A small sob escapes his mouth, and as he swipes his fingers under his eyes, a small smile appears. I nibble my way across his neck, and he squirms against me. Ticklish little bastard.
Hell, all this wiggling makes me want to take him right here in this little bathroom, just bend him forward and slide right in. But we don’t get a chance because my brother is suddenly pounding on the door.
“Alright, dudes. Enough crying. Can we fucking go now?” Liam shouts. “This mud don’t wait. We’re in a drought. That dry earth is just going to suck that shit right up!”
I sigh and wrench the door open.
“Alright, bro, what’s the motherfucking plan?” I ask as I pull Elliot into me. He’s still swiping at his eyes, the tip of his nose a little pink.
“Elliot, my man, good to have you,” Liam says as he turns his hat backward. “And as an honorary member of the family, I was thinking we could do some mudding, maybe roll some shit, and then I want to show you two that potato gun I modified. Shit, it’s gonna come in handy having a doctor in the fam….”
Elliot stiffens beside me and whispers, “What does he mean byroll some shit?”
Ah, Eli, you’ll see. You’ll see.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
ELLIOT
“You gonna spank me, Doc?” Luke asks with a smile as I grasp onto the roll cage above me. We bounce over a hill and straight into a mud puddle with a sickening crash. The truck rumbles and shakes all around us, and I wonder what the hell he put this together with? Those welds he showed me earlier won’t hold if he keeps this up. This machine is going to fall apart in a matter of minutes.
“Yes,” I manage to say, my teeth rattling in my mouth. Luke van Beek’s ass will be so red for subjecting me to this. This entire thing is treacherous and irresponsible. I am not having fun.
I am not.
A laugh escapes me, and I bite it back. I don’t want to encourage this any more than I already have.
Luke chuckles and then slows to a stop. “You think I don’t hear you laughing, Eli, but I do. Superman hearing, remember?”
I sigh, unclutching my hands from the rollbar above me.
“It was a laugh of terror and dread,” I lie.
“Fucker is havin’ fun, just won’t admit it,” he mutters. “Now, I’m going to do you a favor. See that hill over there?”
I glance through the windshield and see a steep hill that looks terribly dangerous. Vehicles should not be attempting to mount that.
“I’m going to drive up that and hopefully make it to the top. It’s never worked before but I’m not a quitter. So, I’m asking you now, Eli. You wanna ride there with me or get out?”
I eye the hill again and shake my head.
“Out,” I say and unbuckle my seatbelt. It takes a second because it’s locked into place, and when I’m finally free, I pull his head down toward mine and lick into his delicious mouth.
“Do not end up bleeding again,” I say, pressing another soft kiss to his lips.
“Never,” he says with an eye roll, but I don’t believe him. Because if there is anything I have learned about Luke in the past two hours it’s that he’s the most reckless person I know. I don’t even want to know what he and his brother have planned with the potato gun later.
I don’t even know what a potato gun is. I can only imagine.
I hop out of the truck, and Luke waggles his eyebrows at me.
“Alright, stand back,” he says, and he’s off, and I watch in horror as the truck’s tires skid and roll up that mountain. For a moment, I stop breathing because this is not safe. Not at all. He’s going to get seriously hurt.
My mind is still reeling when Liam pulls up alongside me in another shoddily built truck and just leans out the driver’s side.
His truck has no doors. I repeat.No doors.
There is also no roof. It looks like he sawed it right off.