Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

“Sure you didn’t,” I grumbled.

He held his hand up wincing. The fire flickered and he had the good manners for his cheeks to pink high in the corners.

“Honestly, no. I’m not that kind of opportunist. With the fire going, we should probably get these wet clothes off and the dry blankets on so our stuff can dry overnight. I can’t have you getting sick on my watch.”

Now I felt like an idiot for assuming he was trying wedge himself inside my skinny jeans when he was really just doing his job. Who was I kidding? I was an idiot. I couldn’t read signals from the opposite sex if my life depended on it apparently. Dinah was definitely back at the camp screwing my ex-crush in warm blankets and a tent while I was squandering a perfectly good opportunity to practice socializing like a normal person who’d been lost in the woods and then rescued.

Standing up, I grabbed the blankets and tossed one to him and took the other. “I’ll uh just…can you turn around and not look?” Flustered, I took the blanket and walked over to the cold corner, ready to change. We exchanged glances and I waved at him to turn around, but he stood there looking about as confounded as I felt.

“Lia, come back. Change by the fire and I’ll go in the corner to change.” Stalling, he urged me again. “Come on, I promise not to look if you promise not to look.”

“Fine.” Trudging to the fire, he brushed past me. His clothed chest inched past mine. If our clothes were currently air drying at all there would have been steam when he walked by me. “Don’t peek.” I viewed him over my shoulder and saw his back against the wall, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“Scout’s honor,” he grinned, holding up two fingers. I stomped turning around and began to take my clothes off.

6

Whit

I should have confessed. I was never a Boy Scout despite my wilderness background and survival skills, a lie of omission on my part. She didn’t ask, so I didn’t clarify. Honestly, I hadn’t intended to look. I promised her I wouldn’t, but the shiny metal frame hanging on the wall as a makeshift mirror reflected her little show. I had forgotten it was even there until I turned around and saw her sliding her clothes off in the wavy reflection before I could tell her to stop. I bit my lip and shut my eyes before cracking them open for a peek. I was no angel. If I told her about it now it wouldn’t look any better for me. So I squinted my eyes shut praying that the rumbles of lightening outside wouldn’t strike me dead. I decided to keep that little pearl of information to myself and save her from any embarrassment she might be feeling. That was about as honorable as I got.

Yeah, that lasted less than a minute.

Awestruck, I watched Lia wiggle her pert ass out of her soaked tight jeans, leaving transparent panties struggling to hug her ass, ending with an awkward hop to untangle them from her legs. I winced when she banged her leg and held back a curse on her pouty lips.

I would have offered help, but the whole I’m not watching thing prevented that. She tried draping the blanket around her to get the rest, but after dropping it twice she gave up and gave me another show pulling her top off. Her breasts bounced inside the cups of her sheer bra. Not exactly hiking attire and I had a feeling she’d meant for that dumb jock to catch a glimpse of her in them. He didn’t deserve her. My dick decided to join the conversation at this point despite my protests. I hoped I wasn’t more than six, maybe eight years her senior, but I had a feeling it was more making me feel like a perverted jackass. My grumpy self did better without romantic entanglements.

Unexpected jealously coursed through me. I didn’t know this girl from anywhere, but she toughed out the hike here without too much complaint in the pouring rain and did what needed to be done. I found that admirable and far different from the stupid girl she claimed herself to be. She lacked self-confidence that would come to her in time with life experiences and age, she didn’t strike me as stupid at all. Naïve perhaps. Maybe a bit of a sweet and sour mix of my two friends Taylor and Kristen. However, my dick wasn’t overly choosy and rose in her general direction with interest and appreciation.

“Done,” she piped up from the direction of the fire and I gulped back a response. I didn’t want to be done watching her, so I quickly stripped down, leaving my tight fitting boxers on and draped the blanket over my hips, hiding my body’s reaction to her as best I could. The air inside the cabin was cold on my chest, but I wasn’t going to risk her seeing my dick misbehaving from an automatic response I couldn’t control or filthy fantasies I had no right having. I tried to think of the line of dust that never gets swept up behind my fridge, the deaths of my favorite characters in Game of Thrones, walking in on my guy friends having facial night with the girls–a story for another time, and socks, heavy thick wool socks that drooped restoring my sanity.

It worked marginally, but it would have to do.

Walking back toward the fire, Lia stood in front of it, her hands tightly clutching the blanket like a lifeline. We were stuck here for the time being. Gruffly, I stuck my hand out. “Hand me your clothes.” Lia bent down to pick hers up clutching the blanket in a death grip. I moved the bench closer to the fire to lay the wet items over it as best I could, pressing out wrinkles to dry the denim and cotton. They would be a pain to get back on later, but it was better than nothing.

“How long do you think this storm will go?” She watched the fire, her head bent down arched, exposing the delicate line of her neck and her messy colorful hair in the fire light.

“Morning, I reckon.” I moved next to her and a shiver coursed through her. Without thinking, I pulled her into my arms and discreetly adjusted things below, rewrapping the blanket around us both with hers in between us.

She eyed me from the chest down and back up again snorting. “Smooth.” She actually growled, saying it like she was torn between what I assumed was annoyance and something else I found alluring.

“Wasn’t trying to be. Although, you’d know it if I was.” Chuckling into her damp hair that smelled of coppery rainwater and the fire, she elbowed me gently in my gut. I suppressed the desire to push back into her. Maybe…I was a bit of a latent opportunist after all.

“If you try telling me that sharing body heat will dry us quicker I’ll kick you.”

My mouth quivered with the smile I held back pressing my lips into her messy hair. “Okay, I won’t, but I did have extensive first aid and wilderness training to differentiate between hyperthermia and heat stroke.”

She arched her back looking up at me as if I was spouting a load of bullshit. Her eyes rolled slowly letting me know she didn’t appreciate my moves, so I tried changing tactics by offering a calorie laden bribe. Food should pacify the savage beast, right?

Reaching up between us, I raised my hand, pointing a finger at her, and her face crinkled at the corners like she didn’t trust me. “Ah, I have a diagnosis,” I informed her.

“Okay, you’re a doctor now?” She didn’t trust me, not that I blamed her, but I’d go with it, ignoring her sarcasm.

“You must be grumpy from lack of food. Scientifically known as hangry.”

Her shoulders rolled and I wrapped the musty blanket tighter around us. “Is that what we’re calling it now? Hangry? You make it sound like I’m twelve.” She sniped not amused in the least. Alright, sue me then, I tried.

She most certainly wasn’t twelve with her feminine curves reminding me I was older and more seasoned here. Guilt panged, I wondered how long tonight was going to drag on waiting out the storm because sleep seemed doubtful in these conditions.