Bryce decided to intervene despite her request that he leave the situation alone. It was Wednesday and she had put up with Edgar Rush on both Monday and Tuesday. Now he had her cornered in her office and was in rare form.

"Hello," Bryce greeted Angie as he entered the floor of the offices for the college of Social Sciences. Angie looked up at the sexy English accent, and she was not disappointed by the man that went with it.

"Is Dr. Winston available?" He gave one of his devastating smiles and Angie melted a little. Grace had all the luck, first Cassandra Stevens and now this wonderfully sexy man.

By this time several of the other ladies in the department had turned to see who the man was with the sexy voice was, and they were not disappointed when they saw Bryce either. He looked very sharp having just come from a business meeting, his suit was well-cut and he had his coat hanging over one arm.

Realizing that she had to say something, Angie finally spoke, "Umm, sure." She rose, beckoning for him to follow her. "It's not her normal office hours, but I know that she won't mind."

Bryce passed several ladies, nodding as he went.

When Angie rounded the corner she stopped. "I'm sorry, she appears to be in a meeting with Dr. Rush, but I'll tell-,"

"Its fine, I'll wait here shall I?" He leaned against the wall watching the scene in the office through the window next to the door, a door which was being held open by a chair.

Angie looked unsure but that was quickly forgotten as she heard Rush's raised voice.

Grace and Rush were both unaware that Bryce was standing in the hall watching.

"Dr. Rush, I'm very busy and I have an appointment, so if you'll please excuse me." Grace rose from her chair but was careful to keep the desk between her and Rush, doing her best to keep her voice level.

"Why do you insist on teasing me Grace? You know I'll get what I want in the end." His eyes traveled luridly up her body.

"What exactly is it that you want. Dr. Rush? Perhaps if you were more specific, we could finally resolve this and move on," Grace tried to reason.

"Grace my dear, you know what I want." He moved around the desk and she tried to back away but she wasn't fast enough as he reached for her arm, keeping her from moving any further. He then quickly pulled her towards him and whispered the most atrocious thing in her ear, and Grace was frozen. She was trapped back in the house on Deerwood Street with the oldest son of her foster family trapping her against her will.

"Dr. Winston, is this man bothering you?" Bryce asked coldly from the doorway.

Grace turned her head and her relief at seeing him was evident in her eyes. She swallowed hard, suddenly not afraid anymore. She pulled her arm from his grasp and moved to stand beside Bryce.

"Yes, he is," she said firmly.

"Now Grace, you know we were just flirting a little," Rush insisted, plastering a fake smile on his face while it drained of color and sweat popped out on his forehead. Bryce was emitting a fierceness that was quelling to all who witnessed it. The warrior was back.

His voice was calm enough, but his arms were crossed which made him seem broader and his eyes were hard.

Grace had seen the warrior many times but not as fierce as he currently was, and she was glad that she was not on the receiving end of that terrifying gaze. It was cutting through Rush, making him shake. The silence in the room was deadly.

After a moment Bryce looked down at Grace. "Was that all it was Dr. Winston, just a little flirting?"

"No Bryce, it was sexual harassment." She looked back up meeting his gaze squarely.

"That was what it looked like, it even looked like a little bit like assault." Bryce turned his gaze back to Rush.

Rush's mouth fell open then quickly shut as he was trying to stutter out an excuse.

"But perhaps you should introduce me before we go any further." Bryce had Rush back in his sights. His hand came up to rest on the small of Grace's back and she could feel the strength of that hand through the thinness of the material.

"Dr. Edgar Rush this is Bryce Stevens, my lawyer." Grace introduced. Whatever fear had been left quickly lifted as she said the words.

Grace and Rush were unaware of the audience that had gathered outside her office, but Bryce knew there were many eyes watching them, and he also knew that it was to their advantage.

Bryce pulled out his phone and scrolled through it, eventually dialing a number.

"Yes, may I please speak to Lydia Albert?" A brief pause, "Tell her it is Bryce Stevens, I'm sure she'll take the call. Tell her it's very important."

There were a few gasps in the crowd behind them, drawing Grace's attention. Lydia Albert was the president of the college.

"Lydia, how are you?" Another pause, "I'm on campus. Would you have a moment for me to stop by and talk with you? Excellent, I'll see you in a bit. Lunch you say? That sounds perfect, I know just the place." Bryce put the phone back in his pocket. "I suggest you start writing your letter of resignation."

"She planned all of this." Rush pointed a finger at Grace.  "She wants my job so she set me up, all of you saw it." When no one responded Rush's face turned bright red then pale again, the man looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Dr. Winston, do you want Dr. Rush's job?" Bryce asked in his best lawyer voice.

"Most definitely not, I can think of more than a few people who are better qualified than I am, Grace's response was firm.

"It seems that you're mistaken Dr. Rush." Bryce's smile was cold as he put his arm around Grace's waist and pulled her to one side.  She gratefully leaned into him, feeling his strength behind her.

Having cleared the way to the door, there was nothing more for Rush to say and he quickly left the office, moving down the hall towards his own.

Bryce started to move the chair away from the door. "Ladies, I hope you will all support Dr. Winston. If any of you have a similar complaint against Dr. Rush now is the time to mention it.  I'm sure if you would all collectively give any statements you have to Angie, she will make sure that they make it to the President's office." He gave them all a warm smile then closed the door.

He gently moved Grace to her desk chair then sat on the edge of the desk, blocking her from the view of prying eyes with his broad shoulders.

They were both quiet for a moment and Bryce was still holding her hands in his.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly.

Grace took an unsteady breath, nodding her head.

"Where did you go when he touched you?" Bryce's voice was gentle.

The fact that he had noted her disassociation from the situation threw her, but as Grace looked at their linked hands it gave her the strength to tell him.

"I stayed with a foster family on Deerwood Street. They had an older son who was not a nice boy.  He liked to corner me in unsuspecting places and try to... occasionally he would sneak into our bedrooms and watch us sleep while..." Grace blushed to the roots of her hair.

Bryce just tightened his hold on her hands.

"Why are you here Bryce? I thought we had said all that there was to say." Grace changed the subject.

"I wanted to check on the situation myself, besides Cassie wouldn't leave me alone, she even went so far as to recruit Rainer to help her make sure that I helped you." His words made Grace's heart sink.

"Rainer promised me that he was going to leave the situation alone." Grace cleared her voice in an attempt to keep the hurt from it.

"What situation would that be Grace?"

"You, me, his believing that there is something between us, and that we're destined to fall into each other's arms whenever we meet." Grace swallowed the lump in her throat, wishing that it was true.  She would very much like to be in Bryce's arms once again.

"I would be open adding benefits to our deal, if only to make Rainer happy." He gave a wicked smile.

"We have been over this, please don't smile like that." Grace pleaded, not sure she could stand it. It was taking every ounce of self-control she had not to agree. She would die if she only had a little bit of him. It was all or nothing at all just like Cassie had sung about in her song and just like Clive had said after her very first meeting with Bryce.

"Why, am I that hard to resist?" he teased.

"Yes," she whispered and the air around them seemed to spark as his eyes met hers.  The look of wanting in his matched her own and she was so tempted, but suddenly Grace's office door opened, much to her relief.

They both looked up to see Cassie hovering.

"Am I interrupting something?" she looked at their linked hands hopefully.

"No, why don't you pull up a chair," Bryce suggested, not letting go of Grace's hands, his mask back in place. "I'm glad you could make it."

Cassie did as she was instructed, looking intrigued. "You asked me to be here."

"Grace just had a run in with her boss and she's a bit upset." Bryce quickly filled her in on the situation.

Grace was trying to digest the thought that he had asked Cassie to be there.  Bryce was going to help her but didn't want her to get the wrong idea, and with Cassie there as well that would be hard to do.

"No." Cassie reached out and put her hand on Grace's arm. "I'm sorry I wasn't earlier."

"I'm glad you weren't, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to take care of it." Bryce released one of Grace's hands and looked at his watch frowning.  "I really have to go, will you be alright?" He looked at Grace, but his mind was already on his meeting with the president.

Grace had a sudden image of the beautiful lady who was the youngest president in the school's history and felt a stab of jealousy.

"I'll take good care of her," Cassie said, smiling.

"Maybe I'll even get good and drunk, I hear that it's sometimes helpful," Grace joked, wanting to suddenly forget everything about Bryce Stevens if only for a few hours.

The image of Grace drunk must have tickled Bryce because he threw back his head and laughed. Then that wicked smile with that wicked gleam appeared. "Be sure to give me a call if that happens Cassie, and I'll take over Grace's care for you." He turned the full wattage on Cassie who looked momentarily stunned.

He gave Grace's hand one last squeeze then left her office.

"What was that?" Cassie exclaimed when he was gone.

"Yes, Bryce does have a wicked sense of humor." Grace started to gather her purse and coat.

"That smile how do you survive it? I mean I love Mason and he's the sexiest man alive, or so I thought." Cassie shook her head fanning her face in a dramatic fashion. "I've never seen Bryce smile like that much less joke."

"In answer to your question I don't survive it. I love it and I hate it and he does it much too often." Grace realized that shouldn't be talking about Bryce. She need to get it together

"Not so often that I have ever been a witness to it." Grace missed Cassie's curious expression as she moved in front of her, leading the way to the door.

At lunch, desperate to talk to someone, Grace filled Cassie in on most of what had happened with Rush, leaving out what had happened afterwards with Bryce.

"In the two years I've known Bryce I've seen him angry only once, and that was when Dana's, who is Quinn's wife, ex-husband tried to force Dana to leave with him." Cassie was very free with the Stevens family history.

"You mean that is the only time he has let you see him angry." Grace sipped at her wine.

"I'm not sure I follow." Cassie frowned.

"The day before yesterday, at lunch, he was very angry."

"No he wasn't." Cassie was trying to think back.

"I think it's sad that he has a family that is so close to each other yet they don't seem to understand him at all. Lizzy thinks he needs protecting, Rainer thinks he needs directing, and his mother thinks he feels that he was born responsible for everyone else." Grace shook her head sadly, realizing that the last bit was true.

"Stop, what exactly is your and Bryce's relationship. I know that Rainer said he was trying to make Bryce jealous, and I know that you're in love with him, but where is Bryce in all of this?" Cassie leaned forward.

"Who wouldn't fall for that smile?" Grace said almost to herself before answering Cassie's question "I last saw him in early July while I was working on the estate, and I barely saw him while I was there. After that I didn't see or talk to him until the night of the play, and as you know that was Rainer's doing not his or mine." Grace felt the need to protect Bryce from his family.  Here she was bemoaning the fact that they didn't know him, but part of her knew that that was how he wanted it, even though she didn't know why. "I don't doubt for a minute that Bryce knows how I feel. I've never spoken of it but I've never hidden it either, and he's a smart man. That coupled with the fact that he said he's not interested in a relationship of any kind lets me know that he has caught onto my feelings."

Cassie leaned back in her chair with a knowing smile. "If that's the case, then why was he at your office today?"

"You begging him to fix it and bringing Rainer back into the situation to do the same, even after I had such a hard time getting him out of it, is probably the main reason. That was the reason he gave me anyway. Plus, you kind of cornered him and he may have felt a little pity for me." Grace shrugged, saddened that he had to be guilted into helping her.

But it seemed to have made Cassie reevaluate the situation. "Well , we'll have to distract you from Bryce by finding a nice young man. I have three more single brothers-in-law who might just do the trick."

Grace couldn't help but laugh. "You're going to have to cross Rainer off the list. I know too much about him to even consider it."

"Now Rainer, there is the family mystery, not Bryce.  He has all the hidden secrets." Cassie shook her head and then launched into a long story about the Stevenses and how wonderful they were.

Grace listened to Cassie talk with only half an ear.  She really had to make some kind of move.  Bryce's offer was too tempting for her to continue to stick around New York. If she did she just might cave.