Forever Grace by Linda Poitevin Read Free Book Online Page B

in my address book in the kitchen drawer. You met him at my Christmas party last year. He’s the best family lawyer out there—a veritable bulldog. Call him. Tell him you’re my sister, and tell him everything you’ve told me.”
    “It’s too early for lawyers. I haven’t even told Barry I’m leaving yet.”
    “That’s why you need to call Luc. You’re taking Barry’s kids, Jules. He won’t take this sitting down, and he’s got a lot more clout than you have when it comes to the system. You need someone to walk you through this. Someone on your side.”
    “I hadn’t thought of that.” Julianne’s voice cracked.
    “That’s why you have me, sweetie. Now promise me: straight to my place, and call Luc.”
    “I promise.”
    “Good girl. I’ll see you tomorrow sometime, all right?”
    “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Grace.”
    “And you’ll never have to find out, because I’m there for you. Together always, remember?”
    A childhood pact made under the covers when their parents had died and they’d begun the endless shuffle from relative to relative, only just avoiding being thrown into the system.
    “Together always,” Julianne whispered back, and Grace’s lips curved in response to the smile in her sister’s voice.
    In the dark of the bedroom, Grace wiped away the tears cooling her cheeks. She listened to the gentle breathing of her niece, letting the stillness seep into her. She and Julianne had managed to uphold their pact, and regardless of what happened to her sister now, Grace would move heaven and earth to make sure Julianne’s kids had the same opportunity.
    “Together always,” she whispered to her sister.
    Then she turned onto her side and closed her eyes.

CHAPTER 7
    ………………
    SEAN’S HANDS CAME DOWN ON Grace’s shoulders, tugging her inexorably closer. Her heart thudded wildly, threatening to break out of her chest altogether. She knew she should object, knew she should pull away, but his bottle-green gaze had turned so intense. It seared into hers, holding her captive. His hands slid down her arms, spanned her waist, drove the last remaining oxygen from her lungs. His head descended. Desire licked through her veins. Need hollowed her belly.
    “Oh, Grace,” he whispered, burying his face in her hair, wrapping her against him.
    A hand cupped the soft flesh of her breast, thumb circling the nipple, teasing, tormenting. Grace closed her eyes and arched against him.
    “More,” she gasped. “Please…more.”
    “Baa,” Sean replied.
    Grace’s eyes shot open. Baa ?
    She stared up at the shadowed ceiling, struggling to regain her bearings and calm her breathing. Reality slowly filtered in. She was in bed. Alone. Her skin tingled with remembered sensation, but it wasn’t real. She’d dreamed it. Dreamed it all.
    She sat bolt upright, sweat-soaked sheets falling away from her. Dear God, she’d dreamed about Sean McKittrick ? Heat flooded her—part mortification, part something she didn’t want to think about.
    And what the hell was baa ?
    “Mooo!” came a deep male voice from the other side of the wall behind her head. Grace froze. Her gaze darted to the portable crib in the corner of the room, then to the door standing partially ajar. Her heart dropped into her belly. Annabelle.
    She scrambled from the bed, tripping over the covers wrapped around her feet and narrowly avoiding a flat-on-her-face fall. How on earth had the child gotten out of the crib? She’d never—
    Utter horror stopped Grace dead in her tracks. Wait. Sean hadn’t—he wouldn’t—oh, Lord, please don’t tell her he’d come in to get Annabelle and seen her all tangled up in the covers and dreaming of—
    Her last functioning brain cell snorted at her. Really, Grace? A man who can barely stand up on crutches, coming into the room and lifting a wriggly two-year-old out of her crib without you hearing a thing? Really?
    She put her hands to her overheated face and stood swaying in the