The Fallback (Sample Chapters)

5. Habits Are Hard to Break

    "It's gotten serious, I think," Grey told Tati grimly as his mouth turned down at the corners.

    Tati blinked. They were the first words he’d said since they had started their video chat on Skype, but she didn't need any introduction to the subject they were starting out with today. It was always about Freya.

    Freya. It had been about four months since she had started seeing her ex's friend, and apparently there were no hard feelings between the two anymore. Jared had moved on with someone else and didn't hold a grudge against the man Freya was still seeing, Jeremy.

    "I'm sorry," she told him with her own frown. Grey just shrugged his shoulders, though the hurt was still evident on his face.

    "Enough about me," he dismissed, as if trying to ward away the unpleasant thoughts of Freya and Jeremy. "How's work?"

    Tati had gotten the job at the children's hospital and was enjoying it immensely. Whenever he asked about it, she always smiled. It somehow made him feel a little better when she just smiled at him. He had put that smile there with only a few words. It was more of an effort with Freya, but then again, they had known each other much longer.

    "Great," she replied, her voice lighthearted and warm. "We just got a new client. Her name is Michelle. She lost her foot in a car accident a couple of months ago and just got fitted for her artificial leg. Poor thing has to learn to walk all over again. And at the age of ten!"

    Tati looked angered by that fact, and her lips pursed. For one whose job consisted mainly of helping disabled children relearn basic motor functions, she never looked happy when telling him about the more unpleasant intricacies of her job.

    Grey laughed a little.

    "You do understand that little kids like Michelle make your job necessary," Grey pointed out. "It's really a shame and all, but this type of thing happens all the time. It also is keeping you from having to teach ballet and tap to your mother's beginner students." He knew how much she had hated that.

    "Still, it just sucks," she griped, her brows bunching over her hazel eyes. "I almost hate that I have a job based solely on the fact that kids get hurt. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this type of work."

    Grey raised a brow at her. "Tati, I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't be happy with any other job," he told her.

    That was true. She would have miserable at a normal office job, and dancing was obviously not her heart's desire like it was her mother's. Not that she couldn't dance. She actually could. And would. A friend from work had invited her out to a new nightclub that had just opened up downtown and wanted her to come with her as her wing woman. She had precisely two hours to get ready before her friend would come knocking on her door, and she had to be ready. Tati had even bought a new dress for the occasion.

    "You're probably right," she said on a sigh.

    The two had become not only friends, but each other's confidants.

    "So, what are you wearing to the club tonight?" he asked. "Show me the dress."

    Tati got up and went into her closet to pick the spicy number up from its place on the rack. It was maroon and skin tight, and she hoped it wouldn't be a bit too much. Her friend had said it was perfect for the ambiance of the place. Dark and sensual.

    She held it up for his inspection, and Grey couldn't help but to speak out his next words.

    "I can't tell what it looks like until you actually wear it, Tati," he told her bluntly. "Put it on and I will tell you whether you should wear your hair up or down."

    Down, he thought to himself almost immediately. Always down. There were very few things better to him than running one hand along your dance partner's body while the other was fisted in her hair.

    And he was hard. Again.

    His hands twisted into tight fists at his side.

    "Fine," she told him. "But you have to be honest and let me know if it looks okay. I'm not model thin, so there is something to be desired when wearing a dress like this.”

    Honestly, Grey thought the stick-thin look of most models these days was ridiculous. He preferred a little substance to a woman's body, though Freya certainly had a model-esque form. But somehow Tati outshone her—at least in that area—with her full hips and thin waist.

    "Honest Injun," he told her with a somber nod as he crossed his heart with a forefinger.

    There was a bit of noise in the background as Grey stared at Tati's bedroom wall, waiting for her to dress completely.

    Once she came back into the view of the camera, Grey's breath caught in his chest. He could only see her body from the neck down to her knees, but what he saw was perfection in his mind.

    The maroon fabric encased her body and accentuated the shape of her body just right. It was a simple dress, but somehow sexy as hell. Definitely fodder for his spank bank later—and possibly beyond. He hoped she posted photos of her in it on f*******:.

    The dress was sleeveless and strapless, and came to her midthigh at the bottom. It irked him somehow that some little asshole might want to feel up on her at the club. Tati was better than that. He hoped she brought pepper spray or something if she had to deal with any unwanted advances.

    "It's perfect," he told her, voice raw as he fought with the urge to cup his hard d**k and squeeze.

    "It's not too tight?" the headless Tati on his screen asked. From the way she was standing, it was obvious that she was feeling a little inadequate to the task of wearing something so sexy.

    "Too tight for what?" he asked, grinning. "I hope you're looking to get f****d when you wear that out."

    She gave a snort of derision, as if not believing him. He rolled his eyes at her. Tati just didn't know how sexy she was, and he wondered if her mother's lithe, perfect dancer's figure had anything to do with that. It was bullshit if it was.

    "I don't do one-night stands," she told him. "And you know that."

    Her figure walked away, but Grey kept speaking.

    "Then you haven't had someone like me in you," he called loudly so she could hear. "I make all one-night stands worth it whether a woman wants them at first or not."

    "Right," she tossed back, and he could tell she was most likely rolling her eyes at him.

    "Quit that eyerolling, Tati," he told her. "They'll get stuck back there one day, and I prefer to have you looking at me when I f**k you senseless someday."

    Tati released a breath. Grey had been saying that for as long as she had known him, and she let it slide like water off a duck’s back as she always did nowadays. Sometimes she flirted back, but today wasn't one of those times.

    "I wouldn't f**k a man when I knew he was in love with another woman," she informed him for what felt like the hundredth time. "Especially when that woman is a friend of mine. I mean, what would happen if one day she was to finally start dating you?"

    She said it like it was an actual possibility, but Grey had his doubts. Freya was starting to seem merely like a pipe dream to him instead of a real conquest. His only problem was that the only other person he could ever see being interested in lived so very far away.

    Not that the man was celibate. Not by a long shot. His s*x life was healthy, and when he was not engaging in the occasional one-night stand, he had a friend with benefits he could call on that usually could come at a moment's notice. It wasn't anyone in their close circle of friends, so there was no awkwardness when speaking of his fuckbuddy with the others in his group.

    "I'm starting to doubt that that will ever happen," he admitted to her.

    "Then you should move on," she advised him as she was coming back into view of the camera. She was pulling her tank top over the pale flesh of her stomach just before sitting back down at the computer. Seeing that white skin bare did things to him, and he wondered if he would have to split early from their Skype session to take care of business down below. "Put yourself out there, Grey. Speed date or go on one or those dating sites you see being heralded on television."

    "That's just pathetic," he told her and frowned.

    "You won't get over her until you make the effort. I mean honestly—isn't there anyone else out there that captures your attention? Even a little bit?"

    If you only knew, he thought as he took a deep breath in.

    "No," he responded shortly, almost childishly.

    "What about your fuckbuddy?" she asked. "I mean haven't you ever thought of making something more permanent with her?"

    Grey grimaced, his mouth twisting downward.

    "She's not in the market for a relationship, and I wouldn't have one with her anyway," he said.

    "Why not?"

    He shrugged. "The feelings just aren't there," he admitted to her. "And trust me, I've tried. She's good in bed, but that's about it."

    "Well, when the time's right, you'll find what you've been looking for," she said soothingly.

    "Maybe," he conceded, if only to placate his friend. Both of his options seemed a far reach. One so close yet so far away, and the other—just too far away period. And possibly not even interested. It was f*****g depressing to think about.

    After chatting for another twenty minutes, Tati told him she needed to take a shower. His normal good humor seemed to have been restored to his usual horndog self as he told her that she should just bring the computer into the bathroom and they could chat while she gave him a little show. She had merely rolled her eyes at him and told him she would text him tomorrow.

    "Okay," he told her finally. "Be safe tonight. Use protection."

    "I'm not having s*x tonight, Grey" she stated firmly.

    "You would be if I was there," he challenged, smirking.

    She rolled her eyes.

    "Goodbye, Grey."

    "'Night, gorgeous," he told her before ending the video session.

***

    Later that night, Grey was in bed and worrying. And for once, it wasn't about himself or his fledgling business.

    He had texted Tati a few times that night to make sure she was okay. He was concerned she might get in over her head with someone at the club, or worse—get roofied and then date-raped.

    It bothered him that she wasn't responding to his texts, but he knew she probably couldn't hear the notifications over the music at the club.

    Still, it bothered him and he didn't have to wonder why.

    He tried to distract himself with plans for a new gym. He had already opened one in the greater Denver area, and business was going strong. So well, in fact, that he was looking into expanding all across the state. Maybe Boulder next.

    Until then, he would put in another one on the opposite side of town, opening his business to the people living on the south side of Denver as well.    

    He wondered if Tati could be convinced to attend the opening day of the new gym. She had been mentioning she wanted to go on vacation at around the same time that he was planning on opening the new location.

    Of course, she would probably want to go somewhere a little nicer than Denver in the middle of the winter. Unless she was a glutton for punishment—what with the frigid temperatures of snowy Denver—there wouldn't be much she could do there. As far as he knew, she hated to ski.

    Maybe he could sweeten the pot by offering her a free place to stay and his aid as a tour guide. Growing up in the mile-high city, he knew all the places that one would want to visit, and a few of the better-known secrets that only a native would know about.

    Of course, he was probably only thinking with his d**k. She may have claimed to not go for the one-night stand thing, but he was sure he could convince her otherwise. He would make it worth her while, he was sure.

    So much for not thinking about her.

    Sighing, he rolled over in his bed and tried to keep his mind on work.

    The accounts—that was it. He needed to go over the books the next day. It's how he spent every Saturday morning for as long as he could remember. The books and breakfast. It was a ritual. A habit that was hard to break.

    Like Freya.

    Like Tati.