Page 62 of Seeing Grayscale

“I said nothing, alright? Drop it.” And he huddles closer to the door, refusing to look in my direction.

The private airport owned by OAT, Olympia Aero Tech, comes into view, and Gray tenses. Straightening in his seat, he looks at me with fearful blue eyes. I hadn’t thought about how he could perceive coming here, especially after asking where he would go if he could.

“My company owns this airport,” I explain carefully. “When I can’t sleep, I park on the tarmac to watch the planes take off.”

He blinks.

A nervous laugh bubbles out of me as I approach the gate. The security guard, Leonard, sees me approach. “I was going to show you if you’d like.”

“Like…watch a plane fly away?”

I nod. Anxious hope is pumping through my chest. “I know it’s nerdy but—”

“Let’s do it.” A shy smile crosses his face before he narrows his eyes on Leonard.

Shame fills me, but I school my features. It never dawned on me until now that I have made a habit of sleeping with security guards. However, Leonard was a one-time deal. He and his husband separated for some time, and we both needed to blow off some steam. Which so happened to take place in my fucking car. The urge to wince is strong.

Rolling down the window to say hello—because I won’t be rude—I brace myself and hope Leonard doesn’t give anything away. “Well,hellothere,” he purrs, and the deep bass of his voice vibrates through the car. “I thought you gave up on your passion,” he teases with his hands on his hips.

“Life got busy,” I say airly. “This is my friend, Gray.”

Leonard bends; the strapping man of 6’6 and weight of easily two-fifty towers over my car, so he has to fold in half to see inside. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Gray mutters with tight lips.

“We’ll only be here for a bit,” I tell Leonard, wanting this to end.

He smirks knowingly then gives me a faux salute. “Next take-off should be soon, so you arrived just in time.”

“I do have access to the flight schedules,” I say good-naturedly, but it comes off as flirting.

Gray chomps on his thumb like he’s determined to sever the digit. “Well, I won’t keep you two. Have fun.”

When Leonard’s broad back recedes, opening the metal gate for us, I blow out a breath and drive through into the private lot. The farther we get from the security shack, the more Gray vibrates with tension. I get to where I like to park, a safe distance from the runway but in perfect view of take-off, and kill the engine.

“He’s hot,” Gray blurts.

I twist, eyeing him up and down. “Alright?”

“Very hot. Has that whole…tall, dark, and handsome thing down pat.”

“He’s also married,” I say slowly.

“And you’ve clearly fucked him.” He deadpans, pinning me with daggers in his eyes.

“Do tell me how you’ve come to that assumption?” I arch a brow at him, and he bristles.

“It’s in the way he talks to you, man. I’ve been in enough places where people talk like that. The tone gives it away that they’ve seenallof you.”

Folding my arms, slightly irritated that he’s behaving like thisminutesbefore the next take-off I wanted to show him, I stare while he has his tantrum. We won’t discuss how my heart is pounding faster, seeing the blatant jealousy oozing from his pores. Gray got this way when he found out about Brent. Snippy and prying for information to find out just how deep that relationship went.

I love it.

Fuck, I love it.

“Just how many are there, Hunter?”

“None, currently.”

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