Excerpt
“I’ve missed you,” she said and he’d stood, holding her stare,
gripping his keys, his breathing labored and heavy. He couldn’t say it back, no
matter how true it was. It was too late.
He shook his head, anger coursing through his veins. How easy for
her to come here, looking like this, standing so close, after all this time. As
if he’d been waiting for this day, hoping she would come to her senses. Come
back to him.
“I’ve met someone, Grace,” he said, and she lifted her chin.
“I know.”
He exhaled. He stared at her, watching as she chewed on her lip and
smoothed her hands over the skirt of her dress, giving him that questioning
look that made his heart ache like it never could for anyone but her. A
thousand questions ran through his mind, but he didn’t have time for them all,
and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answers. It would only make this more
difficult than it had to be.
“Look, it’s not a good time. Helen will be here soon.”
She arched a brow, pinching her lips in displeasure. “Helen? Is
that her name?”
“How long are you in town for, Grace?” Luke looked down the street,
bracing himself for the sight of Helen’s car rounding the bend. As much as he
dreaded her finding him like this, he was almost wishing she would appear, save
him from these unwanted emotions. With Helen he was safe. Their life was simple
and easy. By this time tomorrow he’d forget Grace all over again, he’d go back
to his routine, the established life he had with Helen. And he’d be content.
Grace followed his gaze and then turned to him, frowning. “As long
as you want me to be.”
Luke hesitated. No, she wasn’t going to put this on him. She had
come here to set him up—to make him take the fall, make the decisions for him.
She’d regret her decision in time, come to resent him. She’d leave him sooner
or later; if not now, then someday. They didn’t want the same things anymore.
Maybe once they had, but they were young then—children! Ten years was a long
time to know someone, and he knew Grace. He knew what she was
capable of, and he knew what she wanted. If she wasn’t true to herself, she
would never be happy living here in Briar Creek. And he wasn’t going to be the
one to drag her down or hold her back.
“You should go, Grace,” he said. “I’ve moved on,” he forced himself
to add.
She took a step closer, never breaking his stare as she closed the
distance between their bodies. He gripped the keys harder, feeling them embed
in his palm. He’d forgotten how beautiful she was, how perfect she was to him.
All these months away from her, he’d pushed her from his mind, eventually
replacing the image with Helen’s. Sweet, loving, Helen.
“Do you expect me to believe that what you have with her is the
same as what we have?” Grace said. She was standing so close he could see the
flecks of gold in her eyes, see the curve of her mouth, the indentation on the
bottom lip.
“Of course it’s not the same.”
Her lips curved in satisfaction and she leaned forward. “I didn’t
think so,” she murmured as she slid her arm up his shoulder, pulling him close
as her lips grazed his.
He groaned into her mouth—a silent plea to stop—but soon he was
kissing her, forcefully, angrily even, pressing her body close against his
chest, feeling the contours of her breasts against his racing heart. She
smelled like coconut, like that favorite shampoo of hers, and he drank in her
scent, his tongue parting her lips, exploring her mouth, tasting her warmth.
She felt so good, so right, and that was the problem. There was
nothing like kissing Grace. They just fell into place; they knew every step of
the dance, every way to satisfy the other’s needs. So he stood there, in the
middle of the afternoon, in broad daylight, in front of the house he had
expected to be their home, and he kissed her for the last time, savoring every
last sweet touch of their lips, until he finally tore his lips from hers.
