Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
Ash
Max was asleep. I hadn’t meant to see, but the drone had caught some footage of him through his huge window, passed out on the bed, as I’d done a low flyby just over the water. The second I was done with my drone shot, I rushed back to my room. I hadn’t updated my friends in days, and so much had happened.
Ash: Max and I had a moment!!!! Well, several moments.
Sarah: What kind of moment?
Ash: A sexual kind.
Sarah: How sexual?
Ash: I’ve basically been having the best sex of my life and we haven’t even had sex!
Yo: HAHAHA ! I have no idea what the hell that means?
Ash: It means that the sexual tension between us is just soooo intense.
Yo: Are you saying you’re going to have sex with him?
Ash: I sort of tried to last night but then I got bitten by a snake, so that kind of put an end to it.
Sarah: You WHAT ?
Melusi: Hang on, is snake a euphemism for dick?
Ash: No! Like an actual fanged fucker.
Ash: Look.
I quickly sent through a photo of the bite marks on my ankle.
Sarah: You okay?
Charlie: WTF ?
Melusi: OMG . Are you okay?
Ash: I’m fine. It wasn’t poisonous.
Frank: Snakes are venomous, not poisonous.
Charlie: Seriously Frank. That’s what you’re choosing to contribute to the conversation right now?
Frank: It’s a very common misconception though.
Charlie:
Frank: I’m just trying to educate the group here.
Sarah: God, can you two not do this now.
Melusi: Agreed!
Charlie: Tell the self-appointed herpetologist here.
Frank:
Sarah: Why don’t you two take your snake argument elsewhere. We are trying to find out if Ash is going to have sex with Max?
Ash: I don’t know. I think I just need to cool down. Dunk myself in cold water or something.
I turned and looked at my suitcase. My swimming suit was sticking out of it and Max was sleeping, so I could probably grab a cool moment alone in the plunge pool.
Ash: I’ve got to go, guys.
Charlie: Wait, you can’t leave us hanging like that.
Melusi: Hanging.
Yo: No stop!
Charlie: You realize that was a teenage boy joke. I expect way more from you.
Sarah: Wait, has she seriously just left us on that cliffhanger
I slipped into my swimming costume and went back to the pool on the deck.
“Oh my Goooood,” I moaned out loud as I lowered myself into the water. The sun was setting and this was actually bloody ridiculous. This was stupidly, insanely and unbelievably beautiful. To be submerged in a small plunge pool on the deck of a boat while huge herds of elephants, giraffes, buck, and baboons came down to drink on its shores. There’s a magic to Africa. A feeling you get nowhere else on earth. It cannot be explained, or quantified. The air feels different here; it seems to vibrate with an energy that cannot be described. This moment was perfect, especially when the barman brought over a cool, icy drink for me. Just when I was convinced this was the most perfect moment of my life, a familiar voice greeted me.
“Seems like we had the same idea. Mind if I join you?” he asked.
Yes, I do mind , I wanted to say, even though I wasn’t totally sure I believed that. I managed a feeble, “Sure,” and shuffled up on the seat to give him room. There was not much space in this jacuzzi-sized plunge pool, though.
I tried not to look at his naked thigh as he stepped down beside me. Tried not to look at his naked stomach, as the movement made his six-pack tense, and then seriously tried not to look when he climbed into the water. I had wanted to avoid him today, and the inevitable, awkward conversation he was not letting go of. But it was impossible to avoid him now in this small pool, especially when he hadn’t sat next to me, but rather opposite me, stretching his legs out so each one came up along my sides. He’d almost locked me into this position. In fact, if I moved and he didn’t want me to, he could simply tighten his legs and clamp me in place. And I hated how much that idea thrilled me.
“The view is that way.” I pointed over his head, ignoring the leg situation and not making eye contact.
“Depends on your definition of view.”
I tutted loudly. “Trying to show me your flirting abilities again.”
“Not at all. Like I said before, you will know when I’m flirting with you, Ash. And that was not flirting.”
“When did you become like this?” I asked.
“Like what?”
“You’re very confident, in this weird way I can’t quite put my finger on. You never used to be.”
“I was a boy back then. You’re also more confident.”
I didn’t answer him, because I wasn’t feeling all that confident right now. In fact, the opposite. Exposed, vulnerable. I sipped my drink and watched the river as hippo emerged and yawned.
“It’s beautiful here,” Max said. The setting sun had painted the world orange, and Max had put his head up and was looking at the sky, drenched in an orange glow himself.
“It’s perfect here,” he said, still looking up at the clouds, which were now pink.
“It’s been kind of perfect everywhere, well, except for all the mishaps. Of which there have been many.”
He laughed.
“No, seriously, I’ve never been on a recce where so many things have gone wrong. I’m all drama-ed out. I don’t think I can take one more thing happening that spikes my heart and blood pressure. I’m done with all that eventful crap.”
“It has certainly been eventful,” he agreed, tilting his head back towards me again.
I sipped my drink. “Understatement. I don’t think this trip could get more eventful if it tried.”
“Are you sure about that, Ash?” he asked.
I swallowed. The way he’d just said “Ash,” might have been the sexiest sound that anyone had ever made in the history of humankind and my body reacted to it on some base and primal level. My leg accidentally brushed his under the water and, without warning, he took my ankle and lifted it out the water. I gasped.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking your bite,” he said, bringing my leg up to his face, turning it so my ankle was facing him. “It looks good—no infection or anything.”
But he didn’t put my leg down once he’d inspected it. In fact, he might have even pulled it towards him a little more. In this pose, I felt even more exposed, and was suddenly very aware that I hadn’t shaved my legs in almost a week. I pulled my leg away quickly and put it back under the water. I mentally scolded myself for even caring that my legs were hairy in the first place. I mean, who was he that I should worry about whether my legs were hairy or not, but . . . I did care. And I didn’t like that I cared so bloody much. My neck was in an awkward position now from the leg pull and when I slithered back up, I winced as a pain shot up it.
“What?” he asked quickly.
I rubbed my neck and tried to stretch it like the physio had taught me to. “I might have a mild case of whiplash.”
“How did that happen?”
“Mmm, it was in an accident, of sorts.”
“You want me to rub it?”
I looked up at him and shot him an “as if” look.
“What?”
“I’m not sure that would be a good idea. Last time you had access to my back, things happened.”
“But you put an end to those things, which I totally respect, so no things would happen now, unless you wanted them to.”
“See! This is what I mean! This weird sexual confidence you have.” I pointed at him and winced again as I lifted my shoulder.
“Let me rub your neck. I’ve taken a massage class and I’m pretty good with my hands.”
I rolled my eyes at him very deliberately. “I’m sure you have.” I was sure he was good with his hands, but I was also sure it wasn’t a Thai massage course he’d taken—it was possibly something a lot more erotic than Thai, but still beginning with a T.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Just . . . some things have been said about you—that’s all.”
“What kind of things?” he enquired, looking amused and smug. This was entertaining to him.
“They’re not worth repeating—trust me,” I said, and then tried to readjust my sitting position, so that my neck wasn’t in so much discomfort. I pulled my knees up, and Max did the same, but with so little space in the pool our knees pressed into each other’s, holding us both up and in position.
“I insist you tell me about these things you’ve heard,” he said.
“Nope, not going to.”
“Okay, then tell me more about not having good sex.”
“Well done. At least you waited five minutes before bringing that up again. And I’m not telling you about that ei—” I gasped as Max opened his knees and my entire body slipped forwards. He slammed his legs closed round my legs and my body came to a stop.
“Sorry, accident.” But the look on his face did not say accident at all.
“What are you doing?” I asked, out of breath from the very sudden and unexpected move that had now brought me at least ten centimeters closer to him.
But he didn’t answer. Instead his finger was on my knee, rubbing a path across an old, faded scar.
“I remember that day so well,” he said.
“Do you?” I asked, transfixed by the sight of his finger tracing the line on my knee.
“You fell out of that tree you were climbing because you were determined to save those baby birds from the nest after the neighbor’s cat caught the mom. Do you remember what you said about the cat?”
“I called it a fucking evil bitch cat from hell and told you this was why I would never own a cat. I actually thought of that when I found Petal.”
“You fractured your patella and had to have surgery. And then when you were coming round from the anesthesia, you told the doctor how gorgeous he was and asked if he would marry you.”
I laughed at the memory. “I did. God, that was so funny.”
“I was so jealous.”
“He was hot, though,” I said. Without warning, he opened his legs again and my body lurched forwards again. Another involuntary gasp escaped my parted lips. He closed his legs once more and this time, I was even closer to him.
“Hot?” he asked with a glint in his eye that was making all sorts of things fire away inside me. “When you came round, you told me it was just the anesthetic talking. That you didn’t find him hot at all.”
“Well, I guess I lied, then,” I said, and a slow smile spread across his face.
“So you can either tell me what you heard about me or we can talk about sex—your choice.” I was so close to him now that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. There was so much heat I was sure the water would start boiling at any moment.
“Well, funny you put it that way, because they are actually kind of one and the same thing.”
“I see.” He nodded at me, and then smiled that sexy, killer, panty-dropping, lopsided smile. His smile had never been this sexy before. His smile had been cute and dimpled, but there was nothing cute about his smile anymore. There was nothing cute about him either.
“What is it that you see exactly?” I asked, and as I did, he opened his legs all the way and I lurched forwards again. I reached out and grabbed on to the rim of the plunge pool. It was the only way to stop myself from totally falling into him. I stopped my body from crashing into his, but my face was now only one tiny movement from his. Like this, I could just kiss him. What would happen if I kissed him? Just one. A small one. All my inner resolve was crumbling. All previous detox thoughts faded away. Well, let’s be honest, those might have faded away ages ago. Thoughts of what a terrible idea it would be to have sex with him were all but dissolving at a very speedy pace. One. Small. Kiss.
“Are you trying to decide whether you should kiss me?” he asked.
“What!” I was so startled that I pulled back from him and toppled over into the water, very ungracefully.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He smiled while I spluttered and pushed water from my face. And then he laughed, languid and sexy and stretched his arms out, lacing his fingers together and putting them behind his head. I watched him curiously. I had never met someone so damn sexually confident and outspoken, and it was hard to reconcile it all with the boy I used to know.
“Are you ready for dinner at the lodge?” one of the staff members came up to us and asked. I started lifting myself up out of the pool, but Max leaned forwards, half blocking my exit. “We’re almost done here,” he said to the man, who immediately walked away.
“Almost?” I questioned him, sitting back down in the pool.
He stood up out of the water and then began leaning over me. A shadow fell across my face as his body blocked the sun. He reached out, put his hands behind me on the rim of the pool and brought his face all the way to mine.
Fuuuck! I looked up at him. In this position, him hovering over me, on top of me, he was in total control. He loomed above me, powerful and confident, and I felt small and vulnerable, as if he could do anything he wanted to me . . . and I wanted him to.
“W-what are you doing?” I managed to whisper, words sticking in my dry mouth.
“I just wanted to clarify something with you.”
“Yeeees?” I whispered nervously as he leaned in even more.
“If you did decide you wanted to kiss me,” he brought his lips close to mine. “Just know that there’s no way in hell it would end at a kiss.” And then he took my chin in his hand and tilted my face towards him. His lips touched mine. He didn’t kiss me, though. Instead he dragged them over mine and let out a small, breathy groan as he did. “Let me know if you change your mind.” And then he stood up and climbed out of the pool.
What the . . .
He walked away as if he’d not just said and done the sexiest, hottest thing anyone had ever said and done to me before. He walked away as if he had not just turned me on so much that I could feel my heart beating between my legs.
. . . fuck.