When Gracie Met the Grump Read Online Mariana Zapata

Categories Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Romance, Virgin Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
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He had always loved telling me stories, and I’d loved listening to all of them.

He’d had countless stories about traveling through South America as a little boy. Looking back on it now, it was his way of taking me to all those places we couldn’t visit together because he hadn’t wanted me to get a passport. It would have been just one more thing in a system that someone might be able to track, so no passport for me.

It was such bullshit.

And I didn’t want to think about it anymore.

For now, I wanted to get this guy better and out of here as quickly as possible. Then I could leave and start over again. By myself.

“Want some more water?” I asked him just as he let out a shallow breath.

“In a minute,” he actually answered before leveling me with another long look out of the corner of his eye. “Have the…”

I waited.

“Rest of them been seen lately?”

“Them?”

“Like me.”

All right, so they didn’t call themselves the Trinity. Got it. “I haven’t turned on the TV because I didn’t want to wake you up. Do you want me to check?” It wasn’t that they made regular appearances or anything like that, because they didn’t. They didn’t appear for petty, common shit. Just the big stuff and the rare appearance of The Primordial or The Centurion doing some kind of community-service-type project. Plus, I’d been so busy keeping him alive, researching them, and making three times the amount of food that I regularly did, that I hadn’t kept up with the news. Stressing over him dying on me had been the only thing I’d been able to focus on lately.

That and the fact I was really, really worried I was making a mistake helping him.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I did a quick search before peeking at his tight face. Then I told him about how The Primordial had been seen just yesterday, and he grunted in reply. He might have relaxed just a little too, but I wasn’t positive.

Regardless, it didn’t put me at ease.

None of this was putting me at ease at all.

CHAPTER

FOUR

His sleepy eyes started to drift closed.

I’d been reading him the articles I’d found about The Primordial for the last half-hour. He’d been paying attention at first, but after the fourth one, he’d either started zoning out or his thoughts had drifted elsewhere.

So that was cool.

Turning off my screen, I glanced at the superbeing on my bed, in my clothes, and before I could stop myself, I asked, “Can I call you Defender, or is there something else you would rather be referred to as?”

Dammit, I wasn’t supposed to ask for more information than what I needed.

I couldn’t backtrack now though, could I? That would be even more fishy. I made myself smile at him weakly. “I won’t tell anyone. Promise.” That sounded real believable. I needed to keep my mouth closed. I knew this. I knew it. I’d just… been alone for too long. Talking to my students wasn’t the same as having a conversation with a friend.

Not that I’d had that many of those, or much less one in a long time, but….

One dark eyelid peeled back.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

Then I gave him another weak smile even as I thought he was way too beautiful to be real, because he really was. I couldn’t get over it. At least I wasn’t stuttering or staring though. I wasn’t gaping at being in his presence. I could be proud of myself later.

Not a single muscle in his features moved. Not a half smile or a quarter smile. I got nothing.

At least one of us had some fucking sense.

But The Defender stared in a way that might have made me nervous if I didn’t know how injured he was. I was pretty sure, at this point, I could push him over and run if it came down to it. Not that I would.

Unless it was life or death. Then I’d be seeing his ass later.

“Call me… whatever you want,” he muttered.

That was real helpful.

And friendly.

But it was a good thing he liked his secrets and knew how to keep them. I needed to take notes. Less talking, more grunting. Keep my mouth shut. Feed him, sponge bathe him, shut up.

He sniffed again as his eyes drifted closed. “I’ll be going back to rest,” he said quietly.

“Does that mean you’re going to be out for a few days again?” I asked and got a peek of an eyeball before I raised my hands in defense. “Just asking so I’m not worried you’re in a coma.”

That got him to close his eye before finally sighing, “Yes.” He settled deeper into the bed. His arms were at his sides, slightly away from his big, motionless body. He looked half-asleep when he whispered, “If you see… or hear of anything about… them… tell me.”



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