Page 84 of Grace on the Rocks

“I completely melted down tonight.”

“People from your childhood have a way of making you feel like a child,” she told him. “Idon’t associate with literallyanyonefrom my pre-college days.Idecline reunions and retirement parties and wedding invitations.Like, a part of me still expects someone to walk up and whisperGorditaGraciein my ear.”

“You must thinkI’mridiculous for coming home,” he said softly.

She shook her head. “IhopeImade it pretty clearIthink they’re the ridiculous ones.”

He rolled his head sideways to look at her, and he was so close she could count the freckles sprinkled across his nose.Sheexpected him to say something sarcastic, but he just stared into her eyes until her breath hitched.

“Thank you for tonight,” he whispered.

Then their lips crashed together.Gracecouldn’t have said if she leaned in or he did, more like they were two magnets unable to resist each other’s pull.

And god, it was hot.Shehad always loved kissing, it was only what came after that ruined everything.Ifthey could draw the line at kissing forever, she’d be just fine.

She batted those thoughts away, losing herself in the scent of his cologne mixed with the smoky fire and tinged with salty sea air.Shefocused on his hands, one cupping her face, the other around her shoulders, as he nibbled her lips and tangled his tongue against hers.

This was the only reference to tangle-tongue she would ever allow.

The muscles of his biceps rippled beneath her hands as he ran his own up and down her arms, her back, her thighs, pulling her into his lap.

She felt a heat growing at her core, a heat that made her want but also made her panic, yanking her out of the moment.

When she pulled back, so did he.Pantingfor breath, he pressed his forehead to hers.

“All right?”

Yes.No.Shewanted him, and she wanted to get far away from him.

When she didn’t answer, he leaned back further, studying her, and ran a thumb down her cheek.

God, she wanted to grab him by the vest and drag him to her bedroom and make him make good on every desire she read in the heat of those eyes.

“All right?” he whispered again.

“I’m on my period!” she protested, scrambling off his lap, and his brow creased.

“All this time?Isthat… healthy?”

“Rude,” she huffed, leaning away from him and crossing her arms as she did the math.

He looked so sad and confused and after everything he’d been through tonight, how could she be anything but honest with him?

“I wasn’t.Before.ButIam now.Ithink.”Whenhe scowled at her she explained, “It’sa defense mechanism.”

His whole hairline shifted backwards as his face broke out in saucy relief. “What, like a lizard sheds its tail?”

“Are you serious?”

“Are you?”

He figured out pretty fast she was and sobered.

“Defense against what,Grace?There’slots of other ways?—”

Grace put her hand on his chest to stop him.Shewas pretty sure her face could not be a darker shade of red if she’d eaten a hundredAtomicFireballsin a row. “Iget that you can bang anyone and everyone,” she said, and the mischievous gleam was instantly replaced by a troubled one. “I’mlike, the complete opposite of that,” she tried to explain.Buthow do you explain that you want nothing to do with something everyone else seems to be obsessed with?

He gave her one curt nod, clearly pissed off, and shifted away from her, a whoosh of cold air replacing his body heat.

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