The rise and fall of her chest halted.
“If I’m going to give myself to you,” Grady continued as he swept a lock of her hair from her eyes, “I want to give you all of myself. And that includes my last name.”
Maren didn’t say anything, but her fingers found his on the mattress and the stroking of her thumb across the back of Grady’s hand was all the reassurance he needed. They stayed like this for several silent moments, no words passing between them, just an unspoken understanding that Grady couldn’t quite explain, but could feel as real as any conversation.
Still, he didn’t trust himself.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” he blurted, suddenly moving to swing his legs over the side of the bed.
“But she said there’s no hot water.”
With a loud sigh and his hands clamped to his thighs, Grady pushed off the bed. “Yeah, I know. That’s actually not a problem. I have no use for a hot shower right now.”
As he walked toward the bathroom and slipped the door shut behind him, he couldn’t help but smile at the snicker he heard when Maren giggled at his honest words.
It was going to be a tortuously long night.
23
Maren
Maren scrunched her eyes shut and released an immense breath. What on earth had just happened? One minute she was examining Grady’s rodeo injury and the next she was practically begging him to sleep with her.
Had he not rushed off to take a shower, she figured all of their inhibitions would have been long gone, along with their clothes. Maren certainly wasn’t about to stop. It surprised her, really. In all of her past relationships, she’d been the one to raise up her guard in that way. But with Grady, she didn’t feel the need to guard herself. She only felt the overwhelming urge to be as close as physically and emotionally possible.
Collecting her breathing and her thoughts, she forced her focus on the sound of the water from the shower and not the man currently standing beneath its spray. She brought a pillow up over her face and smothered a groan. Why did he have to be so frustratingly irresistible?
Was it possible for things to ever go back to the way they were? She couldn’t forget all that he’d said in the heat of the moment. The thing was, none of his words felt spontaneous or desire driven. No, they were spoken from a place deep within, a place of love and truth and steadfast commitment.
Marrying Grady had been a childhood fantasy of Maren’s, but she hadn’t realized he shared that same dream. What was she going to do with that information?
A sudden knock at the door halted that thought from fully forming.
Another loud rap quickly turned into an insistent pounding and had Maren rising from the bed. She crossed the room and took the handle in her grip, surprised when she saw the woman from the motel lobby standing on the other side of the threshold.
“Forgot to get a credit card for incidentals,” the woman grumbled without a greeting.
“Oh. Sure. Just hold on one second.”
Maren glanced around. Grady’s wallet and keys rested in a small pile on the nightstand and she crossed the room to retrieve them. Flipping the worn leather billfold open, she withdrew a credit card and didn’t notice the folded slip of paper that fell out. She walked back to the open door and passed off the card to the woman.
“Thank you. I’ll be right back with it.”
Maren shut the door and when she turned around, she saw the outline of the paper on the floor. Crouching down, she took it between her fingers and when she read the words For My Kiley scrawled across the parchment in undeniably male handwriting, she felt as though she’d been kicked square in the gut.
Falling forward onto her knees, her hands trembled. The paper quivered in her grip as her eyes welled with unforeseen tears.
Then the shower shut off.
Scrambling up, Maren stuffed the note under a pillow and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She blinked into focus and sniffed loudly, then cleared her throat, relieved when the door rattled again with another knock.
The bathroom door opened at the same time that she pulled on the motel door. Maren couldn’t help but notice the woman’s gaze slide over her shoulder and land upon Grady who now stood in the doorframe in nothing but dark jeans hanging low on his hips.
“Here you go,” she said to Maren without meeting her eyes.
“Thank you very much,” Maren answered in a tone that let the woman know she had no right to ogle the man across the room. He was one-hundred-percent off limits. “You have a good night.”
“You too.” Maren chose to ignore the curious lift in the woman’s tone and shut the door before she could say—or steal a look at—anything else.
Maren’s hands clenched at her sides. “Enjoy your shower?”
“Enjoy? No, not really.” Grady rubbed a hand towel over his head and then balled it up to toss it onto the bathroom counter behind him. “What was that about?”
“She just needed a credit card for incidentals.”
Nodding, Grady laughed as he stepped into the room. “Gotcha. Not that there’s much we could get charged for here. They don’t even have those mini fridges with the tiny overpriced drinks. Speaking of, I’m kinda thirsty.” He stooped down to collect his boots and tugged them on, one at a time. “I’m going in search of a soda machine if you want me to grab something for you.”
“I’ll take a water if you can find one.”
Fitting his shirt over his head, Grady walked around Maren to snag his wallet from the nightstand. She handed him the credit card and he returned it to the billfold before sliding the leather into his back pocket. Then he leaned in to brush a kiss across Maren’s lips like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I’ll be right back.” The corner of his mouth lifted into a devilish grin when he added, “Don’t go anywhere.”
“I’ll be right here waiting, Grady.”
As soon as the door clicked behind him, Maren dove for the bed. Her hands moved frantically until they located the paper she’d just stashed there. She grabbed onto it, smoothing the wrinkled sheet open on the surface of the mattress as she lowered to sit with her legs crossed beneath her.
She couldn’t bring herself to read it. It was like sneaking a look at someone else’s mail, an inherently wrong move any way you looked at it. There was no justifying that action.
The letter was worn, like it had been opened and refolded a dozen times, each time the fibers losing their structure a little more until it felt more like fabric than an actual sheet of paper.
Maren’s unfocused gaze roved over the penned words. Even with her eyes scanning wildly, she easily picked out the words love, lifetime, and eternity. Words, she thought, Grady had reserved for her.
Her stomach churned.
When the clunking of Grady’s boots passed by the window on his way back toward the door moments later, she did the only thing she could think to do—hastily fold up the letter and chuck it to the floor. She couldn’t stand to have it in her hands any longer. They felt as though they’d been burned.
“I hope a lukewarm bottle of water is okay,” Grady said, smiling upon entering the room. “It’s all they had. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He kicked off his boots with a hand pressed to the wall for balance and then crossed the room to join Maren on the bed.