“Not exactly. Except as a study in ethics. Should intelligent machines be created, and if they were, would they have souls?”
“Okay. That really is a change.”
As she gazed into his eyes, she realized he’d probably gone searching for answers. When he’d lost Trey, he might have been seeking an understanding of why people behave the way they do. Why people accept some things and reject others. Like Trey being afraid to embrace his sexual orientation. Like society’s long history of rebuffing same-sex couples. Like even when people accepted an alternate sexual orientation, they often still required that the people in question choose one gender or the other, asserting that the very real feelings bisexuals have for those of their same gender are a choice, rather than an inherent and totally spontaneous desire they have no control over.
Being bisexual must be a confusing and difficult path . . . made more difficult for Jake because even his lover, Trey, couldn’t accept what they had. Trey’s discovery that he was bisexual seemed to allow him to deny his desire for Jake—or any man—and embrace what he felt was a normal, or more acceptable and safer, type of relationship. Heterosexuality.
It must have been a terrible blow to Jake, despite his apparent calm acceptance, to lose someone he’d cherished so deeply. And still did.
As they stepped into the bright afternoon, Danielle noticed that dark clouds threatened the edges of the glorious blue sky. Before they’d left Jake’s house, they’d stuffed towels and bathing suits into their backpacks in hopes of enjoying a swim after their visit to campus.
“Maybe we should skip that swim and head back,” she suggested. She didn’t even mention going to her old residence, hoping they’d forget about that entirely.
“Nonsense,” Trey said. “It’s not much farther. Anyway, a little rain won’t hurt us.”
When she was younger, she used to love being out in the rain. She glanced at the darkening sky. Was she becoming stodgy?
“Okay, let’s go.” She began pedaling and the men fell in beside her.
About fifteen minutes later, they turned off the main bike path to one winding through the woods. Ten minutes after that, with still a good twenty minutes of uphill riding to their destination—a swimming hole in a small clearing—the sky began pelting them with large, heavy droplets of rain. Slowly, at first, her shirt splotched with large, wet stains. . . . Then the drops came faster, until she was drenched.
“Nice view,” Trey kidded.
Her bra was totally visible through the light cotton shirt. Of course, she didn’t mind the view of Trey’s shirt clinging to his awesome tight abs.
A flash of lightning lit the sky and a sharp crack of thunder nearly sent her flying off the bike. Lightning flashed again, followed by a rolling boom across the distance. Shivers ran through her, as much from the pyrotechnics as from the chill of the air traveling across her wet body.
“Maybe we should find some shelter,” Jake said. “Trey, where’s that cave?”
“Not too far.”
They rode a little farther, then Trey pointed ahead.
“See the break in the trees there?” He rode ahead a bit, then stopped and dismounted.
Danielle and Jake slowed and stopped beside him.
“It’s over this way.” Jake walked his bike between the trees, then along a narrow walking path. They followed until they came to a sharp, rocky rise.
“Over here.” Trey grabbed his backpack, which had been fastened to the back of his bike, and flung it over his shoulders. Jake grabbed Danielle’s pack and his own, and they followed Trey.
Danielle wasn’t too sure about the idea of taking shelter in a dark, dingy cave, the thought of bats and other subterranean creatures stirring disturbing fears.
When she saw the wide, fairly open, but sheltered area under the rock overhang, she sighed in relief. The area was about twelve feet wide, surrounded on three sides by rock walls and inset about eight feet under the rock overhang. She could cope with this.
She stepped inside the shelter, followed by Jake. Trey dropped his backpack on the ground and unzipped it. He tugged out a rolled blanket and spread it out on the ground, then produced a couple of beach towels, which he tossed on the blanket, still folded. They looked like comfy cushions to sit on.
She heard the zip of Jake’s bag behind her.
“You’re drenched,” he said.
She felt soft terry cloth as Jake dropped a towel over her head, then proceeded to dry her hair.
When he freed her head from his towel-handed grip, she noticed that Trey had removed his sopping wet shirt.
Jake dropped the towel, then pulled his shirt off, too.
“You know, you really should take that wet shirt off .” Jake’s blue eyes glinted, enhancing his totally devilish grin.
“I could do that, but then you’d see me in only my bra.” She smiled. “We couldn’t have that.” She reached under the back of her shirt and unfastened her bra, tugged the loop of one strap past her elbow and worked her arm free, then did the same with the other side. . . . Then she reached under the front of her shirt and tugged the bra down and out.
Both men’s gazes glued to her breasts, which she was aware might as well have been naked given the wet, nearly transparent fabric clinging to them. It was totally sexy knowing she was totally covered by the shirt . . . yet hid nothing.
“You’re right. That’s much better,” Trey said.
She wriggled out of her shorts and tossed them to the side, then turned and knelt down while she positioned a towel, quite aware she was flashing them an eyeful of practically naked derriere. She shifted around, then stretched out on the blanket, her head resting on the towel.
“Mmm. Maybe it’s a good time for a nap. I’m a little cold, though.”
Both men pounced to her side, then wrapped their arms around
