“Thanks, Mom!” Josh yelled back as the door shut.
I tossed my bag into the backseat and was almost into the driver’s seat when Grayson ran out in flight-suit bottoms and a tan T-shirt that stretched beautifully across his chest. Was my heart ever not going to pound when he was around?
“Babe?” I asked.
He lifted my chem notebook and jogged over. “You left it on the nightstand.”
“That would have sucked,” I said, taking it from him. “Thank you.”
“I actually like seeing your stuff all over my room, but I figured you’d need it for class.”
“Hey, I confine it to my side of the bed.”
“Uh huh.” He gave me an ultra-intense look and then kissed me, pulling me into his body like he had all the time in the world. His skin was still damp from his shower.
Once he released me, I wavered. “What was that for?”
“I’ve never been this happy, and I think I like it.” He kissed me again, and I melted into it, uncaring that my book dropped to the ground. “Get to class,” he whispered against my mouth, and then left me standing there, all sorts of turned on. Damn that man.
I smiled. He was happy because of me. “I love you,” I whispered to his back as he closed the door to the house.
I was late to class, but I smiled as I took my seat.
Turns out I’d never been that happy, either.
“Are you still studying?” I asked Grayson three weeks later as I leaned into his doorframe. His note cards were spread out on the bed, and he sat in the center, selecting random questions to answer. His light blue tee draped over him in a way I couldn’t wait to, and his dark blue board shorts left his legs bare.
“Yep.”
Ooh, work-mode Grayson was in effect. “You’ve been at it since I left this morning, and it’s after eight.”
“Yep.” He flipped another card.
“Have you even eaten?”
“Yep.”
“So all day you’ve only studied, eaten, and worked out?” I’d seen him a few hours earlier at the gym. Well, more like salivated over him lifting while I pretended to work.
“Yep.”
“Can you give me more than a one-word answer?”
“Yep.”
I snorted, which earned me a smile.
“I’m fine, babe, just need to get this down. We have a test on Tuesday.”
“It’s Thursday, and a four-day weekend. You’re going to seriously burn out if you go at it like this all weekend.”
He sent me a look so hot my thighs clenched. “Don’t worry, I’ll still have time to study you, too. I’m almost done, I promise.”
“Okay.” I walked back into my room and shut the door, stripping off my work clothes. A shower later, I felt ready to tackle the challenge of Grayson in study mode. It wasn’t that I wanted to distract him, but damn, the man’s brain was going to explode. He seriously had five modes—work mode, study mode, workout mode, sex mode, and sleep mode.
I could at least get him through the last two.
Ten minutes later, I was ready. Thank God we had central air, because there was no way I could have pulled this off in late August without it.
“You about ready?” I asked, peeking my head around his doorframe.
He barely looked up from the cards. “Yeah. Just a couple more minutes. We’ve been in the bag all week, and that stress isn’t doing me any favors.”
I sat on the edge of his giant bed, careful not to disturb the cards. “You doing okay?” Flying was his strong suit. If there was an issue there, his rank would slip, and Jagger was hot on his heels.
He looked up, his beautiful gray eyes a little dim with exhaustion. “Yeah. It’s tough, flying with the cockpit blacked out, but I’m adjusting to the scope. It gives me a pretty bad headache, though, which is killing my study time. Plus we lost Pritchards this week. They pulled him out this morning.”