“I don’t want either of you to get hurt,” she admits quietly.
Nodding my head, I agree with her. “I don’t either.”
With a quiet side hug, we hit the steepest part of the hike.
“I do still need the tea on what he’s like in bed. There are a lot of rumors. And I need to know if they’re true, but if I didn’t have Cooper… damn.” She laughs.
“Ugh. I bet the rumors don’t even touch what he’s like, and I haven’t even gotten his dick in me yet. He made me count how many times it would take him to get me off with his tongue. Each lick I had to count, sprawled out naked across his kitchen counter.”
“Oh my God! That’s amazing, and I love that for you. But is his cock as big as they all say?”
“Brought literal tears to my eyes, Aubs.”
The two of us break into a fit of giggles as we slowly lose our ability to breathe one mile into the hike.
And then there’s silence as we complete the ascent to the top for our picnic.
Coming down isn’t any better. Both of us are so focused on not tripping on the rocks or roots going down that we don’t talk.
“That was a lot fucking harder than I thought,” Aubrey says as we exit the trailhead. “Now, I really need a nap.”
“Yeah, we probably should have listened to Wyatt and done the trail along the cliffs with barely any gain. But I wanted to prove him wrong.” I roll my shoulders and stretch out my back from looking down for an entire mile.
“Is that why I had to suffer? Because you’re too stubborn to listen to Wyatt?” She steps through the trees onto the dirt road.
“No. You had to suffer because I wanted to see the view.” I laugh. “And maybe because I was told I couldn’t do it.”
“Is that why you two started? Because he told you no?”
Why does she know me so well?
“Yes. But that’s not why it’s continuing. I pursued him in the first place because he’s hot as sin, and I wanted to know what that was like. He looks like a man that could really take care of you, not to mention all the rumors swirling. But the more he talks to me as Giana, the more I think I really actually like him.”
A car comes down the driveway to Wyatt’s house. “Speak of the devil,” Aubrey says, waving like a crazed woman to get his attention.
Parking his cruiser, he hops out and heads over to meet us at the edge of the paved driveway and dirt road. “Good afternoon, ladies. Have a good hike?”
“It was great. Had no problem,” I say, smirking.
“She’s fucking lying. That sucked. Stop telling her she can’t do shit.” Aubrey hits his shoulder.
My eye is drawn to his cheek; the skin has lessened to more of a pink instead of the angry red it was when we first met.
“Is that all I have to do? Challenge you to do something?” He winks.
“Oh, God. You two need to fuck and get it over with. I’m going home to nap before I have a rowdy kid home from camp. Byeeee!” She waves over her shoulder.
Wyatt’s face is pale when I look back to him.
“Does she know?”
“Know what?” I ask innocently.
“That we”—he leans in close—“hooked up?”
“Are you afraid for her to find out? A big bad cop is afraid of Aubrey?”
“Hell yeah, I am! She’ll tell Coop. Coop will try to kick my ass, then I’ll have to defend myself, then he’ll get hurt, then Mom will come looking for me, and I’ll be in trouble for defiling youandhurting Coop! Then she won’t feed me for a minute,” he says animatedly, throwing his hands in the air.
