Too Much Temptation. Lori Foster
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First case of beer? Grace still held on to Ben. “I’ll take you to Graham.”
Ben looked down at her hands, latched tight to his waistband. “Turn me loose, woman. I can manage.”
She gave Noah a questioning look.
“He’ll be fine,” Noah promised. “I’ll call down and tell Graham to watch for him.”
“Well, all right.” Grace loosened her hold and Ben floundered forward. He fetched up against the couch, righted himself, then located his shoes. He didn’t bother to put them on.
“You two kids behave now, okay?”
Noah, who was only slightly steadier than Ben, went to his brother to help him out, then used the intercom to call down to Graham.
While they were both occupied Grace picked up an empty beer case and began stowing bottles inside. She was only half done when Noah returned.
He still had that awesome fire burning in his eyes and it made her very nervous. And very, very aware of him as a man.
“You heard what Ben said,” Noah told her while scrutinizing her every movement.
“Uh, no.” Grace licked her dry lips. “What did he say?”
Noah started forward, faltering a little but with definite purpose. And damn if he didn’t have a small, wicked smile tilting one side of his mouth. “You’re all…” His gaze dipped over her too-round body outlined in the clinging clothes—top to bottom and back again, making her heart leap with embarrassment. His eyes met hers. “…wet.”
Grace’s mouth opened, but not a single word emerged.
Noah kept advancing, closer and closer, despite the way she instinctively backed up. Until he stood directly in front of her, until the power of him, the heat and the deep male scent of him touched her all over.
Her breath caught, her pulse tripped and tumbled.
“Gracie,” he murmured, and he touched her cheek, looking at her in a way he’d never looked at her before, in a way no man had ever looked at her. His smile deepened, his eyes brightened. “You’re going to have to lose the wet clothes.”
Grace closed her eyes and wished like hell he wasn’t drunk. But wishing didn’t work. He was drunk—the fact that he’d said such an outrageous thing to her proved it—and that meant she couldn’t take advantage of him, no matter what he said, no matter how badly she wanted to.
Well, damn.
Chapter Two
Even in his inebriated state, Noah knew that half of what he said and did was out of character. Or rather, it was out of character for the man he’d tried to be, to live up to his grandmother’s specifications.
But for the first time in years, he felt like himself again. He was a free man, allowed to do as he pleased, with whomever he pleased. He owed Kara nothing, and after Agatha’s explosion, he didn’t owe her anything either.
In his typical fashion, he’d carefully considered how to handle things after being disowned. Only then had he reacted. He’d already set his plans into motion, and before long, he’d be completely free of Agatha. If they had a relationship after that, if his grandmother claimed him at all, it’d be because she wanted to, not because she needed to.
Because he lived without illusions, he was prepared for either reaction.
He hadn’t been prepared for Grace. She’d thrown him for an emotional loop, giving him her unquestioning support and loyalty. As an illegitimate and late addition to the Harper family, loyalty meant the world to Noah.
Probably because he’d never had it.
Agatha had recently proven he couldn’t have it from her, no matter how many different ways he bent himself—which was why he wouldn’t bend for her anymore.
And he sure as hell hadn’t ever gotten it from the foster parents who’d grudgingly taken him in. Only his brother—who he hadn’t met until he was nearly grown—had ever given him that kind of unconditional support.
And now Grace.
Agatha had made an excellent choice the day she’d hired Grace Jenkins. Noah remembered sitting in on the interview, watching the too-plump twenty-two-year-old, fresh out of college without a single reference. She was alone in the world; her parents had passed away in an accident years before. At that moment, he’d felt a strange affinity to her. They were both alone, both stubborn and determined.
Grace had lifted her rounded chin, met Agatha’s shrewd gaze squarely and listed what she considered her best qualities.
Hardworking, driven, intelligent, rational…and loyal.
That thought made Noah frown. He caught Grace’s hand and tugged her with him toward his bedroom. “Does Agatha know you’re here?”
Noah practically dragged her, she showed so much resistance. But he didn’t let up. He liked the feel of her soft hand in his, and he especially liked the way she looked at him with those enormous brown eyes. They were sexy, no two ways about it. He’d always liked her eyes as much as her determination and backbone.
Noah especially liked them now.
Of course, he was beyond horny, on the ragged edge, but it was more than that. It was…he didn’t know what the hell to label it, and at the moment he didn’t even care to try. “Gracie?”
He pulled her into his bedroom and turned to face her.
She looked up at him through her lashes. Long wet ropes of twisted brown hair clung to her face and throat. She glanced around his room and licked her lips. “What?”
“Does Agatha know you’re here?” he repeated.
“She knows.”
Noah crossed his arms. “I bet she was none too happy.”
That adorable stubborn chin of hers lifted. “I’m a grown woman, Noah Harper. I make my own decisions.”
Shaking his head, Noah turned away to rummage in a drawer. “Meaning she forbade you to come here, huh?”
Grace started to inch back when he located a white T-shirt and pulled it out. He caught her by the upper arm. She was…very soft. Plump, as he already knew, but also soft and warm and intensely female.
He could smell her wet hair, her damp skin, and his blood burned.
It hadn’t been that long since he’d walked in on Kara, but there’d been much to do, to deal with, and no time to find a woman. Knowing he was now free to indulge his true nature made it doubly hard to wait. He was so frustrated, so sexually primed after the long deprivation of his engagement and the emotional drain of ending it, he felt ready to go nuts.
But he had to remember that this was Grace, his grandmother’s secretary, a gentlewoman, a very respectable and innocent woman.
I’m not used to men touching me. God, the very idea of being her first made his imagination shoot into overdrive and all his muscles clench.
“Grace,” Noah said, his voice too harsh, “are you going to be in trouble for coming here?”
She lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know. I’ll deal with that later. Not that it matters.” That ferocious, protective glimmer lit her eyes. “None of them had any right to crucify you. I couldn’t stand by and let you think that we all felt the same.”
“Because you don’t?”
“Of course not.”
“Because you know me so well?”
She stammered, then snapped her teeth together. “Noah Harper, I’ve known you for three years. You’re like me in a lot of ways. Hardworking and proud and conscientious. You would never do anything so reprehensible