Page 21 of Noah's Reckoning
A few hours later
Ark
“And that’s gin,” she said, setting her last three cards aside. “Let me see them.”
I laid down the four cards I was still holding in my hand. She counted the points then added that to the number she was holding in her head from our last seven rounds.
“That’s one forty-two to seven. I’m winning,” she said with a cheeky smile.
“You’re not winning, you’re kicking my ass,” I growled at her.
We had moved to make it easier to deal the cards. Now, we were both sitting on the sleeping bag, using the chairs to lean against. I let her have the blanket as the fire was keeping me plenty warm. The fire also provided us with enough light to see the cards.
“I think we fight a lot because I also like to be on top and I can feel you gaining ground on me,” I said, referencing her earlier statement from this afternoon. “I don’t like it.”
She looked at me. “Are you being honest right now?”
I was. Extremely honest. “Growing up, I didn’t do a lot of things well. Not sports, not girls. But I was smart. That was my thing. When someone challenges that…maybe I get my back up. Sometimes.”
Her lips quirked. “Maybe.Sometimes. I guess that’s why we have such a hard time working together.”
“I guess that’s why.”
That wasn’t totally honest but at least we’d managed to survive the whole day without going for each other’s throats. And I’d managed to go the whole day without pinning her to the sleeping bag and ravaging her.
“Another round?” she asked.
“Nah, I’m beat.” It was true.
“We need to do the thing with the sleeping bag and the blanket again, huh?”
She was chewing the pad of her thumb, and I hated the fact I had made her nervous about something that should have been as easy as falling asleep.
“’Olivia, about this morning…”
“No, it’s okay,” she said. “It’s okay. I know that wasn’t about me. But maybe we should put our coats between us or something?”
“A coat’s not going to stop me from getting hard,” I told her bluntly. “I just need you to know I would never do anything about it.”
“Yep. I get it. There are no two people less likely to have sex than us. I don’t know why I even said that. Forget I said that.”
“Olivia, we’re cool. Okay?”
I stretched out on the sleeping bag and waited for her to lay next to me. I covered us both with the blanket then pulled her up against my chest. Damn, I liked this. The wind was still howling outside, the fire was crackling and Olivia was in my arms.
She shuffled a little at first, but I felt her relax eventually. She trusted me. Despite what happened this morning, despite our contentious relationship, she trusted me not to hurt her or take advantage of the situation.
That was something at least.
“I find it hard to believe you weren’t good at sports,” she said quietly. “You’re so big. Physically, I mean. Not…okay, forget I said that.”
I laughed into her hair. “My mother called me a late bloomer. The reality was I don’t think I hit actual puberty until I was seventeen. I was this tall, skinny beanpole with a squeaky voice and I didn’t have any coordination. So no, sports were not my thing. And you can imagine an uncoordinated, skinny beanpole with a squeaky voice was not a hit with the girls either. I didn’t learn how to fuck until I was in my twenties.”
“What do you mean you learned how?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about that,” I muttered.
“Right. Sorry. It’s just an unusual thing to hear a guy say he had to learn. I think most believe they know what they are doing right out of the gate.”
