Undeniable (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page A

again, his tongue diving into her mouth.
    Grace moved her hands down Jax’s chest. She slipped them underneath his shirt, touching his skin. He groaned deep in his throat, the vibrations of it rumbling through her body. She traced his abs with her fingertips before she followed the trail down his jeans. She pulled on the top button and then worked down his zipper. She slipped her hand into the opening and stroked him through the soft cotton of his boxer briefs.
    And then everything stopped. Jax was off her in a second. He was standing on the other side of the room panting. His chest rising and falling like he’d just sprinted a couple of miles. The look on his face had the sexual heat that had been running through Grace the moment before turning ice cold.
    He was doing it again. The stupid jerk was doing it again. He was chickening out, pulling away from her, leaving her.
    “Grace I—” he said, shaking his head, still trying to catch his breath.
    Grace scrambled up and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch. She wrapped it around her shoulders as she stood up. She really didn’t want to have whatever conversation they were about to have with her nipples popping through the front of her now very wet tank top.
    “Grace—” Jax said, trying to talk again, but he just swallowed hard as he ran his hands through his hair, his T-shirt straining at the top of his shoulders.
    “Just spit it out, Jax.”
    “We can’t do this,” he said, making a motion between their bodies.
    “This?” she asked, trying to hide her shaking hands in the fabric of the blanket.
    “We can’t be together this way. It isn’t an option.”
    “Because you think you’re not good enough for me? Is that why?”
    “I don’t think it, Grace, I know it.”
    “Oh, you know it. The all powerful and enlightened Jaxson Anderson. You just know all, don’t you?” Her voice cracked under the strain of not losing it.
    “Grace,” Jax said, taking a step toward her.
    “No.” She cut him off, her hand slicing through the air to stop him. “You want to know what your problem is? You’ve convinced yourself that all of the garbage your father drilled into your brain is the truth. You’ve turned them into facts, into reality. You’ve decided that you’re not worth it, and I’m done trying to prove to you otherwise. I can’t do the friend thing with you anymore. It’s not an option for me.”
    “Grace—”
    “Get out, Jax,” she said with so much finality that it even shocked her.
    Jax inhaled sharply before he nodded and walked to the door. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even hesitate as he opened it and walked outside.
    The moment the door closed all the air left Grace’s lungs. She staggered to the door and flipped the dead bolt before she fell onto the couch. The blanket that was still wrapped around her shoulders did absolutely nothing for the cold that was raking her body. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in a pillow, trying to muffle the sobs that just wouldn’t stop.

Haunted
    O n Monday morning, Grace was in the kitchen of the funeral home setting up for the Guerdon wake. The food was already made, so it was just a matter of putting it out. She was in the kitchen with Panky, who was making fresh flower arrangements.
    Normally the two of them would be talking, but not today. Grace was in a mood because of Jax, and Panky was in a mood because of the assistant funeral director, Missy Lee. Missy was in micromanage mode, and every two minutes she would stick her head in the kitchen and say something to Panky.
    “I just think you’re overstuffing the arrangements,” Missy said. “You could use cheaper flowers. We don’t need so many roses and lilies. How about more carnations and daisies? And baby’s breath?”
    “I’ll take it into consideration,” Panky said, not even looking up from her arrangement.
    “That’s all I ask.” Missy turned and left the room.
    Missy Lee might be the assistant