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Even if I’m not supposed to.
I don’t need the HR lecture to know that shaking the sheets with a co-worker is a dumbass move. After the orgasm, I still have to work with her—and she has to work with me. It’ll suck if having seen each other naked becomes an issue instead of spank bank material. Ergo, I steer clear of my co-workers, and that includes the camp staff. So it’s just too damned bad that Sarah Jo kissed me, because she put ideas in my head and now I’m curious.
Beside me, Hunter’s Pulaski chews through the iron-hard ground. Two regulation inches down and then straight back up, turning over the dirt nice and neat. Too bad it isn’t as easy to get a handle on Sarah Jo.
I give Hunter side eye, not breaking my own rhythm. Hunter’s all muscle and he can keep pace no matter how fast I dig. The front line is loud. Men shout over the roar of chain saws, almost drowned out by the crackle of the fire and the steady chop of the helo ferrying new crew in.
Too tired to bother with subtleties, I open with the truth. “You set me up.”
“That kiss?”
I shoot him a look and Hunter just grins. “Uh-huh.”
Hunter flips the Pulaski, dropping the hoe end down into the dirt and spreading it around. The line is good. The trees, however, are still a damned problem.
“Hazard tree,” I say, jerking my head toward the nearest snag. “She’s leaning and the fire’s got her good.”
Hunter tilts his head back and gives the tree a onceover. He comes to the same conclusion as me. “Let’s drop her.”
A quick round-trip to the pickup and he returns with a chain saw, the rest of the hotshots falling back to a safe distance.
I fall into step with him as we case the tree. It’s a big, gnarly motherfucker, slanting worse than the Tower of Pisa. The risk isn’t unacceptable, however, and we’ve got the team cleared out. Better to drop her safely before her top snaps off and lands on someone’s head. Good men die that way every year.
Hunter starts checking the chainsaw while he picks up our previous conversation. “Rumor has it those girls do that every year. It’s just a game to them.”
Yeah. That secret, unreasonable disappointment comes right back. Sarah Jo kissed me like she meant it. Had she? Or was it all just the game Hunter mentioned? She’s got a playful streak if the color in her hair and her T-shirt collection is any indication, but now that I’ve had a taste of her, I want more.
Lots more.
If she’s playing games, I’ll play. I totally rock at games. I’ll be in it to win it.
I smile. “She distracted me.”
Hunter grunts something unintelligible. I don’t think it’s encouragement.
“Have I ever told you how much I love games? I’m a huge fucking fan.” I pin my eyes on the snag, ready to call any movement. Doesn’t matter how dirty my plans are for Sarah Jo if my dick gets squashed by a falling tree. Since Hunter’s got a girl, I’m assuming he’s similarly attached to his equipment.
“Right.” Hunter yanks the cord and the chain saw roars to life. “More like you saw Sarah Jo standing there and you lit up like a Christmas tree.”
“Did not.”
Hunter shakes his head, making the first cut through the trunk. “Say what you want, but if I’d gone first, Lola would have killed me. Those girls are friends.”
“Maybe.” Lola’s definitely a firecracker—the kind with a really short fuse and an endless number of explosions. She’s all color and pinwheeling shit that lights everything up while you knock back a beer and try to figure out if it’s a dragon or a comet or cosmic poop up there in the sky. I consider pointing this out to Hunter but he’s already started on his second cut and he might be tempted to use the saw on me instead. He’s super touchy about any implied criticism of Lola.
Do you think she would have gone off on him if her own girlfriend had done the kissing? It’s hard to pass that kind of liplock off as an accident. You don’t just slip and shove your tongue into some random guy’s mouth. Still, Lola’s got a great sense of humor. She’s also not afraid to use her own mouth. I’m betting she’d either do a whole lot of yelling at Sarah Jo or simply kiss Hunter long enough that he forgot all about an unexpected lip-lock.
