Page 50 of Her Captivated Hero

Egg mix went flying out of the bowl as she whirled around to see Gray standing in low-slung jeans and a white t-shirt.

“Didn’t mean to startle you.” He grabbed a paper towel and wiped up the egg that had spilled while she just ogled him. In the bright morning light she could see the white interspersed with the blond in his whiskers.

How gorgeous was that?

Pull it together.

She sidestepped him and snagged a glass from the cupboard and poured him a big glass of orange juice, then gave a chin tilt toward one of the stools at the kitchen bar. “Do you want to just eat here? Or in the dining room?”

“Here’s great. But, why don’t I help you?” He sipped from his glass and his left hand swept down her back. She’d forgotten Gray’s habit of casual touching.

“The kitchen is too small for the two of us. You sit there and talk to me.”

Riya knew it was because he’d been on a mission. He couldn’t tell her anything. Same went for her, she couldn’t tell him that she’d been to DC, and she sure as hell couldn’t tell him that she’d been trying to recreate things from memory. He must have seen her hesitation.

“I’ve got a better idea, you talk to me. I want to hear about microbes, microcosms, and Microsoft,” Gray said with an easy smile.

“Microsoft stock is up, even though there is a bug in their latest Windows release. I’m going to leave the microcosms to the ecologists, and which microbes do you want to talk about? Bacteria? Eukaryotes? Protists?”

“I give, I give?” The man’s laugh was a thing of beauty. “Tell me gossip. Or tell me if you’ve babysat. Tell me if you visited your parents or your sisters. What’s the latest with Anika?”

Riya flushed with pleasure as she plated the two waffles, mounds of eggs and six slices of bacon and put it in front of Gray. He always remembered what was going on in her life. She would bet her bottom dollar that he’d done some reading up on molecular virology the same as she had on Navy SEALs, and he might even know a little bit about Eukaryotes if push came to shove. The man was crazy smart when he studied up on something.

She noticed he hadn’t picked up his fork. “Come on, dig in.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

“It’ll get cold. I have to wait for the next waffle to come out.”

He just lifted his eyebrow and she turned back to the counter, willing her waffle to hurry up and cook.

Damn Southern manners.

She grabbed her food when the timer went off, and sat across from him. Their eyes locked, forks forgotten.

Gray reached out and tugged her hand across the smooth bar top. “I missed you.” They were the same words he’d said last night. He’d even used the same rough voice.

Riya blinked back tears.

“I was scared,” she admitted softly. “I tried real hard not to be. I concentrated on the Microsoft stock, but it didn’t do it for me.” Her laughter was forced. “Can you tell me anything?”

“I can tell you that I work with the best team in the world, and that they’ve never let me down.” His eyes roamed over her face, then flicked down to her plate for just an instant.

She pulled back her hand. “Eat. Then we can talk. You can tell me the stuff that isn’t confidential. Then I’ll return the favor and tell you about my stuff that isn’t classified.”

Gray grabbed the butter dish and slathered half a stick onto his two waffles, then proceeded to drown them in syrup. He laughed at her expression. “One of the things I can tell you, is that there weren’t a lot of carbs, fats or sugars where I was. I’m making up for it.”

Riya ate some of her food, then got up and put another serving of batter into the waffle iron.

“You’re a goddess,” Gray said looking up from his empty plate. She brought the bottle of orange juice to the countertop and filled up Gray’s glass then snuck one of her slices of bacon onto his plate.

“I’m not taking your food. Anyway, I’m still not done with my bacon.”

“I’m done. If I wanted it, I’d eat it.”

Gray eyed her carefully, then grinned. He broke it in half. He popped one half into his mouth, the other he dropped onto the floor for Einstein.

“Gray, he’s going to be begging at the table for weeks now,” Riya complained.