Page 21 of Apricity
Chapter 13
Alessandra
“Oh, for the love of holes, are we deep enough, yet?”
It seems like we’ve been at this forever, and now the sun's starting to set. It’s been too long of a day for any of this to have been done voluntarily. I’m covered in sweat, damp from the drizzling rain and just plain tired of digging this godforsaken hole. Sadie, however, seems to be having the time of her life, heaving loads and loads of dirt through her back legs and behind her.
“That’s what she said!” all three guys say at the same time, their overlapping speech indicative of their running joke and the ever-present need to be the first to say it, lest they pay the penalty. In this instance, Jax was the last to respond. I smirk in his direction, jutting my chin out to indicate he’s lost.
“That’s twenty! Strip and push, sexy.”
He lifts an arm over his head, grasping his shirt and hoodie together from behind his neck and pulls, slowly, teasingly. The slight twist of his hips, as he inches the garments off his flesh, tightens his abs, drawing my eyes directly to the hardened muscle. It’s like his body was designed to move in that certain way all the time just to have me drooling all over.
I gather myself enough to wipe a hand across my chin, collecting what’s spilled out of my mouth as he takes a plank position on the cold, damp ground. Soft puffs of white-hot steam exit his mouth as he waits for me to count. At my nod, he bends his elbows, pressing down until his nose touches the ground before he comes up and repeats the movement.
“One!”
I was confused when we first started this little game, counting two push-ups as one. The guys explained to me that normal push-ups are down and up one time, but Marine Corps push-ups are two for the price of one—down up, down up.
“Two!”
Jax continues his punishment while I sit on a large rock enjoying how his muscles bunch with the movement. Between the heat radiating off his skin and the heat exponentially growing within me, I’m suddenly no longer cold.
“Three!”
After a minute or so, he finishes. I, sadly, don’t. And now, as I turn away from Jax and back to the giant hole we’re supposed to be digging, I’m hit with the mother of allaphrodisiacs. I’m not only hot and bothered by the steam rising from Jax’s tanned skin, but also from the dirty, now half-naked, bodies of Hawk and Cole who, apparently, decided to take off their own shirts and kept on digging the hole while I sat here and ogled Jax.
They’re covered in dirt and mud, but not in a pig pen way. In a freaking oil rigger way. A soot covered fireman calendar kind of way. With puppies!
Hawk notices and poses obscenely with his shovel in between his legs, stroking the wooden handle as he lifts a crooked smile in my direction.
“Hey sweetheart, think you have some room in that beautiful mind of yours for a little more filth?” He looks down at his hand stroking the handle and smirks, looking at me from under his eyelashes. “Well… maybe more than a little.” He thrusts his hips up at the same time the wanton whore within me utters a not-so-subtle moan. I, actually, think a few birds were scared off from the crude noise, being as loud as it was coming from my subconscious.
Fire consumes each of their eyes as Jax takes his place standing in front of them. He takes a look behind his back at the gaping hole the boys finished up, nods and turns back to me.
“You do look exquisite when you’re filthy, baby.” In a flash, all three of them are before me. Jax lifts his hand to clear a stray bit of hair from my face. “Want us to help you, since you’re so painfully clean right now?”
Even though it’s sprinkling, I’m hot. I’m bothered. I’m a tight and twisted ball of lust. But do I want to roll around in the cold mud with three hot-as-fuck guys in fifty-degree partially rainy weather?
That’s a stupid fucking question if I ever heard one…
Yes. Yes, I do.
But I don’t want to make it that easy for them. They already have me. Hook, line and sinker. They know that. So how about a little fun added to the mix. I look up at the three of them, tall and imposing, ready to strike. I’m putty in Jax’s hands but I plant my feet on the rock, bracing myself, readying my muscles—
“You’ve gotta catch me first.” I take off, running as fast as my little legs can take me through the brush. I hear a“whoop!”behind me and push myself to go even faster. The trees sting me with their limbs as they jut out onto the path leading back to the house. I don’t want to stray from the area, not knowing the terrain as well as what else could be out there. Keeping to the relative backyard of the cabin means safety when danger can lurk so closely, hidden in the shadows.
I leap into the air and clear a fallen log but then, as I look back to check on the guys’ locations, trip over an exposed tree root and stumble. Luckily, I manage to catch myself before I go down fully, but the guys are right there and closing in. They're like a pack of wolves coming in for the kill and I’m the helpless bunny trying to evade them.
Or am I?
I feel a hand brush against my shoulder and I react, digging my toes in and turning quickly to the right.
“Aaah!Oomph”
I look back quickly to see Cole on all fours, pushing off the dirt and mud, looking like a filthy mountain lion ready to pounce. But I’m not worried about him right now. I’m more worried about Hawk and Jax. They’re right behindme, smiling like they could do this for hours while I’m already panting and sweating like a sinner in church.
I reach my arm out to the side and grab ahold of a tree, swinging my body around it and back in the opposite direction. *splat*The sound of another one of them falling down in the mud makes it to me before a shiver crawls up my spine.
