Falling for Grace (Four Winds) (20 page)

"Do you have a car?"

"You know it." 

Rafe chuckled under his breath, and they followed Uri out to a Mercedes convertible with the top already down.  Rafe bent to speak in Grace's ear, "He's always had a thing for moving fast."

"Yeah, but this is safer than the Wright brothers' contraption." Uri responded with a laugh.

Chapter Twenty-two

When they reached the beach, Uri opened the trunk of the car and grabbed a huge duffel bag, while Rafe leaned over and grabbed a small cooler.  The men led the way to a flat part of the sand with a volleyball net set up, while Heather and Grace followed.

Heather spoke first.  "I know this may seem weird for you, it certainly was for me.  Just enjoy our visit, and let me answer any questions you have.  Okay?"  Her smile was open and friendly, and Grace couldn't help by smile back.

"Have you lived here long?  In Galveston?"  Heather continued, apparently trying to gain Grace's confidence.

"Um, about six years.  Since I graduated high school."

"Are you going to school or anything?"

Grace nodded, "During the off season, I take classes at one of the universities here.  What do you do?"

"I teach ballet to little girls in the city," she said.

"You dance?  I love to dance, no ballet, though.  I just love to dance."

"Yeah, me too.  Are there any clubs you like around here?"

The girls talked about clubs and music, while the boys set out all of the stuff.  When they started shedding clothes, talk stopped, and four hungry eyes watched as they began to bounce the ball back and forth over the net in a warm up.

Grace's mouth went dry as she watched the men, wearing nothing but shorts, bump the ball easily over the net to each other. 

Both of them were perfect examples of male specimens, muscles rippling, as they ran back and forth toward the net, easily getting underneath the ball to bump it over.  When they started getting serious about the play, Grace watched Rafe's back muscles bunch as he lifted his arm over his head to spike it down on top of Uri, who gracefully dove under to dig it up into the air.  Without a partner on his team, he struggled to get upright enough to bounce it back over the net, but he managed with a grunt.

Grace was impressed.  Still, it looked like they might need a little help to make the game fair, so she looked over at Heather with a question in her eyes.  "Do you play?"

"I haven't in a while, but they will have a large female audience we'll have to fight off if we don't get our butts up there, don't you think?" The laughter in her eyes was evident.

The girls stood, and Heather stripped down to a bathing suit, while Grace rolled up her tee shirt sleeves, and rolled the hem up, tucking the extra fabric under her bra.  Her shorts were a little tight for free movement, but she would have to manage.  She had been on the winning lifeguard volleyball team for the past three years, so she knew she didn't suck, but she'd never played with supernatural beings before.

She jogged over to Rafe's side of the net, and got into a crouch of readiness as he served a powerful lobby over to the other side of the net.  Heather dove to get the ball before it hit the sand, then stood quickly to spike the set that Uri provided her.  Rafe easily dug the spike up before it hit the sand, and Grace set it easily for his spike.  Uri blocked it, jumping easily, arms up over the net, and Grace dove for the recover, getting it up into the air enough for Rafe to set it for her.  She spiked it into an unoccupied corner of their court and they got the point.  Rafe held up a hand for a high-five for the point, his eyes gleaming mischievously. 

"We work well together, don't you think?"

"We'd better.  I don't like to lose."  She winked at him, trying to ignore the warm tingle from his touch.

They continued the game, Rafe and Grace working easily together.  It was obvious that Uri and Rafe were the superior players here, but Grace was good, and Heather may not have had the experience on the volleyball court, but her dancing gave her a natural athleticism and a grace that was unparalleled.  If Grace hadn't been playing, she would have enjoyed just watching her movements.  They were beautiful.

The two teams fell into an easy rhythm, bump, set, spike, digs, and blocks, all executed with almost choreographed ease.  Each point that Rafe and Grace won was rewarded with a tingly high five.  Uri and Heather celebrated each point with a kiss, or a pat on the backside.  Grace was afraid to celebrate with more than the high-five.  She needed to keep her wits about her, and any kisses or other touching would distract her too much.

She was aware of a growing audience.  People had lined the perimeter of the court and had picked favorites, cheering them on.

Rafe and Grace won the game, seventeen to fifteen, and they switched sides.  Rafe held the net up for Grace to walk under, and when she did, his arm snaked out around her waist, and pulled her against him.

Her breath left her body at the contact with his.  Sweat made sand cling to his body, and at the sensations of his hard chest against hers, Grace let out a whooshing breath of air.

"Congratulations."  He was breathing hard, looking into her eyes.  "Winning team, feels good, don't you think?"

"What are you doing, Rafe?"  She wasn't sure if he meant to kiss her here, in front of everybody, and she didn't know if she wanted him to or not.  Part of her did want it, but part of her wanted to be able to concentrate on the game, and she knew if he kissed her, she wouldn't be able to.

"I'm feeling a little possessive, with all of these men watching you.  I want them to know that you're with me."

Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her stomach was doing flip flops at her proximity to this man who did so many things to her with just a look.  And here he was touching her, holding her body next to his.  He was possessing her, and she was loving it.

"Am I?"

"Aren't you?"  The adrenaline of the sport must have given him the confidence he needed, because his mouth covered hers in a domineering kiss.  Unable to control herself, she opened up to him, and his tongue entered her mouth, teasing and tasting her.  With a growl deep in his throat, he pulled her even closer so that her body was flush up against his.  His hands went down to her backside, pressing her against his hips, and she could feel his arousal through their shorts.  She let out a tiny whimper of need before breaking the kiss.

"Stop it.  You're distracting me."  Grace's voice was shaky, ragged with desire.  She could barely hear herself over the hoots and catcalls of the audience.  She wasn't sure what she wanted, right now.  She wanted to win, as always that was paramount, but she also wanted to drag Rafe down onto the sand, and watchers be damned, rip his shorts off and lick every grain of sand off his body.
 
As the thought crossed her mind, Rafe's pupils dilated, and a chuckle rose from his throat.

He let her go, with a mischievous grin on his face and picked up the volleyball to toss it to her to serve.

Despite her best efforts to clear her mind of the kiss, she didn't make the ball over the net, and the serve was passed to Uri and Heather, who were laughing good-naturedly at them.

The game continued on, Heather and Uri winning this time.  Grace attributed it to the mind-blowing kiss that Rafe had doled out before the match.  She just couldn't concentrate on anything besides the desire that he'd sparked in her.  It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before.  And it terrified her.

They were switching sides again, when a cry from the crowd distracted them all.

"Boys against girls!"  The chant was quickly taken up in the crowd, and as the audience chanted their desires, Uri and Rafe looked at each other and shrugged.  Uri turned to Heather.

She shrugged.  "I think I just have one more game left in me, I'm getting tired."

Grace agreed, "Me too."

Switching partners, Heather and Grace made a good team, but were no match against the celestial men on the other side of the net.  They were all over the court, beating them easily.  Fifteen to nine.  Grace was confident that the nine points they'd scored were given to them, in an effort to not make the girls look bad.  Or to not make the men look too good.

After their loss, the girls bowed out gracefully, going back to the sidelines to watch the men continue to play. 

"So, you know?"  Heather broke the silence, and Grace was glad.  Watching Rafe's muscles bunch in so many interesting combinations, as he played the game, was making her mind drift toward thoughts that made her body react in ways she couldn't control.
 
She couldn't seem to keep her thoughts to herself either.  Rafe kept sneaking knowing glances her way, and she could see desire plainly written on his face.

She sighed.  "Yeah."

"Are you still coming to terms with it?"

Grace realized that if Uri and Heather were married, they must have gone through the same thing, and she looked at the woman with new eyes.

"Yeah.  How long did it take you to accept?"

Heather thought a moment.  "Too long.  Life's too short to not be spending it with the one that's made for you.  I had to see for myself.  I regret that.  Not taking his word on faith, I lost a couple of precious weeks with him."

Heather's eyes were on Uri the entire time she spoke, her love pouring out of them.  Grace saw the devotion the other woman felt towards her partner, and she felt a twinge of something.  Did she really want to feel that? 

"Did you meet…Damien?"

Heather visibly shuddered, which Grace knew the meaning of before she spoke the words.  "Yeah.  Uri saved me from him.  That was the decider for me.  I saw his form and couldn't deny the truth any more."

Grace was silent.  The same had happened to her, and she couldn't deny that she should feel the same way. 

Watching the men play,  she certainly felt something for Rafe that she'd never felt with any other man before him.  Watching his perfect body gracefully work in tandem with Uri's was like watching an intricate dance.  The muscles in his back flexed with each contact with the ball, and his powerful legs moving through the sand flooded Grace with desire that pooled deep inside her.

She wanted him.  But she also knew that she couldn't have him unless she was willing to give herself to him, wholly and completely.  And she wasn't sure she was ready to do that.

"You know that God chose you for him, don't you?"  Heather's voice was quiet, yet firm.  She spoke with an intensity that made Grace look at her.  Heather was still watching Uri, her eyes a mask.  "He chose perfect mates for His boys."

"I'm not sure about that, Heather.  I would like to believe it, but…"

Heather turned her body to face Grace, and she took the woman's hands in her own. 

"I struggled with that too, Grace.  I wasn't going to tell you this, but Uri saved me from a life that I don't know how I was going to keep living.  I was an exotic dancer, stripping for money to support myself, my mother, and my sister.  I couldn't find a way out of it."  Her eyes bore into Grace's.  "I was a stripper, and he fell for me.  One of God's perfect beings fell in love with a stripper.  How can you argue that logic?"

Grace dropped her gaze to the sand, lost in thought.  Heather released her hands and turned back to the game.

"Just think about who you're denying here.  Are you denying God?  Raphael?  Or are you denying yourself?  You're worth more, Grace.  I don't even really know you, but I know that."

They watched the rest of the game in silence, Heather appreciative, Grace contemplative.  When the boys had beat the third pair of guys, they forfeited the net for a couple of games to come sit with the girls.

Rafe threw himself next to Grace and leaned over the cooler to dig around for a bottle of water.  She admired, once again, the bunching of muscles on his back as he rummaged around.  He grabbed a towel, and wiped sweat off his face,
then her eyes swept downwards as he rubbed the towel across his chest.  Raising powerful arms to continue rubbing sweat off, he caught Grace swallowing hard.

"What?"  He asked her, unaware of the effect he had on her.

Grace averted her eyes downward, a flush crawling up her cheeks.  "Nothing.  Um, good game."