Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,40

It had been foreign and familiar all at once – like I knew this Amber even if I’d never seen her before. She was totally unguarded with me and I’d fucking loved it.

Eventually, we’d dragged ourselves to our own beds and I’d only fallen asleep after I’d relieved a modicum of my tension. By the time I’d woken up again, it was back with reinforcements. Not that there was time to do anything about it because, just as I decided a shower and a wank would do me good, the intercom buzzer was sounding.

I hauled myself out of bed, threw on some tracksuit pants and went out to answer it.

“Yes?”

“I have the team from Grace Grayson here to see you, sir,” I heard Donald’s voice.

“Oi, oi!” came Rollie’s voice.

“Open up, mate!” I heard Hawk chuckle.

I threw a look towards Amber’s room, guilt and panic flooding me momentarily. But what did I have to be guilty about? I cleared my throat before I hit the intercom button again. “Come on up then, you wankers.”

I hit the accept button so the doors would open when the lift got to the floor.

While I waited for them, I started on coffee. I didn’t miss the fact that I started Amber’s first, but I wasn’t going to make a big thing of it.

“I have boxes. So many boxes,” I heard Tank’s deep rumbling chuckle.

“And I’ve got the truck,” Hawk boomed in his announcer’s voice.

“And I have…the diplomatic flags,” Rollie said, flourishing them as he appeared in front of me.

“You have the…?” I grabbed his wrist to stop them around. “Where the fuck did you get those?”

Rollie beamed. “The ambassador’s wife nicked me a pair and said I should use them…” He winked, “at my discretion.” His wrist got free and he waved the flags again. “I thought they’d help us with parking.”

“She probably expected you to use them next time you…parked in her,” Hawk laughed as he went to companionably kick Rollie in the arse.

“Ew, Pat,” Amber said as she walked out from the other side of the apartment.

I looked up quickly, but I didn’t know what I expected to find; it was like something had changed between us and I felt like everyone was going to see it before I even knew what it was. She was smiling at the boys and, when she looked at me for a moment, there was something palpable in her humoured glance. I could feel the tension between her and me from across the room. The kind that had me wanting to go over to her and kiss her, even in front of my team and her big brother. I’d never felt that sort of tension between us before and I couldn’t work out what it meant going forward.

“And this must be the lovely Amber?” Rollie asked her, presumably not sensing anything was off.

“It is,” she replied with a nod as she took everyone in.

“Right, Bert,” Hawk said. “You know Nico. This is Rollie and Tank.”

I watched her give a small wave and started passing out the coffees in their convenient travel mugs.

“Hi, guys. Nice to meet you.”

“Finally,” Tank rumbled.

“Finally,” Amber agreed.

“We ready for this?” Rollie asked.

She nodded and her smile widened. “Yes. Thank you so much for helping, guys.”

All the boys stopped whatever lack of anything they were doing and looked at her.

“Amber,” Tank said with a soft chastise. “We’re family.”

“Family sticks together,” Nico added solemnly.

“Family fucks up the fuckers who hurt you!” Rollie added a little more vehemently.

“Rollie!” we all yelled, and he turned around with his most innocent grin on his face.

Sweet, gorgeous Amber went over to hug Rollie. “Thank you anyway,” she laughed.

Rollie pointed at her back and smiled widely at us. “Someone appreciates me.”

Amber let go of him and shook her head as Tank told him, “Only because she didn’t have to live in a tent with your bare arse for two months.”

“The first time,” Hawk reminded us. “You two ready to go?”

I nodded. “Let me grab a shirt.”

“Good idea, genius,” Hawk snickered, then looked at his sister. “You got your keys, Bert?”

She blinked and finally took her eyes off me and patted her pockets. “What? Keys. Yes.”

Hawk nodded. “Great, let’s do this.”

“I’ll get the truck to the front door,” Rollie said, brandishing his flags.

“What?” Amber asked.

I went to get a shirt as I heard Hawk say, “Rollie fancies himself a foreign ambassador.”

“I could be. They don’t know I’m not.”

“That’s still some shady shit,” Tank said disapprovingly, but he’d long since tried to