Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(43)

Yeah, that’d keep him warm, all right.

“Fine.” He sighed and sat to try his hand at lighting a fire with the damp wood left over from construction.

Melody giggled as she moved up to sit beside him. “Don’t worry, Darling. I won’t bite, unless you want me to.”

She was teasing him on purpose, trying to get a rise out of him. He was used to people goading him into reacting, from his dad to the military to his coworkers, and he was an expert at not reacting. But something in him, well, not snapped, but shifted.

“You can bite all you want,” he said, meeting and holding her gaze. “As long as you don’t mind me biting back.”

The air between them seemed to hold still. Melody certainly held her breath. She was the one to blush, for a change. The flush started at her cheeks and spread its way across her entire face. Her eyes flashed with excitement, and her mouth, lips as red as wine, dropped open.

It took every ounce of willpower Will had not to scoop her into his arms and kiss her. Everything about her was utterly kissable, from those lips to the hitch in her breath to the way she leaned close to him. He had no doubt that he could reach for her, lift her against him, and have her straddling his hips as he plundered her mouth and closed his hands around her curves in a matter of seconds. Not only would she not resist, she would eat him alive.

Which was exactly why he couldn’t do it.

But he wasn’t above finally returning some of the teasing she’d been dishing out at him with a shovel. He leaned closer to her, a thrill rushing through him when she caught her breath, her chest lifting.

“Do you want dehydrated lasagna or gluten-free meat and rice?”

Her mouth twitched. Her eyes lit up with laughter. But she kept her voice low and sultry as she answered, “You know I want the meat.”

The shiver that passed down his spine left every part of him feeling numb except for one. That one part was standing at attention so fast there was no way he could move fast enough to hide it. And since there was no chance of him concealing the fact that he wanted her like a kid wanted Christmas morning to come, he just let it happen, let his blood pump where it wanted to.

And it was the best feeling ever.

“I think we’ve got more than a fair chance of getting this fire to light,” she went on, voice as sultry as ever. “All we need to do is get a spark going and blow it. I mean, blow on it.”

His heart thumped so hard it was making him dizzy, but he wasn’t about to back down from what they’d started. He leaned back, resting his weight on his hands behind him, leaving certain things even more obvious. “Go for it.”

Her grin grew. Her expression was downright wicked. She reached slowly toward him. Will had a moment of utter panic at the thought that she just might unzip him and finish him off—which would take about five seconds, if that. But with an impish giggle, she reached past him, grabbing the plastic tube of waterproof matches from his other side, and straightening.

She burst into laughter, turning her attention to the leftover sticks and logs waiting to be lit just outside of the roof of their lean-to. “You really thought I was going to do it for a second there,” she said, then added, “I’m impressed, by the way,” with a nod toward his tented crotch.

Instantly, all of the crippling self-consciousness that Will had been holding at bay crashed down on him. He squirmed his way into a sitting position that wouldn’t display just how out-of-control he was. The only thing he could think to do to save just a little bit of face was to mutter an unconvincing, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“Well, I—”

Whatever Melody was about to say, she stopped herself with a sound something between a choke and a giggle. Instead of speaking, she shook her head and lit one of the matches. She held it to the kindling they had laid around the bigger sticks. To Will’s surprise, Melody nurtured the match’s flame, coaxing it to flicker into a respectable campfire in no time. So she knew what she was doing when it came to starting fires after all.

He snorted and shook his head. Of course, she did. He had the distinct feeling she hadn’t even begun surprising him yet.

There wasn’t much to say after that. The rain picked up. The fire managed to hold out long enough for them to heat some water almost but not quite to the boiling point. After that, the damp was too much for it. The damp must have been too much for some of their fellow competitors too. As twilight melded into darkness, they heard the helicopter fly overhead again, land somewhere far distant, then take off and zoom away.

“I wonder if they’re dropping drop-outs at the finish line or somewhere else,” Melody said as they retreated into their shelter—which was surprisingly dry, all things considered.

“I don’t know.” Will took off his boots. So much for hoping they’d dry overnight. At least he had one last pair of dry socks in his backpack.

Melody scooted up against him, shedding her own boots and changing socks. “We could try to follow the direction it’s going. That might get us to the finish faster.”

Will shrugged, waited for her to be finished with her bedtime preparations, then held open one end of their zipped-together sleeping bags for her to crawl in. “We’d better stick to the map.”

She giggled as she settled. Will had to climb in and cozy up to her jiggling, all-too exciting form. “You always do everything according to the map, don’t you?”