Excerpt: Royale Pain

From chapter eleven. Unedited so forgive any mistakes.

Wrapped in just a towel, Candice came out of the steaming adjoining bath room and shivered against the cool air in the dark room. Quickly, she took off the towel and dried her hair off with it, then wrapped the towel around her head like a turban.

While pulling out a long t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants from a drawer, she allowed herself to do what she hadn’t while in the shower. Think about Grant. She’d started the habit of playing loud music while she showered and did her best to sing along. It was the only way to keep the memories of him away.

But now, she thought about earlier in the evening. He’d left with what could be considered good news for the Redgroves, if any news about their daughter’s murderer could be good. Because of the new revelation about Scott’s first wife, the judge upheld his decision not to allow bail. Scott wouldn't go free while he awaited trial.

She couldn’t help be feel relieved as well. The glint of evil that she’d caught in Scott’s eye when he’d brought up the fact that she’d slept with Grant woke her up some nights in a cold sweat. She paused with one foot in her sweat pants. If Scott was walking around free, she would worry about her own safety and even Grants.

“Oh, God, please hurry and put those pants on. You’re killing me over here.”

She jumped and then fell to the ground, scrambling to get the pants on and cover her bare chest at the same time. Grant got up from the spot he’d been resting on the bed and turned the light on.
“What are you doing in here? You are lucky I didn’t scream and bring the whole house rushing in here!”

He leaned against the dresser and boldly stared at her. “I’m sorry, but I waited for an excruciatingly long time and really, you should be grateful for my restraint,” he said, raising a hand to his chest. “That was a very long shower and I was sorely tempted to join you.”

She stifled a frustrated scream as she fought to pull the t-shirt over her head. He stepped forward to help her, but when he touched her arm, she jumped back and kicked his shin. “Stay away from me. And don’t you ever dare try to step into another shower with me.”

He chuckled and waved dismissively. “Keep singing like an X Factor reject and you’ll be safe of that.”

The man was infuriating. She wildly searched the room with her eyes and spotted just the thing. Grabbing the candle stick, she hurled it at him. He ducked just in time and they both cringed when it smacked against the wall with a loud thud.

Grant took the opportunity to get closer and wrapped her arms around her, putting his warm hands under her shirt. Chills, shivers, goose bumps and a thousand other reactions hit her at once.

“You skin is so soft,” he practically purred in her ear.

Candice shoved him away from her once again, but he didn’t go far. “How did you get in here? I know I locked the door.”

“You don’t think Karen’s parents ever let me in this room when Karen lived here, do you?”

He turned his head and her eyes were drawn with him in his line of sight to the curtains blowing in the breeze. No wonder she had been so cold when she’d gotten out of the shower. Candice stomped over and stuck her head out the window. Just below it, a long trellis covered in vines went clear to the ground.

“You climbed that?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. A boy or man, highly motivated by the prize inside, can climb just about any obstacle to get to what he wants.”

Candice shivered as a cool breeze blew in. Needing something to do for an excuse to look away from his hot stare, she turned and shut the window.

“Whatever it is that you want of me,” she told him with her back to him, “I think you will be very disappointed.” Turning back to him, she expected him to still be sitting on the bed, but she bumped into his broad, hard chest. She put a hand up and fought the urge to feel him up and down. “You need to go. But out the door so you don’t kill yourself.”

“Why, Candy, I didn’t know you cared.”

“I…I don’t. It’s just that this family has been through enough already. What kind of news would it make if the press finds out you were found dead right below the window of my room.”

“They would think that I had climb into your room to kiss you like this.”

He shut up her reply with a bruising, hungry kiss. Candice closed her eyes and fought the weak-kneed feeling washing over her. She tried not to kiss him back, but her desire won out as he pressed his gyrating hips against hers.

One of his hands slowly made its way to the front of her shirt and she moaned when the pleasure of his hand touched the bare breast under the shirt.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he said between kisses. “I had to come and see you, touch you…taste you.”