Betting the Bad Boy (14 page)

She pushed her body closer to his and found his lips with hers, kissing him softly. She thought he had been asleep, but he cupped the back of her head and deepened the kiss, waking her arousal again even though she had been so thoroughly satisfied.

“I’m going to head upstairs,” she said when he broke the kiss. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wanted to say good night.”

“Good night.” His hands wandered her body, sweeping over her hips and down to cup her behind. He kissed her again, slow and sleepy and languid, making it harder for her to break away and return to her empty bed.

“What are you doing?” she asked when he touched her breasts and teased her nipples into hardness.

“You know what I’m doing.”

“How could you have enough energy to have sex again? You outdid yourself tonight.”

“Just tonight?”

“Last night, too,” she said as he slipped his hand between her legs.

“I think I’m becoming addicted to seeing that expression on your face when you come,” he said, slipping his finger between her lower lips and stroking her. “I don’t think I can go to sleep without seeing it again.”

Duke didn’t play with her. He didn’t tease. He just caressed her in slow, firm circles until she was climaxing and breathless again.

“You’re so damn beautiful, Grace.” He kissed down her throat. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at you.”

He was making it harder and harder for her to leave him. But she had to. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing down here with him, but she had a feeling she was going to end up with her heart broken.

“Good night, Duke.” She re-dressed and rose from the bed before she could change her mind.

“Good night, Grace. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She nodded because they both knew that when night came again, she would be back here.

She walked upstairs to see the light glowing at the end of the hallway. When she went to turn it off she saw Ryder sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of milk in front of him. He looked up at her, a kind of curious expression on his face. “I was trying to be quiet.”

“You didn’t wake me.” She had wondered if he had any idea of where she had just been and how he would feel about it. But she could tell by the way he was looking at her that he had no idea what was going on between her and his father. “What are you doing up?”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“For what?”

“Hurting your feelings earlier.”

She sat down at the table across from him. “Did Duke tell you that you needed to apologize?”

“Yeah, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I don’t like seeing you sad.”

“You should be mad at me. You probably should hate me. It would kill me if you did, but I would understand.”

“I don’t hate you.”

She was quiet for a moment, relieved that he still loved her when she had done the unforgivable to him. “What do you think about your father?”

“I look like him.”

Grace nodded. She loved that he looked like Duke. She loved seeing traces of the father in the son. “He’s very handsome.”

“He looks scary.”

“But you’re not scared of him, are you?”

“No.” He shook his head. “You watched him try to kill someone, is that why you kept the secret?”

“It’s complicated, but yes. That’s part of the reason. The man who got into a fight with your father was the son of the police chief. If it were anyone else it wouldn’t have been so bad. But it was bad, and they really wanted to punish your dad. I sent him a letter telling him about you, but he never responded. I should have suspected that they’d blocked my letters to him, but it never occurred to me. I thought he didn’t want to have anything to do with us. And I never wanted to tell you your father didn’t want you, so I didn’t tell you anything at all.”

“I get it.”

“I didn’t know what kind of man he was going to be when he got out. And I wanted to protect you. I hope you know that I did all this to protect you.”

He nodded. “There was a riot in his prison when he was there. Three people died. It was one of the worst in the country.”

She knew that. She had feared for him when it happened. She had spent so many years scared for him. “Did he tell you that?”

“No. I looked it up.”

“Stop researching your father. He’s here now. Talk to him.”

“I don’t know how to act with him.”

Grace understood. She didn’t know how to act with Duke herself. “I don’t think he knows how to act around you, either. But you two are so much alike, I suggest you just be yourselves.”

“Did you love him, Mom?”

“Oh, Ryder.” She shut her eyes briefly. “More than anything else on this entire planet until you came around.”

“Do you think he’ll stick around?”

“Here in Destiny? I don’t know yet.” She thought about the bet they’d made and how determined he was to win. “He’s had a hard life here, but I do know this: Now that he knows about you, he won’t ever be a stranger to you again.”

Chapter 12

When Grace left her room the next morning she found Duke and Ryder side by side at the stove. They were making scrambled eggs, Duke instructing Ryder as he moved the eggs around the pan with a rubber spatula.

Her heart tugged painfully as she watched them together. Father and son. Duke teaching him little things that would help him become a man. “Good morning,” she said, injecting brightness into her voice, wondering if she would ever forgive herself for not trying harder.

“Good morning,” they said in unison.

“Finish them eggs up, boy. They’re looking good.” He ruffled Ryder’s hair before he turned away from the stove and handed Grace a cup of coffee. As he did, he stroked his thumb over the back of her hand, which sent tingles all over her body. He didn’t say anything, but he looked at her in a way that let her know that even though they were pretending that there was nothing going on in between them during the day, the nighttime was just for them.

“You’re not working today.”

“No.” She tried to remove the breathless quality from her voice. For some reason this morning she felt like she was in high school again, the young girl who felt a rush anytime he looked at her. She stepped away from him just a bit to regain her senses. “I have to go visit my father, though.”

Duke barely suppressed a scowl.

“He’s the only family I have left,” she said softly.

“No, he’s not,” Duke said as he turned away, and that left Grace confused. Was he talking about Ryder or was he talking about him?

She didn’t know what to say to that so she walked over to Ryder and kissed the side of his face as he was piling eggs on his plate. “Those look good, sweetheart.”

“Thanks. Da—Duke showed me.”

“I see. I’ve got to stop by your grandfather’s house. Do you want me to wait for you to finish school so you can come with me?”

“No. I don’t have to go back there now that Duke’s here, right?”

“No,” Duke answered for her. “He won’t be watching you again as long as I’m living.”

“Duke—” Grace started, not sure why she felt the need to speak up. She didn’t want her father watching Ryder because it made her feel like she owed him. But Duke’s objection felt like a slight. As if he didn’t approve of her parenting choices.

“My son will not be watched by that man. There’s no discussion about it,” Duke snapped.

“That’s cool with me,” Ryder said as he sat down at the table, diffusing the argument before it could begin.

“What’s going to happen when you go back to Vegas?” Grace asked him, knowing how hard it was to have someone else take care of Ryder while she had to work.

“We agreed on thirty days,” he said, reminding her of their bet. “Then I get to decide where my son stays and I’m telling you it’s not going to be with him.”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” That was a lie. She did, but she didn’t want to argue in front of Ryder.

“Fine. Sit down and eat some eggs. Our son made enough to feed an army.” Duke turned back to the stove to see that there was only a little left in the pan. “I stand corrected. Ryder made enough to feed one teenage boy.”

“What?” he asked with his mouth full. “I was hungry.”

A little while later, Grace walked up to her father’s house with that same heavy feeling that always settled in to her gut when she arrived there. She had never been more conflicted about one person in her life.

“Dad?” she called to him as she entered the house. She heard coughing and knew he was in the kitchen.

The house hadn’t felt the same since her mother had passed away. It didn’t look the same. A cleaning lady kept it fairly tidy, but the whole place looked kind of sad and tired. And now cluttered. It seemed her father never threw anything out anymore.

Her mother loved spring cleaning and changing all the bedspreads and the curtains, but none of that had been done since she’d been gone. The curtains, which had been faded by the unrelenting sun, had been leached of all their color. They kind of reminded her of her father, who looked like a broken man when she walked into the kitchen and saw him sitting at the table and scraping butter on a well-done piece of toast.

He had lost a lot of weight, appearing almost gaunt and much older than his sixty-two years. “Hi, Daddy.” She took the burnt toast from him and put two fresh slices in the toaster, adjusting the setting this time. “I’ll make you something nice to eat.”

She pulled out the eggs and went to work while he remained quiet. She knew he was not happy with her. She could feel it, but it wasn’t a new feeling. He had been mad at her since she fell in love with Duke.

“I see you have time to visit me now. I was starting to think you would never see me again since
he
came back around.”

Her father said
he
like it was a dirty word. Like Duke was some sort of filth. “You call him by his name. He is the father of my son and we needed to work things out.”

“Have him write you a check and be on his way.”

“He doesn’t want to be on his way, and I don’t want his money. He wants to know his son and I don’t have any choice but to let him.”

“He’s a criminal. He has been since he was fifteen. Just like his no-good father.”

“He only stole to feed his family,” she said, feeling like she was eighteen again, defending Duke to him again. “And you’re right. His father was no good, but he is not his father.” She paused and studied him, almost afraid to ask what she wanted to because she didn’t want to hear the answer. She didn’t want another reason to be disappointed in him. “Did you have my letters to Duke blocked while he was awaiting trial?”

He was quiet for too long.

“He would have been a murderer if someone hadn’t stopped him from killing that boy.”

“Answer my question.”

He raised his chin, his expression hardening. “I didn’t have to block them. Chief Andersen found out about the first one and stopped any more from coming. I agreed with him, you needed to break ties.”

“He thinks I hid my pregnancy from him. He doesn’t trust me or my judgment about our son, all because you and Chief Andersen decided you knew what was best for me.”

“You let him around your son. Maybe you still need someone to decide what’s best for you.”

“It’s his son, too!” she shouted at him, her nerves completely frayed. “And you don’t run my life. I want Duke to see his son and even if I didn’t I don’t have much of a choice. He’ll take me to court if I don’t.”

She was hoping that would cause him to back off. She’d never get him to see that Duke was a good man, and she was too damn tired to keep trying.

“Don’t be scared of his threats. I still have power in these parts.”

“Not like you used to. And you have forgotten that he’s rich now and I have nothing. If he fights me he’ll win.” She shook her head, repressing a sigh. “I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”

She wasn’t supposed to fight with him. She thought back to the promise she had made to her mother. It was hard enough to keep as it was, but now Duke was back and they had made a bet—and if he won it, they would be packing their bags and moving ten hours away.

She wasn’t keen on picking up and moving their lives again—the transition from Boston had been hard enough on Ryder—but she didn’t necessarily want Duke to lose, either. She didn’t want to parent alone anymore. She didn’t want Duke to be a sometimes father. She didn’t like the idea of having to send Ryder to another home on weekends, summers, and holidays. Her son deserved his father full-time. She had worked so hard these past thirteen years to give Ryder everything he needed, but the one thing she couldn’t give him was his father. She owed that to him.

“We aren’t fighting,” her father barked. “I’m just trying to make you see sense. The court wouldn’t give full custody to a man who almost committed murder. Especially if I have something to say about it.”

“It was a fight! Patrick was giving it to Duke as hard as he could, too. And he deserved it. He slapped me in my face after he tried to stick his hand between my legs. It was you who should have wanted to kill him, but instead you had the father of my child sent away to prison for ten years. You did that. You did wrong. Duke didn’t do a damn thing to you but love me.”

“He wasn’t good enough for you,” he said quietly. “I wanted what was best for you. You’re my only child and I wanted you to be happy. I love you, Grace. I did what I thought was best.”

Those words knocked her for a loop, and Grace shut her eyes as she absorbed them. This was why she was so conflicted when it came to him. He loved her, he just didn’t know how to love her the right way and it had ruined so many lives in the process.

“You can’t plan someone else’s perfect life.”

“No, but your life could have been easier. You could have had a husband. You could have been comfortable.”

“You sent me away. You tried to marry me off to someone else. You wanted me to get rid of Ryder.”

He looked pained. “I regret that part, but I could have fixed things for you if you let me.”

“Don’t you get it? I didn’t want you to fix things for me! I just wanted to live my own life.”

“You were nineteen. He was twenty-two. You were giving up a good education to be with a mechanic.”