Too Much Temptation (22 page)

Noah could tell she wanted to, but her modesty held her back. It was the morning, bright sunlight pouring in every window. They were in the kitchen.

He didn’t repeat himself, just waited and watched her.

Very slowly, Grace caught the hem of the long dress and inched it up. Past her calves, her knees, her thighs.

Her face flushed, her breath came too fast.

Noah caught a glimpse of white panties, her belly, then her naked breasts drew his attention as she pulled the dress up and over her head. She held it in front of herself and looked at him.

“Drop it.”

Biting her lips, Grace held the dress to the side and let it fall to the floor.

“Take off your panties.” His voice was gruff, commanding. Noah felt wired, on the explosive edge. The night of excess might not have happened, he was so hard again. Always, Grace affected him this way. He wondered if ten years from now, he’d still go wild at the thought of having her.

He wondered if he’d even know her in ten years.

“I’m waiting, Grace.”

She bent at the waist and started to push down her underwear. Noah said, “No, wait.” His blood rushed through his veins, hot and thick. “Turn around first.”

Her face flamed. “Noah…”

Again, he merely waited. Grace frowned, blushed prettily, and turned. For half a minute she didn’t move, then in a rush she bent and shoved the underwear down so she could step out of it.

Noah groaned, seeing her delicate pink vulva, her soft white ass. She immediately straightened, and Noah reached out to catch her hand. “Come here, Grace.”

Like a zombie, she allowed him to lead her. Noah pulled her between his thighs. He cupped her heavy breasts and stroked them, thumbed her erect nipples. “Lean down here,” he said, and when she did so, he caught her left nipple in his mouth, sucking strongly.

Grace moaned and braced her hands on his shoulders.

Her breasts were so big and soft, he couldn’t get enough of them. Grace hugged him to her, her heartbeat fluttering wildly.

“Up onto the table, Grace.” He didn’t wait for her to comply. He hefted her up onto the edge of the tabletop so that she sat facing him while he remained in the chair. “Open your legs wide. Here, brace yourself with your hands behind you and put your feet next to my shoulders, on the back of the chair.”

He positioned her just as he wanted her, her thighs alongside his shoulders, leaving her open to him. His heart rapped hard as he gently eased her knees farther apart, which forced Grace to lean back on her elbows for better balance. He literally sat between her widespread thighs. She was a feast, laid out for him and his voracious appetite.

“I want you to watch me, Grace,” he told her when he noticed she stared up at the ceiling. “Keep those big eyes of yours on my face. Or,” he added as he brushed his fingers through her curls, “on my hands where I touch you.”

Nodding, she whispered, “Okay.”

Noah smiled. He used the fingertips of both hands to carefully part her outer lips. “Look at how pink you are, Grace.” He felt her slight flinch and glanced at her face with concern. “Are you sore?”

She spoke on a nearly silent breath of sound. “No.”

As Noah moved his fingers carefully over her, pulling her farther open, examining her up close, her whole body shuddered.

“Then this doesn’t hurt?” He worked his first and middle fingers deep into her.

She gasped and her head tipped back.

“Look, Grace.”

Her throat moved as she swallowed, but she brought her attention back to his hands.

He continued to stroke, long and easy and deep. The sight of his dark, rough fingers pushing into her was erotic. “You look so tender, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re…you’re not hurting me,” Grace rasped.

Noah watched her clitoris swell, but he didn’t touch her there, not yet. She was already wet, her whole body flushed, her thighs shivering. This close, she smelled like the soap and lotion she’d used after her bath.

She also smelled of womanly excitement.

Noah took her by surprise, saying, “Which feels better, Grace? My fingers—or my tongue?”

And he bent to lick her.

“Oh, God.”

Her hips lifted off the table in response. Noah traced each slick, soft fold, licking, tasting, then he curled his tongue around her clitoris and tugged.

Grace gave a shuddering, husky moan and her hips twisted. Her arms gave out and she sprawled flat on the table while her feet pressed so hard against Noah’s chair that she nearly turned him over.

Noah brought his hands up to her breasts to anchor himself and play with her nipples. The dual assault had her quickly beside herself, and Noah decided to bring her to an orgasm. Grace was so responsive, it never took long. Within minutes, she was crying out with her release.

She was still moving, her chest heaving, when Noah jerked to his feet and shoved his slacks down. He cursed the lack of a rubber but promised Grace, “I’ll be careful,” and he leaned forward to slide his cock along her mound, between her lips, without entering her.

She was so wet the glide was easy, maddeningly hot. Grace continued to lift and thrust against him, taking the small aftershocks of her climax. The direct contact against her still pulsing tissues had them both groaning.

Noah hooked his arms under her thighs, took her supple breasts in his hands and thrust against her, faster and faster, and then with a stifled roar, he came on her belly.

His legs shook and he slumped back into his chair. Grace lay there, stunned, staring at the ceiling. After she caught her breath, she muttered, “Wow.”

Noah laughed, but the sound was weak and shaky.

Grace leaned up and looked down the length of her body to her belly. She wore an expression of wonder, surprise, as she saw what he’d done. With a touch of awe, she said, “Huh.”

Smiling, feeling good from the inside out, Noah absently patted her soft thigh. “I think I could eat those eggs now, Grace. What about you?”

Grace plunked back on the table with a snicker.

Because it was the manly thing to do, Noah struggled to his feet and pulled several paper towels off the roll. He ran water in the sink. “Be still, Grace, and I’ll clean you up.”

She mumbled some incoherent reply. When he turned back to her, Noah saw that her eyes were now closed and her legs dangled limply off the side of the table. He stroked the cool towels over her skin.

“If I served you at the restaurant,” he murmured, “we’d all be billionaires.”

Grace covered her face with her hands, but he could still hear her giggles.

Noah tossed the towels away, caught Grace under the arms, and hauled her up to face him. “One thing, Gracie.”

She blinked big, still vague eyes open. “Yes?”

Her hair had come partly free from the braid and stuck out in wild disarray. Noah tucked several long, loose strands behind her ears. “You’ve never had sex, so you can’t know. But what you and I have…” He struggled for the right words, trying to find a way to make her understand when he didn’t really understand himself. “It’s different.”

A dose of caution crept into her expression. “How?”

Noah shook his head, mentally fumbling. “It’s…better, more. Deeper.”

Grace trailed one finger over his chest. “Definitely deep.”

He wanted to groan again. “Forget what I said to my grandmother, okay? She has nothing to do with us.”

Her smile was shy, sweetly accepting. Unconvinced. “All right.”

Noah frowned at her. Any other woman he knew would have demanded an explanation, but not Grace. She adhered to that damn emotional distance he’d first asked for, and she’d so readily agreed to.

Now he wanted more, but how much more? Until he figured that out, he knew he couldn’t push her. But at least the hurt was gone from her eyes, Noah thought as he handed her sundress back to her. He’d have to be satisfied with that much—for now.

B
en surveyed the crowd in the diner and wanted to laugh. Grace had been working for a week, and Noah had been there almost every night that Grace had. He watched over her like a guard dog and growled at any customer who gave her a second look.

He did a lot of growling.

With Noah’s attention, Grace had bloomed into a self-confident beauty. Without realizing it, she exuded raw, earthy appeal, leading Ben to believe she and his brother were really burning up the sheets. Ben grinned. Not only did Grace look more sexually aware these days, but Noah was about as content as he could be.

Except for when other men came on to Grace. And they did, repeatedly. Most of Ben’s regulars had already been on the receiving end of Noah’s possessive stares, and they’d backed off to a tone of excessive politeness. But the others had no clue that Grace had been most thoroughly claimed. She smiled at men, and they melted. They also teased and flirted and made subtle suggestions that Grace either ignored or didn’t catch.

Ben found it all hilarious. Rather than retreat to his rooms after a long workday, he found himself hanging out in the diner to watch the nightly drama unfolding.

It was on the downhill slide to midnight now, less than an hour till he closed. Yet the place had plenty of people hanging around. Most of those customers were directly linked to Grace somehow.

She brought in business.

So when Noah had requested that Ben not work Grace nights or weekends, he’d been all too happy to comply. Unfortunately, the schedule for the current week had already been set by the time Noah reached him, and Grace wouldn’t hear of changing it. In the future, she’d work a few nights only during the week. Ben had no problem with that.

He’d also given Grace the coming weekend off so she and Noah could take a jaunt to Florida. Again, Grace had argued, seeing the free weekend as favoritism. Ben had convinced her by using her tenderhearted nature, and her feelings for Noah, against her.

Grace wanted to go, and Ben had convinced her that Noah needed her. Noah would have strung him up by his thumbs if he knew, but Ben considered it nothing less than the truth. His brother did need Grace, whether he realized it or not. Around her, he was a different man. Noah had always been attentive to Kara, but with Grace he was keenly aware of everything she did.

That told Ben all he needed to know.

Noah sauntered up to him. “I know why I’m here,” he said, gazing around at the mostly male clientele. “Why are you here?”

“Entertainment. If I went to my rooms, I’d just do paperwork or watch a movie. Here, I get to watch you watch Grace while everyone else watches her, too.”

Noah made a sound of disgust but didn’t refute that. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the bar.

Grace rushed past them to a table, seemed to remember something halfway there, and turned around to rush back. Her spectacular breasts led the way and did a lot of bouncing as she jogged by—which every guy in the place apparently noticed. Before Noah could get riled, Grace bounced past again.

“She does that a lot,” Ben noted.

“Probably trying to catch her balance.”

The two brothers looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Ben said, “She
is
top heavy.”

“And that goddamned uniform you gave her shows it off.”

Ben shrugged. “She has an asset that’s hard to hide. I don’t think it’d matter what she wore.”

Noah groaned and ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, I know.”

Three men came in. They wore ragged jeans, tight T-shirts, and work boots. And they sat at one of Grace’s tables.

Noah was up and off his bar stool in a heartbeat. Ben silently wondered if he should be paying Noah a bouncer’s salary, considering how much time he spent making certain Grace’s work environment stayed pleasant. Noah didn’t say anything to the men, but he did stop Grace, tip up her chin, and give her a lingering kiss right in the middle of the floor. Grace got so flustered, she nearly dropped her tray.

Noah released her, gave the men a long look, and positioned himself at an empty table—facing them.

Ben had to turn away so no one would see him laughing. If he ever got that smitten with a woman, he hoped someone would shoot him to put him out of his misery. Not that Noah seemed to be suffering. Just the opposite. But Ben knew he liked variety far too much to ever get so infatuated with a single woman. At twenty-nine, he had a lot of play left in him.

They’d long since quit serving anything besides drinks, and Ben looked around the diner, making sure everything was in order. Horace, who’d been with the diner since before Ben’s time, would close up for him tonight. He was ready to call it quits and head to his rooms when another small crowd entered, catching his attention.

Ben turned—and knew there’d be trouble.

Grace was close at hand, standing at the bar to turn in a new drink order. Ben stepped up to her side. “Aren’t those the guys who work at Agatha’s restaurant?”

Grace turned, and a huge smile broke out on her face. “It’s Andrew and Enrique and Benton.”

Ben knew two of them from brief introductions. Andrew was the maître d’, and Benton was the head chef.

The other man Ben knew by reputation. Enrique the bull. He shook his head.

It looked like he wouldn’t be turning in after all.

Grace watched as the newcomers scanned the bar, located Noah seated at his corner table, and started toward him. She was very pleased that they’d sought him out.

Noah, however, didn’t look the least bit happy about it.

They were still standing awkwardly next to Noah’s table when Grace approached a minute later. Ignoring Noah’s dark frown, she said, “Why don’t you grab some chairs? There’s plenty of room.”

At the sound of her voice, Andrew turned—and did a double take. “Grace? What are you doing here?”

Feeling very pleased with herself, Grace gave a small curtsy. “I work here now.”

Benton pulled out a chair, checked the seat as if he expected to find it dirty, then gracefully lowered himself. “That’s right,” he said. “Noah told us you got fired, too, after you hired that cretin to cook.”

Grace flushed. “Hiring him wasn’t my decision, it was Ms. Harper’s, and that’s not why I got fired.”

Andrew pulled a chair around and straddled it. “Yeah? Why did you get canned?”

Grace cast a guilty glance at Noah, which she was afraid everyone noticed. Though Noah didn’t seem to be doing much to keep their relationship private, she still felt hesitant to broadcast it.

Enrique walked from one side of her to the other. His ebony gaze moved over her in an insultingly intimate way. Before Grace could react, Noah was on his feet beside her.

“What do you want, Deltorro?”

Enrique shrugged and gestured toward the other two men. “I am part of the mutiny.” He tipped his head and smiled at Grace. She saw that his inky dark hair was caught in a ponytail, and a fat diamond glinted in his ear.

Something about his black eyes disconcerted her. She wanted to ease her hand into Noah’s, but she knew that would give too much away. It hadn’t been that long since Noah had broken things off with Kara, and she knew speculation would be ripe.

Noah encompassed them all in a look. “I already told you, if you have a problem, take it to Agatha.”

“That’s pointless,” Benton said on a righteous sniff. “She has no understanding of the finer nuances of running the restaurant.”

“Not my problem,” Noah stated.

Enrique looked disgusted. “Kara said you would be this way.”

Noah’s eyes turned ice blue and he smiled. “Kara was right.”

“She hangs out in the dining room every night, Noah.” Andrew shook his head. “I don’t understand what the hell is going on.”

Grace grabbed for another chair. “Here you go, Mr. Deltorro. Why don’t you all get comfortable and I’ll get you something to drink?”

Noah took the chair from Grace before she could position it under the table. “He’s not staying, Grace.”

She scowled at him. Under her breath, she said, “What is the matter with you? You’re being entirely rude.”

Noah smiled at her, then flicked the end of her nose. It always seemed to amuse him when she lost her temper. “I have my reasons, Grace.”

And those reasons, she thought, were evidently none of her business, because he didn’t explain. Grace huffed. “Well, you’re causing a scene.”

Noah looked around and saw it was true. The ten remaining people in the diner were watching him with avid curiosity. “Isn’t it about time to close up, anyway?”

Grace glanced at her watch. “Sorry. We have half an hour.”

“Damn.”

Andrew reached out to slug Noah on the arm. “C’mon, man. At least hear us out. Hell, if something doesn’t happen soon, I’ll have to quit. Michael already did quit and Dean’s looking for a new job.”

Benton nodded. “I as well.”

Grace turned to Noah, horrified. At this rate, Agatha would lose Harper’s Bistro in no time, and it had been in the family too long for that. “Noah?”

Groaning, Noah dropped back into his seat. “All right, I’ll listen. But I don’t know what you think I can do. I don’t work there anymore.” And with a stabbing look at Grace, he added, “I wish someone would remember that.”

Hiding her relief, Grace took drink orders of beer and wine and scotch. Enrique shook his head, refusing a drink, while continuing to watch her with his penetrating, enigmatic gaze.

Ben waited for Grace at the bar. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” She handed in her order and turned to Ben. “Something’s wrong at the restaurant and they want Noah’s help.”

He frowned in thought. “Agatha is sinking fast. I’m surprised. I really thought she’d hold it together longer than that.”

“It’s a different place now from when she started it all. The atmosphere reflects Noah and his values. He made those changes, those improvements, little by little, but Agatha isn’t as subtle. She’s probably trying to handle things as she always did, by bulldozing forward and making demands, and that won’t work anymore.”

Ben gave her a crooked grin. “All that, huh?”

Blushing, Grace shrugged. “I didn’t mean to psychoanalyze. It’s just that the two of them approach things very differently.”

“It hasn’t even been two weeks since Noah walked out.”

“He oversaw everything. Without that constant supervision, things will fall apart.” Reluctantly, Grace admitted, “I feel sorry for your grandmother.”

Ben snorted at that. “She makes her own problems.”

“Not on purpose. All her life she’s been guided by pride. It’s all she knows. Personally, I think it’s up to you and Noah to show her another way.”

Ben looked stunned by the accusation in her tone.

Grace collected the drinks and walked away while Ben was still sputtering. She didn’t want to wait for him to find a rebuttal to her assessment. It’d be good for him to think about the situation for a while.

As she got near the table, Grace heard Noah say, “I think you should all write your grievances down and take them to Agatha. When she sees that there are more than a few small problems, she’ll have to pay attention.”

“I tried that.” Andrew accepted his scotch and took a healthy drink. “Thanks, Grace.”

Benton sipped at his wine. “It did us no good at all.” He cast a glance at Noah. “She gave us the impression you might be returning to work soon.”

Enrique lounged back in his seat, looking insolent and bored. The collar of his black silk shirt was opened so low, Grace could see a generous amount of curling black chest hair and three silver chains. “Your grandmother thinks that soon,
everything
will be as it was.”

Noah ignored him, but Andrew said, “Knock it off, Deltorro.”

Enrique shrugged. “Is it so?”

It was clear Enrique asked about more than the situation at the restaurant. Though Noah had said time and again that it was over with Kara, Grace held her breath.

Noah said only, “My grandmother is hopeful.”

Grace turned to walk away—but not before she saw Enrique’s hands curl into fists. She had a strong suspicion now about Kara’s lover, and her heart ached for the other woman. True enough, her parents would not be happy. But then, how could Kara herself be happy?

Enrique was a womanizer of the first order. He wouldn’t be an easy man to love.

Grace waved to Ben as she darted into the back room. She needed a break to think, and now was as good a time as any. The customers were thinning out by the minute and Noah was well occupied.

Grace dropped change into the pop machine and then plopped down at the round table. She propped her feet up on the chair across from her.

She’d just taken a long cold drink when Enrique pushed the door open and stepped in. He found Grace and slowly smiled.

“Enrique! This room is for employees only.” A thought occurred to Grace, and she asked, “Were you looking for the boys’ room?”

His bold gaze never left her as he shrugged and stepped farther inside. “So I said to the others. But I wanted to see you.”