My Funny Valentine Read online

  “What—”

  Gray cut short her protest by settling his lips on hers. He’d planned on teasing her about leaving him alone to fend for himself with Wanda last night, but somehow the action had been intercepted and replaced by this more pressuring urge. He hadn’t planned to do it, but against all common sense, found himself tasting nonetheless.

  Bella’s lips were warm, ripe, and plum soft.

  Heavenly soft.

  Though momentarily startled by his kiss, she relaxed against him and a moan of pleasure resonated from deep in her throat. Gray greedily feasted on her lips. She’d opened instantly for him and the need to explore the delicious textures of her mouth had him plunging is hands into her hair and angling her toward him so that he could better sample her luscious taste.

  The silken mass of Bella’s hair was a pleasant weight against the back of his hand. Her nape was baby soft, delicate, causing in Gray both a hunger to dominate and an urge to protect.

  At some point, Bella had seemingly gone boneless and leaned against him. Her arms had twined around his neck and her small hands were currently tunneling through his hair, finding little pleasure points he hadn’t known existed. Her tongue chased his, a sensuous game of seek and retreat that resulted in considerably less room in his jeans.

  It was mindboggling. A kiss…a simple kiss and yet Gray felt like she’d hot-wired his groin.

  A feeling that would undoubtedly cause trouble if he didn’t put a distance between them. Reluctantly, Gray ended the kiss. His gaze searched her rather befuddled blue one and Gray felt his lips curve into a grin.

  “Don’t ever leave me alone with that woman again.”

  Her brow clouded. “What woman?”

  “Wanda. The man-eater you let me with last night.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’d hate to have to strangle you again,” Gray said, tongue in cheek. “What with my big offensive feet and how I’m only moderately attractive and all.”

  “Bella,” an impatient voice from the salon called.

  Looking like she’d awakened from a trance, Bella started and gazed at Gray. “I…I have to go.”

  With that, Bella started to walk away. When she reached the door, she turned back around and gave him a puzzled, utterly endearing look. His chest tightened in a perplexing way, making his heart trip to an odd rhythm in his chest.

  He blew out a breath. What on earth had he just started?

  ***

  He’d kissed her.

  Bella sagged against the bathroom door and pressed a trembling hand to her still tingling lips. She still couldn’t believe it. he’d really kissed her. Right there in her shop. Without warning. Just laid one on her.

  And had it ever been great, her disjointed thoughts continued. Bella gasped for air and she struggled to get her breathing even. She couldn’t very well waltz back into her salon hyperventilating like this.

  Bella leaned her head against the back of the door and looked heavenward for divine intervention, for surely she would need it to recover from the impact of Gray’s kiss.

  When his mesmerizing lips had touched hers, Bella had ignited…then slowly melted. Gray knew the exact combination of pressure and softness, of suckling and stroking. He’d been gentle, almost lazy in his caresses, leaving Bella with the impression that he was more interested in savoring the kiss than a prelude to other intimacies.

  And when he’d pulled her to him and massaged her neck, Bella had never been more thankful, because she’d lost the ability to stand unassisted. In fact, she was still a little weak-kneed.

  Bella sighed. Her body still hummed, still simmered, and she could feel her nipples pucker against the silken fabric of her bra. She looked down and an embarrassed giggle rippled up her throat. The last time that had happened she’d been cold—not aroused.

  It suddenly occurred to Bella that, aside from her husband, Gray was the only man she’d ever kissed. She braced herself for the immense guilt of that realization, but to her chagrin felt only a slight remorse.

  Then she felt guilty for not feeling guilty.

  Shouldn’t she be disappointed in herself for responding to Gray the way she had? Shouldn’t she feel like she’d broken her vows?

  Bella stood in the silence for a few minutes and analyze her feelings, her thoughts. Amazingly, she felt more like she’d turned an emotional corner. A certain peace she’d couldn’t name swelled in her, leaving her with a puzzling sense of contentment.

  The contentment soon gave way to bewilderment, however; and, despite the many questions firing through her brain, one thing was certain—Gray Cameron no longer simply represented a threat to her physical reawakening. Bella instinctively knew if she let him, he could break her heart.

  Chapter Nine

  Bam! Thwack! Bam!

  Slightly irritated, Gray winced and held the receiver closer to his ear, then plugged the other with his finger. “I’m sorry, Jack. What did you say?”

  “What’s that damned noise?” his editor wanted to know.

  “The landlady. I think she’s—” Bam! Bam! Bam!“—working on something,” Gray finished, eyes narrowed with irritation.

  “Oh. Sounds like she’s hired a demolition crew. How are you getting any work done?”

  Naturally, Jack was more concerned with Gray’s ability to work than whether or not he had permanent nerve damage to his ears, Gray thought wryly.

  “Haven’t got much done this week. Just a couple of chapters.”

  More like a couple of pages, but as soon as Magnolia Grove’s answer to Bob Vila stopped her infernal renovations he’d be able to work more comfortably. Hell, he couldn’t even think in this racket, much less listen to his characters think. So long as Jack didn’t ask for anything to read he’d be all right.

  “Good. Send me what you’ve got so far and let me see how it’s coming along,” Jack said, to Gray’s vast displeasure. “We’ve got an editorial meeting scheduled for Monday and I want to be prepared.”

  Damn. “Sure, I do—“

  Bam! Thwack! Thwack! Bam! There was silence. Then brrrzzzzzrrrrzzzzz.

  “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m gonna have to call you back.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll call you back!” Gray shouted, then ended the call. Good grief. What in the hell was she doing down there? Tearing out a wall?

  Gray stalked to his bedroom, pulling on a T-shirt, then slid a pair of jeans over his boxers. He reached for his boots, but discarded the thought as the electric drew another ear-piercing scream from the wood. Muttering darkly under his breath, Gray descended the stairs and went in search of the objects of his aggravation.

  He found her on the front porch. Bella was dressed in a tank top and cutoff shorts, showing entirely too much of her willowy limbs for Gray’s comfort. Her silvery hair was pulled up into a ponytail and a few wayward tendrils clung to her dampened nape. She had a measuring tape clipped to her hip-hugging cutoffs and a pencil poked behind the delicate shell of her ear. Angelic face both flushed and scrunched in severe determination. Gray couldn’t decide whether she looked ridiculous…or endearing.

  His mind instantly called up the memory of Bella’s kiss. Her taste. Her scent. The simple power of the recollection brought him to arousal, made his blood heat.

  Just as it had the other times he’d allowed himself to think about her.

  Which, despite his resolve not to, had been often. And, if he’d thought about her this much while she’d been avoiding him, Gray regretted to think of how much she would have occupied his thoughts had she allowed him the presence of her company.

  It occurred to Gray that he should’ve said to hell with the racket and stayed in his apartment. Seeing Bella couldn’t be good for this semi-infatuation he’d developed for her. Just then Bella bent over, her pert rear displayed in all its sensual perfection. Any thought of quietly returning to his quarters fled along with his ability to swallow properly.

  “Ahem.”

  Bella’s shoulders tensed, then s
he turned to face him. The smile she gave him looked a little brittle around the edges. “Hi.”

  One measly word and Gray’s heart did a little zig-zag. Irritated at the response, Gray gestured at the mess on her front porch. “What’s all this?”

  “Oh,” Bella said, seemingly reminded of her task. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m, uh, repairing a board. I’ve got a relatively light week and Ethan is attending vacation Bible school in the evenings with Hattie. Thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get some of these little projects completed.” She smiled brightly, then her brow furrowed. “I’m not disturbing you, am I?”

  Gray sidestepped the question and asked another of his own. “How many more of these projects require power tools?”

  Bella thought for a moment, then bit her lip. “All of them.”

  Inwardly Gray smirked. Great. This week would obviously be a bust. If Bella intended on doing all of these so-called little projects over the next few days, then he might as well pack the computer away for the week. There was no way he could continue to work amid the din.

  “Ohhhh,” Bella breathed guiltily, interrupting his mental musings. “You’re working, aren’t you? And the noise…I’m sorry. I’ll try to keep it down. All I’ve got left to do is finish tearing out this section of the porch and replace the boards. It’s not so much, really.”

  Finish tearing out the porch? Gray thought, dismayed. It was then that Gray finally took notice of the absolute destruction his landlady had wrought in her fit of renovation.

  A big gaping hole yawned on the side of the long porch. Splintered boards—boards that didn’t appear to be rotten and therefore didn’t require replacing—had been severed in Bella’s enthusiastic run with the circular saw. She’d manage to rip up a couple of boards and the rusty nails that jutted up from the previously perfect planks made Gray think of an accident waiting to happen. No wonder her refurbishment was costing her an arm and a leg—she was obviously ruining more than she fixed.

  Nevertheless, he felt an undeniable respect for Bella. Despite her inability to master the renovations, she still had enough spunk to try. He couldn’t imagine any woman he knew clipping on a measuring tape, much less working with a circular saw. It was this realization which prompted Gray’s next words, and they were out of his mouth before he thoughts better of the offer.

  “Could you use a little help?”

  Bella’s slightly wary eyes widened hopefully, then dulled with regret. Her shoulders sagged. “I really couldn’t ask you to do that. You’re working, after all.”

  Not if you keep this up, Gray thought. “Well, maybe we could work out a schedule,” he suggested. “I could write until you finish down here with your clients, then we could get together and take care of some of these, er, little projects.”

  “My last appointment for the next couple of days is at three,” Bella remarked thoughtfully. “I’ll have Sunday and Monday off. If you could lend a hand tomorrow and Saturday, I’d be grateful. I wouldn’t expect you to give up your weekend.”

  “I never work on the weekend,” Gray lied to his own amusement. He supposed the hopefulness in her tone had scrambled his brain.

  Bella sighed with obvious appreciation. “That would be great. Tell you what. In exchange for your help, dinner will be on me. How does that sound?”

  “That depends,” Gray hedged, feeling a smile tickle his lips. “Will you be serving chicken fried steak?”

  “Er…do you want it?” she asked, looking delightfully bewildered.

  “No.”

  She nodded decisively and a brilliant grin claimed her lips. “Then it won’t be on the menu.”

  An awkward silence followed. Bella’s gaze had left his face and moved over the length of him. Gray felt his face and moved over the length of him. Gray felt those eyes smooth down his body as thoughts she’d physically touched him. For the first time in his adult life, Gray felt a blush creep up his neck and camp in his cheeks.

  As the movement, Bella looked up and swallowed nervously. “Y-you’d better put some shoes on. You might step on a nail.”

  So they were back to his feet, were they? Funny, Gray thought, as he gazed curiously at Bella, but she didn’t looked offended. If he were to hazard a guess, he’d be more inclined to say she looked…impressed.

  ***

  Well, Bella thought as she watched Gray expertly hammer a new board into place, it was official.

  She had no backbone.

  Rather than refuse Gray’s offer to help, she’d readily accepted. After a week of nerve-wracking avoidance in which Bella had become a master at evading her upstairs tenant, she’d blown it all because she couldn’t resist having his assistance in some much-needed repairs. Alas, she was a home-improvement slut, Bella thought dramatically.

  In all truth, the offer had been too good to refuse. Her budget simply couldn’t accommodate a handyman and Gray was the next best thing. Besides, avoiding him had begun to really shred her already frayed nerves.

  But more than that, Bella was intensely curious about Gray.

  Sagging back against the porch rail, Bella drew her knees to her chest and took a moment to study him. A fine sheen of sweat coated his bare upper torso. In deference to the heat, he’d she his T—shirt more than an hour ago. Gray was art in motion. Bella thought, a masterpiece constructed of lean muscle mass and fine bone structure. He moved with assurance, with a confidence in his ability that was more inherent than learned.

  And there were certain things that she found unreasonably intriguing about him.

  For instance, the way she found the mere curve of his fully sculpted lips a promise of sin. Of pleasures she’d yet to experience and only had the desire to explore with him. Being in his presence was like being plugged into a sensual outlet. Even the fine hairs on her arms tingled when he was near.

  Like now.

  Why was that? Bella wondered, truly perplexed. Why had she managed not to think of sex since Dan’s death, only to have Gray Cameron come along and fire her nerves like lightening? It didn’t make sense.

  And avoiding him had been futile. Apparently, just knowing that he was only a floor above hers was enough to keep her ever-taut nerves thrumming with awareness. Even poor Ethan had noticed the difference in her. Last night, her little prince had looked at her and said, “Why are you all googly-eyed, Momma? Are you sick?”

  Oh, yeah. She was sick. She had come down with an extraordinary case of lust and unfortunately, couldn’t allow herself the cure. Though Bella would prefer not to admit it to herself, she knew with certain clarity that, were it not for her responsibility to her son, she wouldn’t hesitate to let Gray Cameron cure what ailed her.

  But she did have Ethan and she couldn’t afford the risk. Emotionally, she simply couldn’t afford to allow herself the luxury of an affair.

  And with Gray, that’s all it could be. Bella didn’t have to own a crystal ball or get a tarot reading to know that a permanent relationship with Gray Cameron wasn’t in her future.

  But she could satisfy her curiosity about some other things.

  “Would you mind if I asked you a question?”

  A gentle grin Bella unbelievably appealing tipped his lips. “Ah…a prelude to a prying question. You wouldn’t have asked unless you suspect I would mind,” Gray pointed out. He fitted another board, then appropriated a few more nails. “But go ahead.”

  “What sort of books do you write?”

  He cast her an unreadable look. “Mysteries.”

  That fit, Bella thought. In for a penny, in for a pound. She might as well go with it. “Anything I might have read?”

  “That depends,” was the guarded response.

  “On what?”

  Gray didn’t look up, but continued to work. She didn’t see him tense, but rather felt it. “On whether or not you like mysteries.”

  Bella laughed, but wasn’t letting him get off the hook. “I do.”

  “Well, in that case, it’s possible. I wr
ite under the pseudonym Grayson Blake.” He paused then, and looked up.

  Bella blinked and attempted to modify her stupefied expression. She couldn’t have been any more shocked.

  She swallowed. “Y-you’re Grayson Blake? You write the Case McCain novels?”

  His brow quirked in that singularly appealing way. “You’ve read them?”

  Had she read them? Oh, had she read them, Bella thought wildly. Each and every one, some of them many times over. Following Case McCain’s adventures had been one of the many ways Bella had found to help her through the rougher times after Dan’s death. Gray’s books were some of her most prized possessions.

  And he was living in her house.

  And she’d kissed him.

  It was too much to absorb. Too much to take in. At last, she managed, “Yeah. I’ve r—read them.” She sensed he’d be uncomfortable with a gushing litany of how she loved his writing, so she curbed the impulse. “You’re very talented,” she said, and understatement if there ever was one. “I’ve enjoyed all your books.”

  A lone brow quirked and a smile that affected on half of his mouth surfaced. “Do you have them all?”

  Bella nodded. “Mmm—hmm. They're some of my favorites.”

  With growing horror, it suddenly occurred to Bella that he’d been forced away from his computer because of her compulsion to complete the maintenance on her house. She scrambled to her feet. “I’m so sorry for interrupting you. Go,” she shooed. She quickly liberated him of the hammer and waved it toward the front door. “Get back upstairs. I’ll try to keep the noise to a tolerable level.”

  “Whoa,” Gray chuckled, snagging the hammer back. “I’m done for the day.”

  “Ugh,” Bella moaned balefully, plowing a hand through her hair. She started to pace. “I feel like an idiot. I can’t believe I’ve caused you to get writer’s block. Just because of one little rotten board. If I’d only known, I wouldn’t have turned on the power saw. I wouldn’t have—“