Fate (The Edge of Forever) (31 page)

“We’re having dinner with my parents… on Thursday?”

Oh, that’s what he wanted to talk about; me intentionally pissing off Anton. “I am done being under his thumb, Grayson. When will it ever be over? I’d rather cut it off now then let it keep going never knowing when it’s going to end.”

His finger grazed up and down my arm lightly. He was trying to comfort me, but it was causing goosebumps to spread in their wake. “I know, baby. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I leaned up, pressing my lips quickly to his. “I know. I won’t do anything else to provoke him. Although, this may be enough to provoke him already.” I mumbled the last part more to myself.

***

With Grayson’s opening behind us, work was rather slow that week. Ralph let Rachel and I have extra-long lunches just because we had so much time to kill. I didn’t mind. Shawn insisted on splurging for lunch on Tuesday. We had canceled our usual Monday routine because Shawn had a hot lunch date. I was glad for him. When we finally met up Tuesday, he gave me all the details. Apparently, Shawn and Grayson’s hotel manager, Clive, hit it off.

“I think I’m in love.” He stated as soon as the waiter was out of ear shot. “Can you be in love after one hot make-out session?”

I giggled at the big dopey expression he had on his face. He had it bad. “I don’t know. I mean... I guess. They say some people fall in love at first sight.”

“What about you and Grayson?” Shawn asked.

 I took a sip of my drink. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast. When we met, there was something instantly there. I just didn’t realize that I was in love until later. I suppose it was love at first sight. Or at least lust at first sight.” We chuckled together. “But don’t tell him you love him yet!” I snapped.

Shawn raised his eyebrows. “Do I look nuts to you? I’ll scare his ass off.” Our waiter came back dropping off our food. “You have to tell Grayson thanks for the set up.”

***

Wednesday, I sat in Grayson’s office with him for my lunch break. We were sitting at the small table resting in the corner of the room that was set up for two. “If I told you my parents wanted to go out tonight instead, would you object?” Grayson asked out of nowhere.

I pondered his question for a moment before I spoke. “No. They’re only here for a short amount of time and you barely get to see them as it is.” I took a bite of my grilled chicken salad.

Grayson was poking at his food, rolling a tomato across his plate. “Would you still not go Thursday to see Anton?”

I set my fork down. “Is that what this is about?” 

He wouldn’t look at me. I stood, making my way over to him. I pulled his chair away from the table, and when he still made no move I crawled into his lap, curling my arms around his neck. “You have asked me not to see him. Every time I do, something bad happens and each time seems to be getting worse. I’m just done with it. I want to enjoy my time with you, not spend half our week together trying to get over the few hours I spent with him.”

He nodded. “I just had to know.” He tapped my hip. I got up and went to sit across the table from him.

That night, my mother called.
 “Gaby, this is getting ridiculous. This thing between you and Anton needs to stop.”

I sighed into the phone. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Then you’ll come home?” She asked hopeful. “He’s been furious that you haven’t been staying here.”

I shook my head even though I knew she couldn’t see me. “Not yet.”

She sighed heavily. “Gaby, tomorrow when you’re here we can all sit down and discuss this like adults.”

“I’m not coming tomorrow, mother,” I stated blatantly.

She hesitated, “but Anton...”

“I’m done playing this game of his.” I cut her off.

Her voice was stern. “Gabriella, Anton has every right to court you, according to the old law.”

“Well, maybe I’ve been playing by vampire law for too long. According to human common courtesy, no one can force you to be with someone you despise. So, I think I’m going to play by human law, seeing as how I am half one.”

“Gabriella, you are not...” She let her voice trail off.

“I’m not what?” I asked, curious to see where she was going.

“Anton will not be pleased.”

“I know,” I breathed. “Just don’t tell him I’m not coming until tomorrow, preferably after the time I should be there.”

“That’s just going to make it worse,” she sighed.

“It may, but really what is he going to do?”

I was planning on being locked up inside nice and tight before Anton found out. Of course things never work out the way you plan.

Chapter 16

Hand in the Cookie Jar

Thursday, my stomach was in knots. No matter what I did throughout the day, I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread I felt. I hoped the ominous feeling I had was just a false alarm, but there was too much riding on today. Any number of things could go wrong. 

Work was slow, as it had been all week. Shawn took me out to lunch, bringing Clive along for the BFF approval, after I reminded him how he did it to Grayson. It may have seemed like Shawn and I were a little codependent, but that was just how we were. After lunch, the dread was temporarily forgotten.

Watching Shawn happy took my mind off of things. I hoped things with Clive worked out, although then Shawn would have to come out of his rainbow streaked closet and tell his father.

I took a cab to Grayson’s when I got off work at five. I knew I would be pushing it to be ready on time, but I could always just speed through the process. The hard part was just getting home. I couldn’t risk people seeing me speed down the streets in a blur.

When I exited the elevator half an hour later, I hurried to open the door to the apartment. Stepping inside, it was completely quiet. Not just human quiet. There was no sound coming from the apartment that I could hear. I grabbed my cell calling Grayson to see where the hell he was.

“Hey babe,” he sounded out of breath.

“What’s going on? Where are you?”

He sighed deeply. “I meant to call you. I’m running late. I already had my secretary call the restaurant and my parents. I had to move the time an hour later. I just wanted to be the one to call you. I’m sorry. I got distracted, but I’m on my way home now.”

I took a deep breath, calming the anxiety I felt from rushing to get home with plenty of time to get ready. “Alright, baby. I’ll see you when you get here.”

“I love you, Gabriella,” he lowered his voice barely whispering.

“I love you more.”

Now that I had actual time to think, what was I going to wear?

***

At six-thirty on the dot, Grayson was dragging me downstairs to the car waiting at the curb to take us to the restaurant. I wasn’t surprised when John dropped us off to see that the restaurant was one Grayson owned. I had been becoming more and more familiar with things Grayson owned, not wanting him to spring another survey on me again. Of course I’d still give my honest opinion. After a lifetime living with vampires who could tell when you were lying, old habits really did die hard.

Grayson wrapped my hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You nervous?” I shook my head, giving him a soft smile. “Good. No reason to be.” He leaned in close to my ear, whispering, “Did you feed tonight?”

I tilted my head to the side, giving Grayson an expression that said, ‘come on!’ “I’m not making that mistake again, Grayson. That’s all we need is for your parents to think I’m odd when I’m eyeballing them like they’re mouthwatering steak dinners.”

His lips pulled up in a half smirk, “That’s not what I meant. I’d be more than happy to. . .
satisfy
. . .any craving you might have.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

I took a deep, cleansing breath. His offer was very tempting. I grabbed Grayson’s wrist checking the time on his watch, we were already a few minutes late. The drive had been hectic, full of people rushing to get home from work.

“Rain check?” I bit my lip letting him know my disappointment. 

Grayson leaned in placing a chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth. “Definitely.” His voice was full of hunger, but not for food.

Once inside, the hostess led us back to a private dining area. Both Charles and Josephine were already there waiting.

“So how did you two meet, Gabriella? Grayson hasn’t told us the story.” Josephine pried after the waiter left with our orders.

I turned to Grayson smiling, remembering the day. He gripped my thigh a little bit tighter, giving me the go ahead. I turned back to Josephine. “I was meeting a friend who was running late. I pulled out my phone to send him a quick text, you know, where are you at?” She nodded. “I wasn’t paying attention and ran smack into Grayson, who just happened to be playing with his phone, too.”

Telling the story, reminded me I really needed to thank Shawn for being late that day. If he hadn’t, I would have never met Grayson. He and I would have walked right past each other that day. That was a very depressing thought. In fact, I needed to thank Shawn for a lot. He brought us together and brought us back together when I was being an idiot.

The conversation continued much the same way. Grayson’s parents asked me about my job. They were shocked to find out how much money my company made on simply arranging for other companies to do stuff.

“And what about your family?” Charles asked. Our entrees had been served, but it did nothing to lighten the conversation. They wanted as much information as they could get about the woman dating their son and I understood that. I just wouldn’t be giving them all the supernatural details.

I took a sip of my drink, “It’s just my mom.”

“Oh?” Josephine looked up from her plate. She and Charles had been going back and forth asking questions. “What happened to your father?”

“He died before I was born.” 

Josephine reached across the table, clutching my hand. “My dear, I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head, trying to brush off her sympathy. “Don’t be. I never knew him to miss him.”

“Yes, but...”

“Mother!” Grayson cut off Josephine’s comment. She looked up at him but said nothing more on the topic.

By the time dinner concluded, two hours had passed. It was amazing how quickly it flew. We all gave praise to Grayson over the quality of his restaurant. Charles and Josephine had insisted that Grayson bring me home with him soon to meet the rest of the family.

“It was lovely seeing you again, Gabriella.” Josephine pulled me into a tight embrace. “Don’t break his heart,” she whispered before pulling back a polite smile on her face.

We said our goodbyes outside the restaurant. Grayson began tugging me away down the street.
Where the hell was he taking me?

“Where are you going?” Charles called out asking the question I wanted answered.

Grayson turned to respond to his father. “We’re parked over here.” He pointed to the parking garage.

“You drove?”

Grayson nodded pulling me along again. “Where are we going, Grayson?” I asked once we far enough away from his parents.

He didn’t pause in his strides; he just kept pulling me along. “I wasn’t lying to them Gaby. We really are parked over here.”

He pulled me into the concrete building. I looked around, not seeing the car we rode in. Before I could even open my mouth to ask again why we were there, Grayson pulled be against his hard body, his mouth instantly on mine. My body moved with his like a magnet. My finger gripped his hair pulling him in deeper. His hands glided up and down my back, coaxing desire to spread to my core. I felt the harsh, cold concrete against my back as his hands found my hips pushing me against the hard wall. I hadn’t even been aware we had been moving. That was the effect Grayson had on me. He could make everything in the world fade away except me and him. And being a vampire with heightened senses, that was saying something.

I slid my finge
rs down his chest feeling every defined hard muscle hidden under his shirt. I quickly undid the first few buttons before Grayson grabbed my hands pinning them above my head. He then rained kisses down on me. My neck, my shoulder, my breasts. He released my hands before dropping to his knees, trailing kisses down my stomach.

“What are you doing?” I asked, breathless.

Grayson’s hands slowly were slipping under my dress, coasting up my thighs. “Rain check, remember?”

“This is more than just a rain check,” I moaned.

Grayson’s hands paused in their ascent up my dress. His eyes locked on mine, while his fingers stroked my thigh lightly going back and forth. “I appreciate everything you did for me tonight. Everything,” he pressed. “Now shut up and let me show you my appreciation.”

His started pushing my skirt up to my hips. Every inch it rose, my breathing became heavier. “We could get caught, Grayson.”

He looked up at me again, eyes smoldering. His hands rested on my hips, holding up the fabric of my dress. “You’re a vampire, Gaby. You can hear everything.”