This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

her, dousing her.

Bobo sloshing out of the water to the shore, leaving her there.

“Hey!” Audry screamed after him. “What did you do that for?”

But he just ran straight back to her tent, ignoring her.

Getting up, soggy, shaking out the freezing water as her teeth began to chatter, she slogged to the shore. Wet sand was in pants. Audry cursed under her breath. Then she swore louder. These people were insane.

But then Bobo came back, running with Rick in his arms, shouting at him, “Don’ claw me! I’m tryin’ to help and I don’ want ya to hurt yourself.”

For a moment, Audry was not certain if she was looking at Rick or a golden retriever in Bobo’s arms. The seawater was in her eyes, making it difficult to focus. Bobo immediately dropped Rick into the water a few feet away from her.

“Bobo!” Audry kicked and struggled to get at him, the waves almost knocking her over. “What did you do that for!?”

He backed away so she could not reach him, lifting up his arms out of the way. He was good at dodging.

Clawing to the surface, Rick spat out salt water, standing up. He shook off the wetness like a dog, his shirt clinging almost translucently to his skin. Audry could see his scars along his toned torso through the now almost sheer cloth. It was tragic and sexy at the same time. She had always suspected he was fit, but… wow. But disoriented, Rick toppled back into the water on his rump as the waves washed over and around him. Staring up from the rippling tide, Rick laughed. Yet it sounded also like he was crying.

She stared at him, realizing he was not ok. He looked like a nervous wreck. Rising to his feet again, Rick wiped sand and seaweed off his face, shaking out his long sleeves and tie which were now sopping. He looked to Bobo. “I owe you, man. Thanks a thousand times.”

“No prob’ bro,” Bobo said, half soaked himself, grinning. “I tol’ you, I gotta be your bodyguard.”

Rick shook his head, his eyes turning toward Audry now. “Are you kidding? You just proved to me that she needs it more. I could have hurt her.”

Slogging through the froth to the shore, Audry swore under her breath, shaking her head as she got away from them. “What is wrong with you two? I did not deserve that—”

Bobo, tromped right over to her, sticking out his large hand. “Gimmie the mosquito balm.”

The hush of the sea waves answered him as she paled. Damn. He knew. Audry reluctantly pawed her pockets and realized she had left it in the tent. She didn’t really want to give it up anyway. Now that she knew what it did, she wanted to save it. Not so much for herself—but for science. It was something of a gift. It possibly something really worth testing. She wanted to know if it could be used on animals who were having trouble mating. She wanted to know if it could be diluted also. Clearly she had put on too much that night. But Rick, who had a sensitive nose, was now in control of himself, so it was all right.

“The what?” Rick asked, wiping more salty water out of his eyes, brushing back his hair from his forehead. It stuck out in a funny furry angle.

Huffing, Audry retorted at Bobo, “I don’t have it on me.”

Glaring at her, Bobo flicked his fingers, still demanding it. Somehow, something in his eyes told her it was not wise to refuse him.

“Fine.” Audry stomped back to shore. This whole deal made her angry. It was Rick’s fault in the first place that she had ended up with the balm.

“Rick’s got a sensitive nose,” Bobo said, following her. “Big allergies.”

“I know. I know,” Audry moaned skyward. Of course she knew. Everybody and their dog knew. The Deacons had allergies. It was the only non-mystery about the Deacon family.

But Bobo continued, irritably following her—and Rick followed him, his expression full of tense interest.  

“He’s affected by smells more than other people. Give it,” Bobo said.

“I am,” Audry complained, still heading to her tent.

When they got back inside, Audry dug though her bag, still shaking from the cold as she fetched up the balm Daisy had given her at the convention. She held it out—not to Bobo, but to Rick who stared at it then her.

“Look. I’m sorry, ok?” Audry explained. “That woman Daisy gave it to me at that convention. She said it was a pheromone enhancer. She said it would drive the guys wild. But I didn’t really believe her. It didn’t smell like anything. It smells like mosquito repellant.”

Those word hit Rick like a cannonball. The entire string. He stared at the jar, recognizing it, but pulled away from it as if it contained the plague. “Mosquito repellant?”

Bobo snatched it up, immediately opening the jar. He sniffed it. Then he sniffed it again and shrugged. “Nuttin’.”

This time Rick took it, cautiously sniffing the contents. He sniffed it again, growling to himself. It almost sounded like a real wolf growl too. Holding it in his hand, he nodded to himself. “That’s how she did it.”

Audry pretended not to know what he was talking about. But after what had happened last night with Hogan and now this morning with Rick, Audry knew Daisy had not lied to her. And though Rick had not thrown himself at Daisy at the convention—he had acted very strangely, much in the same way he had acted in the alley when meeting up again with that slut. But for some reason when she wore the balm, it had nearly turned him into a potential rapist.

“Did what?” Bobo asked, peering suspiciously at him.

Embarrassed, Rick explained with a peek to Audry while his dripping cheeks colored, “Tricked me. Seduced me. Made me addicted. This blasted balm!” He looked like he wanted to throw it into the ocean. But he didn’t. They were still in the tent and he seemed more inclined to just drop it on the ground to lose it—only on that thought he seemed terrified over who might find it and use it.

Bobo stared at him, then the jar, not quite getting the details.

Looking even more ashamed, Rick finally admitted to his friend with a ducked head between his shoulders, sagging arms hanging, “I told you about her briefly, remember? What I didn’t tell you was that this girl Daisy and I had a…”

Audry closed her eyes, feeling embarrassed for him now. Rick really was different from Hogan. His grief was genuine. And he took responsibility for his own actions. And also, when tempted by the balm, he had tried to stop himself, though he had reacted just as strongly as Hogan did.

“Oh crap.” Bobo stared dryly, remembering.

Turning red, Rick explained, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “Believe me I wasn’t seeking a relationship at the time. It was the full moon.”

That was where things stopped making sense. What did the full moon have to do with anything? Was it easier to make love under the full moon? Was he that kind of superstitious? Or was it the moon cult that did it and Bobo knew about it?

But Bobo’s eyes widened. He peeked at Audry as if to say— “Remember who is here.” Which made even less sense. She knew all about Rick’s summer affair with Daisy. Daisy had told her everything—which Rick, when he met her gaze, could see was the case.

He cringed. “You must think I am a total blackguard.”

Audry raised her eyebrows, impressed that knew and used that archaic word also. Hogan was a blackguard. Rick had only screwed up with only one girl who had seduced him, and who had continued to seduce him.

“I, uh, was worried Daisy was going to hurt you back then at that conference,” Rick said, setting his eyes more solidly on her. “But she told you stuff, right? You saw things.”

Leaning back, Audry shrugged. What had she seen but the effects of that balm on him?

“She gave you the balm, you said.” He watched her carefully. His eyes seemed to stare into her, so much that she looked away out of nerves.

Nodding, she said, “Yeah… she was, uh, talking about how she met you and how, um, you two had uh, this amazing time together and uh… ” her cheeks colored.

Rick’s face went completely red now. “I didn’t know girls did that sort of thing…”

Chuckling, Audry shook her head, taking the jar from Bobo. “Only the sluts.”

He closed his eyes, a smirk at her description of Daisy. But his cheeks were still red as he was too ashamed of himself to look at her. He did peek at the jar in her hand and said rather emphatically, “I’m really sorry. But can you just destroy that? I can’t explain all the reasons except that I shouldn’t even be near that balm, and you shouldn’t put it on ever—not ever. Not unless you intend to entice somebody into passionate sex. It is a potent aphrodisiac, which I daresay will violently draw in anyone who is attracted to you.”

Bobo reached for it, but Audry drew it back farther, tucking it away.

“What?” All of that information came too fast for her. The one thing she got was that he was attracted to her. Not that she hadn’t known, but he had unequivocally confirmed it. Of course it could just be because smells just affected him more. He had those allergies after all.

Rick closed his eyes, cringing and backing away to the tent door “I gotta go. Just—know what is in that jar is dangerous. Get rid of it. Stick with the tiger balm, would you?”

He left, almost running away.

Audry stared after him. She walked to the tent door, peering out. Sure enough, he was running up the beach to the parking lot. Damn. He was the gentleman. She had gotten it backwards again. But why did he have to be such a stinking carnivore? If it weren’t for that, he’d be perfect.

Bobo stared after him also, amazed. He murmured low, “He really does have a thing for you. I mean they’d said it, but…”

Audry glanced up to him, coloring. She could not find words, she was so stunned. Was he going to ship Breacon too now? Because she had had her fill. “Oh, please. No more.”

Bobo stared down at her for a full minute, not sure perhaps what she was saying—or more likely, wondering how he ought to answer.

Audry groaned, going back to her things to get something dry to wear.

“But hey,” Bobo said, reading her looks as she cross the tent to her bag. “I don’ think he’d ever make any moves on you. He’s not like that.”

Shaking her head slowly, Audry said, “I thought the same thing about Hogan until he tried to rape me.”

And that was the real difference between Rick and Hogan. Both men may have been gentlemen in public, but only one tried to hold back when the balm attacked his senses. Though, she considered, glancing at Bobo as the recent events went over in her head, she added, “Rick might have if you hadn’t been here.”

“Bull,” Bobo snorted, seeing now what she was doing, and moved to leave so she could have some privacy. “Rick was fightin’ it. Hogan didn’ even try until he got sprayed in the face.” Then he laughed. It seemed he enjoyed watching Hogan get sprayed.

“But,” he said to her before going out, “Don’ use that balm again. I could not smell it. But you ain’t my type. Those other guys, though, those who could smell it, they were a yearnin’. That’s why I had to sit outside the tent door.”

Audry stared, watching him as he left.