There’s a flash where he touches me. It’s like someone has lit a match inside my body and I’m about to explode. The pleasure and heat building inside me start to give way to that telltale tingle that feels so insanely good, that acts like a signal for what’s to come.
A second later, it all comes to a head. Climax rips through me so hard that even the meat of Drew’s shoulder can barely muffle me. I start to moan, but then with his free hand, he grips my chin and leads me to his mouth. His hard kiss swallows the rest of my moans and groans. A minute later I’m limp, shuddering against his body. Wrapping my arms around his torso, I collapse. Thanks to the sturdy hold of his arms around my waist and the water, I’m held up.
Closing my eyes, I let out a soft, satisfied sigh. Then I wiggle my feet and stand up when I feel strong enough to. I gaze up at Drew, a smug smirk plastered on his face.
“You good?” he whispers.
“More than good.” I give his right hand a squeeze. He chuckles. “We’re not done yet, though.”
Drew’s brow raises, and I push him against the edge of the hot tub.
“Sit up,” I whisper.
Smiling, he leans back while gripping the edge, then hauls himself up. Water cascades from his body like a million mini waterfalls. In this sitting position, his impressive length is just below eye level.
I grip him at his base and start with a long, slow stroke. His brow furrows as he clenches his jaw. “Alia . . . you . . .”
“Shh.” I cut him off. “Now it’s your turn to try to be quiet. See how you like it.”
Eyes closed and head back, he grins. After a minute, I speed up and the smile drops from his face. His chest heaves.
“Goddamn,” he mutters, swiping my hair out of my face.
He cups my cheek, then leans down to plant an insanely sloppy and tongue-heavy kiss.
“That feels amazing.” He groans quietly.
“Just you wait,” I say before lowering my head to him.
It’s another minute of slow, long slides of my tongue before I hear Drew’s breathing grow ragged. Then his breath catches and he runs his fingers through my hair. His thighs tense. I smile to myself and speed up my rhythm.
It ends with him making a fist in my hair and letting out a quiet grunt, then a string of whispered curse words. I lean away from him and catch my breath. He slips back down into the water and falls back against the edge before pulling me into his chest.
He wraps his arms around me and nuzzles my neck. His hot, wet breath flashes across that supersensitive spot to the side, right above my shoulder. Shivers dance across my skin.
“Skinny-dipping with you is my new favorite hobby,” Drew says.
I close my eyes, letting his warmth and wet skin engulf me. “Ditto.”
We share a minute of silence, Drew’s breathing soothing me into a relaxed state I don’t think I’ve ever felt.
“You’re not rushing to get back to your room, are you?” he asks.
“No way.”
“Wanna lounge with me for a bit?”
Eyes still closed, I nod into his chest. He braces his hands on the edge of the hot tub and pushes himself out. Then he stretches his arm to me and helps me climb out. We walk over to the nearest lounge chair with our towels. He grabs one, then dries me off. My chest flutters at just how gentle and attentive Drew is as he carefully presses the plushy towel all over my skin.
“How does that feel?” he asks, wrapping the towel around me when he finishes.
“Perfect.”
I settle on the lounge chair while he dries off; then he cuddles next to me.
“So I gotta know. In addition to sneaking out some nights, what were you like in high school?” Drew asks.
“A weirdo. I’d skip out on homecoming games and school dances so that I could watch documentaries, but then I’d sneak out to meet my boyfriend. I was a super-selective rule breaker.”
“That’s very you.”
“Is it?”
I can feel him nod above me. “You put your energy into the stuff you give a crap about. Everything else can wait.”
“I like the way you word that.”
“I like the way you live your life.”
“I had a handheld camera that my parents bought me for Christmas one year and spent a lot of my nights filming random nature stuff and editing them together into short films. Birds flying, squirrels chasing each other, rainstorms, super-windy days when it looked like the branches were going to fly off the trees. I was kind of a nerd.”
“Nah. More like a teenage filmmaker. That’s cool.”
“My parents thought it was a little weird, but Apong Lita always supported me. She’d tell them off whenever they’d tease me about bringing my camera with me everywhere. She said they were lucky to have an artistic and creative kid who spent my days filming and editing rather than getting in trouble.”
“Except for that whole ‘sneaking out to meet your boyfriend’ detail.”
I lean up to look at him. “I never got caught.”
He grins, and I settle my cheek back against his warm chest. I close my eyes and cuddle closer into him. Each second that passes, the muscles in my body loosen and relax. I’m aching to spoon with Drew until we both fall asleep. Just the thought of waking up cuddling into his massive chest, all comfy and warm, is heaven.
“So what was high school Drew like?” I ask.
“A jock. I did almost every sport.”
“I knew it,” I say with a chuckle.
“Did you know I was a gymnast too?”
I twist up. “Really? That’s awesome. There were only a couple guys on my high school gymnastics team, and they all got made fun of by our male classmates pretty often. It was so immature.”
“My reason for doing it was kind of immature. I figured the boy-to-girl ratio was in my favor since it was mostly female students on the team, and I was a ball of raging hormones.”
“God, you’re terrible.” I giggle into his chest while softly slapping his arm. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that high school you with your ladies’ man ways would have been way, way too smooth for high school me.”
“I highly doubt that, Dunn.”
“Don’t spare my feelings,” I tease. “No way would you have even noticed me. I was glued to my camera, and it sounds like you were glued to the entire girls’ gymnastics team.”
His chest rumbles softly with a quiet chuckle. “Actually, I had a thing for smart, driven girls like you. I still do, if I’m being honest.”
His tone dips low to something more serious. It gives me tingles in my chest all the way to my toes.
“That’s sweet, but I don’t know if I would have been the kind of girl you’d have snuck out in the middle of the night for.”
“You’re dead wrong, Dunn. I would have snuck out every night to see you. I would have been the luckiest bastard to date someone like you in high school.”
His compliment has me glowing. I tilt my head up once more so I can look him in the eyes when I ask him this question.
“So are you making up for lost time now?”
His mouth quirks up and his gaze doesn’t waver when he answers. “Definitely.”
In the minutes that follow we say nothing more. We stay holding each other, eyes closed, content in this embrace.
No, we haven’t defined what we are to each other. But that’s okay. Because what we’ve said to each other in this moment of shared physical and emotional intimacy is more than enough. We’ve acknowledged that we’re more to each other than just something physical. And that’s plenty good for me.
“We should probably head back,” Drew says in a whisper.
I open my eyes and gaze up at him. He cups a hand over my cheek, and I nuzzle into him, softly humming. “Just a little bit longer.”
“Okay.”
/>
Another minute of cuddling passes before we stand up, grab our clothes and towels, and walk quietly hand in hand back to the condo. We don’t walk in one at a time this time; we go together. And as we silently and slowly walk down the halls to our separate bedrooms, Drew stops me, pulls me against him, and lays a soft kiss to my lips.
“See you in the morning,” he whispers.
“Night-night.”
I fall asleep with a smile on my face and tingling all over.
20
It’s the final day of filming at Capitol Reef, and as I glance out at the Hickman Natural Bridge, where we’re filming our final scene of the day, giddiness courses through me. My very first series is nearly wrapped.
Drew smiles at me from where he stands several feet away, right in front of the awe-inspiring natural arch formation that’s one of the most popular tourist draws in the whole park.
That telltale tingle starts in my stomach and sneaks all the way to my chest.
Ever since that night at the hot tub, when we shattered our “no sex in a shared condo” rule yet again, things have felt different in the best possible way. Like an unspoken acknowledgment that whatever is happening between us, we’re both on board with it.
“That’s one hell of a shot you’ve set up,” Wyatt says to me as he adjusts the setting on his camera. “That arch looks kinda like it’s carved out of clay.”
“That’s exactly what my apong said when we visited here,” I say, smiling at Wyatt. “She said it looked like a giant shaped the entire arch by hand from a lump of orange-red clay.”
I focus on the weathered exterior of the rock, how thousands of years of erosion have given it countless pockmarks and etchings.
“And it kind of looks like someone poured a bucket of brown paint over the arch too, doesn’t it?” I remark, almost to myself.
“Damn. Did you get your artistic eye from your apong? All I got from my lola was her eyes and chin.”
He nudges me and I laugh.
“I like how you decided to have Drew start by standing off to the side of the arch and then walk over while he’s talking,” Wyatt says. “Other outdoor shows always have the host standing right in front of whatever attraction they’re filming. It’s so boring. Your idea is way better. More visually engaging for viewers.”
“I remember Brooke did that in a couple of the shoots I worked with her on. She always said she couldn’t stand when the host just stands there and talks.”
Wyatt adjusts his Yankees baseball cap so that it’s facing in its trademark position of sitting backward on his head. He flashes me a thumbs-up. “You learn from the best. And now you’re the best.”
I laugh at his glowing compliment. But Wyatt shakes his head.
“Whatever you work on next, whether you’re directing or producing, I’d love to be your cameraman,” he says. “I don’t want this to be the last time we’re on a crew together. And I know every single person on this series agrees. We’re all dying to work with you again.”
“Thanks, Wyatt. That means the world. Truly.”
He nods before turning back to his camera. I spend a quiet moment beaming from the inside out. When I glance up, I see Rylan as she runs up to Drew to tuck away an errant tag sticking out from the waterproof hiking jacket that one of our sponsors provided. Then she jogs back over to me, and we wait for Wyatt and Joe to finish setting up the shot.
And then for the first time in a long while, I think about the future. Filming for this series is almost wrapped, and that means that soon, we’ll all be headed back to New York. Drew and I won’t be able to see each other every day like we do now.
But instead of dread and sadness filling me, I feel slightly hopeful.
Because in this moment I realize that I actually want to give things between Drew and me a proper shot.
My stomach and my heart do a double flip.
I know what this means. This means I have serious feelings for Drew. It means that I’ve fallen so very hard for him. And I need to tell him.
My nerves go haywire at just the thought. But right now I need to focus on the moment and what’s in front of me: wrapping up the Capitol Reef segment of the shoot.
Rylan walks over to me and asks what I think of the outfit she’s styled for Drew.
“He looks great,” I tell her. “You’re definitely getting stylist credit on the series.”
Her eyes go wide, right as she squeals and grins. “Really? Oh my gosh, I’ve been dying for a stylist credit!”
I pat her arm and glance around. “Is Blaine still indisposed?” I ask quietly.
Rylan’s face turns serious. “Yes. He’s still back at the trailhead with Colton. Apparently Colton said he had a bad trip last night. He hasn’t been able to move more than two steps without getting so dizzy that he falls to the ground.”
I let out an annoyed huff of breath. Even though I’m glad we don’t have to accommodate Blaine for our final shoot of the day, I’m still annoyed at his behavior.
“Poor Colton,” I say.
“He says he’s quitting after we’re done shooting the series.”
“Good for him. He’s put up with more than enough. If he ever is interested in a PA job, I’d be happy to have him on my crew.”
“Really?”
Rylan hugs me so hard I stumble back. Then she covers her mouth with her hands.
“I just know he would love that so much! That’s why Colton hasn’t considered quitting his job yet—he’s afraid he won’t be able to find anything good in the industry. But he’ll love working for you. He’s got an amazing work ethic and he’s such an easy person to work with, I promise you.”
“I have no doubt. I’ve seen the way he manages Blaine, and I’m honestly impressed. If he can handle being Blaine’s assistant, being a PA will be a walk in the park.”
Rylan hugs and thanks me once more before running off to help Haley with the lighting. Minutes later, we’re ready to shoot. I look up at Drew, who’s standing tall against the brilliant red landscape around him. He’s decked out in more designer outdoor gear, including a long-sleeved thermal shirt, lightweight jacket, and dark-gray hiking pants. He stomps one of his hiking-boot-clad feet onto the dirt, kicking up a small cloud of fiery dust. It rivals the thudding of my heart every time I look at him. I can’t wait to tell him how I feel . . .
Focus on now.
I catch his eyes. “You ready?” I mouth to him.
A sly smile tugs at his lips. “Always.”
“Action!”
Drew runs through his lines smoothly, his charisma evident in the natural way that he speaks and in the subtleties of his presentation: he keeps eye contact with the camera, but it’s not the unblinking, unnerving eye contact people tend to have when they’re not used to being filmed. There’s not a trace of nerves. He talks like he’s speaking to an old friend. I hold my breath as I watch him. He’s magnetic. Viewers are going to feel like he’s their very own tour guide, which is exactly the kind of personal connection I want the host of this series to have.
When he finishes the sequence, I yell cut; then we run through it a handful more times. Then we film him completing part of the nearby trail, and then the closing.
Drew plants himself on a nearby boulder. Behind him the spring sky is impossibly blue, not a cloud in sight.
“That’s it for this episode of Discovering Utah. Be sure to explore even more behind-the-scenes footage by visiting the Expedition website. And I’ll catch you on our next adventure.” He ends it with a dangerously wolfish smile.
He holds the pose for three seconds, and then I yell cut.
“That’s a wrap on our Capitol Reef shoot, everyone,” I holler.
The whole crew cheers. I laugh and tell everyone job well done.
“Now let’s see how quickly we can pack it all up,” I say. “We’re due back in Mo
ab tonight, remember?”
When we rearranged the schedule to fit in the overnight shoot at the Needles, we cut our time in Moab short by a few days to accommodate, then tacked them onto the end of the shoot.
“That’s a two-hour drive we have ahead of us,” I say, bracing myself for groans. “But at least tomorrow’s a free evening for everyone.”
To my surprise, Wyatt’s the only one who groans in annoyance.
“Come on, man,” I hear Joe say. “You’re not the least bit excited to be back in gorgeous Moab? I am!”
I chuckle to myself. Joe smacks him on the back. “We’ve only got a couple more days in the coolest little desert town in the world. Let’s make the most of it.” Joe spins around to address everyone. “How about we all do drinks tomorrow night?”
I laugh at Joe’s undying enthusiasm and say I’m in. Haley, Drew, and Rylan all chime in with their agreement too.
Joe claps a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. Wyatt now looks a tad more heartened at the mention of alcoholic beverages.
“That’s the spirit!” Joe sings.
After a few minutes of packing, Wyatt’s shocked tone hits my ears.
“Whoa, man,” he says. “What happened to your shoulder?”
When I glance over, my eyes nearly pop out of my head. Wyatt is looking over at Drew, who’s changing out of the ad sponsor’s clothes. He stands bare-chested with his backpack full of clothes at his feet. My eyes zero in on Drew’s left shoulder, which is covered in red bite marks.
I choke on a breath. Rylan asks if I’m okay and I nod, babbling something about the desert dust making my throat dry.
Ever since that night in the hot tub when I discovered just how much Drew likes it when I bite him, I let myself go a bit crazy on the meaty parts of his shoulder, much to his delight. I silently scold myself, annoyed that it didn’t occur to me in my haze of arousal that one of the crew members might see him changing on set and notice my marks.
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