by Shadoe Masters
This is Story 8 of "The Great Burt Baiting Saga." These stories center on the characters from Tremors: The Series, and feature Burt, Tyler, and all the gang from Perfection Valley. There are also original characters of my own creation - just so you're warned ahead of time. But please don't let that scare you off. I hope you enjoy them.
While this story is a romance, the people involved are not the most cooperative people in the coupling department. The romantic elements take time to unfold.
Feedback: Please let me know what you think of each story. I love feedback, both good and bad, and the more detailed the better.
Disclaimer: "Tremors" is not owned by me or my affiliates, but by Stampede Entertainment, Universal Studios, and their affiliates. No copyright infringement is intended - just some good, clean (well, mostly) fun!
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Thanks to my beta readers: LadyNRA & the gang at work
Girls' Night Out - Perfection-Style
by Shadoe Masters
Perfection, Nevada, 8/11/2003
It was late when Burt and Tyler returned from Utah, where they'd gone to pick up Burt's new water filtration system. They'd stopped at Burt's place to unload, which added another hour to the day-long trip. Both men were tired and more than ready to see the last of Burt's truck. They were also very aware they had another long drive in store for them in the morning.
"We'll need to leave by 0430 hours," Burt decided after they'd spent the ride from Burt's compound discussing distances, weather, and road conditions. "That'll get you up to your family reunion by 0800 hours, and I'll be able to reach the match by..." His voice trailed off at the strange sight that met his eyes as the power wagon entered the darkened town of Perfection. "What the hell?"
A small bonfire burned midway between Chang's and the local water tower, and they heard music playing from the darkness as the power wagon pulled up in front of Chang's. The men got out of the truck and stood watching a moment, identically perplexed expressions on their faces.
"Got me, Burt," Tyler offered at last, pushing the blue 51's hat back on his head.
At the edge of the light from the fire, Nancy and Jodi reclined on a blanket spread on the ground, wearing bathing suits and sipping umbrella-covered drinks. Both wore sunglasses.
After exchanging a wary glance, the two men walked over to the blanket.
"What's going on, girls?" Tyler asked, a bemused smile on his face.
"We're having a beach party," Jodi supplied with the lazy grin of the slightly tipsy.
Tyler gave her an answering grin as he noticed she didn't look half bad in a bathing suit.
"'Beach party'?" Burt repeated, incredulous. He looked around, and sure enough, dancing just out of the light of the fire was Kylie, wearing nothing more than what looked like a series of yellow strings in the configuration of a bikini.
"Yes, a beach party," Nancy confirmed, with a smile to match Jodi's.
Burt dragged his attention away from Kylie, who was, slowly, in time with the music, approaching them. "May I point out," he said, with infinite patience, "that we are in the middle of the desert and there's no beach nearby?"
"Oh no, Burt, you're wrong," Jodi said earnestly. "It's right over there." She waved her free hand vaguely in the direction of the hills behind the store.
Burt and Tyler obligingly looked, then shared another bemused glance.
"They're nuts," Burt pronounced. He turned back to the pair on the blanket. "Do you know how dangerous this is? El Blanco could--"
Nancy interrupted him. "El Blanco is on the other side of the valley, Burt." She and Jodi held up their wrist seismos. Then Nancy pointed to the building. The seismo monitor unit had been propped in the window, facing out. "We thought of that."
Burt opened his mouth to reply but the music's volume went up as Kylie reached the CD player set up on a table near the store. "Less talk, more dancing!" she giggled and took Tyler's hand. Placing his hand on her waist and one of hers on his shoulder, she swung away with him.
Tyler didn't seem to mind. He pulled her a little closer and smiled as she fed him a sip of her drink.
Burt stood and fumed at the pair, trying not to notice the gentle rise and fall of Kylie's backside as her hips swayed from side to side. "May I remind you--" he started, turning back to the pair on the blanket.
"Oh, stop being a fuddy-duddy, Burt," Nancy interrupted, in a cajoling tone. "We're just trying to have a little fun. With the tour jeep down and the phone lines out, it's been pretty boring around here this week."
He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at the whole group.
Tyler and Kylie danced back into the light of the fire and Kylie spun away from Tyler toward Burt. She slid one hand up his arm to rest on his shoulder and smiled up at him. "Dance with me, Burt," she coaxed.
He felt his arms moving toward her before he knew what they were doing, and promptly slammed his hands down on his hips.
Kylie just shook her head with a smile at his stubbornness and handed her drink to Tyler so she could take his hands. She laced her fingers through his on his left, and settled his other hand on her waist. Still smiling up at him, she spun him in a slow, lazy circle, while singing along to the tune "Under the Boardwalk" coming from the boom box.
Burt could feel every shift of her body from the one hand resting on the velvety soft skin on her hip. It's warmth swayed and slid under his hand, bringing him to instant and complete arousal. She smelled like spring soaked in alcohol and Burt inhaled greedily. Even her fingers, cool and small entwined with his, conspired to force long suppressed sensations on him. He was sinking, and couldn't think of a way to save himself. Then he felt her breasts brush against him. Just a brief touch, but his skin burned and the shockwaves vibrated through him from head to toe. He felt his hand slip a little further around her waist and stopped himself. "You are drunk," he pronounced, his voice rough.
"Yes, I am," she said with an unrepentant smile and slightly glassy eyes. "Nancy made mai-tais."
His eyes slid downward from her smile and his body reminded him that he liked that view all too much. He brought his chin up to stare off into the darkness over her head. "You shouldn't drink," he mumbled. "You can't handle liquor."
"I can handle it fine," she said. "I just get drunk." She giggled again and pressed her body against his, sliding her arm around his back to cuddle into his embrace.
Burt groaned. He could feel every soft, supple curve of her pressed against him. She felt so good, so right, so--
He stumbled back away from her, then grabbed her shoulders when she would have fallen. "You need to go sleep it off!" he commanded, letting her go as soon as she steadied. He spun and stalked away, pausing only long enough to glare at Nancy as he walked by and tell her, "You should know better."
He got in his truck, started it, and backed out, but stopped. "Tyler, 0430 hours. Don't forget."
The younger man had already pulled off his shirt and was dancing with Jodi. He nodded and waved a hand vaguely in Burt's direction. "I'll be ready."
Kylie walked slowly toward the truck, her hips swaying and that bikini she wore, leaving little to the imagination. His mind told him he only needed to release the brake to leave. But he didn't.
"C'mon Burt," she said in a plaintive voice. "We need guys to dance with. You can--"
"I'll be in town at 0400," he said firmly, concentrating on a tuft of hair at the top of her head. "I have some last minute instructions for you, so you need to be awake."
She stopped, one hand on her hip, and sighed. "Burt Gummer, you have no sense of fun."
"No, I do not," he adamantly confirmed, forcing himself to drive away.
Watching her disappear in the rear view mirror, he nearly hit the gas pump as he drove away.
Burt checked his watch one more time and glared at the darkened house across the street from Chang's Market. "0422 hours," he muttered under his breath.
The light in Tyler's garage had flickered to life as Burt pulled up in front of the store at 0355, indicating he was, at least, awake. Thus far, Kylie hadn't appeared. He saw no lights from Nancy's and Kylie was, in all likelihood, still asleep. He heaved a sigh. He'd have to wake her up. Couldn't the woman be on time for something at least once?
He stomped across the street and climbed the stairs to Nancy's side porch. He knew Kylie's room was the one off the kitchen, so he'd try there first. He banged on the door and waited. Then banged again, louder, when there was no response. He sighed and shook his head. The four of them had probably spent the night drinking. He was surprised they weren't still at it when he arrived.
He tried the door. The knob twisted easily under his hand. Shaking his head, he muttered, "...simple security precautions..." under his breath.
He couldn't see much without a light, but he'd spent enough time in Nancy's kitchen to know where everything was. He passed the small table at the window to his left and looked into Kylie's darkened room on the right, just past the laundry room. Sure enough, there were no lights or signs of activity, and there was no light from under the bathroom door across the room. He pulled out his mag-lite and aimed the beam into the room just long enough to ascertain that she was on the bed. The image of her nude body sprawled facedown amid the rumpled sheets and pillows burned onto his retinas. At least she'd had a sheet thrown mostly over her backside.
"Kylie," he hissed. No response. He couldn't just go in and wake her, not dressed - or, rather, undressed - as she was. She didn't have a thing on. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. What if he stepped into the room and Nancy showed up? Kylie, of course, would see nothing wrong and probably would just traipse around the room like that. Still, he couldn't go in there. He called her name again, louder. She didn't stir. He sighed.
He was going to have to go in there.
Aiming the mag-lite toward his feet, he stepped into the room and walked toward the bed, careful to avoid the haphazard jumble of clothes, shoes, and other items strewn at random across the floor. Inevitably, he tripped over some unidentified object she'd left on the floor that the mag-lite's narrow beam had failed to reveal. Cursing under his breath, he caught himself, one hand on the edge of the bed, one on the dresser nearby. As he levered himself back to his feet and kicked a box out of his way, he told himself to just be thankful he hadn't landed on the bed.
"Kylie," he hissed again, with similar results. She slept like the dead.
By then his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and with the moonlight spilling in through the uncovered window, he could just make out where she was on the bed. He turned the mag-lite off and slipped it back in his pocket, then leaned over to shake her shoulder. First, though, he pulled a corner of the sheet over her from the jumbled pile wadded nearest him. Decency accomplished, he leaned toward her. He quickly realized, however, that he couldn't quite reach her without overbalancing. He debated shaking her leg instead but decided against that after allowing himself a slight, though guilty, grin. He rested one fist on the bed, for balance, and reached out to shake her shoulder. "Kylie," he whispered.
She murmured a soft protest but didn't wake, so he shook her a little more firmly, saying her name louder.
"Wha--" She got out, as, suddenly, she spun, taking the sheet with her and yanking it out from under Burt's hand. He overbalanced and slid, then collapsed. She screamed as Burt landed across her legs.
He was yelling almost before he landed. "Dammit Kylie! Would you just--" Almost levitating, he scrambled away from her, even as she clambered out from under him. He found himself kneeling next to the bed, staring at the outline of her nude body in the moonlight. "Dammit Kylie!" he repeated, throwing a sheet at her.
Light flooded the room suddenly and Burt spun, his hand going to his holster.
Nancy stood in the doorway in a thin nightgown holding a baseball bat at the ready, her eyes red and hair rumpled, and a shocked expression on her face. She stared, blinking, from Burt on the floor to Kylie, half-covered on the bed. "What is going on here?"
Burt shot to this feet with only a glare for both of them and gathered his tattered dignity around him. He soundlessly left the room. "I'll meet you at Chang's," he finally shouted when he reached the porch. "And put some clothes on!"
Nancy still stood, frozen and blinking, in the door to the bathroom, which connected their two rooms. "What are you two up to?"
Kylie shook her head, still trying to process what had happened. "I, uh, think I overslept."
Nancy just shook her head and went back to bed.