Gray was a sight for sore eyes. The black t-shirt he wore molded to his upper body, and made her ache, but when she looked into his face all of her naughty thoughts flew out the window. The man looked exhausted. More than that, he looked ravaged.

Riya put her hand over his heart. “Gray, what happened?”

He shook his head, as if coming out of a dream, then smiled down at her. “You’re beautiful.”

Had she dreamed that expression on his face? No. She hadn’t.

“Talk to me. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. A little tired. Hungry. Happy to see you.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb doing that thing he did, caressing her lower lip, causing shivers to race through every cell of her body.

“Is everybody else okay? Griff?”

“Everybody’s fine. I promise.”

“Let’s get you something to eat.”

“You’re kidding, right? Food can wait. It’s you I want. You I need.”

The heat in his eyes could melt steel. Riya trembled, and Gray wrapped his arms around her. Was he holding her up, or did he just want her close? Did it matter as long as she was pressed up against him?

Riya sank her nails into his shoulders, trying to force him to lower his head. Then he did.

Gray’s mouth touched hers and she thrilled at the sensations that ran up and down her spine. He brushed his lips back and forth against hers, until he coaxed her to open with a sigh of contentment. Like the marauder he was, he took advantage and stroked his tongue inside her mouth and gathered her closer, when her knees weakened.

She needed.

She wanted.

She sucked him deeper inside, sliding her tongue against his, exalting in every single one of the new sensations that Gray provided.

He tangled his hand in her hair and pulled at it. The tugs in counterpoint with the thrusts of his tongue. She was going to explode.

What was that noise?

Was it a whimper? A moan?

Gray reared back and gave her a penetrating look. “Baby, are you okay?”

“What?” She didn’t understand. “Why did you stop?”

His shoulder relaxed just the tiniest little bit beneath her hand. She moved it to stroke his whiskers.

“I was worried, the noise you made, it sounded like I might have hurt you.”

“Oh, I was the one I heard,” she grimaced. “Gray, you’ve never, ever hurt me.” She cuddled up closer to him. “Being close to you feels wonderful.”

He let out a sigh of relief. As much as she wanted to continue the kissing portion of the evening, it seemed that Gray was a little too tightly wound for that. She gave him another hug, willing him to relax. It took a solid two minutes before she felt the tension drain out of him.

“Now are you ready for some food?” she asked as she pulled back to look him in the face.

His eyes lit up. “What do you have?”

“Tandoori chicken and rice or Hawaiian pizza.”

It was fun to see Gray shudder in distaste.

“Pineapple on pizza is an offense to all that is holy.”

“Tandoori chicken it is, unless you want me to make you a grilled cheese sandwich and warm up some tomato soup.”

“Are you kidding? I want the chicken. All I’ve had is an MRE since yesterday.”

He started to follow her into the kitchen.

“Sit down, Big Guy. I’m bringing it out to you.” She shoved him toward the couch, but he didn’t budge.

“I really want to go into the kitchen with you.” His voice was rough, in a sexy sort of way.

“Why?”

“I can’t wait to see you bend down to pull things out of the refrigerator.”

Holy hell!

Riya looked down. How had she not remembered she was only wearing her sleep shirt?

“Let me go upstairs. I’ll be right back.”

Gray grabbed her hand before she could make a run for it.

“Are you cold?”

He had often teased her about keeping the temperature up above seventy degrees at all times. So he knew she wasn’t. She shook her head.

“Don’t feel like you have to get dressed up for me. Anyway, besides getting a chance to see your sexy legs, your shirt is cracking me up.”

She looked down at the phrase adorning her chest, and giggled.

“You like that, do you?”

“I met a man while I was overseas, who wouldn’t catch the joke.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

She plucked at her shirt so she could get a better look at the saying.

Five out of four people struggle with math.

“Uhm, Riya, I can almost see your panties when you do that.” Gray’s voice was strangled.

She blushed from the tip of her toes to her forehead. “I’ll go change,” she whispered.

“Don’t you dare. I’m serious, I want to ogle you in your kitchen.”

She felt that rumbly voice all the way to her toes. She could always stoop to pull things out of her fridge, instead of bending.

Gray yawned, and all thought of stooping and bending fled her mind. “You are relegated to the couch. I’m warming up some food for you. If you last long enough tonight, I’ll give you a small peek at the color of underwear I’m wearing, but only if you’re a good boy.”

What the hell, it was what she’d been hoping to do anyway. But more important than anything else, was taking care of Gray. He looked dead on his feet, he needed to eat and rest. As she saw him sink down into the cushions, she wondered if he would even be awake when she brought out the food.

“Gray?”

Gray recognized the pearl gray glow of dawn lighting the room. Riya’s face came into view.

“You look uncomfortable as all get out. I hate sleeping on this couch, and I’m half your size.”

Gray stretched his neck and winced, then he laughed. “This is a dream bed compared to a lot of places I’ve slept.”

“Come upstairs, and you can have a real bed. Or I can make you breakfast before you go to bed.”

“That sounds like heaven.”

Gray swung his legs over the side of the couch and planted his feet onto the carpet. He vaguely remembered taking his boots off.

“What sounds like heaven?” Riya asked.

Gray grinned up at her. “Either. Both.” He took a look at Riya and was disappointed to see she was now wearing jeans and a sweater.

“Well that’s as clear as mud,” she smiled.

Gray itched to pull Riya into his arms, but he ran his tongue over his teeth. He’d taken a shower, brushed his teeth and put on clean clothes at the base in Coronado before heading to Riya’s. But now that his teeth had grown hair, he’d kill to grab his toothbrush from the duffel in his car.

“First, I need to go grab some stuff out of my car and head to the bathroom.”

He looked over to his right and saw that his boots weren’t standing neatly at the end of the couch, which was odd. They were on their side, and one of them was being pulled, ever so slowly, under the couch by the shoelace. He could make out Einstein’s blue eyes glinting from under the sofa.

It all made sense now.

“I’ll have waffles ready by the time you’re done.”

“Orange juice?” he asked hopefully.

“Bacon too,” she promised.

Gray tugged his footwear from a disappointed cat and got off the couch and went to the front door. When he put his hand on the doorknob, he frowned.

“Riya,” he called out.

She poked her head around to the end of the hall. “Yes?”

“You didn’t set the alarm.”

He watched her brow furrow. “Darn it. That’s the first time since you installed it that I’ve forgotten. I had it set last night before you came over. I think your arrival just took me by surprise.”

“This is important,” he cautioned.

“Gray, I’m not being flighty about this. If you thought it was essential that it be installed, of course I’m going to use it. You showing up at three in the morning made me forget. I’m sorry.”

He looked at her and saw that she was sincere, and soon to be sincerely pissed if he continued to make a big deal out of it.

“No need to be sorry, Honey. Your safety is important to me, that’s all.”

Her expression smoothed out into a smile. “I know it is, Gray. If I didn’t realize you were coming from a place of caring, I would have booted you and your friends out on your collective asses when you came over to install the damn thing.”

She would have, too.

Gray grinned as he walked out into the cool, early morning air. He grabbed the duffel out of the backseat of his SUV. It was Friday morning and he didn’t need to be back to base until Monday. He was going to do his best to see if he could talk Riya into playing hooky with him today.

She heard the shower turn off upstairs, which was her cue to pour the second round of batter into the waffle iron, turn on the burner underneath the bacon and start beating the eggs. The coffee was already brewing. Riya was going to be sad to see all that delicious blond scruff shaved away. It hadn’t developed into a full-blown beard, it was just that right amount of whiskers that made him look oh-so-sexy.

“Smells good in here.”

Egg mix went flying out of the bowl as she whirled around to see Gray standing in low-slung jeans and a white t-shirt.

“Didn’t mean to startle you.” He grabbed a paper towel and wiped up the egg that had spilled while she just ogled him. In the bright morning light she could see the white interspersed with the blond in his whiskers.

How gorgeous was that?

Pull it together.

She sidestepped him and snagged a glass from the cupboard and poured him a big glass of orange juice, then gave a chin tilt toward one of the stools at the kitchen bar. “Do you want to just eat here? Or in the dining room?”

“Here’s great. But, why don’t I help you?” He sipped from his glass and his left hand swept down her back. She’d forgotten Gray’s habit of casual touching.

“The kitchen is too small for the two of us. You sit there and talk to me.”

Riya knew it was because he’d been on a mission. He couldn’t tell her anything. Same went for her, she couldn’t tell him that she’d been to DC, and she sure as hell couldn’t tell him that she’d been trying to recreate things from memory. He must have seen her hesitation.

“I’ve got a better idea, you talk to me. I want to hear about microbes, microcosms, and Microsoft,” Gray said with an easy smile.

“Microsoft stock is up, even though there is a bug in their latest Windows release. I’m going to leave the microcosms to the ecologists, and which microbes do you want to talk about? Bacteria? Eukaryotes? Protists?”

“I give, I give?” The man’s laugh was a thing of beauty. “Tell me gossip. Or tell me if you’ve babysat. Tell me if you visited your parents or your sisters. What’s the latest with Anika?”

Riya flushed with pleasure as she plated the two waffles, mounds of eggs and six slices of bacon and put it in front of Gray. He always remembered what was going on in her life. She would bet her bottom dollar that he’d done some reading up on molecular virology the same as she had on Navy SEALs, and he might even know a little bit about Eukaryotes if push came to shove. The man was crazy smart when he studied up on something.

She noticed he hadn’t picked up his fork. “Come on, dig in.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

“It’ll get cold. I have to wait for the next waffle to come out.”

He just lifted his eyebrow and she turned back to the counter, willing her waffle to hurry up and cook.

Damn Southern manners.

She grabbed her food when the timer went off, and sat across from him. Their eyes locked, forks forgotten.

Gray reached out and tugged her hand across the smooth bar top. “I missed you.” They were the same words he’d said last night. He’d even used the same rough voice.

Riya blinked back tears.

“I was scared,” she admitted softly. “I tried real hard not to be. I concentrated on the Microsoft stock, but it didn’t do it for me.” Her laughter was forced. “Can you tell me anything?”

“I can tell you that I work with the best team in the world, and that they’ve never let me down.” His eyes roamed over her face, then flicked down to her plate for just an instant.

She pulled back her hand. “Eat. Then we can talk. You can tell me the stuff that isn’t confidential. Then I’ll return the favor and tell you about my stuff that isn’t classified.”

Gray grabbed the butter dish and slathered half a stick onto his two waffles, then proceeded to drown them in syrup. He laughed at her expression. “One of the things I can tell you, is that there weren’t a lot of carbs, fats or sugars where I was. I’m making up for it.”

Riya ate some of her food, then got up and put another serving of batter into the waffle iron.

“You’re a goddess,” Gray said looking up from his empty plate. She brought the bottle of orange juice to the countertop and filled up Gray’s glass then snuck one of her slices of bacon onto his plate.

“I’m not taking your food. Anyway, I’m still not done with my bacon.”

“I’m done. If I wanted it, I’d eat it.”

Gray eyed her carefully, then grinned. He broke it in half. He popped one half into his mouth, the other he dropped onto the floor for Einstein.

“Gray, he’s going to be begging at the table for weeks now,” Riya complained.

He didn’t look guilty in the slightest. Einstein was already finished with the bacon and was looking up at her expectantly.

“No,” she said to him.

He gave her a snooty meow, then stalked out of the kitchen.

Gray burst out laughing.

While he was laughing, Riya pulled the next waffle out of the iron, and put it on his plate. This time he didn’t use as much butter or syrup.

“Cutting back?”

“I have my eye on tasting something sweeter after breakfast.” The look in his eyes, and the rumble in her voice left her in no doubt as to what he was talking about. “Riya, stop staring and tell me some stories, otherwise we’re heading to bed.”

“Aren’t you,” she started, then gulped. “Don’t you?” Dammit, her voice squeaked. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Not when I’m looking at you.”

Riya damn near knocked over her glass of orange juice as she reached for it. Her mouth had never been this dry.

“Stories Riya, I need stories.” He took a leisurely bite of waffle, his eyes drifting down her torso, settling on her breasts. She gulped down more juice. Stories. She could talk. She knew she could.

“My sister Anika came over. I was proud of her for leaving her boys with Mom. I thought Dev might have to be surgically removed from her hip. She and I went clothes shopping.”

“Anika?” Gray’s eyes darted upwards in surprise.

“I know, right? She didn’t do anything drastic like try on jeans. But she did try on a pair of tailored slacks.”

“But she just ended up with dresses,” Gray guessed.

“You got it right. However, one of them showed her knees. I almost fell over in a dead faint. Maryam told me that there is a man at the community center who has been asking Anika out. Gray, she’s been divorced for three years now, so I think my sister might actually go for it. We’re all praying for her.”

“From everything you’ve told me, she deserves happiness.”

What a sweet thing for him to say.

Riya looked down at Gray’s empty plate. She took a deep breath. “Let me show you where you can sleep.” As she walked around the counter, Gray’s arm reached out and wrapped around her waist and he tugged her toward him.

“Come here.”

She fell against his body, her hands landing on his muscled chest.

“If I moan, will you know it’s with pleasure?”

His eyes twinkled. “Now that you’ve warned me, I will.”

“Uhm,” her voice trailed off. What was she going to say? She was going to say something, wasn’t she?

Gray pushed back a lock of her hair, and ever so slowly pushed it behind her ear. Weeks ago he’d realized that she was sensitive there, and he used that knowledge now, gently tracing his fingers along her delicate skin. Riya sucked in air.

“That’s not a moan,” he whispered warmly against her ear.

Oh God, the feel of his breath made her heart speed up and her head fall back.

Would he?

She gasped as his teeth closed down softly on her lobe, then his tongue licked. She needed to do something, but the world was getting fuzzy.

Think.

Don’t just feel.

Think.

Her hands drifted downwards, savoring the heat and hardness of his toned torso. She yanked at the soft cotton of his shirt, and shoved her hand underneath so that she could touch the warm, muscled flesh. Her hands pushed against him, enjoying the feel of her man. She pushed higher, until her fingers threaded through the hair on his chest and found his heartbeat.

So caught up in the beauty of Gray’s body, Riya shuddered as she felt long fingers stroking beneath the waistband of her jeans. When had he unbuttoned her? When she felt his calloused palm skim under her panties and cup her butt, all questions flew out of her mind, all that mattered was his touch setting her on fire.

“We have a moan.” His voice was hoarse. “That means pleasure, right?”

“That means bedtime,” she corrected.

“Thank God. I’m sick of your couch.”

Her fingers pressed into his chest as he swept her up into his arms.

“Don’t you dare try to carry me up those stairs. They’re too narrow.” Riya tried to wiggle out of his hold.

Gray looked down at her and laughed. “Dr. Patel, if you don’t behave, you’ll find yourself over my shoulder.”

“You wouldn’t.”

The gleam in his eyes said he would. She stopped moving.

When he got to the top of the stairs he went directly to her room. How did he know which one was hers? Then she remembered he’d showered up here. He’d done that damned reconnaissance thing again.

“Pulling up the comforter over a messy bed is not the same thing as making your bed, you know that don’t you?” Gray asked as he pulled down the comforter and the blanket and sheet and settled her on the bed.

Riya shot back up and off the bed.

“What are you doing? I liked you where you were.”

“I have to get naked, don’t I?” She pulled her sweater over her head and folded it up. She put it on the chair beside the bed. When she turned around, she saw Gray just standing there. Hesitantly, she started to undo the front of her bra. He walked over and stilled her hands.

“Can we slow down just a little bit?”

What the hell? Did I read this wrong, too?

He’d carried her up the stairs for God’s sake. She looked down at the front of his jeans. Yep, still interested.

“I don’t understand.” She tried to stop her voice from quivering.

“I kind of get that. It’s just that I like unwrapping my own gifts. And the first time I get to make love to you is a gift I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

Riya bent her head just a bit then looked up at him through her bangs. She didn’t want him to be able to see her eyes in case he was teasing. He couldn’t really mean that could he? But please say he did.

Please.

“Riya?” His voice stroked softly across her heart.

She’d never seen anything shine like the brilliant sincerity in his eyes. This man meant every word. He was honor. He was beauty. He was truth.

“Nothing in my life has ever felt this right,” she whispered.