Chapter Thirteen #2
“Can we… walk there together?” she asked. “I know I keep saying this, but my father used to go with me. These bathhouses can be a little, you know, creepy. They work on the honor system, but not all men are, you know, honorable, and you’re really vulnerable when—”
“Caitlin,” I cut her off, reaching back for my bag, “relax. I don’t need explanations. All you gotta do is ask.”
Though I should have thought to offer. We were parked pretty far from the bathhouse. There were dozens of RVs between us and the building. RVs where she could so easily just be pulled inside, and…
Nope.
Wasn’t going to let those thoughts take root, not when just a fleeting one had my gut twisting and heat spreading through my chest.
Almost exactly how I’d felt when she’d told me that shit about the pizza guy. A pizza guy who was about to get a nice little visit from one of my more brutal soldiers. A guy who would take pleasure in making it clear that Caitlin was under our protection from here on out.
I’d squared away the details that morning while she’d been hemming and hawing drink selections at the convenience store, excusing myself to the bathroom where I made a call to follow up on the text telling him to clear his calendar for the next two days.
I’d get a hang-up call when it was done.
And I was looking forward to that more than I could have anticipated.
I wasn’t Brio. I didn’t take pleasure in pain, in making people pay for fucking with us.
But just this once, I was fucking tickled about it.
The smell of campfire smoke swirled around us as we walked, carrying with it the sickly-sweet scent of marshmallows that made Caitlin get a dreamy look in her eyes.
“We should have picked up the makings for s’mores.”
“Next time we stop,” I promised her as we got to the dark wood cabin.
Stepping in through the front door, the building was lined on each side with four doors, all of them open this late at night.
“This is me,” she said, stepping in front of the last door.
“I’m gonna go ahead and assume it’s a safety thing and not because that is the closest door to the fucking vending machines.”
The way her lips twitched told on her true motives.
“Let me just check,” I said, moving into the anteroom, then the shower itself. “All set,” I said as she stepped inside, her smile soft.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll take the one next to you.”
Where I would stand under the spray of the shower that would share a wall with hers and try not to think about her in there with nothing on, the water sliding down her bare—
“Christ,” I whispered to myself as I moved into my room, placing my pajama pants down on the counter and getting out my toothbrush and paste.
In the other room, as I brushed, the water turned on, a splatter against tile.
But before I could do more than take off my shirt, there was a shrill scream from Caitlin’s room.
My fucking heart flew into my chest as I grabbed my knife and rushed over.
“Caitlin!” I yelled, pounding on the door. “Cait—”
The door flew open.
And there she was.
In nothing but a pale pink bra and polka-dot panties, her eyes wide, her plastic-bag-covered, casted hand pressed to her heart.
“Where is he?” I snarled, striding inside.
“On the wall.”
“On the… what?” I asked, turning back to face her.
“Careful. He’s as big as your head.”
“What is?”
She moved behind me, one hand pressed to my back as the other lifted and moved around me to point.
All I wanted to do was focus on how I could feel her breasts on my back. But I forced myself to follow her finger. Then there it was.
A damn spider.
Sure, it was a big one.
But nowhere near the size of my head.
“Look at him with his beady, murderous eyes,” she said, pressing closer to me, making my system short-circuit. This was not a good time for my cock to start getting ideas. But they were there. And my body was reacting.
“Where’s your shoe?” I asked, moving to the side. She moved with me, hiding behind me like a human shield.
“No! Don’t kill him. It’s not his fault he’s so ugly.”
A snort escaped me at that.
“What do you want me to do then? Relocate him?”
“Yeah. I mean, this is his home. I just don’t want him launching himself at me from his butt-rope while I’m naked.”
Shaking that mental image away, I glanced around. “Got anything I can catch him in then?”
“I’ll look. Don’t take your eye off him.”
I took a deep breath as she moved away, telling myself to watch the stupid spider, but I couldn’t seem to help but glance over at her back as she turned. The slope of her spine, the curve of her hip, the round ass that peeked out of the bottom of her panties.
“Oh, perfect!” she said, fishing a plastic travel case for a bar of soap, dropping the bar into her bag, then holding the two parts out to me.
“You can, you know, scoot him in and close it up. Then take him outside where he can converse with his creepy eight-legged friends and eat a bunch of mosquitoes.”
“On the web that he made from his… butt-rope.”
“Stop laughing. He’s already plotting his escape.”
The damn thing just scooted a centimeter to the side.
I stuck my knife in my pocket and took the soap dish with me, scooting the slow-moving spider inside and closing it as Caitlin let out a slew of hisses, gasps, and little cries.
“Got him,” I said, waving the dish as I turned.
But she was right there.
So close that our chests brushed.
My thoughts scrambled.
My heart stuttered.
My blood rushed. Mostly south.
I could feel it when Caitlin gasped at the contact, her breasts pressing more firmly against me.
I promised myself I was going to move away, that I was going to be a better person than my hormones wanted me to be.
Then her gaze flicked up.
And I saw heavy lids and heated eyes.
I wasn’t aware of my brain telling any part of my body to move. But then there was my arm lifting, reaching out, tucking her hair behind her ear.
I would have let it stop there.
I thought.
But a little shiver moved through her body, and she was close enough for me to feel it. Then her breath gasped in from between her parted lips. And her gaze slid to my mouth.
Everything stalled, stilled, quieted.
My head tilted, lowered.
“Hey, yo!” a voice called, close. Too close.
Caitlin jumped away from me, her hands scrambling to cover up her mostly bare body.
Then there he was. The owner. With a flashlight and a bat.
“We don’t allow any hanky-panky in here,” he said as I stepped in front of Caitlin to block her from his view.
“We had a spider situation,” I told him, waving the soap dish. “Apparently, it was plotting murder and as big as my head,” I added with a little smile as the man’s gaze went to the dish.
His smile broke across his face then too.
“I’m the spider relocator in my family too,” he said. “So much fussing over a little thing. And God forbid I squish it. Want me to take it out of here?” he asked.
“If you don’t mind,” I said, offering it to him as I walked him back to the door.
“I’ll bring your dish right back.”
“Burn it,” Caitlin called, making him laugh.
“Women,” he said, shaking his head as the door closed behind us. “Might give us a heart attack now and again with the screaming, but I kinda always like being needed.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
That had never been my experience before. I liked being left the hell alone. Until she needed me for something. Now, the thought of someone else being her spider relocation made my gut twist. Because that made any sense.
“I’ll rinse this out and leave it on your tractor. She’ll be over it by then.”
With that, he was gone, and I dipped back into my room, stripped, turned on the water, and climbed in.
On the other side of the room, I could hear the way the water caught on her body before splashing to the tile.
Any plans on not thinking about her in there completely disappeared now that I’d gotten to see more of her.
My cock was too hard not to do something about it.
I was only maybe three or four strokes in when I heard soft little sounds breaking through the water.
Ones I tried, at first, to write off as humming or singing.
But as another minute or two passed and the sounds grew louder, more throaty and desperate, I knew exactly what I was hearing. Knew exactly what she was doing.
Knowing it was creepy, I still couldn’t stop myself from moving closer, from listening to her as my hand worked my length.
There was a soft, choked sob on the other side of the wall, and the sound of her coming tipped me right over the edge too.
As I finished up my shower and got dressed, I figured it was best to have gotten that out of the way so hopefully I didn’t wake up with a raging hard-on and no way to hide it in the minuscule space of the cabin.
When I made my way out of the bathroom, I found Caitlin already hard at work on the vending machines.
“Really?” I asked, moving closer and seeing her overflowing bag.
“This will save us a trip to the convenience store tomorrow. I got you a water. Sorry, they don’t have any veggies and hummus.”
With that, we made our way back to the tractor, putting our stuff away, then setting up the beds. If you could call the area above the cabin where Caitlin planned to sleep a bed.
“That doesn’t feel claustrophobic?” I asked after she hauled herself up and shifted around.
“Well, it pinches a little tighter than I remember, but I think it will be okay.”
“If you want to switch, let me know.”
“Right. You would need to fold up in here like a circus act.”
“Or I could sleep in the front. Don’t stay up there if it makes you anxious.”
Caitlin leaned down over the edge of the bed, giving me a soft look.
“Thank you.”
“Didn’t do shit.”
“You haven’t made me feel like a freak for my issues. That’s something. And you moved that killer spider.”
“Anytime, Nugget,” I said, making her laugh as she moved back into her bunk.
“Goodnight, Gav.”
“Goodnight.”