Ryan Hunter

fan of acrobatic moves. After a minute, she’d made it down to the roof of the shed.
    “Good, ” I encouraged her. “Now hang onto that branch, and I’ll get you down.”
    Liza turned wide eyes to me, all but calling me insane for even suggesting it. “I’ll break my neck if I fall.”
    She would hurt her ass if she fell. Maybe. However, I didn’t intend to let her get hurt. “I won’t let you fall. Promise.”
    It amazed me how quickly she trusted me this time, because without further discussion, she grabbed the nearest branch and stepped off the wooden roof. She probably hated that I heard her frightened whimper, but I found it sexy as hell.
    As she hung on that tree like a sheet on the clothesline, my gaze ran up and down her body. What I did next would certainly be the highlight of my day, and I intended to savor it to the full. Stepping so close that I could touch her, I placed my hands at the back of her calves then moved them upward over her thighs, until I had a good grip right beneath her butt. All her muscles tightened at my touch.
    I had to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth before I could speak again. “I have you. Let go.”
    “ What ?”
    What did she think we were doing here? Did she want to hang from that tree for the rest of the day? “Let go of the branch, Matthews,” I said, laughing. “ Now .”
    After some moaning and unintelligible cussing, she let go of the branch, and the weight of a kitten came down on me . Panicking, she clutched my shoulders, and I found myself trapped in her gorgeous green eyes. Finally, I eased my grip on her legs and let her slide down my body. Holy shit, that move turned me on like nothing ever had. When her feet touched the ground, I wasn’t ready to let her go. With my arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace, I inhaled her scent and soaked in the warmth of her body.
    A smile tugged at my lips. “Hi.”
    With her palms pressed against my chest, she shivered, and it made me feel good, because it wasn’t in the least cold this morning, so I must be the reason for her trembles. It was sweet how she struggled to hide that fact behind a calm expression and stepping out of my hug.
    “Can we go?” I asked, still smiling.
    “Where to?”
    “The beach.”
    She gulped, probably because it was quite a distance, but she nodded anyway like a brave kitten. We started off together, and I settled for a seriously slow pace, so she wouldn’t collapse after a couple hundred meters.
    I was used to running in the morning over weekends and usually enjoyed it because it was the only time of the day where everything was really quiet and peaceful. But with Liza by my side it was twice as nice.
    We jogged down a few streets with houses all looking alike as dawn broke. Liza did great—meaning she hadn’t resigned yet. But I didn’t like the silence between us and asked, “So, your parents got angry because you didn’t get home Saturday night?”
    “No,” she pushed out between erratic breaths. “My parents thought I crashed at Tony’s. Which is fine with them.”
    What the hell—she’d slept at Mitchell’s house? I almost tripped over my own feet. The bastard had never said a word about that. “You do that often?”
    Liza cut me a curious glance. “You sound like you disapprove.”
    Of course, I did! I scowled at her, but didn’t answer as long as I felt this invisible fist clenching my stomach. Only when we got closer to the ocean and the sound of crashing waves drifted to us, I managed to sound normal again. “So why the grounding?”
    She rubbed a forearm over her sweaty forehead. “My mom saw my red eyes and figured I’d been drinking.” Then she cussed, which made me arch a brow at her. “I forgot your sunglasses.”
    “No worries. ” I had forgotten about them, too. “You can give me them tomorrow before training.”
    She nodded, and it was clear that the little distance we’d run so far had troubled her a lot more than me. She sounded like a pair of bellows. As soon as we reached the beach, Liza slumped to the sand as though she had no life left in her any more.
    That was not part of the plan. I stood over her, hands on my hips, and gazed at her reddened face. “What are you doing?”
    “Dying.”
    I liked how she made me chuckle with such simple things. “No, you’re not. Get up, we’re not done.”
    “ I am,” she protested. “But don’t mind me. You just go on. I’m sure in a few hours someone will come and scrape me