The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(47)

Rage choked him. He stood there in the doorway, his mind racing, trying to find a way out. The trouble was Ian never left a way out. Ian would do it. Sean could do nothing but take his brother’s offer. He had to protect Grace. She wouldn’t be able to handle prison, even for the short term. His brother was a righteous bastard. “I will never forgive you for this, Ian.”

“I know, but if I’m right about what’s going on, then at least you’ll be alive to hate me.”

Sean strode out the door, glancing back only momentarily. His brother stood there like a chunk of granite, completely immovable and without a bit of emotion. Eve tried to stop him, but Sean pulled away from her. “Can’t stay for a therapy session, Eve. I’ve got to go sit in a van and listen to our ‘prime suspect’ take a shower in the morning. I wouldn’t want to miss that. I’m out when this is over, Ian. Do you understand that?”

Ian nodded, as though Sean’s resignation had been a factor he’d weighed and found an acceptable loss. “It’s for the best. You’re not cut out for this.”

Sean slammed the door behind him.





Chapter Eleven


Grace came awake in a bit of a haze. She sat up in bed and looked around trying to get her eyes to focus. Her mouth felt a bit dry. How much wine had she had last night? She thought it was only a glass, but she had to be wrong, right?

There was a glass of water on the nightstand. She smiled a bit before drinking a good portion of it down. Sean was a thoughtful man. The memory of last night washed over her like a cold rain. Now she was awake and just the tiniest bit mortified. What had possessed her to tell him she loved him? Grace let her head fall to her hands. She knew why she said it. She’d said it because she meant it. She loved Sean Johansson. She also knew that he was leaving, and that would be the end of their relationship. The most she could hope for with him was a few hot weekends, and then he would find someone younger and fall in love and get married. He had that whole phase of his life ahead of him.

Grace shook it off. He’d been sweet. He’d told her he was crazy about her. She remembered that much. He’d made love to her again. It was okay. They could move on and pretend like she’d never said it. They could enjoy the rest of the week.

She breathed in deeply, wondering if he was already in the kitchen making something scrumptious for breakfast. She didn’t hear the shower running. Tossing off the covers, she reached for her robe. Every muscle in her body protested. And she was sore in places she had never been sore in before. The floor beneath her felt wobbly. She wasn’t drinking again. She couldn’t handle it apparently.

“Sean?”

No one called back. Grace padded out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. No Sean there and no signs of an impending breakfast cooking session. The kitchen was pristine. Every dish had been washed and put away. The whole house was silent as a grave.

A sinking feeling threatened to overtake Grace. She turned back to the bedroom and, sure enough, his small suitcase was gone. When she looked at the bar, his keys were missing. He’d placed them beside hers the night before. She’d stared down at those side-by-side keys, a sweet intimacy invading her veins. Now tears filled her eyes. He wasn’t out getting something or taking a jog. She felt it. He was gone. He’d left in the middle of the night without even waiting to say goodbye.

All because she’d been dumb enough to say I love you? That seemed a bit harsh. Grace managed to find the edge of her bed. She sank down as the tears started to fall. She knew Sean didn’t love her, but she’d thought he’d liked her enough that he wouldn’t just walk out. She sat on the bed for the longest time, going over everything she could remember about the night before. In no way did he seem like a man who was ready to run. He’d been sweet, and he’d made love to her like she was the last woman on Earth. It had to be because she’d said she loved him. He probably envisioned a clinging vine pulling him down. Of course he didn’t want a declaration of love from his weeklong fling.

Grace forced herself to move, to turn on the shower, to brush her teeth. She walked through her morning routine like an automaton. Her legs worked, her arms functioned, but her brain was somewhere else. It was stuck in a loop of regret, recrimination, and no small amount of self-loathing. What had she been thinking? She’d thrown herself into a D/s relationship with a man she barely knew. She’d let him do things her husband hadn’t even done to her before, and she’d begged him to do it. She’d been a complete moron.

And worse, she already missed him.

The phone rang after she’d dressed for work, and her heart leapt. For the first time that morning, she moved with purpose. She grabbed the phone. Relief felt like a drug in her veins.

“Hello.” Of course he would contact her. He’d just gotten called away. He had a job after all and a life in another state. He didn’t want to wake her. He was probably calling her from the airport.

“Hey, mom.” The sunny voice of her youngest son filled her ears.

Normally it would buoy her spirits. Now she found herself forcing a light response out of her mouth as her heart fell. She stood there murmuring all the right things, but she wasn’t really there. After listening to a couple of stories about what was going on in Austin, she promised to send him some gas money and hung up.

That was when she saw it, a small piece of paper hanging from a magnet on the refrigerator. Grace pulled it off with shaky hands.