“You wanted the kids in bed an hour later last night,” I state. “Why is that?”
His jaw tenses so much that it looks ready to snap. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Hart.”
I’m salivating like a dog, and the burning between my legs is sure to end me in a second if I push my limits any further.
I’m waiting for him to act first, but he challenges me with his eyes. He wants me to be the first to break, after what I did to him last time we were in the hallway together.
But I can’t be the first to break when he broke me first. He broke me into millions of pieces that he left me to pick up. Alone. And I’m still in the process of picking up those pieces, even today.
“No,” I say, more for my own benefit.
I head back into my room and wish the door had a lock on it. I don’t trust myself to stay away. And the insurance claim is complicating things. All I need is James Taylor to quit being a bastard and finish assessing the damage.
It was fun and games at first to tease Caleb. But the teasing unfortunately goes both ways. I can finger myself alone in my room and kill the desire, but it resets straight after.
I collapse onto my bed and take a look through the window.
The first leak of daylight bleeds into the sky and turns the corner of the sky purple. There’s still a while yet to go until dawn. Constellations stretch across the sky, since it’s dark enough to still see them.
The desire transitions into something greater as I remember everything we lost.
“Theoretically, camping seemed like a good idea.” Caleb grimaces at the uneven ground, home to many critters that he would’ve never had to encounter in the city. “The reality is not as appealing.”
“It’s all part of the fun.” I wiggle my brows at him and pitch the tent.
His apprehension about camping out in the wilderness isn’t going to get in the way of our first night together. I’m determined.
“It didn’t strike me that you’d be such a baby. Look at the size of that thing compared to you.” I point at the spider crawling up a tree.
The fright comes alive in Caleb’s eyes. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”
“Welcome to the real America.”
I pitch the tent and throw the waterproof cover over. The forecast could’ve blessed us with better weather this weekend, but I can’t complain too much.
I think I might be in love.
The tent is supposed to hold up to three people, and Caleb only just fits inside.
“Now what?”
“We set up a campfire while we still can.”
He frowns, waiting for elaboration.
“Rain and fire don’t tend to go well together,” I say.
“Sounds like we’ll be forced to stay inside of the tent for most of the trip.” Caleb meets my eyes and starts a whole different kind of fire in my belly.
Then he embraces me with a kiss that I couldn’t have surrendered faster to, and his tongue darts inside of my mouth and slips against mine.
Oh. My. God.
I don’t think we’ll need the flint and steel.
He presses a smaller, chaste kiss to my lips before pulling away. “An open flame in a wooded area?” He grimaces. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“I take it that means you’re not keen on the idea of s’mores?” I flash him a grin and wait for him to change his mind.
