Tempting the New Boss(38)
She tossed him his pants. “Really. I’m so worried we get somewhere so my parents know I’m okay.”
He stood and stretched, and she ignored how hot he was in all his nakedness. At least the evidence of her reaction to him was hidden under her layers of clothes now. He pulled his shirt on first, turning away from her, pausing for a minute, rubbing his forehead.
“Come on. What are you doing?”
“I’m conjugating Greek verbs to keep from getting down on my knees and begging you to suck me off.”
She laughed despite herself, shocked and, well hell, a little turned on.
He peeked back at her over his shoulder. “I’d be quick.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. My heart wouldn’t be in it right now.”
“Would your mouth?”
“Mason!”
“I’m kidding. Just kidding.”
He reached for his pants, and she tied the clunky boots on and then got two bags of trail mix out of the backpack. When he was dressed, she tossed him one. “For the road. Now will you wear the leather jacket today? It’s only fair. I wore it yesterday. You were probably freezing.”
“But I’d still be freezing if you hadn’t made the fire. So you deserve it.” He wrapped it around her, dropping a kiss on her lips.
He shrugged into his own jacket, pocketing the pearls.
“Am I ever getting those back?”
“Don’t count on it. Okay, Miss Anderson, let’s get going.”
As they headed out, she remembered the walkie-talkie in the backpack and said, “Wait a second,” indicating he should turn around so she could extract it. “We should try this. See where Ray and Boyd are.”
“How do you remember their names?”
“You should try mnemonics. It might help.”
“Marcia’s done her best. Believe me. I’m hopeless.”
She grinned at him. “You just don’t care.”
“I care when I want to, Camilla.”
“I’m honored.” She fiddled with the device. “I don’t know why we didn’t try this last night.”
“We had other things on our mind.”
“Hmmm.” She depressed the talk button. “Boyd? Ray?” She waited a minute. Nothing. “Guys? Are you there?”
Two more tries proved just as fruitless.
“Come on,” he suggested. “Keep it out and we can try as we walk.”
All traces of the storm had disappeared, except for the relentless mud. Bright autumn sunshine guided their way through the woods, and an hour or so into their brisk hike, they even found a trail that appeared to be well-kept—still dirt, well, mud really, but a path with no weeds and an occasional sign not to litter. The jacket was too warm to wear after a while, and Camilla tied it around her waist until Mason insisted on stuffing it into the backpack.
Although the walkie-talkie continued to fail to raise the pilots every time she tried, Camilla was starting to feel some hope.
They talked casually as they made their way, never feeling they had to, but as things occurred to them.
Once, as they walked, she glanced at him sideways and muttered, “Suck me off!”
Not breaking pace, he responded, “Was that a request? I’d be happy to, but you’re in such a big hurry today I didn’t dare suggest it.”
“No, I’m talking about how you referred to it this morning. ‘Suck me off.’ I think you’re putting me on half the time about what you know and don’t know.”
“I could have called it fellatio.”
“Hmmph. That’s what I would have thought you would call it. How come you knew that other charming expression for it?”
He laughed. “Believe me, Camilla, when a girl first offers to ‘suck you off’ and then shows you what she means, and in my case it was for the very first time, it’s not a turn of phrase a man could forget. Some aspects of popular culture or slang are simply unforgettable.”
She scowled at him, but he clasped his hand in hers and brought it to his lips, and the courtly gesture went a long way toward making her feel better.
If it weren’t for the whole “lost in the woods and maybe never finding their way out of it” thing, she might have enjoyed this long space of time to talk with Mason.
“So you grew up in California?” she asked at one point when they got going again after having stopped briefly for necessities, out of sight of each other of course, since she never wanted to be that casual with a guy. “Did you have a big house, small house, what?”
“My mother lived in an apartment, in Los Angeles.”
“And you went away to live at school during the school year?”