She twisted so she could look at him. “Okay? I thought we were fantastic!”
His face transformed. The caution slipped from his dark eyes and was replaced by amusement. “You make me laugh.”
“It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.”
Chuckling, he caught her around the waist and reversed their positions. But gazing into her eyes, he softened his expression again and said, “Thanks,” before he lowered his head and kissed her.
They made love and then Danny rolled out of bed, suggesting they take a shower. Gloriously naked, he walked to the adjoining bathroom and began to run the water. Not quite as comfortable as he, Grace needed a minute to skew her courage to join him, and in the end wrapped a bedsheet around herself to walk to the bathroom.
But though she faltered before dropping the sheet, when she stepped into the shower, she suddenly felt bold. Knowing his trust was shaky because of his awful divorce, she stretched to her tiptoes and kissed him. He let her take the lead and she began a slow exploration of his body until he seemed unable to handle her simple ministrations anymore and he turned the tables.
They made love quickly, covered with soap and sometimes even pausing to laugh, and Grace knew from that moment on, she was his. She would never feel about any man the way she felt about Danny.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN Grace and Danny stood in the circular driveway of his beach house, both about to get into their cars to drive back to Pittsburgh, she could read the displeasure in his face as he told her about the “client hopping” he had scheduled for the next week. He wanted to be with her but these meetings had been on the books for months and he couldn’t get out of them. So she kissed him and told him she would be waiting when he returned.
They got into their vehicles and headed home. He was a faster driver, so she lost him on I-64, but she didn’t care. Her heart was light and she had the kind of butterflies in her tummy that made a woman want to sing for joy. Though time would tell, she genuinely believed she’d found Mr. Right. She’d only known Danny for two weeks, and hadn’t actually spent a lot of that time with him since he was so far above her on the company organizational chart. But the weekend had told her everything she needed to know about the real Danny Carson.
To the world, he was an ambitious, demanding, highly successful man. In private, he was a loving, caring, normal man, who liked her. A lot.
Yes, they would probably experience some problems because he owned the company she worked for. He’d hesitated at the bar before kissing her. He’d asked her that morning if they’d made a mistake. But she forced herself not to worry about it. She had no doubt that once they spent enough time together, and he saw the way she lived her beliefs, his worries about dating an employee would vanish.
What they had was worth a few months of getting to know each other. Or maybe the answer would be to quit her job?
The first two days of his trip sped by. He called Wednesday morning, and the mere sound of his voice made her breathless. Though he talked about clients, meetings, business dinners and never-ending handshaking, his deep voice reminded her of his whispered endearments during their night together and that conjured the memory of how he tasted, the firmness of his skin, the pleasure of being held in his arms. Before he disconnected the call, he whispered that he missed her and couldn’t wait to see her and she’d all but fainted with happiness.
The next day he didn’t call, but Grace knew he was busy. He also didn’t call on Friday or Saturday.
Flying back to Pittsburgh Sunday, Danny nervously paced his Gulfstream, fighting a case of doubt and second thoughts about what had happened between him and Grace. In the week that had passed, he hadn’t had a spare minute to think about her, and hadn’t spoken with her except for one quick phone call a few days into the trip. The call had ended too soon and left him longing to see her, but after three days of having no contact, the negatives of the situation came crowding in on him, and there were plenty of them.
First, he didn’t really know her. Second, even if she were the perfect woman, they’d gone too far too fast. Third, they worked together. If they dated it would be all over the office. When they broke up, he would be the object of the same gossip that had nearly ruined his reputation when his marriage ended.
He took a breath and blew it out on a puff. He couldn’t tell if distance was giving him perspective or calling up all his demons. But he did know that he should have thought this through before making love to her.
Worse, he couldn’t properly analyze their situation because he couldn’t recall specifics. All he remembered from their Sunday night and Monday morning together were emotions so intense that he’d found the courage to simply be himself. But with the emotions gone, he couldn’t summon a solid memory of the substance of what had happened between them. He couldn’t remember anything specific she’d said to make him like her—like? Did he say like? He didn’t just like Grace. That Sunday night his feelings had run more along the lines of a breathless longing, uncontrollable desire, and total bewitching. A man in that condition could easily be seduced into seeing traits in a woman that weren’t there and that meant he had made a horrible mistake.
He told himself not to think that way. But the logical side of his brain called him a sap. He’d met Grace two weeks before when she’d come to work for his company, but he didn’t really know her because he didn’t work with new employees. He worked with their bosses. He said hello to new employees in the hall. But otherwise, he ignored them. So he hadn’t “known” her for two weeks. He’d glimpsed her.
Plus, she’d been on her best behavior for Orlando. She had been at the beach house to demonstrate to Orlando that Carson Services employed people in the know. Yes, she’d gone above and beyond the call of duty in her time with Orlando, making him feel comfortable, sharing personal insights—but, really, wasn’t that her job?
Danny took a long breath. Had he fallen in love with a well polished persona she’d pulled out to impress Orlando and simply never disengaged when the basketball star left?
Oh Lord!
He sat, rubbed his hands down his face and held back a groan. Bits and pieces of their Sunday night dinner conversation flitted through his brain. She’d grown up poor. Could only afford a house that needed remodeling. She wanted to be rich. She’d gone into investing to understand money.
He had money.
Technically he was a shortcut to all her goals.
He swallowed hard. It wasn’t fair to judge her when she wasn’t there to defend herself.
He had to see her. Then he would know. After five minutes of conversation she would either relieve all his fears or prove that he’d gone too fast, told her too much and set himself up for a huge disappointment.
The second his plane taxied to a stop, he pulled out his cell phone and called her, but she didn’t answer. He left a message but she didn’t return his call and Danny’s apprehensions hitched a notch. Not that he thought she should be home, waiting for him, but she knew when he got in. He’d told her he would call. He’d said it at the end of a very emotional phone conversation in which he’d told her that crazy as it sounded, he missed her. She’d breathlessly told him she missed him, too.
Now she wasn’t home?
If he hadn’t given her the time he would be landing, if he hadn’t told her he would be calling, if he hadn’t been so sappy about saying how much he missed her, it wouldn’t seem so strange that she wasn’t home. But, having told her all those things, he had the uncontrollable suspicion that something was wrong.
Unless she’d come to the same conclusions he had. Starting a relationship had been a mistake.
That had to be it.
Relief swamped him. He didn’t want another relationship. Ever. And Grace