Page 45 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
The unexpected racy remark from my eighty-nine-year-old grandmother seemed to break the invisible tension in the room. Gray strolled inside and made himself a cup of tea. While he didn’t join us in puzzling, he took a seat in a chair nearby, observing.
His watchful gaze made me nervous. I had to stop at one point and remove my light cardigan. Then I felt even more self-conscious because all I wore underneath it was a filmy camisole top.
Not that it was risqué. He’d seen me in much less.
Not helping. Don’t think about that.
Didheever think about that week we’d spent together? Since I’d arrived here and seen him again, the memories had been flooding my brain, and my senses seemed to be in overdrive.
I was hyperaware of everything about Gray, his slow and steady breathing behind me, the shift of his body as he crossed one long leg over the other at the ankles.
The light scent of his cologne—the same one that had lingered on the t-shirt I’d somehow managed to bring home in my luggage from Greece.
Imighthave placed it, unwashed, on the top of my dresser and created a little shrine around it until the last of the scent had mercifully dissipated. Julianna had tactfully neglected to mention it, and I tried my best not to think of it now.
“Looking good,” he drawled.
His bemused tone made me glance back sharply. Oh, he was looking at the puzzle.
What a mess I am.
Leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, Gray smiled. “I’d say you’ll finish that in another, oh, five years or so?”
Vivi swatted the air. “I’ll have it done in no time now that I have Scarlett’s help. She’s a master dissectologist like me.”
“Dissectologist?” It sounded like someone who cut up small amphibians for a living, which I’d never be able to do. I’d literally vomited on frog dissection day in middle school.
“It means someone who enjoys assembling jigsaw puzzles,” she explained. “You got my genes for sure.”
“Well, you two certainly are a lot alike,” Gray said. I looked up and caught him in a full smile that wrinkled the corners of his eyes and stole my breath.
For a moment we held fervent eye contact. Something instinctive and alive expanded in my chest.
“Same birthday, same laugh, same sky-blue eyes, ...” he said. “… both stone-cold foxes.”
Happy, warm feeling ruined.
In spite of Vivi’s assurances of what a great guy Gray was, he was still a player, stillsosmooth with the lines. No doubt he and the members of his SEAL team had stolen many a heart and collected innumerable bedpost notches while in between operations over the years.
“I’ll bet you say that to all the girls—inallthe resorts,” I added with a sneer.
Perhaps sensing a brewing storm, Victoria chirped, “So where are you taking us for our outing today, Gray?”
“Us?” When Vivi had told me Gray usually took her out on Saturday afternoons, I’d assumed it would be just the two of them going today.
“Yes, dear. I want you to come along. It’ll be fun. We always have a good time—Gray surprises me every week with something new to see and do.”
While I wanted to see some of Rhode Island and keep an eye on Vivi, I didnotrelish the idea of being the third wheel on a “date” that included Gray. Especially not after his remarks today.
“If I tell you, it’ll ruin the surprise,” Gray said. “And don’t even try to guess. You’ll never get it. But you’re going to love it.Bothof you.”
“Sure,” I said, unfolding my legs and standing. “Why not?”
There were myriad answers to that question, but I was ignoring them all.
Gray and I helped Vivi to the elevator then out the front door to where his car waited in the circular drive. It was a new-looking Range Rover.
“Nice,” I said. “Security work pays more than I thought.”
