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He laughed like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. Then he stood up, leaning right in close. “Because I know you want to. Hell, it’d almost be worth me driving out of here for two days to find the nearest store that sells supplies.” Then he whispered in my ear, his voice low and gruff. “And you want me to fuck you too.”
Then he was abruptly gone, taking the plates to the sink, and I sat there too dumbstruck to speak. Hell, I couldn’t even form a coherent thought.
Later that night when we climbed into bed, he pulled the sheet up over us, and I expected him to initiate some kind of sex or ask me more personal and embarrassing questions, but he didn’t. He sighed into the dark.
“What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TULLY
We had an easy morning.I made us a quick breakfast, Jeremiah made the coffee, then we sat around the table going over the data from yesterday and looking to see what was in store for today. The forecast hadn’t changed. Storms today and tomorrow, then a shit-ton of rain.
And sure, it could ease up and the forecast could change. The cloud front and low pressure coming in from the Timor Sea could weaken, and maybe we wouldn’t have to bunk out.
I didn’t want to leave just yet.
I’d thought having some stranger in my space during this trip was going to be annoying, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
I liked having someone here with me. Not like the time I’d mistakenly asked my brother Ellis to join me. But Jeremiah was like me; he loved the storms, the weather. And he was super smart and he understood the science of it. I was learning a lot and I was already making plans for when I got home to start buying the same gear he had.
It was so freakin’ cool.
“So I was thinking,” Jeremiah said, not even looking up from his screen.
“Uh oh. Good thinking or bad thinking?”
His eyes met mine then, his brow furrowed. “How is any thinking bad?”
“I’m sorry. What were you thinking?”
“Well, you mentioned the mangroves and the crabs before.”
Oh god. I knew where this was going... This was bad thinking.
“I think I’d like to see it. During an electrical storm.”
“Are you actually insane?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Mangroves, in particular those with a crustacean colony, emit large quantities of methane and nitrogen, and I’m sure you know what lightning does to areas of ground with high positive charges.”
“Yes. That’s why I asked you if you were insane.” The carcinologists had told me about that. It was why they came here but not normally in the storm season because it was too dangerous. “It’s also the wet season. I don’t know how accessible they’ll be, and I’d need to check the tide chart. And we’d have to camp there overnight. It’d be too far to come back. We’d have to sleep in the Jeep because—”
Jeremiah stood up and closed his laptop. “Then I should start packing.”
“—because of the crocodiles.” Of course, he acted like he didn’t hear me, so I said it again, louder this time. “Because of the crocodiles!”
He started to pack up his equipment crate. “I heard you the first time.”
“Then why are you still packing?”
“Because if my time here is being cut short, I need to bring back information. What I have so far is fine, but it’s not outstanding, and I need something extraordinary to justify my coming here.”
“Okay, cool.” I went and threw my bag on the bed, stuffing in a shirt, and did up the zipper. “Have you got your affairs in order?”
