“Then you’re really gonna like my next trick,” he said as he slammed the trunk and then walked the cart all the way back to the rack.
“I’m melting over here,” I said when he got closer, throwing out his arms as if to sayWell?
“Standards are in fucking hell these days, huh?” he asked, coming toward me. And for a second, I thought he was going to kiss me. Making my breath catch and my heart seize.
But he was just pulling open my door.
“Keep looking at me like that and the food’s gonna go bad in this heat.”
“Look at you like what?” I asked, forcing my face and voice to go blank.
“Like you’d suck me off while I cooked you dinner.”
Desire was a sucker punch to the gut, stealing my breath and my ability to think, let alone rebut his claim.
Caymen stepped in, his body pressing mine against the car.
My eyes went heavy-lidded.
My lips parted in anticipation.
But then he shot me a knowing smirk.
“As much as I’d love to stand here while you let that fantasy play out in your head, we gotta get off the street.”
Then he stepped back, leaving me leaning against the car. As he rounded the hood, he shot me a look that said he knew exactly what he was doing to me. And, what’s more, he was enjoying the hell out of it.
I slid into my seat, glad for the burst of cool air when I turned the engine over. It wasn’t bad enough that it was a million degrees outside; he had to go and make my insides match.
“There’s a house in here somewhere?” Caymen asked after we’d ditched the car when the overgrowth got too thick, each grabbing a bunch of bags, and starting off on foot.
“Believe it or not.”
“Well, it does seem to be safe. Even we can’t find it,” he said, making my lips quirk up.
“It’s just past that big, gnarled tree.”
“Thank fuck.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I reminded him.
“Babe, anything’s better than…” he started, then broke off when the shack came into view, “I take that back.”
The laugh burst out of me at that.
But, damn, he was right.
It looked worse than the last time I’d seen it. Which could possibly be because I was looking at it through someone else’seyes this time. Or simply because the time away meant that a bunch of vines had started to climb up the house, tracing the wood like veins, and even growing across the actual door.
“You sure this place is functioning?” Caymen asked. He transferred all his bags with one hand to reach out with the other and tear the vines out of the way.
“Let’s hope.”
“Key?”
“One sec,” I said.
I put down my bags and walked over to the nearest tree, jumping up at the birdhouse, hoping I wasn’t disturbing any babies inside, and reached in to find the key dangling from a hook inside.
