Chapter 11 #2
“Can I get one of those waters?” He held out a hand, and I swung the drawstring bag around to fish two out, then tossed him one.
I followed his lead and squirted some of the cool liquid, only half of which actually made it into my mouth.
Apparently, JD had a similar issue. He chuckled and straightened up, lifting his shirt to wipe his face and revealing a blazing treasure trail that disappeared into his micro-shorts, which I was absolutely not staring at.
“Fuck, it’s hot. Why does it feel so goddamn hot?
Like, I know it was hotter in the literal desert, but I swear I sweated less there, and that was in full gear with a fifty-pound pack.
” He shook his head in obvious disbelief, then stripped his shirt clean off and sprayed down his head and shoulders with the chilled water.
Thank God I’d answered this question so many times over the years that the answer came by rote, because I fucking blue-screened. “It’s called humidity. By the end of the summer, it’ll feel like breathing soup.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asked, sauntering closer, which was not helping at all.
The sunlight caught on the rogue droplets of water in his chest hair and he literally fucking sparkled.
“What would you say the humidity is at now?” He stopped close enough that I could feel the excess body heat pouring off of him, mixing with mine.
I’d have expected it to be uncomfortable, but there was something oddly exhilarating about it.
I smiled, matching his broad grin, and squirted another long stream of water down my parched throat. “Eh, it’s still early. Probably only about seventy, maybe seventy-five percent.”
“No fucking way.” He shoved me hard enough that I had to step back or risk losing my balance.
Laughing, I rebounded and somehow ended up closer to his magnetic heat. I also wasn’t entirely sure I could blame my rapid breathing on our run anymore. “Way.”
“How damn high does it get around here?”
“Averages around eighty-nine in the summers, but can get up to ninety-eight and ninety-nine for long stretches too. And before you ask, because I can already see it in your eyes, when it’s a hundred percent it’s literally raining.
You know, since humidity is water in the air.
” I smirked, because his expression totally said he’d been about to ask.
The surprise stayed on his face a full beat before a laugh erupted out of him.
“I see you get that a lot. Still…” He tucked his now water-and-sweat-soaked shirt into the back of his puny shorts and wove his fingers behind his head, stretching his impressive chest, which wasn’t distracting in the least. He huffed another laugh, his gaze roaming the area where we’d stopped. “Only seventy percent. Fuck me.”
“Well, if you’re offering.” The words were out before I could consider whether they were supposed to be funny or serious, or better yet, why they’d come at all.
And… had my voice dropped? Given how quickly JD gave up his perusal of the scenery to spear me with his intense blue-green gaze, I was gonna go with yes.
I should also probably give up the notion that my rapid breathing had anything to do with the run.
What I didn’t and wouldn’t do was back down.
“Careful, Weathers,” JD said in a husky voice I felt in my balls.
“I might take you up on that.” He squirted more water into his mouth without breaking eye contact.
Neither of us blinked. When I’d suggested a run, I’d had no inkling that I’d find myself in a game of gay chicken. And I really hated to lose.
The heat merging between our too-close bodies seemed to morph into heat lightning the longer we held our ground.
My heart was pumping so loudly, I could barely hear the mockingbirds, which was really saying something because those fuckers were noisy as hell.
Then, much like the Night-Blooming Cereus, which only bloomed once a year, I felt the shift I so rarely experienced, or more accurately, I recognized what had been happening since the moment I’d seen JD through the sliver of a cracked door.
I was attracted to him. I was really fucking attracted to him.
A loud bark nearby caused us both to jump and ended our stalemate. In an effort to shake off some of the tension, I let out a laugh, which ended up sounding awkward as fuck. Okay, yeah, that didn’t help.
“Race you back?” JD suggested, clearly way better at diffusing than I would ever be.
“How is that fair? You’re half a foot taller than me,” I argued, already maneuvering between him and the way back to the parking lot.
He held his hands out in a helpless shrug, once again displaying his fine ass chest. Damn him. “If you don’t have enough gas in the tank, you can always decline.”
I snorted and casually put some more distance between us. “I didn’t say that.”
“Or maybe you need a head start? After all, your legs are shorter than mine.” His gaze running down my body might as well have been a caress, and I had to forcibly restrain a shudder. Great, now I was going to have to run with a chub. Joy.
“For the record,” another half step back, “I don’t need a head start.
” A full step back. I met his gaze and took a moment to enjoy the smile playing on his lips before grinning wide enough to split my face in two.
“But I won’t turn one down either.” I spun on my heel and took off down the trail, but not before I caught a glimpse of his surprise followed by his laughter chasing me.