Page 25 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Terry

Grace was still on the phone with her assistant when the sound of my exterior motion sensors startled me. I adjusted myself before checking the doorbell camera on my phone.

“Constance is here,” I announced.

“Huh?” Grace looked over.

“Constance is at the door. She brought your clothes.”

Grace rushed to stand, and I steadied her to avoid another pass out.

The doorbell rang.

When Grace seemed steady, I let go of her and answered through my phone. “Be right there.”

Grace adjusted her top and smoothed her skirt as I strode for the door.

“Where did my panties go?” I heard her ask as she looked around.

I chuckled before descending the stairs. I unlocked and opened the heavy door. “Hey. Thanks for bringing her things,” I told Constance. “I’ll take them up.”

Constance set down several garbage bags. “You take these. I’ll get the rest.” She retreated to her Porsche and returned juggling more plastic bags and two cat carriers. “Can’t forget the important things.”

“Uh-huh.” I stepped aside to let her go first up the stairs.

“Special delivery,” Constance called out at the top .

Grace put down her wine, squealed, and ran over to let them out of the carriers. “Bonnie and Clyde.”

“I thought you’d appreciate having them with you,” Constance said. “They might not have survived with Zane.”

I swallowed my chuckle. After a moment, Clyde left Grace’s side and came over to rub against me. I kneeled down to scratch the little monster. “What’s this button thing on his collar?”

Grace looked up from petting Bonnie. “That’s a cat tracker, in case he gets out. I can find him with an app on my phone. Do you have any coin batteries? The one in his collar just died.”

“Not here, but I’ll get you one. Okay to take this with me?” When she nodded, I unsnapped his collar and pocketed it.

Constance lifted a bag. “Pardon the way everything is stuffed in plastic bags, but that’s what you get when you send a man to pack.”

They both giggled.

“You’re a lifesaver,” Grace said.

“They’re so cute,” Constance gushed as Bonnie disappeared under the sectional.

Grace picked up Clyde. “Thank you. I love them, but sometimes they drive me crazy.”

Constance looked at me. “Where should I put her clothes?”

I pointed. “Guest room is the first door on the right.”

Grace picked up a bag and followed her, and I brought the rest. As soon as unpacking morphed into discussing where to hang things and how to organize them, I left the room. Sorting blouses by color was not my thing.

“Hey, Constance, would you like anything?” I called from the kitchen.

“Just water, thanks,” she called back. “Now this is cute,” I heard her tell Grace.

Clyde appeared in the kitchen. Seems sorting wasn’t his thing either.

A moment later, I heard Constance again. “You really are on a serious campaign against VPL.”

“What do you mean?”

“You only have thongs here. My God, these are sexy. Where did you find these?”

I almost swallowed my tongue. I couldn’t stop an image from forming in my head of Grace in a tiny red thong.

“No, that’s not right,” Grace said. “Most of my panties?—”

“Cover more than these?”

“Of course. ”

Constance laughed. “This is what you get when a badass SEAL packs for you. He only includes what he wants you to wear.”

I should have been the one going through Grace’s underwear drawer, not Zane.

“Is there any way I can get my other underwear from my apartment?” Grace asked. “I mean, I’d rather not have to order more online. Terry’s like a rabid guard dog. I doubt he’ll let me go shopping. He doesn’t even want me to go in to work.”

“He’s just looking out for you,” Constance said. “Would you rather have him be less serious about your safety?”

Right on. I pumped my fist at Constance’s support.

“Maybe not, but a little less like my jailer would be good,” Grace mumbled.

“I’ll see if I can get your things, or I can go shopping for you.”

“I’d like that.” Grace’s voice sounded lighter.

Less like her jailer —I’d have to remember that. Leaning against the counter, I imagined telling Constance to take a hike and going lingerie shopping for Grace myself. No, with Grace would be better. Now there was an idea that was less jailer-like.

I poured myself a glass of water while I waited.

Constance appeared a few minutes later. “She’s scared,” she said quietly. “What’s the plan?”

“Keep her here at night and limited to her work building during the day until we get this sorted out. They don’t know where we are yet, and I have a solid door downstairs, a good security system, and no ground-floor access, which makes this pretty defensible. What do you think?”

She started around the perimeter and stopped at the sliding glass door to the terrace. I followed her, and Clyde followed me.

She pointed down. “You should put a rod in the track. You don’t want somebody climbing onto the terrace and picking this lock.”

I nodded. “Will do.”

She continued around, checking rooms, windows, and the angles of my hallway cameras. “Looks good to me.” She returned to a corner of the living room and stopped.

My gaze followed her eyes to the floor. Grace’s panties were in the corner.

“I’m not one to judge, but in the Secret Service, we would consider your level of…connection to the protectee to be disqualifying.”

“It’s not what it looks like,” I lied with a straight face. It was totally what it looked like—or soon would be. And often, if I had anything to say about it .

She cocked her head with a sigh. “It never is.” She lowered her voice.

“Look, I don’t give a damn what you do with your personal time, but getting involved with a protectee is reckless and puts her at risk.

I know that, and—” She poked me in the chest. “—you know that. You can lose objectivity and make a mistake. Maybe you should have a chat with the boss about assigning somebody else.”

“I’ve got this.” Duke, Constance, and Winston had other commitments right now, which left Zane as the next choice for full-time protection, and I wasn’t agreeing to that.

She shook her head, not ready to let this go. “You could take time off from other assignments and hang around or whatever, but not be the primary.”

“I said I’ve got this,” I assured her. Nobody would be better protection for Grace than me. Nobody else would be as invested.

“Last week, you were at each other’s throats.”

Here we go again. “That was then.”

“Have you considered that she may be reacting to the events of the day? An attack, even unsuccessful, is emotionally jarring.”

“I know that.” Her implication was clear—what if Grace was only attracted to me because I’d been there for her during the attack?

“Then figure out how to cool it for a while,” Constance insisted. “Objectivity wins over passion in this game.”

“Sure,” I agreed. But I hadn’t thought through how I’d do that, given everything that had happened between me and Grace today.

Grace appeared around the corner. “Hi.” Her voice held an obvious question.

“We were just discussing this as a defensible space,” I explained as Constance and I moved away from the pair of panties in the corner.

“Because bad guys are after me?”

Constance raised a brow.

“Stressful day,” I whispered.

“Grace, it’s always better to be prepared,” Constance said.

Grace sighed. “Constance, would you like to join me for a glass of wine?”

“No thanks. I’ve got to run.” She picked up her purse and headed for the door.

I told Grace I’d be right back and escorted Constance downstairs.

“Cool head, professional and objective,” she said, wagging a finger at me. “Given the way you’ve acted around her in the past, you might want to consider how these attacks are affecting you too.” She walked out with that last statement hanging in the air .

“Got it.” I locked the door after her and shook my head.

Damned straight the attacks had affected me. They’d made me question why I’d kept my distance from Grace all these years. I’d dreamed about her more times now than I could count. Things were clearer than they had ever been. Grace would be mine, if I could convince her.

But it was time to get my head in the game, protection-wise. The sliding glass door upstairs needed to be secured. Searching the garage, I located a piece of wood that would fit in the track and found my hacksaw.

Grace

When Terry escorted Constance downstairs, I stretched out on his sectional again, wondering how my life had taken such a turn.

Though I knew he was just downstairs with Constance, I missed him. How weird was that? It was truly the dawn of a new day for me.

Yes, I’d enjoyed my short bit of girl time with Constance as we unpacked the bags of clothes Zane had thrown together, but I’d still been eager to have her leave.

After the take-my-breath-away orgasm Terry had laid on me, I was eager to officially bid farewell to my dry spell. Work had consumed my life for so long that I’d forgotten what letting go felt like.

After the attacks and now a near-death experience, I wasn’t waiting any longer to live life to the fullest. Terry had admitted he’d spent years pushing me away, and I wasn’t going to let him continue. Knowing now that he’d always been attracted to me changed everything.

Pete had once told me that Terry was the best man he knew, and after the events of these last two days, I understood what he’d meant.

Now that I’d seen behind Terry’s mask, I wanted to get to know the good man behind the gruff exterior and often nasty comments.

I was determined to spend time with the Terry Pete had known, and to give us a chance.

Anticipation burned through me as I heard his footsteps coming up the stairs.

When he emerged, he was way more clothed than I wanted either of us to be. “Hi there,” I said in my attempt at a sultry voice.

“Hi.”

“Wanna join me, big guy?”

But he glanced away and strode over to the sliding glass door .

“What’s wrong?” What have I done? How did I take us back a step from intimacy to coldness?

“Nothing.”

I clearly needed to watch more romantic movies. Was there such a thing as movie karaoke so I could get the sultry-voice thing down? Did I need to show more cleavage?

“I’m securing the perimeter,” he added after a moment. “This is a recommendation Constance made.”

That’s when I noticed the piece of wood and the saw he carried. “Oh.” Once again, this was the good man behind the mask, putting my safety first.

He turned to me with fire in his eyes. “Can you wait one minute, Kitten?”

Terry

Like a good carpenter, I measured the length I wanted twice before I cut the piece of wood. When I laid it in the track, it fit perfectly. Nobody was sliding this door open from the outside and getting to my woman.

“I’m getting cold,” Grace said in a husky, Hollywood-starlet voice.

I moved toward her. Okay, I almost jogged. “Do you remember what I said about you being mine?” I asked, letting my eyes linger on her lips as I knelt beside the sectional.

Her eyes narrowed. “Not really.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“I said you would know when I’d claimed you, and that time has come, Grace.”

She sucked in a breath. “But?—”

I stopped her with a finger to her lips.

“Kitten, hear me out before you argue. You’re an amazing woman, and I know I’ve treated you poorly.

I’ve wanted you forever, but I pushed you away because you were Pete’s off-limits little sister.

Well, that stops today. I’m not waiting any longer. You’re mine.”

“Come here, you big lug.” She tugged on my shirt. “Are you telling me you want me as your girlfriend?”

My lips were inches from hers. “Isn’t that what I just said?”

She pulled herself up to meet my lips, and once again, the chemistry ignited between us. She was insatiable, trying to establish dominance in our kiss .

But that’s not how this was going to go. I stood. “You wet for me?”

She nodded breathlessly.

“Baby, I’m not fucking you for the first time on this couch.”

A sly smile unfolded on her face.

“No, when I slide my cock into your slick pussy, it’s going to be on a bed with plenty of room for all the ways I intend to fuck your brains out.”

She looked away. “Promises, promises.”

I shut her up with another kiss.