“If I’d known, I would never have gone!”
“Which is why I didn’t say anything.”
I love this man so much, but damn, he can be infuriating. “That’s the stupidest thing that I’ve ever heard.”
“I trust you.”
“And what, you had toprove it?” I burst out. Zach’s words haunted me the entire drive home. They’re still haunting me.But it might still hurt.The last thing that I ever want to do is to hurt Grady. I simply hadn’t known, and maybe that’s naïve of me, but I grew up in a household that always talked about feelings and aired bad blood immediately instead of letting it fester. Honest to a fault, with a freedom that allowed for grievances to be aired and wings to spread. Avery and I always knew that we could be honest with our feelings, and that we wouldn’t be shamed for them. It allowed our wounds to be torn open so they could heal.
I need Grady to be honest with me, so that I don’t hurt him. I need him to help me with that.
Grady stands and wipes his hands on his pants. “I have no right to tell you that you can’t see a friend of yours. I’m not in charge of you.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know if something upsets you!” I want to shake him as much as I want to kiss him. “Wouldn’t you want me to tell you? The decision about what to do with that afterwards is yours. In this case, it should have been mine.” My voice is elevating, and I can’t seem to make it stop. Ihurthim, and now I’m hurting. Wrapping my arms around myself doesn’t help. I should have been given the opportunity to make it right, to choose what to do given all the facts.
Grady trails the pads of his fingers down my cheek and tips my chin up. “Lake, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take the decision from you. It wasn’t like that.” When he reaches for me, tugging me against him, I let him.
“You’re all I want, Grady,” I mumble against his chest. He smells nice. When I tug at his buttons, he helps until my cheek is against warm skin. Better.
“What you had with her…” Grady trails off, like he isn’t sure what he wants to say. I don’t care what he’s going to say. All of it will be wrong.
“It’s in the past, where it’ll stay. Even if we ignore the fact that both of us are getting marriedto other people, she chose her career, and Grady, I choose you. Always. Every time.” Leaning back and fisting my hands in his collar, I force him to look down at me. “When she left, I let her go. I didn’t even try to fight for her. If you left? I would follow you to the ends of the Earth. If you had some career opportunity in fuckingSpain,I would pack up everything and go with you. It doesn’t matter what I had with Sadie, because what you and I have is incomparable.”
Grady’s throat works, his eyes darkening. Then his lips are on mine, and thought disappears on the wind. Fuck, nothing feels the way Grady’s kisses do. Nothing. Incomparable is such a goodword when describing this man. He uses the perfect amounts of teeth and tongue, and butterflies dance in my stomach, like they’re having a party in there. The focus and intensity of his attention is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Not even the world burning could pull me away from him.
“If something upsets you,” I whisper dazedly, trying to recapture the conversation when he lifts his head from mine, “I need to know. We’re partners, and we have to talk about it. Don’t shut me out. Please.”
“You’re right.” He kisses the corner of my mouth, cradling my face in his large hands. “I’m sorry. The idea of you being anywhere near someone that you used to love drives me insane,” he admits. “I’m so afraid of losing you.”
Now my heart is thumping for an entirely different reason. “I wasn’t in love with her.” Not if this, what I feel now for Grady, is real love. No one has ever come close. “And you’ll never lose me. I promise you that there’s nothing you could do that would make me leave you.” I pause. “Unless you take away my nachos and strawberry-glazed donuts.”
“And suddenly, there are stipulations,” Grady says with a dry chuckle.
“Food is serious business.” Especially food that can be eaten straight from Grady’s dick.
He kisses me again, and I can feel his smile against my lips. My brain melts out of my ears, and I drag him inside, determined to have my wicked way with him now that we’ve sorted this all out.
Chapter fourteen
Grady
AgreeingtomeetwithSebastian’s brother for wedding planning seemed like a good idea at the time. Until we’re standing outside the small building bearing the wordsPetriov and Devlin Event Services.Now it feels more like a terrible idea. One Devlin is more than enough to deal with on a semi-regular basis. Doing business with another one is just asking for trouble.
“The name is very on the nose,” Lake says with a cheeky grin. “If I owned my own business, I’d be punning for days.”
I can just imagine. “Sometimes straightforward is best.” Using fancy names—or in Lake’s case, ridiculous puns—only works well if it’s still obvious what the business is for. Otherwise, it’s just terrible marketing.
I don’t know what I’m expecting when we walk in, a really fucking-annoying jingle sounding as Lake pushes the door open. Not the quiet, orderly space with a generic sitting room and a clean reception desk. It’s empty, with low music in the background and plants that look like they’re thriving. Someone here has magic, obviously.
“You talked to him?” I ask Lake. “Eli?” Considering one of the names on the sign out front was “Devlin,” and that’s Sebastian’s last name, we’re at least in the right place.
“Yes,” Lake confirms with a nod.
He doesn’t elaborate. “And?”
Lake shrugs and loops an arm around my elbow. “We organised a meeting time, and that was it. I had some questions, but he swore at something and hung up, so I wrote them down.” He frowns. “Shit, I left the list at home. Should we go back?”
“We’d miss our appointment time. Just email them later.” I pause. “Wait, hesworeand hung up?Thatsounds professional.” A great way to get business, I’m sure.
