Seniorella Read Free

mountain stream.
    That might have worked if Jared hadn’t eased his hold on her waist and brushed his fingers over her clit.
    “No fair!” she hissed at him.
    “Did I give you permission to address me?”
    “I was talking to myself, Sir , not addressing you.”
    “Somebody’s developed a very smart mouth in the space of one morning.”
    Grace would have laughed then if her need weren’t so critical. God, if only he knew.
    “You’re not going to freak, are you?”
    Although he sounded pretty certain, Grace shook her head emphatically. She’d lived the last half of her life steeped in bitter regret over things she’d left unsaid and undone, at the trust he’d earned but she’d failed to give, and she wasn’t about to hold anything back now. For better or worse, Jared was getting all there was to have of Grace Hendrick. She belonged to him, body and soul, for the next eleven-plus hours.
    “That’s my girl,” he praised, pressing a lingering kiss on her shoulder. Then he withdrew from her and aimed the showerhead at the wall before turning her to face him. “But first things first.”
    She wasn’t the least bit surprised when he picked up a can of shaving cream from the edge of the tub and squirted a mound of white foam into his palm. Crouching, he spread it over her neatly trimmed bush. Then he reached back and produced a wicked-looking straightedge razor.
    Grace’s hand flew to cover her crotch. Questioning him probably wasn’t the sensible thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. “There’s a perfectly good safety razor on the caddy,” she said tentatively.
    He studied her face for a moment. “Do you trust me, Grace?”
    15

    Robin L. Rotham
    Tears sprang to her eyes and she removed her hand without a word.
    An hour later, she knelt in Jared’s bedroom, naked and squeaky-clean inside and out. Her ass in the air, her hands clasped behind her back and her forehead on the floor, Grace wallowed in red-hot desire. Thirty years earlier, she would have balked at his ministrations in the bathroom, especially those that came after the shaving. Now the intimacy, while excruciating, thrilled her to the bone. She was laid bare to him, flaws and all, and she was accepted. Wanted. Cosseted and coveted.
    Had anything ever aroused her more?
    “I’m really surprised you’re taking all this so matter-of-factly.” She heard one of his knees crack as he crouched beside her on the carpet and ran a hand over her ass. A thousand words crowded behind her lips, but she remained silent. “You’ve always been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Grace, but now…” His sigh filled the air. “Sit up, sweetheart. Might as well get the rest of this out of the way before Alec gets here.”
    The blood rushing out of her head made her sway for a second and he grasped her upper arm to steady her. “You okay?”
    At her nod, he nodded pensively too. He’d dressed in the black slacks and white dress shirt she remembered from that long-ago night, and even wore socks and shoes.
    And here she’d thought she couldn’t possibly feel any more naked…
    He took her hand in his before asking, “How did you find out about Alec and me?”
    It was tempting to just lay it all out for him, but Jared was a diehard pragmatist. If she told him about the magical cupcake, he’d probably think she’d cracked her skull in the fall and rush her to the emergency room, so instead she gave him a loving smile.
    “Sometimes a woman just…knows.”
    “Not every woman would be so accepting of a lover who’d experimented with another man.”
    She cocked her head and watched him chew the inside of his lower lip. He was nervous. Why hadn’t she seen it before? Jared McLain was actually afraid she was going to reject him. Which she had, the first time. Oh, she hadn’t intended the rejection 16

    Seniorella
    to be permanent. She’d just needed some time to think, to finally come to terms with it all—his sexual explorations with Alec Ruston