Her throat tightened. She closed her eyes and dug deep for the strength to say the right thing. Something that might make Grady feel better. ‘You know, I was always a little scared of the Cassidy brothers. Mac scared me because he was cocky and brash.’ She reached out and looped her fingers with his, just the barest touch to help her get out the rest of the words. ‘You were just as big and strong and good-looking, but you were also gentle and I could talk to you for hours. You made me feel safe. I was scared because you made me feel a whole lot of other things, things I was barely ready for,’ she added reflectively, thinking of long-ago, exciting kisses. And one that wasn’t so long ago. She took another breath. ‘What scares me about you now is that I still like you. But we’re in such different places.’

The silence became charged. Grady’s gaze flicked up to meet hers. She felt tingly, half excited and half scared of the risk she’d just taken by sharing her feelings.

Then Grady moved and it was as if they were magnets because the last of the gap between them closed with a little jump. His arms slipped around her and he held her tight against his heart. ‘Can you stay for a while?’ he asked, voice strained and muffled against her hair.

A giggle straggled out of her, sounding almost like a sob. ‘Only till ten. I have to get Daisy from Zuzanna’s.’

He actually managed a laugh. ‘You still have to be in by ten on a school night?’

She held him tighter, feeling her breasts flatten against the hard wall of his chest as her head found just the right spot against his shoulder. ‘I could come back when I’ve seen her home.’ Her whisper surrounded them like a breath of hope.

‘Yes,’ he groaned, nuzzling her hair, lifting a hand to caress her nape. ‘Please come back.’ He tipped his head and she lifted her face to meet him, closing her eyes at the heat of his lips on her temples and then her eyelids. Finally, she felt the scalding, silken caress of his tongue as he found her mouth. Laurel made a conscious decision to set aside the bad stuff, which still had to be dealt with because Grady was Mac’s brother and always would be, and she sank into the kiss. Every muscle softened, every hair rose, every inch of her skin shivered in hyper-sensitivity that brought her to a state of arousal she rarely remembered experiencing.

Paradise. Bliss. Eden. Serenity.

Security. Trust.

Grady.