Boys, beware… Winter is coming!
Four
Winter
“Time to go eat,” Archie says a while later.
The two smartasses are still out there on Logan’s patio, drinking, and effectively trapping me inside my hut. I don’t feel like going out as long as they’re there.
“And?” Logan asks.
“The whole team is getting together; someone should invite Miss Knowles.”
Silence.
“Either you go, or I do,” Archie continues. “I’m sure she’d rather see my handsome face than your ugly snout.”
Logan scoffs.
“Come on, man, work with me, you’re being completely irrational,” Archie says. “The lady has rubbed you the wrong way only because she’s beautiful and because she gave you a verbal ass-kicking you totally deserved.”
Okay, Mr. Hill, you’re already walking up redemption road, maybe I should go easy on you.
Logan doesn’t reply.
“Dude,” Archie says, humor fading from his tone. “We are a team, and you’re the leader. You can’t push a member out just because you don’t like her. Time to grow a pair, buddy.”
And the Viking continues to impress. He’s not all swag and muscles. You know what? I’m taking back my decision to mess with him. He’s officially off my hit list.
“All right,” Logan snaps. “I’ll invite her. Happy?”
Satan makes asking me to dinner sound like such a chore.
“Use some of your good-boy charm while you’re at it,” Archie quips, “won’t you?”
Wait, so Logan is supposed to be the good one of the pair?
Ah.
And charm? What charm? If the man had any charm, it’d work on the monkeys at best! And not even. He had to bribe the macaque with a banana.
“You think she’s in her bungalow?” Logan asks.
“Yep, and she’s most likely been listening to every word we said, silently hating us.”
Aha. If only you knew, my sweet Viking.
“Nah,” Logan says. “If she had been, she would’ve already come out to kick my butt and yours.”
I love how Satan sounds so cocksure while being so utterly wrong.
“All right, buddy.” A chair scrapes, signaling that Archie got up. “I’ll see you at the restaurant.”
I listen to the Viking’s steps as he walks away. Then it hits me that Satan is on his way over, and I’m lying on my bed in a towel.
How much time do I have?
Should I pretend I’m only now getting out of the shower?
No, I don’t want him to see me half-naked.
So what should I wear?
A mean idea takes form in my head. I smile to myself as I eye the closed suitcase of “city clothes” I’d packed for my stay in Bangkok, and that I plan to deposit at the hotel’s reception tomorrow since I won’t be needing them in the jungle.
My only regret is that I didn’t bring heels.
Logan
Armed with plenty of patience, I walk up the steps of my neighbor’s hut, ready to get another good dose of sass.
I try to put myself in a positive headspace. Maybe Archie is right, and the sass is just her way of being defensive. Maybe she won’t hinder the mission after all. I should give her the benefit of the doubt. And, as the expedition leader, it is my duty to make sure the team is united.
So, with the proverbial hat in my hands, I step on her patio and ring the hut’s bell.
“I’m coming,” Winter calls from the other side. “Just a second.”
I respectfully wait a few steps back from the door.
Scuffling noises fill the inside of the hut, until Winter slides the French doors open. All of a sudden, she’s not my annoying team member anymore, but instead that bombshell who took my breath away before I realized who she was. And she’s doing it again now; it feels like she’s knocked the air right out of my lungs.
Tonight, she’s decided to torture me with a halter neck black dress that clings to her body like sin, following each generous curve like a tailor designed it specifically for her. Her hair, now dried, hangs in soft waves reaching to her waist. Black gladiator sandals wind up her toned legs, stopping just before the dress starts.
And I don’t know why, but all those tiny leather straps around her calves are distressing.
“What can I do for you, Dr. Spencer?” Winter asks, a definite note of sarcasm audible in her tone.
I snap out of my daze and meet her eyes; a challenge awaits me there. As if she’s daring me to criticize her attire choice. Did she wear this on purpose, to provoke me? Or is this just her wardrobe, what she’s planning to wear on the expedition?
I take a deep breath, remembering what Archie said. I’m the team leader, and I need to be the bigger person. If the photographer wants to trek through the jungle wearing a skirt, she can be my guest, and find out the hard way why that’s a terrible idea. It’s not my job to tell her how to live her life. Heck, she can come in heels for all I care. And when she breaks a leg, Archie can carry her the rest of the way, and they can be happy together.
So, no, sorry, Miss Sass, not taking the bait.
“We got off on the wrong foot,” I say, and only receive back an even more sarcastic, “you think?” stare. I don’t let it frazzle me as I continue, “I wanted to apologize if I came off as unwelcoming earlier.”
The impossible woman says nothing; she just stares at me with an “aaand?” attitude. Is she serious? That was a perfectly respectable apology! Guess I’m not done groveling. Talk about high maintenance!
“You’re a valued member of this team,” I go on. “And I can’t wait to see you at work. I’m told you’re the best in your field.”
Finally, she cracks the tiniest satisfied smile and gives me an almost imperceptible nod.
“Okay, Dr. Spencer.” She flips her hair back in an exaggerated motion that pushes out her chest. I have to concentrate hard not to shift my gaze to her cleavage. How is everything… staying in place like that? I don’t see any bra straps. “You get the benefit of the doubt,” she says, and, regarding me with a penetrating stare, she adds, “Anything else troubling you?”
And she’s successfully made me blush for the second time in a day. But she couldn’t possibly know I’m thinking about her bra, or lack of thereof. Or maybe she can. Standing with her chest pushed out like that can’t be natural. Is she messing with me?
“Well?” she prompts.
“No,” I say quickly. “I mean, yes!” Damn, I’m making a fool of myself. Not a good look for the expedition leader. “The team is getting together for a casual dinner at the resort’s restaurant. I was wondering if you’d like to join us? I, err, would be really pleased if you did.”
I swear, asking my first girlfriend out in high school as an inexperienced teenage boy was easier than this.