“A date?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“A date.” He nodded as the Jeep bounced. “To start.” His eyes darted to me, and a slow smile tugged at his lips. I held his gaze, my own cheeks flushing.
And Alex reached across the seat and tangled his fingers with mine.
We bumpedalong the road on our afternoon drive. In the backseat, I leaned my head on Alex’s shoulder. Despite literally sitting all day, my stomach was starting to rumble, so I hoped we were getting close to our sunset cocktail location.
So far, we’d seen elephants, giraffes, jackals, hyenas, all sorts of birds, a dung beetle rolling his pile of poo (which was very, very entertaining), and an elusive leopard camped out in a tree, difficult to see despite the lack of foliage.
All in all, quite the day.
Alex kissed the crown of my head and rested his cheek against me. Sitting in the back with him all day had been lovely; lots of hand-holding, our shoulders and thighs pressed together in the cold of the morning, but once the air warmed up and we put the blankets away, it was only my thigh against his. At one point I’d tucked my left foot under my right leg, letting my knee rest on Alex’s lap, and he’d gotten to learn every single bit of my inner thigh—at least, the appropriate parts. When he got up to the hem of my shorts, I reliably shivered, and he strolled back down again so casually, gazing out the open car into the wilderness.
After a few passes, he let his pinky finger slip under my shorts, meandering along.
I shifted, lifting my head up to rest my chin on his shoulder.
“Just out of curiosity, do you have any condoms?”
The pinky went still. Alex turned to look at me as best he could. “No, I don’t. Do we need some?”
“Well.” I waggled my head. “Monkeys ate my birth control.”
His lips flickered, suppressing a smile. “One only requires birth control if one is having sex.”
“Oh, is that how it works?” I deadpanned. “Good god, I’ve been using condoms wrong this whole time.”
Ah, then he did laugh, that big wide smile that was new and familiar at the same time. “Okay, so we don’t have condoms. Should we try to find some?”
I bit my lip and dipped my chin. “I think we could do other things.”
Alex’s lashes fluttered, and he squeezed my thigh. “I like other things. I like other things a lot.”
“What kind of other things do you like?” I whispered.
“I like kissing you.” His voice had dropped low, and his tongue dipped out to wet his lips. “I like the noises you make and how I can feel the heat of you through our clothes. I dream about the way you’re going to sound when I’m inside of you. With my fingers or my tongue or my cock.”
My thigh muscles tensed under his fingers, and a sigh passed my lips. “I can’t wait to make noises for you.”
He kneaded the muscles of my thigh. “Do you like dirty talk, Nikki?”
I nodded, entranced. The other passengers, the bumps of the dirt road underneath us, the soft murmuring of Thomas up front—they all faded away.
Alex’s other hand came up and tilted my chin toward his. His long fingers swept up my cheek, and he pressed his lips to mine, so lightly. I kissed him back, and we both kept our mouths open, soft and gentle. I ran my hand up his side, feeling the way his muscles shifted underneath my hand, his ribs expanding with every breath as his body stretched toward me. Still, our lips were light and gentle, until I felt Alex’s tongue slip out and trace my bottom lip…
With a soft bump, the car came to a halt.
“Okay, everyone. Here’s our spot for sunset,” Thomas called out. “Stretch your legs, and we’ll have cocktails ready in no time.”
Alex and I pulled away, grinning at each other. He gave me one more squeeze before turning and opening the door. I followed him out, accepting his hand as I stepped down.
I took a look around. The other two Jeeps were parked nearby, all of the guests together for sunset this time. We were on a small hill overlooking a watering hole. A few barren trunks stretched out of the water, and one of them even had a nest on the highest V of the branches. The water was still, no animals in sight, and we had the perfect view for sunset.
Pulling out my gear from the Jeep, I set up my tripod. With the calm, still waters and the dying light, I might be able to get a really nice long exposure photo.
Alex sidled up to me a few minutes later with a gin and tonic as I tested out my exposures. He stood behind me, watching me work, his body lightly pressed against my back, especially against my hips.
When I straightened up, he rested his chin on my shoulder, his hands on either side of me holding our drinks. I took the one in his right hand, and used my remote clicker to snap some photos. The bar was on the left side of the frame with the chairs and people around it, and the lake, farther out in the distance, took up the other half of the shot.
