Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Benji is my younger brother. He isn’t as big as Roddy, taking his height from our mother like me, but smarter than Roddy and me combined. He loves gadgets, so he was more than willing to attempt to rebuild Cash’s water-soaked phone when I used his damaged cell as a reason for not informing my family I was bringing home a guest.
My parents were fine with an extra set of hands—I knew they would be—but they did have one minor stipulation I didn’t consider. That Cash sleep in the old servants’ quarters. Every creak of its floorboards ricochets through the hub of our home, which means the kiss we shared our first night here has been our only kiss.
The remembrance has me paying more attention to the campsite in the distance than I gave it previously.
“Do you have any objections to a campout study session?” When Cash locks his eyes with mine, confused and silent, I nudge my head to the bunkhouse. “It is quiet, stacked with tinned food, and I never leave home without my books. I’ve been bogged in before. It took hours before anyone stumbled onto me, so now I take a backpack of books wherever I go.” Heat creeps up my neck when I add, “And I think I’m owed a lesson.” I’ve never felt more brazen than I do right now. “I taught you how to harvest, so now you need to teach me something.”
Cash reads my metaphor remarkably quick, but his ease of reading me doesn’t weaken his curiosity in the slightest. “Are there any giants in that cabin?”
When I shake my head, the tension turns blistering, so I try and simmer it a little. “Only little ole roaches.”
Nerves take flight in my stomach when I enter the bunkhouse after assisting Cash in priming and starting the generator. Its noisy rattle as it fires up the water heater should be too distracting to think straight, but these aren’t the flutters of a woman afraid of failing.
They’re the tremors of a woman certain she is treading in waters way out of her depth.
“Should I brush my teeth?” I point to my backpack. “I have a travel kit in my bag.”
Cash’s smile sends the butterflies several inches lower. “Do you always brush your teeth before studying?”
“Um. No, but…” I wish I didn’t see life so black and white when I blurt out, “We’re not really studying, are we?”
I glare at Cash’s smug face when he chuckles. It’s hot enough to dull his laughter to barely a hum. “I don’t know what we’re doing, Einstein, because it really isn’t up to me, is it?”
“Well, kind of. Penetration is hard with a blunt, flappy instrument.” I shut my eyes and count to ten before breathing out slowly. “I’m going to brush my teeth.” I march to the bathroom. “And I might also have a shower. The water boiler is old, but it is so small, it takes no time to heat up.”
“Don’t,” Cash barks out, slowing my strides. “I don’t want to taste soap and water, Einstein.” There is something different about his tone when he adds, “I want to taste you.” It is deep and knee-shakingly enticing. “When you’re ready for it.”
“I’m ready.”
The rain that soaked us during our short trek to the bunkhouse rolls down his cheeks when he shakes his head, denying my claim. “No, you’re not. Not yet.”
When he snatches my backpack off the cabin’s floor and hoists it onto a rickety table at the side of the large room, I inwardly pout. Our kiss in the kitchen was mesmerizing, but his taste is fading from my lips, so I’m more than ready for another helping.
I stop searching for a smidge of flavor on my lips when Cash says, “But you might be after we study a little.” His brilliance is undeniable when he discloses, “For every question I get wrong, you get to remove an article of my clothing.”
“And for every question you get right?”
It is the fight of my life not to squeeze my legs together when he slowly drags his eyes down my body. My hair is wet and hanging loosely down my back, my clothes are clinging to my skin since they’re almost drenched through, and I can feel the heat on my cheeks, so I don’t need to see them to know how rosy they are. I resemble a mess, but Cash’s eyes hood the longer he stares.
“I get to remove an article of your clothing.” As his tongue delves out to replenish his lips with moisture, he returns his eyes to my face. “Deal?”
Confident I have the brainpower to win our game fully clothed, I place my hand in his to seal our deal with a handshake. “Deal.”
As my wide eyes bounce between the formula Cash jotted down and the answer in the back of the textbook, my mouth gapes. “There’s no way you got that right. You must be cheating.”