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Settling on the rug in front of her, he handed over one plate, those observant eyes focused on her face as he replied, “That will be up to you once I ensure your ex and his partner are no longer a threat to you.”
“And what if you can’t do that?” Her breath burned in her lungs as she waited for his answer.
“I will,” he returned in a hardened tone. “Eat.”
Digging into the thick steak, cooked medium rare and tasting better than anything she’d ordered out, Avery answered Grayson’s probing personal questions about where she really hailed from and then about her life growing up in Chicago. He steered clear of what she’d overheard between Darren and Chad until she’d ea
ten every bite of steak and potato and he rose to take her plate.
With a tug on her hair, he stated, “I cooked, you do dishes while I look at your flash drive and check in with my deputies.”
“Don’t you want me to look at it with you?” Standing, Avery shivered as she stepped away from the fire to pick up her purse where he’d tossed it onto a chair.
“No. I want to read through it without your input as IA will do.” He pointed to a door off the kitchen. “Laundry’s in there. Your clothes should be dry.”
Handing him the drive, she swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat. “Thank you. Even if… whatever happens… I appreciate…”
Grayson cut off her stumbling gratitude with his mouth, swallowing her low moan as she leaned on his strength and let him take her over. She would take whatever she could get, for as long as she could, she vowed as he slid one hand under the shirt to grip her sore butt. God help her but she loved that possessive hold, and so many other things about him she was beginning to realize.
“Give me twenty minutes,” he said after releasing her and taking the flash drive, leaving her standing there with tingling lips and a throbbing buttock, watching him go into the first door on the right in the hall.
With another shiver, Avery went to pull her clothes from the dryer and get dressed before returning to the kitchen to load the dishwasher. A sound on the front porch drew her gaze out the window as she was wiping down the counter and she spotted the scrawny wolf/dog, Lobo pacing back and forth. She looked down at the two bones left from their steaks and pulling on the small ounce of bravery she’d unearthed earlier that day, she grabbed them and dashed to the front door.
“Okay fella, be nice,” she murmured, standing half in, half out of the doorway. Lobo stood cocking his head but didn’t attempt to come closer. “There, that’s a good boy.” Holding out a bone, she resisted the temptation to toss it to him. If she ever returned to her life in Chicago, or faced Darren, she needed to work on building her courage. Damn it, she sighed as the animal took the treat from her. There went that pang again, the one that always seemed to grip her whenever she thought of leaving.
Avery waited until he settled down under the same tree in the yard where she’d first seen him before tossing him the second bone. Stepping back, she closed the door, turned and saw Grayson standing a few feet away, arms crossed over that wide, muscled chest, eyes glittering with an unnamed emotion that curled her toes inside her warm socks.
“What?” she squeaked as he approached with slow, measured steps, her heartbeat ratcheting up along with the heated rush of her blood.
“You surprise me, sugar. Sometimes in ways I don’t care for. Others, in ways I like, a lot.” Reaching for her hand, he pivoted and pulled her behind him. “Come on.”
“Where? I thought we were going to discuss…”
“Later,” Grayson tossed over his shoulder as he hauled her into his room and gave her a friendly push onto the bed. Coming down on top of her, he growled, “Much later.” Avery giggled, the sound easing the last of his strained emotions since discovering who she was two nights ago. Watching her hold out a shaking hand to Lobo, her face pale but taut with determination, sent a wave of uncontrollable lust through him as his heart rolled over in his chest. So this is what it feels like to topple into love, he mused, not at all displeased with the revelation.
“I thought men your age needed more time in between…” she bucked her hips under him, “starting up again.”
He narrowed his eyes and softened his tone to a silky purr. “Minx. You should know better by now not to push me.”
“And if I don’t?” she gasped as he stripped her jeans off.
“Then suffer the consequences.”
Chapter 12
“Thanks for coming over.” Grayson closed his office door behind Dan and gestured to a chair in front of his desk before resuming his seat behind it.
“No problem. What’s up? Does this have to do with the rustlers, or Connor?” Concern shadowed the lawyer’s eyes, something Grayson shared with him only he had more on his mind this morning than his injured friend and cattle thieves.
“No, another problem. Avery’s got trouble.”
Those dark eyes sharpened even though Dan assumed a casual pose of leaning back in the chair and crossing one booted ankle over his opposite knee. “Legal trouble?”
“Maybe, if it gets that far. I prefer this to stay between us for now. Caden has enough to deal with with his brother laid up.” When he got Dan’s nod, Grayson revealed Avery’s story, leaving nothing out. “Before I start snooping around the Chicago police department, I need to know what she can be charged with, considering everything.”
A low whistle blew past Dan’s lips as he removed his Stetson and hung it on his bent knee. “Depends on if, and how well these assholes frame her. If it ends up being just hacking, we can always plead extenuating circumstances. I can get her off on that charge if we can take these guys down. As far as she knows, right now it’s just he says, she says, correct?”
Grayson nodded. “Yes, but she’s been gone for over six weeks. No telling what the bastards have been up to in that time.”
