The Science of Loving (16 page)

“I’m so much taller than you; this’ll be easier if you lie down on your stomach.”

I put pressure between her shoulders nudging her down, straddling her hips as she moved forward. My hands looked huge and dark on her as I smoothed lotion on her back; gently massaging her skin until she sighed, relaxing under my touch then worked my way down one leg then back up the other, paying special attention to the creases at the top of her thighs.

“Turn over, sweetness; let me do the rest of you.”

She tensed. “Thanks, but you don’t have to, I can reach the rest.”

Uh-huh, sweetness, you’re going to have to get use to my hands roaming all over you because I plan on claiming every inch of your body starting now
—I crouched over her, my hands warm on the stone above her shoulders, my chest touching her back
—okay, let’s just see how much you like my voice.

“I’m sure you could,” I admonished, “but what makes you think I’ll let you? Now. Turn. Over.”

She shivered, her tremors running up my thighs—
cool—
straight to my cock—
well, shit. What am I, fifteen again—
it appeared I’d made a tactical error by widening my containment just enough so she’d have to work at getting onto her back, and my body’s growing interest was becoming a little too large to overlook, gifting her averted eyes with a very interesting view.

Since it was already too late to do anything about it, I decided to brazen it out. “See what you do to me? You take away all my control.”

I brushed her lips with mine then began smoothing lotion on her face, caressing her jaw, her ears, down her neck. I traced across her sternum then back up over her collarbones and down her arms to massage her fingers. I tasted her lips again then inched back to smooth lotion over her delicate ribcage and around her sides. I traveled down her stomach, paying homage to her hipbones, forcing a ticklish giggle from her. I continued down both her legs, and we were both a little breathy by the time I was finished.

“Your turn.” I handed her the lotion. “Be sure to cover my ink well, otherwise the sun will fade it.”

I closed my eyes, the sun warming my face and chest. I gave myself over to her hands, contentment filling me as her touch glided over my bulk, following my shoulders up my neck. When her fingers caressed my head, goosebumps cascaded down my body. “Baby, that feels so good.”

She methodically coated my back and sides. Then her hands fell away and a shadow briefly crossed my face as she moved in front of me. She surprised me with a feathery kiss just like I’d given her, then smoothed lotion over my face, stroking down my throat and around my neck. I remained still, letting her trace the ridges and curves of my body, her fingers trailing down my torso to the top of my shorts. She finally leaned away.

“Arms,” I whispered, keeping my eyes shut, not wanting to break the spell. Her delicate fingers worked lotion into my hand, my wrist, my forearm, past my elbow. Working her way up, She explored my art, stroking the ink all the way up over my shoulder before reaching for my other hand. Only after she was finished did I opened my eyes.

“Thanks baby, that was transcendent.”
God, it was fun making her blush.

I passed a sandwich and water bottle to her then settled on the warm towel to munch contentedly; the activity around us blending together in drowsy mussitation: the splashing falls, people laughing, kids squealing, an intermittent breeze sighing through the trees. Finishing my last bite of sandwich, I washed it down with a long drink then stretched out with a salacious smile, locking my hands behind my head, enjoying the exquisite pink creeping sweetly over Angie’s skin as she realized I’d caught her watching me again. Life was good.

“I figured I’d find you here.” Danny said, kicking off her flip-flops, and rolling her eyes at my pointed look. I’ve told her repeatedly not to wear flip-flops on the trails—
well, she better not come crying to me when she got snake bit or stuck by a cactus spine.

She stripped, her bellybutton winking and sparkling from the center of an intricate tattoo accentuating the slight rounding of her tummy. Like most in her profession, tattoos coiled around her torso, and twined down her limbs. The filigreed interlocking designs had synergistic quality, accenting her body’s lines and curves, making her appearance every bit as striking as mine. She was an Aztec goddess, six feet fierce and darkly golden—and wearing damn little right now. I glared at several—okay, three—guys checking her out.

“Let me get wet. I’ll be right back,” she told Angie as she stepped on my belly, forcing out a grunt. Brat.

“I’m not the only one that might wanna cut back on the lattes,” I called after her, earning a backhanded bird.

I scooted next to Angie when Danny climbed back out of the pool after a quick dunking. I knew she hadn’t brought her own towel; she never did, always preferring to steal mine. But I wasn’t annoyed this time since it gave me a good excuse to share with Angie.

“So what’re your folks up to?” Angie asked.

“Oh the usual: Pestering our neighbors, making friends, scaring Republicans.”

“Uh oh, we’d better not introduce them to my parents then. You can’t get much redder than my mom.”

“What about your Dad.”

“He’s politically agnostic. I think he’d like to chuck the lot of them and move to New Zealand.”

“I hear New Zealand’s nice.” Danny settled her sunglasses back on her face and stretched out.

“This is the first time I’ve seen all your tattoos.” Angie seemed more comfortable openly checking out Danny’s ink than mine. “I like the way they work together cohesively instead of looking like they’d just been patched together. They kinda flow with your body.”

That was keen observation. “Angie I think you may have picked the wrong career. You should've gone into art.”

“I considered it once, engineering too. Thankfully, my mom talked me out of it. Artists need a lot more imagination than I possess. I was only allowed to pursue the life sciences because I promised to stay in academia.”

“Yeah, where she’d have a lot of control over your career.” Danny had a point. Stephanie was heavily involved in that world.

“She was just concerned. I was really young. I’d fulfilled all my graduation requirements by the time I was eleven, but my dad said I had to wait until I was fifteen to graduate, no matter how much Mom pushed. I think he would’ve made me wait even longer if the school district could’ve figured out what to do with me. Even so, I had most of my undergraduate courses completed by then. He wanted me to have the high school experience: Join clubs, go to homecoming, prom. It was a bitter pill for him to acknowledge that I’d never fit in. The faculty found me intimidating and my peers found me confusing. I didn’t know how to talk to them. I was that weird girl in special classes, studying quantum mechanics and existentialism.”

Her voice was melancholy and she was hiding again. I couldn't imagine how lonely that must've been for her. I was popular in high school, always in the thick of it, circulating easily amongst the different cliques. I played basketball and football, served on several committees and was class president. I went not just to my prom, but three others.

“I earned a full scholarship to UCSD and completed my undergrad by seventeen, my masters just before I turned nineteen, and got my first doctorate at twenty-one.”
So that’s what Bob meant about coming so far, for someone so young.

“Damn girlfriend you’re like a regular Doo…”

“Don’t say it. Danny, I hate that show on principle.”

“Yes, Doctor,” she quipped.

“Come on, sweetheart; let’s take another dip and head back before my folks get themselves lynched.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Drinking in the Woods

Our camp looked homey in the late afternoon sun. Mat’s jaw clenched and Danny swore softly. There was a couple sitting with Mat’s folks at the picnic table by our tent.

“Is there a problem?” I looked from one to the other.

“Only if you don’t like douchebags,” Danny muttered.

“Look Matty, who’s dropped in for a visit.” Carmen immediately hopped up, surprising me with a hug. “Angie this is Avery, he’s a colleague of Mat’s, and this lovely young women is Baily; she’s up here camping with some of her friends from SDSU.”

Avery looked me over as he extended his hand. He was shorter than Danny by a good two inches, conservatively dressed with the hair to match, and I loathe him on sight. He reminded me of the desperate-assholes my mother was constantly fixing me up with.

“Hellooo… Angie.”

Even his voice was smarmy. He gave me one of those weird handshakes I hated, grasping the ends of my fingers limply, instead of shaking my whole hand—
and was he aware boobs usually don’t have much to say—
Mat dropped a possessive arm around me, and I snuggled into him, turning my attention to Baily as I wiped my hand on my shorts. Ick, sticky fingers.

“So what are you studying at SDSU?” she didn’t seem to hear me at first, her eyes were bouncing between Mat and Danny, which was understandable. Individually, the siblings were overwhelming; together, they were devastating. Especially when not only Mat’s tattoos were on display, but Danny’s as well.

“What? Oh I haven’t declared yet.” She shrugged. “I just can’t seem to make up my mind.”

“So you’re a freshman?”

“No, this is my third year. What about you?”
Third year?

“I’m a biologist most days.”

“Really? God, I flunked bio twice. So when do you graduate.”
Holy smokes.

“I don’t think you understand Baily,” Danny enunciated slowly. “Angie already has her P.H.D.”

“Wow, you don’t look that old.” Baily really looked at me for the first time. “You’re going to have to share your secret.”

“There’s no secret, you just have to be an evil genius.” Danny smirked, patting me on the head.

“A genius, eh. Well maybe we should call Mensa and see if they’re interested.” Avery was one of those simpletons that mistook sarcasm for wit.

Lacing my fingers with Mat’s resting on my shoulder, I said sweetly. “Actually, I’ve been a member since I was four.”
Creep
.

Danny let out a whoop, and took off running. I turned in time to see her stagger her boyfriend with a flying leap. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She punctuated each ‘thank you’ with a kiss.

“Dude, I thought you couldn’t make it,” Mat said, turning us away from Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb.

“Yeah well, Danny can be very persuasive.”

“You bet your ass. Never argue with a woman toting an ink gun ‘cause everyone’s gotta sleep sometime.” Danny winked at me. “Did you bring our tent?”

“Yes my goddess, yonder awaits your temple and I’ve already removed your altar from the infidels’ evil influence.”

Brett motioned to a small climber’s tent that until now, had gone unnoticed set up behind ours. Mat smiled, pulling me closer, and the dangerous glint in his eyes sent delicious thrill skittering down my spine.

“Cool, that means there’ll be room for me. Lucky for me you bought that extra sleeping bag.”

There was no way I was sleeping in the same tent with Avery. He was the type of guy that would cop a feel when you were sleeping then claim it was an accident. I'd sooner sleep with Mat’s folks, Tantric sex be damned…
Okay, maybe the car would be better. Yeah, with the doors locked.

“What the fuck Avery. If I wanted you here, I’d have asked. And I didn’t ask.”

“C’mon Dude, hook a brother up.”

“You ain’t my brother. The only person sharing my tent is my woman.” A happy glow filled me. He called me his woman.

“Yeah, I hear you.” Avery’s leer made me want a shower.

“Keep eyeballing my girl like that and you’ll be hearing my fist upside your head. That goes for my sister too.”

“No worries Biggie, we have an understanding; my knee and Avery’s nuts are old friends.” Danny said. “Come on Ange, let’s rinse off all this nature.”

This was the last straw. God, I hated that prick—fucking sales jackoff. He was history; I didn’t care how well connected he was. Either he went, or I walked. And I’d take our clients with me. A salesman was only as good as his product, and I was the fucking product. Without my rep, my partners would be stuck designing mini-marts and photo kiosks, and they knew it. And what was that shit with Danny? If I caught him messing with her, I’d introduce his nuts to a whole new world of pain.