Jack poured the creamer generously into the thick coffee mug emblazoned with Addy’s family’s restaurant logo. He sprinkled in two spoonfuls of Splenda and swirled the sweet concoction.

From the bedroom doorway, he paused. She was beautiful when she slept, innocent and unconcerned. It was the only time he ever saw her without worries visibly dotted across her face.

Addy was sprawled across the bed with one tanned leg slung over the sheet. Her t-shirt had inched up during the night to expose a stretch of her toned stomach.

With each deep breath, he couldn’t help but notice the rise and fall of her chest. Clearly braless, for a moment he almost thought he could see through the white material.

“Morning,” he said, just as his arousal started to shift in his scrubs.

“Morning,” she murmured, eyes still closed. Slowly, she opened them and squinted. “Is that coffee?”

“With creamer and Splenda, just like you like. You know, those fake sweeteners will kill you,” he said with a smile as he moved toward her outstretched hands.

“So will a morning without coffee,” she said before she took a sip. “Okay, you got my attention. And now I know you want something. What’s up?”

Jack grinned. “Get up. Get dressed. The stars have magically aligned, and we both have the day off.”

She groaned. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, doctor’s orders. And wear workout clothes or something.”

“We’re working out? No, I don’t think so,” she said and put the coffee on the nightstand. “No coffee is worth that.”

“We’re not working out. But wear something you don’t mind getting dirty.”

“What?”

Before she could argue, he left the room and shut the door.

“What are we doing?” she called behind him.

“It’s a surprise! Hurry up,” he yelled from the living room.

Twenty minutes later, she appeared in the living room freshly showered wearing black yoga pants and a heathered gray Santa Fe University top with a generous V-neck. A strappy black sports bra could be seen underneath.

“Okay, I’m ready. Now tell me,” she said.

“Everything’s in the car. You’ll see.”

She groaned, but let him grab her hand and drag her toward the Jeep. Addy peeked in the back, but all she could make out were duffel bags.

“Are we going on a hike?” she asked. She slipped on a pair of aviators and stuffed her hair under a baseball cap.

“Quite the opposite, actually. But that’s all the hint you get,” he said. “Here, eat this,” he said as he handed her a meal replacement bar. “You’ll need it.”

From the corner of his eye, he watched her break off pieces by hand and chew slowly. Jack checked the distance. They were getting closer. Soon, signs for Black Chasm Cavern started to appear. He watched her take them in and shot him a curious look.

Jack pulled into a gravel lot.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re going spelunking.”

“No way,” she said.

Addy shook her head vehemently, but took the blue jumpsuit he handed her. She stepped into the belay belt and warily took the red helmet he handed her from the bag.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re in good hands.”

As he hoisted the belt over her hips and cinched it tight at her groin, he couldn’t help himself. Being this close to her, his hands inches from that sweetness he’d been teased with.

Addy audibly gulped. Jack looked up from where he squatted before her and saw a deep blush spread across her face.

“Let’s go,” he said, and gave her belt one final test tug.

He led the way into the first cavern and gestured for her to turn her light on.

“I didn’t know real spelunking, or whatever you call it, was allowed in here,” she said. “I thought it was like a tourist trap.”

“From what I could tell, it isn’t allowed,” he said.

“Jack!”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I did my research. Lots of people sneak in for a little private caving.”

As they rounded a corner, he held up a flashlight to the first formation he’d read about.

“Check this out, it’s an aeolian.”

“What’s that?” She came up behind him, mildly breathless from the touch of fear the darkness tends to bring.

“It was created by the wind.” Jack turned off the handheld light and slipped it into his pocket. Only the lights on their helmets illuminated the whirling pattern.

“Come on,” he said. He couldn’t see her hand, but he felt it and she grasped him tight.

“Where are we going?” she said. Addy whispered it, the sacredness of the cave omnipresent.

“The first belay bolt.”

He helped her up the first minor ascent and then scrambled after her. In the oily darkness of the little perch, the sediment walls pressed in around them.

He felt like kissing her. She smelled of flowers every time he got close.

The rest of the morning unfolded with plenty of close calls. Once, in the dark zone of the cavern where daylight could never reach, he almost couldn’t stop himself.

He came close, crouched down to avoid the low overhang. Addy didn’t need to duck at all. Instead, she looked up at him, her chin tilted upward and those plush lips nearly begged him to close the distance between them.

Yet he resisted.

This was a stupid idea, he realized as they made their way through the tightest quarters of the cavern.

It required them to be on hands and knees. Addy moved ahead of him, her heart-shaped ass punctuated by the outline of the belt. He steadied his breath but couldn’t look away.

It took all his willpower not to grasp that belt, pull her back to him, rip off her clothes and sink his hardness deep inside her. With every inch she moved forward on hands and knees, he grew harder.

As they cleared the tunnel, she glanced back at him over her shoulder. Only his headlight illuminated her face.

Ask me to take you, right here, he thought.

But she didn’t. She only smiled and stood up, brushing her knees with her fingertips.

“Oh, wow,” she said. “What’s that called?”

Addy pulled out her own flashlight to illuminate the swirling column.

“Helictite,” he said. “They’re amazing, aren’t they?”

He prayed she wouldn’t shine the light down and see his raging hard-on. Jack had never been so thankful for the darkness.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” she said quietly.

She reached for his hand and wove her fingers through his easily. It should have been romantic, but it was beyond that. Jack had seen many things in his life, incredible things, but with Addy he saw them with fresh eyes—her eyes.

Had he come alone or with anyone else, he would have simply ticked it off as another helictite featured in one of his many adventures. She made it different, special. She showed him the wonders right in front of him.

He let her lead the way and choose the next fork. As he watched her ass sashay in front of him and her hips swing side to side, he tried to figure it out. He’d never obsessed about a girl so much in his life.

But she’s not just any girl, is she?

All the others had basically thrown themselves at him. Even Rosalie. He was used to all the games they tried, whether they were flirty or aloof. The ones like Rosalie who were skilled at playing hard to get were still easy to read.

Rosalie had slept with him on the third date and swore she’d never done anything like that before.

But not Addy. She wasn’t like any of them. It was refreshing, and strange, especially after he’d been awarded his MD title. The girls came easily enough before that, but afterward? Even a hint that he was a doctor made the most exquisite of women flock to him.

Why was Addy immune to it?

If anything, she seemed to be the one trying to keep everything light and breezy.

Fuck. If this is a game, she’s better at it than I am.

Had he met his match? He couldn’t tell. But Addy’s seeming indifference to him made him want her even more. And that little incident in the bathroom? He couldn’t be totally certain that she would have fucked him had Kenzie not interrupted.

She’s so quick to switch gears, she could have called it quits at any minute.

In front of him, she leaned down to squeeze through another small space. Jack reached out, desperate for just a touch of her. To feel her ass in his hands again. Just like that night in the bathroom.

Just like his dream when she let him cradle her cheeks in his hands while she rode his face, demanded with her body that he tongue her clit generously before he dipped it into her center. “Fuck me, please.”

He still remembered Dream Addy and how she’d begged for it, even while knowing she was in control. She could have asked anything of him.

“Is that the sun?” Her voice in real time broke his trance.

“Looks like it,” he said. Jack commanded his erection to subside by the time they reached the exit. “Stop.”

She turned. “What is it?”

“You can’t just go out in the sun like that. You have to stay here a minute, let your eyes readjust.”

They leaned against the cool walls of the cave, half in the darkness they’d just shared and half in the sun. Addy squinted into the sunlit greenery. She turned to him and opened her mouth. Just one word, and I’m yours, he thought.

“I could use a beer,” she said, and stretched overhead.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s find a bar,” he said, deflated.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop eye fucking her.