That idea just pissed me off. Of course, my mouth tended to go on about its merry way without consulting my brain and often took my body along with it, so the next thing I knew, I was propositioning her.
“I could do it, you know,” I heard myself say. My voice had dropped down low, but I knew she still heard me. I could hear her breathing increase over the soft lapping of waves against the edge of the raft. I leaned over only a little, bringing my mouth closer to her ear. “I could make you come without even touching you.”
I heard her sharp intake of breath, and then she froze, motionless and not breathing at all. I exhaled slowly, blowing warm air over the skin of her neck. Her arms broke out in gooseflesh.
“I really didn’t want to have this discussion in the first place,” she said, turning away from me with a shiver. She ran her hands up and down her arms. “And now it is definitely over.”
She ended the conversation, but that didn’t stop my mind from thinking about it some more – quite a lot more, actually.
*
She had only been awake for a half hour or so, but I could have sworn Raine was trying to go for one of those world records where people sat still the longest. I didn’t know what her problem was, and I was annoyed with myself for agreeing to talk about her father the previous night. I was equally annoyed with myself for offering to get her off. She wasn’t the kind of girl I was used to, and I honestly didn’t know how to interact with her without making an ass of myself, so I was trying not to talk at all. If I said anything at this point, it would end up being bitchy.
I collected what morning dew there was from the canopy and added it to the water container, sealing it tight. There wasn’t more than half a cup left. There wasn’t enough water to last half the day, and there hadn’t been any other schools of fish close to us lately. The only thing I had seen was a small shark, and cartilage fishes were useless for water.
Raine shifted again, and this time I caught the grimace on her face.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re in pain or something,” I stated. “What hurts?”
“I’m fine,” she said, her eyes looking away from me quickly as unease crept into her face.
“Bullshit.” I looked her over for a moment and watched her squirm in her bathing suit. Then it hit me what was wrong with her. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re chafing in that suit, aren’t you? And those shorts are that stretchy crap that doesn’t breathe.”
She glared over at me and pursed her lips together, negating the need for a verbal response. She had to get out of that suit before it became a serious issue.
“All right, Raine,” I said sternly. “I’m only saying this once. You have to get out of the bathing suit and those shorts. The chafing is fucking annoying when you’re on your beach vacation. Out here it’s a little more serious.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Look,” I growled, “the chafing is going to react to the salt water, and you’re going to end up with sores and even boils. If those get infected, you’re dead – got it? I’ll try to avert my eyes until you fucking heal, but you have to take the fucking suit off.”
“As if you would,” Raine snorted. “It’s not bad – I’ll just be careful. There’s no way you could not look at me in this sized raft.”
She was right, of course, and if I was going to be totally honest with myself, I wouldn’t even have tried to avoid staring at her. I liked the idea of having her lying around here naked.
“Well, how about I take mine off, too?” I suggested with a smirk. “We’d be even.”
“Not even close,” she smirked back. She waved her hand in the air but generally pointed in my direction. “You’re probably making all of this up just to get me out of my clothes.”
“Sure,” I smiled right back at her. “I actually planted that rash between your legs as well. Sneaky bastard, aren’t I?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you,” she snarled, her anger at me and the situation obvious now. She glared up at me.
I wondered why she suddenly decided to get so feisty. Insanely, it was making my dick hard, which wasn’t going to help my case at all. I needed her to realize how serious this was, and I wasn’t sure she was going to buy into it with my cock pointing at her and practically jumping up and down at the thought of maybe getting her naked.
I really had to stop thinking like that.
“Look, Raine,” I said, trying to sound calm and reasonable. “You really do have to get out of the suit. I’m not just fucking around. Salt exposure is as bad as sunburn, and we can’t risk anything like that happening to us. We’re too low on water for any risks. You might be a little…embarrassed, but that beats dead.”
“I’m not going to die of chafing,” she scoffed.
“At home, you never run out of water, either. The rules are different here.”