Sophie hopped from the dock to the deck and glanced around the empty ship, sighing. Despite her morning therapy appointment, she’d arrived at work ahead of Grant. She wanted to confront him about his standoffish demeanor and hoped she’d have enough courage.
Heading toward the bar to check on her inventory for the day, she stopped short when Grant emerged right in front of her from the stairs leading to the machine room. He wiped black engine oil off his hands with a towel, looking rugged and manly in a dark-blue jumpsuit.
Once he caught sight of her sad, tired eyes, lacking their typical coppery glow, he asked, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she immediately replied, hearing the edge to her voice.
He looked at her uncertainly for a moment, then began to walk away. Sophie called out, “Actually—”
As he turned back to face her, Sophie heard Hunter’s words, Take care of your needs, in her head. “Actually, I’m not fine. I had a rough therapy session this morning.”
He nodded sympathetically. “You look like you’ve been crying.”
“No, I …” Her voice trailed off as she gazed into his eyes: so earnest, so caring, so entrancing. “Yeah,” she finally admitted. “We were talking about some family stuff.”
He nodded again and continued wiping his hands with the old rag he clutched nervously.
Sophie couldn’t turn off the nagging internal voice that encouraged her, implored her, to tell Grant how she felt. Use assertive communication! Her heart pounding in her chest, she took a deep breath. “Grant, I, um …” She found his intense gaze searing into her, making her feel unsteady and unmoored. But she continued. “I—I feel kind of hurt, um, hurt and puzzled that you’ve been so aloof lately.”
There. She said it. Oh God, was he going to be mad at her? Was he going to think she was a clingy psycho woman?
His eyes registered surprise. “I have? I’ve been aloof?”
“I think so. You haven’t really said much at all to anyone since, um, Ashley was here.” Sophie watched him listen and tried to explain further. “I just, you know, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed your smiles.” Her cheeks flushed pink.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was being such a jerk.”
“No, no—you weren’t a jerk.”
He took a deep breath and averted his eyes. “Not that it’s much of an excuse, but I’ve had a lot on my mind since I talked to Ashley. I told you how my Uncle Joe got me this job, right?”
He glanced at her and she nodded, feeling grateful for Joe’s indirect employment help for her as well.
“Well, Joe did more than that. He pretty much saved my life. He’s been like a father to me since I was eight years old. And now I have a nephew—Ben—who’s almost sixteen.” Grant’s voice warbled with emotion. “And he needs me, like I needed Joe. He needs his uncle to save him, if it’s not too late.”
Grant was surprised at how much he shared with Sophie, but he didn’t want her thinking she was to blame for his recent introversion. He looked down.
“The problem is, I’m not as strong as Joe. I’m too chickenshit to stand up to my family like Joe did.” He clenched his fists. “I don’t know why I’m not stepping forward—it’s not like I have anything to lose. They’ve already destroyed my life. But I’m just standing back watching it all happen, watching them take down Ben with their sinking ship … I’m not even willing to throw him a damn life-raft.”
It hurt her to see the self-hatred in his scowl. She knew she was violating their pact not to discuss the past—hell, they’d both already broken that rule this morning—but her inner therapist could not help but ask, “How did your family destroy your life?”
Drinking in her beautiful brown eyes, her high cheekbones, and her perfectly sculpted lips, he sighed. He wanted to keep this classy, elegant woman away from his destructive family, but apparently that wasn’t possible.
“Sometimes I like to pretend it’s my family’s fault that I was busted for aggravated robbery,” he said. “But the truth is it’s all my fault. I’m the one who screwed up my life.”
Aggravated robbery? At least now she could confirm for Kirsten that Grant was not a murderer. She felt deep gratitude that he’d opened up to her.
“I feel sad that your family has made things hard for you.” She grasped his wrists with her delicate fingers. “I went to prison because of guns and money too.”
“You did? Guns and money?”
He looked shocked. Then his widened eyes crinkled as he choked down laughter.
“What is so funny?” Sophie asked indignantly.
“You are like the most vanilla girl ever. Guns? You?” He let out a hearty laugh. “Yes, you are quite the thug, Sophie Taylor.”
“Hey, I could be a bad girl. You’d never know.”
“Yeah, you could be Bonnie to my Clyde.” He winked suggestively.
She smiled, and he dropped the rag to the deck below, needing his hands free to fix another type of engine. “Come here, you little lawbreaker,” he demanded with a grin.
Sophie stepped forward and he lovingly circled his arms around her waist. He leaned into her, his bemused eyes inches from hers.
Peering up at him, she reminded herself to keep breathing.
His sultry voice quietly apologized, “I’m sorry for acting so distant. But no matter how messed up I get about my family, you know how I feel about you, right?”
She swallowed hard. “This is kind of new … Sometimes I’m not sure.” Her voice trembling, she confessed, “Sometimes I’m afraid you don’t want to be with me.”
He frowned and a determined look set in his eyes. His hand snaked up her spine and gently cradled the back of her head, her soft hair running through his fingers as he drew her face to his. Their lips barely brushed for a few tantalizing seconds. Sophie cupped the smooth skin of his jaw with her hand. Her peripheral vision blurred completely, and she was conscious only of his hypnotic gaze, enraptured by the flecks of emerald green in a sea of sapphire blue.
Finally, his full lips crashed onto hers. He stole all her oxygen in his absorbing liplock, and his tongue playfully flickered into her mouth, exploring and grazing her own. Her hand angled down from his hip and tentatively landed on his rear end, feeling the solid, sculpted muscles beneath her fingertips and causing them both to come up for air.
Their noses nuzzling as they paused, he whispered, “I hope that answered your question. I hope you’re no longer afraid.”
Sophie smiled seductively. “Maybe just a little afraid. I might need more convincing.” She leaned in to resume when a gruff voice loudly interrupted them.
“Unfreakingbelievable. No wonder you two wanted to work together.”
They scrambled out of their embrace to find none other than Jerry Stone glowering at them from a few feet away. How had they not heard their parole officer approach?
“Officer Stone,” Grant acknowledged anxiously. He stood perfectly straight. “I didn’t see you there, sir.”