Page 82 of Theirs to Hunt (Girls Like Us #1)

Chapter eighty-two

T he house still buzzed with movement, but I found him anyway. After the session with Brooks, after I threw him off-balance mid-move just to prove I was paying attention, I toweled off but stayed in my gym clothes. Hair tied back. Skin still flushed.

Not collapsing. Just that silent tether we’d built told me Grayson needed me now.

I knocked once on the study door. Didn’t wait.

He looked up from behind his desk. No visible surprise, but I saw it in the flick of his eyes. The inhale he didn’t take all the way.

"Just came to say thank you," I said softly. "For the gym. For letting Brooks teach me. For the space."

He studied me like he was trying to figure out what I really came for.

I walked to him. Slowly. Let him look.

I didn’t kneel. Didn’t shrink. But I offered him something anyway. "I wanted to give you something. Not all of me. I’m not losing myself. But this? Us? This is mine too."

Something shifted in his jaw. His eyes dropped to my bare arms, still slick from sweat, then to my mouth.

He stood. Crossed to me without a word. And lifted me like I weighed nothing.