Chapter 20: Meeting Gracie

As Gracie was talking, I gave a reflexive squeeze.  Whatever I was holding yielded under my palm, softer and softer, and Gracie let out a soft moan that sent a shiver through me. "Gracie, I didn't mean it!" I snatched my hand back in a hurry. Gracie and Oaklyn couldn't have been more different. She was shy and withdrawn, and the man she'd chosen was the same. It was a pity, really, for a voluptuous woman to live her days beside a man who was a coward, while she always kept her voice down. It...