Page 82 of Devil's Kiss

“I go there all the time. I could find it with my eyes shut.”

“Which is pretty much the equivalent of going there right now, don’t you think?”

Derek bent down to grab the backpack off the ground, and then he took Jordan’s chin between his fingers and kissed his lips. “Don’t worry, Posh. I’ll look after you.”

He stepped around the now stuttering man and headed toward his car. He knew the nickname he and Finn had given Jordan drove him nuts. But after Brantley had spilled the beans and told Jordan about it, Derek figured it was fair game to use whenever he wanted to get under Jordan’s skin. Which, he admitted, was more often than he should.

“Donotcall me that, Derek Pearson,” Jordan said in a tone filled with so much upper-classfuck youthat Derek couldn’t help chuckling. “You know I don’t like it.”

“I know,” Derek said as he leaned back against the trunk waiting for Jordan to unlock it. “But I’ve had a crap day and you get all feisty whenever I say it, which makes me hot, and then I forget I was in a bad mood and all is better.”

Jordan aimed his keys at the car and hit a button so the trunk would spring open and bump into Derek’s ass.

“All isnotbetter, because now I’m annoyed at you.”

Derek swung his bag into the back and slammed it shut. As each of them walked to their sides of the car, Jordan aimed an exasperated look at Derek and asked, “What’s at Devil’s Bend?”

When they were seated and their belts were buckled, Derek leaned his head back on the headrest and whispered, “Peace.”

And no other convincing was needed.

Chapter 22

“ARE WE NEARLY there yet?” Jordan asked, and chose to disregard the way Derek ignored him. He was several steps behind with a flashlight clutched in his hand as he trudged over sticks and branches and headed directly down a path straight to…Huh, how fitting. Hell.

Under no other circumstance would he ever be hiking through the beach scrub at eight thirty at night.Hell. No.This was not his idea of a fun time. It was actually, pretty much, his worst nightmare. Not that he would ever tell Derek that.

When they’d talked on the phone earlier, Derek had said he was going to camp overnight at a place he used to go as a boy, and then—shit, was that a spider web?—they’d ended up there.

“How you doing back there?” Derek asked, and he sounded way too pleased with himself to fool Jordan into thinking he was concerned for his well-being.

“I’m fine,” Jordan said between his teeth, and heard the faint sound of a snort.

If this were any other time, the flashlight in his hand would seem like a fabulous way to teach Derek a lesson when he lobbed it at the back of his head. As it was, apparently hiking in the dark to the middle of nowhere was Derek’s idea of catharsis.

“Really, Jordan, anyone would think you never went camping as a kid.”

Jordan stopped at that, and when the obvious lack of his footsteps continued, Derek turned around and came back several paces. “Is something wrong?”

“Do I strike you as a child who everoncewanted to go camping?”

Derek looked over his pink vertical-striped shirt, yellow shorts with matching pink belt, and olive suede loafers, which each cost well over the hundred-dollar mark. He then reached out, cupped the back of Jordan’s neck, and tugged him forward.

Jordan’s breath caught as Derek’s hand came up to cradle his cheek, and when he smiled, Jordan wondered when he’d become such a damn sap.

“No. You strike me as the type who flew around in private jets?—”

“True.”

“To exotic places?—”

“Also true.”

“And missed out on some of the most beautiful sights that were right under your upturned nose.”

Jordan huffed. Derek nipped at his lips and said, “Youare going to love where I’m taking you. You know why?”

Jordan couldn’t remember his own name while Derek was tracing his tongue along his lower lip—let alone how to talk.