GRACE.
“What?!” I was almost yelling, but I couldn’t stop myself. How could he think of doing that to me?
The recorder was still running, making me unable to say anything more implicating, so I beseeched and pleaded with my eyes. Don’t do this to me, Connor Shelby, I beg of you!
I wanted to shriek at him so badly but was scared I could aggravate the situation. And all he did was stare at me with an amused expression and a smile at the corner of his lips.
“What d-do you mean she’s here, Mr. Shelby?” I tried not to stutter, raising my hands and clasping them together in supplication.
“I swear, I’ll do anything, just don’t give me away like this, pleeeease” I mouthed to him without making a sound.
“Sure?” he mouthed back at me with laughing eyes and I nodded vigorously.
“I mean,” he spoke up now, something the recorder can catch. He placed his right palm on his chest. “She’s right here in my heart.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling relief flood over me. I exhaled, trying to steady my breath. “Means you must be really close to her,” I faked a laugh that came out dry.
“Not yet,” he replied with a suddenly serious expression. “But I’m trying to, and I will. Its why I took her on a date to that restaurant.”
“Do you mind telling us who she is?” I asked. His sudden seriousness unnerved me.
“Do you really want me to, Ms. Grace?” he leaned forward with a raised eyebrow.
Oh my goodness, I think I’m going to get a heart attack at this point, I thought, breaking out into a sweat. Ms. Emma added this question, asking me to ask Connor if only he would admit the lady at the restaurant was a romantic partner, and not a sister or cousin! Now the question had to be asked, since he’d already admitted to them being partners!
“It’s totally up to you, Mr. Shelby,” I chuckled nervously.
“She’s someone I’m dying to know.” he replied point blank. “I met and fell in love with her seven years ago.”
“Dying to know? You met her seven years go and you’re still trying to know her. That’s interesting. What sort of relationship do you both have, if you don’t mind telling us?” I was professional and asked questions my boss would expect of me given Conner’s last comment about dying to know his partner. Left to me honestly, I’d have long moved on to something else.
“She’ll mind me telling you,” he said. “But I want US to have a relationship, Ms. Grace.” he uttered, laying emphasis on the ‘us’ that made my head skip hundreds of beats.
“Sorry, I didn’t get that.”
“I mean, I want the woman and I to have a relationship, but she’s pushing me away, so hard.” he finished rendering me totally speechless.
“Pushing you away for seven years. Your relationship should be the very definition of complicated. What happened seven years ago?”
“That’s a story for another day.”
Oh, thank God, I yelled mentally.
He finalized, and was about to get up when his secretary knocked and came in.
“Alpha Shelby, sorry to interrupt but your next appointment is-”
“Cancel it” he instructed and turned back to face me. He had no idea how taken aback the secretary was, and he obviously didn’t care. “I’m not done here.”
“Yes, Alpha.” she bowed and left.
He stood and walked over to my seat, turned the recorder off and, taking my hand, he lifted me up carefully. I dropped the questionnaire and note pad on the glass table before joining him on his feet.
“It’s time to keep your own part of the bargain,” he said, relaxing on his huge working desk and making me lean on him.
I wanted to push him away, gather my belongings and take off, but it wasn’t my fault that Connor Shelby was extremely irresistible, reminding me afresh of why I got entangled with him seven years ago in that one night stand.
He smelled nice, felt warm and sturdy and… reliable. He was a very male-ish, a male’s male, an Alpha indeed.
“What do you want, Connor?” I managed to say from shaky lips. Already, my face was flushed and I tried steadying my wobbly legs. Yet I knew I shouldn’t let him have me back this easily, not after what he’d put me through. I couldn’t deal with another heartbreak, not especially from the same man.
“You have said your own words, I want to say mine.” He wrapped his hands around my waist and drew me close, until my breath caught in my throat and I swallowed hard to clear it.
“Words like what?” I arched my neck backwards, so that my face was as far back from his face as possible.
“Words like… I never stopped loving you, all through those seven years till date.” His voice was croaked, stifled but firm. “Words like, you know the manner in which we parted wasn’t my fault? And you also know that what we had that night was real? The mate bond…”
A cold shiver ran down my spine at the sound of those words. My heart tugged with warmth and I suddenly craved to lean forward to kiss his full, slightly parted lips.
“I want you back.” he said with the most genuine gaze I had ever seen, his voice filled with need and his eyes a few shades darker, and it suddenly felt like seven years ago.
He drew me closer, his hand still wrapped around my waist as he corked his head forward and our lips met.
All the organs in my body melted and turned into jelly, then solidified once again.
He started slowly, nibbling at my lower lip in a tentative manner, probably waiting for me to reciprocate which I had no option giving in to. I seized his upper lip, suckling with a need I never knew was in me.
He slid his tongue into mine and dug and explored deeper and deeper, searching, demanding, and drawing a gasp out from me even with my mouth in his. My body shuddered from too much desire, running out of breath but I couldn’t stop, I didn’t want this to end, until he withdrew abruptly, disconnecting his lips and licking them up like he wanted to every single drop of the memory we just created to be stored within him.
“Have dinner with me, Grace.” he said out of breath. His eyes seemed to gaze into my soul, and it felt like that night was just yesterday. “Let’s talk. We can’t deny this thing going on between us, besides, I don’t want to stay away from my child anymore.”
I realized he was right, and there was no point pushing him away. He was serious.
“When?” I inhaled, staring at his nose and mouth to avoid his disarming eyes as much I could.
“What day is good for you?”
“Weekend?”
“Fine. Bring Laurie along. The nanny who raised me lives here, and she’ll be more than happy to baby-sit her. I decorated her room already.”
I let out a disbelieving, short-lived chuckle. “You did?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise. I hadn’t even agreed to let him into my life and he’d already decorated a room for my daughter.
“Yes, ever since the day I saw her with you at the house.”
“And how were you so sure I’d have allowed you seen her, let alone bringing her for a visit?”
“Faith,” he said, smiling.
“Indeed,” I said. “I think we’ve taken enough time with this interview,” I said, making two quotation marks with my fingers in the air at the word “interview”. “Chris would be exhausted and wondering why I’ve taken this long,” I added.
“Oh, the picture. I should have them now.” he nodded thoughtfully as we prepared to leave his office to meet Chris outside. “I’ll come pick you and Laurie up on Saturday by…?”
“Seven pm,” I said, smiling.
“I’m not very good at waiting, but I waited for seven years, so I figure three days should be bearable,” he forced a smile, drew me close and planted a kiss on my lips.
Before I knew it, he dragged the rubber off my hair, making it fall on my shoulders.
“Now, that’s better.” he said, and I was a little stunned at the audacity.