Page 34 of Unrivaled

“What, so you think we’re going home now?” After what he spent renting out this place? Well, whatGradyspent. “Patience, Grasshopper.”

This would be more challenging now that his shoes were wet, but Max could do it. He shook out his muscles.

Grady descended the wall and watched from the base of the first platform. “Are you a glutton for punishment or something?”

Yes, but I’m saving that reveal for later.“You don’t think I can do it?” Maxtsked. “Grady, Grady, Grady. Anything you can do, I can do better.”

“If you really want to fall in the water again—”

Max ignored him and sprinted across the benches. This time he made sure to stick to the middle.

He barely paused before launching into the rings. One, two, three, four, five, and he was across. The Shrinking Steps were tricky with wet shoes, but he didn’t slip until the final one, and he landed on his feet on the platform.

Then the Salmon Ladder—he hated that thing; his core felt like it was on fire and his triceps were always jelly by the end, not to mention keeping his grip on the rope afterward gave him trouble. But he knew how to use his lower body to swing from grip to grip across the bouldering obstacle.

“You were saying?” Max said from the top of the wall a few seconds later.

He could practically feel the heat coming off Grady’s red face. “Did youpracticethis?”

Max smirked at him. “Maybe.”

Oooh, that frown was like a thundercloud. “So you lost on purpose?”

“Bud, I don’t think we’re playing the same game.” Max hopped down the stairs on the back side of the wall. “This happened once before, remember?”

A muscle at the corner of Grady’s jaw twitched. “Would it kill you to be straightforward about anything for once in your life?”

Max beamed. “Probably not, but why risk it?”

Now there was a vein bulging in his forehead. “Why are you like this?”

“Mom says it’s because I’m a middle child.”

Grady made a noise like the kitchen sink disposal.

Max patted his shoulder and headed for the exit. “You want to follow me back to my place, or should I send you the address?”

GRADY PROBABLYshould have turned around and gone home. He was irritated with Max. If he wanted Grady to fuck him so bad, he could’ve said so. He didn’t have to make a stupid bet about it. And he didn’t have to let Grady win—that wasannoying. Grady wasn’t a kid. He didn’t need to behandled.

Max was just… outrageous. Grady could never get away with half the things Max said, but Max had everyone conned into thinking he wascharming. Even Grady caught himself falling for it from time to time.

He was also irritated with himself. He’d said some dumb things that he regretted. He hated the moment of panic he’d felt when Max hit the water. Max was never in any danger. He was falling in a pool—and now Grady knew that’d been on purpose.

Which made himmoreirritated. What did Grady care what happened to Max? He didn’t even like the guy.

Okay, Grady didn’t have to like someone to not want them to get hurt. But he felt like Max’s intentional fall was some kind of cosmic “gotcha” moment. Like it had been meant to catch Grady caring when he shouldn’t.

And then Max had the nerve to get out of the pool looking likethat. He should’ve looked like a drowned rat, with his dumb, too-long hair soaked and clinging to his scalp and his athletic shirt plastered to his body and his shorts leaving nothing to the imagination.

Fuck.Fuck.Wasn’t it bad enough that he made Grady lose control on the ice and annoyed the hell out of him off of it? Did Grady have to find him sexually attractive too?

For once in his life, could Grady have a normal reaction to someone acting like a pest?

It was possible he was thinking about it a little too hard.

But apparently the answer to all of that was no—itwasn’tbad enough, and hedidhave to find him sexually attractive, and his reaction to Max annoying him on purpose was, evidently, to get a boner he could pound nails with, so he practically tailgated Max back to his place.

By the time he pulled into the driveway, he wasreallyfrustrated. He’d been stuck looking at the ass end of Max’s ugly lime-green Land Rover for fifteen minutes when he parked and stalked out of the car toward the front door.

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