Free Knockout (Fighting For Love Book 1) by Evelyn Glass Page B

hide from me.” He holds her face between his hands, lifting her head up to meet his eyes. His heart feels like it might break for her, as he sees a tear trickle down her cheek. He chases it away with the pad of his thumb, wishing that he could take away her pain so easily. “I’m sorry about your dad. I know you two were close. I’m sure he’d be really proud of you.” He leans his head down to get closer to her. His face is only inches from hers, close enough to kiss. He feels like her lips are attracting him like a magnet. But no, he can’t go down this road, not with Adriana, not when he knows how hard it was to let her go the first time, he’s not sure he could do it again and he would have to, for her safety. He takes a deep breath and drops his hands.
     
    There’s a flash of something like disappointment in her eyes, but it’s gone as soon as he thinks he’s seen it. She takes a step back from him and starts walking again. “What about your dad? Do you ever hear from him?” Her voice trembles, like she’s trying to recover from whatever just passed between them.
     
    At the mention of his father, Grayson stands up a little straighter. It’s an instinctive reaction; he was always on high alert around his dad…he had to be if he didn’t plan on adding to his collection of scars. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.” He doesn’t add that he’d told his father that if they crossed paths again that he would kill him. Adriana was one of the few people who knew about the abuse, but even she couldn’t imagine the extent of it.
     
    She nods in understanding and doesn’t push him. It’s something that no other girl would do, give him space to tell his story at his own pace. Most women wanted to pump him for information, as if the more secrets of his they knew, the stronger the hold they’d have on him would be. It is just one of the many ways that Adriana is different from everyone he has ever known.
     
    “How’s your mom? And Kay? She must be, what, like twenty, now?” Adriana had never met Grayson’s family; it was one of the many ways that he had kept his distance from her. It touches him to know that she remembers details like the age of his sister.
     
    “Twenty-one next month, I can’t believe it. It’s like it was only yesterday that she was an obnoxious twelve year old, trying to get me to teach her how to drive!” He smiles at the memory of that day, when Kay hadn’t taken no for an answer and made him teach her how to reverse the car into the driveway.
     
    “It’s nice to see you smile, Gray. You should do it more often.” Adriana nudges him playfully, and he has to stop himself from pulling her into him.
     
    “I smile!” He protests, laughing and feeling more carefree than he has in years.
     
    “No, I’m not talking about that BS grin that you give to all the girls. I’m talking about a real smile, like the one you’re wearing right now.” Adriana nods, beaming back at him. “You know you can be pretty handsome when you’re not so preoccupied with glowering like you’re thinking about punching someone.”
     
    He looks at her open-mouthed. Women tended to just take him at face value; he’d forgotten that Adriana wasn’t like anyone else. “So you think I’m handsome?” He winks at her devilishly, making her laugh again. It’s such a great sound; he knows he wants to be the one to make her laugh all the time.

 
    ADRIANA
     
    Adriana blushes prettily and shrugs to cover her embarrassment. “I think you know the effect you have on women.” She gestures towards the girls along the beach that make no effort to pretend that they’re not staring openly at Grayson as he walks with her. She wonders what they must think of her, probably that she’s nowhere near pretty or interesting enough to hold his attention. They’re not wrong and a surge of jealousy catches her off guard. She has no reason to feel jealous. She has no claim on Grayson; she never