Remembering

Remembering
By AnitaB
Chapter two: Here be the planning…

He was planning something. Wayne had the poker face of a small child on Christmas morning. He was simply horrible at hiding anything. She loved that about him. Whatever he was planning was going to be fun. And it was going to involve kissing. Grace had felt his eyes on her since she’d almost climbed him in the filing room. The heat in his gaze was sending little trembling shivers up and down his back. Her fingers felt cold without his around them, without the hot lines of his muscles through his shirt. But there was at least another hour of work left before they could get out of here. Sixty more minutes before she could warm her hands on the hard lines of his shoulders, before she could feel those arms around her and those lips against her own.

Damn, paperwork was not distracting enough to get him off her mind. Forcing her eyes to the paper, Grace tried to focus. Then someone sat on the edge of her desk. Only their resident mind-reader lounged quite like that. “Hello, Jane.”

“Good evening, Grace. Have any dinner plans for this fine evening?” His smile and the line of his gaze swept across the room to glide over Wayne’s desk. Jane didn’t ask questions without knowing the answers or at least planning to get them soon. And that hypnotized kiss had sort of been his idea.

“Of course, I do. I try to eat dinner every day, don’t you, Jane?” Grace smiled at him, leaning back in her chair with a smile. “It’s better for your health that way.”

“Oh, of course I eat dinner every day. But not usually at Rigsby’s place. And certainly with a lot less kissing than I expect your plans will involve tonight. Though he’s supposed to be a good cook.”

“Really, Jane. I wouldn’t think you’d be Rigsby’s type of dinner guest. And kissing… well, that would be a bit of a shocker to all the girls you flirt with, don’t you think?” Grace knew he knew because, well, because he was Jane. He knew everything.

“Stubborn Grace, Rigsby is so much easier to fluster.” Jane leaned close and smiled even wider. “Don’t be too stubborn for our sweet boy tonight.” A pat on her shoulder later, he wandered off to annoy someone else. Leaving Grace to glance over at Wayne. It seemed he’d gotten past her barriers, stubbornness and all. She should be angry about that, but… she couldn’t. He was a big teddy bear, and she’d been fighting these feelings way too long.

Grace wanted this, wanted his arms around her, wanted his kiss. And she didn’t want to wait another hour for it. They didn’t have a hot case and paperwork lasted forever. Slowly, she came to her feet and crossed the space to his desk. “Whattaya say we cut out early today?”

Wayne looked up at her and it took all her control to keep herself out of his lap at the instant heat in his eyes. “Yeah, I’d like that, Grace.” One big hand half reached out, then clenched into a fist on the edge of his desk. “Whattaya say I make us some Tuscan Garlic chicken at my place?” Grace felt a shiver tumble through her body at the thought. They’d be completely alone, no coworkers, no interruptions… no reason to hold back. Those big hands that were fighting against reaching for her would finally touch her. Her hands would finally get to explore the hard, smooth lines of him…

“Yeah, I’d like that, Wayne.” Grace could hear the heat in her own voice, watched Wayne respond to it in the tightening of hard muscles and big hands. They should go… now, before one of them lost a grip on the last little bits of self-control. “Let’s go.”

She couldn’t help watching as he stretched an arm out for his suit jacket and rose to his feet. Sometimes, Grace forgot just how tall and strong he was. “Ladies first,” A warm hand settled in the small of her back, leading her down the hall to the elevator. She, for her part, folded her hands together in front of her. No getting things started in the office, well, any more than they had already.

The elevator never seemed so slow in her life. The parking lot had never been bigger. And never had she thought his car looked that good. He led her to the passenger door and suddenly it was just a little too much. She couldn’t get in the car before she got a kiss ‘cause distracting the driver was not a good idea. “Wayne,” Grace laid a hand on his chest and leaned up and in. He met her half way, lips finding hers eagerly, strong hands holding her tight against his chest. He tasted so good, felt so strong, so safe. And he was pressing her against the side of his car, his hand stroking along the back of her thigh. For just a moment, she saw it. Her knee would climb the edge of his hip. His hands would help her legs wrap around his waist. Her fingers would dig into the hard muscles of his shoulders. And then they just might get arrested for public indecency. //Stop, now…// Grace weakly pulled back from his lips. “I should get…”

“Yeah… in the car.” Grace smiled at the slow opening of his arms and the quick opening of the car door. “Let’s go, Grace.” She loved the low rasp of his voice and the heat in his eyes. Climbing into the car, Grace buckled the seatbelt, more to remind her to stay in her seat than for safety.

She couldn’t help the way her eyes locked to his hands as he pulled out of the parking lot. She watched the muscles in his arms flex and tighten with each turn of the wheel. Some part of her mind noticed that he obeyed traffic laws the whole way. //That’s my little boy scout.//

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If she didn’t stop looking at him like that, he was gonna have to pull over and drag her across the seat into his arms. Wayne could feel her eyes on his hands, heating his lips. It was hard enough to stay at the speed limit as it was. But no street cop deserved to be shot for slowing them down right now. About one more mile and they’d be on his front step, about to be in his living room with his arms around her. “Almost there, Grace.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Wayne. We have time.” Her voice made muscles all over his back tighten up. They might have plenty of time, but the first time, he was going to be fighting the urge to take her fast and hard against his living room wall. Grace reached out, one warm hand resting on his wrist. He could feel every single nerve in his body strain to be the few inches of skin under her fingers. At the next red light, Wayne pulled that hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. When the light turned green, he kept those fingers wrapped around his own and managed the rest of the drive one-handed. The tight feeling in his throat made a spoken response out of the question.

By the time the car came to a stop in front of his building, Wayne had a little control over his vocal cords back. “Come inside, Grace.” Eyes locked on hers, he kissed the inside of her palm and made himself let her go. A smile and a nod later, Grace climbed out of his car and led the way to the door. God she was beautiful, every line and curve of her sweet body drew his eyes as she climbed his front steps and looked back at him.

“Are you coming, Wayne?”

//Hell, yes,// “Right behind you, Grace.” Walking a little faster, Wayne put both arms tight around her waist and pulled her back against his chest. Her body pressed closer, her hands sliding over his at her hips. “Holding you,”

“I feel you, Wayne. Open the door.” Smiling, she rocked her hips back against his and laughed low in her throat. “Better hurry a little.”

She wanted him to lose control, trying to push him over the edge right here. He put one hand flat against her stomach to keep her close and dug for his keys with the other. “Hold still, Grace.” The lock resisted at first, then opened to let them in. Forcing his arms open, he watched her walk across his living room. So damn beautiful. She was so damn beautiful he knew he wasn’t going to have an ounce of control left the next time he touched her. “Sweetheart, if you want me to slow down, you have to tell me now. The next time I touch you, kiss you, I won’t be able to stop.” His Grace smiled at him from across the room, her eyes flicking down to his hands, his lips. He watched her hands slide over her hips and knot together at her waist. Grace wanted this, wanted him, and it pushed him that much closer to throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her to bed.

“I knew when we barely stopped at the office what would happen if I came home with you, Wayne. I want this. I want you.” The space between them shrank, but he couldn’t say which one of them moved. Maybe it was both of them. Then her hands pressed wide over his heart and his hands slid around her waist. “I think dinner can wait, don’t you, Wayne?”

She was killing him, but god it felt good. Catching her tight against his chest, Wayne claimed her lips with his own. Now there was no reason to stop. When her arms curled around his neck and her knee climbed the edge of his hip, he helped it along. Still lost in her kiss, he slid both hands to the line of her thighs and lifted her against his hips. “Grace, I need you, all of you.” He reclaimed her lips in a deep, breathless kiss and walked down the hall with Grace cradled in his arms.

At the bedroom door, he stopped a moment, pulling back from her lips. He watched her eyes slowly open, loving the heat he saw there. “Wayne,” Her fingers slid along his jaw, trying to lead his lips back to hers. If he took that kiss, he’d end up pinning her to the wall at her back.

“Hold on a second,” He shifted her against his chest to get one hand to the doorknob, swinging the door wide to get her inside. “I need you in my bed first.” Grace shivered in his arms, clinging to his neck for the short walk across the room.

“And I need you out of that suit jacket.” The slight scratch of her nails along his shoulders put another shiver down his back.

“Yes, ma’am,” Wayne forced his arms slowly open and lowered her to her feet. Before he could get his fingers off her waist, Grace was already sliding her hands into the jacket to work on his shirt buttons. Her gorgeous eyes locked on his lips as she leaned up on her toes. “Grace,” //So much for the jacket,// Clenching his hands on her hips, he pulled her tight against his chest and took the kiss she offered. Hot fingers slid down his ribs and pulled his shirt loose from his belt.

If her hands went any lower, he was going to rip her shirt open to get to her skin. And she didn’t have a spare shirt that he knew of. //Grace,// Wayne grabbed her wrists and pulled back from her lips. “Wayne,” //Don’t sweetheart.//

“Grace, I need to touch you, right now.” The low groan on her lips almost tempted him back into a kiss. Almost. “Please,” Sliding his hands up and down her back, Wayne opened her suit jacket and guided it down her arms. The fabric forced her hands off his skin for the moment or two to peel it away. Then his Grace wasn’t about to be stopped.

Strong hands shoved his jacket and shirt roughly over his shoulders and down his arms. Then her fingers dragged heat over his skin as she pressed close to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “I need you, too. Right now.” Her lips stopped so close to his that he couldn’t breathe without a kiss.

Losing himself in her kiss, he slid hungry fingertips under the edge of her shirt to feel the heat of her skin. //Yes, Grace.//

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