“And I’m talking all the stories. He showed me pictures too. We dug deep. There was bathtub stuff.” She’d never seen a man so horrified in her life. Dissolving into helpless giggles, River took mercy on him. “Okay, it wasn’t bathtub stuff, but now that I know bathtub stuff exists, don’t think I won’t get my hands on it. He just showed me lots of climbing pictures. I didn’t know he went to Everest.”

“Yeah, in ’88. It wasn’t a good year for it. Not many people from his expedition summited.”

“Great pictures though. Hey, Easton? Has anyone ever successfully made you go full unibrow?”

Bree and Jessie made their escape while River took one for the team, letting him focus his annoyance down at her. Although, in hindsight, he didn’t seem all that annoyed. Instead, all six and a half glorious feet of him shifted closer until he was standing as near to her as he had the night at the torture barn.

And okay, so maybe she deserved some teasing in return, but did he have to do so with his broad chest mere inches from her nose?

“Has anyone ever told you that you can be a very aggravating woman?” Easton rumbled sexily.

“It’s been brought up a few times.”

“And half the things that come out of your mouth make absolutely no sense?”

River beamed up at him. “I mean, they make sense to me, but I can understand the confusion.”

Tugging at the collar of her shirt, River wondered why the temperature had suddenly gotten so stuffy. Was anyone else light-headed?

“You’re gorgeous,” he told her, that low rumble deepening even further.

“I’m sorry?”

“If we’re doing this, don’t think I won’t go on the offensive. When you brought up the bathtub pictures, you dropped the gauntlet.”

River arched an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

“Meaning this is going to be a really, really interesting climb up the Old Man.”

“I’m not climbing any men. So you can…and the chest…with the thoughts…” Stepping away from him, River looked up at Easton in horror. “How do you do that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Oh, he so completely knew what she meant. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be watching her like this, like she was an ice cream cone and he was…

“I’m not finishing my thought,” River told him. “It’s a bad thought. You’re technically an employee. This is bad. And…”

“Complicated?” he murmured, lips near her ear.

Oh, screw it. No one was looking, and he was right there. Half an inch at most between his body and hers, and they had a long trip ahead of them where no showering would be had. She wasn’t going to smell any better than she did right then.