Title: Experimental Grace
Authors: Debba and Sue
Category: Other - Grace/Ryder
Rating: R
E-mail: debba78@hotmail.com and ruststar@aol.com
Disclaimer: We own nothing
Summary: Get to know Grace and Ryder better…
Authors note: Its one year later than the series.
Part 8
Grace awoke slowly, reluctantly accepting that morning had arrived. She groaned as she
stretched and sat up. A glance at the alarm clock on her dresser across the room told her
that it was 8 AM and she'd had only 5 hours sleep. She flopped back on the bed and flung
an arm over her eyes trying to block out the sunlight – it was much too early to be up,
especially after a night like last night.
Thoughts of the previous night – and Ryder – shoved fatigue out of her mind and caused
a flush of heat to wash over her. She bit her lip as she mentally pictured him leaning in to
kiss her goodnight – his eyes had looked so beautiful and his kiss was so gentle that she
dared to believe that it might have been real. Not that the kiss had been imagined, but
rather that there were real feelings behind it.
She was realistic enough to know that sometimes kisses didn't mean anything, and even
sex could just be a diversion, but last night felt good - until her brain got in the way. He
had been nice about it, but she knew guys like Ryder (hell, any guy) didn't just slam on
the brakes as quickly as girls did. With a sly grin she wondered what he'd done after she
left…
"Get your mind out of the gutter," she admonished herself, and forced herself to think
about something else. It was hard though - her mind kept drifting into forbidden territory.
Part of her wondered if he was really okay with her taking off like she did, and the other
part wondered what would have happened if she stayed. What did she want to happen?
She honestly didn't know. The big question in her mind was how he felt about her – did
he see her as just another conquest? Or did he have real feelings for her? Was last night
about more than lust?
She sat up in bed – it was obvious she was not going to be able to fall back to sleep.
Maybe a shower and some coffee would help revive her – and keeping busy would
distract her from her thoughts. Well, as long as the shower was lukewarm.
*********
Ryder had never felt more uncomfortable in his life.
He was sitting on the bench in the gas station watching Grace's dad put snow tires on his
corvette and struggling to control where his mind wandered. Every time the man spoke to
him the very first thing he thought was "I was making out with your daughter last
night…" Very distracting, because along with that came the visuals – each image of
Grace nearly knocking the breath out of him. He might not have felt so uncomfortable
around the man if he had only kissed her, but his issue was that he desperately wanted to
sleep with her last night, and they came so close that now he couldn't look the man in the
eye.
Luckily, Charlie wasn't a chatty sort of man, so he didn't force him to go into details of
his life in which he might reveal the real reason he was there getting snow tires he didn't
* really * need. He wanted to see Grace – no, needed to see her. He had spent most of the
night after she left lying awake and wondering what had just happened between them.
Hours of analyzing had come to one conclusion – what had happened the night before
was more than just lust, more than just friendship boundaries mistakenly crossed – he
liked Grace. More than any girl he'd known.
To distract himself he wandered into the main part of the station and sat down on the
bench near the window. He flipped through the magazines piled next to him on the bench
looking for something to read. He had a choice of automotive magazines – not
interesting – or several issues of Seventeen, Vogue, and YM. "Hmm, you'd think girls
lived here," he thought to himself, chuckling, and picked up the Seventeen magazine.
Know thine enemy, somebody once said…
*********
Grace headed downstairs to get some much-needed coffee. The shower helped eliminate
most of the fuzziness in her brain, but she still felt the last dregs of fatigue and needed a
kick-start. As she came around the corner she spotted Ryder on the bench near the
window. Her eyes grew huge and she quickly retreated into the safety of the stairwell to
the upstairs apartment. What the hell was he doing here? Why would he be here so early?
She slowly peaked her head around the corner to watch him. He was sitting there, looking
incredible, as usual, and he was reading a magazine with such intensity that he didn't
realize he wasn't alone. On closer inspection she noticed what he was reading and she
fought hard to stifle the giggles. Ryder reading Seventeen magazine? Classic.
Ammunition.
"Learning anything?" she asked, amusement barely contained as she slipped around the
corner again to make her presence known.
He jumped when he heard her voice, and she grinned at the blush slowly creeping up his
neck. Ryder blushing was even better.
"Only that the writers of this dreck are completely daft," he said, trying to cover his
embarrassment by turning the attention on her, "Do you actually read this trash?"
She blushed and grabbed the magazine from him and pretended to search for an article.
"What about this one? Are Bad Boys Really Just Insecure? I wonder..." her voice trailed
off and her eyes danced with amusement.
"I don't recall seeing that one," he said dryly, knowing she was full of crap. He loved that
she could dish it right back at him.
"Tease all you want, but sometimes the articles are actually good," she said.
"Really? Even the quizzes?" he asked, not quite ready to quit the safety of the teasing
banter. "This stuff is laughable....'Does He Really Like Me? How To Tell!' - its obvious
they have no idea what's really going through our minds. Did you take this thing? They're
all circled..."
"Well," she said slowly, "Was I even close?"
"Close? Hmmm....let me take a look at your answers," he said, using the time to collect
his thoughts – he hadn't expected her to be so direct. He flipped through the pages again,
not even reading the page, trying to decide how to answer. Finally he settled on the truth.
"Maybe," he said seriously, holding her gaze.
Her breath caught at that - she hadn't expected him to be serious. This wasn't a joke
anymore and her smirk faded away.
"'Maybe's' not very specific, you know," she said, ducking behind the protection of the
counter to the coffee machine. She was trying to gauge just how serious he was about
this...but she just couldn't look at him. If he was just toying with her, she'd die. But first
she'd claw his eyes out. She busied herself fixing a cup of coffee so that she had her back
to him.
He nearly made her spill the coffee she was pouring all over the counter when she heard
him speak right behind her.
"The nit in the article says these things take time…"
"Do you think she's right?" she asked, turning around to face him.
"Maybe?" he asked quietly, feeling very unsure of himself. "I think...maybe...it depends
on the people."
"You're full of 'maybes' today, aren't you…" she said before taking a sip of her coffee to
hide the smile on her face. Butterflies were beating their wings violently in her chest, but
she tried her best to control them. He seemed sincere…she'd never seen him look
so…there wasn't even a word for it, because she'd never seen it. She also knew he had a
damn good poker face – she'd seen him bluff guys for hours when he kept getting hands
of crappy cards. She knew he could be faking this, just to mess with her. Well, she wasn't
going to make it easy on him. If he wanted to be with her he was going to have to take the
risk and put his feelings out there first. She knew what a shit he could be...as attracted to
him as she was, she wasn't about to let him trample on her.
He knew that look – and knew she wasn't going to trust him. Damn her. For once in his
life he was at a loss for words and she was not going to help one little bit. And he knew
he deserved it. He had no idea how to fix it, but he took a stab anyway, for the first time
flying blindly based solely on the way he was feeling.
"Come out with me today and we'll find out," he said simply, and reached across the
counter to stroke her hand. He smiled when she willingly laced her fingers with his after
a moment's hesitation, and he looked up to find her smiling back at him.
The sound of the outside door opening startled them and she yanked her hand back
quickly.
"There you are – your car's all ready," Charlie said, a little amused when he saw their red
faces. He hadn't seen Grace when he first walked in, but the way the boy jumped was
explained when he rounded the corner.
Chuckling to himself he addressed his daughter, "Grace, will you ring him up for me?
I've got cleaning up I have to do in the garage…" He didn't wait for her to answer, just
backed out the way he came in after dropping the keys to the boy's corvette on the
counter. The way the two were trying so hard NOT to look at each other was absolutely
hilarious, so he thought he'd leave them alone before he burst out laughing.
Grace wiggled her fingers at her dad in a little wave goodbye – she could tell he was
amused and she couldn't wait to kill him for embarrassing her. And for ruining the mood.
After she rang up the charges and returned Ryder's credit card she came out from behind
the counter, grabbed her coat from one of the hooks on the wall, and rolled her eyes at
him. "Sorry about my dad…he can be such a dork…I'm not gonna hear the end of it
tonight…"
"Don't worry about it – he seems pretty cool. Some fathers are complete knobs about
such things. So…where do you want to go?"
She thought for a moment – her mind working a mile a minute. She knew what most boys
hated to do, what they would rather die than do – unless they really liked someone. It was
the ultimate test. She put on her most innocent smile before telling him where she wanted
to go.
"Shopping?" he asked, incredulous. He hated shopping – too many people, all the tacky
decorations, was she daft? Then he noticed a little glimmer in her eyes…she was toying
with him.
"Shopping it is then," he said agreeably, and when he saw the way her eyes lit up, he
knew he'd finally said just the right thing.
Authors: Debba and Sue
Category: Other - Grace/Ryder
Rating: R
E-mail: debba78@hotmail.com and ruststar@aol.com
Disclaimer: We own nothing
Summary: Get to know Grace and Ryder better…
Authors note: Its one year later than the series.
Part 8
Grace awoke slowly, reluctantly accepting that morning had arrived. She groaned as she
stretched and sat up. A glance at the alarm clock on her dresser across the room told her
that it was 8 AM and she'd had only 5 hours sleep. She flopped back on the bed and flung
an arm over her eyes trying to block out the sunlight – it was much too early to be up,
especially after a night like last night.
Thoughts of the previous night – and Ryder – shoved fatigue out of her mind and caused
a flush of heat to wash over her. She bit her lip as she mentally pictured him leaning in to
kiss her goodnight – his eyes had looked so beautiful and his kiss was so gentle that she
dared to believe that it might have been real. Not that the kiss had been imagined, but
rather that there were real feelings behind it.
She was realistic enough to know that sometimes kisses didn't mean anything, and even
sex could just be a diversion, but last night felt good - until her brain got in the way. He
had been nice about it, but she knew guys like Ryder (hell, any guy) didn't just slam on
the brakes as quickly as girls did. With a sly grin she wondered what he'd done after she
left…
"Get your mind out of the gutter," she admonished herself, and forced herself to think
about something else. It was hard though - her mind kept drifting into forbidden territory.
Part of her wondered if he was really okay with her taking off like she did, and the other
part wondered what would have happened if she stayed. What did she want to happen?
She honestly didn't know. The big question in her mind was how he felt about her – did
he see her as just another conquest? Or did he have real feelings for her? Was last night
about more than lust?
She sat up in bed – it was obvious she was not going to be able to fall back to sleep.
Maybe a shower and some coffee would help revive her – and keeping busy would
distract her from her thoughts. Well, as long as the shower was lukewarm.
*********
Ryder had never felt more uncomfortable in his life.
He was sitting on the bench in the gas station watching Grace's dad put snow tires on his
corvette and struggling to control where his mind wandered. Every time the man spoke to
him the very first thing he thought was "I was making out with your daughter last
night…" Very distracting, because along with that came the visuals – each image of
Grace nearly knocking the breath out of him. He might not have felt so uncomfortable
around the man if he had only kissed her, but his issue was that he desperately wanted to
sleep with her last night, and they came so close that now he couldn't look the man in the
eye.
Luckily, Charlie wasn't a chatty sort of man, so he didn't force him to go into details of
his life in which he might reveal the real reason he was there getting snow tires he didn't
* really * need. He wanted to see Grace – no, needed to see her. He had spent most of the
night after she left lying awake and wondering what had just happened between them.
Hours of analyzing had come to one conclusion – what had happened the night before
was more than just lust, more than just friendship boundaries mistakenly crossed – he
liked Grace. More than any girl he'd known.
To distract himself he wandered into the main part of the station and sat down on the
bench near the window. He flipped through the magazines piled next to him on the bench
looking for something to read. He had a choice of automotive magazines – not
interesting – or several issues of Seventeen, Vogue, and YM. "Hmm, you'd think girls
lived here," he thought to himself, chuckling, and picked up the Seventeen magazine.
Know thine enemy, somebody once said…
*********
Grace headed downstairs to get some much-needed coffee. The shower helped eliminate
most of the fuzziness in her brain, but she still felt the last dregs of fatigue and needed a
kick-start. As she came around the corner she spotted Ryder on the bench near the
window. Her eyes grew huge and she quickly retreated into the safety of the stairwell to
the upstairs apartment. What the hell was he doing here? Why would he be here so early?
She slowly peaked her head around the corner to watch him. He was sitting there, looking
incredible, as usual, and he was reading a magazine with such intensity that he didn't
realize he wasn't alone. On closer inspection she noticed what he was reading and she
fought hard to stifle the giggles. Ryder reading Seventeen magazine? Classic.
Ammunition.
"Learning anything?" she asked, amusement barely contained as she slipped around the
corner again to make her presence known.
He jumped when he heard her voice, and she grinned at the blush slowly creeping up his
neck. Ryder blushing was even better.
"Only that the writers of this dreck are completely daft," he said, trying to cover his
embarrassment by turning the attention on her, "Do you actually read this trash?"
She blushed and grabbed the magazine from him and pretended to search for an article.
"What about this one? Are Bad Boys Really Just Insecure? I wonder..." her voice trailed
off and her eyes danced with amusement.
"I don't recall seeing that one," he said dryly, knowing she was full of crap. He loved that
she could dish it right back at him.
"Tease all you want, but sometimes the articles are actually good," she said.
"Really? Even the quizzes?" he asked, not quite ready to quit the safety of the teasing
banter. "This stuff is laughable....'Does He Really Like Me? How To Tell!' - its obvious
they have no idea what's really going through our minds. Did you take this thing? They're
all circled..."
"Well," she said slowly, "Was I even close?"
"Close? Hmmm....let me take a look at your answers," he said, using the time to collect
his thoughts – he hadn't expected her to be so direct. He flipped through the pages again,
not even reading the page, trying to decide how to answer. Finally he settled on the truth.
"Maybe," he said seriously, holding her gaze.
Her breath caught at that - she hadn't expected him to be serious. This wasn't a joke
anymore and her smirk faded away.
"'Maybe's' not very specific, you know," she said, ducking behind the protection of the
counter to the coffee machine. She was trying to gauge just how serious he was about
this...but she just couldn't look at him. If he was just toying with her, she'd die. But first
she'd claw his eyes out. She busied herself fixing a cup of coffee so that she had her back
to him.
He nearly made her spill the coffee she was pouring all over the counter when she heard
him speak right behind her.
"The nit in the article says these things take time…"
"Do you think she's right?" she asked, turning around to face him.
"Maybe?" he asked quietly, feeling very unsure of himself. "I think...maybe...it depends
on the people."
"You're full of 'maybes' today, aren't you…" she said before taking a sip of her coffee to
hide the smile on her face. Butterflies were beating their wings violently in her chest, but
she tried her best to control them. He seemed sincere…she'd never seen him look
so…there wasn't even a word for it, because she'd never seen it. She also knew he had a
damn good poker face – she'd seen him bluff guys for hours when he kept getting hands
of crappy cards. She knew he could be faking this, just to mess with her. Well, she wasn't
going to make it easy on him. If he wanted to be with her he was going to have to take the
risk and put his feelings out there first. She knew what a shit he could be...as attracted to
him as she was, she wasn't about to let him trample on her.
He knew that look – and knew she wasn't going to trust him. Damn her. For once in his
life he was at a loss for words and she was not going to help one little bit. And he knew
he deserved it. He had no idea how to fix it, but he took a stab anyway, for the first time
flying blindly based solely on the way he was feeling.
"Come out with me today and we'll find out," he said simply, and reached across the
counter to stroke her hand. He smiled when she willingly laced her fingers with his after
a moment's hesitation, and he looked up to find her smiling back at him.
The sound of the outside door opening startled them and she yanked her hand back
quickly.
"There you are – your car's all ready," Charlie said, a little amused when he saw their red
faces. He hadn't seen Grace when he first walked in, but the way the boy jumped was
explained when he rounded the corner.
Chuckling to himself he addressed his daughter, "Grace, will you ring him up for me?
I've got cleaning up I have to do in the garage…" He didn't wait for her to answer, just
backed out the way he came in after dropping the keys to the boy's corvette on the
counter. The way the two were trying so hard NOT to look at each other was absolutely
hilarious, so he thought he'd leave them alone before he burst out laughing.
Grace wiggled her fingers at her dad in a little wave goodbye – she could tell he was
amused and she couldn't wait to kill him for embarrassing her. And for ruining the mood.
After she rang up the charges and returned Ryder's credit card she came out from behind
the counter, grabbed her coat from one of the hooks on the wall, and rolled her eyes at
him. "Sorry about my dad…he can be such a dork…I'm not gonna hear the end of it
tonight…"
"Don't worry about it – he seems pretty cool. Some fathers are complete knobs about
such things. So…where do you want to go?"
She thought for a moment – her mind working a mile a minute. She knew what most boys
hated to do, what they would rather die than do – unless they really liked someone. It was
the ultimate test. She put on her most innocent smile before telling him where she wanted
to go.
"Shopping?" he asked, incredulous. He hated shopping – too many people, all the tacky
decorations, was she daft? Then he noticed a little glimmer in her eyes…she was toying
with him.
"Shopping it is then," he said agreeably, and when he saw the way her eyes lit up, he
knew he'd finally said just the right thing.