Love, Lust 'n Geology (1ST DRAFT)

Chapter 60: (A)rousing rocks

This chapter is dedicated to bibliophile_96 for her encouragement & support via her PM's & votes, & for sticking with the story :-)!

Thank u so much, Siddhika-I really appreciate it :-)!

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Chapter 60: (A)rousing rocks

One of the two lakes was quite large, the other relatively small. If Chris had been her assistant and not Tom, Samina would have opted to dive into the larger one first-figuratively, of course, just figuratively. It seemed wiser, however, to have Tom get his feet wet-again, not literally, unless, of course, it was the end of the day in which case he was welcome to-by starting off with the smaller lake. It was in a logging area that she and Chris had been scrambling to finish up before he left. (She'd obviously matured this summer as she no longer viewed Chris's departure as abandonment.) Only one outcrop was left-a huge one. She and Chris had just gotten started on it. The plan was for her and Tom to finish it before moving onto the lakes.

They had just turned onto the highway from the motel when Samina felt something land on her thigh. It was a gentle sort of landing, the kind that a skilled pilot might execute. Her gaze flitted down to find Tom's hand there-his right. His left sensibly stayed on the steering wheel. She noted as she had many times before, how large Tom's hands were and how nicely shaped his fingers-long and tapered. They also had a feature that hardly needed mentioning where Tom was concerned: a sprinkling of hair below the knuckles-the perfect amount: not too much, not too little. Still, the main attraction of the hand was that it was attached to Tom. But as Samina continued to eye it, it seemed to her to be behaving in a disembodied sort of way.

Tom's eyes were on the road. The hand, however, was slowly rubbing her thigh and giving it a squeeze now and then. Not only was it ridiculously warm-her thigh was starting to sweat under it-a kind of tingling sensation suggested that it was also carrying an electrical charge-no, really. The charge wasn't static (no pun intended). Instead, it varied, dipping when the hand was still and building when it moved-particularly in a direction up Samina's leg. The spot to which the resulting current was zinging, however, stayed put: a nearby, rather sensitive part of Samina's body. Had there been a light bulb between Samina's legs, it would have been flickering right now, with periods of intense illumination. As it was, the area was buzzing and throbbing.

Samina had been trying to mentally plan the next few days of fieldwork, but the hand was making it impossible for her to think-at least, about her work. She gazed helplessly at it, at Tom, out the window and back again. Sliding down her seat, she closed her eyes, a pained grimace on her face. Tom's hand was so close now. She imagined him extending his pinkie and touching her ... there. When she finally came to, on the back of a deep and lengthy sigh, she found Tom looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"You feeling awright, baby?"

She nodded vigorously, sat up, hastily reached between her legs into her backpack, and pulled out a map-any map. Quickly spreading it on her lap, she pretended to pore over it. Tom gently withdrew his hand from under the map. She bit down on her lower lip, resisting the urge to toss the map out the window, grab Tom's hand with both hers and plant it in a particular location. And, umm, ask him to pull over by the side of the highway?

The moment they drove into the logging area, Tom's brows rose. "Wow."

"Yeah, wow!" she echoed, looking over at him and beaming. His look-dismayed-immediately set her straight: his wow hadn't been a wow at all, more of an Oh, my God!