Page 69 of Chasing Grace
Throwing a boner wearing a fully loaded gun belt took some getting used to. He’d had so many now, he’d lost count. Christ, he wanted up inside of Gray so bad, if he crawled into bed with her right now, Tak would be getting an X-rated eyeful. Privacy and sleep be damned.
For those reasons, he’d volunteered for the first watch, and after kissing her thoroughly, he left her in his bed, Tak guarding her dreams, his forty on the night table between them, his rifle leaning against the headboard within easy reach. If Chase had to leave her with anyone, his choice was Tak, hands down.
God, if anything ever happened to her, Chase wouldn’t survive it.
She belonged to him. Like tumblers falling into place, she’d unlocked something in him his soul recognized. Blood-to-blood and breath-to-breath, he was bound to her.
Yeah, Gray had been reluctant to admit it was more than just sexual attraction between them.
Itwasmore.
A hell of a lot more.
Still might not be enough.
Even though he’d been acting like it, he wasn’t a hormone-driven high school teenager. He understood the impossible odds he faced. An emotional self-preservationist, Gray had some brutally thick walls around her heart.
Pretending indifference, she pushed people away, steering them to the curb with a couple of well-placed f-bombs and a healthy dose of sarcasm. She would try hard, but she wouldn’t be able to push Chase away. Which meant it was a matter of time before she implemented option two—leaving before she got left.
Just because he’d never be able to let her go didn’t mean she wouldn’t find an excuse to run for the hills. He’d said she’d come back. And she would, once—maybe even twice—but what about when he left her? What then? He knew the difference between letting go and leaving. She did not.
Raised in a military family, she’d spent years watching the people she loved leave her. Her father. Her brother. They’d dedicated their lives to the service of their country, and as a result, she’d been left alone when she needed them most.
Shit. Chase could only imagine how painful it must have been for her to lose her mother so quickly after her brother’s fake death. The back-to-back losses would have been devastating for someone with family support. Gray’s father? He’d been with the JTT, and she’d had no one. As a result, her resentment toward the military and its members ran deep.
Chase understood the magnitude of the challenge he faced when it came to overcoming her fears. But God help him, he’d find a way. He’d always considered himself lucky. Knowing what he’d been destined to do and being able to work his ass off and do it was a blessing.
It was also a curse. One that had its claws firmly sunk into JTT flesh.
Of the members who’d been involved in serious relationships before being recruited to the colonel’s unit, Doc’s was the last to survive under the pressure. When it came to the JTT, Cupid was batting one for four in the previous two years.
They all knew work-life balance was a mutually exclusive term when you signed on with a special ops unit. And the simple truth was, most women weren’t cut out for the hardship and loneliness that came with their job descriptions.
But Grace Grayson wasn’t the stay-at-home, waiting-for-her-man type. Photography was her calling as much as the JTT was his. She was passionate in her pursuit of the career that made her happy. He respected that, even though it meant he couldn’t count on finding her where he’d left her.
Yeah, he’d be chasing Grace for the rest of his life. Not that it mattered. His soul hadn’t given him an option, and even if it had, he’d choose her anyway.
He never did take the easy road.
Which is why he’d be sporting boners for a while.
He wanted Gray, body, heart, and soul. More than he’d ever wanted anyone or anything. But taking her now wasn’t the right thing to do. He needed more time. Time to prove she could count on him. To show her that she came first. Always.
The next few days were going to be mission critical. He’d be leaving on his next assignment in less than forty-eight hours. But as soon as he could, he’d be back for her, and he intended to show her exactly what he’d meant when he said she belonged to him.
Chase grinned. Yeah. He was a persistent fucker. He’d find a way to have both Gray and the JTT—because he wasn’t giving up one for the other.
Gray closedthe screen door on the main camp quietly. She hadn’t seen her father since their face-off in the boardroom yesterday afternoon, and she hoped to avoid the consequences of pushing his buttons for a few more hours.
She felt better after talking to Adam. Okay. Better was a relative term. She might be slightly less inclined to render him impotent with a swift kick to the nads when she saw him next.
As to the colonel, she wasn’t there yet. Based on their history, she might never be. They were oil and water, always had been, and being stuck with him in a camp about the size of a one-bedroom apartment threatened to drive her crazy.
Or crazier?
Either way, she needed a break. Backpack strapped on, she planned to convince Chase to take her into town so she could get a few things. She hadn’t seen him since he kissed her good night. And Jesus, what a kiss.
If she intended to hang around with Chase Mackenzie, she might have to consider Depends as a new line of lingerie. The man made her seriously wet, even if he did scare the crap out of her.
