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“That’s a good point,” Shelly Clegg agreed. “Faro’s just tryin’ to find a way to improve Grae’s awful mood by apologizing in front of all of us and masking it behind group healing.” She twisted a still-pouty mouth. “Get us to reveal our mess and make his look better than it is.”
Desree sipped from her cup and held it as if hoping to draw calm from the warmth penetrating the ceramic. “I have a feeling it’s more than that.” Her tone was reflective, haunted.
“There she goes, y’all,” Janie Clegg groaned. “Des and her conspiracy theories.”
Laughter roared at Desree’s expense for a time.
“He’s always been a crafty child,” Des pointed out through her own laughter. “Doesn’t do anything without a reason behind it, and I’m not willing to say that tonight was just about him apologizing to Tielle and Grae. He could’ve had a family dinner at his house for that.”
Desree’s point of view appeared to take hold. Silently, the group contemplated the logic of it all.
“What reason would he have?” Layla asked.
Desree flexed her fingers around her mug and sighed. “Guess we’ll have to wait until he shows more of the hand he’s holding.”
* * *
While the oversized sofa before the library fireplace could fit two people quite nicely, its ability to do so was terribly strained when one of those people was Grae. He and Tielle had taken up opposite ends of the long chair. Grae’s legs stretched along the length of Tielle’s smaller frame, providing wonderful support for her back while she dozed on her side.
Grae had been first to awaken from the nap they’d fallen into after dinner. The fire wasn’t roaring quite so furiously, yet it presented its enthusiastic flames and a seeking warmth from the wide hearth. The vibrancy of those flames, however, was still unsuccessful at capturing Grae’s attention when it competed against the sight of Tielle at rest.
Inching closer, he eased one leg off the sofa, careful to keep the other behind Tielle’s slumbering form. He thought over how often he’d planned a trip to Vancouver over the past year…and what became of those plans. Now he was there, and she was within touching distance. He smoothed a few fingers through her hair. He was there with her, and they were caught up in family melodrama, of all things. The reality of it was turning him inside out.
Grae’s fingers gently stroked through her unbound hair, which was held back from her face by a thin braid wrapped about her head. Tielle fidgeted, on the verge of waking. She turned on her back, the move forcing open the bodice of the casual quarter-sleeved frock she’d worn for dinner. The hem had already risen to a suggestive position along her thigh. The V-neck bodice parted to reveal glimpses of the perfect breasts he’d missed.
“Dammit, Tel.” The curse was playful, albeit tortured. She dozed with no clue or care for how insane she was driving him.
“Ti.” He prayed she’d awakened before his lack of restraint asserted itself. “Tel.”
He rubbed her thigh, telling himself it was merely to help her waken, when every stroke only sent the hem of her dress higher.
She shifted again and sent his hand sloping to her inner thigh. Completely her fault, of course. Then, as if she hadn’t tortured him enough, a faint sigh escaped her parted lips as though she were thoroughly and beautifully relaxed.
He leaned close to whisper, “Honey, wake up for me.”
All the while, the hand at her inner thigh smoothed closer to what he hungered for. The pad of his thumb commenced a slow assault along the folds of her sex, still secure inside her panties. His thumb glided slowly up and down the cottony fabric. Grae felt his eyelids growing heavy as sensation stirred wildly inside him.
He left off the urgings for her to awaken, preferring to dry-suckle her petal-soft earlobes as his touch to the middle of her panties grew more insistent. Tielle’s movements on the sofa took on a new intensity. Grae let loose a groan, feeling the subtle arch of her hips when she offered herself to him.
Offered herself to him?
She’s asleep, for God’s sake, he berated himself, yet he made no effort to remove his offending fingers. Her smell tantalized him, reminded him. He’d missed her so. Why did he let it all go so far?
