Playing with Danger (Desire Bay 2)

Hannah pushed the shopping cart and glanced at Grant, walking next to her.

“You look like you’ve never gone grocery shopping before,” she said, watching him examine the off-brand box of macaroni and cheese for a weirdly long time.

“I live in New York, baby. I usually grab a quick bite out.”

“So you never cook?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I can’t remember the last time I cooked.”

She raised a brow and filed that fact away for later.

He looked good, tall and built with lean muscle, and even his dark blue jeans were made perfectly for his butt. She didn’t know if he was trying to dress a bit more casually for her or because he was in a small town, but she liked it. She also loved the blue suit pants he wore with a button-down. Okay, she loved everything he wore, because the man was sexy has hell.

“Something making your mouth water, baby?” he asked and winked at her.

Damn. He’d caught her ogling him. Again. She’d been doing it more and more since he’d been, well, in front of her. That’s the problem about Grant being around. She was starting to enjoy him.

“Well, I am hungry and you don’t cook, so you’re starting to look like a big pork chop.” She pushed her cart down the next aisle, slowly going through the frozen food selection.

“Well, I can’t have you hungry,” he said, coming up behind her and putting his arms around her waist. “I’m very hungry myself and have a taste for . . .” He dipped his hand into the front of her jeans.

“Grant,” she said in a hushed tone. His fingers toyed on the outside of her panties against her clit.

There was only one person at the other end of the aisle. Hannah kept walking and wiggled to try to get him to stop—to keep going? She couldn’t tell. Couldn’t think. She only felt his fingers. He kept his hands discreetly on her while walking behind her.

She was getting hot, bothered, and a whole lot of needy.

Something caught her eye in the frozen case, and she moved to open the door. Grant gently slipped his hand away from her as she got a small carton of vanilla ice cream out of the case.

“Dessert before dinner?” he asked. “I like where your mind is at.”

Hannah smiled, then caught of glimpse of something not as good as ice cream.

Her father.

He walked into the grocery store and headed her way.

“Hey, can you go get strawberries and whipped cream? We’ll make sundaes,” she said to Grant, guiding him down the other end of the aisle.

“Of course. I’ll meet you at the checkout.”

“Great,” she said. Once he rounded the corner, her father was five feet away.

“I saw your car in the parking lot,” he said.

Figured.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“Just a few bucks,” he said with no shame. They were well past small talk. A few years ago, he would’ve still tried to hide the fact he needed money by stalling for a sentence or two. Opening the request with phrases like “Weather was good today,” or “You still at Goonies?” Now, he got straight to the point, which Hannah appreciated on some level. No sense in trying to pretend there was more to their relationship than there was.

“For food?” she asked, knowing the answer. One of these days she was hoping her father would genuinely need something more than a few bucks for booze. Or to bail him out of whatever mess he was in because he bought booze with his bill money.

“Yes, I need cash for food,” he said. Lie. She could tell right away. Her father wasn’t exactly elusive when it came to his fibbing. And as always, he wanted cash. Not that Hannah was in the business of writing him checks, but the way he always said the word made every transaction send tremors up her spine.

She looked him in the eye, and he glanced away. He was struggling with his health. The yellow tint to his skin was an obvious sign, not to mention the smell of stale beer and tobacco always wafting off him. Some things never changed, and her father’s scent was one of them. He was thin, yet his belly protruded like he was a starving child—or a fifty-plus-year-old man who drank every meal.

“You really need to eat something,” she said. She grabbed the small bag of white potatoes and chicken strips she’d already paid for at the deli and handed it to him.