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I felt a little raw, a lot destroyed from the inside out, and I was absolutely buzzing with satisfaction. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so completely emptied out. It was like every drop of sexual frustration I’d ever had was siphoned out of me in a whirlwind of delicious sex. Greyson was officially a god. When our bodies came together, his touch was magic, and I was fairly certain he could actually read my mind. He made me feel far sexier than I had any right to feel, but the sensation was intoxicating.
Greyson nodded. “Zack won’t be back for another hour or so. He just texted. They stopped to get ice cream.”
I was curled up on the couch in the lobby with a warm blanket. I smiled when Greyson sat beside me and pulled me against his chest. I let my head rest against him, eyes closed as a smile came unbidden. Casual, Harper. This is just casual to him. Don’t start catching feelings, because he won’t feel them back and you’ll only wind up with a broken heart.
“He’s a good brother,” I said, searching for something casual to talk about. This wasn’t pillow talk. It was just… Convenience. Neither of us had anything else to do at the moment and we were killing time together. Besides, I wasn’t sure if my body could handle him again without a little recovery time. There was only so much a girl could take in one night.
“He is,” Greyson agreed.
“It’s crazy to me that your dad is disappointed in you guys. I feel like most parents would be over the moon to have sons like you.”
He chuckled. He had thrown on a simple gray shirt and jeans after our shower and I caught myself running my hand across his firm belly through the fabric. I pulled it back. Keep it casual.
“My dad wishes we were like our youngest brother, Patrick. He’s a lawyer in New York. Practically my dad’s wet dream.”
“There are three of you?”
“Yeah. I’m thirty-six, Zack is thirty, and Patrick is twenty-eight.”
“And there’s just the three of you?”
“No,” he said. “We have a little sister, too.”
“Big family,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “Where is she?”
“Hailey is…” he paused as if choosing his words carefully. “She’s younger than you and she handled my parents even worse than me and Zack. She ran off when she was seventeen last year and cut contact. With all of us.”
“You don’t know where she is?” I felt horrified at the idea for some reason. Greyson’s family had seemed so perfect at first glance. The two well-adjusted brothers and Greyson’s adorable little kids. But the more I learned, the more I saw how fractured his personal life really was.
“No.” There was heavy emotion in that single word. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel the heaviness it brought him. “The last time I saw her was at Christmas. She was sixteen and my parents wouldn’t shut up about how disappointed they were in all of us. Hailey got into some trouble at school so they were planning to send her to a stuffy all-girls boarding school. That was when she split.”
“I’m sorry. Were the two of you close?”
“Yeah,” he said. “The kids loved her, too. Sometimes I feel like I can’t forgive her for cutting me off, too. Other times, I think what it must’ve been like growing up in that fucking house practically all by herself. In the end, she’s just a kid, and I’ll be ready to forgive her when she comes around.”
“You’re a good brother.”
“A good brother would’ve done more to protect her from my parents.”
“You can’t put it all on your back, Greyson.”
“I can try,” he said stubbornly.
I grinned. I could imagine it better now. He was the oldest of four emotionally abused siblings. He was divorced with two kids of his own. All that while he was trying to juggle a high-powered job in a big city. The man was probably stressed to the brim and ready to burst from it. I wondered when the last time he’d really let himself have fun was.
“Would it be too… not casual if I took you and your kids somewhere fun?”
He didn’t answer right away. “What are you suggesting?”
“It’s a bit of a drive, but there’s this rock-climbing place about forty minutes from here. You can get a day pass for cheap, and they have little walls that are perfect for kids. Maybe we could all go tomorrow?”
It was even longer before he answered this time. “Harper,” the tone of his voice made my stomach drop. “I don’t want things to get confused. The sex is fantastic, but I’m still going home in less than three months. We need to keep this physical.”
I nodded and got up quickly. “Yeah, of course. Sorry, I was just being stupid. You’re right.” I rushed around trying to find my shoes and my bag. “I should get going, anyway.”
