No Saint (Wild Men 6)

“Nope.”

He stands up, dripping, that dark T-shirt molded to his powerful chest and shoulders, the boxer briefs to his muscular thighs and ass, and I all but drool.

“Time to go back,” he announces.

“Not yet,” I whine a little, getting up and shivering in the evening breeze. “You were right, it’s nice here. Relax, take off your T-shirt. You’d think it’s glued to you.”

“Leave it, Lu.”

“Why? What don’t you want me to see?” He’s still and silent, and I reach for the hem, smiling at him. “Oh come on...”

“Goddammit, don’t.” His face when he turns to glare at me is stony.

“Why?”

“Just don’t. Fuck, why do you keep pushing?” He shoves past me, and storms away, leaving wet footprints on the rocks, vanishing among the trees.

Holy crap on a stick. What just happened? Why does this keep happening with him, these flares of anger when I prod a bit too hard? It scares me.

It intrigues me. And yeah, worries me. So much worries me about him.

“I deserve this. It’s okay. Let me go.”

More shivers wrack me and I make for my clothes, laid out on the pebbles. I climb out of the creek and gather them, pulling on my blouse and skirt, my sandals.

What do I do now?

It strikes me, after a long moment of stunned silence, that he’s left his pants, and boots by the stream. Would he be so upset he’d leave them and come for them later, after I’m gone? Or... maybe he hasn’t gone far.

Gathering his things up in my arms, I trek up, in the direction we came from.

I think.

I’m embarrassed to admit that my attention was more on his hand on my elbow than the path we took to come here. The house can’t be far, though. We didn’t walk all that long. I walk ahead, glancing nervously around. It’s getting pretty dark out here, with the trees hiding the sky.

Suddenly a hand grabs at me so suddenly I almost fall. “Not that way,” a growly voice snaps and looking up, I meet his stormy gaze.

We’re standing under a big, gnarled old tree with a thick trunk and branches tangled over our heads like a roof. Like a temple, I think. A church.

His grip jerks me closer to him. He looks down at me. “Why are you here?”

“To be with you.”

“Then leave the damn T-shirt be.”

“I can’t. I want to know everything about you.”

“Why would you want that? Why would you wanna dig up that... that pit of vipers??

?

“Because it’s part of who you are. Maybe part of what pushed you off that roof yesterday.”

“I told you, I fell.”

“So you keep saying. But you’ve been up there, on the edge, a few times. I saw you.”

“What? When?”