He said it like he wouldhave reached into my head and plucked the nightmares out if he could.
For a moment, as I lay inhis arms, sweat cooling on my skin, I almost believed that he might actually beable to.
Gray reached over me,grabbing a handful of tissues from the nightstand and cleaning us both off, histouch gentle and soothing.
He was an incredible lover,if I could call him that. Old-fashioned as it sounded, I kind of liked thethought.
It was hard to believesomeone hadn’talready laid claim to him forever.
“You’ve had boyfriends,right?” I asked, curious now.
“Sure,” Gray agreed. “Mostof them have been a little complicated one way or another, but… are you sureyou wanna hear about this?”
Nodding, I snuggled a littlecloser. “You’veheard the entire story of my love life. I’d like to hear yours.”
Gray hummed, nuzzling my hairlineand pressing another kiss to my forehead. “I started out dating girlslike I thought I was supposed to,” he said. “There was one boy, last year ofhigh school, but we kept things a secret, more or less. Then I joined the armyand I didn’t really have time to date much, just a short fling here and therewhen I had time off. Although…”
“Although?”
“This is the complicatedpart. There was a guy. A doctor, if you can believe.”
I laughed. “You’ve got athing for medical people.”
“Maybe. I didn’t know thatabout you when we met and I thought you were cute then.”
“What was so complicatedabout it?”
Gray sighed. “That scar thatwraps around my side? He gave it to me.”
“I thought…”
“No, I mean, he was thefield medic who saved me. Before that… we were about to start something. We’dgotten close, I’d kissed him for good luck before I left on that mission. Firstkiss. And last.”
“Oh.”
It was hard to imagine whatGray must have felt. What that poor doctor must have felt.
“I’m sorry,” I added,realizing now that I shouldn’t have asked. This was clearly a sore spot. It wasan honor that Gray was telling me at all.
“Don’t be. Flattered youwanted to know,” Gray said, shifting his hold on me. “I’ve never talked aboutit to anyone who wasn’ttherebefore now.But you know? I’m okay with it.We missed our chance, but he’s still one of my closest friends, and I’d like tosee him happy one day.”
Sighing, I reached out topull the covers back over us, warding off the chill in the room. Selfishly, Iwanted to snuggle up next to Gray and fall asleep like this, satisfied andcontent.
If Gray was going toletme, I wasn’tabout to argue.
“You need to rest,” hemurmured after a moment. “Tomorrow, I’m getting to the bottom of this.”
My stomach sank.
Right. Tomorrow, Gray wouldhave a solid lead to start from, and he might not have been a detective, but hecertainlyknewone. One who, I got the impression, was very good at hisjob.
I could puzzle out what wasgoing to happen after that. Whoever was doing this would go to jail.
Then I wouldn’t need abodyguard anymore.
And there was no way I couldconvince Gray to stay. Especially not after waking him up like this. All he’d see when helooked at me was someone who’d be high-maintenance their entire life, and whowanted that?
I wished I could be theright person for him.
