Chapter Ten
Emma had her third rock climbing lesson on Thursday. Two days since she and Ryan had gotten naughty in the back hall of The Music Factory. One day since they’d agreed to become friends with benefits. Zero seconds since she last thought about what that was going to be like and when it would happen.
Ryan stood below her, belay rope in hand, as she struggled up the rock face. She’d gotten some of the basic terminology down now—she knew about smears and edging techniques that let her put her feet on impossibly small ledges and indents in the rock that somehow her climbing shoes held on to. She’d gotten better at keeping her weight in her toes and using her arms for balance.
And today, she was aiming for the top.
“That’s right. Move your left foot over…yeah,” Ryan encouraged her from the ground.
“Dammit.” She’d reached the area near the top that stymied her every time. Wide and flat and impossibly smooth, she simply couldn’t see a way to get past it.
“You’re thinking about it too hard. Just feel the rock for your next move.”
“That makes absolutely no sense, you know.” If she sounded a little bit miffed, that’s because she was. Learning to rock climb was one of the first goals she’d set for herself when she’d decided to shake things up, and so far she sucked at it.
“Reach with your right hand,” Ryan said.
She did, and her fingers slid into a little crease she hadn’t noticed. Aha! She shifted right, following the new direction he’d led her in and…
Off the rock she went, swinging out as the harness broke her fall. She groaned as he lowered her to the ground.
“Don’t get frustrated,” he said. “You’re doing great for your third lesson. Learning out here on the rock is a lot harder than learning on an indoor wall.”
She huffed out a sigh and grabbed the rock again. An hour—and four falls—later, she was ready to give up. This was the “bunny slope” of Off-the-Grid’s rock climbs, and she couldn’t even master it.
“Guess my time’s up for today,” she said, resting her hands on her knees as she glared up at the rock that had bested her.
“I don’t have any other appointments this afternoon. You want to give it one more try?”
“I don’t know…” She glanced up at the rock again. Her muscles shook with fatigue, and her temper was simmering straight toward red.
“Take a few deep breaths, and this time, I want you to focus on workingwiththe rock instead of against it.”
“Why do you sound like such a hippie all of a sudden?” she asked as she gripped the rock, hauling herself up. By now, she knew the first few moves by heart.
Ryan laughed long and hard behind her. “First time I’ve ever been called a hippie. But seriously, the rock is not your enemy. Stop fighting with it.”
“Whatever you say, Hippie.” But she was smiling as she worked her way up to her trouble spot, looking for the secret handhold Ryan had guided her toward earlier. The place where she’d now fallen five times in a row.
She swung her foot and toed into an edge far enough out to the side that she knew she must be giving Ryan an eyeful from below. She’d give him hell for staring at her ass, but she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move for fear of falling.
The top was just past her fingertips.
Sucking in a slow, shaky breath, she shifted her weight onto her right foot. It held. Muscles trembling from the strain, she swiveled her hips to bring her left foot in, seeking purchase on a nearly invisible smear on the rock beneath her knee.
“Atta girl,” Ryan said from below, his voice seeming to filter in from a million miles away.
Cautiously, she straightened her legs, testing out her precarious new footholds. And…she was eye level with the top. Squelching the urge to celebrate prematurely, she slung her elbows over, grabbed on to the anchor securing her line, and scrambled over the edge in about as ungraceful a move as humanly possible. Her feet scuffled against the rock face until her left toe snagged on something, giving her the boost she needed.
Oomph.She landed in a heap on top of the rock. “Oh my God. I did it.” She pushed up into a sitting position, her chest heaving, muscles shaking like Jell-O. “I really did it!”
“Don’t move a muscle,” Ryan said, his voice taut.
She froze, thinking for a moment she was in danger. But he unclipped his harness from the belay line, gripped the rock, and started climbing toward her with a speed and ease that made her feel like a total novice all over again.
It took him about two minutes to climb the rock face that had taken her at least fifteen, and he wasn’t even wearing a harness. He hauled himself up beside her, pulled her into his lap, and covered her mouth with his.
Oh.She let out a gasp of surprise as heat spread like wildfire inside her.
