Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,33
I asked, wishing I had more control over my voice.
I’d been told I had this sexy quality to it first thing in the morning. There was nothing sexy about sounding like a horny teenager though. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to notice.
She breathed heavily and put her hands on the bench for a second. “If I could bring myself to face that raging bitch? Yes.”
“What about tomorrow?”
She looked at me over her shoulder and I told myself I wasn’t picturing her without the towel on. I swallowed hard.
“What about tomorrow?” she asked. “I thought you were going to start teaching me self-defence?”
“I plan to do that.” And keep my hands to myself. “But we’ve all got tomorrow morning off. Would five hulking wankers help your case? We could do the self-defence thing on Sunday instead?”
She broke into a wide sincere smile as she leant over the bench towards me. “You offering up your security team to help me pack up my stuff?” she teased.
I felt myself falling into gear. I was less horny teenager and more practiced man again. “Well our job is protection. We also happen to be very good at manual labour.”
She looked me over with a wry smirk. “All right. And how much would that cost me?”
“Well, the roommate of the CEO surely gets perks?” I asked coyly.
Her eyes fucking shone with humour and I felt elated. “Perks?” she sniggered. “God, what does the CEO’s woman get?”
I laughed. “Roommate is the top of the hierarchy. His woman’s going to have to deal with it.”
She smiled. “Well, I’ll bet she’ll love that.”
“If any woman was unlucky enough to end up with me, she’s going to have to accept you’re here to stay.”
“Unlucky?” she asked, passing me a coffee as she got onto the stool beside me.
I nodded. “Unlucky.”
“Pfft. You’re a catch Christopher Barrett Grayson. And anyone who tells you otherwise deserves to lose their perks.” She pointed at me and I was happier than I needed to be that she was this assertive self with me now.
This is how she’d always been with Hawk and I’d caught glimpses of it over the years, seen her unable to hide it sometimes even. It was one of the things that had made sure I never questioned Hawk’s love for her, never questioned why we had to keep him safe, what made me invite her to stay. And here she was saying I was a catch.
“A catch? How am I a catch?” I snorted.
She coloured again and looked at me through her eyelashes. “You just are.”
“I just am?” I asked and she nodded. Completely without thinking about it, I reached over and tickled her, and she laughed. “I just am? That’s a terrible explanation.”
She looked up at me and my fingers stopped, but I didn’t take my hands off her.
My heart thudded. My breath felt a little less easy.
The moment sizzled with unspoken…everything. It was one of those moments you kiss the girl, dammit. Only I didn’t kiss the girl. I had to firmly remind myself I was imagining that the girl wanted to be kissed. But it wasn’t easy. The way she looked into my eyes, the look in hers, the soft smile at her lips. I didn’t even have words for it. It was all feeling. And it felt amazing. Forbidden, but amazing. This was definitely a kissing moment, but the knowledge I shouldn’t was stronger. Just.
“You’re not the guy who left, Kit. That guy was…” She looked down and pushed her glasses up her nose. She cleared her throat. “That guy was almost a catch. The guy who came back? Well, he’s even more.”
My chest warmed and I wasn’t sure it was in a way it was supposed to, or even a way it ever had before. But I liked it and I wasn’t putting a stop to it.
Had she never hated me? Had we just been awkward around each other because we didn’t understand each other? I still didn’t understand all that study or anything, but it wasn’t difficult with her like it used to be.
She looked up at me, her eyes boring into mine, and I had that moment again. I had that moment where I could almost see a different life for myself, where I could imagine what it would have been like if we’d always got along. That protectiveness rose up in me and I cupped her cheek.
Her eyes widened a little and she took a breath, but I smiled at her. She lay her