Page 16 of Fighting His Fate
“I’ll stay here with the babies.”
He frowned, not wanting to scare her but knowing he had no choice. He crossed to her. “I think we were followed home from the hospital and again to the grocery store and back. I’m not sure, but I don’t think you should be alone.”
“What, here? There’s someone outside?”
Some people cracked in the face of danger; others got right to their feet. He wasn’t sure which kind of person Grace was on the inside, and he braced himself for any of a dozen reactions. “I think so.”
She straightened to her full height. “Then I guess you’re stuck with me.”
He noticed the golden brown of her eyes winking back at him, a sharp ring of green outlining their edges. His feet were suddenly rooted to the spot.
Freckles were sprinkled across her nose and cheekbones, her skin clean of makeup and glowing. Maybe it was the grief that gutted him, his need for human contact, but he was seeing her now as he’d never seen her before, and damned if he didn’t like what he saw. Damned if he didn’t like it a lot.
Thank God she hates me.
She opened her eyes comically wide and shook her head. “Earth to Brett.” She gestured toward the door.
She’d used his first name. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad, but he liked the way it sounded on her lips.
Definitely not good.
“Right. Sorry.”
They gathered the babies’ things and returned the boys to their car seats. He held the truck door open for her, inhaling her flowery scent as she moved past him.
His eyes scanned the darkened landscape, finding nothing out of place. But there was an eerie feeling that told him not all danger was visible to the naked eye. His thoughts returned to Joni and Luke as he latched the second car seat. He owed it to them to figure out what had really happened, and neither crying babies nor his pretty little neighbor was going to distract him from that mission.
10
“I’ll get him.”Grace climbed into the backseat of the truck and fed the crying Theo a bottle.
Their trip to the state trooper barracks had been pointless, revealing no new information. The sky glowed with the impending sunrise as they drove back to their apartments, an uncomfortable tension having long ago settled between Grace and Brett.
She was exhausted, the events of the night before traumatizing her in more ways than one. She’d been terrorized by a stranger, fought for her life, and become temporarily responsible for two young, orphaned lives. But what was really bothering her was her physical reaction to this man.
Something had changed between them, though she couldn’t pinpoint the moment when it happened. All she knew was when he looked at her, she felt a disconcerting response in her lower abdomen, sort of a yearning mixed with a heady anticipation that both thrilled her and made her crazy.
It had to be crazy, the attraction she was suddenly feeling for this man. She was damn near engaged, after all, in love with John and ready to become his wife—except truth be told, she no longer felt as sure in her conviction as she had just days before.
Would a woman intent on making a lifelong commitment to one man gaze longingly at another who used women only for sexual fulfillment?
It was John she should long for, John she should be daydreaming about. She bit her lip. A few times, she and John had been making out on the couch in her apartment when things got hot and heavy, but he never removed her clothing or even snaked a hand beneath a hem.
Initially, she’d found it endearing, but over time she’d wanted more and decided to do something about it. She winced at the memory. She had unbuttoned her sweater and revealed her breasts to him in clear invitation.
He’d buttoned the sweater back up, suggesting they didn’t want to do anything she would regret. Embarrassment had swamped her like water on hot coals.
Brett wouldn’t reject me if I went to him.
She closed her eyes, inhaling the overtly male scent in the cab of the truck as her body was jostled from side to side over the worn pavement. No, men like him were made for mistakes, for long nights full of passion and regret. She sighed wistfully, admitting to herself she wished for just a sliver of the passion Brett had in his life.
Once John and I are married, things will be different.
Yes. Surely that was it.
The baby she’d been feeding had fallen asleep, the nipple no longer in his mouth, and she climbed over the passenger seat to get back to her original spot. Brett was exiting the freeway, taking the turn quickly, and she lost her balance, knocking her hip into his shoulder. His hand reached up to steady her, long fingers wrapping around her leg to the inside of her thigh, and she jerked.
“I’ve got it,” she snapped, yanking her leg away as she grabbed the seat back and plopped down beside him.
