Chapter 11

Ryan

I was surprised at how badly I wanted to just call out sick and stay in bed all day with her. I could honestly say that had never happened before.

Instead, I forced myself to leave her, shift, and fly home.

Elias used to do this sort of thing all the time, but I never had. I"d never even done the flight of shame before now.

When I landed on my balcony and shifted back, I found one major flaw in the plan. Elias had always left a door unlocked to let himself back in. Not having the need, my door was locked.

I started to panic. The mayor couldn"t be caught naked out in public like this. What would people think? What would they say?

Mom and Dad weren"t home, and Dean was close enough to my size that I could probably sneak in there and find something without being quite so obvious. The staff would likely see me, but they had always been discreet.

Or maybe Eli was home. That seemed like the better option.

I shifted back into my feathers and flew around the building to land on his balcony, praying Kim was working. My brother would give me shit for this, but she would never let me live it down.

Shifting back into my skin, I knocked on the glass. When no one came to the door, I tested it, relieved to find it unlocked. Once inside, though, I remembered that I didn"t have my keys with me. They were back at Gracie"s.

Elias had a spare one for emergencies, but I had no idea where he kept it. I began digging around in his drawers looking for it.

"What the hell are you doing? And why are you naked in my apartment?"

I jumped and my heart pounded in my chest.

"Jesus, Eli. You scared a few years off my life. Or are you trying to just kill me?"

He laughed. "I scared you? I come out of the shower to find my brother naked and ransacking the place."

"I"m not ransacking the place. Stop being dramatic. I locked myself out of my apartment and need the spare key."

"You didn"t come home last night."

"Seriously? I have a mother and damn well know it."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

I scowled at him. "I don"t need another one."

He laughed. "Okay, that was a good one. But seriously, where"d you come from?"

"My balcony."

"Your balcony?"

"Yup." It wasn"t entirely a lie. I had just flown over from my balcony.

"And you locked yourself out?"

"I did, clearly."

I wasn"t sure he was entirely buying it, but he walked over to a drawer and dug around until he retrieved my house key.

"Thanks."

"Bit of advice, little brother?" He didn"t wait for me to respond. "First, you"re a terrible liar, so she better be worth it."

"Who said it was a she?"

His jaw dropped. "A he then? Sorry. I honestly didn"t know."

"Know what?"

"That you"re gay."

"What?" Damn it, I"d walked right into that one. "I"m not gay."

"Then it was a she."

"Stop psychoanalyzing me. I just locked myself out of my house, that"s all."

"And it's never happened before. Ever."

I threw my arms up in disbelief. "I have to get to work," I said before stomping out of his apartment and over to mine.

Brothers were a pain in my ass.

As I let myself into my house, I realized I only had a few minutes to shower and dress before Gracie would be there. I quickly got to work.

Unfortunately, despite our day and night escapades, my body was still strung tight as thoughts of Gracie in the shower with me played out in my mind. It led to a longer shower than it should have been as I helped ease a bit of my discomfort.

Was I going to walk around with a permanent woody from now on?

If Gracie stuck around to help me out with it, would I even mind?

It was crazy how quickly life could change. A week ago, I wouldn"t have even given a passing glance to Gracie. Hell, two days ago all I could think about was wringing her neck. And now she suddenly consumed my every thought and action.

I wasn"t even sure how this had all happened, but I couldn"t imagine going back to my cool bed and sleeping alone again. I wanted her warmth wrapped around me every night from now on, and that scared the shit out of me.

I was just getting out of the shower when someone knocked on my door.

"Go away, Elias."

The knock sounded again, so I walked over and threw the door open.

"Uh, hi. You said to come up, right?"

"Gracie?"

"Yeah?"

I shook my head to clear it.

"Sorry. I didn"t think you"d be so fast and figured you were Elias coming to annoy me."

She looked upset about something and I tried not to panic. I had no idea what to do if she started crying.

"Are you okay?"

"Well, there"s been another fire."

"Okay. We can deal with this."

I wasn"t sure why that would upset her so bad. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

"It"s not that. Andrew was burned. I don"t know how bad it is. I started to head straight to the clinic, but remembered I was supposed to pick you up."

I held the door open so she could walk inside. Just as I closed the door, I caught a glimpse of Elias standing in his own doorway grinning. He gave me a little salute as I shut the door.

"Are you okay?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. You seem really upset." For some reason it made me agitated to think of her so worried about Andrew. Was something going on between the two of them? God I hoped not.

"Did you hear me at all? Andrew is hurt. He"s at the clinic now and they may have to medivac him over to one of the human burn centers."

"It"s that serious?'

She nodded, biting her lip as she tried not to cry.

I felt like an ass. It had to be serious if they were considering sending him to a human hospital.

I pulled her into my arms and held her.

"It"s going to be okay," I reassured her.

I had the feeling that Gracie didn"t break down easily, but she cried softly in my arms as I stroked her hair. It didn"t last long before she dried it up and cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"If you tell him or anyone else that I cried, I will deny it and then kick your ass."

I chuckled. "I expect nothing less."

"Also, I think we need some ground rules."

"Like what?"

"First, no touching or kissing or anything else on work time."

"I agree." But I still couldn"t help but wonder if her request had anything to do with Andrew.

"Any questions?"

"Are you seeing anyone?" I blurted out. I had to know.

"No. Are you?"

"No, and I prefer exclusivity."

"Then I think we can agree this has to stay between you and me. Or if you prefer, it could just be a one-night stand and we both walk away from here."

I scowled. "Is that what you really want?"

"No," she admitted.

"And if I did, are you sure you could just walk away?"

She huffed. "I"d try my best."

This time I grinned. "So you"re saying you didn"t get me out of your system yet?"

She rolled her eyes. "I think you made it worse."

"Good. Because I"m not done with you yet either."

"But this stays just between us."

"For now."

I didn"t know what possessed me to say that. Of course I didn"t want word getting out that I was seeing Gracie. I liked my private life to stay private, but something about this just felt different than any other relationship I"d ever had. I wasn"t even sure I was going to be able to abide by all her rules, but I was going to try.

"Are you sure you"re okay?"

"Yeah. Just hurry and get ready so we can head over to the clinic before going to the site, okay?"

"Sure, just give me a minute."

As I left for the bedroom, she was openly checking out my apartment. This would normally irritate me. Mainly because I never brought people up to my apartment, at least not anyone I wasn"t related to. But also because I didn"t like to feel scrutinized. My siblings teased me enough about my cleaning obsession. I still didn"t see why it was a bad thing, but they had certainly made me a bit self-conscious about it over the years.

It wasn"t like any of them were slobs, well, maybe Dean at times. They just weren"t quite up to my standards of cleanliness and order.

As I dressed for the day, I couldn"t help but wonder what Gracie thought of my place. She hadn"t even tried to hide her interest.

I smiled when I felt her presence and heard her walk into the room.

"Wow. This place is like a freaking high-end hotel or something. There is literally nothing out of place."

"That"s because everything has a place. And when everything has a place, then there"s no room for clutter."

"You like things orderly, huh?"

"I do," I admitted.

"So my place must have driven you nuts."

I chuckled. "It wasn"t so bad once the dishes were done."

"Aside from a pot of cold coffee, I did notice your kitchen is spotless."

"Does that make me weird?"

"No, just a tad obsessive."

Like I hadn"t heard that before.

"If you apply even a fraction of your personal standards to your work, then it"s no wonder you"re such a popular mayor. Ravenden"s lucky to have you. I mean that."

"Thanks." I didn"t want to admit to her how happy it made me to hear her say that. "I"m ready when you are," I said instead, trying to change the topic.

"Ready."

Placing my hand at the small of her back, I led her back to the front door.

"I"ll give you the full tour next time," I promised.

"So there will be a next time?"

"I hope so," I said, and I meant it.

I stopped long enough to unlock my balcony door, just in case, and then held the front door open for her.

It wasn"t until we were in the hallway that I noticed Elias standing at his door curiously watching us again.

Gracie didn"t seem to notice him at all, or if she did, she didn"t acknowledge it.

He gave me a thumbs-up behind her back and I shot him a look of warning as Gracie and I stepped into the elevator.

I'd kept things quiet when he smuggled Kim into his place for months before they even started mating. She"d insisted they were just friends, but I had a feeling Gracie would say the same thing about us, even though I did not think of her as my friend. Lover, tempter, distraction, sure, but definitely not friends.

As if that wasn"t bad enough, the elevator stopped just one floor down and Felicity Dean walked in.

She looked from me to Gracie and back again.

"Hey Gracie."

"Hey Felicity. How are you?"

"Good. You?"

"Okay. There was an incident last night. Andrew Grimes was injured. I"m showing our illustrious mayor around to some of the recent fire sites this week. Clarence"s orders. We"re going to swing by and see Andrew first this morning though."

"Oh, so you"re like working a case together?"

"Exactly. Did you know he studied Forensic Science in college?"

"I did actually. Glad to see you"re putting that degree to good use finally."

I groaned. Leave it to her to sneak in a well-placed jab.

Felicity was my cousin on my mother"s side. She was a great girl but tended to hang out with some known busybodies, so I was always cautious about what and how I said things around her. Technically, I was like that with everyone outside my immediate family and, well, Gracie.

I didn"t dare look at her though. Felicity would see right through my carefully laid fa?ade. And Gracie had already made it painfully clear that we could not allow that to happen.