I knew when I’d lost the battle. Like drawing the curtains across a window, my lids fell and blocked Bo from my view. Just before I drifted off, I heard him whisper, “Rest.” And then there was nothing.
********
Some time later, a cold hand to my face and Bo’s voice woke me. I opened my eyes and looked around. Though my eyes told me I was alone, my body told me Bo was near.
“Bo?”
“I’m here,” he said, taking my hand in his.
The sun was setting and the forest floor was dappled with the golden light of a dying day. To my right, where Bo’s voice and touch was coming from, I saw the tall, gilded trees shimmer, like I was looking at them through the distorting waves of heat you see coming off of hot pavement.
I sat up and looked more closely. Raising my other hand, I reached toward it. I jerked a little when I made contact with something solid and cool, but then I realized it was skin I felt. I rubbed my hand over it, feeling the crinkly tickle of hair against my palm.
As I sculpted the curves and dips, I realized that I was touching Bo’s chest. His naked chest. I paused and laid my spread fingers flat over his left pectoral. I could feel the excited patter of his heart.
“Ridley,” he groaned, part in warning, part in pleasure.
The sound of my name on his lips, with that hint of need in it so clear and plain, sent a surge of desire rippling through my core.
Slowly, I let my palm trail across his chest and down his belly. I jumped when his icy hand grabbed my wrist.
“Stop,” he ground out. His voice was notably strained.
“Sorry,” I muttered, pulling my hand away. The only thing I was honestly sorry about, though, was that I had to stop. “Where is your shirt?”
“You’re wearing it.”
I looked down and, sure enough, Bo had slipped his rugby shirt on over my own. When I inhaled, my nostrils were filled with his scent and I thought I might never give his shirt back.
“Oh.” I looked back up and “through” Bo and I could see that a pile of clothes lay just behind him in the leaves. “Whose are those?”
“Mine,” he answered.
“You’re not wearing any clothes?” A flush of heat stung my cheeks. Although I was a little embarrassed, the red stain had much more to do with the other things I was feeling.
“How would it look when the ambulance gets here if they see jeans and a rugby shirt walking around without a person inside them?”
I considered that scenario for just a moment. “Good point.” When it sank in, what he’d said, I asked, “Ambulance?”
“Yeah. I went to check on Connors and found his cell phone at the edge of the trees. I guess it got thrown when you flipped. I called 911.”
“When will they be here? What should I tell them?”
“Crap,” he said under his breath. “I’d say they’ll be here in the next five or ten minutes.”
It took me a few seconds to put it together, but I assume that he had glanced down at his watch before realizing that he’d taken it off with the rest of his clothes. That’s why the “crap” comment. The whole situation was almost comical. Almost.
I asked a second time. “What should I tell them?”
“Just tell them what happened and that you crawled out of the car and found the cell phone and then called for help.”
He made a noise, as if he’d started to say something, but changed his mind.
I’d discovered I didn’t like him keeping things from me. Bo’s secrets tended to be a pretty big deal, so I prompted, “What?”
“Well, they’ll probably want to check you out.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Well, it might be a good idea if you got rid of that bloody shirt with a hole in it and just wore mine.”
“Oh. Good idea,” I said. At least someone was thinking. I was still having trouble getting rid of the image of a naked Bo only a few inches away.
“Would you mind if I checked your side?”
I didn’t have to see his face to know that’s what he’d been hesitant to ask. He was so careful with me, so considerate of me. I just smiled and shook my head.
“Let me help you up,” Bo said, tugging on my hand.
I stood and pulled Bo’s shirt over my head. “Here. Hold this,” I said, holding his shirt out in his general direction. He took it and the shirt just hung there as if suspended in mid air. I tucked the vision away for later, when I’d likely pull it out and remember, with awe and wonder, what crazy things I’d seen in my life since I’d met Bo.
I took a deep breath and sucked in my stomach before reaching for the hem of my tattered t-shirt and peeling it up to my shoulders. I was careful not to get more blood all over me, though it wasn’t too difficult since most of the blood had already dried.
As I pulled the shirt over my head and shook my hair loose, I became aware of heat traveling up my stomach and across my breasts. Even though I couldn’t see them, I could actually feel Bo’s eyes on me, like he was touching everything I was exposing. It was incredibly unnerving, but one of the most erotic things I’ve ever experienced.
Letting my shirt dangle from my fingertips, I raised my arms over my head and turned slightly to the side so Bo could look at my belly.
My abdominals clenched when I felt his fingertips brush lightly over the bloody skin where a hole had been not so long ago.
“Give me your shirt,” Bo said, his voice hoarse and low, not much more than a deep rumble in the quiet forest.
I handed him my shirt and I watched as he used one of the clean spots on it to rub as much of the residual blood from me as he could. He was so close I could feel his cool breath on my skin and a rash of chills broke out across my stomach and chest.
I closed my eyes and let the stimulation of my senses flood my mind. I could hear Bo’s shallow breathing. I could feel the gentle rasp of cotton on my skin. I could smell Bo’s tangy scent enveloping me. My body tingled and throbbed with every beat of my heart.
Though I couldn’t see him, in my mind’s eye, I could plainly see Bo’s head at my navel, as if it played like a movie against the backs of my lids. It wasn’t hard to let my imagination rewrite the scene in a much different way.