You ever attempt to ford a stream, with a lardass raccoon on your back, when suddenly it violently sneezes? Yeah, me neither. Which is why I find myself so caught off guard that the bag goes flying one way, while I tip the other. Luckily for Noodles, he crash lands on dry ground with a grunt. Unluckily for me, Ido notland on dry land. I’m ass-over-teakettle in a plunge pool of nut shrivelling ice bath water. I shoot up with a gasp, gulping for air as my body tries to overcome the shock of the frigidity.
“Evan!” With asplash, Brooks is in right after me, after tearing off his clothes in a flurry. “Oh gosh, are you okay?!” he gasps, doing a quick assessment of me.
“M’fine,” I reply with a grunt and a chuckle, for all his worry.
His cheeks flush with embarrassment again, an adorable look he can’t ever seem to hide. After he sees I’m not drowning, he swims deftly through the plunge pool to the other bank, yanking himself out of the water wearing nothing but a tight pair of black, lace—yes, that’s correct, lace—booty shorts.
My eyes are not deceiving me. This isn’t a cold-induced hallucination. He’s wearing lace men’s lingerie that only half covers the pert, round globes of his cheeks. Perhaps that, rather than his overreaction to my stumble, is what his flushed face was about.
What in the fresh hell is going on today? I walked in on Brooks and Kai earlier, after what Ithoughthad been a really meaningful nightwith Brooks, only to find them about ready to go upstairs together and with Kai already naked. Now, I see he’s wearing sexy panties. He says one thing, but his actions cry out another.
Brooks obviously isn’t over his ex.
In a flustered state, Brooks crouches and releases the animal from the confines of the bag. Well, he tries, but the raccoon looks reluctant to get out. Brooks has to nudge the carrier a couple times to get Noodles to unfold himself, before waddling lazily away—as if he wasn’t just taken on a hike, tossed across a river, and come face-to-balls with a man wearing lacy underwear.
And why, pray tell, am I thinking to myself, he’s a lucky raccoon for having had such a view?
You know damn well why, Waters.
I shake my head, ignoring that vile voice. I do know why. I also know I’m too chickenshit to admit it.
Thankfully, my body is growing acclimated to the water, because—despite the temp—I’m starting to grow stiff in my own plain, cotton-jersey boxers. If I get out of the water now, he’ll definitely be seeing me sporting a tent in them. I can’t just blame it on the cold water either. This isn’t a dicksicle I’ve got going on here; it’s arousal, plain and simple.
It should be insanely weird. Instinct tells me I should rip on him for wearing such feminine-looking underwear, but I don’t know—it works on him. Works really well on him, actually. Just took me a hot minute to realize what I was seeing, because it was so unexpected. Now that I have, I can’t unsee it—despite the way he’s now flushing embarrassed, yet again, and trying to cover himself up with the cat carrier.
His chin dips to his chest and he looks mortified. “I—uhm—sorry…” he stammers out an apology. “I stripped because I didn’t want to hike back in wet clothes. Too uncomfortable.”
I nudge my chin in the direction of his hidden hips. “And those are? I can’t imagine wet lace feels that great.”
He winces slightly. “Not particularly. Are you alright? Why aren’t you getting out?”
Because I can’t, not without him seeing what’s currently hidden below the dark water.
“It’s not bad, once you get used to it,” I flat out lie.
“Sooo… you’re just going to stay in there and swim?”
I shrug, treading water with my feet. “Sure.”
His eyes narrow at me. “Liar.”
“I’m not!” I lie again. “It’s perfectly fine. In fact, I tossed the raccoon on purpose, just so I could jump in.”
“And all that gasping and flailing?”
“All a part of the act to get you to jump in with me. You could stand to let loose a little. You’re all business, no pleasure.”
He chuckles, relaxing a smidge—letting down his guard a little. “You’re a sack of bologna, Evan Waters.”
“Been called worse.”
He opts to wobble back across the water on the rocks, still covering himself as much as he possibly can with the carrier.
“You embarrassed about the undergarments?” I ask him, noting the way he tried to change the subject before.
He goes as white as a ghost, pausing mid-stream. “Well, yeah… It’s all I had left for clean underwear. Desperate times. I didn’t plan on showing them off by diving into the water after you.”
Wait, so he wasn’t wearing them for Kai? He was just wearing them out of necessity? Okay, well, now that humbles me. Come to thinkof it, Brooks was even trying to get Kai to go upstairs and get dressed earlier. Maybe he isn’t as reciprocal about his feelings towards his ex as I had initially thought…
