Petra giggled. “I’ve seen him in here with his clients, love. And nothing but security passes his mind. You’re obviously someone very dear to him.”
I looked at her and scoffed. “No. I’m just Hawk’s little sister.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s why it feels like I know you.”
I looked at her in question and she chuckled.
“You have this familiarity about you. The same smile as Hawk, the same twinkle in your eyes even if they are a far more stunning shade than his.” She threw a look back to the sill gob-smacked Kit. “I see his dilemma now.”
“What dilemma?” I asked, panicked.
Petra looked into my eyes knowingly. “Love, you don’t think it’s security on his mind now, do you?”
I looked back at him for a moment, then shook my head. “No,” I scoffed. “No. Kit just likes a woman with some skin showing.”
Petra leant to my ear. “Then why was he already looking at you like that when you walked in?”
I caught her eye for a moment, not at all believing a thing she said.
Maybe those fleeting moments I’d been feeling weren’t all just me. Maybe I didn’t have to convince him I was more than just his best friend’s geeky little sister. Maybe he already knew.
But before I could say anything, Kit cleared his throat.
“Right, we should get a move on and let you pack up. Petra, we okay to–?”
“I’ll send you everything tomorrow,” she finished for him.
He nodded as he cleared his throat. “Thanks.”
“Let’s get you changed,” Petra said with a knowing smile as she led me back to the dressing room. She was laughing by the time I stepped into it.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing. I’ve just never seen Chaos speechless before.”
I snorted. “He likes to think he’s the strong silent type.”
“You disagree?”
I looked at her knowingly. “Let’s just say that fourteen-year-old Kit Grayson never shut up. In that squeaky little, breaking voice of his? It was like he thought the more he talked the quicker it would hurry up and fully break.”
“You and I are getting drinks sometime so I can hear more about this,” she warned me and I nodded.
“Done.”
She left me to get changed, reminding me to be careful about the pins. I don’t know what she said to Kit but, when I walked out, he was both glaring at me and trying not to laugh.
“What?” I asked, pulling my hair back into a messy bun.
“Less than a week and you’re already spilling my secrets,” he chastised, a sexy half-smirk on his face.
I shrugged, aiming for cute and at least nailing coy. “It’s my duty.”
He laughed. “I’ll allow it. For now.” He raised his hand to Petra. “Thanks, again.”
Petra smiled. “No problem. Send me a picture of the two of you all dolled up, yeah?”
Kit shook his head as he pulled the door open for me. “Yeah, yeah.”
As Kit put his hand to my back, Petra called, “Tank in a tux! And for luck, shirtless!”
Kit huffed a smirk and waved back to her as he walked us out. “Tank won’t know what hit him if she gets any ballsier,” he muttered.
“She likes him?”
“She certainly likes looking at him.”
As we headed towards the Mayhew, I noticed Kit was looking around. I didn’t know if he was checking to see if Dannie and Brent were still hanging around of if it was just habit.
“What did you want to do tonight?” he asked eventually.
His tone was nonchalant, like it was something we asked each other all the time. He sounded completely normal asking me that. It wasn’t the only thing about the sentence that caught me off-guard.
“Oh. You don’t have plans?”
Kit’s step faltered as he looked at me. “Do you?”
Something about his manner made me smile. It was almost like he was put out at the idea I’d be doing something not involving him. “Nothing that requires leaving the penthouse,” I assured him.
He nodded then paused again at the bottom of the Mayhew’s front steps. When he gave me the double-take, I realised what that might have sounded like.
“Study!” I said quickly. “I assumed you’d be busy and I’d study.”
He nodded. “Oh. No. Sure.” He coughed. “So…I’m not busy. Did you…uh…?”
“Want to hang out?” I finished for him hesitantly.
He nodded again. “That.”
“Sure,” I said with a smile. “If you can put up with me for a whole night just the two of us.”
Kit pulled the Mayhew’s door open for me and looked at me as he lay his hand on my arm, just above my wrist like he was about to take my hand again. I wanted to say the look in his eyes said he could handle a night just the two of us and then some. The then some was, of course, of a sexual nature in my fantasy. My breath hitched as Kit and I looked at each other, our bodies probably far too close together. But I wasn’t in a hurry to put it to rights.
I saw a heat in his eyes, unrestrained and all about me. I felt his nearness like a tingling warmth against my skin. I was conscious that we were out in public, but I couldn’t pull myself away and I wanted to believe he felt the same. His hand slid down towards mine as our bodies swayed closer to each other and…
“Excuse me,” a man in a trench coat said as he came up the steps.
Kit and I stepped apart and I swallowed hard.
“Not at all,” Kit answered, still holding the door open as the man hurried in.
“Everything all right, Mr Grayson?” came a familiar voice. “Miss Amber?”
I turned to smile at Johnson, somehow sidling towards Kit as I did so.
“Yes. Thank you, Johnson,” Kit said with a perfunctory nod. I felt his hand slip into mine, something I saw Johnson noticed. “We’re just wondering what to do about dinner. Who’s in charge in the restaurant tonight?”
“Franz is on tonight. But if I might offer a suggestion, sir?”
“Of course.”
“I always quite like a quiet night in with a bit of pizza, some wine, and a good movie or two.” Johnson looked at me knowingly and I inadvertently squeezed Kit’s hand as I smiled back at the doorman.
“Sound good?” he asked me.
I nodded. “It does.”
“All right. Thank you, Johnson.”
We started to head inside when Johnson called out, “Romanas is very good.”
Kit nodded back to him as he led me across the foyer to the elevator. Donald caught it for us and we tumbled in with a chuckle.
“Thanks,” I said.
“My please, Miss Grace,” he replied.
Kit did his thing with the keycard and we rode in silence up to the penthouse. I felt his hand in mine like a flaming beacon. It made me nervous and tense, but at the same time it felt perfectly natural. When the doors opened, a zing of excitement shot through me.
We said good night to Donald and stepped out. After the doors closed, Kit and I bumped into each other in the hallway as he stepped forward at the same time I turned to him. His other hand went to my other arm to catch me and we laughed.
I looked up at him and my heart beat out a mad tango in my chest as my breath caught again.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what Petra had said about the way he looked at me, and now I couldn’t stop imagining that was exactly how he was looking at me. I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted him to be looking at me like that. And I wanted him to know that’s what I wanted.
I tried to think about what any of my romance novel heroines would have done in this situation. I tried to remember how they got the guy to kiss them – because I was far too self-conscious to kiss him first. But then I realised that they were mainly all wallflower virgins with no experience. Just like me. Well, I sure had a type.
Kit licked his li
p slowly and the action had me pressing mine together.
I took a deep breath. “Uh… Should we order pizza?” I asked softly.
If I didn’t know how to get him to kiss me, then I needed someone to move so I could get my breath back. And I did not trust my legs just then.
He nodded slowly and I entertained the notion he knew that neither of us wanted to move but also that we probably should. “Sure. Got your laptop?”
I gave him a single exaggerated nod as his hand tightened in mine for a split-second, then he was moving away, his fingers trailing through mine as though he was loath to let go. I pulled myself together and hurried over to the dining table for my laptop as Kit went into the kitchen.
“Beer, wine, whiskey, something softer?” he asked, his voice a little huskier than normal.
I picked up my computer and went to the bench. “What do you feel like?”
“I asked you first.”
I nodded and I pushed my glasses up. “Yes, then I asked you second.”
He huffed a rough laugh. “I feel like starting with a beer.”
I smiled up at him as I did a search for Romana Pizza. “Then we’d best start with a beer.”
He grinned before turning to the fridge.
I pulled up the ordering system for the pizza and we leant across the bench to meet in the middle and decide what we wanted. There was a lot of laughing and quite a few shared smiles. As we headed to the lounge to pick a movie, I felt the most at ease I’d ever felt with Kit. Sure I was still apparently mush on the inside around him, but it was like all the tension had left our relationship and all we were left with were two people who’d known each other forever.
“What is it with you and Pat having uncomfortable couches?” I grumbled as I tried to get comfortable.
He paused in his movie search to look at me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what is your obsession with looking like a homemaker catalogue?”
Kit looked around the living room. “I’ve never thought about it. We just got a decorator in.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Of course, you did.”
He looked at me and there went that full smile. “What?”
My eyes scanned the room. “It’s so…unliveable…”
“All right,” he chuckled. “You can have re-decorating power, then.”
“First thing that’s going is this God-awful couch.”
“You know, no one has ever complained about my couch before.”
“Has anyone ever sat on your couch before?”
“Yes.”
“Other than the team?”
He paused, then nodded. “Yes.”
“They were probably too busy thinking about your cock,” I heard myself say, then looked at him in what felt like a combination of shock and panic. “Uh…” I started, not sure where I was going with that or how I was going to backpedal. “Not that I’m thinking…” I winced. “Have thought…about…your…” Shut up, Amber! I cleared my throat and nodded, refusing to look at him. “Yep.”
Kit snorted. “Okay. Good to know.”
I looked at him sideways and felt myself fighting a smile. Completely unable to help myself, my eyes dropped to his crotch. Not that I could see much because he was leaning forward on his knees. I could imagine with the best of them, though. By the time my eyes slid back to his face, he was smirking around the top of his beer bottle.
“What?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat.
He shrugged as he swallowed, sat back and dropped his hand with the beer bottle into his lap. “Just wondering how that not thinking about…it thing is going for you.”
Well that new pose wasn’t helping.
I laughed as I looked away. “Virgin is not synonymous with prude, Christopher,” I told him.
“Oh, really? Colour me intrigued.”
I shot him a quick smile, then dropped back onto the couch and leant towards him. “A girl can still daydream without having first-hand experience.”
“Can she?”
“What?” I scoffed. “Like you can’t?”
His eyes scanned my body like a hot caress. He looked around for a moment then leant towards me like he was going to share a secret with me. I tilted closer to him. “I’ve always been more a jump first, ask questions later kind of guy.” His voice slid over me tantalisingly and I firmly believed that had been his intention.
If the intercom hadn’t buzzed, I totally would have told him he could go right on and jump me. But, when we sat back down with the pizza, it was like we both knew we’d come close to crossing a line and we kept to our sides of the couch. Mostly.
10
Kit
Ugh. I had to be more fucking careful. I’d lost count of the times I’d almost kissed her now.
The whole night before had been one near miss after another. I just hadn’t been able to stop myself reaching for her. I wanted to hold her, to touch her, to kiss her. And I was having a hard – pun intended – time telling myself to leave off because she didn’t feel the same. It was getting more difficult to stoically believe that her eyes didn’t linger on me, that desire didn’t cross her face as she’d unsubtly looked at my crotch, or that the fact she was my best mate’s little sister was a strong enough excuse to behave.
We’d stayed up late, eating and drinking and watching movies. We’d laughed and flirted like teenagers dating. 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 so he stopped moving it 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 bet
ween 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.”
Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security Book 1) Page 10