Page 2

GRACE

The door slams shut behind me, but the pounding of my heart is twice as loud. I’m gulping down breaths like I just ran a marathon.

What in the world just happened?

Nash . That’s what happened.

Big, rough, callus-handed, greasy-fingered, foul-mouthed Nash. I can still feel the way he touched my neck, the way his gaze felt as it moved over my body. He tried to hide it, but I saw him checking me out. I’m not that na?ve.

He’s so tall and so broad, with muscles that look like they were built in his garage. And God, that voice. Deep, rough, and dripping with testosterone. He sounded like he wanted to eat me right up.

No one’s ever looked at me the way he did. None of the boys from school, or any of the bodyguards my father hired. None of his business partner’s sons, or even my creepy algebra tutor, John, who used to “accidentally” brush my thigh under the table when we were studying.

They all looked at me with a mixture of greed and calculation. Like they were trying to figure out a plan on how to get me. Because after all, getting me also means getting a chance at my father’s business empire. And more money than they’d know what to do with.

But not Nash. Nash looked at me like I was the only thing on earth keeping him from going feral. From slipping back into his most primal of natures.

And worst of all, I liked it.

No. I loved it.

He had me feeling things I’d never felt before, the effects of which I still feel now as I slip out of my flats and drop my keys onto the counter. My hands are shaking and my legs are quivering.

“I know what I want when I see it, princess. And I want you.”

His words ring in my head like the echo of a mystery. Not exactly Shakespeare, but he touched my soul.

He was going to kiss me, wasn’t he? Right there in his truck with his rough hand on my neck as my body melted for him. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think–at least not about anything other than how badly I wanted him. My head was spinning, and my pulse was racing.

But he stopped. He denied me.

It would have been my first kiss too. Maybe he knew that somehow. He did tell me I wasn’t ready. But how could he have known? I didn’t say anything to let on. Is it possible it was written all over my face? My innocence? My lack of experience?

I pace the kitchen, my heart racing and nipples stiff beneath my blouse. I can still smell him. The scent of oil and dirty denim. Being so masculine should be illegal. It’s just not fair for a little ol’ girl like me.

I press the backs of my hands to my cheeks. They’re on fire. I’m tingling from head to toe. My thighs are damp, and even though I haven’t had any experience with men, I know what that means.

I grew up in a mansion like most people only see in movies.

A mansion with a north, south, east, and west wing.

With a housekeeper and a driver and a security team that obeyed my father, who barked commands at them like a general.

It’s because of him that I’ve never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, gone to a school dance, or done any of the things an eighteen-year-old girl should have done by now.

The only men who have been around me are my father’s employees, or the most harmless guys from school that were vetted multiple times by Dad before being allowed to hang out with me. Most of them weren’t interested in me–or girls in general.

And now there’s him .

Nash.

A mechanic who fixes engines with his bare hands and isn’t afraid to ask me if I’m a “good girl” or not.

Letting out a moan, I flop down on the couch and drag a pillow over my face. I’m all on my own out here now. No dad to “protect” me from the hunk of a man who has promised to fix my car.

As soon as I turned eighteen, I moved out here to my grandmother’s old cottage so I could be on my own. No more living under Dad’s thumb or the shadow of Mom’s neglect.

I thought I could handle it. And I was having a fine time.

Until today.

He’s going to ruin me–maybe everything. And the worst part? I actually want him to.

I’m trying to think some sense into myself when my phone buzzes. It’s a text from Emily, my cousin and best friend:

Bonfire at the lake tonight. Be there or be dead.

I stare back at the screen for a moment like I’ve forgotten how to exist in the normal world away from Nash.

Emily’s my cousin on my mother’s side, and the only girl in the family who didn’t end up married off before twenty-one. We grew up like sisters, and I absolutely adore her. She’s loud, wild, and goes hard with fashion and makeup. She’s everything I’m not and was never allowed to be.

I should say yes, but my encounter with Nash at the garage still has me feeling stunned. I lie there a moment until my phone buzzes again:

Hello!? Are you asleep!?

Smiling, I text back:

Okay, but I think I’ll need a ride.

A few hours later, I’m still trying to calm down as Emily and I pull up at the lake. The fire’s already going, and I can see the outline of people clustered around as we hop out of her car.

Still no call from Nash. He said he’d get to my car today. Maybe he got busy. He does have an entire business to run, and it’s not like he’s employed by my father.

“Where’s your head tonight?” Emily asks, practically reading my mind like she always does. “You have another fight with your dad or something?”

I shake my head. “No. Just…worried about my car.” I’ve chosen not to tell her about Nash. I’m not sure why. I never hide things from Emily, but right now, my encounter feels a bit like a secret–a secret I’d like to keep to myself for as long as possible.

“Your parents will pay the bill if you ask them,” she scoffs.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s Grandma’s car, and I want to make sure it stays in good shape.”

We start to walk down the grassy slope to the fire, and that’s when I see some guy wearing cowboy boots and a tank top start to walk toward us. He’s got a glint in his eye, and Emily giggles at me. “Tyler. My date for tonight. Isn’t he hot!? He plays football.”

I shrug. He’s okay. But compared to Nash, he looks like a boy.

“And…” Emily points to a guy walking beside him, wearing a red Polo shirt and Bermuda shorts with flip-flops. “ Your date. His name’s Arthur.”

I sigh and stop dead in my tracks. “You’re kidding, right, Emily? If I’d known you’d set me up with Mini-Trump I would never have come out tonight.”

“I know,” she laughs. “Which is precisely why I didn’t tell you!”

I want to protest more, but the guys have already reached us.

“Sup, Em.” Tyler smiles. She smiles back.

“Arthur, this is Grace,” she says. “Grace, this is Arthur.”

“You didn’t tell me your friend was such a babe,” Arthur snorts, sounding like he’s already had a few. “You don’t have an O.F. do you? Cause I’d definitely subscribe to that!”

Emily winces beside me, clearly already regretting her invitation.

“Why don’t we go down to the bonfire?” Tyler suggests. Arthur slides up beside me and slips an arm around my waist. He smells like cigarettes and beer, and I immediately recoil, but he holds firm, like he thinks he has some right to my body or something.

“That’s–a little tight–” I say, but he’s got a real tight grip on me. I try to struggle politely, but it’s useless. He’s drunk and has zero class. I’m screwed.

And that’s when I see him. No way.

It’s Nash.

Standing in front of us, backlit by the fire, his muscled physique towering against the trees like a Greek god.

“Hands off, punk,” he growls. His arms are crossed over his chest, accentuating his bulging biceps beneath his oil-stained T- shirt. He’s wearing a scowl that says I’ll rip the throat out of anyone who touches her.

For a second, Arthur looks like he’s going to step up to Nash–which would be a monumentally terrible idea. But he glances at me, then back to Nash, and thinks better of it. “All right, pal. No problem. I just met the bitch–”

A hard slap to the face from Nash shuts him up and sends him sprawling to the grass. “Watch your mouth around the lady.”

Emily gasps, and the next thing I know, Nash has my hand in his and is pulling me away into the woods.

My heart is pounding in my ears. My cheeks are on fire. Goosebumps have broken out all over my body, and I’m absolutely shaking with adrenaline. Holy moly, that was hot!

“How are you here!?” I hiss as my legs move automatically. I hear Emily call after me and wave a hand to let her know I’m okay.

“I was parked by the lake relaxing when these kids all showed up,” he replies. “Did you run home and then come back out so you could tempt me again?”

I open my mouth, but no words come out. He stops and looks down at me. I didn’t really notice until now just how tall he is. He’s well over six feet. “You know, you practically glow under the moonlight,” he says, his eyes traveling down my halter top, which now feels very short and very low.

“I–I had no idea you’d be here, Nash,” I stammer, feeling extremely vulnerable.

He flashes a wolfish grin. “Oh, no? So this was just a coincidence, Grace?” he asks, his hand brushing against mine, just enough to set a spark to a fire beneath my skin.

“Your car breaks down at my shop and then you show up here tonight, looking like a wet dream, and I’m just supposed to believe that’s a coincidence? ”

I shrug, feeling frozen in place. I’m tingling all over. “I–I needed to get out of the house.”

That’s not a lie. It’s not the whole truth either. The whole reason I needed to get out of the house was because I couldn’t stop thinking about him .

He leans down–closer. Closer. Until his lips nearly brush against my ear. “You wanted out of the house, or you want to come to my house?”

His question nearly breaks me. I suck in a deep breath and fight against how badly I want to tell him he’s right. I want to scream at him to take me. Do whatever he wants with me. Feelings I’ve never felt before are racing through me, threatening to take me over. My brain will just not shut up.

This is crazy. I only just met this man today. We don’t even know each other!

“I shouldn’t be here,” I stammer, turning away.

But Nash grabs my wrist. Not hard enough to hurt but just enough to hold me in place. “No. Don’t run away, Grace.”

My pulse pounds like a drum. “I’m not running–”

“Yes you are,” he growls. “I saw it in your eyes the moment we met, princess. That built-in flight response. I scare you, but not because I am scary . Because you’re scared of how much you want me.”

I shake my head in a pathetic attempt to deny the truth. But Nash pulls me closer–so close our chests almost touch. If they did, he’d feel how hard my nipples are, which he can probably already see through my shirt.

“Don’t think about it, princess,” he says. “Just give yourself over to me. Let me take care of everything.”

My lips part on their own, and he looks down at them, the muscles in his neck and jaw flexing.

“We just met,” I tell him. “I should not want this…”

“But you do.”

He’s right. And I hate that he’s right. My thighs are soaked, my breathing is erratic, and my mind is fogged over with desperate lust.

“I need to go,” I whisper, unable to look at him any longer. The veins on his biceps pull at me with an unseen force.

“No, you don’t, Grace.”

His rough hand slips around to the small of my back, guiding me around the dark side of a tree, into the shadows. We’re even more alone now. My heart is about to burst. I’m going to faint.

“Nash–”

“Shhh,” he says gently, brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I won’t do anything you don’t want, Grace. But you can’t lie to me. You have to tell me the truth. Don’t stand there quivering like a leaf and tell me you don’t want me to touch you.”

I am shaking as I force myself to look up at him. His eyes are fierce and hungry, and I suddenly feel cold. “You scare me, Nash.”

“Because I’m not a prince fit for you?” he asks, pressing me up against the tree.

I shake my head. If only he knew just how wrong he was. “No, that’s not it–I need to go.”

“You say that one more time, princess,” he growls, “and I’ll throw you over my shoulder and lock you in the garage until you admit the truth. The truth we both know.”

My mouth goes dry.

He’s so close he must know how hard my heart is pounding. If he can’t hear it, he can feel it.

His lips part again like he’s going to kiss me, and that’s when I feel the surge of adrenaline zip through me. I slip out from under his arm and race away through the woods, no idea what I’m doing.

“You’re mine, Grace!” he calls after me. “The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be. For both of us!”

I run. Not to Emily. Not to the bonfire. But into the darkness, away from the one man whose arms I want to throw myself into, while my body screams for his touch.

All because he’s right; I am scared.

I’m terrified.

Because I can already feel myself falling in love with a man I hardly know.