Chapter 15 #2
“Oh shit… was my face so beautiful you thought you saw an angel and your legs gave up?” he asks, hurrying down to help me.
“Yes… yes, that’s what it was,” I mutter as I lie on the steps, panting up a storm. “Drag me… drag me the rest of the way.”
“You should have gone my route. It was so pleasant. I waved at a ninety-year-old woman on her way down.”
“Drag my corpse.”
“You’re fine,” he says as he grabs my wrists and looks at my palms. “You hurt your hands.”
“I’m manly. It’s okay.”
“Is… is that like a definition for being okay?”
“I’m also womanly… so it’s okay? Fuck if I know, Grayson. All I know is you need to drag me to the top.”
He picks me up, and I enjoy the final ten steps tossed over his shoulder. Like how does he still smell so damn good? I’m over here coated in sweat, blood, and little pebbles that have called my wounded hands their new home, and he smells like we’re going out to a fancy dinner.
“I kind of feel guilty,” Grayson says.
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Barely,” I say as he holds my hands out so he can look at them. I don’t know if anyone has ever fussed over me after I got hurt. And now suddenly, I’m prepared to play it up so I can get his attention. Have I ever wanted someone’s attention like this before?
He pulls open his bag as he ushers me to sit down.
“I really am fine,” I insist.
“I’m not listening to you. You’re the kind of guy who would cut off a finger and be like, ‘Yep, I’m A-OK!’”
“No, I’d say I’m mostly A-OK,” I say, which makes him laugh.
“The real question is… did you squish your sandwich?”
“No, no, I made sure to fall right on my face,” I assure him.
“Good. Gotta protect your sub. I guess I could have helped you out by carrying your pack on the way up… huh.” Grayson pulls out a medical kit and begins cleaning my hands as I raise an eyebrow.
“I’m okay.”
“I know, but you can’t hurt your precious fingers!”
“Precious?”
“Yes! You need those precious fingers,” he says. “How else are you going to take the steps back down if you don’t have your fingers to grab on to the railing with?”
“Oh no, no, no. You’re taking the steps down. I’ll take the wheelchair ramp. Bonus points if there’s a wheelchair to carry me down in because my legs feel like Jell-O.”
Grayson laughs as he cleans my hands up and expertly puts Band-Aids on them. “There we go. Now you won’t have a bloody sub.”
“They’re not that bad.”
“Bad enough,” he says, and I realize I could get used to him doting on me.
“This really is such a nice overlook in the evening.” I gaze out over the trees as the sun is starting to go down. It’ll be another hour or so before it sets, but the way it lights up the sky makes it all the more beautiful.
“It really is pretty,” he agrees as he stops me from retrieving my sub and gets it out for me. Evidently, my hands no longer work. But I’m not complaining. Hell no. I’m loving every minute of it.
I glance over at Grayson while he lays a napkin down and even opens my drink. “We could be pen pals while you’re gone. You could send me letters through snail mail. Like, ‘Today, I saw a really nice ass. You would appreciate dat ass.’”
“I would never tease you like that,” he says.
“I don’t care I’m not a child. I know how to handle things.”
“I know you’re not.”
“Have you been up here much?”
“Not as much as I’d like. I used to hike and camp and do all of that stuff with my family. My sister and I were pretty close and we’d hike quite a bit. But now she’s off having a family and doing adult things while I feel like I’m a bit… stuck,” Grayson says.
I raise an eyebrow. “Stuck? You’ve accomplished so much.”
“Yeah, in my career, but because of it, I feel like I’ve sacrificed everything else. Sometimes I look at my parents’ happy little life and my sister with her daughter and husband and wonder… don’t mind me, I’m just rambling.”
“You can ramble. I like hearing you ramble,” I say. “It’ll be more for you to include in your snail mail.”
“True! My sister and I were such dorks growing up. We would write each other letters and slide them under each other’s door… like really? Could we not just like open the door and say what we wanted to say?”
“What were you writing to each other?”
“Really important things like, ‘Did you eat the last popsicle? The moment you come out here, I’m going to fuck you up.’”
“Oh… vicious.”
“Yeah. Until our mom found one that said just that and told me if I said the F word to my sister one more time, she was going to wash my mouth out with soap. Not that she really would, though. She probably would have just told me I couldn’t have dessert that night or something.”
“Your mom sounds sweet.”
“She is.” We eat our subs while Traveler stares at us like we might have something for him.
He’s decided that it’s rather unfair he made the same trek and we didn’t bring him a sub, so I sneak him a piece and then Grayson just gives him a big bite, and then suddenly I’m getting drooled on, which makes me push him off toward Grayson.
We sit and talk and watch the sun go down over the next hour, even though we’re aware it’ll make our trek back a bit rough, but I don’t think either of us wants to get up.
I know the second I get up, this moment is over.
He’s going to move on with his life, and I’m going to have to move on with mine, but isn’t that the way the world goes? I really can’t complain too much.
“I guess we should head back,” he finally says. “We don’t want a park ranger seeing our car and throwing a fit.”
“True. Oh wait… you didn’t tell me what you wanted me to do since you won.”
“I kind of felt bad rubbing it in your face, given how quickly I won.”
“ Did you feel bad?” I ask with a grin. It’s easy to see he did, but he just grins back at me.
“I mean… a little. I was so fast. I didn’t even have to speed walk.”
“I nearly died.”
“I know you did! That’s why I felt bad!”
“Alright, let’s hear it… what do you want me to do?”
Grayson’s quiet for a second before reaching over and grabbing my wrist.
“Are… are you going to push me down the hill?” I ask.
“Definitely what I had in mind,” he says as he drags me toward him. I’m so confused by it that I end up a bit obstinate. Like… where is he dragging me to and why?
“Are your limbs too stiff to move?” he asks.
“I’m confused.”
He reaches out and physically lifts me up, which can’t be an easy thing to do from this position, and when he drags me onto his lap, I freeze. Is he torturing me now? Is that his plan? Is that what he wants to do with his winnings? Torture me?
I’m still over here trying to process what any of this means when he leans forward, hand sliding into my hair as he kisses me.
I’m too bewildered to respond and I sit still, eyes open, lips not participating.
Grayson pulls back just enough to look at me. “Do you not want to?”
“I want to,” I whisper, well aware that I can’t let my heart jump into this because it’s going to be really fucking sad if I do.
Instead, I lean in, eager to feel those lips again.
And as my lips press against his, my whole body becomes so sensitive that it’s like I can feel every inch of him—his muscled legs beneath me, the way his fingers tangle in my hair, cupping my head.
And if I rock forward just enough, I can feel his cock.
My lips part, and it’s the invitation he needs as his tongue tangles with mine.
I feel like putty in his hands, eager to let him do anything he wants to me.
One of his hands slides under my shirt and up my back while the other drifts down, and when his fingers slip under my pants, I realize he could tell me to strip right here on this very public path, and I would toss my clothes off the cliff if he asked for it.
His hand squeezes my ass cheek before drawing out and up my hip. It’s like he wanted just a taste of it and wouldn’t permit himself any more, even though I’m prepared to give it all to him.
I don’t want him to stop; I want to get lost in it. But when he pulls away, he doesn’t push me off his lap, setting his head against my shoulder instead.
“I really fucking like you,” Grayson admits. “I was afraid of liking you. I was afraid it’d ruin this… because I’m bad at dating. I forget about my partner’s feelings… but I think I’m realizing that it’s because I’ve never liked anyone as much as I like you.”
“Oh?” I whisper.
“What if we just… take it slow… and see if I can be good at this from a long distance? We’ll see what happens?”
“Yeah?” I try not to let my happiness consume me, but it’s hard to keep it down.
“Just… we’ll go slow and… we’ll try really hard. Just don’t forget that I don’t know where this will take me. I don’t know if I’ll stay in the States or go overseas—my future is so unpredictable—but I want to try my hardest to traverse it with you.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Will you visit me, then? When you bring Traveler?”
I nod. “I want to.”
“Good,” he says as he gives me a gentle peck. “We really should head down. You need to get up early, and I don’t want you to be tired. You need to be at the top of your game.”
I’m not even sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight, I’m so fucking happy, but I nod anyway and stand up.
Once we have our bags on our backs, Grayson reaches out to me, and I feel like my heart is going to float away when he takes my hand.
His fingers intertwine with mine and I’m positive I could run up and down those stairs at least three more times, I’m so damn happy.
I smile at him and he smiles right back at me.
“I hope you won’t be too busy to do stuff with me,” I say.
“I won’t. I’ll make sure to find time,” he assures me.
I don’t ever want the walk to end, but all too soon, I find myself back at the car.
“I… got you a present,” Grayson says.
“A present? I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything deserving of one,” I tease.
“It’s a ‘Thanks for putting up with my bullshit’ present.”