Gray Back Bad Bear(14)

“Nerd. Nerd! Willa! It was a joke, and look, now I know you can swim like a fish. No bobbing.”

“Yeah!” she screeched. “I guess I can swim when I think my friend is dying. Congratu-fucking-lations on your epic discovery.”

Matt’s hands latched onto her arm. “I’m sorry. It was a bad joke. I didn’t know you would get so upset. Wait, are you crying?”

She was, in fact, sobbing like a badass. Warm tears streamed down her face. “I thought you were going to die. I’m traumatized now, Matt!”

“Aw, Nerd, were you worried about me?” His voice was flippant, and she imagined he was like that with all the girls he met.

“Don’t,” she gritted out, touching bottom and standing to glare at him. “That little sarcastic attitude probably works with the girls you sleep with, but I’m not them. If something happened to you, it wouldn’t just be a story I’d go back home and tell my friends. It would rip me up, you asshole.”

“Hey,” he said, grabbing her arm again as she turned to stomp out of the water. “I’m sorry. I didn’t… I’m not used to people caring like that. I thought you’d let me splash around for a while.”

“I thought a fucking crocodile was eating you!”

“Fear number one hundred eighty-two?” His smile was less certain now.

“It’s not funny, Matt.”

He pulled her against him so fast, she was shocked into stillness. “I like that you thought it might be a crocodile, and you still dove in to help me. Shh, no more crying. I’m sorry. I really won’t prank you again. For at least a day.”

“Har har.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“You have a boner again.”

“Oh good God, are you going to point it out every time I get one? It’s unavoidable. You getting all protective is a turn-on.”

Willa eased back, hands still splayed on his taut chest. “So I do affect you…sexually?”

Matt made a ticking sound behind his teeth. “Do you have a vagina?”

She gave him a dead-eyed look. “Yes, Matt. I have one of those.”

“Then you affect me sexually. It’s nothing personal, Willa. I get turned on easily.”

He spun back toward the waterfall and began walking through the river toward it, leaving her near the bank.

And just like that, he’d reminded her that both her feet were still firmly planted in the unsexy sands of the friendship desert.

Up front, Matt stopped and turned, waiting for her to catch up. “Hey, remember that time you thought I was dying and tried to save me?” His obnoxious grin was back.

She splashed deeper and frog swam to him. “Yeah, but I learned my lesson and will never help you again.”

“Still mad then?”

“Nope, just unaffected by your trickery.”

Matt hooked his arms around her waist and swung her wide as they treaded water. Waves lapped at his chin as he grinned at her with a cocky smile that probably got him in a lot of girls’ panties.

The left side of his face was bruised but was already turning the green color of healing.

“Did you get in a fight?”

“With a tree or ten.”

“So you got hurt while you were lumberjacking?”

He smiled like she was cute and pulled her around to his back until she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with her knees squeezed against his ribs like a koala bear. Then he pushed off the bottom and swam them slowly up the current toward the waterfall.

Undeterred by him ignoring her question, she asked, “Is your job really this dangerous?”

No answer meant yes.

“Then why do you do it?”

“Because it pays the bills and keeps my animal sated. Kind of. I like the physical work, and I like my crew, and that’s what we do. Each crew does a job. Some are construction workers, some firemen, some search and rescue. It’s always something physical. Sitting around in a cubical would be equivalent to caging our bears.”

She ran her finger across a long scar on his shoulder. “You ever been caged?”

“You’re killing my boner, Willa.” The words came out all growly and low.

“Well, perhaps that’s a good thing,” she said primly. “I don’t even know if it’s healthy to keep an erection for twenty-three hours a day.”

Matt snorted and stood in neck deep water, the mist from the falls surrounding them. “That’s why I go to the bar.” He turned to her and trapped her in his blue flame gaze, as if he were gauging her reaction.

“Trying to hurt me by throwing it in my face how many women you sleep with? I’m unaffected, remember?” She pushed off him and swam on her back in a wide circle. “Besides, I’m quite scandalous, too. Once, I let Frankie Mercer finger me in my dorm room senior year of college. I even almost orgasmed.” Her cheeks were blazing, but something about Matt made her want to say out loud all the things she normally wouldn’t share with anyone. Perhaps because something inside of him had been broken, so he wouldn’t judge. That much was obvious from his marred skin and his need for different women in his bed.