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She swept her hand up and down her throat like she couldn’t talk. I looked at the camera on the side panel. It was him. I opened the door, and our butler rolled in the cart full of food. He took one look at me and didn’t look up again. He set the food on the table, left, and I locked up. Grace joined me in the main room.
“Caveman,” she grunted, a sly smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
I lifted a brow. “Not a bear anymore?”
“You’re trimmed and shaved. Everywhere.” She tilted her head, elongating her neck.
“I still have a beard.” I tugged at the landscape over my face.
“Who said I liked beards?” A shrug rolled over her shoulder, and I smiled.
Shesaid so, before Frankie left.
My stomach rumbled audibly, and she snickered, pointing to the plates filled with food. “You better eat, bear. I wouldn’t want you to eat me instead.”
She caught onto her words a second too late, and I couldn’t help myself. “You’re very mistaken, Grace. I promise you, all the hours of licking coconut shells and sucking on pulpy fruit in Costa Rica didn’t go to waste.”
Her lips parted, and time stood still. Had it truly been five fucking years? Because it didn’t feel like it. It felt like no time at all had passed between us. Except she looked better. She had ripened like a fine queen and aged better than wine, balancing our age gap with pride. I had been too hard on her, and she’d had every right to put me in line when I was drinking.
“Would you like some wine?” I lifted the bottle of her favorite. My hard-on prevented me from sitting comfortably beside Grace.
“No, thank you. I’m getting my eggs retrieved on Friday.”
That ought to do it.
From the new intel I’d read through last night, the clinic was Hartley’s target, and I wouldn’t allow Grace to set a foot near the place. I poured her a glass of sparkling water and one for myself.
“I appreciate your apology. Earlier, you know. But I also have to thank you.”
She bit into her veggie burger.
“Thank me?”
“If it weren’t for you, I’m not sure my salon would have grown to the level that it has. I found a purpose after you left. I concentrated on the clients and the business until the long hours paid off.”
I thought she was plenty successful when we were together. Despite the giant trust fund she had inherited from her grandparents years ago, Grace wanted to work. She’d used part of the money to start up her business and made herself a millionaire.
I cleared my throat. “So, I was a nuisance.”
“That’s not what I said. You were…young.”
“I’m twenty-six, Grace. I’m not sure that’s old. Some would say I’m in my prime.”
She bit her lip and checked me out. “Fine, you were younger, and…different. You seem different now.”
Her voice caught in her throat, and the blushing shade returned to her cheeks and arms. I sipped on my water to clear my mouth. She finally looked up and met my gaze. “I owe you an apology as well, Hunter. I shouldn't have excluded you from that night because of public perception. Fuck the public.”
Well, that was new. I dared to smile and finished my fries. “So, I’m forgiven?”
“For that night? Yes, you are.”
And for everything else?
“When are we leaving this hotel room?” She set down her fork and pulled away from the table.
“Tonight.”
A chill breeze swept through the room, and I put on my shirt.
