Tempting Grace

This excerpt is unedited. Final copy may vary a bit.

For the first time in over a year Grace Walters didn’t want to go home. She didn’t want to walk up the brick path and look at the pretty flowerbed she’d planted just last week. She didn’t want to open the door to the small two-bedroom cottage style house that she’d bought thirteen months earlier. The one and only place she’d let herself call home since she was fourteen and decided that she was better off on the streets than in a house where no one cared.

She didn’t want to go home, because she knew she’d see that small pile of clothes on the dryer that belonged to Chelsea, and then she’d have to accept that Chelsea hadn’t felt at home there. That no matter what Grace had done, Chelsea had still gone back to the street, and this time, it had killed her.

Grace didn’t want to remember. She didn’t want to think.

“Why don’t you get them both?”

She started when a deep voice broke through the thick fog coating her mind. “What?” She turned and found Lukas Martin behind her, less than a foot away. How had he gotten so close without her even noticing? Her instincts for self-preservation had always served her well before.

“You seem to be having a hard time deciding between ice cream flavors, why not treat yourself and get both?” Lukas said with a smile. A pale eyebrow arched and a playful gleam lit up his chocolate eyes as he leaned even closer. “But if you want a real treat you should let me cook you dinner.”

Grace started to say no, like she had so many times in the past month when he’d asked her out. But this time, the refusal stuck in her throat.

As if he sensed her weakness, he stepped forward, the playful gleam fading as his gaze took on a more intense heat. “Grace?”

Need blossomed from deep within. One she’d thought was long buried. She swept her gaze over his leanly muscled six-foot frame, and the energizing tingle of sensual awareness she always felt whenever Luke entered a room zipped through her. Grace knew intuitively that he could satisfy that need.

It was a bad idea. Her head knew that, but her heart, her aching heart needed to feel something other than the pain of failure, and there was one thing she’d always been good at. One thing she’d always succeeded at … and she was too tired to deny the pull that Lukas’ eager-to-please attentions awoke within her. “One night,” she whispered.

“One night?”

“One night. You and me. No dinner, and no promises.” She met his gaze and let him see the need she felt rising from deep within. “Tonight.”

Shock whipped through Lukas. She’d said yes! Adrenaline filled his veins and he fought the urge to pinch himself. Finally, after so many rejections, Grace had said yes to him.

His elation faded as her words sunk in. One night.

No dinner.

She hadn’t said yes to a date. She wanted a one-night stand.

Disappointment flooded him and he started to shake his head, then he took a better look at her.

“Grace, what’s wrong?” Her normally bright green eyes were dark and dull, the skin around them pinched and drawn. “Are you okay?”

She looked at the hand he’d placed on her shoulder, her head turning slowly, as if it took a lot of effort.

“I’m not hurt, Lukas.” She looked up at him from beneath those long sweeping eyelashes and his pulse jumped at the raw need there. She stepped closer and placed a small hand on his chest. “I just need to feel something. I need you tonight.”

There was no way in hell he was going turn her down.

They left the grocery store quickly and quietly, neither of them buying a thing. Grace was amazingly passive as he led her out to the car and got her settled in the passenger seat. He’d never seen her so … dim before. It was like the light from within had gone out.

The drive to her place was silent. Lukas wanted to talk to her, to ask her what had happened. What had made her change her mind about him, finally? But he wasn’t sure that was the smart thing to do.

He’d never been attracted to tough girls before, and when his father had told him Grace’s story it never occurred to him he’d be interested in her. But when he met the ex-stripper, he’d fallen hard and fast. The vibrancy of her personality softened the hard edges he knew she’d developed in her youth, and her love for the troubled kids she worked with was obvious to anyone with eyes.

The vibrancy was gone right now though. And so was the hardness. As a defense attorney he worked with all types of people and saw all sorts of things, and it almost seemed like Grace was in shock. If she wasn’t technically in shock, she was certainly close. Making her talk about whatever set her off wasn’t the smart thing to do.

And taking advantage of her vulnerability by sleeping with her wasn’t the right thing to do.

He’d been enthralled by Grace ever since he met her. Her personality, her background, her attitude … the whole package had hooked him from day one. Not to mention she was the first woman he’d met that had made his cock stand at attention just by being near her.

Lukas wasn’t a fan of one-night stands. In fact, he wasn’t even sure what the big attraction to sex in general was. It was nice, but it never made him feel the way he thought it should. So in the five minutes it took to get her place, he made a decision. As much as he wanted Grace in his life, he wasn’t going to change his ways.

Grace unlocked the door and entered her small house. She didn’t look around, she didn’t want to see what was there. Instead, she stepped inside, waited for Lukas to enter, and then closed the door behind him. “Follow me,” she said.

“Grace,” he spoke softly as he followed her down the small corridor to her bedroom. “I don’t think this is-”

She spun around just inside the entrance to her bedroom, stopping him cold. “Then don’t think.” She stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed the full length of her body against him. “Just feel.”