AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Where is my inner Lara Croft persona when I need her most? That woman would lean into him and kiss him the way she wants to, damn the consequences, including rolling over into a ditchon the side of the freeway. But instead of doing what my body craves with an unquenchable need, I pull back from Blaze.
“How much longer?” I ask.
“We’re getting close.” Blaze grins at me, making me desire him that much more. I wish he’d get angry, or give up on me. That would make our time together easier. With him being charming, I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist what he’s more than willing to offer.
I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m not in my stuffy office back at the college. I’m also not in the auditorium, giving a lecture the kids don’t want to hear. I’m on an epic adventure and I’m not going to waste it. I need this more than I fear my feelings for Blaze.
I won’t think any more about the weekend Blaze and I shared, nor keep thinking about sharing another one with him. I’m certainly not going to imagine climbing onto his lap, trailing my lips down his solid jaw and ripping his shirt open with my teeth. No. These thoughts aren’t on my mind at all.
Turning to look out my window, I relish the sun warming my cheeks and focus on the fields as Blaze turns off the freeway. Never have I been so grateful to near a destination.
“Are you enjoying being out of the classroom?” Blaze asks.
We were so silent for the past several minutes that his voice makes me jump. I turn to see his smile. Calming my nerves, I decide to be honest.
“Yes, very much. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a professor. I knew from a young age I’d go to college and do something that would matter, something that would affect the lives of others. But sometimes it’s a bit confining.”
“I’d rather die than be locked to a desk.”
“Yes, I believe that.” I chuckle at him.
“Hey, I can be responsible, but why should I be stuck at a desk night and day when I can be outdoors on a new adventure every week?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. We need people like you in the world. But we also need people like me. It’s why we have a love of different things.”
“You might like teaching, but I sense adventure in your soul. You weren’t meant to be locked down,” he wisely says.
Do I like that he seems to know me so damn well? We only spent one summer together, and that was ten years ago. I was barely out of high school. And I never once told anyone about my desire to travel and seek adventure. But arguing will do me no good.
“The outdoors is great in good weather. Not so much when the weather turns.”
“Yes, but it also depends on where you’re at,” he says with a wink. “I’ve been in Antarctic conditions where pieces of my body sadly disappeared, and also on peaceful islands in the dead of winter back here in the States where I swam naked and laid out on the beach for hours, where gratefully, those parts were still intact and came back out to play.”
My cheeks instantly heat, and I send him a stern look. “Some of us would worry about people taking pictures.”
“I have nothing to hide,” he says with a hearty laugh. “You know that better than most.” The images flooding my mind of him wet and naked, his muscles gleaming in the sun, his body... I put a halt to these thoughts before they get out of control. I’m stuck in a vehicle with this man. I certainly don’t want to be picturing him in the nude.
“It has to get lonely in the middle of nowhere without a soul in sight. I’d be a bit freaked out.”
“It’s heaven. Not something I’d want to do forever, but after a particularly bad assignment, I need to get away from it all.”
There’s a slight tightness in his voice as he says this, and I wonder if some of the bad he’s witnessed weighs on him. I want to ask, but I’m nothing to him. I don’t have the right to delve into something so personal.
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.” He shrugs. “I clear my head and then I’m on to my next big adventure. It’s great.” In the blink of an eye Blaze is able to brush off that tightness. I wish I were able to do the same. Maybe it’s a male thing.
“You’ve changed quite a bit in ten years.”
I sigh. “I grew up.”
“Did you ever think about the two of us?”
His question shocks me. I wasn’t expecting it, didn’t come up with an answer if asked. A nervous sweat breaks out on my brow. It isn’t something I can outright lie about.
“It’s not something I dwelled on,” I finally say. “But I won’t lie and say that meeting you and spending that summer with you wasn’t something that shaped me. It’s over though.” Not knowing what to expect, I’m again shocked when Blaze laughs. I can’t help but look over into his sparkling eyes.
“You need to get out of the classroom a little more, Professor. Life can’t be so easily summarized or placed in a box. Our time together was most certainly worth thinking about a lot more than once in a while.”
