test?”
He leans on the table, wrapping his arms across his chest. “Yup.”
“I think I can manage to read the book by myself.”
Grayson snorts. “Yeah. You might be able to read, princess, but you have to really know this stuff. What if we’re separated and you have to fend for yourself?”
My eyes narrow. “I think I can rough it. And I’m not a princess.”
That actually makes him chuckle, although the mirth doesn’t reach his eyes. “Nice try. I don't think so. I’m responsible for your ass as soon as we leave base camp, so I think you’d better know this stuff backwards and forwards.” He reaches behind himself and grabs another copy of the handbook, cracking it open. “Let’s start with the introduction, shall we?”
Shooting him a glare, I flip to the very beginning, my teeth already on edge. I try to focus on the material and not on the bossy asshole who is taking up about a quarter of the damn room. An asshole who looks like he could snap me in half with those stupidly powerful arms of his.
I curse the smallness of this space. I curse my stupid, wandering brain.
I will curse almost anything to avoid thinking about… him.
Thinking about him, lusting over him, that would make me weak. And I’m not weak.
So I just tip my nose in the air and pretend not to notice his virility.
A little over an hour later, I’ve had it with sitting. I stand abruptly, putting myself in the awkward position of having to almost touch him in order to get out of the cabin. All my blood rushes to my feet, which begin to pound.
Grayson looks at me stoically.
“We still have to go over…” He pauses, referring to the handbook. “Signaling Techniques and Wilderness Navigation.”
“Yeah, well…” I say as a push past him, heading out the door. My feet are aching, but at least I’m not still sitting in that tiny room. “I got antsy.”
He follows me outside. “I should’ve known.”
I start stretching, distracted. “What?”
He clears his throat. “In New York, you were impossible to get in one place for too long. I always wondered how you did so well on the SATs.”
My muscles freeze. I look at him.
How do you ask someone not to remember anything about you? I can’t find the words. Luckily, he ducks his head, seeming to realize that he has stepped over a boundary for both of us.
“I mean… we can walk,” he quickly corrects himself. “While we go over the last two sections.”
I say nothing as we begin our stroll. Grayson reads aloud from the handbook. I bite my lip and force my gaze down to my feet.
Memories swim up close to the surface. If I were just to reflect for a second even, I know what they would be like.
His smile.
The feeling of his big hands on my bare skin.
The sound of our shared laughter, of him chuckling as he shushes me.
Shh. We’re supposed to be quiet, aren’t we?
Then he puts his lips on that spot on my neck, the one that makes me tremble…
“Rachel,” he says.
I look up, bringing myself back to the present. Then I flush because despite my efforts, I launched right into lusting after Grayson. Or maybe remembering the way he was doesn’t quite count as wanting him now…
I could never want him now. Not after all this time has passed.
I just need to remember that.
“Are you listening?” he asks, his expression going hard. “It’s very important that you get all of this. I wasn’t kidding about the fact that I will be responsible if anything happens to you in the wilderness.”
Ugh. He sounds smug and superior. He’s just so annoying when he thinks he’s right. I can’t stand it, so I goad him a little. “We both know that if anything happens, you’ll be the first one to save yourself. I will be the one left behind.”
He stops dead in his tracks. “Excuse me?”
Now I’m riling him up. Which suits me just fine.
“You heard me. I’ve been through this once before. Only instead of the wilderness, you left me to the wolves of the upper East side in New York City.” I give him a vague smile.
His nostrils flare. His eyes look as though he could kill me, just as surely as I stand here.
When he speaks, his words are terse. “You don't know what you’re talking about.”
I cross my arms and cock my hip. “I think I do.”
Grayson regards me with something an awful lot like disgust. Good,