in some sweetener.

Shane
lift
ed his head again and leaned back on the kitchen chair. Raising his hands, he folded them behind his head, blood shot blue eyes glaring at me.
Cold and calculating.
Uh oh
.
He
leaned forward with a serious expression on his face, "So how was your date with the bartender last night, finally get laid?"

My coffee cup froze midway to my lips. "Are you serious right now?" Lea gave Conner a sideways glance and both of them started to leave.

I stood up before anyone else could, slamming my cup of coffee down on the table. The dark bitter liquid sloshed over the top and splashed across the table. I slithered up close to
him;
he didn't make a move to lean away. I was so
close to him I could feel the anger radiating off him like heat. I dropped my face to his and met those blue eyes with mine. "He damn near wrecked my ass he was
so big
.
Thanks for the condom
,
one just wasn't enough though
. So, yes Shane, I am one well-fucked girl right now!" I moved my face in closer to his and his lips parted. "I didn't know how much I needed to be with him, it's like I needed him like I needed to breathe. Ever felt like that, Shane?"

Shane's jaw tensed and he took a long
,
deep breath, blowing it back out through clenched teeth. He pulled himself out of his chair, really slow, his eyes never leaving mine. "What did you just say?"

I took a step away from him. I looked over to Lea, "I'm going to pack some more stuff. Let me know when you're ready to leave." I walked around him, his solid body still standing there
,
muscles all stiff and tight, knuckles white. When I hit the hallway
,
tears burned my eyes, and I despised myself for letting myself have any feelings for him. I hated being human. I hated this place. I hated being here, stuck here.

"My God, Shane, you are the biggest ass hat in the whole world!" I heard Lea say. "You ran out of the house like a God damn five year old yesterday and she told Ryan she couldn't go out with him! She stayed here the whole night. Alone!" I heard her stomp to the hallway, "And maybe you were too damn drunk to remember, but when I woke up this morning
,
she was wrapped in your arms on the couch, Shane. She stayed with you the whole night. She's right about you. You don't deserve someone like her."

I slammed the door to my room, tears blurred my vision and an icy cold breeze sent goose
bumps across my skin. Gabriel stormed across the room, sharp
,
steely wings out, stopping an inch from my face. I moved back, banging my body against the door, panic tore my brain. His body crashed into me and his lips slammed onto mine.

Images ripped through my skull, tearing my mind to shreds.
Shane at the bar with Conner, in the bathroom with Marie, then another girl,
then another
.
My angel laughing down at me then looking away, as if I had never meant anything to him.
Gabriel tore his lips off mine, ancient blue eyes locked with mine. His hands raked themselves up my sides, under my shirt, icy claws turning my heart to stone.

I raised my hands to his head and grasped handfuls of the sharp shards of his hair. I could feel the sharp slices of pain and the spikes cutting through my
hands, but it was a distant feeling like it was someone else's body. I pulled his face back towards me and kissed him. Disgust swept through my body, but I could not control my actions; I was a strung up puppet following my master.

His breathing quickened and he kissed me back with sheer lust. Cold hands slid like wet steel against my skin. I swallowed hard as the waves of darkness that were filling me crashed above my head drowning me.
A heavy thick shadow blanketed
my soul.

A sharp thud against the door stopped the darkness from consuming me. I blinked my eyes open to a cold empty room. "You will happily hand me your soul one day, love, or I'll take everyone and everything you love in this life away. I promise you that, Grace. Give yourself to me and everything we ever wanted will be ours for the taking," the soft whispered words in my ears ran across my skin making it scorch with fiery pinpricks of heat. I raised my hands to my lips and tasted blood. I looked down to my trembling hands. Hundreds of small slices, like paper cuts, covered my palms.

Another sharp thud vibrated against the door. "Grace, please open the door," Shane's husky voice whispered.

Tremors shook my body as I moved to open the door. Shane stood statue-like in the hall, head faced up to the ceiling as if looking,
or
waiting for divine guidance. I wanted to warn him it never comes,
but
I couldn't form any words. His eyes fell from the ceiling to my face and he took a step forward. He slowly brought his hands to my chin and touched each side of my face, his breaths came out labored and his voice was hushed and pained, "I don't know how to do this, tell me how to fix us."

Hiding my shaking bleeding hands from
him,
I leaned my face into his warm hands. "Just be my
frien
d,
Shane, start there. Anything
else
may kill us both."

I pulled my Jeep to the side and
double-parked
in front of our apartment. I turned my aud
io system on and waited for Lea.
So Far Away
by
Avenged Sevenfold
blasted through my speakers
. Perfect song. How do you live without the people you love?

The Jeep's door opening brought me back from my far away thoughts. Lea yanked the front seat forward and took our bags to the back. Shane and Conner climbed into the backseat silently. Shoving our bags in the small space behind the seats that pretended to be my trunk, Lea then walked back around to the passenger side and climbed in. She pulled the door closed and gave me a small sideways glance. "They wouldn't let us go without them."

As I pulled the Jeep
forward,
I noticed a small smile tug at the corner of her lips.

"Love this band," Shane murmured from the back seat. I lifted my eyes to the rearview mirror and his stone cold blue eyes shined right back at me. We held onto that stare for a minute until I looked away and turned the volume of the song higher. I didn't want to hear anything else he had to say while he stared at me like that. I focused my thoughts on driving and sang along to the music.

I headed south down Second Avenue and inched through the traffic across the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Lea moaned and complained about how many people lived in the city and Conner continuously kicked at her seat. When we finally emerged from the traffic of the
tunnel,
we had already been in the Jeep for an hour and I was plotting everyone's death. Tons of cars traveled slowly along with us as we drove through the Queens Midtown Expressway all the way to Woodhaven Blvd. After two hours in stand still traffic, Lea had all the windows open and was singing horribly to
Limp
Bizkit's
rendition of
The Who's Behind Blue Eyes
.

Finally,
the traffic thinned out and we flew down
Cross Bay
Blvd over the dark waters of
the
bay that filled itself with the cold Atlantic Ocean. The March winds outside the Jeep were cool and building in fury. When I pulled up in front of Lea's old Belle Harbor childhood home
,
a pang of sadness throbbed in my heart when I looked at my old house next door. The memories of Jacob and Lea as children running through the yard down to the beach filled my mind. I killed the ignition and looked up into my rearview mirror; Shane's stare reflected back. I had the strangest feeling his eyes never moved off me, like he
ha
d watched me the whole damn ride
.
My butterflies gave my insides a little kick.

As soon as our feet stepped on the front walk
,
Lea's mom, Caroline, burst through the front door and ran at us like she hadn't seen us in years. "
Anthony
! They're finally home!" she called into the doorway of the house.
Oh God, finally home?
She grabbed
Lea and me
up in her arms and the smell
of her vanilla soap wafted to my nose. It did feel like home.

Carolin
e,
let go of Lea, but held me at
arm's length
and looked me up and down beaming. "You look healthy enough, but you need to put on more weight. You're all skin and bones, dear."

Lea barked out a laughed and patted my shoulders, "Don't
worr
y,
Ma, at
the rate she's been devouring
ice cream and alcohol, she'll pack on the weight within the next week. Her ass is
gonna
be so big she'll have moons orbiting it."

Caroline rolled her eyes at her daughter, "You need help, dear. Let's go in and say hello to your father." She turned to Shane and Conner an
d kissed them both on the cheek
, "Hel
lo,
boy
s,
c
ome
on inside. Anthony
has a game on and I'll have lunch ready in a minute and we'll see
if we can fatten her up a bit today." She grabbed Lea and Conner by the shoulders and shoved them forward.

I remained on the front walk,
my future-moon-orbiting-ass
and me
,
with my
mouth hanging open. When I stepped
forward,
Shane caught me and
pulled
me
back
. Not fighting him at all
(I mean, come on, who would? His arms were holding me!)
I fell back into him, my back pressed tight up against the front of him, one of his hands held my wrists
,
restraining me from moving.
Okay, I liked this. I really freaking liked this.
With his other
hand,
he brushed aside the hair that fell in waves down my neck and brought his mouth to my ear. He sucked his breath in and lowered his voice, "I'm kind of in love with your ass the way it is."

With his body all smashed up against me like that
,
I could not for the life of me think clearly. "Shane, shut up. I really hate you right now."
And stop making me have sex with you in my head! It's like a porn movie on repeat in here.

His raspy deep chuckle tickled my neck and shot spikes of heat deep in my belly. "No, you don't, Gray."
And then? And then the jerk kissed my neck in that awesome panty melting spot right below the ear, with his warm OPEN
lips. And I needed a change of panties. ASAFP!
Mine were soaking wet.

Now I'm standing in the middle of the block where I've g
rown up, in front of my almost-
family's house with the most delicious man I had ever seen, without wings, who is running his lips against my skin. Usually, this being Shane
Manwhore
Maxton, I try to practice self-
preservation, and not give in. It usually is the only way to survive against Shane Maxton with your heart intact. But this man was affecting my panties in all the right ways. I spun around in his arms easily. It's my lucky day and he's still restraining my wrists, which makes my thighs tremble. "You
kno
w,
Shane, if you could stop all your insane outbursts against me for five minutes, I would really love to see what that warm tongue of yours could do to the rest of my body."