He made it closer to a minute, but who’s counting?

36

Elena

“Good morning, handsome.” I kissed Alex and wrapped my arms around him from behind, holding a blanket around myself.

He turned and pulled me closer, just holding me there without saying anything for a minute.

Goddamn, I was all up in my feelings for this man.

I wasn’t quite ready to begrudgingly admit it, but I’d gotten one of the best nights of sleep of my life. When I told him, I’d have to admit there was something to this whole sleeping under the stars thing. Or it could’ve been the multiple mind-blowing orgasms under the stars.

Alex was already making breakfast. I was delighted to discover he’d somehow used camping wizardry to make me a perfect cup of tea.

“I’m going bouldering.” He pressed little kisses to my forehead, nose, and cheeks. “Come with me?”

“I didn’t bring any clothes that are suitable for wandering around in the dirt. Why don’t I just wait here and you can go have your solitude with the rocks?”

“Here,” he said, handing me a pile of clothes. “They’re mine, but they should work.”

I dropped the blanket onto the table and pulled shorts and a shirt on. They were giant, but Alex was looking at me like he’d never seen anything sexier.

“You’re such an Alpha. You like me in your clothes.”

“Too much,” he confirmed, eyes raking over me.

“Let’s go or you’re going to miss your chance to play on the rocks. You can ravish me when we get home.”

We drove to one of his favorite places to boulder and he found a shady spot for me to sit next to the problem he was climbing, as I’d learned it was called in bouldering. On the way over, I’d been informed that bouldering was like rock climbing without the ropes and the mat we’d slept on was a crash pad to land on when you fell or jumped down. What he hadn’t explained was how devastatingly sexy it would be to watch him doing it.

“Do you want to give it a shot?” he shouted without looking at me. He was focused on swinging his arm forward to grab another groove in the rock as he propelled himself upward with his feet.

“Fuck no. But by all means continue. I’m enjoying the view,” I called back, pulling my sunglasses down to peer over the top at him.

“Why do I feel like I’m being objectified?” he muttered.

Dear Goddess was he being objectified. Why had no one told me about bouldering before now? It played to all of my kinks. He was demonstrating feats of strength, shirtless and sweaty, using his quick mind to see options that didn’t occur to me. And his body. The rippling muscles were magnificent as always, but there was more to it than that. He was happy here and that joy was infectious.