that they’ll be followed?”
“No. They’re careful.” He took a taste of the gumbo directly from the pot, closed his eyes and smiled. “Woman, food like this is definitely the way to my heart.”
“I’m glad,” she said softly, met his gaze as a blush heated her cheeks.
She wasn’t used to this kind of relationship—or any relationship, especially not without that edge of combativeness. She and Dare had sparred enough. He knew her hot buttons just enough to force her to drop the act.
Vulnerability with the right person wasn’t bad at all, she decided. Especially when Dare turned the stove down to simmer and tugged her into his arms. He bent his head to kiss her, first on the neck, flicking his tongue down along her collarbone, giving her a pleasant shiver down her spine. When his lips met hers, she moaned softly against his mouth. Their tongues danced together, and she felt like she could kiss him like this forever.
Except they didn’t have forever. They might not even have the next twenty-four hours, if Rip had anything to say about it.
* * *
Dare was in the goddamned gray, and he’d been there his entire life. Something had to be black-and-white one day, so clear-cut that he knew exactly what he was supposed to do.
It was never simple. He could sit here and bemoan his fate or sink into the beautiful woman offering herself and so much more to him. For right now, it would have to be enough.
“Stop thinking,” he told her.
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder. Stay in this moment with me.”
To help her, he lifted her and brought her into the bedroom, laid her down, pulled down the borrowed shorts. Without tearing his eyes from her face, he fingered her clit, and she gasped, arched up off the bed. “How’s that?”
“Good,” she managed, and he rolled his thumb over the tight bundle of nerves again.
“Just good?”
“Very. Dare . . .”
He smiled then, loved watching her soften. He wasn’t sure why she’d decided to give in, give herself up to him, but he wanted to show her it was the best decision she could’ve made.
He didn’t want to let her go, wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe. If he thought he could run away with her, keep her from Rip and his revenge, he would.
But there was no sense trying to outrun the past.
Now who’s thinking too much?
He laid down next to Grace, who began to move down his body. He wanted to stop her, to give her the pleasure, but instead, she bent her head to lick his cock.
Her tongue was warm, her palm cool against his skin, and he bit out a curse. She hummed around his shaft and continued to suck him, stroke him, work him the way she wanted to. He could come this way, wanted to . . . but wanted to be inside her even more.
“Grace, let me fuck you,” he murmured, and she looked up at him under her long lashes and flushed, but she complied, moving up his body, pushing his back down to the bed.
She was warm against his skin, so inviting, and his dick had taken control. Dare was okay with that, especially when Grace wrapped a palm around his shaft and stroked as she eased it against her sex. Teased herself with it for a few seconds and then just said, “Please.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. He wrapped an arm around her back and flipped her gently so she was on her back. Then he took her. Put one of her legs over his shoulder so she was wide-open for him as he thrust, giving it to her the way she’d liked it the first time, varying between hard and gentle.
He was falling so deeply for her—told himself this was inevitable. That she felt it too. That no matter what, they were both in the right place at the right time.
* * *
Afterward, Dare insisted she remain in bed while he reheated the gumbo and brought it to her.
“So spoiling me’s okay?” Grace teased him.
“Yes,” he said seriously. “Deal with it.”
She spooned the chicken, sausage and seafood mixture into her mouth and chased it with a sip of cold beer. This was so perfect, so different from the dire circumstances that had surrounded her days earlier.
But those same circumstances were all still there, hovering in the background like the proverbial other shoe waiting to drop. And it would always be that way, so for now, she’d simply stop