He dragged his hands down her body, straightening her shirt before carefully zipping up her shorts. That made her insides pull tight, hot and needy. She’d have to work harder at the unaffectedthing.
She was affected for milesrightnow.
Lunch was moreformal than breakfast had been, with a menu of options—and suggestions for Back to Nature afternoon activities running downtheside.
Did banging a Navy SEAL count? Priya picked thatactivity.
She also picked a hearty chickpea salad with a cheese and pickle plate tostart.
“I’ll have the same,” Grady said as he handed his menu to the waiter. “And canwe have the vegan brownies for dessert, buttogo?”
“What if I don’t like chocolate?” Priya asked, crossing her arms over her chest. As far as tests went, it wasn’t a very good one. She was alreadygrinning.
Grady rubbed the side of his cheek as his eyes darkened. “Nice try. But last year you had those brownies twice, and both times it went something like, ‘Oh. My. Gawd. This brownieis better thansex.’” He smirked, “That may have been when I decided to prove youwrong.”
And he had, two nightslater.
She remembered both of those brownies. How had she missed him watching her? “Okay. The brownies are a good idea. But I already know that they’re not quite as good as your absolute best effort. Pretty close, though. Are you sure you want to risk another comparisonso closetogether?”
He justgrinned.
Either he was willing to take that exact risk, or he had some crazy plan like they weren’t going to have sex right afterlunch.
Insanity.
They talked about travel until their food arrived. Which airports they both liked—Frankfurt and Dubai—and hated—Heathrow and LAX. Grady gently poked at her recent trips, clearly trying to figureout what had ratcheted up her stresslevels.
Turning thirty and realizing you’re still hung up on a guy who ghosted you will do that. But that wasn’t fair. Sure, she’d been unimpressed with Grady’s disappearing act, but she’d known intellectually why he’d gonesilent.
She’d been embedded with soldiers and special forces. Knew the latter were even harder than the former, and the formerwere harder than she could’veimagined.
No. Grady had been an excuse she’d told herself to avoid looking at the hard realities of her workplace. “I like the travel,” she realized out loud. “More than being in New York. And I’ve been home more than away the last sixmonths.”
Grady’s eyebrows did a slowlift. “Yeah?”
She pulled aface. “Huh.”
“Newstoyou?”
“Yeah.”She took a slow sip of her water. “I asked for the local re-assignment. I’m doing more in-studio producing now, and I hate it. How about that. Fucking hell.” She laughed. “Well, that’s a good breakthrough to have, Isuppose.”
“Feelbetter?”
She rolled her shoulders. “Not really.” Because it wasn’t just one thing. She’d bring that forward at her next performance review, or if an opportunitycame up to step into her old role again. Would it be wrong to wish a baby on herreplacement?
No, a promotion or a jump to another station. Maybe Amanda would get some spiffy new gig withMSNBC.
And none of that was where her head was supposed to bethisweek.
“I should go to yoga later,” she mused. “Much later. The start of my afternoon iswideopen.”
Grady gave hera bland, not-picking-up-on-the-hint look. “Brownies and then yoga sounds like agreatplan.”
“Are you going to do yoga, too?” She narrowed her eyes inalarm.
“Why? Do you not wantmeto?”
She played with the condensation rolling down the outside of her glass. “Itdepends.”
