CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ELLIOT
“Damn,” I say as I catch my breath. “Hell of a kiss, Hank.”
Hank takes another step backward. “Shit. I’m sorry, Elliot. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You didn’t do that,” I tell him. “We did that.” I bite down on my lip, my heart still pounding. “And we don’t have to stop.”
Hank swallows. “I think, probably, we should,” he manages. He becomes aware of himself and puts his hands over his erection. I take a step back and halfway cover myself, too, pretending at decency, while I try to pull my senses back together.
Nearly died. Missed our rescue. Hank makeout.
I put my hands on my knees as my head spins. “Okay. Sure.”
“Excuse me,” Hank says, “but I’m feeling a need to return to my clothes.”
He quickly takes off toward our new shelter, and I follow, processing.
That kiss was a revelation. Nearly dying again sent an electric current through my veins, and when our lips touched, every jolt of it sparked.
I’m horny for Hank. I want more of him.
And he pulled away. Shit.
When I get to the shelter, Hank stands there in his boxer briefs. “This is a real disaster,” he says.
I think for a moment he means the kiss, but then the reality of the helicopter comes rushing back to me.
“It’s very not good,” I agree as I pull on my dry underwear. “We must have drifted far, if it took them days to find us.”
Hank crosses his arms over his chest. “And now the search party has passed us by.” When I step closer, he tilts his eyes to me, and his posture eases. “Elliot… We should also check in about that kiss.”
“Right,” I say, glad he’s not trying to totally ignore it, even if he is about to shoot me down.
“I’m not sure what came over me,” he says, speaking carefully. “I guess I was caught up in the moment. But we’re not in the state to be doing something like that right now. We’ve nearly died multiple times, including ten minutes ago, and neither of us is thinking clearly.”
Disappointment sinks in me, but I nod. “I believe I’m in a great state for being horny, as a matter of record. But I respect if you’re not.”
Hank puts his pants on. “If we’re risking death, making out is a horrible distraction,” he says.
“Or if we’re about to die, we might as well get laid,” I counter.
“That’s a very Elliot way to look at it,” he says.
I smile at him. “Trying to reason away the fact that we’re hot together, that’s a very Hank way of approaching things.”
He huffs, but I realize he’s inched closer to me, too.
“I do think you’re hot,” I add for extra clarity. “And I’m pretty sure you’re into me, too.”
“Just because you’re sexy to me...” He trails off, looking like he regrets the phrasing. “I’m the older one. Not to mention that you’re my boss’s son. I bear some responsibility, Elliot?—”
This time, I cut him off. “You can reject me for any reason you want, but please not those two. I am fully capable of making my own choices for my own reasons, thank you very much. And I typically don’t run this sort of thing by my father first.”
Hank snorts. “Trust me. I’m aware that you’re going to make your own choices for your own reasons. But it’s also true that I am older, Elliot,” he emphasizes. “Ten years older. And more experienced at wilderness survival, too.”
“And I’m younger and hornier, and very down for a little forbidden fun.” We’re close enough now that everything feels loaded again, but I manage to rein it back in. “So the offer definitely remains on the table. Think about it. But considering you’ve already given me a lovely spa morning, I guess I owe you a labor-filled afternoon, right?”
