Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,3

younger than him drool all over him. And I was indeed speaking from experience. He’d always been hot, but the last eight years had been kinder to him than they had to me. I’d seen a few pictures from his and my brother’s military days, but those combat outfits had nothing on a tailored suit.

As he disappeared into the other room, I finally managed to remember how to breathe and let myself think his name.

Christopher Grayson.

Kit to his friends and family.

The guy my brother had nicknamed Chaos in junior school because of all the shit he got up to and later for all the hearts he left behind. He and my brother had been joined at the hip since they met in Reception. Then his family had moved down the street from mine when the boys were about ten and life for my brother had never been the same. He and Kit had been inseparable through school, a couple of years of uni, enlisting in the Navy, training and then both being hand-picked for some special ops team those left at home were never to be told about.

I’d never been able to look at Kit unless he didn’t know I was in the room. I’d never been able to talk to him. Even without the seven-year age gap, I’d been a total mess around him. He’d been the first guy I’d crushed on and – if we’re being honest – the only guy who’d ever starred in my dirty fantasies…or any fantasies really. He dated the most beautiful girls and got up to all kinds of things I’d probably never know about.

Even if we were to take away the whole sopping oversized jumper, the glasses, the frizzy hair and the tear-stained face thing, Kit Grayson was so far out of my league I wouldn’t even be given clearance to clean in his league. Not that it mattered, because Kit Grayson had never noticed me past the awkward, weirdo little sister of his best mate and I’d gone to pains to keep it that way.

Except now he was in the room across the foyer and I still had to wait for my brother.

I checked the time. I’d stopped talking to Patrick about ten minutes before, so only fifty minutes. If that was a bar or restaurant, the likelihood of Kit being any less than that was slim. If he was less, it would be significantly less surely, and he wouldn’t recognise me. Mind you, even if he did, he wasn’t going to acknowledge my presence. So, I was fine.

I kept telling myself I was fine as I kept an eye on the time and watched the hour pass and still no sign of my brother. I was starting to pray to anyone that Kit stayed in that room as I threw panicked looks between the front door and the room Kit disappeared into.

Another half hour, and still nothing as I kept a worried eye on both doors.

Then, because the world loved to kick me when I was down, I just registered that my brother walked in the front door as my eyes slid to the other door and I saw Kit walk out of the room.

My heart stammered to a stop and I actually stood up like that was going to somehow stop the train wreck I could see forming in front of me.

I muttered to myself as my gaze flickered between both men. “No. Please, no. If you were going to grant me anything. Do not let Christopher Barrett Grayson see me like this. I know I will never have a chance in hell with him, but some dignity after everything would be swell…” I mumbled as I watched them both inconveniently turn to each other and a flash of recognition crossed Kit’s face.

“Hawk?” Kit called and my brother raised a hand in greeting.

Oddly, Kit’s expression then dropped into a frown as they strode towards each other. I couldn’t see my brother’s face as they met and got into what looked like a very serious discussion until my brother shook his head. For the first time in my entire life, I watched as Kit’s face fell into surprised confusion, then his eyes started roaming. And I was still standing up like an idiot.

Kit’s eyes finally fell on me and there was no avoiding the train wreck now.

I watched Kit nod in my direction, and my brother turned. The unfamiliar stress on his face melted as he saw me. He hurried