Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(96)

He didn’t exactly understand it, but there was something about the way she felt when he was inside her that seemed exactly right, not just to his cock, but to all of him. He thought of the flocks of women he’d dated and gone to bed with. None of them had felt exactly like Gracie.

Gracie felt right.

Sometimes she did this funny little thing after they’d finished making love. He’d be holding her against his chest, sort of dozing off and feeling peaceful all the way down to his toenails, and she’d make this little X right over his heart with her fingertip. Just this little X. Right over his heart.

He was pretty certain Gracie figured she was in love with him. It wasn’t unusual. He was accustomed to women falling in love with him, and with a few memorable exceptions, he’d learned to stay honest without breaking their hearts. The thing he appreciated about Gracie was that she understood she wasn’t really his kind of woman, and she had enough sense to accept it without making a big fuss. Gracie might create scenes about things that weren’t any of her business, like she’d done tonight, but she’d never make a scene about how she loved him and expected him to love her back because she was realistic enough to know it wouldn’t ever happen.

Perversely, her acceptance now irritated him. He shoved his cigar back in the corner of his mouth, jammed his hands on his hips, and stalked into the kitchen. If a woman wanted a man, she should fight for him instead of giving up without a struggle. Dammit, if she loved him, why didn’t she work a little harder at not being such an aggravation? Show me how to please you, that’s what she’d said. She could damn well please him by giving him a little loyalty and understanding, by agreeing with him once in a while instead of arguing all the time, by being naked in his bed right now instead of tucked away over that damn garage.

As his mood grew blacker, he added more grievances against her to his invisible checklist, including the fact that she was turning into a damned flirt. It hadn’t slipped his notice how many of the men on the crew made excuses to hang around her, and as far as he was concerned, it was her fault more than theirs. She didn’t have to smile at them like they were irresistible or listen to what they were saying as if every word coming out of their mouths was scripture. He brushed over the fact that she was a naturally good listener. As far as he was concerned, an engaged woman should be more reserved when she was around other men.

He grabbed the milk carton from the refrigerator and took a swig. Considering the fact that he was responsible for her make-over, he supposed he couldn’t entirely blame her for the way the men watched her when she wasn’t looking, but it still riled him. He’d even been forced to exchange a few words with a couple of guys last week—nothing too obvious because he didn’t want anybody to get the wrong idea and think he was jealous—just a friendly little reminder that Gracie was his fiancée, not some cheap little sex toy they had a snowball’s chance in hell of dragging off to their motel rooms.

He shoved the milk back into the refrigerator, then stomped through the house nursing his grievances and feeling illused. Suddenly, he came up short. What was he doing? He was Bobby Tom Denton, for chrissake! Why was he letting her get to him like this? He was the one who held all the aces.

That reminder should have calmed him down, but it didn’t. Somehow or another, her good opinion had become important to him, maybe because she knew him a lot better than anybody else he could think of off the top of his head. That realization left him with a sense of vulnerability that was suddenly unbearable. Jabbing out his cigar in a china ashtray, he made up his mind exactly how he was going to handle her. For the next few days, he’d be cordial, but cool. He’d give her time to think about how badly she’d behaved and where her true loyalty belonged. Then, once she understood who held the power in their relationship, he’d take her back.

His mind spun ahead. They’d be leaving for L.A. right after Heavenfest to finish shooting the interiors on a sound-stage there, and once they got away from this crazy town, she’d settle down. But what was going to happen when the movie was done and she no longer had a job? From the way she kept in touch with the old people she’d left behind and the fact that she’d adopted a whole new bunch at Arbor Hills, he was starting to believe that nursing homes might be in her blood, just as football was in his. What if she decided to go back to New Grundy?

The idea unsettled him. He trusted her more than any assistant who’d ever worked for him, and he had no intention of letting her go. He’d simply make her an offer she couldn’t refuse, and she could come to work for him full-time. Once she was officially on his payroll with a generous salary, all these foolish money arguments between them would be a thing of the past. He mulled over the idea. It was bound to get sticky between them when he got tired of the physical side of their relationship. Still, he was fairly certain he could ease her out of his bed without destroying the friendship that had come to mean so much to him.

He examined his plan for flaws, but found none. After all, handling any woman, even one like Gracie, was pretty much a matter of staying on top of the situation, and he congratulated himself on his ability to do exactly that. Before he knew it, he’d have her right back where he wanted her, snuggled up against him in his bed, making a little X right over his heart.





20




“Where do you think we should put the key chains, Gracie?”