2. Grayson

CHAPTER 2

Grayson

I reach up and grab my bag out of the overhead compartment and grunt when I drag it down, barely avoiding smacking the woman who's been stalking me the whole flight in the head.

But she doesn't act pissed. Instead she shoots me a flirty little smile that does absolutely nothing for me and reaches out to touch my arm where my bicep is curved, holding my bag.

"My, my," she purrs. "You sure have a lot of muscles. I bet you could pick little old me up and do practically anything with me."

I can tell exactly what she wants me to do with her and there's no fucking way. I mean, it's not like she isn't pretty in an overblown Barbie doll kind of way. Big lips, big boobs and plastic smile that promises all kinds of things that I'm sure she thinks she can deliver on. I'm not so sure. I don't feel a damn thing below the belt. I never have.

Except for one damn, trouble-making, pain in the ass woman. And that's part of the reason that I'm all kinds of pissy today. Like a teenage girl whose prom date stands her up.

Raine Showers. I'm on my way to meet up with the only woman I've ever wanted. And she thinks that I don't want her at all. That I find her a pest.

What the hell else was I supposed to do? The woman was barely eighteen when she told me how she felt. And her brother and I were thirty years old. Way too old for such a young girl. Way too old for the damn thoughts that kept creeping in every time I went near her after that.

And I do mean creep. Because only a creep would chase a young girl that was my best friend's sister.

So I told her that I didn't feel that way about her at all. I can still picture the hurt on her face.

"I don't know what makes you think that I have feelings for you, Raine. But I don't. Both your brother and I have talked about this and I didn't want to hurt your feelings because I knew you had a little crush on me. But the thing is…I'm not interested. At all. I've enjoyed when you tag along with us but it's just like you're my own little sister. The one I never really had. The only feelings I have for you are completely platonic. I can't change that."

Her round cheeks with the freckles across the bridge of her nose paled and then she flushed and I could see tears in her pretty sky-blue eyes. Sparkling on her long lashes. Her full pink lips tighten and she stares down at the floor.

"I'm sorry, Gray. I won't bother you anymore."

And she hasn't. She moved away and went to college for business administration and she never came near me again. Seven long years. Seven long, hellish years on the police force in New York that drained me of every last little bit of humanity that I had left in me. Until I was left a shell of the man she thought she loved.

The last straw was the shot that took me off the street and put me behind a desk.

I'm done. I can't give any more of my soul to that job.

Which also means that I don't have very much soul left. Definitely not enough to put even one pinky on the pure light that has always been Raine Showers.

I glare at the peroxide blond trying to cuddle her skinny ass up to me and she finally seems to get the message that I'm not interested.

She moves away with a frown and avoids my eyes for the rest of the crawling pace forward. My back itches with the need to get the hell off of this plane and out in open air.

I hate these tin cans. I don't like to fly. But there's one thing I hate more than that and that's a woman that acts like a predator. I don't like to be chased. I like to be the one doing the chasing.

I scrub the woman out of my head. I've got another woman to deal with and she's gonna be a whole helluva lot of trouble. Her brother Colt told me that she's not happy I'm coming. Not happy at all.

Since Colt doesn't know what happened between us…or didn't happen, he doesn't have a clue what her problem is. But I freaking do. And she's actually got every right in the world to be pissed at me.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to let her push me out of here. She's gonna have to deal with me. There's no way in hell I'm not going to do everything in my power to take care of Raine. Even if I didn't already love her, I cannot walk away from a woman in trouble.

I stalk off the plane, my backpack thrown over my shoulder. The baggage carousel is to the right and I follow the signs, standing unmoving when everyone around me jumps around or chats with perfect strangers while waiting for their baggage to finally roll around on the belt and they can grab it and get the hell out of here.

My eyes shift when blondie reaches past me and grabs a flowered pink case, her eyes shifting to me one last time, like she's waiting for me to change my mind.

Not happening. There's only one woman for me and she's someone that I should never touch if I don't want my friend, the Sheriff, to shoot me and bury my body somewhere nobody will ever find it.

"Hey!"

"Speak of the devil," I mutter under my breath and lift my hand to wave at the scary bastard that is my best friend.

Hopefully he never realizes how close I came to ruining our entire relationship for the stupidest reason around.

Love. I snort and grab my huge duffel bag, slinging it easily over my shoulder.

And stalk over to Colt who's grinning at me like a crazy man. "Hey man, good to see you again."

He grunts and leads me out the door of the airport. "I hope you think so after you see Raine. She's still giving me shit about calling you to come out here."

A smirk tilts my lips as I follow him to his marked SUV. I'd expect nothing less.