Read Online Reason to Believe (White Lace) by Gina Gordon - Free Book Online

back of her head, urging her closer, urging her to take me, all of me. Everything she wanted.
    “Guys?” A voice sounded in the distance, but I kept kissing her because she was kissing me right back.
    “Ben?”
    A throat cleared and I froze, suddenly realizing that the two of us were supposed to be acting. I broke the kiss despite my every molecule telling me to keep going, to keep kissing her until our clothes were on the floor and I was inside her once again.
    But I didn’t listen to that little devil sitting on my shoulder.
    I stepped back, uncurling my arms from her body. Grace’s eyes were still closed when I took another backward step. Her mouth was swollen, her lipstick was smeared, and her lips were parted in slight disbelief. She was just as rocked by that kiss as I was.
    With a grin, I turned and walked out of the shot.
    Cory yelled, “Cut!”
    “I hope you got what you needed because that’s not happening again.” I could tell by the tone in her voice that she’d armed herself again, locking the steel door that she always had protecting her like a fortress. She refused to look in my direction, but it was just as well. If I had any hope of following through with my promise of no distraction, I had to let this go. I had to keep my cock flaccid inside my pants despite its incessant request to stand at attention.
    Besides, even if I did have intentions of trying to make her mine, there was no way I could survive the battle to win her heart. She had too many booby traps, too much hellfire and brimstone keeping out anyone who might want to know the real Grace Nolan.
    “I’ll just go and get us set up,” Grace said, her fingers pressing against her lips.
    I wasn’t sure why, but that action filled my chest with pride.
    “Give me ten minutes, and then we can start.”
    I turned my attention to Cory, going over the scene. Answering his questions and praising him, despite being so checked out in the moment that I’d forgotten that he existed.
    We cleaned up the equipment and put away the blow-up dolls, then just as he left for the evening, he said, “
Hasta la vista,
baby.”
    I laughed to myself as I checked my phone to ensure I didn’t have any porn emergencies waiting for me.
    When I turned around, Grace was standing in the doorway watching. “What was that about?” She jerked her thumb in the direction Cory had just left.
    “His real education. Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners.”
    Now that Cory was gone, we no longer had a buffer. Silence fell between us as we settled into the boardroom, removing the items from their original boxes and setting ourselves up with an assembly line. Everly had really gone all out, securing gift cards, travel-sized toiletries, a passport cover with a maple leaf embossed in the leather, and other accessories.
    “He seems nice.” Grace filled the silence with a very generic and safe topic. Cory.
    “Yes, and really smart. I…” I didn’t finish my sentence. I didn’t want to say out loud how I was feeling.
    “You don’t think he’s smarter than you, do you?”
    My head shot up and I stared at her in disbelief. How the hell did she know that’s how I was feeling? “Let’s just make the swag.”
    “He didn’t seem to mind that you don’t have a formal education.” She continued to talk as if she knew the situation. Like she had a right to comment.
    “I mind.” I threw a bottle of shampoo on the table, a little too forcefully. “I don’t even know why I agreed to this. I should just…I should just back out before—”
    “So you’re going to give up? That’s not the Ben Lockwood I know.”
    I scoffed. “You don’t know anything about me.”
    She stuffed her little black bag with a leather passport holder and continued down the table without even looking up. “Ben Lockwood doesn’t take shit from anyone. He knows his craft and is proud. That’s what I know.”
    My chest felt a little less tight with her words, and I had to admit it might have even