His arms wrapped themselves around my body tighter and he gently pulled me closer to him, until my head rested on his smooth chest. Right over the sound of his beating heart, that thundered strong and even under his warm skin. I drifted back to sleep from the music playing through his body.
When I opened my eyes next, a soft glow filtered through the curtains. A soft piano melody wafted through the air from somewhere else in the room; a haunting song that churned the feelings of my soul; Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright. My breath caught in my throat when Shane's low raspy voice sung along in quiet whispers close to my ear.
Our bodies were tangled together under my sheets and his warm breath played gently along my skin, sending small shivers through my body. The overwhelming feeling of intimacy, of love and desire, lapped itself like waves along my skin. Every part of my body that touched up against his was like a small fire over my flesh. My legs were wrapped tightly around the hard muscles of one of his thighs, and I feared the slightest shift of my hips would be my undoing.
Shane's hand drew small slow circles along the exposed skin of my lower back, traveling over the sheer material of my shorts until his fingertips met with the bare skin of the back of my legs. My pulse quickened and I gasped for air.
His body shifted, and as his fingers danced delicately down my legs to the back of my knees, he pressed his thighs harder between my legs. I trembled.
He lifted his face over mine and our eyes locked in the soft low light from the window that gingerly fell over our bodies. Those blue eyes searched mine with a hard intensity and an exquisite burn slowly spread down my cheeks, crawling hotly over my neck and across my chest.
Then he slowly rocked his thigh against me and a deep blush stole over the skin of his cheeks. Oh my God, Shane was blushing. The simple idea that being with me, wrapped around my body could cause this man to blush...took my breath away.
Not being able to stop myself, I rocked back and forth matching his rhythm. I closed my eyes and groaned inwardly, the butterflies inside dancing along my insides, desperate to take him inside me.
Shane's fingers slid up the back of my thighs again reaching the lacy trim of my panties. He pressed his thigh harder against my core and tightened one hand cupping my bottom, gently running his fingers along the lace trim with another, slipping every once in a while beneath them.
I whimpered from the overwhelming tension building between my legs, making me drive my hips against him.
I dug my teeth into my bottom lip in an effort to hold back a moan, but it came out anyway. Sliding my hands along the tight muscles of his stomach, I could feel his body tremor beneath my own fingertips. My whole body engulfed itself in fire. I needed him inside me.
"God Grace," he murmured bringing his lips closer to mine, hovering over them breathing me in, "I never needed someone before the way I need you." Then his lips touched mine, soft and gentle; savoring, nipping and kissing my lips like I was a piece of candy. My heart thudded so damn loud in my chest that I wondered if Shane could hear it, I damn well knew he could feel it slamming itself up against his chest.
"Baby, I need to taste you," he growled. His breath was rough and jagged. He trailed his tongue along my jaw, nipping and sucking at my skin, down my neck and licked hungrily at the top curve of my breasts.
I tore my hands from his skin and yanked the material of my top that was keeping his lips from my tasting more of my skin. My insides turned liquid and I melted into his mouth.
"Hey!" Lea banged on the door. Shane's body tensed alongside me and he groaned pulling himself away. "Pizza's here," she said as she burst into my room. "Let's g o, Grace, you need to eat something."
I lifted the sheets over my head and quickly fixed my shirt, "No, go away," I moaned. The ache in between my thighs was maddening, I squeezed my knees together to try to find some sort of relief, but it wasn't enough. And Shane's one hand still cupping my ass didn't help me AT ALL.
"I got one of the pies with spinach and black olives," she sang trying to tempt me.
Shane's deep raspy chuckle shook the mattress and he plucked the covers from over my eyes, but both our bodies were still covered. Lea, Conner, Tucker, and the entire Mad World band shoved their heads in through my doorway. DISLIKE! Shane leaned his face into my neck panting, "I'm locking the damn door next time."
"Next time?" I breathed biting down on my lip hard.
"Yeah, Grace. Next time," he whispered pulling back his head to look at me. Blue eyes locked on mine. An intense slow burn swirled in their depths. Oh my God, why are my friends still STANDING AT MY DOOR! The tension that twisted and tugged between my thighs was driving me insane. I was just on the edge, the release my body craved, right there, just a little friction more. One of his hands skated across the front of my panties real slow, taunting me, a sexy mischievous edge to his eyes.
Digging my teeth deeper into my lip, I clutched at his hand and pressed it against me hard, silently begging him with my eyes for more. His eyes dilated into thick black pools and his lips parted in heavy breaths. I rocked myself against the palm of his hand, he lifted my ass with one hand and pressed against me with his other until my insides tensed under his touch, exploded and my entire body quaked with pleasure, "PIZZA, YES, PIZZA!" I shattered and came undone right in the palms of his hands.
Everybody still stood at the door, waiting.
"That was the most exquisite thing I have ever seen," Shane whispered into my ear. "And I'm so damn sorry."
My heart thudded and my scalp tingled as my stomach dropped. "Sorry that happened?"
"No, Grace," he whispered into my hair nuzzling my neck. "I'm sorry I had to stop."
Chapter 23
Lea shoved my audience and Shane out of my bedroom so I could pull myself together. "Gray, you may want to take a shower, you've been in here since Tuesday," she said.
"What do you mean since Tuesday?" I laughed. "What day is it now?" I pulled my arms through the sleeves of my robe and noticed I was wearing something completely different than what I remembered Lea dressing me in on Tuesday night when Gabriel had visited.
"It's Thursday night."
Apparently, I had slept for two full days. Gabriel's influence on my life seemed to be getting worse.
"Maybe you should make an appointment to see a doctor or something tomorrow," she offered as she gently pushed me down the hall and into the bathroom closing the door behind us. "I wanted to take you to the hospital that night, but Shane said after you took the aspirins your fever went down immediately so he just stayed with you." She grinned wickedly.
Turning on the shower as hot as I could, I stepped in and closed the curtain behind me. Lea, of course stayed. "You told me Gabriel was here and that's why you were sick," she said.
I didn't answer her. I just stood under the hot stream of water and scrubbed myself clean.
Lea tore the shower curtain back and crossed her arms watching me, "You better tell me what the hell is going on!" Was there no privacy in this apartment at ALL! I closed the curtain back up and rinsed the suds off my skin.
"He shows up and what seems like a five minute conversation between us turns into seven hours of my life missing. The night that I was supposed to go to dinner with Ryan and Shane ran out, remember?" I turned off the water and dried off with a towel that Lea had thrown at me. "When I went into my bedroom and told you I just wanted to change and I'd be out in a minute, he was in my bedroom. It didn't even seem like five minutes passed and then you knocked on the door and it was all of a sudden midnight, I missed out on seven hours."
I wrapped myself in my robe and walked back into my bedroom. Lea followed me. "And Tuesday night?"
"Same thing. He was just there, but this time I couldn't breathe or move."
Dressing in a comfy pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top, I held Lea's gaze. She wanted the truth, answers, but I didn't want to scare her. But I definitely needed to get her ready if I had one more week here, didn't I?
"Gabriel says h
e's in love with me and he wants me to go with him," I whispered.
"As in go with him and not be HERE ANYMORE?" she started breathing faster, eyes popping out of her head. "What the hell? TELL HIM NO! You're not leaving me Grace!"
Running to her I grabbed her shoulders, "Shh. Lea stop. Of course I keep telling him no. I don't want to be with him, I want to be here. This is my last chance to live a normal human existence and I want it. Please believe me, okay? I know I've drilled it in your head that I wanted something and someone else, but he's gone. Maybe he left to save me, maybe he just didn't love me, I don't know. But I get it now." I twisted my wet hair up into a messy knot and smiled at her.
"What do you get now?" she asked.
"I've spent my entire existence trying to a create this perfect fairytale happily ever after future; bending fate to the way I thought it should be, or living in a past that I was never supposed to have. I've never lived in the present, and cherished the moments I'm in," I explained.
The floorboards creaked near my door. "That sounds like a pretty enlightened view of life," Shane's voice interrupted. He offered me an innocent smile, "Sorry, I didn't mean to cut in, but I wanted to see if you were okay. And, I uh, seem to remember you screaming you uh, wanted pizza."
My cheeks flamed at his words, "Shut up," I whispered smiling. "I'm not enlightened, more like grounded now."
Lea folded her arms over her head, probably trying to keep it from physically exploding. I knew my best friend like she was part of me and I knew she was going insane with worry. She was one of those people who could needle something to death if it bothered her. "Grace is being harassed and WE think that this is the same guy who has been trying to hurt her!" she blurted out. "His name is Gabriel and he just shows up here and threatens her!"
Shane's eyes never left mine, yet they twinkled with mischief and he gave us a little snort. Yes, he snorted, like Gabriel was a joke to him. "Well, then I guess that it's a good thing that I'm stuck staying here tonight, huh?" He walked closer to me and shoved his hands in the side pockets of his jeans. "So, Gabriel, huh? Why's he harassing you?"
I watched my big-mouthed best friend sneak out of my room with a self-gratified smug-ass smile on her face. My gosh, that woman would do anything to get Shane and me together! These are the things that I love about her; I'm not going to lie.
I swallowed hard. "He's nobody. Just someone I thought was a friend, but he isn't. It's nothing to worry about," I said simply.
Shane stepped closer. "Well, let's see, Grace. About six weeks ago, someone attacked you in a bar and I got stabbed. Then there was the fire in your apartment someone set on purpose. Oh, yeah, and don't forget the part where some guy stabs you and tears your insides up and you're in a coma for four weeks. And your best friend thinks Gabriel has something to do with it, and you think it's nothing?" He touched my cheek with his hand rubbing his thumb along my skin.
My body involuntarily leaned into his touch. Holy crap, do I have it bad for this guy.
"I really wish you could believe in me enough to let me know what's really going on so I could protect you," he sighed.
KNEES WEAK! Mayday! Mayday! Girl about to fall even farther in love with Shane! Crap he is so going to hurt me!
"He was my ex's best friend. And he thinks he's in love with me. And well, to make a long story short, he thinks if he can't have me no one else should either."
Muscles and veins strained against the skin of his neck like he was restraining himself and his hands were clenched tightly into white knuckled fists. "That's what this is all about? He loves you?" he hissed through clenched teeth.
The way he said it made my skin crawl, like the thought of someone in love with me would be unbelievable. I shrugged as the pain in my chest from his words almost sent me flying across the room. "This has nothing to do with you anyway, so you don't have to bother yourself with it. Anyway, why did you say you're stuck here tonight?"
His brows furrowed and he moved slowly closer to me, pressing his lips together. Lifting his other hand to my face, he cupped my cheeks in his palms. His touch made my muscles weak and I hated it. "I'm not letting anyone hurt you, got it?" He moved closer and slowly brought his lips to mine, "But, I do understand him loving you so much he doesn't want anyone else to have you."
I think I whimpered. I may have melted to the floor at that point too.
His lips slid over mine effortlessly like they were made to kiss me. I brought my hands to his neck; his pulsed thudded wildly under my fingertips.
"Hey! Pizza! Let's go! She's needs to eat, Shane!" Lea yelled next to us.
Still cupping my face, he brought his forehead against mine and laughed, "You know, with Lea aroun d, I can understand why there hasn't been many guys in your life," he teased.
"Shut up," I laughed and playfully smacked him in the arm. "God, though, you're probably right!"
"Come on, you really do need to eat," he said pulling me by the waist into the hallway. He nuzzled his face into my neck as he walked behind me, "By the way, everyone is stuck staying here tonight. Our entire apartment building is having a cleaning service, uh, disinfect what Vixen4 did while they stayed there. Then it will be decorated for Vixen4's after show party tomorrow so they can mess it up again."
The thought of Vixen4 being in his apartment snapped me back to reality and seeing Shane and Bliss together. I needed to remember Shane wasn't a relationship kind of guy. I just have to live each moment to the fullest, don't think of the stupid mistakes he's made. Don't ruin thi s, Grace, you don't know how much or how little time you have left.
Everyone sat in the living room, all in pajamas, eating pizza while The Exorcist played on the television. A stack of our favorite horror movies stood on the coffee table next to the pizza boxes, huge bowl of popcorn and sodas. It eerily looked like one of Lea's teenage slumber parties.
I plopped myself on one of the chairs and grabbed a slice of pizza, curling my feet underneath me. Shane sat across the room from me on the other chair, grabbed a handful of popcorn, and popped a few pieces in his mouth.
Alex leaned over the couch and onto the arm of my chair smiling at me. "I can't stop myself from thinking about where I might get to sleep tonight. Any chance that you may need some company later?" he whispered low.
My eyes widened and I laughed at the absurdity of the comment. "No thank you Alex, you slut," I teased rolling my eyes. I tucked my chin in and laughed harder as Alex's stupid smile widened.
"I'll just let you think about it for a while," he laughed back.
I looked up to see Shane watching me. His eyes shifted to Alex and his lips tightened. This, for some reason, made me bite down on my bottom lip and when Shane looked back at me, he noticed. He gave me one of his slow sexy smiles.
I couldn't stop my body from responding to his stare and a flush of heat ignited along my cheeks. All across my chest, my skin puckered into tiny goose bumps that traveled down and tightened my nipples against the lace of my bra. Dear Lord, I thought only crap like that happened in romance novels. The flexing and twisting of his tan muscles, the hardness under the lines of his tattoos was impossible to tear my gaze away from. This man made me hyper-aware of all my girl parts, and they ached, for the first time ever, I ached for someone. Someone real and sitting right across from me.
Chapter 24
After The Exorcist, we put on The Shinning and I went into the kitchen to make some more popcorn. Tucker was grabbing some more bottles of soda out of the refrigerator and hip bumped me as I passed. I almost flew clear across the room as he laughed. I laughed a fake laugh along with him; mentally I was clawing his eyes out of his face. I shoved the popcorn bag into the microwave and pressed the little popcorn button that NEVER seemed to pop all the popcorn in the bag. I didn't even know why I used it.
He placed the sodas on the countertop and leaned his long frame against it, "So, have you done anything about that little problem of yours?"
I stopped moving and stared at him, "What proble
m would that be Tucker?" The popcorn started popping; the sound was honestly more interesting to listen to than Tucker's voice.
"You being a virgin," he whispered trying to talk in a sexy voice. Pop, pop, pop.
"See, Tucker that's where me and you have a difference of opinion. I don't see that as a problem. My problem is that I have arrogant assholes who think they are good enough for me to hand it to them in exchange for a stupid dinner of disgusting sushi and expensive champagne."
He moved closer, obviously not hearing anything I had just said. "If you're looking for Mr. Right, Grace, I'm right here." This popcorn was taking way too long.
"Are your parents siblings?" I asked. I mean, really, they had to be.
"You're so adorable when you act all tough like that. Have you given any thought to working for me? I know your medical bills must be crazy with you not working, let me help you out and come work with me as my personal assistant." He wagged his eyebrows like classic Tucker. "We can have lunch breaks together, alone, in my office every day." He slithered closer, "I know how to please a woman, Grace." I think I'm hearing the pops popping farther apart now, almost done.
"Then please leave me alone."
"Okay, okay. No naked times during lunch breaks, but seriously come work for me, get to know me better. You won't regret it." I wanted his head to pop like one of those little kernels, maybe that would stop him from talking.
"Were you dropped on your head as a baby or did your mother just throw you against a wall?"
"Grace, you're so beautiful I just want to kiss you right now," he stalked closer to me. Oh crap, I was going to have to knock Tucker out in my kitchen. I balled my fists tight, both of them.
"That's enough Tucker, leave her alone," Shane's voice cut in behind me. "You just don't know when to quit while you're ahead do you?"
Tucker's eyes widened, "Dude, I'm trying to help her," he jabbed his index finger at me. "She's the most unemployed person I know and I was trying to help her out by offering her a job."