Finally I reach him. I stop a few feet away. “Hi,” I say, my voice sounding small in the expanse.

“Hey.” He flashes a smile at me, and I almost swoon.

Jesus Christ.

“Are we alone? Apart from the security guard.” I tip my head in that direction.

Grayson puts the ball down on the ground by his feet. He takes a step toward me. “Yeah.”

I step back. “We shouldn’t be seen together. Not with the way things are at the moment.”

He frowns, his brows drawing together. “So why come at all?”

I wrap my arms around my stomach, looking at my feet. I shift on the spot. “Because…”

“You wanted to see me.”

I lift my eyes back to him. “I did. But I shouldn’t. This—” I say, gesturing between us with my hand. “What happened last night. Can’t happen again. I’m the assistant state—”

“I know,” he snaps. “You’ve already told me a hundred times.”

“I’m saying it because it’s true.”

He closes the space between us by reclaiming that step. “If things were different?”

“But they’re not.”

“If they were?” he asks, keeping his eyes firmly on me.

I hold my thoughts for a while, lips pressed together. “Grayson, I can’t…”

Disappointment flashes through his eyes. He turns away from me. “I’m sorry that I kissed you last night,” he says, and his voice is quiet and it breaks my heart. “I was out of line. It won’t happen again.”

“Okay,” I say. What else can I say? I’m glad that he isn’t looking at me right now, because I know that the disappointment that’s lancing through me is showing on my face.

He turns back to me. His expression is fierce as he says, “When I say I’m sorry, Mel, I mean I’m sorry for the way I made you feel when I kissed you. The last thing I ever want to do is make things hard for you. But…” He takes a large step in my direction, his long legs eating up the space between us. He’s so close now that I have to tilt my head back to look in his face. “I’m not sorry it happened. I’ll never be sorry it happened. Because I wanted to kiss you. Goddamnit, did I want to kiss you.” His eyes go to my lips. “I always want to kiss you. I have from the first moment I saw you.”

He lifts his eyes from my mouth back to my eyes. My body starts to tremble.

Holy crap. I’m so screwed.

“I…” I part my lips to say something. What that is, I have no clue. So I close my mouth again.

Grayson pushes a hand through his hair. “I know you don’t want things to be that way between us, so I’ll back off. I just wanted you to know how I feel. Now that I have, I won’t bring it up again.”

My heart sinks so hard I’m pretty sure it’s in my foot.