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“To hell with it,” he muttered and bolted a heated path from the terrace.
* * *
Tielle resisted the urge to slam her bedroom door when she beat a clear trail there from the terrace. She tossed down the work she’d intended to handle and watched the folders, pads and her tablet slide across the wide antique pine desk in the corner.
She stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. In fewer than twenty seconds, she dissolved into a puddle of laughter. The argument with her ex and how it all started was the catalyst for her amusement. She dropped to the bed and was still laughing when Grae barreled into the room.
* * *
Finding his ex-wife overwhelmed by laughter diminished whatever argument he’d come to deliver.
“I’m sorry, Tel,” his said in one rush of breath. “It’s none of my business who you see or—or sleep with—”
He swallowed back something distasteful that followed those words. “Even so, I won’t lie and tell you it doesn’t piss the hell out of me to even think about it.”
His words had a sobering effect on Tielle. “There’s no one else, Grae.” She shook her head. “Not only don’t I have the time, but I’ve got no desire for any other man. Humph. I’m an unbelievable idiot for telling you this, but you’re kind of a hard act to follow.”
He gaped at her. “And you think you’re not?”
“Not sure.” Tielle’s cognac gaze faltered, and she studied the bed comforter’s elaborate stitching. “It seemed pretty easy for you to walk away from me before.”
“Easy? You thought that was easy, Tel.”
He stated the last as fact, and Tielle could see the upset filtering his stirring gaze. “Grae,” she said, scooting to the bed’s edge, “we shouldn’t talk about this now, not after the day we’ve had.”
Hurt pooled his expression. “You really think I’m that much of a pig that I could have another woman warming your place in my bed just like that?” He followed the declaration with a snap of his fingers.
“Grae, I’m sorry.” She left the bed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Damn straight you shouldn’t have.”
His words had reclaimed their growling intensity. He looked totally unapproachable, yet Tielle remained undaunted.
“You need to calm down. It’s been a crazy day.” She ran her hands over the chorded bulges of his arms defined beneath the sweatshirt he wore.
“It’s been a crazy day…” she soothed as much for his benefit as hers.
Tielle thought she was making headway given the change in his expression. She discovered that she’d completely misread him when he captured her upper arms. Effortlessly, he took her off her feet, settling her flush against him so that they were eye to eye.
Again, Tielle realized she’d mistaken his mood. The steadiness of his glare screamed hostile.
“Grae—” His name was the last word she was allowed to utter before her tongue was otherwise engaged. He occupied her mouth in an act of seeking exploration, bruising and sensual in its intensity.
Tielle may have criticized herself for the whimpering moans that escaped her lips were she not so terribly in need of what he was giving her. Languidly, she drew her legs up around his hips while simultaneously winding her arms up over his shoulders and locking her hands about his neck.
* * *
Grae’s moves didn’t harbor the same fluidity. Need for her overruled any possibility for finesse. He was of the single-minded intention to take her to his content. His tongue filled her mouth with a force that could have snapped her neck, but she met it with equal heat. Grae treated her to an array of potent lunges before dragging kisses of similar intensity down her throat. He paused to infrequently gnaw the supple flesh of her shoulders and the base of her throat. The V-necked cashmere slipped and shifted as Grae went on, exposing more of her skin. The loose material revealed the silk cami she wore beneath.
Keeping her sealed against him, Grae still managed to disrobe her, peeling away the delicate undershirt. His strong teeth against her flesh was soothed with a gentle bath from his tongue.
Tielle felt the bed against her back for only a moment before Grae put her on her stomach. He finished freeing her of the cami. The gravelly tones originating from his chest caused a shiver to rush along Tielle’s spine, yet she craved to be free of her clothes.
