Chapter2
Grady stretchedout on the porch, his head on his backpack, his legs crossed in front of him. He tried to read for a bit, but his mind kept wandering back to that night. Their night, as he’d thought of it over the last year. His one night with Priya that had changedeverything.
They’d drifted away from the crowd, and she’d been drinking a Lake Waawaatesi Iced Teathen,too.
“What do you think is in this?” Priya asked, taking anervoussip.
“I swear it’s just all the bar contents at the end of the week,” Grady said. They were sitting at a picnic table overlooking the boathouse and the dock. Behind them, the rest of camp wascelebrating.
He wasn’t exactly sure how they’d ended up out here, in the quiet darkness, but helikedit.
He liked Priya. A lot, even though she’d spent most of the week teasing him and using her feminine wiles to help her friend Tegan win a bizarre series of dares against his friendWyatt.
Grady didn’t care. For one thing, Wyatt didn’t seem to mind the games. And for another, Gradyliked Priya’s femininewiles.
Yeah, her feminine wiles. He’d liked those a lot. But she was also the smartest woman he’d ever talked to. He’d met some whip-smart officers in the navy, translators who spoke six languages in the special forces, and diplomatsgalore.
None of them held a candle to Priya’s sharpness. She had a way of reading people, of instantly gauging wherethey were at, and how that affected whatever was going on. He could see how that would help her at her job. And he’d loved how she talked about her work, too. That they were both in intense careers appealed to him. He’d known what he was getting with her, and she could say the sameabouthim.
No expectations of white picket fences. Just agoodtime.
That had been their agreementas he’d stripped her down behind the boathouse. Between breathy little sighs, she’d made it clear she wouldn’t be chasing him all over the country, and heagreed.
One night. Get their mutual attraction out of theirsystems.
Famous last words. He swallowed hard as he lay on the cabin porch and thought about how it had done the exactopposite.
He’d given in to his urge andcalledher.
Once.
That had lasted for hours, too. She’d been so wary at the start. Why was he calling? What didhewant?
Jesus H. Christ, he just wanted to hear her come apart again. Andagain.
He’d wrung two orgasms from her before he even let himself openhisfly.
But it hadn’t helped with the all-consuming want. And then he’d gone on tour, and the last thinghe could do from a war zone was carry on an on-again, off-again affair with a television newsproducer.
He’d told himself that was why he hadn’t called. He’d spent a year denying how much he wanted her. He’d lied to himself and given in to his dreams of her when things gotreallydark.
That nostalgia fucked with his memories, turned them into something largerthanlife.
Andhe knew better than to give in. He told himself to leave her alone. It worked right up until Wyatt told him, in a completely accidental aside, that Tegan was thrilled she’d been able to convince Priya to sign up for Camp Firefly Falls’ Back to Natureretreatweek.
And now he was lying on the porch of her cabin, waiting for another chance to tell her allofthat.
It hadn’t occurredto him that she wouldn’t wanttoknow.
It wasn’t possible that she didn’t want him, too.Wasit?
Charlie H. Murphy, had he fallen in love with a woman who had tumbled out of lustwithhim?
True to his word,Grady was still on her—their—porch when Priyareturned.
She’d had two drinks at the mixer while hunting for her best friend, who managedto always be somewhere else whenever Priya asked after her. Busy doing camp stuff. Ha. Busy hiding for her life was morelikeit.
Then she’d grabbed Grady a soda because she wasn’t heartless, and headed back to explain to him why he definitely could not staywithher.
