Guarding Grayson by Cathryn Cade Page B

.”
    “Without Gray?”
    “ I believe the correct expression here is ‘Phooey on Gray-son. Who needs him? ’”
    Brynne snickered and swiped her damp face. “Good point. Who needs him? We can eat supper without him … and a whole lot more.”
    She did not say the words with much conviction, but E’ea had faith—by the end of her counseling session, Brynne would experience a change of heart. E’ea had not reached over one hundred years of age without learning a thing or two about love.
    “Except, aren’t you supposed to be protecting him?” Brynne asked, her heart-rate and respiration accelerating, human signs of anxiety. “What if that ugly light comes back?”
    E'ea paused, surprised and then saddened. " You remember the light. I had hoped … but we will discuss that later. Grayson will be fine for a few hours. Our opponent prefers to work in darkness, as your human senses are at such a disadvantage then.”
    However, if he was not back by dusk, they would definitely go looking for him. Grayson might be a big boy, but he was not allowed out after dark by himself—not with a deadly assassin on this planet.
    One who might be even now on Gray’s trail again.

 
    CHAPTER NINE
    Gray went for a long walk in the southern New Mexico afternoon. The clouds to the south were closer and heavier. They’d have a thunderstorm by dark, but it hadn’t cooled off yet.
    By the time he got back, he was hot, thirsty and hungry enough to eat most of whatever Brynne had prepared. And he was no closer to sorting out his feelings about Brynne, her companion, and the chaos that was his life now.
    First, he had to deal with Brynne. Had to show her that they couldn’t go back to their old … co-dependence or whatever it had been. It wasn’t healthy for either of them.
    He worked on a short speech, and had it straight by the time he jogged up onto his Gran’s front porch.
    Brynne was lounging on the sofa when he walked in. He waited for her to give him a sad, accusing look, but she merely continued to read her Southwest Travel magazine. Well, okay. That was better than her sitting dejectedly at the kitchen table with her dinner preparations spread around her.
    “Hello,” he said, eyeing her.
    “Hello.” Her voice was calm, but she didn’t look up from her magazine.
    Gray blinked. He raked back his hair, damp with sweat, and left his hand on top of his head.
    “Listen, Brynne, we need to talk.”
    “Yes, we do,” she agreed, finally looking up. “I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be stuck here together, so we should get a few things straight.”
    “Just what I was gonna say.” And what the heck was she doing, switching gears on him? The look in her brown eyes did not say, ‘ Oh, Gray, stay with me, hold me .’ It said something else entirely. Something he didn’t like, and yeah, that made him a perverse a-hole and he didn't care.
    She waited and he held out a hand in elaborate politeness. “Oh, no, you go first.”
    “Fine.” She sat up and crossed her legs, giving him a sweet view of the back of her thigh and the curve of her ass in her tight shorts. “First, I’m not having sex with you, so don’t ask. Secondly, I don’t mind cooking one meal a day, but only if you clean up after. And thirdly—"
    Gray’s brain was still stuck on number one. He held up his hand. “Wait. Wait a darn minute. Who said anything about me wanting to have sex with you? Wasn’t me. I think I would’ve remembered that.” Probably.
    She gave him a pitying look. “Gray, I know you. You always want to have sex.”
    “So? I’m a guy—it’s in our makeup. Doesn’t mean I wanna have it with you.”
    Whoa, he hadn’t meant to sound that harsh, and anyway, it was a lie. He did want to have sex with her, he just didn’t want to want to.
    She sat up very straight and glared at him. “Fine. Because I don’t want to have it with you, either. You’re mean, and you live like a—a pig.”
    His brows flew up and his head went