Full Throttle (Black Knights Inc. #7)(38)
“Seriously?” he hissed. “We’re supposed to rely on the short attention span of a pachyderm? Aren’t they known for their long memories?”
She made a face at him. He made one right back. She whacked him on the arm. He whacked her—gently—right back.
“Stop it,” she grumbled.
“You stop it,” he replied, fighting a smirk. Their playful banter reminded him of how they were together in college. Of how he’d loved to torment her until she slugged him on the arm, which in turn gave him a reason to slug her…but really just touch her…in return. Then a shuffling noise told him the elephant had stepped up to the tree, and all his lightheartedness disappeared.
The hairs on the back of his neck twanged a warning. “We should have made a run for it when we had the ch—”
“We couldn’t have outrun him,” she insisted, gulping loudly when snuffling sounded on the other side of the tree.
“And how could you possibly know that?” he demanded in a harsh whisper, his fingers itching for the feel of his weapon. Not that a bullet would do much good should he be forced to use one. It’d likely just piss the animal off.
“When I was studying the effects of rubber tree plantations on the native plant species”—she said, referring to the speech she’d given at the horticulture convention and scooting closer to him when the elephant’s trunk appeared directly to their right; they shuffled as a unit two steps to the left to avoid it—“I read a few articles about increased aggression of jungle elephants toward humans.”
“Increased aggression?” he growled.
“The articles said that with their loss of habitat, the elephants have started going after farmer’s crops. The farmers, in turn, are injuring and sometimes killing the elephants. So now the elephants are charging humans whenever they see them. There have been quite a few deaths. Deaths that could have been avoided had the humans not tried to run. Running only antagonizes the poor creatures. And they’re much faster than they look.”
Poor creatures? Not exactly how he would have described the big bull. Especially when it slammed the flat of its head against the trunk of the tree, causing the entire thing to shimmy and groan. Big heart-shaped leaves rained down from above. Bark snapped as it was cracked loose from wood.
Abby grabbed his shoulders, her eyes flying so wide it was a wonder the things didn’t fall right out of her head.
Steady would not have been surprised to see himself wearing a similar expression. “Did these articles happen to mention how long it usually takes for the animals to get bored?”
She glanced up at him, wrinkling her nose. “They left that part out.”
“Sí. Of course they did.”
Chapter Ten
Sniff…wuffle…baraaaaaag!
The elephant was getting frustrated at their continued ability to evade its searching trunk, and Abby could only pray the advice she’d read in those articles was correct. It was bad enough to think of dying at the hands of militants, but getting snuffed out by a pissed-off pachyderm?
PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER DONE IN BY DUMBO…
Yep, she could see the headlines now. Definitely not the most respectable way to go and—
Baraaaaaag! She jumped as another head-splitting trumpet blasted through the humid jungle air. Carlos tightened his arms around her, and she couldn’t help but think of what would have happened had the elephant not timed its arrival so precisely.
I mean, what the frickin’ sticks was I thinking? Oh, yes. She hadn’t been thinking. That was the whole problem. She’d simply been playing the part of Slutty McSlutNuggets, attempting to bang the one guy on the face of the planet she had no business banging.
Of course, in her own defense, it was a hard to say no to him when she’d been fantasizing about saying yes for most of her adult life. And then, as if that weren’t enough, there was the shock value of the thing. As in, Carlos Soto kissing her, caressing her, telling her to ride him and—
She still had trouble believing it. Trouble believing he’d actually, factually wanted her. And, alrighty then, so maybe instead of seeing her as nothing more than that pesky undergrad who followed him and Rosa around like a lost puppy, she had, in fact, grown up in his eyes.
Still, you’re an idiot to have let things go so far, she admonished herself, even as she reveled in the feel of being held so tightly against his wide chest that she could hear his heartbeat thudding steadily beneath her ear. She wondered how it was he could remain so calm when they were ten seconds away from being skewered on a set of pointy ivory tusks. But then he moved his leg, just a little, and every thought in her head came to tire-squealing stop.
He was…hard.
As in still fully, wonderfully, largely erect. Yep, there was no forgetting his rather…er…impressive girth. After all, she’d had her hand wrapped around him not five minutes ago when she’d come. Come! And then the afterglow had been cut frustratingly short by the ill-timed arrival of the elephant.
Her fingers twitched against the material of Carlos’s tank top, and it was then she realized the stupid appendages were itching to reach down and touch him again. And maybe this time we’ll both be able to get off. Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it?
No, she admonished herself. Bad girl. Stupid girl. Horny girl… Damnit!