“Yeah, well. You lose.”

He pouted and handed back the sketchbook.

“Thank you. And you know I’d never put Marisol and Chloe in such awful dresses. They’d both kill me then dispose of the body.” My friends were smart and wily. They knew how to get away with things.

“Yeah, they would. And they’d never get caught.” Ryder had met my friends a couple of times but hadn’t seen them in a while.

“Maybe we should all hang out or something. You know, with Lucah and Rory, and maybe Fin,” I said. Or maybe not. It might feel too couple-y if we did it that way.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not that much in the mood for hanging out these days,” he said. To me, that was one of the problems. Ryder spent the majority of his time in the apartment. That was bound to drive anyone crazy. When we used to go stay with Rory and her family up in Maine, we’d joke that if we were stuck there for too long we’d go cabin crazy.

“And it’s not exactly easy to make friends,” Ryder said. Yeah, that was a real problem. It wasn’t like he was in college, or on a team, or had a job, which were all the usual places people made friends. I had a few guys working for me, but a lot of them had their own groups, and most were slightly fabulous. Not really Ryder’s type of friends.

“Maybe you’ll meet people in Colorado.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Make friends with other addicts? Probably not the best idea. Although, I do hang out with Gil.”

“Yeah, there’s Gil. He’s a good guy. And if you were around people who were struggling with the same thing then maybe it would help. Not that I know anything about this. I’m just guessing.” It sounded right.

Ryder shrugged. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. The thing is, if I want to do this, I have to go now. It’s going to be winter in the mountains as it is.”

“So you’re going to be camping in the woods in the middle of winter? Is that even safe?” That didn’t sound safe at all. What about frostbite?

Ryder laughed. “Yeah, it’s safe. People do it all the time. You just have to get special winter camping gear and have an experienced guide with you. They have all that there. Besides, it sounds pretty badass.” It sounded pretty crazy to me, but if he wanted to do it, then that was great. This was the first thing, other than sex, that Ryder had shown an interest in for a long time. It was nice to see his eyes light up again.

“So, what else do they have there?” I asked, wanting to hear more about the program. He pulled up the website and showed me all the things he could potentially do. The only thing I noticed was the length of the session. Thirty days minimum. One whole month in the Colorado wilderness. In the snow.

“I really want to do it,” he said.

“I can tell. You should.” I scanned the cost per day for the program and had done some quick math. Apparently camping in the winter in the Colorado mountains wasn’t cheap. There was definitely no way Ryder could come up with that kind of cash on short notice.

“I’m going to talk to Lucah when he gets back. Speaking of that, when are they coming back?” he asked, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Soon,” I said. Soon my weekend with Ryder would be over. Somehow, we’d made it through without having sex or even getting close.

Sure, there had been plenty of times when I imagined him slamming me up against a wall, kissing the fuck out me, and then fucking me while he kissed me. I’d pictured what sex with Ryder would be like since the day we’d met. But I had the feeling reality would blow away my imagination.

Not that I’d ever find out. Ryder and I definitely weren’t going to have sex.

~*~*~

A half hour after they said they’d be home, Rory and Lucah walked through the door.

“Hey,” Rory said, running to hug me. She seemed exhausted, but in better spirits than when she left.

“Hey,” I said, hugging her back. “How is everything? Tell me.”

She sighed and I could tell that she really needed some sleep first.

“On second thought, why don’t you go have a nap and then come and talk to me?” She smiled gratefully and shuffled off to the bedroom.

Ryder and Lucah were talking quietly and I felt like an intruder.

“I’m going to head back down the hall. I’m really happy April is okay,” I said to Lucah before giving him a hug.

“Thank you so much, Sloane. That really means a lot.”

I puttered around my place and Rory knocked on the door a few hours later looking better-rested.

Tags: Chelsea M. Cameron Erotic
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