Gracie - Sherry Foster
Chapter One
Light laughter echoed through the room. “If you tickle me one more time I swear I will, do something.”
“Oh? What exactly are you going to do?” Hendrix asked.
“I don’t know, but you are making us miss the movie.”
“Now, Gracie, really? You aren’t even watching it.”
“I was until you started tickling me.”
Hendrix’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? So what happened?”
“When?”
“Just now, on the tv?”
“How would I know? I was too busy trying to evade your fingers.”
“Now, babygirl, you know it was your fingers doing the roaming. I just took up where you left off.”
“Me?” Gracie’s eyes widened and her voice squeaked. “I would never!”
“Uh huh. Of course you wouldn’t.”
“In my defense.”
“Uh oh, here we go.” Hendrix leaned back and crossed his arms. “Go ahead. In your defense it was an accident, right?”
“Well, yeah, sort of. If you didn’t look so delicious I wouldn’t have to touch you to make sure you were real. And I wouldn’t keep licking you to see if you taste as good as you look. So you see, it isn’t my fault.”
Hendrix snorted. “Of course it isn’t. Your fingers slipped.”
“Only a little. Totally your fault.” Her lips twitched as she tried to convince the man of her innocence.
“I would say you don’t do innocent well, but I have seen you on a mission before, you are an expert on the innocent look.” His eyes narrowed as one side of his mouth tilted up. “Unfortunately for you, I don’t buy your innocent look. Your hand started roaming then you leaned over and licked my shoulder. You clearly started it. You obviously wanted my hands to do a little roaming.”
“Not by tickling me. That’s cheating.” Gracie squealed as he uncrossed his arms and leaned forward. “No, no, don’t tickle me. I swear if you tickle me I will lick you.”
A slow sexy smile lit his face and his voice, when he spoke, was deep and husky. “That sounds like an invitation to me.”
Gracie squirmed backwards. “No, no it wasn’t. I misspoke. I swear what I said was let’s finish watching the movie.”
He shrugged and settled back on the couch pulling her tight against his side. “Pity. My hearing must be going. They say when you reach my age you start losing it.”
Gracie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think anyone has ever said when you hit thirty your hearing starts to go. You can hear a grasshopper fart from a mile away.”
“Nope, sorry, not going to work.”
“Oh come one, Hendrix, really. All I want to know is when your birthday is and how old you will be.”
“Trying to sneak it in the conversation won’t get you the answer you seek. I told you, age is a number that doesn’t mean anything. And birthdays are just another day of the year. Give up.”
Gracie burrowed closer to his ribs, “Not giving up. One day you will slip up and tell me how old you are and when your birthday is. Do you not trust me with that information? What in the world do you think I will do with it? Come on, I told you I don’t even care if I am a couple of years older than you. If age is just a number it wouldn’t even matter to you which one of us was older.”
“I trust you with more than you realize. But my age isn’t up for discussion. Not now, not in the future. I like you, again, more than you realize, but some things no one needs to know.”
“Honey, I swear, I don’t care if you are younger than me. Is that it?” Gracie peered up at him.
He leaned his head down and kissed the tip of her nose. “I am not younger than you. Would you drop it now?”
“You look younger. I don’t know whether to believe you are not. You look sincere and you sound sincere.”
“Gracie? Drop it.”
“Fine, but one day you will tell me when your birthday is so I can help you celebrate.”
“I don’t celebrate. There is nothing about my birthday that I ever want to celebrate. Are we watching the movie or should I head back to my place? I hear your partner coming.”
Gracie tilted her head to the side, listening. “I don’t hear anything.”
“You will, give it a minute.”
“You see, like I said, grasshopper farts.”
“Should I tell Halo you called him a grasshopper fart?”
“What? No, I didn’t.” Gracie leaned back and glared up at him.
Hendrix shrugged, “Sounded like it to me. Are you sure you didn’t call him a grasshopper fart?”
“Are you insane?