Page 46 of Chasing Grace
“How do you know?” Cody demanded.
Gray looked cockeyed over her shoulder at Chase.
To prove his point, or quite possibly multiple points, he slipped his arm around her waist and gently laid his hand on the raised swelling of her hip, his fingers splayed wide. “It’s not getting any bigger, numbnuts.”
Cody grinned and shrugged a boulder of a shoulder, conceding defeat.
“If it’s not getting any bigger, it’s no longer bleeding. Nothing I can do.” Doc stood from his squat and addressed Gray directly for the first time. “Take acetaminophen for the pain, and avoid these two”—he jogged a thumb back and forth between Chase and Cody—“as much as possible.”
She grinned and elbowed Chase in the abdomen. “Told you.”
“How long before it heals?” Chase called out as Doc disappeared from view.
“Weeks,” came the muffled reply from the hallway.
CHAPTERTWENTY
After Cody leftto grab a shower, Chase was more than happy to be alone in the kitchen with Gray. Arms wrapped around her waist, he grabbed her butt cheeks with both hands, and as promised, he dug his fingers in deep and rubbed her sore muscles.
She pressed her hips against him and groaned. The sound made his blood rush and his cock stiffen. Damn, he needed time alone with her to explore all the ways he could make her squeal, pant, and moan. Not possible until he’d introduced her to the colonel and explained the situation. After that, it would be hours before Chase had her to himself again.
A hard-ass with a reputation for making grown men cry, Colonel Grayson wouldn’t let Gray go before she answered his questions. Answers she’d refused to give to this point. Jesus, the battle of wills between them would be something to witness. “Listen, Gray, I need to—”
“Where is she?” Announced at top volume, the man in charge of the JTT broadcast his arrival with an unusual level of intensity—even for him.
Gray’s spine snapped straight, and Chase tightened his arms in reflex. He had no problem facing the colonel’s anger. He just needed a couple of minutes to lay the groundwork before the colonel unleashed the full weight of his command on her. “Wait here.” He stole a quick kiss and left her in the kitchen.
He joined the other JTT members making their way to the COMMs center. As he entered through the doublewide doors, Colonel Grayson singled him out, pointing a shaking finger at Chase’s chest. “Where is she?”
He’d been expecting the colonel to be pissed, but this was beyond. “Sir—”
“I’m right behind you, Pops.”
What the fuck?Never doing as expected, Gray had found her way in through the offices at the rear of the room. Her greeting had every man locking in place with one notable exception.
Apoplectic with rage, Colonel Grayson’s hands balled into fists, and he spun on his heels.“Jesus Christ, Grace. Do you haveanyidea what you’ve done here? You’ve jeopardized two solid years of hard work, that’s what. What the hell were you thinking? You’d better have a good goddamn explanation, young la—”
“Don’t you dare blame this shit-show on me!” Her volume on par with the colonel’s, Gray stepped up to the plate and went nose to nose with the enraged man. “I have nothing to do with this mess. I was minding my own business, taking a couple of pictures—that’s it. Next thing I know, I’m being shot at. Kidnapped,twiceI might add. And dragged all the way down here. Your soldier boy over there could have let me go at any time. How the fuck is thismyfault?”
“Grace Grayson, you will not take that tone with me. From what I understand, Sergeant Mackenzie saved your life. If it weren’t for him, you’d be dead. Or wishing you were.”
“Don’t you fucking call me that. My fucking name is Gray Emerson.Emerson. Same last name as my mother. You remember her? Right? She’s the one who died in a shitty hospital room with only her daughter for company because you were too fucking busy for a wife with cancer. Emerson, not Grayson. Got that, Colonel?”
Burned by their outbursts, they stood face-to-face, angry expressions identical, chests heaving. Chase’s mouth hung open. His wasn’t the only one. No one in the room dared to move, all eyes locked on the head-on collision between the colonel and his daughter.
Daughter?Grace Emerson was Grace Grayson? Colonel Grayson’s daughter?
Holy shit. Chase’s mind spun with questions. Who had dragged Grace Grayson into the JTT’s mission, and what the fuck did it mean?
“You got video, Mackenzie?”
The colonel’s inquiry snapped Chase back to the issue at hand. “Jay has it loaded, sir.”
“Play it,” the colonel growled.
At the front of the room, the SmartBoard came to life, Gray’s journey up the rock wall the opening scene. In seconds, the video zoomed in to a tight shot of the hella sexy climber’s posterior.
No one dared laugh, but a nudge from Tak had Chase looking from the screen to the identical Grayson glares thrown at him over shoulders holding identically pissed-off postures.
