Boarlander Bash Bear 2(26)
She gave him a suspicious glare. “Are you trying to rub its magic off on me?”
Nonchalantly, he said, “Maybe,” then kissed her forehead and rolled out of bed. “Also, I really did set up a party for you down by Bear Trap Falls, and I need to get cooking or everyone will be bitchin’ about me taking too long. We come off that mountain hungry.”
“Hmmm,” she said happily as she slid from the bed and rooted around for her panties. When she saw the tattered fabric, she gasped and held up the pitiful negligee. “Bash, you ripped them!”
“Well, I was gentle with everything else.” He snatched them out of her hand. “Besides, these are mine now. Audrey taught me how to scrapbook.”
“What? No! You aren’t putting my panties into a scrapbook!”
He laughed and held them too high for her to reach. “These are for the When Bean Was Made page.”
Mortification blasted heat through her cheeks as she jumped, trying to reach them.
Bash flicked them up in the air out of her reach. “For real, Emerson, I want them. I won’t scrapbook them if you don’t want me to.”
She stopped bouncing and rested her palms against her cheeks to cool the burn. “Then why do you want them?”
He cocked his head and frowned like she should know the answer already. “To smell later, obviously.”
“Oh, my gosh, I can’t even have this conversation,” she said, making her way into the living room where her duffle bag sat near the front door.
“It’s like pheromones with a hint of soap,” he murmured.
“Stop smelling them, Bash!”
“I’ll give you a trade.” Bash appeared in the living room empty-handed. He’d probably already hid the damned panties in his room somewhere.
“I don’t want your underwear.”
“How about a sleep shirt?”
She narrowed her eyes and tried to cling to that wisp of anger, but it faltered like a mirage in a desert when he grinned at her. His happiness was infectious. Bash pulled his black cotton T-shirt off the floor and handed it to her.
After a moment of hesitation, she begrudgingly took it and sniffed his shirt. It smelled of cologne and body wash that was probably named Sexy Lumberjack or Cool Evergreen or Biker Bear Mutton Chops or some other manly name. It smelled divine. “Fine. Trade accepted.”
“Great. Now come on. I have to get you settled into ten-ten. It takes a long time to heat pizza rolls on the grill.”
She huffed a surprised laugh as he disappeared back into his bedroom. One thing was for sure and for certain. Life with Bash would never be dull.
After she was decent again with her bathing suit under her clothes and hair pulled in a mess of curls on top of her head to cover up the mega-sex-hair she’d been rocking, she glossed her lips, reapplied mascara, and spun to leave his bathroom. On second thought, she turned to a full-length mirror and lifted her tank top, then pressed her hands on her belly. Today had gone so differently than she’d imagined, and the promise of a new life and adventure filled her stomach with butterflies. Even if it took them a while to get pregnant, just the thought of starting this journey with the man she loved was exciting. Mom and Dad would flip out, and Amanda, too, of course, because Emerson wasn’t doing things the conventional way, but so what? She was really and truly happy, and that would have to be good enough for her family.
“Em. Emmy. Emalemadingdong,” Bash muttered from the other room.
With a laugh, Emerson tugged her shirt back into place and sauntered into the other room where Bash was tying the front of his low-slung, green and white swim trunks.
“What are you saying?” she asked, utterly amused.
“I’m seeing if I like any nicknames for you.”
“Well, I vote no on Emalemadingdong.”
“I like your real name best,” he agreed, slipping into a pair of flip-flops and pulling on a white T-shirt. “Hey, we match!” Bash pointed to the strap of her green bikini top that showed under her tank. “Clinton is gonna be so mad ’cause we’re so fuckin’ cute. We should take selfies and tape ’em to his trailer. I like your lip glitter.”
Yep, from this day forth, Emerson was definitely going to call lip gloss “lip glitter.”
Bash swooped in and kissed her laughter away, then eased back with a big grin on his face. He squeezed her shoulders and gave a silent, excited shake of his head, then released her and pulled her by the hand toward the living room. “I’m gonna tell everybody what we did in my bed.”
“Nope.”
“Fine, I’m going to tell everyone we made out, but wink a lot so they get what I really mean.”