Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(15)

They were alone at the table, or might as well have been. Nothing existed outside his gaze.

One blond eyebrow arched just a little higher than the other over those devastatingly handsome ocular globes of his.

“Just one more drink,” he quietly said, his lips barely moving. “All right?”

Instinctively, she knew the right answer to this, as if it was the most important test of her life and she’d been cramming for it. Because despite how he’d worded his statement, it wasn’t a question, or even a request.

It was a command.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

His lips didn’t move, but his eyes narrowed, the outer edges crinkling, the smile instead settling there and all the more powerful for it.

“That’s my good girl,” he whispered back, leaning in to press a kiss to her temple and pull her against him, his left arm securely draped around her shoulders.

The world dropped back into place around them, jarring, jangling, but she didn’t feel jolted out of the soft, protective cocoon she now found herself wrapped in. Nothing short of a nuclear blast could have pulled her out of that mood at that moment.

His arm.

His embrace.

His aura.

His eyes.

His good girl.

His.

She closed her eyes and, for the first time in two years, she didn’t have to force her smile as she rested her head against his shoulder, took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out again.

Relief.

Barely cracking her eyelids open, she looked, sought his right hand with her left, and drew his hand over her right wrist, covering her bracelet and pressing his fingers around it before closing her eyes again.

Corey was still talking about…something. Their kids, she thought. Yes, she realized it was rude to be practically on her knees in front of Grant, so to speak, and ignoring their old friend.

Even though no one else but she and Grant realized what had just happened because of the volume of the music on the pool deck and all the activity around them, she knew her life had just seismically shifted again.

Only this time for the better.





It was through sheer force of will Grant remained firmly planted in his chair instead of standing, being incredibly rude to Corey and Marcy, and scooping Susie into his arms and carrying her to a room. Theirs or hers, he didn’t care.

Even if all they did that night was talk, that was fine, too. He just wanted to hold her, to keep her looking so utterly content as she did at that moment, the pain and grief completely gone for the first time that night and replaced by an expression so peaceful it bordered on bliss.

The significance of her pulling his hand around her bracelet wasn’t lost on him.

Darryl returned with her drink, his smile widening as he noticed her now nearly curled up in Grant’s lap. Well, not exactly, but for all intents and purposes.

Their Susie, reunited with them.

Hadn’t that been the problem all along? They were only perfect back then, in high school, and hadn’t even been having sex with each other. Not like the two men slutted around now, but while threesomes were…well, amazing, quite frankly, they’d always missed a little something Grant had hoped the next one might have.

Her.

She had been missing.

He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her shampoo. Something light and floral, vaguely fruity.

Something perfectly her.

She didn’t drink this margarita as quickly, nursing it, savoring it. If anything was going to happen tonight, he didn’t want her drunk and waking up the next morning hungover and full of regrets simply because she’d let the booze and loneliness make up her mind for her.

If she really wanted this, wanted them, she’d have to be able to give full, unimpaired consent to it.

Looking back on high school, he could easily see the inevitability of this. Of the three of them he’d always been the leader, the shepherd, the one they looked to for a final call or decision, the one who’d been “in charge” by default.

When she finished her margarita nearly an hour later, Darryl the ever-attentive one started to get up to get her a refill, but she reached out and caught his arm. “Just a soda water with lemon, please.”

“Okay.” He gave her a smile, and then his gaze fell on Grant.

Grant winked at him, broadening Darryl’s smile even more.

This would work. He knew it would. Just like he’d known it would work that time when he’d brought a play-partner home and eased Darryl into the dynamic they now had.

If only I’d known in high school what I know now, the three of us would probably be happy together with several kids already.

Of course, he was getting a little old for kids. Kyle was more like a buddy even though he was the boy’s godfather. Grant still loved him, even if he couldn’t officially be the kid’s “stepfather.” He’d resigned himself to never having biological kids of his own, but he was okay with that. He had Darryl.

And now it looked like they might get Susie back.

During a lull in the conversation, when Marcy had gotten up to go to the bathroom and Darryl and Corey were busy talking, Grant turned Susie’s right hand palm-up and brought it to his lips, gently tracing lines across her palm with his tongue.

He kept his eyes on hers, carefully watching.

Her gorgeous green eyes, that beautiful dusty color, like fern leaves, had haunted his dreams way back when.