GRACE’S INSIDES WERE trembling. She couldn’t believe she was really standing in Reed’s house, agreeing to go upstairs and make love to him after all these years. But she felt so good when she was with him, she couldn’t imagine anything stopping her from taking the next step.
Reed touched his lips to hers in a whisper of a kiss that left her wanting more. “Gracie, I want you more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. But I can’t look into your trusting eyes and have anything left unsaid between us. You asked about my life, and I want to know about yours. Let’s have a drink and talk.”
She exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and realized she was terribly nervous. “A drink is probably a good idea.”
She admired the ornate crown moldings and elegant, antique chandeliers as he led her through the dining room to a large kitchen with gorgeous marble countertops and gaping holes where the stove and dishwasher should be. A table for two sat beside glass doors overlooking the backyard. Even in the darkness she could see moonlight reflecting off the creek.
He pulled a bottle of wine from a cabinet and untied a red ribbon from around the neck. “Compliments of Roy and Ella.”
He grabbed two wineglasses from a cabinet, and poured them each a glass.
“Here you go.” He handed her one and led her through the kitchen to another set of stairs.
She followed him up to the master bedroom, where a single antique dresser sat against the far wall. A king-size mattress lay atop gorgeous hardwood floors by a wall of nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. Grace swallowed hard. Was that their talk? The few seconds in the kitchen? Her nerves kicked up again.
“Come with me.” Reed led her through the bedroom and out a set of glass doors to a veranda. He flicked a switch, illuminating tiny white lights wrapped around iron railings, a U-shaped, deep-cushioned seating area with a few soft-looking blankets. A small round table for two sat in the corner by a fireplace.
The view of the creek took Grace’s breath away. She imagined Reed spending most of his time out there. They’d had no place to go when they were dating, so they had spent a lot of time in secluded outdoor spots, like behind the theater, down by the creek, and in local parks. She realized now how little time she spent outside when she was in the city.
“This is beautiful. I remember you used to say you wished you had a tree fort but you were too old for one. Is this your version of an adult tree fort?”
“Something like that.” He reached for her hand and guided her to the couch.
“Is this where you bring all your dates? To your bachelor pad, with romantic lights and a make-out couch?”
He pulled off his boots, giving her a don’t be ridiculous look. “Hardly.”
He slipped off the cushion, kneeling in front of her, and began taking off her boots, making her even more nervous.
“I’ll clean these for you, as I promised. But right now let’s just be comfortable.”
“I can clean them tomorrow.”
He set her boots aside and nudged her legs open, kneeling between them, his arms circling her waist. He smiled, tugging at all the lonely pieces of herself she’d been starving for years.
“I need to tell you something, Gracie, and it might hurt to hear it, but I don’t want any secrets between us.”
“That’s not exactly the best line to get a woman into bed.”
“I know, but you need to hear this. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you, and the weird thing is, I know it’s going to bug you, but you should know, it doesn’t bother me.”
“Reed, just spit it out, because you’re making me nervous.”
“You asked about my life, and what I said on the Ferris wheel was true. With the exception of the business I started and sold, nothing I’ve done matters more than coming back together with you. After we broke up, I headed to Michigan. Roy’s brother, Joe, lives there. I went to college, and he hooked me up with a historical preservation company. I worked through school, which is where I met Thad, who eventually became my business partner. After college we made a name for ourselves in the industry, and within a couple years we were earning seven figures and things were going well. About two years ago I met a woman, Alina, and we dated for a while. She wanted to get married, and even though I knew something wasn’t right between us, I was considering it. Six months ago, I came back from a business meeting early and caught her in bed with Thad. Two months later Roy suffered his heart attack. I sold my half of the business to Thad, sold my house with all the furnishings, and came here.”
Grace struggled to find her voice. “You were engaged six months ago?”
“No. Almost engaged, if you can even call it that. Our relationship wasn’t what it should have been, so I never took that last step. Something was always missing.”
She pushed to her feet, feeling gutted. “Not what it should have been? What does that even mean?” She was breathing hard, and somehow she still felt like she was choking. “How can you say you feel so much for me, when you were in love with another woman only six months ago?”
Reed stood and closed the distance between them. “Grace, I wasn’t in love with her. I never felt for her what I felt for you, or what I feel for you now after only a few days of seeing you again.”
“You were never engaged to me, so you must have felt more.” She turned away, staring out at the creek, trying to dodge the pain zinging through her.
“Bull. I never even introduced her to my family, and in four months I’ve never once felt the need to talk about her to anyone. No one here even knows about her other than Roy and Ella. Doesn’t that tell you something? I have never felt more for anyone than I’ve felt for you. I spent a decade not feeling, Grace. Do you have any idea what that’s like? I gave up hope of ever finding what we had again. I gave up, Grace. I figured, I might not be all in with her, but she wanted to get married. I hoped that someday I’d get over whatever was holding me back, so I considered it. There was no ring, no proposal, no ‘I can’t live without you.’ Do you know why?”
She crossed her arms, struggling to hold back tears she knew he didn’t deserve. Why did it hurt so much to know he’d almost married someone else?
“Gracie, please look at me. I’m trying to be honest with you. We’ve never lied to each other, and I wasn’t about to start now.”
She turned, and a tear broke free. He wiped it away with the pad of his thumb, the love in his eyes boring into her chest.
“I never said it to her because I never felt it. You weren’t as broken as I was. You must have had other relationships. Don’t tell me you never came close to settling down.”
“I didn’t! I might have, if I’d met the right guy, but…” She blinked away tears, thinking of how few guys she’d actually gone out with and how disappointing they’d all turned out to be. “No one was right. No one was you, and I was so angry at you for that, because I was hurt that you left town after telling me you never would.”
He reached for her. “But now you know why I left.”
“I know,” she snapped, feeling foolish for crying. “And I don’t have any idea why I’m so upset, or why it hurts to know you almost married someone else, but it does.”
“Because you still love me, Grace.” He wiped her tears and gathered her in his arms. “You still love me, the same way I still love you.”
She tried to push the hurt aside, struggling with the truth of his statement.
“I know that was hard for you to hear. It was just as hard for me to say, and not only because I knew it would upset you, but also because I didn’t trust my feelings enough to get out of that relationship long before it imploded. I’m not willing to make that same mistake again and live in the dark. You’re it for me, Grace. You always have been. This coming-clean business, and the ten years prior, were hard. But loving you has always been easy.”
“We were never easy,” she reminded him. “We had to sneak around.”
“That’s seeing you, not loving you. I’d have gone to any length to see you because I loved you.”
Her heart climbed into her throat. “But we’re temporary again.”
“We don’t have to be. A long-distance relationship can work if we want it to. I’ll never ask you to give up your dreams.”
She thought about her busy life back in the city and how difficult it would be to maintain a full-time relationship when she was working long hours and weekends. Could they manage a long-distance relationship? Maybe that way they could actually enjoy the time they had together without the stress of either of them feeling second-rate to their careers on a daily basis. Hope bloomed inside her.
“You never asked me to give up my dreams back then,” she said as realization dawned on her. “You never asked me to stay in Oak Falls. If anything, you pushed me toward college and New York.”
“Because I loved you. I wanted you to be happy, and I knew you never would until you caught that rising star and rode it all the way to the moon. That’s who you are, Gracie. You were the girl with big dreams, and now you’re the woman who has achieved them. I’d never want to take that away from you. If the only way we can make this work is long-distance, I’ll take it. I’m not pushing you away this time. I’m asking to be part of your life, however we can fit it in.”
His honesty, endless faith in her abilities, and his support touched her so deeply. She didn’t want to dissect their future or wonder if all the pieces of herself she felt shifting into place were real or only in her head. All she wanted as she went up on her toes and touched her lips to Reed’s was him.
FOR THE FIRST time in years, Reed wasn’t thinking about the job he had to do or his next project. With Grace’s eagerness, he didn’t want to think at all. He claimed her mouth with fierce possessiveness. She arched into him, and he took the kiss deeper, rougher, holding on to his control by a fraying thread.
“Grace—” he said between frantic kisses, needing to know this wasn’t all in his head, that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.
“Don’t ask. Know,” she said eagerly. “You’ve always known.”
Their mouths crashed together as they stumbled toward the couch, their lips parting only long enough to strip off their shirts. Reed’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of her.
“Oh, Gracie. Don’t move. Just let me look at you.” He’d fantasized about her too many times to count, but nothing—nothing—compared to having her in his arms. Gone was the young girl he’d fallen in love with. She was all woman, curvaceous and seductive. “You’re stunning.”
Her skin flushed as he ran his hands over her waist and up her ribs, kissing her until they were both barely breathing. She still reacted to his every touch, his every kiss, but her reactions were more powerful, more sensual. They were the reactions of a woman, and he wished he could have experienced all the years in which he’d missed.
“Reed,” she whispered urgently.
“There’s no way I’m going to rush through this.” Holding her gaze, he cupped her beautiful face and said, “I love kissing you, baby.”
He took her in a slow, intoxicating kiss, and proceeded to drive her to the brink of insanity. Only then did he strip off the rest of their clothes. They fell to the couch amid feverish kisses. He laced their hands together, soaking in the feel of her body against his, and the needful look in her eyes. She smelled heavenly feminine and hauntingly familiar.
He brushed his lips over hers in a series of light kisses. “Gracie, do you trust me?”
“More than I trust myself.”
The honesty in her voice brought his lips to hers again, until she broke their connection, breathless and beautiful.
“Love all of me, Reed,” she pleaded.
“I do, and I will,” he promised, and then he kissed her again.
As their bodies came together, they both stilled, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.
“Can you feel it, Gracie? How much I love you?”
“Yes. Now show me.”
They made love until they both gasped in sweet agony from pure, explosive pleasure. And then they moved into the bedroom, becoming one again, slow and tender, their love binding them together like a never-ending ribbon.
Grace fell asleep in Reed’s arms. He lay awake feeling the soft rhythm of her breath against his skin, filled with a sense of peace he’d never before experienced. His gaze ran down her body as he reached for the blanket, and he noticed a small tattoo of an orchid on the back of her thigh. You never forgot.
Time moved slowly, but it seemed to go too fast. With morning approaching, the last thing he wanted to do was move an inch, but he knew he had to do the right thing.
He brushed kisses over her cheek and whispered, “Gracie, baby.”
“Hm?” She snuggled deeper into him.
He kissed her then, drawing strength to do what he didn’t want to.
“As much as I want to wake up with you in my arms, I don’t want you to feel funny tomorrow around your parents, or for them to think this is just a fling. I think I’d better take you home.”
She turned in his arms, a sleepy smile on her lips. “Really? I’m so comfy.”
He pressed his lips to hers. “Me too, but I want you to wake up tomorrow smiling, not wondering how to face your parents.” He kissed the tip of her nose and said, “I know you, Gracie. You’re a private person, and you’ll be embarrassed to get home after dawn. I want your parents to know I love you enough to do the right thing.”
“Trust me,” she said with a seductive smile. “You did all the right things.”
She touched her lips to his, and her expression turned serious. “You also did the right thing by telling me about what happened in Michigan. You always do the right thing, even when it’s hard.”
“Because that’s what you do when you truly love someone. You put their well-being before your own.”