Linx broke the kiss and ran a finger over Grady’s chin. “Last night was awesome, but I need to know. Are we a team now? Is everything going to beokay?”
“If you’re worried about me running away from Jessie, don’t be. That little girl is mine, and I intend to be everything she’d want in a dad.” Grady’s eyes blazed with both determination and a softness she’d never seen before. “I also intend to make everything right for you,too.”
Linx swallowed hard, her heart both fluttering with worry and expanding with hope. Was he only with her because he thought he had a good chance of getting custody of Jessie? What if the courts turned against them because of her lies? Could he forgive her if they lost Jessieforever?
“I want this to work, too. Let’s put the past behind us.” Linx feathered her fingers over the back of Grady’s neck. “Let’s start over with a cleanslate.”
“Not too clean.” He grinned and looped one arm under her legs, sweeping her off her feet. Kissing her fervently, he carted her up the stairs to her loft and slammed the door shut, leaving Cedar and any other curious dogs outside. “I know we have a lot of work to do, but it was pure torture being surrounded by my family and having to keep my hands off ofyou.”
“Do you mean it? This isn’t just about Jessie, is it?” Linx knew her eyebrows were furrowed, and she wished she could trust him fully. “I mean, us playinghouse.”
He caressed her cheek. “It’s about time I took responsibility. Settle down. Be a man, and that starts with you. I’m not the type to say gooey words, but I think you know how Ifeel.”
Actually, she wasn’t sure, and she would have loved to hear gooey words, but only if they were real. Tension skittered through her belly with the feeling that she was about to get everything she’d every wished for—a man to love and a family of herown.
Except fate had taught her not to count her puppies too early. She tempered herself, knowing that despite Grady saying he wasn’t good with gooey words, he seemed to say them all the same when in the throes of lovemaking and then forget all about them when confronted withreality.
She nodded and drew his body down over hers and closed her eyes. This was as good as it was going to get. Who was she, an evil-hearted and spiteful girl, to believe she deserved the traditional white knight and happily everafter?
It would be boring, eventually, and it was so not her style. She and Grady were doomed to fight and make up, to love and hate, and to struggle for the few mountain peaks and the fleeting, but oh, so explosive climaxes, made more intense by the valleys of soul-destroyinggrief.
When Grady’s lips and tongue crashed over her, breaching her boundaries, Linx gave herself over to the only pleasure she’d ever know—the fight for a passion too desperate toabandon.
