Jourdan shrugs. “I prefer to get to know people who are going to get up close and personal with my vagina. But I mean, I’m definitely interested in all that other stuff, especially the weekend staycation. For the record.”

“Obviously.”

She gasps. “Are you calling me easy?”

“I— I didn’t mean—”

She giggles. “Yeah, you did.” She steps in front of me on the trail, and I stop walking before I crash into her. She reaches out to slip her index finger underneath my t-shirt and scratch lightly at my abs. “Don’t worry. I’m not offended. If I like someone, I’m an open book. With open legs.” She steps forward. Her hand snakes fully under my shirt. Her palm moves up my stomach. “And I like you. Obviously.”

“I like you,” I gasp.

Her other hand grabs my dick over my shorts, much like Nadia had barely an hour ago.

“Obviously,” she teases.

I reach for her waist again, but this time, I slip some of my fingers inside her waistband. I just want to touch more of her skin. I’m desperate for it. “Not here.”

It’s her turn to swallow as she stares up at me with parted lips and fire in her eyes. “I know a place.”

I miss her hand on my dick immediately, but she reaches for my hand, and our fingers intertwine, and I don’t mind the loss at all.

Jourdan leads me into the heart of the nature preserve. At a juncture in the walking trail that splits into two more paths, we take a detour into the trees.

“Are we allowed in here?” I whisper.

“So adorable,” she says but doesn’t stop.

We follow a packed dirt trail so far into the trees that the sounds of the city fade away, and the sky becomes nothing more than patches of blue in the dark green canopy above us. We descend into the kind of quiet that I wouldn’t have thought possible even on the outskirts of the city. Instead of honking cars, all I can hear is a running stream somewhere and birds, and a peace settles over me. We open into a natural clearing, cut off on one side by a burbling stream. It was a bright morning on the trail, but the light is a silky gray here, and it smooths the edges of everything around us, even things that don’t need the help of a natural filter.

Like Jourdan. She was beautiful in full light, but here, with the higher branches filtering the effect of the sun, she’s stunning.

I’m still taking her in when she turns to me and pushes my back against a tree.