Saving Grace (18 page)

Shane pulled me closer to him and sat
me over his lap with my legs draped over h
i
s. The ease of his movements
was
so fluid,
as if
he'd
pulled millions of girls onto his lap daily, for years.
The thought crushed
me, and I desperately tr
ied
to cl
aw it out of my brain, but I couldn
't. The sudden urge to throw myself, and my stupid sabotaging of a perfect m
oment, into the
ice-cold
water wa
s suddenly very tempting.

My thoughts wrestle
d
with themselves
in my head until he softly cupped
my ch
in in one of his hands and pulled
my face
to look at him. My heart felt like it was
trying to lurch out of my chest
and jump
r
ight into his hands. He studied
my face and a mix of emotions darken
ed
his features
, our faces move
d
closer.

Desperatel
y,
I tried
to calm my
breathing, but he slowly slid
his hand from my chin across my jaw, over my neck and into my hair and I'
m practically panting. He pulled
my head towards
him, his lips gently pressed
against mine,
and then he slowly pulled
away. And, I swear my lips ache
d
from the loss of contact
with his skin
.

He leaned back on his arms and a sexy smile played on his lips, "So what the heck was all that crazy talk with Lea's parents?"
Oh, my God. He wants to talk right now?
When we go out
later,
I am ordering a Sex on the Beach, right in front of him, just so he knows what was on my mind when we were here!

I moved a
bit off his lap and lay
down on my side in front of him leaning my head against my hand. "It's just a funny game we play when her mother ask
s
us inappropriate questions, Caroline knows we were just teasing her."

"They've been like parents to you, huh?"

My eyes wandered out across the ocean. "Yea, they took Jacob and me in after my parent's accident and after my release from the hospital."

I looked back at him studying his features
,
trying to pick out any flaw, or imperfection. Nothing.
I would have sworn, once long ago, that angels were only made to look like that.

He watched me watching him. Clearing his
throat,
he took a deep bre
ath. "So what
did
happen
with that
ex-boyfriend
of yours
?"

Our eyes measured each other's for a few moments, lingering on our thoughts before the words could mar our feelings.

I weighed my options in the moment
and decided that I wasn't going to run, I wasn't going to fight Shane like I'd always done. I had spent the first weeks of knowing him just judging him for all the girls he's been with. He never did anything to hurt me or lie to me. He saved my life three times and even went to jail for me. I owed this man anything he wanted. And I wanted desperately to give it to him. I had nothing holding me back now.

"I was an idiot," I whispered looking away. "I just loved him so completely that everything and everyone dulled in comparison to him. But it wasn't in his nature to love me the same
way. When he had the chance to take me with him, or stay with me
,
he just left."

He looked at me incredulously. "
It's kind of hard to believe that someone would leave
yo
u,
Grace.
Do you still love him?"

The strong shore winds blew at my wild disheveled hair creating a black gossamer veil over my face. It made it easier to de
al with Shane watching my heart
break.
"Always and forever, and then an eternity after. A girl will never forget her first perfect innocent kiss."

Shane's blue eyes turned even icier. "The man was
a bigger jackoff than I thought
."

I smiled at his words, "No, we just weren't supposed to be together. It was a real Romeo and Juliet type of relationship.
"

Shane sat forward smiling like a
Cheshire
cat
and whispered
,
"There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable."

"Mark Twain? Shane, how do you know all those quotes that pop out of your mouth?'

His eyes twinkled and something beautiful and dangerous danced behind them. "How do you know all the people the words belong too?"

"Touche," I smiled.

"
Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service
," he whispered.

"Shakespeare. The Tempest." I looked away again wanting to throw myself at him. "
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality
. Poe."

"You
know,
Grac
e,
you are the only girl that can go toe to toe with me
without batting an eye.
"

I batted my eyes.

He cocked his head and gave me a sideways smile that left me breathless. "Want to head back now? I heard something about taking a little
hottie
out dancing tonight..."
Grabbing my
hand,
he helped me up and we walked through the sand back to my bike.

"Lucky girl," I laughed as I climbed on the back seat.

"Yea, well, it's pretty much a lost cause. Last time I talked to
her,
she just wanted me to treat her like one of the guys. It's a damn shame, because I think she's freaking amazing."

"Wow. So what are you going to do about that?"

His ice blue eyes met with mine and then they slowly traveled down to my lips.
A low raspy growl, yes I said growl (HOT!) echoed from the back of his throat. He brought his eyes back up to mine, "I'm going to do everything I can fucking think of to change her mind."

His words ripped through my heart and
every single butterfly that had ever rente
d space in that old broken down dusty organ
burst out flapping their wings in applause. I gasped from the pressure of it.

Shane smirked and straddled
the bike showing his back to me,
end of discussion.

I was speechless anyway.
I couldn't even think right.
Well...mentally he was about eight inches deep in me and I was screaming his name raking my nails down his back.

For the life of me I couldn't get the water in the shower to run hot enough, and I was barely finished rinsing myself before Lea yanked me out of the shower screaming that I had taken
too
long and it was her turn. She
then
continued to yell about the lack of hot water.

We dried and straightened our hair next to each other like we did when we were teenagers. As always, Lea did my
makeup
and gave me that smoky eyed look that I always thought was too dangerous for me to wear. When she was finished
,
she gave me a wicked grin, "So, how was your
ride
with Shane?"

I giggled like a little girl. "Very...nice," I beamed.

"That's it?
Nice?
" She pouted. "Do you not understand that I need to live vicariously through you to sleep with Shane? I need him to make you scream so loud that I can feel it, got it?
Just throw the
Who-ha
at him!
" As she spoke she rummaged through my bag trying to
, no doubt,
find some sexy underwear, "Grace, did you not bring any...oh, never mind
,
I bought some...lacy things."

She walked over to her overnight bag and
threw me a sexy deep purple pair
of bra and undies; tag
s still on. I had
to hand it to her, she was always prepared for an
,
um...sleepover.

"So, do you like him?"

I slipped the purple set on and shimmied into a small denim skirt. She threw me a deep burgundy low cut shirt I had packed for going out and I caught it when it almost went sailing two feet above my head. "Way more than I should for a one night stand."

"What?" She gawked at me.

"What do you mean
what
?"

"Why would it be only a one night stand?"

I shrugged the shirt on and pulled my hair out of it. "Lea, come on. Shan
e's history is laid right out there. H
e's never had a serious girlfriend.
I'd be a fool, like every other girl he's ever met to think I'd be different, or that I could change him."

She stood still staring at me, mouth open wide. "Holy heartbreak! That angel of your
s
did one hell of a number on you didn't he? Gray, you are probably the only girl in the world that could change Shane. And girl, I think he wants you to."

"A wom
a
n shouldn't go into something thinking they could change anyone. Just to accept them."

She jabbed her hands on her hips and I knew I was in trouble. "Look, Gray...
a
decent guy doesn't just get born and grow up to be Mr. Perfect. They need to be created by a woman. They're like a dumb blank lump of clay and
you have to mold them into what you want them to be, while erasing
everything their
mothers ever taught them and
all
the horrible internet porn they've watched growing up."

I laughed.

"I am so serious. Do not laugh. Do you realize that men actually think that porn is real? Like a girl is going to scream
and thrash around
like that for thirty minutes
and all you have to do is be the pizza guy! The pizza guy, Grace...and they don't ever eat the pizza first!
And let's not even talk about the fact that NO real girls look THAT good!
It's like they all come from the planet
No-cellulite-us
.
"

I laughed harder.

Slipping our feet into our
heels,
we made our way down the stairs. Caroline whistled a
catcall
at us, "Those boys of yours are going to drop their jaws when they see the pair of you. Please, one of
yo
u,
come back with a proposal!"

Laughing we walked out of the house, we planned to
meet
the guys at a small bar named
Sunsets
right off the beach.
Apparently, we were taking way too long to get ready so they left before us. I
honestly
think it was just to get away from Lea's
parents
, and I didn't blame them one bit.

When we got into the doorway of the
bar,
Lea spun me around and fluffed my hair. Then she yanked at the front of my shirt so more of what she called my
large assets
could be
demonstrated
. "Come
o
n,
Grace, you got your nasty girl panties on tonight, go inside there an
d
get your badass." Then she smacked me on the ass. Hard. Twice. I think she has issues.

The bar was packed. A small booth held a
pink haired DJ and signs for Karaoke plastered the front of it. Lea looked around for Conner and Shane, but I knew from the way my knees trembled and my butterflies slammed against my ribcage
that
Shane was standing at the bar to the left of us. I turned to face him and his gaze locked onto mine
;
and all the conversation, noise,
and
music from the speakers silenced
. H
e was all I saw. He stared at me for a few long moments a
nd then a slow
,
sexy smile slid
across his lips.

His eyes slowly crawl
ed over my body and my heart wa
s pounding hard in my ears.