He grinned and thrust up against me, hard and ready and in just the perfect spot.
“You can take that either way you want.”
I bent down and kissed him again. And again. And again, until he flipped me over.
“Nikki,” he said, nuzzling my nose with his. “We do need to eat. And we’ll come right back here after dinner, yeah?”
“Youhave to eat.”
Alex rolled away from me and sat on the edge of the bed. “Fairly certain you can’t live off of my kisses. Plus someone will be by any minute now to make sure we haven’t been eaten by a leopard or run over by a hippopotamus.”
“Fine.”
We stayed quiet for a moment, him sitting on the edge of the bed, me sprawled out on the duvet, hair a mess.
“What are you doing?” he asked me.
“Recovering. What are you doing?”
“Waiting for my blood to spread out.”
“Good plan.”
10
It tookus so long to recover that someone did try to come and find us. Alex assured Misola we were on our way, but because it was dark now, she waited at the tent entrance like a chaperone at a school dance. She may not have known what was going on, but I’m certain she would have noticed if we’d collapsed back into bed.
We sat at the long dining table, everyone else well into their beverage of choice. The fire was roaring, the lodge a bubble of warmth and chatter and merriment.
Alex and I sat next to each other, the last two seats available, saved just for us.
“We were waiting for you! Thought maybe you’d gotten distracted,” said Mark who sat across from me. He grinned slyly.
Olivia chimed in next to him. “I saw your dress, Nikki. It was lovely.”
“Thank you. We were just…cleaning up,” I said. Alex squeezed my thigh under the table. I had changed into a pair of leggings, but the feel of Alex’s bare hand on my thigh flashed through my mind.
The meal came out—kudu steaks and peri-peri chicken—and we all tucked in.
“Did you enjoy a quiet day back here at the lodge?” Meino asked me.
“Yes,” I said between bites of the perfectly cooked steaks.
“What did you do all day?”
Next to me, Alex grunted in response at something Mark said. He was methodically cutting into his chicken, chewing, swallowing, and on to the next bite.
I put another forkful of steak into my mouth, and though it was delicious, I couldn’t help lamenting that it was something I really had to chew. Give me a meal replacement smoothie that I could chug down while on my way back to the tent. Then I could get back to kissing Alex.
Kissing Alex.
I replayed that line over and over again in my head.Kissing Alex. Kissing Alex. I wanted to kiss Alex.
The clatter of dishes and conversations around me quieted, and I realized I’d said that last bit out loud.
Alex laughed, as did the rest of the people at our table, and I hid my face behind my hands. Everyone very politely returned to their conversation, although I think I heard someone slap Alex’s back.
Meino cleared his throat and repeated his question, his own cheeks pink, too, and there was still a half-chewed piece of steak in my mouth.
