Hot Pickle - J.J. Knight Page 0,48
York.”
She nods. “Is it pickle time?” She peers up at me with those lashes, and I’m struck by her absolute beauty for the zillionth time.
“You can have my pickle any time you want.”
She plucks a wrinkled green one from the tub and chomps on it. Instantly, her eyes go wide with alarm. “Oh! Oh! This is more than hot. This is…” She sets down the pickle container and snatches my bottle of water. Only after she’s chugged several mouthfuls does she ask, “What was that one?”
“Anthony’s latest brainstorm. It’s the Pickle of the Month.”
“What’s it called?”
“Bad Temper,” I say with a laugh. “It’s bathed in habanero juice.”
Camryn waves her hand in front of her mouth. “And what’s the hot pickle normally flavored with?”
“Jalapeño. It’s milder because we chill the peppers first. We’ve made one hotter than Bad Temper before.”
“How?” Her face is bright from the heat.
“Ghost peppers. I can’t even be near those or I break out in a sweat.”
“That sounds like something that could kill you.”
I take the partially eaten pickle from her. “There’s a trick to eating these.” I rummage in the cooler until I find the dilled cream cheese I packed. I drag the spicy pickle through the cream cheese. “Dairy products cool the burn. Try it this way.”
I hold out the pickle topped with white cream for her to take a bite.
“You sure it’s safe?”
“I swear on the Pickle name.”
She leans forward and bites the end of the pickle with the cream cheese.
“How’s that?” I dip it into the cream cheese a second time.
She swallows her bite. “That worked.” She watches me take a bite. “But it needs a new name when it’s dipped.”
“Mmm hmm.” I swallow. It burns so good. “What’s that?”
Her face takes on that mischievous look I’ve come to love. “The Pickle’s Cream.” Her gaze drops below my belt.
When her eyes return to my face, I’m reminded of that hot, hot moment when I released all over her naked body.
“I’ll make a note of that.”
“It can be our inside joke.” She scoots closer to me and leans her head on my shoulder.
Time stills, other than the roll of waves on the shore and the occasional call of a gull. I drink her in, this quietness, this peace. I need to stop more. Live a little rather than run from place to place. Bodybuilding has done a number on me. I’m all work and muscle. No play.
I turn to press my lips into her hair. She smells like sunshine and jasmine. I could sit here in the sun and breathe her in for the rest of my life.
“Will you come over tonight after your workout?” she asks.
“I was hoping you’d ask.” I find her fingers on the blanket and wrap them in mine.
“There might be the usual level of nakedness,” she says. She tilts her face up, inches from mine. “Maybe a different purpose.”
I’ve never been more anxious for the sun to go down.
Franklin is seriously pumped as we start our workout later that evening.
He lies on the bench press as I stand over him, ready to spot.
“It’s finally happening,” he says. “You and me dominating the L.A. circuit.”
“I think it’s great we get to be at the same meet again. It was a bummer without you there last Saturday.”
Franklin adjusts his grip on the bar. “Amy said she stopped by. That you were sitting all alone against the wall.”
My mind flashes for a moment to the stacked chairs witnessing my torrid moment with Camryn. And for a brief second, it skips to the evening ahead, after I leave the gym. Not going to be mentioning that, for sure.
“Amy was a great help there at the end. And look, she’s got two winners on her roster.”
“Hell yeah, she does. Franklin and Max, the dream team.” He lifts the bar and begins his set with more vigor than usual.
He pumps his reps, then racks the bar for me to add more plates to the ends.
I fetch a pair of ten-pounders. “So how did you go straight to this bigger meet when I had to do this invitational in between?”
Franklin shakes out his arms. “Some meets level you up faster than others.”
“Camryn said that we could qualify for Nationals at this one.”
Franklin drops his arms. “So, she’s still doing your tans.”
I shouldn’t have brought her up. Time to scramble. “Thanks to you. And I got the bummer slot at the crack of dawn on Saturday. She said she was going to do yours at a more