Belle grinned at his back. He could be so closed off at times, but turn the conversation in the right direction and watch out. When Grant smiled, her entire world tipped off-kilter. Okay, it turned completely upside down. His expression and eyes softened when he smiled like that and her insides simply melted.

Fighting those dang butterflies bouncing around in her stomach, she froze at the sound of Grant’s doorbell ringing. “Are you—”

Suddenly tense, he held up a finger to his lips, as if whoever was outside could actually hear her. She seriously doubted someone coming to harm either one of them would announce their presence so boldly. “I’ll be right back.” Then he was gone, lightning quick even with his limp.

Belle frowned and when she heard a female voice, her frown deepened even more. She started to slide off the chair but stopped when she heard Grant’s laughter and the female voice getting closer. Feeling oddly out of sorts—Grant must have female friends, she reminded herself—she scooted back and picked up her glass of wine. Holding it helped steady her.

Until Grant appeared in the entryway with a tall, slender woman with long, dark hair, perfect tanned skin and toned arms and legs. She was definitely Hispanic—Belle guessed maybe Cuban. Whoever she was, she was drop-dead gorgeous and in fantastic shape. She was also carrying a plate of what looked like homemade cookies. So she could bake too. Great.

For one moment, Belle experienced an insane surge of jealousy.

It dissipated the moment Grant said, “Belle, this is Elizabeth, my brother Porter’s fiancé.”

Relief grew inside Belle like an out of control vine. She slid off the chair and covered the few feet between them. “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you.”

The woman smiled warmly and held out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you too. And please call me Lizzy.”

Belle nodded and wondered why the woman was still grinning at her like the Cheshire cat. Lizzy looked back and forth between Grant and Belle and she realized the woman must think they were dating or something. Well, they definitely fell into the ‘or something’ category right now.

Unsure what to do, she motioned toward Grant’s refrigerator. “Did you want some wine?”

Still smiling, the woman just shook her head. “No, I just wanted to drop these cookies off. Porter will be annoyed if I’m late for dinner.”

Grant just grunted and took the plate, peeling back the cellophane as he carried it to the counter. Belle got a quick whiff of what were definitely chocolate chip cookies and her stomach rumbled. She’d be tearing into those soon.

“So, are you staying with Grant? Porter mentioned your attack…I’m sorry, I hope I’m not being rude. I just—”

“You were just sent over here as a spy for Porter, Harrison and likely Mara to find out more details about Belle,” Grant said wryly.

Belle turned back to him, then to Lizzy and was surprised to see the woman’s cheeks had flushed to a dark crimson. But she didn’t deny the charge. His family was curious about her? She couldn’t imagine why when Grant hadn’t made a move or even given her a hint how he felt about her other than wanting friendship. Yeah, he was incredibly protective but that was just his personality type.

Feeling suddenly awkward, she took a step toward the entryway. “If you guys wouldn’t mind excusing me for a moment, I’ll be right back.” She used the bathroom as an escape.

Sitting down on the closed toilet seat, she took a deep breath and tried to get her nerves under control. The spark of jealousy Belle had experienced before she’d known who Lizzy was had her insides shaking. What was wrong with her?

More importantly, she wondered what it meant that Lizzy had come over to basically spy on Grant. It clearly wasn’t that common for him to have a woman around. Or she guessed so. Okay, hoped so. Well, even if there wasn’t anything for Lizzy to report back to their family, Belle couldn’t stand this feeling like she was in some weird limbo around Grant. She’d give him a few days, maybe a week, before making a move. Otherwise, she was bound to go crazy with all this pent up sexual frustration.

Chapter 6

Belle hooked her purse across her body and fished her keys out before she’d even left the maternity ward. She put her keys into the front pocket of her blue scrubs then pressed the red button that opened the security doors.

Her first day back to work and almost a week after her harrowing attack and she was starting to feel semi-normal. She’d had dinner at Grant’s every night this week and even stayed over a couple nights—in his guest room. He’d been very hands-off ever since last Saturday and while she appreciated his gentleness she was also getting a little frustrated.

Thanks to the insane security system Grant had had installed at her place, the nights she’d slept in her own home had been fairly peaceful. She’d woken up a few times from a nightmare but they were nothing a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream couldn’t fix. She hadn’t told her family or even her best friend about the attack. Instead she’d used moving in to her new home as an excuse to stay off the radar from everyone. Her mom had called once about Paulos Balis, wanting to know why the police had questioned him, but once she’d explained the situation her mom had gone freaking postal. Not on her, of course. And it had gotten her mom to back off with the phone calls this week which had been a miracle in itself. Belle figured her mom felt guilty for always trying to push Paulos on her.

A tiny part of her felt guilty for not telling her family what had happened but it would have created an avalanche of sympathy. Her family members would have descended on her house like locusts and it would have been even more stressful. She was incredibly grateful she had so many people who loved and cared about her, but she was tired of being treated like she was helpless. She’d tell them later once enough time had passed that they wouldn’t worry.

Belle’s sneakers squeaked against the tile as she made her way to the elevators. Her feet were more sore than usual, probably from when she’d kicked them against the pool wall, but at least they were mostly healed. Right now visions of wine, a hot bath and seeing Grant played in her head. She just wanted to get out of the hospital and the elevator was taking its sweet time. Under normal circumstances she liked to take the stairs, but after her attack she felt wary about even that. She hated that some deranged stranger had that kind of power over her life.

As the elevator dinged, her cell phone rang in her purse. When she saw Grant’s number pop up, she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.

“New boyfriend?” Brent, a male nurse she was friends with, asked as he stepped into the elevator with her.

Sliding the phone into her front pocket instead of answering, she could feel her cheeks heating up. Lord, was she that obvious? “Uh, not exactly.” Okay, not at all. She wasn’t sure what she and Grant were. They’d spent every night over the past week hanging out, talking and getting to know one another. And the man could certainly cook. He gave her all sorts of hot looks that told her he was interested in being more than friends, but he still didn’t make a move. She’d already thrown herself at him once when she’d kissed him and she wasn’t doing it again. She had some pride. The man was just so confusing.

Brent snorted and pressed the button for the ground floor. “I recognize that type of smile. You are so seeing someone.”

Belle shrugged but couldn’t fight her grin. Tonight she was going to ask Grant what was going on with them and what he wanted from her. The sexual frustration was likely to kill her otherwise.

She said a quick goodbye to Brent then grabbed her phone and pressed one of her speed dials—yeah, she knew she was in trouble now that he was on her speed dial.

Grant picked up on the first ring. “Hey, honey.”

And he called her honey! The man was clearly trying to kill her with all these mixed signals. “Hey yourself. You off work?”

“Just pulled into the driveway. Want to come over for dinner?” His deep voice rolled over her like liquid sin.

She wanted to come over for a lot more than dinner. “Why don’t we go out tonight? We can go to eat, maybe see a movie afterward?”

There was a moment of tense silence. Grant cleared his throat. “Ah…”

An invisible weight pressed down on her chest. “Are you ashamed to be seen with me?” She hated that her voice cracked on the last word. Warm, humid air rushed over her as the sliding glass doors opened up into the east parking lot. Nurses and doctors thankfully got front row parking.

“How can you even ask that?”

“You haven’t asked me out once this week.”

“You were just attacked and almost killed!” He sounded incredulous.

“That’s not an answer.”

She could practically see him rubbing a hand over his face the way he did when he was annoyed. “Belle, you’re one of the funniest, most frustrating and yes, beautiful women I’ve ever met. There’s no way I could ever be ashamed of being with you. I don’t like the idea of taking you out in public until this lunatic is caught. I just want you safe.”

“Oh.” Her steps were silent as she weaved through the first row of cars. She was always vigilant about her surroundings but she still glanced around to make sure no one was following her.

“Have you…enjoyed the last week with me?” The hint of insecurity in his voice surprised her.

Her best friend would have told her to play coy, to hedge, but Belle couldn’t do it. She couldn’t play games with Grant. “Seeing you is the best part of my day. All I thought about at work today was hurrying home so I could spend time with you.” Saying the words out loud was a little scary because yeah, there was no mistaking what she meant.

The silence seemed to stretch on forever and she could feel her face flaming when he didn’t answer right away. She wished the ground would just open up and swallow her whole. She felt a presence behind her that hadn’t been there before. A blur came at her from behind one of the cars.