He stopped her by catching her wrist. “I didn’t give you permission to touch me, Grace.”
She felt herself flush with embarrassment. She took a quick step back and lowered her head so he couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes. How could he not want her?
He released her hand and took the towel. He quickly wrapped it around his waist. “I thought I made myself plain. I’m in control of our sexual encounters. There will be times when I give you leave to do what you like. This is not one of those times. I’m going to take a shower and then we’ll talk. Think about this long and hard. I might not be so easy to deal with as you think. I won’t tolerate you manipulating me.”
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate you.” Her fists were clenched at her sides. She didn’t understand anything. If he didn’t want her, why the hell was he here? “I didn’t understand that I wasn’t even allowed to touch you. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”
Maybe it was the kind of thing that only worked in a book.
He forced her chin up, his eyes fairly pleading. “I’m sorry, little one. I’m feeling a little savage. I need to calm down, and that means I need a few minutes to myself. I know you won’t believe this, but I’m feeling my way through this, too. I haven’t dated much.”
She snorted. It wasn’t a pleasant sound, but she couldn’t help it.
His lips curled up slightly. “I didn’t say I hadn’t had an enormous amount of sex, but it didn’t mean anything. Now, go open that bottle of wine. When I get out of the shower, we’ll talk.”
He turned around, and it took everything Grace had not to gasp. Sean was utterly perfect from the front, but his back was a mass of scars. She managed to keep quiet and not reach out to him. He was damaged. That was something she understood. He walked off, leaving her feeling more vulnerable than ever.
What had happened to him? The scars were white. They were years old, but told a tale of pain he’d endured. Grace wanted to go to him and wrap her arms around him. She wanted him to tell her what had happened and to promise that he wouldn’t be in that position ever again.
She doubted that she was going to be able to sit patiently and watch him cook dinner as he explained why he was changing his mind about making love to her. It seemed to Grace that was what he was doing. She picked up the bottle of wine and walked back into the house, closing the door behind her. She would do as he asked her to, but she would do it in her way. And she would definitely find out how serious he was.
Chapter Six
Sean felt like beating his head against the tile of the shower. He had the water as cold as it would get, and the damn thing wouldn’t go down. He looked at his recalcitrant cock. He was so hard, there was a drop of pre-come glistening on the tip. Wasn’t it supposed to respond to cold by shriveling up?
The problem was, no matter how cold the water got, he couldn’t forget about how hot Grace had been. She’d been soaking wet. Her little pussy had wept freely, just begging him to dip his cock in. Despite their obvious size differences, Sean knew she’d been so aroused he would have no trouble shoving his cock in all the way to his balls.
Stop. Stop thinking about it. Think about the fact that she doesn’t even know your real name. She thinks you’re Sean Johansson, boring negotiator for an IT company. She thinks you work a nine-to-five job that doesn’t get you shot at on a regular basis. She doesn’t know anything real about you.
But was that true? Despite her attempts to avoid him, he’d spent an awful lot of time talking to her over the last several days. She might not know all of the facts about his life, but he’d been honest about most things. It was always best to stick to approximations of the truth when undercover. He’d told her he’d spent time in the Army, though he hadn’t mentioned he’d been in Special Forces. She knew he had a brother whose shadow he’d always been in. He’d talked about how hard it had been on his mom when his father had walked out. God, his mother would love Grace. His mother would admire her for the woman she was. He could just imagine Grace and his mom ganging up on him when he took on a dangerous job. Grace would even disagree with Ian. Grace would likely tell Ian off on a regular basis. He would love to see how his brother would deal with his sweet, strong-willed, southern sister-in-law.
Where had that thought come from? He couldn’t be thinking about marrying Grace. That was crazy. He wasn’t looking to get married. Sean took a deep breath and realized that the thought didn’t make him panic the way it should. He was thirty-two years old. He wasn’t some kid. Maybe it was time to think about settling down. Maybe it was also time to think about a career change. That thought had been ruminating for a long time. Grace had just crystallized his dream.
Of course, when Grace found out he was in her bed under completely false pretenses, he wouldn’t likely be settling down with her. He would have a lot to answer for. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Grace. He’d briefly considered completely pulling out of the job. He could claim trouble at the home office, and Ian could send someone else in. When the job was done, Sean could come back in as himself and start their relationship over. There was only one problem with that scenario. If Patrick Wright was really using his brother’s business as a front, then Grace was in potential danger. He didn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe. He would just have to deal with the consequences later.
Sean opened her bottle of shampoo. It smelled like peaches, like her hair. Lately the scent of peaches always aroused him. That damn shampoo did nothing to calm his cock down. His cock didn’t care that Grace would be angry. His cock didn’t give a shit that he was trying to build a relationship with her. His cock just wanted to get inside her.
Sean put the shampoo down and soaped up his hands. There was only one way to fix the problem. He wrapped his hand around that unruly body part and started to stroke. His soapy hand stroked from the weeping head all the way to the base. He was going to maintain control. He squeezed and picked up the pace, thinking about how much nicer it would be if it was Grace’s pussy clenching around him. He would hook her legs in his elbows and spread her wide. She wouldn’t have anywhere to hide from him. She would give and give. She would take everything he had. She would scream out his name when he finally let her come just seconds before he allowed himself to let go. He would pump into her until he was completely empty. He would fill her up.