I rummage through the backpack. The not-tequila pot Mia brought is almost empty. But not quite.
My mouth is suddenly dry, and the tingles are going strong in and around my girly parts. “Brank’ox.”
“Dolly?”
I hold up the pot. “Let’s rest here for a little while. Just sitting on the ground and finishing this. Remember Dolly’s Rule. We must make sure there’s nothing left.”
“Can’t break that rule,” he agrees quickly. “This is not a bad place. Bigs don’t like cliffs like this, it limits their movements.”
There’s a patch of soft grass that goes all the way up to the rock face, and I walk over and sit down, swinging my hips a little bit extra.
Brank’ox sits down next to me, our backs to the wall. “We’ll be back before sunset. Easily.”
“There’s no rush,” I state, pouring the rest of the booze into our cups. “We deserve a rest. Cheers.”
I clink my cup to his just like last time, then down all the burning liquid in one go. I manage not to cough.
We sit in silence for a while. The breeze rustles the treetops, the tiniest animals go about their business in the undergrowth a few yards away, there’s a distant trumpeting of two dinosaurs either fighting or having a really great time.
The jungle is vibrantly alive, but now it doesn’t scare me like it used to. It feels like I’m part of it.
I lean my head on Brank’ox’s shoulder and innocently place my hand on his thigh, right at the edge of his short, kilt-like loincloth. “Thank you for keeping me safe.”
“It is my duty,” he rumbles. “And my honor.” He glances down at my hand. “And my pleasure.”
All by themselves, my fingers slowly rub against his smooth skin, stretched taut over hard ripples of muscle. “Mine too.”
The huge caveman readjusts his position so he can put his arm around my neck, letting the hand dangle in the air close to my chest. The momentum of the movement brings his fingertips into brief, glancing contact with the fabric covering one nipple.
Suppressing a whimper, I adjust my position too, casually brushing the breast up against his fingers.
This time his touch lingers just a second longer, and I can’t help but notice that his loincloth is moving, as if there is something underneath, something very alive and eager.
I think we might have the same idea.
Am I being too forward? Well, nobody can accuse me of being slutty. If anything happens here, it will be my first time. And his, too. We’re on equal terms, and that kind of takes some of the doubt out of the whole thing. Nobody is being exploited here.
I let my hand slide a little further up. “The jungle seems so peaceful.”
Brank’ox puts one finger against the fabric of my dress, very gently. “The jungle can be a peaceful place if you can deal with the dangers.”
“Have you explored a lot of it?” I let one finger stroke lightly against the loincloth.
He adds another finger and lets them both move up and down, barely perceptible to my sensitive skin underneath the dress. “Mostly the parts that are easy to explore. Where the danger is less. Some parts are unknown to me.”
“But you would like to see those parts, too, I’m sure.” My fingers move slowly towards the center of his body, the muscles hard under them.
Now three of his fingers are stroking my breast, right beside the nipple. “Of course. Very much. But there are always dangers.”
I lose my nerve and move my hand slightly up, towards his bare, rippling abdomen. “Surely, a brave and skilled warrior like you doesn’t fear them.”
He strokes my breast, slowly and lightly. “Sometimes I turn out to be not as skilled as I wish to be.”
The washboard of his stomach is both soft and hard under my fingertips as his muscles work. “Some skills are learned by simply doing them as well as you can.”
“Do you think that is true for every skill?” His fingers stroke to the side, right across the nipple.
“Oh yes! I mean, of course. Sometimes you just have to accept that the only way to get good at something is to do it.”
“Even when there’s danger? Perhaps that danger knows more about the skill than I do.”
“And perhaps it is all just as new to the danger as it is to you.”
He places his huge hand on my breast, cupping it. “I see. Yes, that is better for the warrior, of course.”