Chapter9
Early to bed,even with Grady’s extensivephysical therapy, meant early to rise the nextmorning.
Priya rolled over in her bed and looked at Grady stretched out on his. One big arm was flung over his eyes, the other lay at rest across his muscledtorso.
At some point, she’d pulled on a t-shirt, but she was bare from the waist down under her sheet and blanket. She slid a hand down her body, cupping her swollen, well-pleasuredsex.
She needed a shower. And she was probably too sore to wake Grady up and drag him in there with her—not that the small cabin shower really had room for bothofthem.
It might be nice to try and fit.Later.
She looked at her phone and saw just how early it was. She could showerandmake the earlymorninghike.
When she came back into the main room from the shower, Grady was still out cold, so she left him to sleep and went to find the early risergroup.
Thirty-six hours ago, he’d shown up at the cabin and she’d been so sure she could just tell him nope, opportunity missed. Butthat hadn’t accounted for their chemistry. How pushing him away didn’tfeelright, no matter what herheadsaid.
In hindsight, what happened last summer had meant everything to her, and she hadn’t realized until he’d gone radio silent on her. She’d conflated one night of hot sex and another of crazy intimate phone sex to be the start of something seriouslyspecial.
That had beena mistake, and she wouldn’trepeatit.
Not because it wasn’t special—it had been, just like last night had been special, too. But specialfor herand specialbetween two peopleweren’t the same thing. It wasn’t fair to heap fantasy onto Grady and expect him to live up to that perfect ideal when he didn’t know that was inherhead.
She’d told him it couldn’t happen again. Then he’dcalled her anyway, and she’d secretly loved that. But it was the exception to the ruleshe’dsetout.
Until she was ready to say out loud that she wanted more than just sex, she needed to keep a lid on herexpectations.
She rolled those thoughts around in her head as she hiked with the group. It occurred to her that the same could be said for her job stress. Until she was ready tomake a change, she needed to have reasonable expectations for the shit-show she’d encounter every day, and preventatively manage how that wouldimpacther.
When she returned to the cabin, her steps light and her mind made up on multiple fronts, Grady was nowhere to befound.
But he’d pushed their beds together and, when she got closer to it, there was a note propped against the neatlydressed-offpillows.
Headed to the main lodge for breakfast. Fixed the beds so you can’t sneak out without me again. I missedourhike.
Our hike. She needed to firmly move him back in the direction of fuck buddy, because sweet little things like that were firmly in theseriously specialcolumn, and that justwouldn’tdo.
That didn’t stop her from grinninglike an idiot and racing back out the door to go find him,though.
Grady was standingat the omelet bar when Priya came into the dining room. She didn’t see him at first, so he got to watch her move through the space. He loved her sharp energy just as much as her soft curves. The way she moved deliberately, with purpose. She beelined to their table, then turnedaround, lookingforhim.
He waved when she turned in hisdirection.
She came over and nudged her shoulder against his arm. “Sorry about sneaking out,” she said with a smile. “You looked like you neededyourrest.”
“I slept well,” he admitted. “But I’ll sleep bettertonight.”
She raised one eyebrow. “Maybe I’m ablankethog.”
“Who needs a blanket when I’vegotyou?”
She laughed and patted his ass before nodding toward a separate tofu bar. “I’ll grab some food and meet you back at thetable.”
While they ate, they looked at the list of activities for the day. Priya wanted to do yoga every afternoon, but in the morning she was open to anything. “Do you want to show me how to use the ropescourse?”
“Last year I remember the ropes beinga strictly observational activityforyou.”
She laughed out loud. “Literally nothing gets past you, does it? That was rope-climbing, though. I don’t have a death wish. If there’s a harness and stuff I can both hang on to and plant my feet on,I’mgood.”
