“Mess everything up between you and Isaac.”
He heaved a long exhale. “I knew your relationship with Beck was going to be rough. SEAL relationships always are. And I knew you deserved someone better. Someone who could give you a real marriage. But I didn’t know what a fuckup of a husband he was.”
“He did the best he could. I put that behind me a long time ago.” She poked his chest. “You’re the one who hasn’t been able to get over it.”
He searched her eyes with thoughts tumbling over each other in his head. Then his thumbs slid across her cheekbones with a tenderness that knotted her belly with want. His lips touched hers, once, twice, three times, before he pulled back and met her eyes again.
“I’m over it, Grace,” he said, firm and sure. “Come home with me.”
Her belly fluttered with the promise of his words. But she locked that dreamy little girl in her cage. In Grace’s world, believing meant losing. And she wasn’t ready to go through losing him again. Not now, when she lost her mother on a daily basis.
All she could do was take what he could give in the moment.
She slid her arms around his waist, loving the feel of his muscles beneath her hands. Aching to get him into a bed so she could feel all that hard muscle and smooth, warm skin against hers.
She lifted to her toes, kissed him again, and said, “I’d go home with you even if you weren’t over it.”
“Oh, I am,” he assured her, taking her hand and leading her off the porch to her car. “My place or yours?”
“Your hotel is closer.”
“God, I love the way you think.” He pushed her against the door of her car, kissed her hard, sweeping his tongue against hers with a sigh. “I love so much about you, it will take me years to point it all out.”
She raised her brows. “Years?”
His mouth kicked up in a hot smile. “Maybe even forever.”
That cage took a hard hit, rattling until it almost broke open and let that little dreamer free to wreak havoc on Grace’s heart. “Forever, huh?”
He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re a complicated woman.”
She sighed and nodded. A little too complicated for her taste. “I’ll follow you to the hotel.”
He settled her behind the wheel of her Honda, then jogged to his own car and started the engine. God, she was suddenly anxious. Nerves pulsed along her skin, kicked in her heart, steering her mind toward Forever? Could it work?
Just as Josh pulled onto the street, Grace’s phone rang. With a quick glance around for cops, she answered, “This is Grace.”
“Grace! Baby! You answered.”
A chill shivered down her spine. “Isaac?”
“Yeah, honey, it’s me. Hey, I can’t talk long, but I wanted to tell you that we’re touching down in San Diego tomorrow. I’ll be home for Christmas this year. Isn’t that amazing?”
She stopped at a light behind Josh’s car, feeling as if she’d skidded into an alternate reality. “That’s great. Are you going up to LA to see your family?”
“If I have time, but not until I get a few days with you.”
Frustration bubbled to the surface. “Isaac, I’m working. I have plans with my mother. And you’re doing it again. You’re acting like we’re still married. You know that’s why I stopped answering your calls to begin with. And I don’t appreciate you sending Josh down to check on me.”
“Baby, just because we’re not married doesn’t mean I’ve stopped caring about you. I miss seeing you. I miss talking to you.”
“Listen, Isaac, this isn’t a good time—”
“Hold on.” He covered the mouthpiece and yelled to someone in the background, “I’ll be there in a fucking minute.” Then to Grace again, “I’ve got to go, baby. I’ll come find you as soon as my feet hit the ground.”
And he disconnected.
Fury whipped up in Grace’s chest like a hurricane. “You son of a bitch.”