The Reluctant Romantics Box Set (The Fall, The Mind, The Heart)

“Drinking and driving?” Grant said with an authoritative tone.

“Actually, Judgey McJudgerson,” I growled out as a slow smile spread across his face, “we didn’t make it that far. The drive-through was in the same shopping center as the bar. So, yes, I drove drunk all of six feet, and at about two miles per hour. Are you going to let me tell you this story?”

“Go on then, baby,” he urged in a thick southern drawl, lifting a beer to his lips with a grin.

“Anyway, we were hysterical by the time we made it to the window, and I actually passed it as it opened and the guy there was set to greet us. He caught on to us immediately as I stuck the car in reverse and had to back up to reach the window. Dallas was laughing so hard she peed her pants right there. I was trying my best to console the guy in the drive-through as he voiced his concern for our safety. Anyway, I had already decided to park and call a cab after we got our food, but before we pulled away the guy at the window had to make sure he voiced his concern again. ‘Ladies, are you sure you’re okay to drive?’ I lifted my hand and waved him off with an ‘Oh, we’re fine. Really, don’t worry.’ And just as I said it . . .” I paused my story as I snorted, “. . . I put my foot on the gas and we went backwards! I’d never taken the car our out of reverse!” I started howling as I recalled the look of sheer terror on the man’s face. “There was no one behind us, thank God, or it would have been worse. And I did park right then and called a cab while Mrs. Pissed Pants ate my food and hers.” Grant was eyeing me with a huge grin on his face. “But that’s us, you know. That’s how we are. It was my twenty-first birthday and my sister got drunker than I did. And before you lecture me, I haven’t had a sip and got behind the wheel since.” Grant nodded as he looked at me, still chuckling.

“We are nothing but trouble when we are together, but we can’t do a damn thing without the other. She and I are like fraternal twins with a bigger age difference. We just don’t work or feel right without the other. That’s the way it’s always been. What sweetens our future is that we’re going to build something together.” I looked up to see Grant watching me. I felt the goose bumps spread across my skin and let out all my air. God, he was beautiful. I tried to hide how much he was affecting me as I went on. “They named her Dallas because my mother hated the city. Well, and this state. After what she and my father went through to be together, Dallas is what sealed the deal...the city, not the sister.”

Good Lord, captain obvious, could you sound any more ridiculous? God, am I drunk now? I’m totally babbling and he’s letting me.

“They named me Rose due to my mother’s love of her yellow roses. She has this fantastic garden filled with them. And the yellow rose is ironically our state flower, did you know that? Don’t take my beer away.”

Grant burst out laughing as he nodded at my half empty beer and gave me a wink. “I won’t take that one, I promise.”

Our eyes danced over each other as he spoke next. “The only person I was ever that close with was my dad,” he said softly. “So, I get it. I do.” He told me of how at the age of six he started working on planes at an airstrip close to his father’s house. His dad couldn’t afford daycare and his mother had just left them, so he brought Grant to work with him every day. I watched him as he animatedly told me the story of the first time he flew with his father. Unable to control myself any longer as I watched Grant’s lips move and consumed by hunger for him, I stopped him mid-sentence when I unhooked my bra and let it fall. The condoms I’d forgotten I had stashed in my bra hit the floor. He lifted his brow in amusement until his saw my panties fly through the air before hitting him in the chest.

I could feel the sunburn on my shoulders but ignored it. I was hungry and he was the solution. Leaning back against the edge of the float, I dipped my head in the water, wetting my hair then smoothing my hands over it. He watched the water cascade over my nipples that were already hard in anticipation.

In response, Grant pushed his briefs down, revealing his mouth-watering erection. With hungry eyes, he stroked himself a few times, looking at me naked in front of him.

“Do it again,” I ordered and watched him close his eyes as he took himself in his hand, stroked again, and let go. He grabbed a condom off the floor wordlessly, except for the eye fucking, and tore it with his teeth. I watched him slide it on, my center aching to be filled. “When I come inside you this time, I’m making you mine.”

Eyes locked, I made my way to him, kneeling and naked as the setting sun pierced through the trees behind him. He placed his hand behind my neck, pulling me in. I licked my lips and met his kiss. It was slow and sweet. He pulled me away gently, his fist twisted in my hair as he spoke.

“Rose, maybe you’ve convinced yourself you are incapable of love right now, or even worse, not worthy of it. Don’t let one dickhead cheat you out of what every single person on earth deserves.”

“And what’s that?” I whispered, completely leveled by his kiss.

“Love, baby, love. It’s your time to be loved, and I’m the one who’s going to do it.”

“Please, Grant, give me time to—”

“I’ll give you whatever you want.”

He cut me with his gentle words, sincerity filtering through his eyes. Loving hands brought my hips down over him and I gasped in pleasure, wrapping my arms around his neck. I moaned his name over and over between strokes as he tugged at my hair, kissing me thoroughly. He stopped his thrusts to rub me back and forth over him, working himself deeper inside. Our kiss morphed into something else entirely. Our carnal touches turned tender. I lifted myself slowly above him and gently let myself down, feeling every inch of him. Closing my eyes, he stroked my face with his fingertips and kissed my forehead. I reopened them, suddenly emboldened by our connection, and drank his blue eyes in as I took another slow plunge on top of him. He was throbbing and so deep. I lingered above him, riding him slowly. A cry of defeat escaped my lips and a wave of emotion washed over me as I came, shattering around him. I held his eyes as he pulled me into another deep kiss. My heart soared as he whispered to me, his intent clear, “It’s you, baby. I know it is. Just take it and I’m yours.” He came then and buried his head in my chest, wrapping his arms around me, holding me tight against him. I felt the dam burst and realized I had been in over my head since the minute I had laid eyes on him.

“I’ll take it, Grant.” I tilted my head down to get a look at his face still buried in my chest and saw his hidden smile. He rose to his knees with me still wrapped around him and laid me beneath him. It was the first time I realized the true meaning of making love because that’s exactly what we were doing.

Rose

You know those stories? The ones where the couple meets and they marry days later and remain married for sixty something years? I’ve always been a fan of those stories. I mean I’m not naïve enough to believe that a good majority of those weren’t shotgun weddings due to a soldier leaving for war, or a woman suddenly in the family way. The notion seemed so damned old-fashioned now and my generation is so quick to divorce these days. Those stories become less and less, and are considered a Hollywood type marriage, meaning the time frame from beginning to end spans the length of the time it takes for the two actors to fall in love, marry, shoot the movie, and divorce by release day.

The question I’d been asking myself over and over again when I wasn’t mind deep into labs was: Am I Hollywood or old-fashioned? My parents fell in love in a month, or at least that’s the way they explained it. In all honesty, I never in a million years thought it was possible for me. I credited myself with a level head and as I sat surrounded by books, I was sure it was still on straight. I hadn’t missed a single class, rotation, or lab.

But I wanted—no, I needed this thing with Grant to work because after only three weeks in what I was feeling was not just lust, and it was far more than affection. I had nobody to prove anything to aside from myself. I wanted to believe he was sincere in his sudden feelings for me. I wanted more than anything to believe that it wasn’t just our amazing sex, which was in a category of its own, that kept my mind occupied with thoughts of him and that damned house I’d help build in my mind. Because if I had to visualize the rest of my life, that’s exactly what I would picture. And he is exactly the type of man I would want to spend it with, given he didn’t have an ugly head yet to rear. But was that really my fear? It didn’t seem possible for Grant to have a Hyde. He was warm, caring, doting, and seemed hell bent on pleasing me. I was hesitant about going along with his whole ‘love at first sight’ scenario. Like for some reason I would need to justify it to myself when all it did was cheapen the authenticity of it. I mean, wasn’t that the point? And as if he’d read my mind, my phone rattled with a message.

Grant: I’m working on this plane and I keep thinking I’ll own it one day. What do you think about flying everywhere together?

Rose: I think it would be a dream. Seriously, you’re a pilot, too?

Grant: Of course. But I won’t mention the mile high club. That would be cheesy.

Ten seconds later...

Grant: Would you like to join the mile high club?

I laughed loudly as he continued his rant. I found he did that a lot. Especially when I was studying or in class and wasn’t quick to answer a text.