Page 63 of The Player in New Zealand
“Oh really?” His voice dropped lower. “Sex in here? There’re kids next door.”
“We can be quiet.” I leaned forward, pressing a kiss to his neck while my finger tugged the edge of the sleeping bag down a bit farther, looking for one of his broad dark nipples.
Tane shifted rhythmically, humping the air, and plastic flatulence emitted from underneath him.
“Okay, okay,” I said, laughing. “No sex.”
“Yeah, nah. No sex. But come here anyway.” Tane tugged me down onto my side, wedging our legs between each other and wrapping an arm around me.
I rested my head on the pillow—the air mattress had a long bump at the top that pretended to qualify as a pillow—and was nose to nose with Tane.
He pressed his lips to mine gently, affectionately. We kissed, slow, lazy kisses, hardly moving anything but our lips and tongues.
“I’ve missed kissing you.”
“I’ve missed kissing you too. I have a love-hate relationship with you living above the bar.”
Tane grinned against my mouth. “Yeah?”
“I get to see you almost every shift. That’s good. But I wish we could sneak up to your place sometime.”
He nibbled my bottom lip.
“Have you thought about asking Nina if you can close sometime? If you and I are the last ones there...”
With a sigh, Tane rolled over to his back and we both ignored the mattress noises. “When the bar first opened, I had no interest in really running it. Nina insisted that if I was going to help her with money, then I had to be part owner, too. At the time, that just meant that I could come and go as I pleased, drink my nights away, and I was fine with that.”
“But now,” I said, “you’re behind the bar instead. Do you think she doesn’t want you to take on more responsibility?”
The shadow of his head turned toward me. “She’s still scared. She doesn’t trust me yet. It’s only been a few months, so I can still see the worry in her eyes. I don’t want to ask yet, because she’ll say yes, and then sit at home worrying that after everyone’s gone, I won’t be able to control myself. She’ll find me munted on the bar floor the next morning.”
“I think she has more faith in you than you know,” I murmured. But I didn’t push it. It might not be Nina who Tane worried about, but himself.
* * *
I woke up with a start.
Something was rustling outside the tent. Something big. The grass whispered under its feet as it snuffled the tent, its nose running along the thin material. It pressed against the fabric, bowing the material in toward my face.
Tane slept like a rock next to me. The tent was filled with the soft gray glow of early morning, and I reached behind me. My open palm explored while I stared at the animal outside.
I felt around. Tane had shifted to face away from me. I found a cheek, and patted. When nothing happened, I fishhooked his mouth and he woke up with a snort.
“Shh...” I hushed him.
“Wha... Claire?”
“Tane,” I hissed. “There’s something outside. Do you... do you have bears here?”
Tane froze, which I took as a very, very bad sign.
“Did you hang the leftover food up last night?” he asked.
“What? You didn’t tell me to!” The thing outside took an extra-large huff and I dropped my voice again. “What do we do?”
“I’m going to get a better look.”
Carefully, he turned over, propping himself up on one hand to see around me. The air mattress farted some more, but the animal outside didn’t seem to care. Tane’s other hand curled around my waist, pressing me back against him. That was reassuring. He was a big dude, right? Surely he could fight it off long enough to get help. “Hm. That’s pretty big,” he whispered.
