Free Beneath a Hot Tequila Sun by Catelyn Cash

cotton was barely decent, and the fact she had lost most of the buttons didn’t help. In desperation, she tied the ends in a knot under her chest. Her breasts were way too full to be contained like this, but it was the best she could do.
    “How much time do we have?” she asked, making sure her all-important sketch pad was in her bag before slinging it onto her shoulder and going outside.
    Jake was fully dressed and tying his bootlaces. He gave Kayla’s outfit an appreciative once-over. “Not enough for what I want to do to you right now.”
    Kayla’s blush deepened, and her smile widened. In fact, unused to so many compliments, she felt as if her whole body was smiling. Going to the top of the steps, she shaded her eyes with both hands, peering down toward the river. Thankfully, as far as she could see, everyone still seemed to be on the jetty.
    Jake jammed his hat on his head and came to stand beside her. “You should go down first and stall them for five minutes.”
    “On my own?” she asked, horrified at the thought of facing a bunch of strangers.
    Jake pointed at the front of his jeans, and she saw that, like Seth, he too had an erection. “If you think I can walk down those steps with this, you don’t know much about men. And it will never go while I can see your boobs bouncing around like kittens in a ball pool. Besides, Seth and I need to clean up this mess.”
    Kayla had no experience of morning-after etiquette, especially for the morning after a night like last night. She would have expected some awkwardness, but all she felt so far was appreciated.
    She followed Jake’s gaze, seeing the sleeping bags and empty beer bottles. It looked as if an orgy had taken place on the priceless monument. Which, of course, it had. She realized that while she might face embarrassment if anyone arrived now, Jake had a lot more to lose. His professional reputation for one.
    “Okay, I’ll go first. Will…will I see you on the bottom?” she asked, suddenly wondering if sending her down on her own was, in fact, a brush-off.
    “Sweetheart, we’d better.” Seth paused in the act of rolling up a sleeping bag and gave her a huge grin.
    As Kayla began the steep descent, she quickly became aware of stiffness throughout her body. Her thigh and calf muscles protested yesterday’s ascent, but she was also aware of a glorious tightness in muscles that until last night had seen very little use. Despite the ache, she too smiled, knowing that whatever happened now, the woman going down these steps was not the woman who had walked up them. Jake and Seth had seen to that.
    When she cleared the tree line, the group on the jetty turned as one to look at her and fell silent. Kayla fixed her smile in place and fought a cringe. Grubby, braless, knicker-less, with sunburned cheeks and a mad grin, she must look a sight. Self-consciously she swung her bag off her shoulder and clutched it in front of her chest like a shield.
    “Would you look at the state of that?” murmured a girl patting her own, sleek bob as if scruffiness might be contagious.
    One of the boys whistled softly. “I wouldn’t kick her out of bed.”
    The girl jabbed him with her elbow. “Seriously? Even if the prof and Seth weren’t gay, they’d never hit on that.”
    Gay? Jake and Seth? Kayla struggled not to laugh.
    “Hi,” she said, stepping onto the jetty. “Am I glad to see you. And the boat.”
    “Where’s the professor?” someone asked.
    Having trouble with his erection . “Messing around with the generator, I think,” Kayla said vaguely.
    “It must have been a terrible ordeal for you,” said the boy who wouldn’t kick her out of bed. “Especially in the dark.”
    “We managed,” said Kayla, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
    A tourist boat drew alongside the jetty. As the boatman jumped nimbly onto the bank, something in the water caught his attention. Following his gaze, Kayla saw her hot-pink thong eddying against the riverbank.
    “Does anyone mind