Sal had to regain control here. He’d nearly finished in the shower when he’d gone just a little further than he’d ever gone before with her. He stopped for the same reason he he’d stopped the first time, before going there in the Jacuzzi. How in the world would he get through this without disappointing her? He was too damn old to be feeling like a sixteen-year-old ready to explode just because he’d gotten past second base. But he knew this wasn’t just any girl. This was Gracie. He should’ve anticipated this, prepared himself more mentally.
After drying off, he took her by the hand back into his room. He headed for the bed. “I thought we were sleeping in the tent tonight.”
“We are,” he said, pulling her towel away and taking a very deep breath. “But we’re making our first stop here.”
She shivered, and he realized even though she’d squeezed a lot of water out of her thick hair in the bathroom, it was still wet and draped down her naked back. He lifted the plush down blanket. “After you.”
Once she slid in, his heart could barely take the sight of Gracie naked in his bed. How many times, since she’d started working at the restaurant, had he dreamt of this? He’d lost count.
He undid his own towel, let it drop and slid in next to her. The moment he got in, she wrapped her entire body against his and kissed him with a hunger like she had the day she’d asked him to make love to her. He had to slow this down, but he couldn’t. His own hands roamed all over her warm body. He loved the feel of her leg wrapped around him. His hand slid up it until it reached her behind as he kissed her frantically. This was madness. He’d been in bed with a woman plenty of times, but he’d never felt this urgency.
He had to take it slow with her. He’d never forgive himself if he hurt her. With her leg over his, there was more than enough access to try what he’d tried in the shower again. It was important he prepared her for what would come next. His fingers caressed her, and immediately, the soft pants that drove him crazy in the shower began.
He slipped a finger in easily enough and concentrated on her face. That was one way to keep from going over the edge. Concentrating on her facial expressions, making sure he stopped the moment he detected any discomfort, would help keep him under control. As he went in deeper, he took the crease between her eyebrows and her closing her eyes as a sign and stopped. “Don’t stop,” she begged.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded and licked her lips. “I like it.”
He groaned, burying his face in her neck but continued. When he was ready to try for another, he brought his face up again to watch her as he did it. Normally, he took pleasure in watching the facial expressions as his fingers worked their magic, but this time it was different. His concern outweighed the pleasure. He was actually thankful for it, or he might’ve been a goner by now.
“Still okay?”
Once she accepted three, without any complaint, and instead seemed to be enjoying it, he concentrated on getting her there. He knew he had to now, because the way he was feeling already, it was going to be over embarrassingly fast. As annoying as that was—her first time being over so fast—he was confident that after the first time, his performance would greatly improve. They were in for a long night.
He used his thumb to rub the spot that made her arch her back and moan while his fingers continued to do their job of prepping her. Continuing to be very gentle, he was determined to make this as pleasurable for her as possible. He felt her begin to tremble, and she moaned a little louder. He kissed her softy as her trembling heightened to a level that he knew was almost there. His kisses grew deeper at the feel of her accelerated heartbeat against his own pounding chest. She moaned in his mouth and squeezed her leg around him. He pulled away to watch her and slowed his fingers.
Her beautiful breasts rose up and down as she tried to catch her breath, but he could see in her face, feel it in his fingers, that she was still enjoying it. He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Grace.”
She smiled, closing her eyes with a look of complete satisfaction—exactly what he was striving for. He watched her for a little longer before leaning over to his nightstand and pulling out a condom. Glancing at Grace, he saw that she watched him. “You’re sure about this, right, babe? Because I’d totally understand if—”
Grace touched his arm. “I’m sure—completely. And I couldn’t have planned today more perfectly than you did. Thank you.”
Feeling an ache in his heart and an overwhelming fear about the possibility of ever losing her, he leaned in and kissed her. “I’d do anything for you, Gracie. Anything.”
With the condom on, he lay over her again. Nothing fancy the first time. He just wanted her to get through it as painlessly as possible. Spreading her legs gently, he positioned himself between them. He held both her hands on either side of her face and leaned in to kiss her as he entered her slowly … carefully. He continued to kiss her softly, feeling her breathing accelerate, the deeper he went. “How you doing?”
“Good.” She nodded. “I love you so much, Sal.”
“I love you more.” He saw her wince and he stopped.
“No,” she whispered. “Don’t stop.”
“You sure?”
“We’re almost there, aren’t we?”
Sal tightened his jaw. “Not even halfway, babe.”
Her eyes widened. “Don’t stop.”
He made his way in slowly. Since he was so worried about hurting her, he began to think it wouldn’t be over as fast as he’d first thought. He’d imagined this going very slow and gentle, but once all the way in and her initial discomfort gone, he began to accelerate his thrusts.
She reveled in it, lifting her hips for him, wanting him deeper, so he complied. “You still okay?” He could barely speak.
“Yes! Oh yes!”
Her longing voice only heightened his arousal, and he drove in harder and deeper each time. Hearing her cry out with pleasure, he was only able to go a few more times before the enormity of the fact that he was making love to Gracekicked in, and it was over. He squeezed her hands, grunting as the incredible surge of pleasure pulsated through him.
He collapsed gently on her, feeling her heartbeat against his chest. He kissed her on the temple then her forehead. “My God, Grace. What you do to me. I can’t even tell you—”
She touched his cheek with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to tell me. I know. I felt it too.”
Sal stared at her, feeling the icy terror creep down his spine. After today, he definitely didn’t know how he’d ever live without her.
*
Sal made out Melissa’s blurry smile as she looked up at him. His arm was draped around her neck. “You got it, babe?”
He tried smiling back but could barely get the words together to respond. “G-got it.”
The hotel room opened and they walked in. Something was wrong. This whole situation was wrong, but Sal could barely put two coherent thoughts together much less figure out what it was. As soon as the door closed, Melissa’s hands were on Sal’s pants’ zipper.
Sal jerked out of his sleep, the bright sun immediately making him squint. It took him only a second to remember where he was: in a tent, in his backyard with Grace.
He had a feeling he’d wake up early, but he thought it would be because of the sun coming up so early, not because of this. His heart pounded. The dream was the exact memory he had of that night in Vegas, only the snippet of memory was a little longer this time. Further proof that he had been with her that night. Gulping hard trying not to think about it, he checked his phone for the time. It was only six.
Even with his rude awakening, Grace hadn’t budged. She still slept soundly on her stomach, her face on her pillow, facing him. He turned to face her, still breathing hard from his dream and studied her delicate features: The beautifully elongated eyes he’d loved staring into last night each time they’d made love. Those lips, he could kiss them forever and never tire of tasting them.
She gasped suddenly. Sal stared at her ready to wake her if she appeared to be having a bad dream. The corner of her lip went up ever so slightly, and she let out a very satisfied sigh. He had to wonder if she was dreaming about last night. He’d been so exhausted by the time they knocked out he hadn’t even dreamt, at least he didn’t remember dreaming anything—until the morning’s disturbing dream.
He lay back on his pillow again and brought his phone up to his face. Not wanting any interruptions yesterday, he’d placed his phone on silent the entire day. He figured if anything was important enough, they’d leave a voicemail. The whole day he had only checked his voicemail once, and to his annoyance it had been from Melissa. He deleted it without even listening. But he had several texts he hadn’t checked.
The first was a picture from Alex of one of the twins, smiling in her sleep. Like his mom had said a few days ago when he’d gone over and saw one of them do the same thing, he said, “probably gas.” Still he smiled and saved the picture on his phone.
The next three were from Melissa. He turned the phone just slightly so there was no way Grace could see and began highlighting the entire thread to erase it. Damn phone. He wished there was a faster way to do this.
“Good morning.”
He was so startled by Grace’s voice he dropped the phone and it promptly clunked him on the forehead.
“I’m sorry!” Grace giggled.
He picked the phone up, blinking a few times. Grace was already on her elbow leaning in. She kissed him on the forehead and nose. “Does it hurt?”
“I’m good,” he said, rubbing his forehead then putting his phone aside and taking her in his arms. She yawned. “It’s too early—damn sun. You wanna go inside? I have solar shades on my bedroom windows. You’d literally think it’s night time unless you peeked out.”
She yawned again and he kissed her head. “I could probably fall asleep out here again, but if you’d rather go inside, that’s fine too.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” He reached for his boxers on the side of the mattress and handed Grace his t-shirt. She slipped it on then glanced around. Sal stood up. “What are you looking for?”
She grinned. “My underwear.”
Sal reached his hand out. “You’re not gonna need them. Trust me.”
Grace took his hand and stood up. Unfortunately, his t-shirt was long enough to cover everything. They both walked out into the sunlight, squinting.
They walked in the house, and Grace walked directly to the guest restroom. “I gotta go in here first.”
Sal took advantage, speeding up to get to his room. “I’ll be in the bedroom.”
He went straight to his restroom and closed the door. Before he forgot, he made sure he deleted Melissa’s texts. He frowned, pressing the buttons on his phone. He was going to have to figure out how to block her number.
By the time he walked out of the restroom, Grace was already in the bed. Sal climbed in next to her, ready to go another round … or two. After a few rounds the night before, she’d been able to enjoy it more. He kissed her, slipping a hand down her leg, stopping just on the inside of her thigh. “You tired?”
She let her leg fall open and smiled. “Not that tired.”
Sal groaned, taking her mouth in his again as if he’d never kissed her before.
~*~
The Friday morning after Grace’s glorious weekend of camping in Sal’s backyard, she walked out of her room and into the kitchen. For once, she wasn’t running late and was looking forward to making herself a nice omelet. She’d been walking on air for weeks now, but this past week had been surreal.
“Grace, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” Her mother sat at the table, a cup of coffee in front her.
“’Bout what?”
“Frank stopped by the other day, and—”
“Mom.” Her mom hadn’t mentioned him in weeks. “I’m not doing anything with Frank, so don’t even ask.”
“Will you let me finish?”
Grace rolled her eyes, pulling a frying pan out of the cupboard. “Go ahead.”
“So he’s only had a few slot machines put into the lobby of his hotel. He said he’s just getting his feet wet, and already he’s seeing a huge return. He’s ordering more machines and starting up the remodeling to have the full-blown casino up and running, hopefully by this summer.”
Her mother paused and Grace turned to her. “And you’re telling me this because …” Grace splashed the pan with cooking oil.
“Well, you know me—always thinking.”
Calculating was more like it.
“He happened to mention he’d be looking into investing some of his extra capital soon. He said he’s going to need a lot more tax write-offs if this takes off like he thinks it will. So I mentioned your hopes of opening up your own restaurant someday …”
Grace turned to face her. She didn’t like where this was going. Her mother grinned before taking a sip of her coffee. “He said he’d be more than happy to help you out with that. Imagine that, Grace. You can get your restaurant going so much sooner than—”
“Forget about it.”
“Why? Graciela, don’t be a fool. This man is offering to help you out with your dream. All you have to do is be nice—”
“It’s not happening.”
“You’re being stubborn. There is nothing wrong with being civil to the man.”
Grace shook her head as she diced up onions and green peppers.
“Look.” Her mother stood up and leaned against the counter. “He mentioned us going out to visit him and enjoying a few days in his hotel again. We could all go as a family. Your boyfriend doesn’t even have to know—”
“You’re crazy. I’m not doing anything sneaky. Sal would be livid, and to tell the truth, I don’t even think I’m ready to run my own restaurant yet. It’s a lot of work.”
Her mother put down her cup on the counter. “I can help you.”
Grace laughed. “Like you helped in Juarez? You hated working in the restaurant.”
“I’ll work the business end. You can do all the restaurant stuff. Rose can help too. She mentioned the other day wanting to get a job.”
Grace turned to her. “She did?” That bothered her. Was Rose still worrying about Grace leaving her? Grace hadended up sleeping over Sal’s on Sunday as well. The only reason she’d come home at all on Monday was because of Rose. Otherwise, she might still be there now. Sal certainly wanted her to stay. She remembered Rose’s comment about getting a job and moving in with Joey and Taylor.
“Yes, wouldn’t it be nice working side by side with your little sister?”
Grace continued making her omelet. It would be nice, but doing anything with Frank was out of the question. “It’ll happen someday, but not with Frank. I’ll do it when I’m ready … and on my own.” She flipped her omelet a couple of times before flipping it onto her plate.
“He’ll be here this weekend.” Her mother crossed her arms over her chest.
“What?” Grace stopped at the refrigerator where she held the door open, looking back at her mom.
“I think it’s a great opportunity, Grace. Aren’t you tired of living in this hellhole? This could be our chance to get out of here, finally have a real life.”
If her mother only knew … She could be out of this place and living in a dream home with Sal. If it were up to him, she’d already be there. The only thing keeping her here now was Rose. “What is he coming for, Mom? I told you I’m not doing anything with him anymore.”
“You don’t have to. Just come home early when you get out of work and talk to him. Throw some ideas around. He knows you’re in a relationship now. He’s not expecting anything. It’s strictly business.”
Grace shook her head and picked up her plate and the glass of milk she’d just poured herself. “Nope.” She started walking to her bedroom.
“Graciela, think of your sister.” Grace slowed down, feeling the guilt grenade her mother just threw at her begin to detonate. “You’re hardly ever home now. This would be a great way for you two spend more time together.”
The grenade went off, sending shards of guilt through Grace’s already frail conscience. She stopped, not turning around, just taking in her mother’s words. She could almost feel her mother’s wicked grin penetrate through her back. She held her head up, shook it, and began walking again. As conniving as her mother had always been, Grace had to hand it to her. She’d succeeded in making her consider it—but only for a second.