“I know you will. He’s lucky to be staying with you. I know Xander must think a lot of you to trust you with him,” I said, scratching the dog’s head. I glanced up at Lucky and waited until I caught his eye.
“You going to be okay?” I asked quietly. “You need anything?” I wanted so badly to ask him about his foster family, but I knew Xander was right— I didn’t want to spoil his fun on the last day of the hike, and there would be time enough for us to deal with it when I got back from helping Jimmy.
“Nah, I’m good,” he said with a small smile. “Aiden asked me the same thing. I think he’s trying to take over as my Bennett while you’re gone.”
My heart expanded in my chest— both for the kid who recognized that he was cared for and my friend who knew without asking that I’d be worried about Lucky while I was gone.
“Alright. Well, keep an eye out for Aiden too. He probably needs looking after more than you do,” I said with a wink.
“Hey, B?” Lucky asked.
“Yeah?”
He looked down at his feet before grinning back up at me mischievously. “Are you going to be okay?”
“What do you mean? Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, it’ll just be you and Xander out there until you get to Jimmy. I’m worried you’re either going to kill each other or… you know...”
“Know what?” I asked dumbly.
Lucky looked around us and then dropped his voice and sang, “Xander and Bennett sitting in a tree…” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
I stared at him, feeling my face turn crimson. “Wh-what? Jesus, Lucky. No. I mean, that’s none of your… it’s… we’re just friends. It’s fine. I’ve known Xander for a long time. We’re past the kill each other phase. I promise.”
He snorted. “Sure, B. If you say so. If not the killing, then I guess it’ll be the other thing.” He lifted an eyebrow at me, and I rolled my eyes.
“Go,” I said, flapping my hand at him. “Get out of here with that mangy beast, and stop trying to ruffle my feathers.”
He wandered off laughing and quickly joined the other boys who were finishing up breakfast. Before he got too far away, he turned back.
“Yo, B! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he shouted for everyone in the campsite to hear.
I stood there frozen, feeling my face incinerate as Aiden barked out a laugh and slapped Lucky on the back as he approached the remaining campers.
“I hope you aren’t going to listen to him.”
The low, warm voice snuck into my ear from somewhere behind me and I closed my eyes to suppress a moan. Wait, I was pissed at him. Which meant I couldn’t go all gooey on the inside when he said that crap to me. My flirt was officially on the fritz.
“You wish,” I muttered to Xander. “I’m not doing shit. You can forget it.”
His smile drooped a bit and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What’s wrong? You mad at me for some reason?”
Fuck. Why did he look so goddamned cute all the fucking time? I needed him to look ugly and mean. Was that too much to ask? I wondered idly if Lucky had been right. Was I going to pick option number two when it came to Xander? I couldn’t say I hadn’t considered the idea.
I glanced down at his legs— curvy and muscled between the worn edge of his hiking shorts and the scrunched top of his wool socks and leather hiking boots. I wanted to lick his legs.
Was that weird?
As I fantasized about running my tongue up the inside of one of his thighs while my hand ran up the inside of the other, into his shorts, I felt my cock stir in my own shorts.
“So do you?” Xander said. My head snapped up to meet his eyes.
“Do I what?”
“Want a taste?”
“What?” I barked, my voice going ultrasonic. How the fuck was he reading my mind? And more importantly, why was he bringing it up here and now when I couldn’t do a goddamned thing about it? “No! No, I don’t,” I blurted before noticing he was holding out some kind of pressed fruit bar to me. “Shit,” I muttered.
There was a noticeable twinkle in his eye as he lifted the bar to his lips and made a big fucking production out of wrapping his tongue around it before gently pulling off a piece with his teeth.
He never took his eyes off mine the entire time, and by the time he was finished, my dick was leaking into my fucking underwear.
It was going to be a long day.
“What do you mean, we have to wait?” I asked impatiently. I scanned the sky above the mountain pass ahead of us and it looked fine to me. Sure, there was some lightning, but it was barely noticeable. It made no sense why Xander would say we couldn’t cross the pass because of it.