She couldn’t see the front of him, but she could tell without a doubt that his hands went to the opening of his pants, his triceps flexing enough to draw her eye.
“Keep watch on the jungle, Andrasta, or you’ll get an eyeful. And who knows what might sneak up.”
Oh. She spun on her heel and faced the trees. Though she wanted to snap something at him about her ability to keep all unwanted visitors away, the idea of him stripping off his pants had ensnared her imagination.
Something soft thudded to the deck, and the quiet hum of a small motor flicked to life. Her brain fogged with images. She had to invent them since she’d never seen him naked, but she was willing to put some creative energy toward the endeavor.
The sound of water droplets pattering on wood and the river’s surface echoed in her ears. She tried to focus on the dense greenery in front of her, but no matter how hard she squinted into the forest, she couldn’t ignore the images of him flashing through her mind.
“Wouldn’t you prefer an indoor shower?” she asked.
“No.”
Moody bastard. Sometimes it felt like talking to a wall. But the shortness of his tone did nothing to cool the heat rushing across her skin and through her veins, a heat that coiled between her legs to form a delicious and obnoxious tension.
Damn earth and all its emotions. They were what she’d come here for, but it was annoying to find that they didn’t always do what she wanted them to.
Drip, drip, drip. The sound of the outdoor shower wove around her mind like fog, curling tendrils that pulled her head around to peek over her shoulder. She really had no control over it. Truly, anyone would look, so how could she be blamed?
Her breath caught.
She never should have looked.
But now that she had, all the power on earth couldn’t drag her gaze away from the sight of a naked Cam standing with his back to her, water sluicing over the defined and flexing muscles of his shoulders to glide over the most spectacular ass and heavy thighs she’d ever seen.
He balanced on a beam that protruded from the side of the boat back out over the water at the stern. A shower contraption powered by a generator poured water over him and the beam, with the excess falling into the river. Clever. But the balancing made the muscles of his legs bulge and flex. She swallowed. Licked her lips.
Oh, hell. She was in for it.
The back of Cam’s neck prickled as he scrubbed the soap from his hair. He could fool himself into thinking it was from the cool water pumped through his shower by the generator, a luxury that he’d installed when he’d brought the boat south.
But no.
He’d bet anything that the prickle came from Andrasta’s gaze. Fuck. The feel of her eyes—the mere idea that she looked at him—made his cock begin to harden, stiffening and lengthening as he balanced on the sawed-off beam that had once supported the paddle wheel. There was no room for a shower in the bunkhouse, and the idea of installing the plumbing for one was ridiculous.
So the shower was outside. Not a problem when he was alone, as he usually was. It wasn’t hard to find an empty patch of river and scrub up quickly. But now, with Andrasta on the boat, the shower had taken on a whole new meaning.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He’d never minded a woman’s eyes on him before. But her eyes, they were different. Her gaze did something to him. Something more. It always had, even though he’d never fully understood why.
He soaped his chest, then moved his rough hand down, stroking over his tensed abs until he reached the steel length of his cock. He stroked himself under the pretense of washing, but when his hand lingered too long, he knew it was a lie.
She wanted to watch? The idea shot a bolt of lust through him. He gripped his shaft, the soap suds easing the way for his too-hard hand. He imagined it was her fist and pumped it up and down his cock, restraining his hips from moving.
He hadn’t planned this when he’d decided to shower. But now that he was here, and she was here, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. They’d been denied more all those years ago, and there was no way that they could have it now, but there was no stopping this.
The pleasure streaked too strongly through him, spiking when a soft exclamation sounded from behind him. “Oh.”
His hand tightened and he gritted his teeth. Pleasure surged, enough that it broke his haze and snapped him back to reality. He was a second from coming.
Too far. He’d gone too far, standing here with Andrasta’s eyes on him. His fist released his cock as a crashing sound echoed from the jungle.
“What the hell?” Andrasta cried.
He spun to see her facing the jungle, her bow drawn and pointed in the direction of the oncoming noise. Cam stepped back on to the boat and yanked on his pants, wincing as the zipper hit his erection.
Fucking idiot.
“Oy, mate, we found it.” The rough voice echoed from the jungle just before the enormous demon broke through the trees and onto the shore. Another demon burst from the forest behind him. Both were massive, with inhuman faces and sawed-off horns.