Page 26 of My Favorite Bad Decision
“You brought extras, right?”
I hear movement behind me and check to make sure he’s not looking…andhe’snot looking, but I am, and he’s one hundred percent naked, sitting on his knees while he looks through his bag.
For a moment I simply stare. He has…the most perfect broad shoulders leading down to his sculpted back to a narrow waist, and the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen in my life. Jesus Christ.
I turn away quickly and continue drying off. I’m breathing too hard. It’s probably the altitude.
“Were you just looking?” he accuses, laughing.
“Youwishyou were interesting enough for me to look,” I reply in the snottiest voice I can manage.
“I didn’t know you had a tattoo,” he replies.
“Youlooked,” I gasp, holding my sweater against my bare chest as I turn to glance back at him over my shoulder. He is still deliciously naked. My God, that ass.
“So did you,” he replies. “Youstillare. I can tell by how much closer your voice is.”
I turn around quickly. “Yes, but mine was an accident.”
“That accident lasted an awfully long time,” he replies.
Argh.It did.
I pull on dry socks. “I was so bored by the view that my mind wandered.”
He simply laughs, as if he knows I’m full of shit.
Which, obviously, I am.
We crawl into our sleeping bags once we’re both fully clothed. The rain continues to lash the tent but inside we’re warm and dry and I…actually don’t mind that he’s here.
He opens his phone. “Did you bring anything to do?”
I release a miserable sigh as I reach toward my bag again. “I brought a book.” Forcing myself to get throughThe Future of Publishingwhile on this trip seemed like a great idea when I left home, just like only bringing healthy snacks did.
What I didn’t realize was that the hiking, the altitude, the weather, and the sleeping conditions would conspire to rob me of all my self-restraint. My protein bars and boring book now feel like the worst sort of punishment, a nice flogging at the end of an unrewarding day.
“Wow,” he says. “There’s no way you want to read that.”
“I was trying to be responsible. I’m joining the finance team a week after I get back.”
“This seems to be a theme with you.” He sets his phone between us. “Come here. I downloaded some shows.”
“You don’t have to share. I was the idiot who didn’t plan ahead.”
“Contrary to what you seem to believe about me,” he says, “I don’t mind sharing.” For a brief second our gazes catch, and he laughs. “Somehow that came out dirtier than I intended. I just meant that I don’t mind having you watch on my phone.”
Reluctantly, a smile forces its way out of me and I shuffle my sleeping bag close to his so that we can watch30 Rocktogether.
“This is actually my favorite show,” I admit.
He glances at me again. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
“Why? Because the main character is sort of mean and cynical?”
“No, Kitten,” he says with a soft smile, “because it’s my favorite show too.”
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