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He spun around so he wasn’t looking, his hands on his head. “Are youtryingto kill me?”
“I don’t like underwear,” I said. “I never wore them much growing up, and I find they ride up...” I huffed. “If we could stop talking about my genitals, that’d be great.”
He whipped his head around, his eyes shot to mine. “It ain’t my fault you came out here naked.”
“I’m not naked!”
“You might as well be.”
“I can change my shorts to something more appropriate, if you’d prefer.”
“I wouldnotprefer that.” He waved his hand up and down at me. “I prefer this, thank you very much. Just warn a guy next time.”
I felt bad now and terribly self-conscious. My plan to perhaps entice him a little had well and truly overshot the runway. I went to my bag, picked up my shirt and quickly pulled it on.
“Aww,” Tully cried. “You can’t show me an unwrapped present then re-wrap it. That’s not how this works. Leave the shirt off.”
I shook my head and, hoping to move on from this embarrassing conversation, took two plates out. “Sorry. Want me to help serve the eggs? They look good.”
He scowled at me. “T-shirt, one-star rating. Do not recommend.” Then he looked down at my shorts. “Shorts, on the other hand, five stars. Highly recommended. Actually, the fact the shirt now hides the front of the shorts makes the shirt negative stars.”
“Negative stars isn’t a thing.”
He raised one eyebrow, his gaze raking down to my crotch and back up to my eyes. “Oh, I assure you, it is.”
I took the frypan from in front of him and dished up the eggs. “Thank you for cooking breakfast.”
He pouted. “I’m still sad.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed, glad that all awkwardness was gone. I cleaned up after breakfast, and we set about doing some work.
It was so unbearably hot and so humid, by two o’clock, I couldn’t stand it. I pulled off my shirt and wiped the sweat off my face and chest with it. When I looked at Tully, he was grinning at me like a kid on Christmas morning.
“Shut up,” I grumbled. “It’s too bloody hot.”
He ogled me, deliberately, from head to foot and back up again, stopping midway and shaking his head. “And it’s getting hotter by the second.” He shrugged with no shame. “I’m not joking, the temperature is actually rising.” He turned the laptop to face me. “And the humidity’s gonna get to a breaking point before the hour’s out. This storm right here.” He pointed to the large band of red and purple. “She’s gonna be a good one.”
I found myself smiling at him. “Excellent. I better get my gear set up.” I went to my bag and rummaged around for the sunscreen and rubbed some into my face and chest. It might have been cruel and it was probably uncalled for, but I handed the tube to him and turned around, speaking to him over my shoulder. “Can you rub some in for me, please?”
He huffed with fake annoyance. Or maybe it was real, I wasn’t sure. “If I have to. I mean, now you’re givin’ me an unwrapped present, you’re lettin’ me touch it,” he said, smearing sunscreen across my shoulder and rubbing it in with strong, firm strokes. “But I still can’t play with it.”
My heart skidded and my belly swooped. Then my fucking watch beeped again, and he laughed. He was so close his breath was warm on my skin, his hands now rubbing sunscreen down my spine.
“You can pretend all you like,” he whispered. “But your heart rate doesn’t lie.”
“The app must be glitching,” I said, and maybe that would have been convincing if my voice hadn’t come out all rough.
He chuckled behind me, his hands now running down my sides, fingertips digging in.
Not wearing underpants today had been a big mistake.
I cleared my throat and took a step forward, away from him. I half turned, not letting him see the tented commando issue I had going on at the front. “Thank you,” I said, then walked out into the blistering sun and the suffocating humidity.
Thirty seconds of that torture and I no longer had a hard-on. Small mercies, I guess.
I checked the automatic weather station in the clearing, making sure everything was still intact and working, then looked up at the gathering clouds. There was a front coming in from the east again; a dark and foreboding wall of mother nature was coming our way.
It felt like the air would catch fire before it rained. As if one spark of lightning could light the whole sky up like a match to gasoline.
