Chapter Seven
Grace
The next day, as Harry and I leave the ropes course center, I can’t help but let a gleeful smile take hold of my expression. I try to remember Adam’s warning from yesterday, but after the morning we just spent together, it’s difficult. I decide to let that rest until I can get more specific information out of him.
This morning, I called up Kelly to fill her in on how the camp was going. The memory of the climbing competition from yesterday – plus the second-base sauciness in the dorm – clung to me insistently.
Matters weren’t exactly helped by today’s horoscope.
Be open to new experiences. Today you’re going to be presented with a choice: participate or retreat. You might be nervous, but the best decision is to participate. You can’t allow fear to rule you. Blaze forward bravely. You’ve got this.
Was the new experience going to be Harry using his make-me-do-what-he-wants pass to initiate some kind of sexual adventure? Of course, I knew I wasn’t going to just blindly do whatever he wanted, competition or no competition.
But what scared me was how badly I thought I might just give myself the excuse … and then do whatIreally wanted to, which was –is –to fall full-throttle in our breakneck lust.
I lay in bed, the phone on speaker next to my pillow, my knees curled up as though protectively to my chest. “What if he makes another move?” I asked Kelly.
“Well, isn’t that what you want?” Kelly said, voice dimmed slightly with the sound of the city all around her, cars honking and New Yorkers yelling. “Won’t that make your scheme easier?”
“Hey, it’s not a scheme,” I giggled. “That makes me sound like some movie villain. It’s aplan.”
“Okay, Miss Semantics,” Kelly laughed. “Whatever you wanna call it, wouldn’t that make it easier?”
“I mean, yeah, sure. But it’d also make it easier if I just marched into his office and blew him. But I can’t just sleep with him to make getting revenge on him easier. Jeez.”
“Why not?Jeez.” She giggled as she imitated my voice, playfully mocking me. “I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Really?”
“Are you kidding?” She paused briefly as she walked into a café, the sounds of the street replaced with a whining coffee machine and more general chatter. “If I had some tall, hunky, dreamy bad boy all over me,plushe’d given me the mother of all Get Out of Jail Free Cards, you can bet your top dollar I’d take full advantage.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure it’sbet your bottom dollar.”
“No, hon, because I’d be bettingallmy damn dollars.”
I laughed, shaking my head at how brazen and badass my bestie is.
But when I hung up the phone and got ready for the day, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that Harry was going to go full dominating douche on me … and the fear that I might like it.
But, now, as we walk across the parking lot to his sleek black sedan, I can’t believe how wrong I was. We’ve just finished doing a ropes course for under-privileged children. It was difficult at first, since I’ve got no experience in the area, but taking Harry’s lead, I threw myself full-tilt into it and it was actually pretty amazing.
I climb into the passenger seat, closing the door until I hear theclickof the locking mechanism. Across the parking lot, the kids file out of the building into the minibus that’ll take them back to the inner city. I wave at one girl, Jaqueline, who throws me a gap-toothed grin back and tugs playfully on her braided hair.
“What was that about?” Harry asks, grinning. His baggy long-sleeved shirt is damp with sweat, resting loosely against the oaken form of his carved body. A fever-like heat emanates from him, filling the car. “Looked like some sort of inside joke.”
“Yeah,” I say, nodding. He starts the car, the engine rumbling deeply. As he deftly backs us out of the space and guides us toward the exit, I say, “When I was complaining about my ponytail coming loose, she said she’d happily braid it for me one day.”
My chest glows with the memory.
My cheeks redden and, in my mind, I see the teenager’s face as she made the offer. She was spunky as hell, even if she was scared of heights, like me.
When I told her I’d recently gone bungee-jumping, her eyebrows shot up like a fricking cartoon character’s. “No way,” she gasped. “With … him?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it was Harry’s idea. He’s crazy like that.”
“Hmm-mm,nowit makes sense.”
I just laughed, but inside I was reeling.
