Gray

Kelly was there. She was really truly there. She’d come to the celebration!

The moment his eyes locked on hers, his heart had soared, tugging his lips upward until the grin that was plastered on his face made his cheeks ache. It didn’t matter that she looked at him with a face full of horror, or that she tried to flee.

He said tried, because Erika locked her friend’s arm down and forced her to stand with them. She wasn’t going anywhere this time. Gray knew that Erika was on his side, that she was pushing the two of them to spend some time together, even just to talk. Erika would hold Kelly there, but the rest was up to him. He had to go over there. He had to talk to her, to strike up a conversation, to show her that he wasn’t anyone worth running away from. Inhaling deeply, he took a step toward her, the first step. The biggest step.

And he fell flat on the ground, forgetting he’d been hanging halfway out of the van at the time. The step toward her had been off the rail of the vehicle and into nothingness, resulting in him falling forward. He slammed his head off the door so hard it dented it, and then he landed on his back, one foot still inside the vehicle.

What an entrance. She’s going to be so impressed with you now.

Gray cursed. Why was it that he always turned into a pile of useless flesh around her? He’d never had this problem before. No other woman had ever had such an effect on him, and there had been a few in his life. He wasn’t a prude. Only Kelly could turn him into an awkward teenager again. There was just something about her that robbed him of all his smoothness and charm, and all of his normal bodily control.

“Get up,” he snarled at himself, his vision momentarily obscured by the door. Sitting up, he yanked his booted foot from the van and got to his feet. “You can do this. You rescued those four out from under the noses of nearly two dozen guards. You can handle one human female.”

He set his shoulders, not entirely believing the last sentence, and stepped out from around the door, determined to walk over to Kelly and say hello, no matter what. He was ready. He could do this. She was stuck in place by Erika, so she couldn’t leave. This was it, his one opportunity, one moment. He needed to seize it, to capture everything he wanted. He couldn’t just let it slip away. Lifting his head, he took a real first step, and then came to a screeching halt.

She was gone.

Cursing himself, he set a smile on his face and said some brief hellos to the others who were there. Then he moved off to the side with Andrew, his boss. Gray was a guard assigned to the Cadian embassy within Cloud Lake, and more specifically, to Andrew himself. The two had become fast friends as well as coworkers, and when Andrew had brought up the idea of rescuing the Kronum shifters, Gray hadn’t hesitated to volunteer. It was an illegal mission, but frankly, the way some elements back home were behaving, he no longer cared.

“How did it go?” Andrew asked.

“Not bad,” Gray replied, his eyes sweeping the grounds, trying to find either Erika or Kelly. “I knew I should have eaten more.” He explained how his stomach had literally given them away.

Andrew laughed. “Now there’s something you don’t hear every day. Betrayed by stomach growls.”

“Yeah. But there may be a problem down the line.”

“Such as?”

“The guards weren’t new. But they weren’t Green Bearet either.”

Andrew frowned, and Gray could almost read his friend’s thoughts. The Green Bearets were the military arm, the official combat-trained bear shifters of Cadia. The guards hadn’t been members of them. Combined with the fact that they hadn’t been newbies, this meant that someone was training up a force inside of Cadia, a force that could stand apart from the Green Bearets.

“I’ll report it to the commandant,” Andrew said. “I’m on good terms with him. I doubt they’ll ever have the numbers to pose a significant threat, but just the fact that they exist means that the situation back home is getting worse.”

Gray nodded. Telling the head of the Green Bearets was the best bet; let them handle it internally. He didn’t want to get involved if he could avoid it. Life in Cloud Lake was perhaps not peaceful, but definitely what he would call uncomplicated, and he enjoyed it that way.

“Let’s enjoy the celebration for now,” Andrew said. “If you don’t have anything else urgent to report, shall we get a beer?”

Gray started to nod, but just then two figures emerged from the house. They were leaning in toward each other, their mouths moving, emphasized by sharp movements of their upper bodies, almost as if they were arguing. He didn’t want to interrupt, but neither of them had seen him yet. This could be his shot, his chance.

“Sorry, gotta go,” he said, clapping his friend on the shoulder and moving past him, headed up the stone walkway toward the house on an intercept course.

The two women saw him coming, but by the time they looked up from their argument with each other it was too late. He was too close, and any attempt to flee now could only be construed as rude.

“Gray!” Erika said excitedly. “Kelly, you remember Gray, don’t you?”

The lovely woman with wavy brown hair hanging down to her shoulders smiled tightly at him. “Of course I do. How could I forget the night we met? He fought the guys trying to kill your mate and then walked us to the embassy.”

There was no enthusiasm in her voice. Gray didn’t quite remember it that way. The facts were correct, but for him, it truly was a night he couldn’t forget, and one he wouldn’t want to, even if he tried. Kelly, he suspected, was in the opposite camp, wishing she could forget it all.

There was nothing that could make him forget the first time he’d seen her. She had been emerging from Erika’s old unit, framed in the doorway by the light from behind, like an angel descending toward him. Her hair had bounced wildly as she descended the steps, her eyes focusing on him, the orange flecks in the brown drawing his attention in and holding it firm.

She’d been wearing a gray tank-top and black pants, along with white shoes. The first view he’d had of her was seared into his memory. Even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t forget it, that’s how powerfully it stuck with him. It had been over a month ago, and he could still remember it like it was yesterday.

He looked at her now, wishing that he could just reach out and touch her face. To feel the slimness of it, the fragile-looking cheekbones begging to be caressed by his hands just moments before he would lower himself to her, covering her mouth with his in a blistering moment of ecstasy as they shared their very first kiss.

“Hello, Gray?”

A hand waved in front of his face. He blinked.

“Pardon?”

“I asked, do you remember Kelly?”

Dammit. He’d been caught up in himself again, his imagination running wild while he stood there dumbly just staring at the two of them like some sort of creep.

You’re still staring awkwardly. You still haven’t said anything. You should probably do that.

She looked beautiful, wearing a flattering summer dress made out of some lightweight material. It fell to just above her ankles, all soft colors of orange, brown, and red, giving an almost fall theme to the late summer day. It was perfect. Although it bared no skin, it was tight around her bust, giving some shape to her few curves.

Her hair was down, parted on the left side, the waves sort of bobbing as she shifted back and forth from one foot to the other. The tint of her skin suggested a European descent of some sort, with the sort of built-in light shade of brown that tends to come naturally to some of the more southern climes.

“Are you going to say anything?”’

Kelly’s voice reached out and slapped him across his senses. It hadn’t been an overly polite tone, but it didn’t matter one to lick to him. It had sounded melodic, like a songbird singing to its lover in the early morning light after a fresh rain. It reached out to Gray and ensnared him, compelling him to do as it asked.

“Yes,” he said bluntly. “Yes of course I remember you,” he said with a shake of his head, his finger-length, average-brown hair bouncing wildly as he did. “I haven’t seen much of you since then, though I have seen Erika on many different occasions.”

It was a subtle jab at her for avoiding him, which he’d known she was doing. Erika had tried multiple times to set them up, but each time Kelly somehow seemed to sense that he was nearby and she’d fled before he could corner her. Eventually he’d told Erika to stop trying. The last thing he wanted to do was become a creep, despite getting the go-ahead from her best friend. It was a tentative line, and he didn’t want to cross it.

This was different though, and he had no hesitation about calling her out.

“I know,” Kelly said, as behind her Erika slipped away silently, leaving the two of them to talk.

Gray almost looked after her, but realized at the last moment that if he did, Kelly would notice, and likely go after her friend. So instead he kept his attention focused on Kelly, watching her lips move as she spoke, admiring the way the pale rose-colored flesh moved.

“You do?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Erika has been trying to set us up ever since that night.”

“Oh.”

Gray was confused. Had Kelly not gotten his jab? Or did she think that he wasn’t aware of Erika’s attempts? That he’d been kept in the dark? It had to be that, he realized. There was nothing else it could be. Keeping his tone carefully calm, he decided to play along.

“She has? I see. How come I haven’t seen you then?”

Kelly nodded. “Yes. And, truth be told, I’ve been avoiding it.”

Her voice was very much fraught with a “There, I said it, are you happy?” tone. Gray was still confused about what was going on. So, he did the only thing he could think of. He asked her a question.

“Why is that?” he asked bluntly, point-blank.

It was time to get some answers.