mattress, Grant’s weight on her, then he parted her thighs and slid himself inside her. Completing her.
Grant had no thoughts, no regrets, just being inside Christina until he couldn’t feel anything else.
Nothing but her body closing around him, her lips and tongue, her hands on his back. Karen had pissed him off, and then damn, there was Christina.
Between embarrassment, his heart about jumping out of his chest, then Christina going down on him, for fuck’s sake, Grant didn’t have a chance. Self-control dried up and blew away on the hot Texas wind.
Christina was beautiful, and she was the love of his life. Her dark eyes sparkled, drinking him in, and her arms were around him—where they should be.
He was inside her—she wrapped him and coaxed him, tightening and loosening at just the right moments. They’d learned each other long ago, and their bodies still remembered.
“Damn baby,” Grant whispered. “You are sweet.”
Christina said nothing—she never did. She always loved him silently, fiercely, until the last when her cries of pleasure told him more than words how deep she was feeling what they did.
Grant could never be quiet. He groaned out loud, his hips moving faster, the friction hot, erotic, satisfying.
“And hungry,” he said, voice tight. “You are always so hungry, darlin’.”
Christina’s eyes were half closed, her tongue at her wet lips. Her breasts moved against him, tight nipples brushing his chest. All the while, her hands roved his back, pulling him harder into her.
It was wild, frantic, primal. This was Christina, the only woman Grant had ever loved.
“Aw, fuck,” Grant said softly as his release hit him, far sooner than he wanted it to.
Christina rocked against him, desperate, her breath coming fast. Grant slid his hand under him and pressed the tight berry between her legs.
Christina shrieked. Her coming happened then, her body moving in exact time with his, her voice crying his name and making everything all right in his world.
They christened that bed, room, and house then and there, coming together, the two of them one again.
Grant let out a last groan and collapsed onto Christina, gathering the woman he loved to his heart.
A long time later, Grant peeled open his eyes. The sun was already heading down, late afternoon light pouring in his west-facing window.
Christina lay on her side against him, one of his arms and his leg around her. Christina was blinking, waking as well.
“Crap,” she whispered.
“Shh,” Grant said as she tried to pull away. “I don’t see anything here to regret.” He ran a languid hand through her hair, loving the silky feel of her curls. “Nothing at all.”
“I know,” Christina said softly. She settled back down, warm against him. “But later, this is going to hurt.”
“Why does it have to?” What was he talking about? It was hurting already. “Why can’t we just enjoy ourselves? Why does it have to be a drama thing?”
“I don’t know.” Christina slid her hand over his where he cradled her. “It always is, with us.”
“Yeah, you got a point.” Grant drew his palm across her shoulder. Damn, she was soft. He’d always loved to kiss and lick her satin skin.
“You stopped asking me why I was hiding in your bedroom,” Christina said after a silent few moments.
Grant cupped her breast, closing his finger and thumb over her nipple. “I stopped caring.”
“I came to warn you about Karen.”
Grant really didn’t want to talk about Karen. He’d do the commercial, let Carter collect the money, and avoid the woman as much as possible.
Christina went on. “When I saw you in the diner—the way you acted, I could tell you didn’t know.”
Grant was only marginally interested in town gossip. “Didn’t know what?”
Christina turned in his arms to face him. “Karen Marvin runs a development company that wants to buy up every scrap of land in and around Riverbend. They’ll bulldoze it, put in housing developments and shopping centers—make it a bedroom community, a suburb called Riverbend Heights. When you brought her to the diner and were so nice to her … well, everyone jumped to their own conclusions. Most of them think you and your brothers are taking a kickback to help her.”
Chapter Nine
Grant stilled, his eyes losing their sexy, languid look. “Shit.”
Grant’s shirt had come off in their frenzy, baring all of him. Christina couldn’t help but reach for him, running her hand along his firm shoulder.
“I could tell you didn’t know,’’ she said. “You’d never have been so nice to her if you had.”
“How do you know this?” Grant demanded.