BEAST: A Bad Boy Marine Romance by Alana Albertson Page A

walls, pictures of me winning Nationals with Pasha.
    My stomach fluttered, and I opened my laptop. Now I had an excuse to contact Grady.
    But it wasn’t even a good excuse. Hey, I know I ran off after we had sex, but will you let my alcoholic dad, who stole my tuition funds, write your war memoir so I can pay for college? I’d be just another one of the people in his life who wanted to use him.
    But it was more than that. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I had to see him again. Even if he just laughed in my face.
    The worst he could say was no or ignore me. But maybe, just maybe, we could reconnect.
    I moved the cursor over to the message tab on his page. “Grady Williams: Public Figure.” It even had one of those blue checkmarks next to his name so I knew it was legit.
    Did he even manage his own page? Maybe I would send him a message and some assistant would respond? I was sure he received hundreds of emails daily from women in love with him.
    I scrolled down his page. Mostly motivational quotes, very few pictures. One of him sharing a beer with the President outside the Oval Office, another one of him with his battalion before the grenade. And a final picture of him and his buddy off-roading. I stared at that last picture longer than I should have. The inscription read “R.I.P. Rafael.”
    Damn, I’d learned from reading reports of his attack that Rafael was Grady’s friend who died next to Grady.
    I clicked the message button, my heart palpitating, and started typing.
    Hi Grady, it’s Isa. I was wondering if we could meet for coffee.
    Once I hit Send, my insides begin to quiver. Then I saw that check mark. Grady had read my message, or someone maintaining his page had. Grady was typing.
    Come by my place tomorrow night at ten.
    Whoa. He didn’t even ask me when I was free, or where I wanted to meet. Going to a man’s place at ten at night was definitely a booty call. Maybe he thought I wanted another round. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t crave him. Though I’d contacted him, he was in control of the situation. I didn’t know if I should be turned on or pissed off.
    Okay. I’ll be there.
    I sat in my bedroom, my stomach fluttering. What had I just done? A few days ago I’d been a sexually frustrated college coed eager to finish school. Now unless I could come up with tuition, I’d end up being a college dropout who couldn’t stop thinking about her epic one-night stand with Grady the sex god. I kept replaying every moment of our night in my head. The way he touched me, the way he made me feel, the way he focused on my pleasure.
    But now I had a second chance to see if there was something more between us than just red-hot chemistry, to apologize for running off, to figure out if I had been wrong about being scared of him.

15

Grady
    T ime had passed slowly since I’d received Isa’s message yesterday. I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why she’d contacted me, secretly hoping that she wanted another round. Ever since learning about her mother’s death, I’d been almost certain that she’d taken my bullet because she was concerned. I was excited for another chance with her.
    After a quick workout, I took a hot shower and dabbed on some cologne. The steam from the shower cleared from my mirror, and I caught a glimpse of my face.
    I would never get used to my reflection. The droopy eye, the non-existent ear, the skin that looked like it had been slashed by a serial killer. A lump grew in my throat, and I closed my eye.
    I threw on a black T-shirt and some cargo shorts and paced around my place.
    A chime rang out—Isa was downstairs. Adrenaline rushed through my body, the same feeling I had when I stepped out on the battlefield.
    I buzzed her in and stood by the door.
    Before I saw her, I heard her steps. Heels for sure, delicate little taps coming down the hallway. Her scent filled the air—fresh, fruity, fascinating.
    Damn, she was beautiful.
    She wore one of those loose T-shirts