by Marta Brown
Yep. Definitely jealous.
“Don’t wait up,” I blurt out to Jenny, even though it’s really meant for Tyler, as I grab Todd’s hand and stomp off into the dark forest.
As soon as were out of hearing range, enveloped amongst the dense trees, I whisper to Todd in no uncertain terms, “It’s not gonna happen, dude. Sorry.”
Chapter 14
Tyler
What the hell?
The mixed signals coming off Emily is giving me a serious case of whiplash. First she stares daggers over the campfire at me for flirting with Jenny, and then she meanders into the woods with that over developed muscle with no brains to make out in some bizarre ‘seven minutes in heaven’ camp edition.
One I’ve had to listen to Todd recount for the last hour and a half. Straight.
“Dude, it was so hot,” Todd says, describing their walk in the woods with vivid detail. “She was going so crazy I had to stop it—or we could have been arrested for, like, indecent exposure or something.”
“Lights out was over an hour ago,” I say, not bothering to hide my aggravation at having to hear the play by play of Emily and Todd hooking up. “Shut it down.”
“Ah. Don’t be jealous just because you struck out with Jenny. What can I say? Some guys are just luckier than others.”
“You mean some guys just get luckier than others,” Andy, who I’m sure has never gotten lucky in his life, pipes in.
Todd gives Andy a high five while the rest of the guys laugh. “Nice.”
I clench my fists and stuff down a retort about just how lucky I got with little-miss-whiplash not so long ago, but, unlike Todd, I would never disrespect Emily like that. Or any girl for that matter.
My anger grows as Todd ignores my call for lights out, continuing with the blow by blow about having Emily’s legs wrapped around him with her back against a tree, moaning.
I grab the pillow from under my head and yank it over my face. Why the hell am I letting this piss me off so much?
Trying to tune out the guys, I can’t shake the irritation of having to hear about their hookup over and over. Especially after admitting during truth or dare I had wanted to kiss her earlier. She had to knowI was talking about me and her on the field, right? I mean—
And then, like the curve ball she beamed me with, it hits me. Why I’m so pissed. I’ve been played. Like a sport. One she could probably go pro in by the way she’s been running me around in circles since the day we met, like a pickle play between first and second base.
Shit. “She’s a player.”
“Damn straight, I’m a player,” Todd mouths off, mishearing me from the other room. “Hate the game, bro. Hate the game.”
That’s it. I can’t take one more second of Todd. I toss off my covers, slip on my shoes, and head to the back door of the cabin, hoping some fresh air will knock the sense back into me.
Who cares? So, I got played?
It’s not like I actually liked her-liked her—right? And even if I did, Coach would kill me before I ever made it past second base anyway.
No. This is better. Maybe now I can finally stop thinking about her all the damn time. I can stop thinking about the way her lips tasted, or her skin felt, or the way she smelled. Sugary sweet.
I shake my head. Okay. Maybe I like her a little more than I’d like to admit.
Pushing out the back door into the cool midnight air I take in a deep breath of something sweet…and familiar. Bubble gum. Big League Chew to be exact. Emily.
I peer around the edge of the cabin and sure enough, there she is, on her tip toes trying to peek into the cabin’s side window.
My jaw clenches. Seriously? Did she not get enough of Todd-the-bod for one night?
Clearing my throat, she jumps away from the cabin looking panicked, which gives me the slightest bit of satisfaction considering how brazen she was the first time I caught her sneaking out.
When her eyes meet mine they move slowly from startled to sparkling as a smile washes across her face—making it hard not to smile back, except, I’m not falling for it. Not again. I refuse to cover for her. Rules are rules and she’s breaking them.
I cross my arms, take a deep breath, and level her with as much authority as I can. “You’re breaking the rules, Emily. Lights out was over an hour ago and junior counselors are not permitted out after that. I have no choice but to report you this time,” I say with emphasis, so there’s no confusion I’m on to her, and no amount of flirting with me is going to save her.
It’s also a whole lot easier to assert my authority considering I’m not trying to break into her medical files to check if she’s jailbait or not.
“Report me?” She raises one perfectly arched eyebrow, challenging me.
“Yes.” I stand firm as she slinks towards me, exactly the way she did when I caught her sneaking out the first time. “If you want to see your boyfriend you can wait until tomorrow. That’s the rules,” I say as she continues to walk closer, forcing me to take a step back to get some much needed distance from her stare.
She’s just playing you, I remind myself as my body starts to react to the way her body moves. “And maybe if you didn’t keep breaking them you wouldn’t find yourself in trouble so often.”
“You know what they say about trouble, right?” She closes the last few feet between us, until she’s standing so close her chest brushes against my crossed arms, and she has to crane her neck to look up at me, her lips begging for a kiss.
“Wait. What?” she says suddenly, her eyes no longer smoldering, but genuinely confused. “What boyfriend?”
Is she serious? What boyfriend?
“Todd.”
“Todd?”
“Don’t try to play dumb,” I say, just above a whisper, before moving back into the shadow of the trees behind the cabin so we both don’t get caught for being out after lights out.
She follows until we’re both hidden from the view of the other cabins. “I guess I wouldn’t blame you for denying it though, considering your boyfriend just spent over an hour telling everyone in our cabin about how you practically had sex in the woods. Classy guy.”
“He what?” Emily shouts so loudly, that without thinking I move in close enough to feel each angry breath she takes as I press my finger against her lips to quiet her.
“Shhhhh.” I glance around us before pulling my finger away from her warm lips. “Keep it down.”
“But he’s lying,” she says, this time so soft I strain to hear her. “I swear.”
“Yeah, well, if he’s lying, then why are you here? Are you trying to get in trouble on purpose or something?”
Chapter 15
Emily
Tyler’s question catches me off guard, since getting in trouble on purpose is all I’ve been trying to do since I arrived at camp, but right now, that’s not why I’m here. Unless giving Tyler hell can get me in trouble.
“Well?” Tyler asks. His breath, minty and cool, rushes over my face, reminding me just how close we are. “If you’re not here to see Todd, then what are you doing here?” His jaw is tense and flexes as he stares at me.
I bite my lip, unsure how to answer now that I’m here and we’re standing so close I can feel the soft fabric of his Henley brush against my slightly sunburned skin.
Tired of all the games we’re playing, I drop my eyes to the ground and fidget with the frayed hem of my jean shorts. “I…I came to see you,” I admit, trying to keep an edge of anger in my voice, but it comes out sounding exactly the way I feel. Vulnerable.
“Why?” he whispers, angling his head so our foreheads almost touch, the space between us so small I worry he can hear my heart thudding in my chest.
I swallow hard. Why am I here?
My mind races with the excuses I used to justify stomping over here—but with his body so close, and his eyes so intense—flirting with Jenny right in front of my face, or teasing me on the dock, or his antics on the field when I could have sworn he was about to kiss me, all se
em irrelevant. The truth is—I wanted to see him.
“I came to…uh…wait—” I know why I stomped over here to see him, mad, and jealous, and determined to stop this game we keep playing, but why is he so mad? Because I’m breaking the rules? Or is it because of something else?
Putting a hand on my hip, I pull away so I can see his face, hoping I’ll find an answer there. “Why do you care if I was here to see Todd or not?”
Tyler blinks, like the question has thrown him off guard. He steps backwards and rakes his hands through his hair, taking with him the heat from his body, and sending a chill up my arm in its absence. “You should go, Emily.” The intensity in his stare at war with his words.
“Why?” I take a step towards him, wanting to feel his body close to mine again, wishing he’d tell me to stay.
“Emily.” It’s a plea.
I press again. “Tell me? Why would you care if I was here to see Todd?”
Tyler drops his hands to his sides, sucks in a deep breath, and then lets it out in one quick push of air. “Because the idea of him kissing you, or touching you, or even being near you infuriates me,” he says so deep, and quiet, it comes out more like a growl.
My breath catches as I stare into his eyes—and unlike today on the field—this time he doesn’t hesitate.
His hands move to the sides of my face, slide into my hair, and pull me into him so hard and fast our lips crash against one another, in a fury of hot kisses that ignites my skin.
There’s no teasing, or taunting. No games. Just need, and want, and an undeniable fire burning in both of us.
Without words, only breathless pants and soft moans being passed between our lips, he grabs my hips and lifts, allowing me to wrap my legs around his waist as my hands clutch his broad shoulders.
Spinning us around in one fluid motion, he presses my back against the thick trunk of an old oak tree and begins to trail kisses along my neck, across my shoulder, and back up to my ear.
“Kissing you, again,” Tyler breathes, scraping the soft skin behind my earlobe with his teeth. “Is the only thing I’ve thought about since the night we met.”
His words—and the pressure of his hips pressed hard against me—sends a chill down my spine that settles low in my belly, pushing me closer to the edge. I clutch his hair in my hands and tug at it as his tongue continues to tease every nerve ending along my overheated skin.
“Yo, Tyler?” A voice cuts through the dark from what sounds like the front of the cabin, and causes Tyler and me to freeze instantaneously. “Yo, man, you out here?”
Resting his forehead against mine, as my breath comes out in labored pants and an unexploded ache rages, I try not to move despite wanting to. Badly.
The sound of the screen door squeaking shut, followed by footsteps on the cabin’s front porch, makes me unwrap my legs from around Tyler’s waist and set my feet on the ground, causing a branch to break beneath my foot.
“Tyler?” the kid says again, his voice and footfalls coming closer. “Is that you?”
“Shit,” Tyler whispers against my lips before kissing me again quickly, his tongue flicking out and leaving me wanting more when he pulls away. “Later, okay?” he asks, his eyes a mixture of worry and desire as he waits for my answer.
Nodding, I rake my fingers into the hair at the back of his head and pull him one last time to my lips. “Later,” I whisper before releasing my hold, reluctantly.
He straightens his spine, adjusts himself, and then walks backwards out of the shadows of the trees, a satisfied smile on his face. A smile, which I imagine, mirrors the one I must be wearing right now.
Tossing me a wink, he turns around and disappears behind the side of the cabin.
“Dude, there you are.” I hear the guy, whose voice I don’t recognize, say to Tyler. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Todd burned his ass trying to light a fart on fire. I think he might need some medical attention.”
I throw my hands over my mouth to stop from laughing.
Why am I not surprised?
Good thing for Todd, Tyler’s as good a doctor as he is a kisser.
Chapter 16
Tyler
“Rise and shine, campers,” Walter and Gale, belt out over the camp’s PA system in cheery unison, our daily morning wake up call.
I roll over and toss the covers over my head to get one last second of peace and quiet before the incessant chatter starts up—no doubt about Todd’s epic ass-flamethrower fail last night—which resulted in a first degree burn, and worse, Emily and I being interrupted.
It took all my reserve not to throw it in his face, after finding out he lied about hooking up with her, that I was actually the one who had Emily’s legs wrapped around him. And for the record, she doesn’t moan when she’s into it, she murmurs. Dickhead.
Dragging the covers off, I catch Emily’s scent still lingering on my skin, and it sends a jolt of electricity through my body. The feel of her soft skin beneath my hands and the way she moved against me flashes behind my closed eyelids.
Now that’s a wake-up call.
After a quick shower and a handful of ribs on Todd—because how could I not—we filter down the dirt trail and across the lawn, damp with fresh dew, to the camp’s cafeteria. The smell of bacon and fresh baked muffins wafts through the early morning air, and makes my mouth water.
“Hey, Tyler! Over here,” a girl calls out over the noise of the room. My eyes scan the rectangular tables packed with campers of all ages in search of the voice and hope it’s Emily. It’s not. It’s Jenny waving at me excitedly. “Come sit.”
My shoulders deflate.
After the awkward walk home last night with Jenny, the last thing I want to do is give her the wrong impression that I’m into her. Although, I probably should have thought of that before I started flirting with her at the campfire to make Emily jealous. Oops.
“Oh, uh—” I start, but stop short when I see Emily sitting next to her. “Yeah, be right there.” I smile.
I let last night drift back to me as I grab breakfast, replaying the way Emily smiled when I whispered in her ear we would continue what had been interrupted ‘later’—a promise I intend to keep.
Glancing over my shoulder, I’m surprised by the shy smile she gives me before looking away and picking at her waffle.
Emily shy? I would have never guessed she had a shy bone in her body. Her amazing, sexy, can’t stop thinking about it, body. The body, I realize, I’ll have to somehow avoid touching if I join their table, despite wanting to do the exact opposite. That is, unless I want to risk getting caught breaking the fraternization rule, which I do not.
More like, cannot.
“Looks like Emily just can’t get enough,” Todd chimes in over my shoulder like that smile was meant for him as he fills his tray with two weeks’ worth of food. I guess it takes a ton of fuel to run his mouth so much.
“Tone it down,” I respond, trying not to crush the paper milk carton in my hand, but misshaping it anyway.
“What? I can’t help that she wants me.” Todd puffs out his chest in the same neon green tank top he was wearing last night, the words, ‘suns out, guns out’ written across it.
Despite my annoyance with Todd, an uncontrollable smirk crosses my face, and I can’t help but gloat a little on the inside. You’re not the one she wants. Trust me.
“Ladies, ladies,” Todd says when we reach the table, holding his tray in one hand while running his other hand through his crunchy hair and flexing his arm. “The Bod,” he flops down between Emily and Jenny, “is here.”
Rolling my eyes, I set my tray down directly across from Emily. “Good morning,” I say to the table of girls from cabin eight, but I direct my voice to her. “I hope you all had sweet dreams.”
Emily glances up with a pink flush on her cheeks and smiles, before sniffing the air dramatically. “Can you,” sniff, sniff, “smell that?” she asks the table, her question being met with a few odd stares, including mine. I inhale
deeply and smell maple syrup and bacon.
“You mean breakfast?” I ask jokingly, opening my milk.
She smiles slyly. “No, not breakfast. It’s more like…burnt hair.”
I nearly spit out the mouth full of milk I’m gulping down as I try not to bust out laughing. Burnt hair?
“What? I…I don’t smell anything,” Todd stutters, whipping his head around the table.
“I don’t know, man, I think I smell it, too,” I say, messing with him, which earns me a full blown smile from Emily that I return with a wink.
“You know what? It’s probably my sweatshirt,” Jenny chimes in, batting her eyelashes at me. “It’s the one I wore to the campfire last night. It smells a little like smoke, well that, and your cologne.”
My cologne? But how? I furrow my brows as she buries her nose into the sweatshirt before it dawns on me. She’s sniffing the spot where my arm had been slung over her shoulder last night in my pursuit to prove to Emily that two could play the jealousy game.
My eyes dart from Jenny to Emily and then back again uncomfortably, expecting Emily to kick me in the shins any second—which I totally deserve for flirting with Jenny just to make her jealous—but Emily does nothing but shoot me a smug look. A silent, ‘Ha! Good luck with that.’ Double oops.
“Good morning, campers. May I have your attention?” Walter says into a microphone on a small stage at the front of the room. He raises his hand. “Please, please, quiet down.”
The chatter stops slowly until only a few whispered conversations or bursts of laughter can be heard around the large room.
“That’s great, thank you, everyone,” he says, lowering his hand, and then walking to the side of the stage where a gold cord that opens the velvet red curtains that hang behind him is. “I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you how great this session is going so far,” his enthusiastic voice booms through the sound system, “and I think this just might be the best group of campers we have ever had!”