Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Sure, bud. If I was gay, I’d totally do you.” Trinsky winked, squeezing my shoulder before trotting after Ray.
And me? I couldn’t move. My reflexes failed me—my jaw dropped, and my feet felt like cement blocks.
I knew better than to take anything Trinsky said seriously. He was an attention-starved clown who got off on shocking anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in his sphere. But last night had happened, and I was leery of something unpleasant lurking in some shadowy region of my brain.
I might despise him, but that didn’t negate the uncomfortable truth that I found Mason Trinsky weirdly compelling. I supposed that was proof that it was possible for me to be simultaneously disgusted and fascinated by…him.
Yuck.
9
TRINSKY
Milligan was being weird.
Too quiet.
He’d basically stranded me with Ray, the slowest hiker ever to hike throughout history, and for that, I was kinda pissed. Denny’s group was nowhere in sight, and the other two groups had most likely reached the swimming hole and were probably feasting on delicious stacked turkey sandwiches from C’est Bon.
My stomach growled on cue. I put one foot in front of the other, wiping my brow with the hem of my tee. Fuck, it was hot today. I stopped under a giant tree and dropped my backpack before yanking my shirt over my head.
“You’re going to get eaten alive.”
I arched my brow. “Oh, so you do speak. I thought you’d taken a vow of silence or something.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “I did. Seriously, though…put your shirt on. The mosquitos are savage.”
“Do you have repellant on you?”
Jake sighed heavily, slipping his bag from his shoulder. He rummaged in the side pocket and tossed a small bottle at me. “Here you go.”
I called to Ray to wait up as I uncapped the bug spray. “Wait. This is lotion.”
“Mmhmm.” He opened his water container and took a swig.
I frowned, watching his Adam’s apple slide in his throat. “Uh, okay. You can do the honors.”
Jake screwed the top on his water. “What honors?”
“Lather up my back, Milligan.” I shoved the bug repellant into his hands.
“Oh, this is good.” Ray set his bag on the ground and stalked forward, training a camera on us. Not a cell—no, this was real high-tech equipment. “And action.”
Jake snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Let’s keep moving, gentlemen. We’re about a mile away from the next meeting spot.”
“Dude, this will take ten seconds. I’ve already sweated through my shirt. Do me a solid. Please. I’ll owe you one,” I cajoled.
“You’ll owe me ten.”
Our eyes caught and damn it, the air crackled between us. It had to be the heat. Of course, that didn’t explain the pulse in my cock, but I’d chalk that up to general horniness.
“Fine.” I turned around, aware of Ray circling us like a bird of prey in my periphery.
Jake moved closer. “I am not happy about this.”
“I’d do it for you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to. God knows where your hands have been.”
“Very funny,” I singsonged.
“Jake, will you step in, please? I need you both in the shot,” Ray directed.
“You heard him, Jakey. Step up and—whoa! Ray, watch it, man. You’re gonna trip and—”
Too late.
Ray toppled over a low boulder and slid down a rocky embankment with a yelp.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Jake and I raced to the shallow ledge and spied Ray struggling to sit up in a nest of pine needles.
“I’m okay,” he said, raising a hand to temple. “But I’m bleeding. Is this blood?”
“Got you covered,” Jake assured him. “Hang tight.”
Jake grabbed his backpack and skidded down the muddy slope like a surfer. I followed, hot on his heels as he pulled a first-aid kit out and kneeled next to Ray.
Oh, yeah, that was blood. A lot of blood.
I crouched low beside them. “What can I do?”
“Call Vinnie for an emergency pickup. I can dress the wound, but he hit his head hard, and we can’t rule out a concussion.”
I paced to a nearby tree trunk to call Vinnie and give him our SOS, sharing the coordinates Jake had reeled off. I relayed what had happened while I observed Jake cleaning Ray’s wound as he spoke to him in a low, reassuring tone. If Milligan was freaked out by the blood trickling along his forearm, he didn’t show it. He was cool as a cucumber, grace under pressure.
“They’re on the way,” I reported. “We’re supposed to meet the rescue crew in the clearing. Vinnie says you’ll know where that is.”
“Yeah. It’s less than a mile away, just before the swimming hole.”
“A mile? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Ray cast a bleary-eyed glance at me. “I’m okay to walk, you know.”
Said the pale-faced dude who looked as if he were about to pass out.
“How are we gonna do this?” I whispered for Jake’s ears only.
“One of us will have to carry Ray’s gear and the other will walk with him.” Jake inclined his chin at his bag. “I’m running out of gauze. Will you grab a T-shirt and rip it?”