What if I couldn’t handle beingin my own apartment? What the hell was I supposed to do then?
“I meant what I saidearlier,” Gray spoke up.
I turned to look at him. He’d said a lot ofthings earlier, especially for a man I’d kind of assumed would be the strong,silent type, so it was hard to know what he was talking about.
“It’s incredible, what you’redoing for that kid. Not just running the trial, which I’m sure you had to fightfor. But going to see her. She’ll remember that.”
A lump formed in my throat,forcing me to swallow past it before I could speak. “I hope she does,” I saideventually, turning my attention to the elevator. “I kind of took on the wholecancer center as my own project. I don’t want it to be a miserable place. Bythe time you’ve gotta go there regularly, your life’s already a nightmare.”
Here I was, spilling my gutsall over again. Great. Gray was going to think I was an over-emotional crybaby.Probably overreacting to all of this.
Thankfully, he didn’tsayso.
My hand shook as I held mykey card up against the lock, and if Gray noticed that, he still didn’t say anything.All he did was stand behind me, a warm, solid presence at my back, and I was sograteful I could have burst into tears.
If it hadn’t been the worstthing I could imagine doing, I might have.
Instead, I pushed the dooropen with a surge of confidence, knowing Gray was right there behind me.
The scene inside made megasp. Gray’shand landed on my shoulder as the door swung closed behind us, and without thatsupport, my knees might have buckled.
Everything was back the wayit should have been. Actually, if anything, it wasmuchneater than ithad been before.
“Wow.” I said, takingeverything in slowly. I’d expected to feel fear, or unease at least. But withthe light shining through the open curtains—I rarely remembered to openthem—and the place tidied up, complete with a vase of flowers on the coffeetable that I assumed were from management, I was home.
This was myhome, andno asshole was taking that away from me.
I felt myself standing up alittle straighter at the thought. I was okay. Iwasn’tdefeated.
Me; one. Assholes; zero.
The bookcase caught myattention, and I managed to pull myself away from the comforting warmth of Gray’s body to golook at it. His gaze lingered on me—I could feel it without having to seehim—but I didn’t mind that. I kind oflikedit.
I liked Gray looking at me.I liked him touching me. I would have been thrilled for him to do more ofeither, preferably both.
Maybe this was that thing,where fear and tragedy makes people horny. I coulddefinitelyhave gonefor screwing my hot bodyguard against any surface he wanted right now.
“Okay?” Gray asked in a softmurmur, startling me out of my thoughts but doing absolutely nothing to changetheir direction.
“Yeah,” I said, my voicesurprisingly even. “Yeah. Please thank Fox for me?”
“Planning on it.” Graysmiled a tiny, encouraging smile.
I took a step toward himwithout really meaning to, my stomach swooping as I realized belatedly what Iwas doing.
Gray just kept looking atme, a trace of concern in those ocean-blue eyes. Not backing away. Justwatching as I took another step, closing the gap between us again.
Need and gratitude swelledup in my chest, a tight bubble that seemed to press on my lungs, on my heart. Ineeded…something. Anything.
An outlet. Some way to expresshow glad I was that Gray had ended up in my life, how good his kindness felt,how much I wanted him to stick around.
Before I’d entirelydecided what I was going to do, I found myself leaning in and brushing my lipsagainst his cheek.
Iwantedto let himfold me into his arms and hold on tight. Or to tug him toward the bedroom andstrip him down and explore every inch of his skin, repayment for going so farabove and beyond what I thought he was supposed to be doing for me.
Reality came crashing in asI caught the familiar scent of his aftershave and realized what the hell I wasdoing.
I backed off again, my heartsuddenly thundering in my chest, ears pounding with the huge, stupid mistake I’d just made.
