Offshore

Chapter Ten

Once Grace had calmed down she conceded to herself that Lisa probably had a point. She hadn't slept with anyone since Brandon. Which was almost a year ago, she suddenly realised with horror. Well tonight, Greg was coming round and he was going to get a big surprise.

At 7 O'Clock that night, a home-made lasagne was in the oven, wine was being chilled, candles were lit in the living room, all that was left was a long bath and a slightly frantic beauty routine. It was a while since Grace had gone through the whole hair removing process with a view to someone actually benefiting from it. A salon wax would have been preferable but she hadn't had time, up until a couple of hours ago she hadn't intended anyone to see her naked body in the near future, certainly not tonight. But now she was thinking about it she was getting quite excited. She rubbed rose scented oil into her damp hairless skin and wrapped herself in a white terry bathrobe. As she was combing her wet hair, her cell phone rang.

It was Greg. He wasn't going to make it. He had to drive to San Francisco to help out his sister who had thrown her boyfriend out and was scared he was going to retaliate. Shit, shit, shit! Grace was so disappointed it hurt.

The moment she hung up, the door bell rang and she opened the door to find Sam standing there. He looked tired but he hadn't got any less hot in the last two weeks. If anything, the stubble on his chin and his heavy eyes made him even more devastating. Grace tried to ignore the fact as she pulled the edges of her robe closer together.

"JD's in hospital," he said, as she just stared at him. "Can I come in?"

Once they were in the kitchen, he continued, "He's OK. He skipped school this morning and went skating in the old firehouse. Fell off a wall and broke his leg."

"I've been worried about him," Grace said, and then asked, "Did you know he was skipping school?"

"Of course not. After the hard time you gave me, I was hardly going to let him do that again."

Grace was surprised that he had actually listened to her. Sam took in the table set for two, the candles, the delicious smell in the air.

"Entertaining tonight?"

"I was, but he can't make it."

"Stood you up?" he asked, grinning.

Grace was determined not to rise to the bait.

"Have you slept with him yet?"

She blushed a crimson red and felt her temper rise uncontrollably. The disappointment of the aborted evening was transforming into anger. "That is none of your business!"

"Feeling frustrated?" he asked, dimple appearing, "I could help out."

Sam just couldn't help himself. The exhaustion from spending a long afternoon in the hospital had suddenly lifted the moment Grace had opened her door and blushed a delicious pink when she'd seen it was him. She'd been hanging onto that robe for dear life, but he had seen the blush. When he had noticed the kitchen set up for seduction it had annoyed him to such an extent that he had immediately picked a fight. He wanted to see her eyes flash. He had missed that. And now she was glaring at him with all the intensity of a passionately angry woman and it turned him on. Badly.

He reached out and gently tugged the end of her belt and to his delight there was no resistance.

Grace was propelled towards Sam with a familiar unstoppable force. Their mouths slammed together and the kiss became deep and frenzied almost immediately. She forgot she was mad and instead found herself pressing her full length against his hard body, willing him to to touch her. To her relief he roughly tugged at the belt of her robe and opening it, pulled her naked fragrant body against him, circling his hands round her waist. She curled a leg around his hip and grasped the back of his head, desperately pulling him closer so their lips and tongues could mash together. A low moan was coming from her throat and his hand moved up her torso towards her breasts.

Then the oven timer loudly beeped and Grace's brain suddenly snapped back into life. She pulled her mouth away from Sam's followed by her hands, her leg and then her body. Sam's hands remained frozen on her torso, his pupils so dilated his eyes looked black, his breathing laboured.

"Fuck," he gasped.

She took hold of his wrists and removed his hands from her body, then wrapped her robe back round herself and tightly tied the belt.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't have done that."

He looked like he was in pain. "Do me a favour," he rasped, "never kiss me like that again unless you have plans to follow through." He swept a hand over his closely cut hair, "It's not fair to do that to a guy."

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"I'm going now," he said, still breathing heavily.

"OK."

But he didn't move. "Are you sure we're done?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'm sure," she said, gripping the counter top behind her.

He sighed and left the kitchen, and a few seconds later she heard the front door loudly slam. She slumped against the counter. Stopping that had been the hardest thing she had ever done.