Page 59 of Chasing Paradise

But he’d been right. Once I stilled for long enough, I was pretty comfortable. Even though his body was a furnace.

I was so exhausted from the hike that I wasn’t awake long enough to do any actual complaining.

I woke up a lot more sprawled over him than I’d anticipated.

At some point, his legs had spread, and my body had moved between. To save space, my own legs had moved inward and butterflied open on the tops of his thighs. So if he looked down, he’d be staring down the barrel of my crotch.

Luckily, I’d woken up first, giving me a chance to slowly close my thighs as I watched him for any sign of movement.

He was asleep with his forearm casually covering his eyes. And while I sympathized with the pins and needles he’d bedealing with later, I was glad for the opportunity to take him in without him witnessing it.

I probably had no reason to feel shy about him knowing I was looking. I mean, I’d let him finger me twice. Well, did the last one count as actual fingering? Fingering-lite, maybe.

But as soon as he stopped touching me, I was quick to remind myself of all the reasons why I couldn’t let him do it again. Let alone let things progress.

Still, damn. In the early morning light, laying there in nothing but boxer briefs, he was looking good.

Speaking of those boxer briefs… Wick was having a littlesituation.

Actually, not a little one at all.

I mean, it was one thing to feel him pressed against me. It was a complete other to see with my own eyes.

I had this almost overwhelming urge to reach out, to close my hand around his length, to start stroking him.

Honestly, the urge was so strong that I might have done it.

If some winged demon hadn’t chosen right that moment to drop down on the bug netting right above my head.

I’m not proud of the sound that escaped me. Nor the way I started to thrash hard enough to make the hammock threaten to flip over.

“The fuck…” Wick woke up with a start, arms flying out to brace himself as the hammock swung.

“Get itoff,” I squealed, pointing above my head.

“Shoulda known it was a bug,” Wick said, sounding a mix of frustrated and amused. “Stop rocking us and I can get it,” he demanded, trying to fold up to sit.

It was right that second that a second bug came fluttering down.

“Oh, God. They’re invading,” I cried, pressing my hands to my face. “Drain him first.”

Wick chuckled and the hammock rocked around as he finally sat up to flick the bugs off the netting.

“You can’t tell me that wasn’t a coordinated effort. They have structured war plans. And we have no defense against them.”

Wick fell back against the hammock, laughing hard.

“Except bug netting, bug spray, and shoes to squish them with.”

“There are two of us. There are thousands of them.”

“Millions, more like.”

A pained animal sound escaped me at that.

“I think you need some food,” Wick said, reaching to unzip the hammock. “How about you hang here while I go see if I can find some fruit to go along with the protein bars?”

“Leave me here alone? With a bug army? I think not,” I said, following him out of the hammock, almost sticking my feet in my shoes before I thought better of it. “Can you check my shoes?”

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