Unfair of me, maybe.
But it felt necessary.
At some point, Rune came back down from the glass room.
I was quick to grab a few drinks and a charger for my phone and haul my ass up there, intending to spend the rest of the night up there and away from temptation if the girls came back to crash. Which, if the past was anything to go by, they would. They liked to take the party into the wee hours of the morning. And they knew they were safe in the clubhouse. No creeps copping a feel. Someone to keep an eye on them and make sure they weren’t getting sick or overdoing it.
From my vantage point, when the girls did eventually make their way back. They were still riding high from the vibes of the bar, dancing around, their smiles big. Layna was getting a piggyback from Croft, likely because of the high heels she’d chosen to wear.
To their credit, both CainandSpike were flanking the crowd, their heads on a swivel, nothing about them seeming like they’d been drinking.
The music came back on, louder than before, drowning out the sounds of the women. And I tried to be relieved. All I could really feel, though, was disappointment.
Hours passed and, finally, the music cut as the women, I imagined, piled into the empty bedrooms, the prospect room, or the barracks-style room in the basement.
I prayed Gracie wasn’t in the latter of them. I didn’t want to have to walk past her looking all soft and sweet in bed when I eventually made my way down.
I decided to give myself another hour or two, just to make sure everyone was out cold.
But then I heard it.
The trap door pushing open.
Then there it was.
Her golden head.
Then her gorgeous face emerging.
“Hey,” she said, her voice small, shy.
“Hey,” I said, a warm sensation moving through my chest. Then, remembering the rules, asked, “What are you doing?”
“I, uh, like the view up here,” she said, a false note in her words. She got on her knees to scoot into the space, and I was at once painfully aware that she’d discarded her romper for one of the guys’ tees that was swimming on her but revealing way too much enticing skin on her legs. Enough to know she didn’t even have shorts on underneath.
“I’ll leave you to it,” I said, trying to get up. But I’d been sitting there for hours. Every bit of my body immediately rejected the decision to move.
Before I could fight through the pins and needles, though, Gracie shut and slid the lock on the trap door.
“You can stay,” she said, trying to play it off as she moved closer until she dropped down at my side. “Can you turn the light off so we can see the stars?” she asked, staring up at the glass ceiling.
The last thing this moment needed was more intimacy.
But I couldn’t turn down a simple request, either. So I reached over and flicked off the light, blanketing us in romantic fucking starlight.
Great.
“I would sleep up here if I lived here,” she said, smiling softly as she looked up.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over, from studying her profile.
She didn’t seem drunk.
Her eyes were clear, wide open.
Her skin wasn’t as flushed as it had been earlier.
Maybe she hadn’t gone as hard at the bar as her cousins had. Which made sense for what I knew about Gracie, who was supposed to be one of the more responsible of the group, a little more cautious. She was more like the mom of the group. She had her fun, but she also seemed to feel the need to keep an eye on her cousins, to make sure they were all making good decisions.
