The Cruel and Beautiful Series Boxset

by A. M. Hargrove

  I run to it, hoping I can straighten things out. When I open it, I realize my mistake.

  A wide-eyed Jenna points a finger down the hall. “That guy looks a lot like—”

  Her words trail off when she turns and gets a good look at my face.

  “Honey, what’s wrong?” That’s when my floodgates open. “Was that—?”

  I shake my head. “I can’t. I can’t talk about it right now.”

  She walks inside, drops her suitcase, and I’m immediately engulfed in a fierce hug.

  “We don’t have to talk about it tonight. But we will talk about it before I go,” she declares. “Tonight, wine and ice cream. Plus—” She steps back and from her massive purse she pulls out a DVD. “I bought this.”

  Proudly, she holds up a copy of the latest installment of the Magic Mike series. It could have been sixteenth or seventeenth, for all I know.

  “We can watch this on mute.”

  “On mute,” I sputter, wiping at tears.

  “What they’re saying is not important.” She laughs. “Let’s just get drunk. Tomorrow, you get laid.”

  So despite everything, she isn’t giving up her pursuit of happiness for Louise.

  Ten

  Past

  “Cate, I have a surprise planned for you this weekend. Are you game?” The excitement in Drew’s voice is contagious.

  Laughing, I say, “As long as it’s legal, yeah.”

  “Oh, it’s legal, sweetheart. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous. Highs in the high seventies and lows in the mid-fifties. It will be perfect for what I have in mind. I’ll come up tomorrow night and we’ll leave on Saturday morning. You’re not squeamish are you?”

  Squeamish? What does he mean?

  “You mean like seeing blood and stuff? You’re not going to make me look at icky medical stuff, are you?”

  I have to hold the phone away from my ear because his laugh is ear-splitting. “No medical stuff. This is all fun.”

  That’s a relief. “Okay, then no, I’m not squeamish.”

  “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow. Can’t wait.”

  It leaves me puzzled over what he has in store.

  The next night, Drew pulls up, his car packed with all sorts of things. I peek in the back asking, “Whatcha got in there?”

  “Stuff for our little trip tomorrow.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll find out.” We walk inside arm and arm. Jenna is on the couch so we’re stuck chatting with her. We end up ordering pizza and eating dinner together. Finally … finally we head to bed.

  “I didn’t think I’d ever get you to myself,” I say, as I pretty much attack him when my bedroom door closes. His arms wrap around me and he’s a willing partner.

  “I’ve missed you, Cate. You are a sight for my greedy eyes. But we need some sleep because we’re getting up to catch the sunrise in the morning.”

  “Huh?”

  “The sunrise. Tomorrow is a nature day for us.”

  Nature day? What the hell does that mean? I had plans to wallow in the bed with my sexy boyfriend and he wants to what—watch the birds and bees in the sunrise. What the hell?

  “Don’t look like that. You’re going to love it. Just wait. Lift your arms.” When I do, he strips me of my shirt. Then he helps me remove my jeans. When I’m down to my unders, he tells me to get in the bathroom and brush my teeth. As I’m brushing, I keep trying to guess where he’s taking me. I come up with one huge blank.

  When I come out of the bathroom, I fully intend to interrogate him, but he stands here, shirtless in his boxers and wearing the cutest smile. All my questions evaporate.

  “My turn.” He disappears and I ogle him as he goes. I climb into bed and wait. When the door reopens, he’s smacking his lips and he reminds me of a cute little kid.

  When he slides under the covers, my eager hands reach for him but he grabs them and kisses them.

  “Cate, honey, you know if we start we’ll never wake up before dawn.”

  “What in the world is so blooming important that we have to get up so early?”

  “I can’t tell you.” He stills my roaming hands. “Showing you will be so much better.”

  Damn, this better be worth putting off sex for the night.

  “Okay. Then kiss me goodnight, oh secretive one.”

  “You’ll love it, I promise,” he says as he presses his lips to mine.

  “I won’t love it nearly as much as I love having you inside of me.”

  “Damn, woman, you drive a hard bargain.”

  “Um, I think you have that backward. You’re the one driving the hard bargain.”

  He pinches my butt and says, “Smart ass.”

  Curling up along side of him, I lay my head on his chest and the next thing I know, he’s shaking me awake.

  “Cate, come on. Get up and shower.”

  “Huh?”

  “Up. Shower. It’s time.”

  “What the hell time is it?”

  “Five.”

  “Shit.”

  He drags me out of bed behind him, and we hit the shower. While I’m drying my hair, he tells me he’s going to pack for me since he refuses to tell me where we’re going. I find that unusual, but he’s seen me pull clothes out before so he knows where I keep everything. Since it’s only one night, I don’t worry too much. In record time, we’re out the door.

  We drive to a local diner and grab breakfast to go—bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee. Then we hit the road. It’s still dark out and I pester Drew about our final destination.

  “You’ll see. You don’t have much longer to wait.”

  About twenty minutes later, we pull into a state park and drive through the entrance.

  “A state park?”

  “Yep.” It’s all he says.

  He drives a bit before he parks the car. “Come on,” he says, extending his hand. I follow him along a trail that leads to a wooden bridge. The bridge crosses a narrow river and on either side there are steep rock formations. It’s quite beautiful even in the pre-dawn gray light. I’m sure when the day is bright, it’s spectacular.

  “Have a seat, my lady.” Drew indicates a place on the side of the bridge so I sink down and sit. He does the same. “Now watch over there.” He points over the rocks and we wait. About fifteen minutes later, the sun inches up over the horizon and its rays cast the rocks in an orange-red glow. At first, it’s not noticeable, but when the sun gets to a certain point, it makes the rocks look like they’re glowing. It happens so fast and lasts for only a minute or two, if we weren’t here at precisely the right moment, we would never have seen it.

  “Oh my god! How did you know?”

  “By sheer accident. I literally stumbled upon it camping one day. It’s really something, isn’t it?”

  “It’s phenomenal. I’ve never seen anything like it! Thank you for showing this to me.” I scoot my butt around to face him and notice he’s not watching the sunrise at all. He’s staring right at me. My body heats and my stomach flutters as that familiar sensation begins to grow within me. But then his words cause my heart to trip all over itself.

  “Cate, it’s nothing compared to you.” His hand reaches for mine as he leans in to kiss me. Before my brain goes to mush, all I can think is Drew McKnight is all kinds of amazing.

  We stay wrapped up in each other until the sun is high and the day is brighter. When he helps me to my feet, I can’t help but observe his impish grin. “So what do you have up your sleeve now, mister?”

  He winks. “You’ll see.”

  We walk back to the car and after a few minutes of driving we pull into the ranger’s station. “Stay right here. I’ll be back in a second.” He hops out and jogs inside. A couple minutes later, he gets back in the car. We drive around and soon we pull into a parking place that’s marked as number twelve. It has a gravel square, picnic table, campfire ring, and now I figure it out.

  “So, hot shot, I take it we’re camping?”

>   “Yep,” he says eagerly as he pulls the car to a stop. When he turns to me he still wears his boyish look. “How do you feel about it?”

  “Hmm. You know, I went to camp as a kid and loved it, but I’ve never tent camped. So I’m game. But I have a question. Is this one of those tests?”

  Confusion furrows his brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’ve known guys who’ve tested girls before by taking them places or doing things they loved and if the girl didn’t love it then that was it.”

  “So, you’re asking me that if you don’t love camping, am I going to end it with you?”

  “Pretty much,” I say, with a slight frown.

  “Cate Forbes, do you really think that little of me?” He looks crushed. “Because if you do, I’ve done a terrible job of showing you how I feel about you.”

  I suck in my breath at his words. I can’t let him feel like this so I blurt out, “No! It’s just my inexperience, I suppose.” Now I feel shitty for asking him that.

  “Hear me now. If you hate camping, we will never do this again. That’s not to say I won’t, but you won’t have to endure one more night of it. Understand?”

  “Perfectly. And thank you. So you really love this, huh?”

  His smile returns as he says, “Oh, yeah. Just wait.” He starts pulling out all this gear from the back of his 4Runner and who knew? There is so much you need when you camp. After a while, I stop asking him what things are because I don’t want to be a pest.

  The day has warmed up significantly, and Drew has shed his sweatshirt, so now he wears a short-sleeved t-shirt. He’s putting up the tent and I stare at the muscles in his arms as he works. I’ve never really focused on them before because I was always lured in by his abs and pecs, but damn, those arms are amazing, too. They ripple as he grabs this and that and I find myself licking my lips over and over. But what I really love is when he has to raise his arms and his shirt exposes that sexy strip of flesh. It gives me all sorts of ideas and makes me want to fall to my knees and take a nibble here and there. I think I’m going to love camping.

  “Hey Cate, can you hand me that hammer over there?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  I find said hammer and then stand behind him as he pounds in the stakes. Only I don’t watch him do that, because now I’m riveted on his ass. He’s wearing my favorite jeans. They mold to his cheeks perfectly and I want to drop to my knees and bite him.

  “Cate? Cate? Cate where are you? Helllllooooo?”

  “Oh, sorry. What do you need?”

  “I need help with the fly.”

  “Really? You need help with your fly?” Excitement surges through me.

  He rolls his eyes, something he never does. “No Cate, not my fly. The fly. It covers the tent to protect us if it rains.”

  “Oh,” I answer in a small voice, feeling disappointed and slightly stupid.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I kinda got excited about helping you with your fly,” I answer.

  As a smile forms on his face, his eyes dance with wickedness. He drops whatever he’s holding, takes one giant step to reach me, and suddenly I’m enveloped in his arms before he kisses me. And it’s some kind of kiss. Rough, demanding, and completely unlike gentle Drew. He manages to unzip the tent without letting me go. We crouch down, and crawl inside.

  “Now you can help me with my fly all you want.”

  My hands fumble with his zipper as I go to work on his jeans and I feel his hands doing the same on mine. A question pops into my head.

  “Is anyone around us?”

  “I don’t know, nor do I care.”

  “Can they see through this tent?”

  “No, but they can hear.”

  Good to know. I finally get his pants pulled down enough for his cock to make an appearance, and all I want to do is lick it. So I do. He tastes so good and feels like velvet on my tongue.

  “Cate. That’s so fucking good.” He strokes my hair in sync with my mouth. The faster I move, the faster his hand moves. Then he stops my movement. “I want inside of you.”

  I rise up and he roughly tugs off my jeans, freeing my legs. He grabs a condom out of his pocket and puts it on. “Ride me, Cate. I love to see you on me.” I love to ride him as well, so I oblige us both. I sink down onto pleasure I’ve only known with Drew. There isn’t anything sweet about what we do. It’s hard and relentless as we lose control with one another. When our mouths slam together in a searing kiss, our hands join, and the brief slowness turns quick and rough as we soar to our peaks. His kiss swallows my groans and we both climax, Drew right after me.

  “Jesus, what the hell was that?” I ask, when I can form a coherent sentence again. I’m still on his lap as we stare at each other.

  “Damn awesome, that’s what.” He runs his nose along my neck and plants a dozen kisses there. “Every time with you is …” He slowly shakes his head as if to form words. “You never disappoint, Cate.”

  I can’t stop the wide grin. It feels empowering that I can move a man the way it seems I’ve moved him. “Can I just say that so far, camping is pretty cool?”

  His body rumbles with laughter. “I’ll have to remember that line about the fly. That was priceless.”

  My grin turns into a megawatt smile. “Okay. The truth is I’d been checking out your ass. I can’t help that you have such a fine ass.”

  “My ass? You’re joking?”

  I shake my head. “Why would I joke about your ass?”

  “My ass, huh?” He shrugs.

  “It’s a damn fine ass.”

  He bellows a laugh. “I guess we should finish setting up camp.”

  “Probably.” I don’t object, because he’s doing most of the work and I love watching him.

  The day is filled with hiking to a gorgeous waterfall. By the time we make it back to camp, it’s time to get dinner going.

  That night he cooks salmon in a cast iron skillet that he puts on the grate the camp provides, over the wood fire. He tosses a couple of potatoes wrapped in foil into the fire beforehand, and has premade a salad.

  “I can’t believe this. It’s restaurant worthy. I figured we’d be eating hotdogs or burgers on the high end. But this salmon … it has that smoky flavor from the fire.”

  “Yeah, it came out pretty good.”

  “So you’ve been camping your whole life?”

  “Uh, Eagle Scout here.” He gives me the salute.

  “Eagle Scout? I’m impressed. You never cease to amaze me. But they didn’t teach you how to cook salmon in Eagle Scouts.”

  He’s laughing now. “No, this is my own invention. Every summer a group of us go camping and fishing and we try to out do each other in the cooking arena. This is actually a test dish for me. I’ve never done it before but I figured it had to be good.”

  He starts putting the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate out for the s’mores. My mouth waters. “You ready?”

  Licking my lips, I say, “Yeah.”

  He hands me a stick and a marshmallow. I load it up and start the roasting.

  The fire crackles and our marshmallows are finished. We assemble our dessert and I take a bite. Marshmallow gushes out and smears all over my chin. Drew looks at me and shakes his head.

  “These things tastes so good, but they are a mess.” Then he leans over and licks the gooey stuff off my chin. “Mmm, I think you taste better than the marshmallow.”

  When he pulls back after not kissing me, his eyes crinkle at my confusion and longing. Then I realize he’s teasing me and we laugh.

  “How come you didn’t get any on your chin?” I ask.

  He shoots me sly look and waggles his eyebrows. “Cate, I’m an Eagle Scout, remember?”

  I almost spit out my mouthful of s’mores. Then he stands, stokes the fire, and puts another log on it. I love to watch him take care of this stuff. It’s so … manly. And sexy.

  “Um, Drew?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I have t
o pee.”

  “Okay. You have a couple of options. The camp has restrooms. They are a fair walk from here, or you can pee in the woods.”

  “Pee in the woods? Aren’t there critters in there?”

  “Yeah, they have to have a home, Cate.”

  “So, like pee in the woods. What if I’m peeing in the woods, and a snake jumps up and bites Louise?”

  He clamps his lips together and it’s so obvious he’s trying his best not to laugh. I let him know. “Don’t you laugh at me, Drew McKnight. I’m scared to pee in the woods and I hate snakes. Louise does too.”

  “Louise loves my snake, Cate.”

  I punch him in the arm. “That’s not fair. This is real. I have to pee and I’m afraid.”

  “Right. I’ll go with you and ward off any wayward snakes that might be thinking of jumping up and biting Louise. How’s that?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “What about other varmints, like rats and ’possum?”

  He slowly inhales and clamps his lips again. Then he stands, holds out his hand, rifles through a bag, and pulls out a roll of toilet paper. He turns on a flashlight and leads the way into the woods.

  When he finds the perfect spot, he says, “Here.” And turns his back while I squat to pee. But in my haste, I do something really stupid. I yank my jeans down and leave on my unders, so I pee my pants. “OH NO!”

  “What?” he spins to face me.

  “I just peed my pants!”

  “How’d you do that?”

  I explain and he drops the flashlight as he doubles over laughing. Now we have to hunt the flashlight and I’m stumbling around trying to get my jeans off without getting my pee on them.

  “So you peed on your ‘unders’? I’m not sure what’s funnier. You peeing on yourself or the fact that you call them unders.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s what my mom calls them so I just sort of inherited the term.”

  “I see. So, unders then.”

  “Yeah. Shit! Did you find the flashlight?”

  Laughing, he says, “Yeah.”

  I get straightened out and decide to walk back to the tent bare-assed so I can clean myself up appropriately. Drew laughs all the way back and I can’t blame him.