“No, actually.” She wrinkled that lovely nose and frowned. “Not even once.”
“Glad to be the first.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t get too cocky about it.”
He tugged the shirt harder. “Are you going to let the sun touch all your glory, Jenny?”
Hesitation hovered on her face. Why the reluctance? She was free enough with nudity when alone with him at the cabin. She seemed comfortable in her gorgeous skin. Whenever he’d coaxed her into hot sex, she’d been a willing and enthusiastic participant. But here, in a public place, risking public viewing, she wouldn’t meet his eye. It was an excuse, he thought. The sex itself, that’s what was troubling her, after their kiss this morning. Only one day had passed, but they were no longer two consenting adults enjoying mutual sexual stimulation. There was a lot more thrumming between them now. He couldn’t come up with any other explanation for her sudden shyness, this vaguely-panicked muting of her usual enthusiasm.
He let go of the hem of her tee-shirt to tug on the waistband of her shorts. “All right, just lose these.”
“Oh,” she said breathlessly, uncertain.
“Ditch the shorts,” he said, leaning in to whisper in her ear, “and I’ll pull the blanket over my head to cover us both.”
The skin at her neck turned a shade pinker. Her knees bobbed as the implications sank in. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, and then, with a catch in her throat, she leaned back on the blanket to flick open the button of her shorts.
A half an hour later, mutually satisfied, they lay beside each other, the edge of the blanket pulled over his hips. Raking his hands through his hair, he tried to ease the pounding of his heart after the powerful orgasm she’d just given him. He glanced at Jenny, lying on her belly, a wicked light in her eye, still bearing the radiance of the sexual satisfaction he’d given her. The sweet perfume of her sex lingered on his lips.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her, looking so soft and vulnerable and relaxed and happy. The endorphins were kicking in for him, too, he felt the drift of his excitement into a lingering peace. But there was more to this satisfaction, now, it came with a compulsion to make her happy. He wasn’t worth her time, his life was on hold, and he hadn’t expected this. But he knew he had every intention of holding on to her, and seeing if this could work.
Yeah. He couldn’t deny it anymore.
Timing be damned.
He was in love with Jenny Vance.
***
Logan was catching up on a lot of sleep, that was sure. He woke up disoriented, blinking up at the underside of the forest canopy, over an hour after his romp with Jenny, according to his plastic-wrapped phone. He turned his head to find her, still on her stomach, rising out of her own pleasant doze.
Under the blanket he slid a hand down the incline of her sloping back, then over one still-bare buttock. “For a lady who was so concerned with public decency laws,” he said, squeezing the fullness of one plump globe, “you sure are reveling in the rule-breaking.”
She raised herself on her elbows, rewarding him with a view of cleavage beneath, and the weight and wonder of her breasts.
“Your fault,” she said. “You’ve corrupted me.”
“Excellent.”
“I used to be such a law-abiding citizen.”
“Now you’re a rebel.”
Her grin widened. “It is liberating.”
“Care for a swim?” Hell, it had been an hour. Just breathing the same air as Jenny made him want her again. “I could use some cooling off.”
“You’re just trying to get me out of the rest of my clothes.”
“Is it working?”
She laughed. “It’s not a very deep stream, you know.”
“All the better.” He ran a hand across her flat belly, to rest on the lightly protruding bone of her hip. “Are you game, Jenny?”
“Yes.”
His pulse leapt. Was it his hopes rising? Was she really saying yes to more than just a naked swim? He wasn’t imagining that look on her face. But he didn’t have much time to contemplate it, because she leapt up, pulled off her tee-shirt and bra. Tossing a dare over her shoulder, she raced naked to the stream.
He followed more leisurely, enjoying the view as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. The water only came hip-deep on her in the middle of the stream. She bent down until her head went under, and then surged up, water sluicing over her body. He nearly lost his footing, so distracted. He couldn’t wait to join her and pull that water-slick body against his own.
Time had lost all meaning by the time they’d had enough of swimming and emerged to dry each other off with the clean side of the picnic blanket. Jenny had slicked her hair off her face and he found his attention drawn to the hollow beneath her cheekbones, the shape of her earlobes. Raking his own wet hair off his forehead, he turned away to grab her clothes and get a handle on himself
“Dress, you shameless thing.” He pressed a tee-shirt against her naked, grass-flecked belly, “before I think of a new way to break decency laws.”
“Promises, promises.”
He pulled on his own underwear and shorts to the sound of her soft laughter reaching for his tee-shirt just as the laughter died with a yelp.
He turned to find her grimacing. “What is it?”
“A darn bee,” she said, in a strained voice, as she clutched her upper arm. “I didn’t see it lurking in the sleeve.”
He reached for the wallet in his back pocket as he strode to her side. “For a botanist, you get stung a lot.”
“Only the second time. Okay, maybe the third.” She danced a little, wincing. “And the last two times
