Chapter Three
Aaron
Skye left my cabin, her bikini bottoms hardly containing her curves.
She traveled to document beautiful places and beautiful things, but she always dressed in a practical way. Maybe not practical to my standards, but practical to her. If she wore a bikini, it was to go swimming, not because she wanted to show off her body.
Unfortunately for me, I was the one who came by, and there was absolutely no way for me to ignore all that skin.
Spending time with Skye had wasted more time than it should have. Now, when I’d normally have my camp set up, all I had was food in the fridge.
The sun was going down quickly, and the hot day shifted into a cool evening. I needed to get all my supplies into the cabin, get a fire started out back, and prepare dinner.
My plan for this trip was to relax. And for me, relaxing involved a routine and physical activity.
Sitting still wasn’t in my DNA. My pack didn’t have paperback novels or puzzles. All I had were hiking boots, electrolytes, and plenty of beef jerky.
I was hoping to do a day-long hike tomorrow. It was one I had done before and knew well. The view was worth the walk. But now I was second-guessing myself.
Was it a good idea to be gone all day, leaving Skye with only Kyle to keep an eye out for her?
If I told her what I was thinking she’d look at me like I was a misogynistic asshole.
Probably call me one too.
The woman was in her late thirties. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
She traveled for work, not in a way that I would consider safe, but she did it.
She had an old van that had all the things she needed to live, and drove it wherever the mood took her.
She had traveled most of Canada, into the United States, and Mexico according to Cliff.
The thing looked like it was more rust than metal, but I had never heard of her getting stranded, so she must know what she was doing more than I gave her credit for.
She could fend for herself. And no, I wasn’t a misogynist. I had just seen a lot of shit. It made me paranoid, which made me vigilant. Besides, Cliff worried about her too. If something happened to her while I was around, he’d never forgive me, and I wouldn’t forgive myself either.
Maybe she was right when she said I always assumed I was the only one who could handle things.
But the alternative was to include her in my plans.
I frowned in frustration.
Once my supplies were all put away, I leaned into the fridge to pull out the steak I planned to fry over the fire.
Should I make one for her too?
She seemed to think this was now a buddy expedition.
I hated how much she was throwing me off my game. Slamming the fridge, I marched outside to get the fire going. I’d decide later whether I was cooking for one or two, plus a cat.
Skye was sitting at the picnic table in front of my cabin.
She had a bunch of scattered pieces of black plastic on the table and a large bucket to her right.
There was a camp chair sitting next to the fire pit that Kyle was sleeping on.
The little tuft of fur on the top of his head was wet from his swim and stuck up, looking like a mohawk.
Maybe Kyle was a good name for him.
“What’s up, cranky?” she asked, not glancing up from her work.
I stomped over to the picnic table. “What the hell are you doing?”
She held up a bucket that looked like it was full of rice.
“Cooking?” I asked.
“Have you ever heard that when you get water and electronics you’re supposed to put them in rice?”
I actually had not heard that, but mostly because I wasn’t the type of person who regularly tossed my electronics into large bodies of water.
Clearly she was.
“Does that actually work?”
She shrugged. “We’re about to find out. This camera cost me two months’ wages. I’m not going to let it go without at least trying.”
Skye picked up all the electronic components and laid them in the bucket before using her hand to scoop some of the rice on top.
She’d changed, as she promised, out of the little red bikini. Now she wore a short pair of cotton shorts and a tank top in a striking shade of teal.
She wasn’t wearing a bra, which was something I should not be noticing.
But again, she was more practical than anything else. Extra layers in the heat didn’t make sense, especially since the sunburn on her nose extended down over her shoulders.
“You didn’t wear enough sunscreen today.”
She glanced up at me and a smile split her face. “Let me guess, you’ve got aloe vera with you.”
“Of course I have aloe vera with me, I keep it in my first-aid kit.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Do you want to put some on me? Would it make you feel better?”
Her words landed somewhere below my belt buckle.
Slathering aloe vera on her shoulders would actually not make me feel better. It would make me feel horny, and that was the last thing I needed right now. But the search and rescue officer in me couldn’t just leave that burn exposed the way it was.
“Stay there,” I barked, and turned back to my cabin.
Inside I grabbed my first-aid kit from under the sink. Might as well just leave it out, I’d be needing it again with the way Skye worked.
Grabbing the small bottle, I stomped outside and moved to stand behind her. She grabbed her long blonde hair and pulled it off her shoulders.
“Why weren’t you wearing sunscreen?”
“I was,” she said defensively. “Do you know how hard it is to put sunscreen on your own shoulders? It’s not like Kyle can rub it in for me.”
I could rub it in for her.
That traitorous thought crossed my mind and I shoved it away.
Instead I squirted some aloe onto each of her shoulders without touching her skin. “Rub that in.”
“Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired,” she said, but she did exactly as I asked.
I set the bottle on the table beside her. “Put some on your nose when you’re done. I’m going to cook dinner. What are you having? You did bring food with you, didn’t you?”
She looked over at me as she was rubbing the aloe into her nose. “You realize I do this all the time, right? Of course I brought food. I’ve had chili cooking in the slow cooker all day.”
My stomach chose that moment to growl…loudly.
“Would you like to share it with me?” she teased.
Was opening that door a good idea?
She shares her food, I share my aloe. We might as well be sleeping side by side.
The idea had my cock wanting to stir in my shorts.
“I was going to make steak and potatoes tonight,” I said non-committally.
“Great, we’ll call it a potluck,” she said, and then handed me the bottle of aloe before going into her cabin.
I knelt down by the fire pit and broke sticks for kindling.
Kyle came over and sat next to me, wrapping his tail around his body and watching me work. “What do you want?”
The cat looked up at me and I looked down at him. I’d thought it was pure black when I first saw him, but he had a little tuft of white on his chest and under his nose that made it look like he had a mustache and was wearing a little tuxedo.
“Kyle… do you even like the name Kyle?”
Kyle looked up at me, yawned widely, then rubbed the side of his face against my knee.
A smile spread over my face and I quickly pulled it back.
Getting sucked into Skye’s chaos was not the point of this trip. And I sure as hell was not going to make friends with a cat named Kyle.