“You’re an amazing man, Griffin.”
It was low, but he’d press his advantage. To move both past this conversation and back to the original one. “Does that mean I get another chance with you?”
“A chance to save me? No. I can do that myself, thank you very much. But another chance to take me to bed?” Her hand dropped to his thigh. The thin nylon shorts weren’t much of a barrier as she slowly slid her fingers to almost his groin. “Absolutely.”
Whew. Griff captured her hand before it could explore any farther. Because he had to lay down one very important ground rule that had just occurred to him. “I’m hoping we can stop talking about this soon, and start doing. But there’s one more thing.”
Chloe winced. “Uh-oh.”
“No, I think this’ll be good. Here’s the thing—we need to take our time.”
With a saucy tilt to her head, she said, “Yes, foreplay is key. Big fan of it.”
Her enthusiasm wasn’t making this any easier. “I mean, I’m not going to take you to bed today. Or tomorrow. I still want to, believe me. And I intend to, if you’ll let me.”
“I thought we already covered that. Do I need to use official flyboy language to get through to you? Something like go for thrusters?”
Seriously? She had to use the word thrusters when his erection was probably visible from the opposite edge of the pond? “Let me be clear: I want to drag you behind that clump of trees over there and rip your clothes off, right now. But since it’ll be your first time, we should ramp up to the big event more slowly.”
“How slowly?”
How the hell should he know? It just seemed right. “We’ll figure that out together.”
“What if I told you I’m ready now? And headed straight for those trees?”
“Look, it has to be special.” Griff couldn’t believe he’d just said that. It was exactly what he’d told the guys he didn’t want to do. But he knew, deep down, that it was exactly what he needed to do—for both of them. The impossibility of a forever for them didn’t matter one way or the other. He needed to treat Chloe right, right now.
“Why do you get to be in charge?”
That was an easy one. He gave her the same answer he gave his flight crew when they complained about a lousy mission, or when Josh complained about Griffin choosing the pizza toppings. “Somebody has to be. And I’m damn good at it.”
Chapter 10
Chloe glanced over at Griff in the passenger seat as they zipped along the traffic-free road. Traffic-free because everyone else was at work right now. Guilt zinged through her. Technically, she should be at work now, too.
But that would leave Griff all alone. His friends were around to cheer him up at night. During the day, everyone went back to their regularly scheduled lives. Except poor, frustrated, antsy-as-all-get-out Griff.
So Chloe had reminded herself that being self-employed allowed for latitude in working hours. Technically, it made no difference if she wrote the letters scheduled for today when the sun was up or down. Except to her Type-A conscience. Which simply had to accept that cheering up her boyfriend ranked much, much higher on the priority scale.
Griffin needed her. So Chloe had stepped up. Hopefully. If he liked today. If he didn’t think it was stupid. Boring. Lame. Yikes. There were times when her thesaurus-like knowledge of vocabulary simply didn’t add anything positive to a situation.
He’d been pretty quiet since leaving the freeway. Just staring out the window at the newly leafed trees on the edge of Rock Creek Park. “Thanks for letting me plan the date,” Chloe ventured.
“When I planned a date, you hated every second of it.” The position of his head—turned away from her—didn’t change a bit. Yup, the lieutenant was definitely in a funk. Which added twice the pressure for this excursion to work. “Seemed safer to let you take the controls at least once.”
“I didn’t hate all of it. Just the riding-a-death-machine-through-the-streets part of it. It turned into a fantastic night once we went to dinner. You know, when I stopped fearing for my life.”
“Is that what this is? A revenge date? Some awful activity I have to grin and bear to make up for scaring you to death?” Finally, he turned to face her. Griff’s face contorted into an exaggerated grimace. “Knitting group? Paint-swatch hell? Circling the inside of a candle store until I sneeze so hard my nose falls off?”
“Huh. Now, why didn’t I think of that? Maybe we should turn around. Head to the mall at Tysons Corner…” Chloe let her voice trail off as the grimace morphed into a silent scream that rivaled the famous Edvard Munch painting. That is, if the melty, alien-headed screamer were actually classically handsome, with a jawline sharp enough to cut glass and eyes bluer than the Atlantic.
“I promise I’ll be fun.” Griffin grabbed her arm and dropped dozens of fast kisses from her palm, up her red sleeve, and all the way to her elbow, until Chloe squealed. “I’ll even carry your purse. For the love of God, anything but the candle store!”
She turned off the car. “Well, since we’re here, I suppose we’ll stick to the plan.”
“The secret plan, huh?” Griffin twisted in his seat. Craned his neck to peer out the front window. “We’re parked under a sign that says TEAM BUILDING. And next to one that says LEADERSHIP. Is this some weird dating test you read about in a magazine? Team building to enhance the relationship?”
“No. Although I’ll bet if you combed the Internet, you’d find something along those lines.” She shuddered. “Corporate speak really strips the romance out of the moment.”
She got out of the car. Thought for a second about her choice of words. About how any other month she probably wouldn’t have gone with strips. With Griff around, it felt like everything was covered with a layer of double entendre and sexual connotation as thick as the white flocking on Christmas trees. Yet another reason behind this choice of date. It got them out of her apartment.
Yes, she wanted to have sex with him. Freaking desperately. But it couldn’t be the elephant in the room between them anymore. Their relationship had to be about more than jettisoning her virginity. Ooh, extra points for the pilot talk, even if it was only in her own mind. Paying attention to Griff, taking care of his needs, trumped her own horniness.
Circling an arm around her waist, Griff said, “Want to tell me where we are? Or do I have to formally acknowledge you as team leader for the day to get an answer?”
This was it. The moment of truth of seeing whether or not she’d figured him out. Or, more to the point, figured out how best to help him. Chloe sucked in a breath. Led him down the gravel path to where it opened up to a wide swath of treetops.
“We’re going zip-lining.” In case the concept didn’t sell itself, she rushed on with the explanation. “There are other things to do on the course, like suspension bridges and rope ladders, but the reason I brought you here is the zip-lining. Because I know how much you miss flying.”
He just looked at her. Didn’t raise an eyebrow. Didn’t twitch a jaw muscle. The only thing Chloe could attribute his stock-still mien to was that Griff suddenly was practicing to play a statue on Halloween. Since she didn’t want to accept the possibility that he hated the brainstorm that had followed seven straight hours of racking her brain for the perfect activity.
Okay, not seven straight hours. She had taken a break to make shrimp fried rice. But there were dozens of studies showing that stepping away from a problem opened up new avenues of thoughts. Chloe used it all the time to un-stump herself when crafting letters.
Still, his unblinking gaze unsettled her. Chloe rushed on, throwing in some arcing hand gestures to try to sell it better. “I thought that, even if it was only fifty feet up in the air instead of five thousand, you’d have that sense of freedom again.”
Griffin was silent. Then, just when she was about to trudge back to the car and leave him there, he gathered her into the tightest hug she’d ever received.
“You’re amazing.” The words were muffled, with his lips buried in he
r hair. But Chloe definitely heard them. Thrilled to them. “Other people tried to distract me from all this. Or ignored it. You’re the only one who’s tried to fix the problem of my being grounded.” Griff shifted to give her a long, deep kiss. One that Chloe felt all the way down to her toes and back up again, in a loop of goosebumpy goodness. “God, you’re wonderful.”
“Oh.” She’d wanted to cheer him up. But hadn’t expected it to produce quite this good a result. “Well, you inspired me.” Chloe linked her hands behind his neck and pursed her lips. “I can’t stand to see a handsome man pout.”
He picked her up in his arms and headed for the entrance. No way could zip-lining top the exhilaration of being carried by Griff. “Good to know. The power of the pout.”
She tapped his chest just above the zipper of his gray fleece vest. “Don’t push your luck.”
“Seriously, Chloe. You knew what I needed better than I did.” Griffin tipped his forehead to press against hers. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” While she believed his sincerity, nervous anticipation still skittered along her skin. “But shouldn’t you save that until the end? See if you actually have a good time?”
“The best part of the whole day is learning that you did this for me. Everything else is gravy.”
Okay, now she had to make a joke, or else the tears clogging her throat might spill out. Blinking fast, Chloe said, “Gravy, huh? That’s a good segue into the classic Thanksgiving argument that will determine if we actually have any future as a couple: sourdough stuffing, cornbread, or oyster?”
“We can’t even go there until we settle the white or dark meat discussion. This might be a long day.”
God, she hoped so. In the best possible way.
—
“Chloe, what the hell is with this text you sent me?” David’s voice sounded pissy. He must’ve shot a high round at practice today. “Did you use voice recognition and it got all messed up?”
What kind of question was that? They texted a couple of dozen times a day. Not in the annoying, constant checking-up way that their mother was with calls and texts. But simple things like photos of stupid bumper stickers. A random badger blocking a putt. Or the latest in their long-running competition to find the biggest plate of nachos in D.C.
“Um, I don’t remember.” Especially with the distraction of watching Griff being strapped into a harness. “What does it say?”
“ ‘Have you ever slept with a virgin?’ ”
Oh. That one. “That’s right. Exactly what I meant to ask.” Talking to Summer had helped her understand Griff’s epic shock at her virginity. And he’d apologized. Everything seemed back on track. But what Chloe needed was an objective man’s opinion. Since it was too ooky to discuss with strangers, that left David.
“Why do you care? No. Strike that. Why do you think I’d ever, ever discuss that with you?”
Please. This from the man who’d texted her a photo of the podiatrist pulling off his toenail. He’d helped change her dressings after the shooting. And she went onto his Internet dating profile once a month to separate the women actually worth his dating time from all the weirdos who “winked” at him. “Because we talk about everything.”
“No, we don’t. Remember our strict rule about not discussing anything between the knees and belly button?”
“Right. Because I don’t want to hear about jock itch and you don’t want to even think about tampons. But this is different. I don’t want the details or the position or anything.” Eww. Chloe wanted zero mental images in this conversation. “I just want to pick your brain about what you were thinking.”
“Uh, hell to the no. I’d never take on the high-maintenance trouble of a virgin. That’s the entire thought process right there.”
“Oh.” Chloe cut her gaze away from Griff. Staring at tree trunks seemed a better way to ingest this information. Information that one hundred percent let Griff off the hook, once and for all, for his initial reaction to her no-sex status. It was what she’d needed, albeit not wanted to hear.
“Holy shitballs. Are you sort of telling me something I really, really don’t want to know?”
She held the phone away from her ear as his shouting reverberated against her eardrum. “Um…not on purpose?”
More quietly, he asked, “Is this because of Mom?”
“No. And for God’s sake, don’t tell her about this conversation.”
“Ha! Don’t worry. I don’t want to remember in five minutes that we talked about any of this.”
Chloe took a few more steps away. Nobody needed to overhear this. She even cupped her hand around her phone in an excess of caution. “It’s because of the shooting. The aftermath. And because apparently when you wait this long to slough off your virginity, men are not excited to plant their flag on uncharted territory.”
“Great. Now when I look at the flag on the eighteenth green at the tournament this weekend, I’m gonna be reminded of this moment. And my sister’s virginity. When I lose, it’ll be your fault.”
Griffin was trying on helmets now. She had to make this fast. “I can’t go into the whole story. Griff didn’t take the news well. He’s come around, but wants to go slow. Give me time to be ‘ready.’ Even though I’m so ready I could pop. How do I get him to speed up the process?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then a big sigh. “Maybe you don’t. And not just because you’re my kid sister. Did you ever think he wants to take it slow, give you all the time you need, because he’s a decent guy? Because he’s trying to do right by you?”
“No.” Chloe plucked at the hem of her top. Because it was humiliating to be shown up in the sensitivity department by a man. Especially about her own relationship. And most of all, because David was right. “I wasn’t trying to come at it from a logical perspective. I was looking at it all through a haze of lust.”
“Seriously, we’re never discussing this again. And I don’t want to know when your status changes either. But Griffin Montgomery’s been a hero since he was in high school. Seems like a stand-up guy. How about you let him take the lead on this?”
Chloe caught herself twirling the end of her ponytail. While staring at the handsome lieutenant, who was laughing it up with the staff. “He is a good guy. The best. You can see why I fell for him.”
“Cut it out. Talking about your virginity was bad enough. I’m not going to listen to you go all gaga over him. Hanging up now. Love you.”
Talking to David had helped settle her thoughts. Like it always did. Even though he might never forgive her for dragging him into this situation. Chloe wished he hadn’t called her in the middle of this date, but he’d convinced her to be less impatient. At least outwardly. There was no tamping down her actual inner need for Griff.
“Chloe, let’s go. You’re up first,” he hollered.
What? What? She tucked her phone into her jacket pocket. Jogged over to him. “This whole day is for you. I thought I’d hang back and mostly take pictures of you zipping through the air.”
“Then why are you wearing a helmet and harness?” His laughter gurgled out as he tugged on the straps across her chest.
Certainly not to zip-line. Geez, it was like Griff didn’t know her at all. Or remember that she’d been scared to death on solid ground on the Segway. “I want to cross the suspension bridge. That looks like fun.” Because it had a floor and railings, even if they were made of rope. It gave the pretense of safety, which was good enough for her. “I thought you needed the equipment to do everything.”
“I don’t want you to just watch.”
“C’mon. You need photographic evidence that you soared through the air today.”
“Oh, we’ll take pictures,” piped in the perky blonde who’d outfitted them. The one Chloe had observed tightening and rechecking Griffin’s straps twice as many times as she had Chloe’s. “It’s all part of the package. We’ll do a video, too.”
Great. That’s what she got for not readin
g the fine print. Chloe tugged Griffin away from the handsy blonde. “I’m scared.”
“You’re lighter than me. If you think you’ll fall, what certain death are you dooming me to?”
Really? He thought he’d kid her out of her fear? “I’m not joking. A skinny wire? Nothing to hold on to? Hundreds of feet of air below me?”
“I hover in the air every day.” Griffin grabbed her waist and tossed her high, catching her before her feet touched the ground. While fun and scare-free, it in no way compared to being strapped onto a zip line. “Thousands of feet up.”
“You have a parachute,” she snapped out. Yep, there was a panicked, screechy tone to her voice.
“I want to do this with you, Chloe. I want us to share the experience. Become our own team.” He jerked a thumb at another sign over his shoulder. This one said TOGETHER YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH MORE. Which, in a super-funny way, made her think of sex. Or maybe everything made her think of sex these days, with Griffin around.
“Can’t I be the coach, and you be the team?”
“Not so much.” He took her hand and pulled her to the first platform. Blondie scampered ahead to clip them in. And Chloe saw no way out of the inevitable without making a scene, which would ruin the day for Griff. Which was out of the question.
“Can we go tandem? I wouldn’t be scared if you were holding me.”
“Chloe.” Griffin cupped her face in his palms. “Don’t miss out on something amazing simply because you’re scared. You can be scared. That’s totally okay. Do it anyway.” He switched their clips, so that now he was lined up to go first. “Watch me. See how great it is. And then just take a step. It’s that easy. I’ll be there to catch you.”
Without giving her time to protest anymore, he stepped off the platform with a double whoop and…it sounded like Latin. Semper Paratus? She’d have to ask him about that later.
Chloe wished she could see his face. Griff didn’t hang on. He extended his arms and legs, and even leaned back. His joy-filled laughter echoed through the trees and sent a flock of birds away with angry squawks. And then, while her heart was still lodged in her throat, he landed on the next platform. He was safe.
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