Wildfire (Maple Hills, #2)(65)
My words spur her on, a little bit more and I’ll be right there and that’s when the cabin door opens and Xander strolls in from his night duty with the dogs, killing any chance of me getting hard ever again.
“Fuck!” we both scream, him reaching to shield his eyes, me reaching to cover Rory’s naked body with a blanket.
“Sorry, sorry,” Xander yells, backing out of the cabin quicker than I’ve ever seen him move. “Do people not put a sock on the door these days, Jesus Christ.”
Horrified is the only word to describe how I feel right now.
Looking to Aurora, I expect to find the same mortified expression, but of course I don’t, because it’s Aurora. Her hand is pressed to her mouth as she tries her best to stop a laugh from bursting out. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m not laughing, I swear. Are you okay?”
The blanket I haphazardly threw on her is partially draped over her head and she’s kneeling naked between my legs, while my dick is definitely no longer hard. Dragging a hand down my face, I burst out laughing, which gives her the permission she needed. Tugging her to me, I kiss her forehead as she snuggles closer. “We didn’t even last six hours before getting caught.”
“We’ll be smarter next time,” she says, dragging her finger across my skin. “I need to get back to my cabin before someone realizes I’m not there. Sorry you didn’t get to finish.”
Aurora says “next time” so casually that I don’t really know how to answer it. I don’t want to have to give her up, but I also don’t want to get fired if we get caught. But I really don’t want to have to give her up. She’s the one thing in my life that hasn’t been ruined in some way by all the other things. She makes me hopeful and I’m not ready to say goodbye to that feeling yet.
“We will be more careful,” I say, kissing her forehead again.
Climbing over me, she starts to redress, frowning when she picks up her still damp clothes from the floor. “You didn’t fold my clothes, Callaghan,” she teases. “I’m proud of you.”
Tugging on my boxers and shorts, I sit on the edge of the bed and watch her grimace, pulling her still damp sweatshirt over her head. She’s pulling on her sneakers when I pull her toward me, making her stand between my legs. Her hands settle on either side of my face and she smiles down at me while I rub my hands up and down the backs of her thighs.
There’s a knock on the door, followed immediately by it creeping open. “Not to spoil this beautiful union, but I’m here because I really need to take a shit. So if you two can wrap this up so I don’t have to go in the woods like a fucking bear, that’d be swell.”
Aurora looks over her shoulder toward the gap, not taking her hands off my face. “You know there are other bathrooms, right? Your next option isn’t the woods?”
“Is a man not allowed to have a preferred place to poop these days? Is that where we’re at as a society?”
“I’m leaving, drama queen,” she shouts back before kissing me goodbye.
I want to drag her back to bed and lock the door, but it’s probably a good thing we were disturbed; I had no idea what time it is and I doubt I could have found the motivation to care anyway.
The dogs come rushing in as soon as Rory opens the door and Xander tries to high five her as she passes him, but he stops when she jabs him in the ribs playfully. “I stole from you, sorry. Bye.”
“It’s always the rich girls!” he calls after her. The grin on his face is unmissable as he comes in and closes the door behind him and I can’t help but grin like a fool too. “I’m gonna crap and then we’re going to talk about what the fuck happened.”
I occupy myself with the dogs while he’s gone and when he comes back, the same—no doubt goofy—grin is still on my face. Neither Xander or I are working today—the second of my days off and his first after switching with Aurora yesterday—but without even talking about it, I know we’re going to be hanging out with everyone all day helping out.
Don’t get me wrong, the kids can be exhausting, but it’s a good kind of exhausting. It keeps my mind busy and I enjoy helping the kids find their confidence. In a weird way, when I was younger, I kind of put the wealthy kids on a pedestal because I believed that I would never have any problems if my family was rich. That didn’t change much as I got older, especially when I started a college where it felt like everyone around me was more financially privileged.
Working here is starting to heal that inner child, I think. I see these kids with the same insecurities and worries as I had and I realize how silly I was all those years ago.
And yeah, maybe a tiny part of my motivation to help out today is to see Rory.
Xander throws himself onto his bed, narrowly missing Trout who is chewing on one of his socks. “Can I guess what miss sticky fingers stole? Was it a condom by any chance?” I nod and his grin widens. “I’m glad you kids are being safe and I don’t have to give you the birds and the bees talk.”
I’d rather be attacked by birds and bees than have that conversation with Xander. “You know we’re the same age, right?”
“Kids these days . . .” He avoids the shoe I throw at him. “Reflexes of a cat, my guy. But seriously, I’m happy for you. I’m jealous as fuck, but I’m happy. You get to do the whole summer love thing. You’re living the dream.”