It was instant. The way turbulence rippled through my senses. The air I was breathing suddenly choppy and rough. “Hardly.”
If she only knew. If she only knew the way I’d lived. The things I’d overcome. The things I’d done to survive.
The only delicacy I’d known as a child were the ones I’d scraped out of a trash can. I wondered what she’d think then?
“That’s good then . . . because you should know, I’m not going to be impressed by the location. The only thing that can impress me is the man.”
God, this girl. So damned different.
“I guess I already have everything going against me then, don’t I?” I tried to inject some humor into it, but I realized I was sending her a warning. If she looked too deep, she wasn’t going to like what she’d find.
She turned that teal gaze on me as we entered through the revolving door, my hand at the small of her back as I ushered her inside.
With a glance over her delicate shoulder, her stare scattered over my body. Or maybe it was just breaking me into pieces. “Is that what you think? That you aren’t worth it? That you aren’t worth the chance you’re asking me for?”
Apparently, when it came to this girl, I had no impulse control. Because I had her pushed against the interior wall in a flash.
A gasp of air shot from her lungs, and I was immediately sucking it down. Wanting to breathe in every element.
Earth and water and sky.
I gripped her by both sides of her gorgeous face. “Make no mistake. I’m not worth it. I’m not ever going to be. I’m an asshole, Grace. The greediest bastard you’ll ever meet. But with you . . .”
My words trailed off, my eyes moving over her face, wondering what the fuck it was she was making me feel. “With you . . . for once in my life . . . I wish that I could be someone else. Someone better. That I could be worth it.”
She blinked up at me, guilt and hope and belief blazing through the depths of those eyes. A dark, mesmerizing sea.
There I was giving her an out, and she was looking at me like I’d just given her a gift.
“I guess we both want to be. To be worth it,” she murmured, her words wrapping me like a caress.
An extension of grace.
And I didn’t deserve it. Not after all the things I’d done.
“Isn’t that what everyone wants? To be worth taking that chance on? To matter?” she continued, voice so soft.
So sweet.
So real.
I thought she might be the most honest thing I’d ever held.
Taking her by the hand, I threaded our fingers together, relishing in the flash of heat that skidded up my arm.
A jolt that threatened to shock my heart back to life. I pressed my mouth to her temple and whispered as I guided her toward the elevators, “What are you doing to me, Angel?”
She didn’t have time to answer before the elevator doors swept open and a drove of bodies came flooding out. I stepped back in not-so-pleased surprise when I saw the huge body in the middle of it.
Shit.
Just what I needed. Hell, this was probably exactly what I deserved.
Instant karma, baby.
The second Mack saw me, he angled his head as if he were trying to make sense of the scene in front of him.
I kind of wanted to grab Grace. Wrap her up. Take cover and hide.
Instead, I shuffled my feet like a pansy bitch.
I roughed an uneasy hand through my hair.
“Ian,” Mack said, amusement in his voice as he looked between Grace and me, clearly making the calculation between the text I’d up and ditched him for last night and what had led me to be standing in that spot right then.
His voice twisted with knowing emphasis, a razz fraying from the seam. “What are you up to, man? Long time no talk.”
Right.
I tried not to grind my teeth, but they were instantly getting mashed to shit.
His gaze darted between me and the girl tacked to my side, his blue eyes riding high as silent questions fired from him like arrows.
Are you on an actual date?
Seriously?
Where is my best friend and the bullshit he was feeding me last night?
This was something he’d never once witnessed before. He knew full well an exchange of names and numbers and dinner as a prelude had never been my style.
Discomfort and a shot of something unexpected rushed me.
This protectiveness that whipped and gusted and blew.
Gale force.
Like I wanted to make a statement.
Tell him she was different.
That this was different.
That it mattered.
But I didn’t have time to evaluate any of those things before her sweet voice was filling the space—a soft giggle and a glance of those eyes as she raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “We’re just having dinner.”
I couldn’t stop the bolt of surprised laughter that came rumbling from my chest, this girl a confusing mix of hard and bitter and soft and sweet. Then she went and was throwing out a tease to my big-ass, burly best friend as if he didn’t intimidate her at all.
I liked her.
That was exactly what was wrong with me.
Exactly what had gotten into me.
I like her.
Liked being in her space and standing at her side.
Shaking my head, I cleared the roughness from my throat. “Grace, this is my best friend, Mack.”
He shoved a big hand her direction. She released mine and reached out to shake the one he had extended.
“Mack, this is Grace.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mack,” she said, offering him one of those genuine, mind-bending smiles.
I was suddenly fisting my hand where hers had been, wondering why she made me feel that way. Possessive and needy as I watched him looking her over.
He continued to shake her hand, not releasing it as his attention bounced between the two of us.
“Grace . . . who you’re having dinner with tonight?”
It was a prod and tease and a challenge, the last fully aimed at me.
“Yes. We’re having dinner.” I tried to keep my response even. To keep my cool.
And you know, not go and do something stupid like rip her hand from his.
He definitely didn’t need any more ammo than he had.
He had plenty.
He was clearly in the mood to use it.
“Is that so?”
I angled my head at him, the flare of a threat in my eyes.
Don’t say a word, asshole.
He chuckled, looking back at Grace. All that amusement drained from his face and something tender took to his expression. “It’s really, really great to meet you, Grace.”
“It’s really nice to meet you, too.”
She glanced over at me as if she were asking for help. Unsure of what was passing between Mack and me, their hands dropping just as I wrapped my arm back around her waist and tucked her close to me.
Right where I wanted her.
Didn’t give a fuck if Mack watched it with speculation or not.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I told him, a little harder than necessary.
A cue to drop it.
He could give me all the shit he wanted to later.
A deep chuckle rolled from him, and he started toward the main entrance, walking backward. “Yeah, we will.”
He gave me a salute before letting it fall into a grin that he cast at Grace.
She gave him a timid smile.
Without saying anything else, I reached out and pushed the button for the elevator that had given up waiting for us to enter. Immediately, the doors slid open, and I led Grace inside.
“So, that was your best friend, huh?”
“Yup,” I told her.
“Not your enemy?” There was a bit of a laugh that came out with her question.
I shook my head, letting a smile pull to my face. “Let’s just say he can be a little . . . overbearing.”
What I really meant was he loved having his nose up in everyone’s business. I’d been made to be an attorney, and the dude had been made to be a detective.
“Frenemy?” she tossed out with an arch of her brow.
Light laughter rumbled. “Something like that.”
Though that wasn’t really true. He was my closest ally. The one I could trust, or turn to for absolutely anything. It also meant I could count on him to give me the most shit.