“Oh...” Marlow said, catching my attention. To my deep and utter surprise, he began to unclip the life vest from his body and strip himself of it, revealing his rather impressively muscled chest and abs. “You want this?”
Fear at being caught blatantly checking him out slapped me right back into reality. “W-what?”
His smile was cheeky, tinged with a bit of smugness that I didn’t at all appreciate in the slightest. “The vest, Blake. You want me to leave it here?”
I swallowed. “Oh. Uh... yeah, clip it to the back seat.”
Holy fuck.
Ripping my eyes away from him, I focused on getting the damn cart started and clenched my fingers around the steering wheel, willing myself to behave as he slid himself down onto the bench next to me.
Despite his still damp skin, he was warm next to me, practically radiating heat. I jumped the moment his arm brushed against mine, slamming my foot down onto the gas and jerking the entire cart forward.
“Yeesh,” he laughed. “I feel like I’m back on that raft.”
I ignored the clenching in my stomach as he shifted next to me and threw an arm around the back of our seat, his hand subtly ghosting close to my arm on the other side of me and just barely not making contact as long as I sat up ramrod straight.
He had to be doing this on purpose. Pushing my buttons to get a reaction out of me just like he’d been doing the past few days. All of this was a game to him, plain and simple. I was conveniently the most fun target he had so far. Until he found himself entangled with someone else to occupy his time until this vacation was over.
I tried not to let that thought taste bitter on my tongue while we headed up the incline in silence. I should’ve been happy he was all right and made it out of that harrowing situation all in one piece with not a single scratch on him. It was a miracle, really. One I should be celebrating.
Blowing out a breath, I gunned it up the rest of the incline until we were at the top, base camp coming into view just beyond the end of the pathway.
Fingers lightly trailed along my arm. “Don’t tell me you ditched me again for paperwork.”
My knuckles were white from how hard I was holding onto the steering wheel. “Got that event next week, remember?”
Actually, the small miracle was in fact me being able to form coherent sentences while Marlow’s fingers traced halfway up my arm and then back down again at a maddening leisure.
“Want help?”
I forced out a laugh to keep from doing something way more embarrassing, like moaning. How fucking sad I was getting turned on by beingtouched. “You a party planner?”
“Had a few shindigs in my time.”
“That business lingo for ‘rager’?”
He laughed. “Nah, I know how to tone it down for the right occasion.”
Tempting. Too tempting to take him up on the offer, if only to spend more time with him. A bad idea, given how rapidly hard my dick was getting.
From a fucking arm caress.
How goddamn sad was that?
“Think I’ve got most of it figured out.” My mouth felt full of cotton, along with the inside of my skull.
What would happen if I jammed on the brakes and parked us off the path somewhere and see where else that hand of his would wander off to?
“So, that means you’ll be at the bonfire tonight.” His tone was firm. A little surprising considering how light it’d been second before.
I chanced a glance over at him right as we were passing through the entrance back into the main part of the grounds. He wore a playful smile, but there was something in his eyes that spoke differently—that same darkness he’d had the night before when he’d practically cornered me into bringing him condoms.
“It... depends,” was all I could think to say.
He shook his head slowly. “You’ll be at the bonfire.”
Was this some sort of hypnosis trick?
