GRACE
In silence we studied each other on a bed, evaluating, doubting, and considering by turns, because it was so sudden, so unexpected. We were merely strangers turned drink buddies few hours ago. We didnât even know our names yet. He only jokingly called me Ms. Budweiser because I said I loved beer more, while I laughed hard and loud, calling him Mr. Chardonnay because he said he only drank wine.But I and my friends made him take beer. It was a way to apologize for bumping into him and ruining his white T-shirt. I was going to get another round of drink while he was heading to the rest room as I could remember it. However due to my crazy hurrying, and the excitement of our finals, I had bumped into him and caused him to spill his drink on himself and at the same time holding me from tripping over.He snaked his firm hand around my waist to keep me steady and our eyes locked. At that instant, the world suddenly went silent, the deafening music from blaring speakers around us became a distant sound to meHis steel-grey heart-stopping eyes drew me in and drowned me. My head swooned, my heart beat took an unnatural speed, jamming itself against my ribcage. Thousands of angry butterflies sprang up in my stomach, fluttering like they were being chased by a predator.All that happened at once. If I was reading my experience in a romance novel, Iâd sneer and scowl at the writer for being unnecessarily corny and cheeky. Iâd call the book a clichĂ© but still go ahead to read it.However, this particular clichĂ© wasnât happening to some lucky female protagonist.It was happening to me, Grace, the nerdy, boring twenty three year old virgin who was about graduating college without a boyfriend or a mate. Not that I had one before and broke up with them for some reasons. At all. I never had any.I would have called what just happened âa love at first sightâ and I was sure he would have too, owing to the way he kept his eyes on mine for the thousands of seconds our eyes locked.Or have I finally found my mate? I wondered vaguely. Finding oneâs mate was one of the most difficult thing now in the twenty-first century werewolf kingdom. People just get themselves partners and call them boyfriends or girlfriend or wives or husbands and humans did since we were sharing almost the same fate.After our bump, we had muttered repeated sorrys to each other with effusive awkward gestures. I couldnât let him go like that after all that chemistry between us, so I had come out from my shell of shyness and awkwardness and asked him to join me and my friends on our drinking table.Now here we are, in my dimly lit tiny college room, inhaling each otherâs breathe, with our eyes locked and our breathing accelerated, standing so close our noses could meet. We were both drunk but knew this feeling wasnât instigated from alcohol. I wanted him and wasnât ashamed for the first time in my life to admit it. I had vowed never to do it till I found the one that made my heart flutter in my chest. Or if I found my mate.I wasnât sure about the former, but it my heart was a living testimony of the effect of this young beautiful man standing in front of me.I took two steps backward, to get a fuller and more concise view of the first man I was going to share my bed with. He was many inches taller than I was, literally towering over me with his firmly squared broad shoulders. Strands of his dark brown hair which fell across his temples accentuated his sexiness. His oblong angular face was never the type I could forget in a hurry. Should I go on about his full lips and how it interrupts my breathing whenever I stare at them? As we stood few inches apart, I yearned to press my lips against that bare skin that ran from his throat to his chest and my breast against that white stained shirt.With a sigh that was really surrender, I ignored my racing heart and took a step further.We looked at each other and then our lips met and lingered. I felt myself sinking into the bliss of the sweetest sensations and my hands came up on their own to touch his face. I knew I was desired but, just for the moment, I felt loved and it was what I needed. We both knew it would have been okay to wait, get to know each other and talk more, however, we both also knew we couldnât wait. This felt too right. I didnât feel a single pang of guilt or the need to be cautious. He didnât give me a chance to change my mind. He crushed my body to his, one hand on my back, the other on my hips, pressing me against his hard body. I gasped with sheer pleasure and then to my horror, I began to tremble. This was the first time and I wasnât familiar with the moves and I felt awkward, unable to respond as I wanted to.âHeyâŠâ he murmured against my hair and his arms loosened, as though he understood, as though he was well aware of the fact that he was my very first. He began to stroke my hair gently, persuasively, so that my eyes closed and I began to relax. His hands moved to my back, beginning an unhurried exploration that made me shiver again, but this time in the most delicious manner.I began to respond, my hands sliding up his back and across his shoulders in a thrilling exploration of my own. I opened my eyes, saw his throat where the collar was open and pressed my lips against it. I felt a deep shudder run through him that might have been my own, so deeply did it thrill her. I reached up to thread my fingers through his hair and used it to pull his face down to mine.Our lips met and fused with an ecstasy that seared me to the depth of my being. We broke apart and gazed at each other, and then he was pressing kisses all over my face and I held my head back to expose my throat for more. I was awash with sensation, but it only built up the urgency for our lips to meet again⊠and again. His hands were on the zip at the back of my dress and I began to unbutton his shirt. He shrugged out of it as I stepped out of my dress and kicked it away in a frenzy, and he pressed me against his chest again with only the fragile silk of my slip between us.He kissed his way down my neck, to my shoulders and slid the straps from them. The slip caught at my hips, but none of us noticed because now, my bare breasts were pressed against his naked chest and we both gasped. He turned me slightly from him, lifting her face to kiss and then his hands moved down to my breast, grasping, massaging it and then playing with my nipple. My groan of pleasure was lost against his lips and, as I felt my legs go weak, he picked me up and carried me unto my bed.He kicked back his shoes, threw back the quilt, put me on the bed and stood looking down at me while he took off the rest of his clothes. The curtains hadnât been closed and a surprisingly bright moon bathed us both in a silvery glow. âDo you know how lovely you are?â he asked as he lay beside me. He didnât expect an answer, and I was quite incapable of giving one because his mouth had fastened on to my breast and his tongue was flicking my nipples into a frenzy of desire. He moved to the other breast and the delicious torment began anew. âChardonnayâŠâ I breathed, but he took no notice, sliding the petticoat from my hips, and then my stockings and suspenders, and kissing his way over the warm flesh he exposed.âChardonnayâŠâ I breathed again, writhing with the most exquisitely unendurable ecstasy I had ever known, but now his own passion overwhelmed him as he entered me, going in real slow and when my core gave passage to his huge member, he began thrusting hard and desperately in the need to quench his own fires. I held fiercely, pressing his hips against mine as we sought and found the final explosion of passion. Mr. Chardonnay kissed me with hot, spent and grateful lips and then he collapsed against me, moving down to rest his face between my breasts. I pulled the quilt over us and cuddled him to myself while out breathing turned to normal.It was a long time before he stirred, then he rolled off my body and propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at me. âIâm crazy about you, Ms. Budweiser,â he said huskily. âHow do you feel about me?â I couldnât answer. The whole thing was feeling so surreal to me. âIâm here, and Iâm not a one-night stander.â was my response. âWe donât even know each otherâs real names yet. Iâm-ââTomorrow,â I cut him short with a sleepy tone. âLetâs tell each other our names tomorrow and other things we should know about us.â I said with finality in my voice.He sighed.But he wouldnât understand. Seeing him on my bed by morning when I wake up was going to convince me that this wonderful moments werenât a dream. And that I had found the love of my life.I had gone through college as a nerdy boring girl without a mate or a boyfriend and a werewolf with zero rank. If not for my two best friends, my life would have been more than the hell it had been here in Stratford College.But here I was on the last day of my final year making love with the most beautiful man I had ever met, who could possibly be my mate or boyfriend after today.I felt giddy with happiness and relief. It was all too fast and going too well, I was dreading disappointments. âLetâs know each other wolfâs name at least.â he murmured, dragging me from my train of thoughts. I pushed him over on his back, then propped myself over him, my breast brushing against his chest. âI donât want to talk tonight. Tomorrow will do. Go to sleep.â I kissed his eyes shut and then studied, and it almost hurt me how handsome he looked with his face relaxed and the moon turning the sun-bleached ends of his brown hair to silver.I kissed his forehead, clasped my eyes shut and let myself drown into dream land.SEVEN YEARS AGO (Continuation)I woke up at sunrise to feel my bed for the beautiful stranger I had slept with, but all I could feel was only bed. The stranger had disappeared.I batted my eyelids open as morning light washed into my room. I sat up and forced my mind to be alert, half puzzled, half astonished. Has the stranger gone to use the restroom? I wanted to call his name.But it's funny. I didn't even know his bloody name.Someone had given me the best ride I'd had in a while in the middle of last night. And I didn't know his name!I decided to stand from my bed to go search the restroom. "Hello," I said and knocked on the restroom's door.No answer.I opened the door for confirmation. It was possible he was taking a shit and would be too embarrassed to answer me in the middle of it. But the restroom was empty of the dude. My towel on a stand was as neatly folded as I had left it.I shut the restroom's door and headed back for my bed,
The Present. (Central London)GRACEThe streetlights were up. They generously cast their golden glow on me as I jogged on the neighborhood roads to find release.It's a sacrifice I had to pay as a writer. One way or another, inspirations come at those odd moments when your heart is beating like a drum and you just suddenly stop midway to bend over with your hands placed on your knees, starting to smile at your fresh plot or a thrilling revelation about your character. Or how to end your story.So this particular evening, I was jogging for motivation over a gothic story. Already, my day had been stressful. After tucking Laurie, my six-year-old daughter into bed few minutes ago, making sure she was sound asleep and packing some of her clothes into her travel bag for tomorrow, I just had to hit the road.She even agreed to sleep early, so that tomorrow could come quickly for her to head to Nkechiâs place already, according to her. I giggled mental
CONNOR SHELBYHer footsteps brought me hope.Lying on this cold hard ground, my mind tethering between consciousness and sub consciousness, the sound of a distant footstep somehow gave me the strength to call for help.I couldnât see much, the trail of blood seeping from my forehead down to my eyes was almost completely obscuring my vision.The adrenaline rush during the assault was beginning to wear off and the pain of every hit and blow I took started to hurt like hell. It felt as though, every inch of my body was aching so much, I couldnât lift a muscle or even tried to go after them.They werenât after the box of money in the truck of my car, neither were they after my phone or any information or any material thing whatsoever.Thinking about what their motive could be or whose orders they were carrying out was not the priority at the moment.My priority was staying alive. Or at the very least, clinging long enough to consciou
GRACEI stood in my room before my bed, dumbfounded by what just happened.I tried taking my mind back to the point where I entered the room and asked the ungrateful and uncouth stranger I foolishly brought to my home, how he was feeling.The gesture I made was as simple as that. I never spoke to him rudely or acted in any way that showed that I wanted to harm him.I was shocked at first. Then disgusted by his rudeness, then confused, thinking maybe he felt like he was in trouble or we could harm him owning the trauma he had gone through before I met him and rescued him.Did he totally forget the events of the previous day? Was it so traumatizing that he didnât remember a single thing?I didnât even get a proper look at his face. I and Nkechi were busy trying to save him, doing all the things trained emergency personnel should be doing, that we had completely forgotten to check for his name or identity or anything at all from him.We were
CONNOR SHELBY.“You are not fine yet, Alpha,”Marcus, my personal assistant announced for the umpteenth time to my irritation as I stood before the full length mirror in my dressing room getting ready for work.“The doctor said you need more rest.” he continued, following me around with a sad face.However, he knew me too well to expect me to listen to him. It's been over a week already and I had stayed back inside even though I was now completely fine. I was trying to investigate why I was attacked and the people behind the attack. I couldn’t involve the police so I had to crack it myself with the help of my competent personal assistant who was now standing behind me like a stubborn tick.And somewhere at the back of my mind for the whole week while receiving intensive health care from my personal doctor and Marcus, I was apprehensively waiting for any news regarding the accident of the CEO of Shelby Realtors and Alpha
GRACE. The telephone rang the minute I stepped into my house. I had only just returned from dropping Laurel at school.Everything seemed back to normal till I lifted the telephone from its cradle.Jody hadn't noticed me yet. She was sprawled on the love seat sofa in my tiny sitting room, distracted by those South Korean dramas on her mobile that made her cry and laugh at the same time.The caller on the telephone had a modern American accent. He asked if he was speaking with Grace Jones and I'd have concluded the call as spam until he mentioned âThe Man I Saved Last Weekâ.âWhy should I meet him?â I had asked the caller impatiently, standing with my back resting against the wall behind me.âAre you not curious to know how the person you saved is faring?â he asked, then went ahead without waiting for a reply, âWhatâs the point of saving him if you wouldn't be interested in his final outcome, if he recovered or not?âI wanted to tell him he sounded
CONNOR SHELBY. âOh my God," I exhaled in my mind at how it all played out before my eyes.I wanted to go after her, grab her hands and launch into a tirade of explanation.But it felt as though my feet grew roots and suddenly pinned me to the spot. I couldnât move a bloody inch.It unsettled me to see the crushed look on her face as she ran out of the cafĂ©.But it wasnât my feetâs fault, I sensed the firm grip of Marcusâs hand on my arm holding me back. And when he realized that I had noticed his hands on mine, he took two steps backward, stood at attention and bowed to me.âIâm sorry Alpha.â he apologized with his eyes still facing the ground. âI just felt it was best not to go after her at this point. With the reporters around us and all. I believe we can handle this better without creating a scene.âI ignored Marcus and dashed out of the cafĂ© to where our car was waiting, remembering I took a dark sunshade on my way out. I fished it out o
GRACE.My phone's alarm went off reminding me it was time to go pick Laurel up from school. I had lost track of time, sobbing and sinking in gloom since I got back from Dior’s Diner.I was relieved to see that Jody had left, so I had enough space to cry my eyes out without anyone asking me what was wrong. I had no idea if she kept to her promise but I couldn’t care less at that point.I was going to tell my friends, but not now. I still couldn’t believe this was happening after all I had gone through to get my life back on track. Working like a mull these past seven years, trading sleep and convenience for a life of comfort for my daughter.What do I tell her now? That some stranger who was about slipping into my life after six years was her father? After telling her she had no dad the first time she asked me with watery eyes at age three.Damn you, Connor Shelby, I thought.The time- to- pick- up- Laurie- fro