Page 25
Author: Bella Andre
He hadn’t realized Lori and her sister spoke every day. Despite opening up to each other about their failed relationships after their first night together, by tacit agreement since then, they hadn’t pushed each other hard for anything. Instead, they’d both simply enjoyed their time together.
But it was getting harder and harder for Grayson to deny that he was starved for more of Lori. Not just her body. Not just her laughter. But to know her better.
All of her, inside and out.
So even though he knew he shouldn’t listen in without her knowledge, he didn’t head back outside to let her finish her call in private.
“Oh!” he heard Lori exclaim. “Is that a baby laughing? Really, it’s two babies laughing at the same time?” He felt the wonder in her voice deep in the center of his heart. “What could be better than that?” she asked on a sweet little laugh of her own. “I can’t wait to see them on Sunday. I’ve missed my little niece and nephew so much. ”
He’d known since that day he’d taken her to the General Store to pick up boots that she’d be leaving him for lunch this Sunday.
Unfortunately, he also knew that the odds of her coming back to his farm—and to him—after that were slim to none. Because once she re-entered her real life, she’d see how ridiculous hiding out on his farm was. Lori was a world-class dancer. She had a family who loved her. As much a part of the land as she seemed to be every time he looked at her, the truth was that she didn’t belong on his farm.
It was why he’d been careful not to get too close, telling himself again and again that it was smarter just to fill up on pleasure so that it wouldn’t hurt as much once she was gone.
But Grayson knew better: It would hurt like hell.
And he would have to let her leave anyway, because keeping Lori hidden away on a farm would deprive the world of her truly special gift. He’d known from the first second she showed up that she wouldn’t last very long. But he’d thought she would leave because she hadn’t been able to hack the hard work.
Now he knew the truth. Lori Sullivan could do anything she set her mind to. But while there could be plenty of great farmhands out there, only a few people were meant to be dancers.
“Yes,” she said to her sister, “I do feel better. ” She gave a contented little sigh. “Lots better. What can I say? Being a farmhand obviously agrees with me. Oh,” she added on a playful note, “and lots of super awesome sex with a hot cowboy doesn’t hurt, either. ”
She laughed at whatever her sister said. “Don’t worry, Soph. You’d like Grayson. He’s nothing like Victor. ” Lori was silent for a few moments as her sister spoke again. “I don’t know. I’m still working that out. ”
What didn’t she know? Grayson asked himself. If she was finally going to confront the douchebag she used to date? Or was she telling her sister that she thought there was a chance of a future with the cowboy?
Shit. This was why it was a bad idea to listen in on a conversation. Especially only half of one.
“I love you, too, Soph. Kiss each one of Smith’s and Jackie’s perfect little fingers and toes for their Aunt, okay?”
Grayson slipped back out the side door and stood in the driveway, staring up at the moon, wondering when in the hell he’d managed to completely lose hold of his heart. A few minutes later, Lori came outside to join him and slipped her hand into his.
“I swear,” she said in a voice filled with wonder, “the moon looks prettier here than anywhere else. Everything does. ”
“It’s even better from the middle of the pasture. ”
Hand in hand, they started slowly walking out across his land, the night air clean and crisp, the sky an inky blue. For once, she was quiet as she stared up at the sky and he knew he should be appreciating the rare moments of silence.
Only, more than he wanted a return to the quiet he’d grown so accustomed to over the past three years, he wanted Lori.
“Tell me about your family. ”
He felt her start in obvious surprise, but she quickly covered it with a laugh. “The sun will probably be back up by the time I finish doing that. There are eight of us, remember?”
“You only have one sister, right?”
She nodded. “We’re twins. ”
“There’s two of you?”
“Don’t sound so horrified. We’re nothing like each other. In fact, I can guarantee you would love my quiet, calm, librarian sister. Everyone does, especially Sophie’s pub-owning, tattoo-covered husband, Jake. ”
He raised an eyebrow. “How’d they possibly end up together?”
“Sophie and Jake have been in love with each other since they were kids, but neither of them wanted to admit it until they finally gave in and had a one-night stand at my brother Chase’s wedding. Sophie got pregnant with twins and the rest is history. ”
By now, he wasn’t terribly surprised at the way Lori acted as if something like that would be a perfectly natural progression for a relationship to take. She didn’t expect life to be normal, or by the book.
“My brother Gabe is just a little older than me and Soph. He’s a firefighter in the City and recently married Megan after saving her and her daughter Summer from a bad apartment fire last year. ” With barely a breath between sentences she explained, “Summer is an amazing eight-year-old who made my brother Zach take her new puppy for a couple of weeks while they were gone on vacation. He ended up meeting Heather, who’s a dog trainer and wanted nothing to do with him. But then her dog fell in love with his puppy, and Zach realized he couldn’t live without Heather either, so now they’re engaged. ”
His head was spinning with names and details. “The dogs are engaged? Or are you talking about your brother and his dog trainer?”
“Oooh,” she exclaimed, “Summer would love it if we had a little ceremony for the dogs, too. Good idea!” She paused for half a second before jumping to what seemed like a totally random question. “Do you like baseball?”
He gave her a look that said she should know better. “I’m a red-blooded American male. Of course I like baseball. ”
“But since you’re from New York, you’re probably more of a Yankees fan than a Hawks fan, right?”
“Are you kidding? After seeing Ryan Sullivan pitch up close, I—” The last names suddenly clicked into place. “Don’t tell me your brother is the guy responsible for the Hawks winning the World Series this year?”
“Last year, too,” she confirmed with a happy smile. “He just got engaged to his best friend from high school. Vicki is an awesome sculptor. So awesome, in fact, that one of my other brothers hired her to work on his last movie. ”
Grayson had thought he was catching up, but now she was losing him again. “You have a brother who works on movies?”
“I should make you guess this one. ” She waited expectantly for him to figure out who the hell in Hollywood she could possibly be related to, before finally scrunching up her nose and sighing. “I don’t know why nobody ever sees the family resemblance. I’ll give you a hint. ” She pretended she was holding a gun with her free hand and pointed it at him. “All the right friends in all the right places can’t save you now, can they?”
“Jesus,” he said as he realized her brother was Smith Sullivan, one of the biggest movie stars in the world. “Is there anyone you aren’t related to?”
“Well,” she said just slowly enough that he realized she was going to hit him over the head with yet another whopper of a sibling, “you know the wine we had with dinner the other night? My brother Marcus owns Sullivan Winery, and—”
“There’s an and?”
Lori started humming a song he’d heard on the radio approximately a thousand times in the past year. It was catchy and well written enough that somehow he wasn’t sick of it yet. “You know that song, right?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Marcus’s fiancée Nicola wrote it. And sang
it. ” She lifted her hands to his chest. “But before you totally start freaking out—”
“I’m not freaking out,” he said, but she ignored him, of course.
“—since I haven’t noticed that you’re all that into photography, you probably haven’t heard of my brother Chase. ”
“I was on the board of directors for the International Center of Photography in New York City,” he growled. “Of course I know who Chase Sullivan is. ”
Had he really been stupid enough to think that he could have uncomplicated, no-ties sex with Lori Sullivan?
Hell, in everything he did or saw or listened to for the rest of his life, he’d think of her and her family.
“And you know that my father died. I was only two, but my mother and older brothers tell the most wonderful stories about him, so it feels like I have memories of him, even though I really don’t. ”
He pulled her against him, into the place he always wanted her, with her body pressed close, her cheek soft in the crook of his neck. When she’d told him about her father before, he hadn’t been kind, hadn’t told her, as he did now, “I’m sorry. ”
“I am, too,” she said as she wound her arms around his neck. “Now will you tell me about your family?”
“It’s pretty much the opposite of yours. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. My father is still working the stock exchange and my mother helps run half the charities in the city. ”
“They must be so amazed with your farm, with everything you’ve done here to make such a difference in feeding an entire community. ”
He shook his head. “They haven’t seen it. ”
“How could they not want to come see what you’ve created here?” She looked extremely insulted on his behalf. “I mean, I know it’s different from what they’re used to in the city, but a little mud isn’t going to hurt them. ”
She was such a fierce defender of him, so ready to take his side. When, what, how had he ever done anything good enough to deserve this time with her? And how could he possibly find a way to keep her here with him for longer than two weeks without her resenting him for keeping her from her family, her career, her real life?
“I’ve never asked them to come,” he admitted.
“Oh, Grayson. ” She lifted his hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to his palm. “Don’t they know better than to wait for an invitation when the only thing that works with you is just showing up and refusing to leave? How come Sweetpea and I are the only ones who have ever figured that out?”
All day, all night, Grayson had wanted to kiss her, but never more than he did right then, with her sweet emotions clear as the night sky in her beautiful eyes.
Leaving the hand she was holding between their chests, he threaded the fingers of the other through her soft hair. She was already tilting her mouth up to his as he lowered his down onto hers.
Every time he kissed Lori and tasted how fresh and sweet she was, Grayson felt as though he was being bathed in warm sunlight on a perfect summer day. And even now, as he kissed her beneath the moon and the stars, that warmth moved through his veins, pumping through a heart that had been cold for so long.
He never wanted to stop kissing her, never wanted to let go of the beautifully warm and sweet girl in his arms. A week ago, he would have made himself let go of her anyway. But her conversation with her sister was a reminder that she’d be leaving soon enough. . . and he wasn’t even close to having his fill of her yet. So instead of letting Lori go, Grayson pulled her closer.
And when she gasped her pleasure against his lips, it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.
* * *
All the next day, Lori thought about the kiss Grayson had given her in the moonlight.