Page 20 of Summer's Edge

“I like to pull my weight,” she says and grins at me.

But she’s breathing hard and is red in the face halfway up to the cabin and doesn’t have the energy for sass anymore.

Me, I’m perfectly content watching the muscles on her long legs ripple and her perfect round ass sways this way and that as she walks. So content I don’t even feel the weight of the bags after a while. Or maybe that’s because my hands have gone numb.

We bought enough food for at least a week, maybe longer. Might be some sort of unconscious wish to stay here longer than the couple of days it’ll take the Devils to come get us. Or not so unconscious on her part. She’s made it no secret what she wants from me.

The more I watch her and the harder her breathing becomes, the less I know why I’m even denying her.

But I do know.

She’ll get nothing more than a good fuck out of it. If nothing else, I almost got killed in this war once and it could very well happen again.

And I’ll lose her father’s trust and respect.

Not something I’d give up happily.

So for the rest of the trek, I focus solely on thinking about the war I’ll hopefully be rejoining in a few days.

I didn’t tell her everything I know about why we’re stuck here now. Ruin is with Hunter and some of the others dealing with the guy who messed with Trixie the last time they were down in LA. Ice, Tank and Hawk are dealing with the trap that abducting Melody had been the opening act for.

Either of those jobs sound great to me.

The cabin finally comes into view and not a minute too soon.

Summer dumps the bags she was carrying on the porch and sits on the steps with a thud. She digs in one of the bags she was carrying, pulls out a neon blue sports drink and proceeds to drink about half of it.

“I really should do more cardio,” she complains between large gulps.

Her face is glistening with sweat, her chest heaving and the only way this sight could be even greater would be if she were naked. In bed. Under me.

Damn it, no.

“I think I’ll try out the shower now,” she says.

I clear my throat, because the picture of her naked just got a whole lot clearer in my mind.

“I’ll start the grill.”

I don’t wait for her to say anything, just busy myself with my task. Only after the creaking of floorboards tells me she went to take her shower do I start taking care of the meat and the rest of what we bought.

None of it works to keep the image of her naked, wet body out of my mind. I ignore it as best I can. Which isn’t working very well at all.

NINE

Summer

I got about two seconds of warm water from the sun-warmed tank then the rest of my shower was icy cold. Not how I like it. And maybe I spent longer than I needed to under the cold spray hoping Edge will finally change his mind and join me.

No such luck.

The clearing in front of the cabin smelled wonderfully of barbecue wings when I rejoined him there, and Edge was manning the grill shirtless, wearing just his jeans, a beer in one hand and the meat fork in the other.

“You took your sweet time,” he says. “Come on, these are done.”

He’s also had time to make a salad that’s more than just regular lettuce. There’s tomatoes, peppers and even some corn mixed in.

I join him by the grill, holding out two paper plates.

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