Love Me Sweet (Bell Harbor, #3)

If anyone was stupid in this whole mess, it was her. And she needed to fix it. Her euphoria swung back in the other direction, toward anxiety. She just didn’t know how to feel. Maybe it was this weather, this bi-polar vortex.

“Tomorrow morning,” Grant said, smiling wide. “We’ll get all your stuff back tomorrow morning.” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “That’s good news, right?”

She nodded. “Right.”

“OK, then why don’t you seem happy about it?”

She looked at him, feeling very much like the world was crumbling in all around them because there was one more issue neither one of them had really addressed. “Well, for one thing, once I have my stuff back, I have to go home.”

He touched her cheek and smiled. “Just for a little while, though, right? This isn’t it. We’ll figure something out.”

Her heart swelled with hope, but Grant had no idea what he was talking about. How could he? He was talking to a girl who didn’t exist, so she needed to tell him. Right now.

“Grant—”

“Y’all want to go on over to Graceland with us?” Sissy’s voice cut through Delaney’s thoughts like a scythe. “The boys don’t have to start playing for another couple of hours, so if you two can keep your hands off each other for a spell, we can go see where the King slept, then go get some ribs at Marlowe’s before tonight’s show. Interested?”

Delaney could not hold back a smile. Another reprieve. She couldn’t possibly tell him at Graceland. And she couldn’t tell him at a restaurant either. She’d just have to tell him later tonight. Or . . . tomorrow. Tomorrow would work.





Chapter 20




THE PARADISE BROTHERS WERE A hit with the Heartbreak Hotel crowd, and Grant had to hand it to Reggie. The guy might be as obnoxious as hell, but he could sing, and he was a natural entertainer. They all were, Finch and Humphrey too, joking with each other onstage as effortlessly as they had on the bus. Playing guitars and bass, keyboards and drums. They were masters, offering up a mix of Elvis classics, old country western, and some original honky-tonk songs with lyrics so raunchy the audience cheered and Elaine blushed.

Still so innocent, even after last night.

God. Last night. His body went hot at the memory. It was the best night he’d ever had, and the fact that they had the room completely to themselves for this evening? Damn. That had been on his mind since the moment he’d heard. Unfortunately that also left him touring the entire Graceland mansion this afternoon with a semierection, but certainly he wasn’t the first one. Everybody loved Elvis.

“Let’s slow it down for the lovers in the crowd tonight,” Reggie said into the microphone, and Grant wondered if that was just for them or for lovers in general. Either way, Grant pulled Elaine to the center of the dance floor and then into his arms. The song was something sad, an old story of woe about love gone wrong, but nothing about this felt wrong.

Everything about this was just right.

The truth was, he’d never felt this way before. He’d been with plenty of women, some who he’d been fond of, a few he thought he might have even loved, although he never told them so. But this was different. He and Elaine were in sync, every rhythm, every breath. He wasn’t naive, of course. He understood she was shiny and bright, and everything about this had that new car smell. Sure there would be bumps in the road, and yes, he still had more to learn about her, but if Elaine could put up with the amount of stress they’d encountered over the last few days with such grace and patience and good humor, well, he couldn’t imagine ever growing tired of her. He’d definitely never grow tired of her lips, because they tasted like caramel and set his skin on fire. He wouldn’t grow tired of her laugh and the way it burst like a firecracker. He’d certainly never get tired of the way her body moved like water under his palm either. Nope. Never getting tired of that.

Grant pulled her closer, breathing in the sweet, fresh scent of her. That curve where her shoulder glided into her neck. He could spend the rest of his life there, breathing in the scent of that curve. He’d always trusted his instincts. They’d rarely steered him wrong, and if he followed them right now, he’d end up strolling down the aisle right toward a preacher. Who the hell would have thought his idiot brother was right? When you knew, you just knew. And right now, he knew Elaine Masters was the one for him.

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