Page 27 of Cowboy of Convenience
“Everything’s going to be okay, Ev. I promise.” Grady’s eyes moved over her face. “We will handle this.”
She didn’t necessarily believe him, but damn it was nice to have someone in the trenches with her for a change. “Okay.”
Grady gave her one more long look before slowly turning away. It took her a second to figure out what was happening, but it eventually registered that by putting his back to her, he was offering her as much privacy as he could given the circumstances. Unlike every other man she'd allowed in her bedroom, he wasn't standing there waiting to ogle every inch of her body. Salivating as he waited to get his hands on her.
Not that it had bothered her. Even if she rarely found any sort of sexual pleasure in the encounters, they fed something even more important: Spite.
And, for a while it was enough. She thought her plan of ruining herself in the eye of New York’s finest would work and she’d be free.
Obviously not. Her grandmother was here, sleeping on a fucking couch for God's sake, proving there was no escaping her family's expectations.
Not unless she wanted to lose everything else that came with them and end up alone and on her own in a world she still wasn’t fully equipped to navigate.
Evelyn quickly peeled her sports bra over her head, letting it drop to the floor before shimmying out of her leggings and panties. She wound the robe around her middle, cinching it at the waist. "I'm going to go take a quick shower." She didn't necessarily want to leave the safety of her room, but she’d taught more than a few classes, and her skin was sticky and her scalp itched from the sweat from those sessions.
"I'll be right here when you get back." Grady's reassurance was oddly comforting. Reminded her that for the first time in her life she wasn't facing her grandmother alone. Unlike her mother, and just about everyone else she knew, Grady wasn't cowering in the old woman’s presence, bowing down and ready to blindly do her bidding. And she respected the hell out of him for it.
Evelyn ducked out of the room, quietly tiptoeing into the bathroom next door before taking a quick shower and blowing her hair dry. She pulled on her pajama shorts and tank top before slipping back into her robe and creeping back to the bedroom. She didn't even offer a sideways glance toward the living room to see what her grandmother was doing. Honestly, outside of the fact that she was here to put an end to life as she knew it, she didn't care what the old woman was up to.
Evelyn silently snuck into the bedroom, focusing on the door as she quietly latched it into place. When she turned around to find Grady sprawled across her bed, she stopped in her tracks. After months of hoping to get a little glimpse of him at The Creekery or around town, she was sure as hell getting an eye full now.
Grady was arguably the most attractive member of Moss Creek’s Police Department, and that was saying something considering there were quite a few good-looking men on the payroll. But there was something special about the one currently occupying her bed. He was tall and broad in a lean sort of way. Maybe it was the length of his limbs keeping him from looking bulky, but somehow he managed to have more muscles than she'd ever seen while still seeming graceful in the most masculine sense of the word.
Every one of those thick, almost sculpted muscles was on display as he laid across her sheets in nothing but a pair of navy-blue boxer briefs, eyes fused to the television mounted on her wall as he flipped through the channels. "Feel better?"
Her brain tried to wrap around his question, but it couldn't seem to make sense of the words. Did seeing an almost naked Grady in her bed make her feel better?
Surprisingly, yes. Also dumbstruck, apparently, but admitting that wouldn’t be such a good idea. It would push this night into the awkwardness she was so happy to avoid. So she fought her eyes away from where he took up well over his half of the king-sized mattress and flipped off the light, steps slow as she forced herself to the bed.
How many men had she jumped into the sack with in her life? Too many.
And obviously not enough since her grandmother hadn't written her off as a blight to the family name.
But she’d never hesitated like this. Not a single time.
"I don't bite." Grady's eyes slowly came her way. "Promise."
Evelyn waited for him to follow it up with some sort of sexual innuendo. Every other man she’d ever known would have.
But he didn't.
Instead Grady pulled back the sheets, readying her spot. "Have a little bit of a plan."
"You do?" She wasn’t surprised. Grady was almost as full of plans as she was and so far they’d been way better than any she'd ever made. Especially the one that resulted in their goodbye kiss on the steps this morning. Or their kiss out on the sidewalk tonight.
Evelyn jumped under the covers a little too fast, revealing an eagerness she didn't normally possess. She glanced down and noticed she was still wearing her robe. "Hang on." Her fingers fumbled with the tie at the waist, yanking hard a few times before noticing it was now knotted.
Tightly.
"Here." Grady passed off the remote as he leaned close, bracing his big body on one elbow as he invaded her space. "You find us something to watch while I take care of this." His hands went to her waist, long, strong fingers working the tight bind of silky fabric. Every movement brushed against her belly, his touch barely buffered by the thin layers she wore.
Instead of flipping through the channels, she watched his every move, struggling to breathe as her body became more and more aware of his closeness. By the time Grady had the tie loose and brushed the sides of her robe open, her nipples were pulled tight and there was a steady throb pulsing between her thighs.
"There." Grady's eyes lifted to her face, barely pausing on the tight press of her nipples against the thin fabric of her tank top. "Do you want to hear about my plan now?"
Evelyn swallowed hard, both frustrated and unsurprised at his reaction to her straining nipples. Grady had never been anything but a complete gentleman, so it would make sense he would continue being respectful, even now. But did that mean she was the only one currently struggling? Maybe she’d misread his behavior. Mistook the intensity in his kisses for interest instead of commitment to their plan.
"If Gram-Gram opens the door, we need to look like a happy couple." He lifted up her duvet to reveal she was the only one under the sheet. "So I figured this was a close second to a pillow barricade down the middle of the mattress."
