by Lucy Monroe
The mare did seem to know the trails because she followed the stallion and his rider without a single misstep.
Thank goodness. Deborah wasn't keen on the idea of falling off such a tall horse.
The forest was beautiful, but Rock was headed somewhere special and the horses seemed to know it. They'd ridden about an hour, slowing to a walk when the trees and brush thickened, the ground grew rocky and the sound of rushing water could be heard. A few minutes later, they broke into a clearing of sorts, a waterfall-fed pool in the center surrounded by rocky outcroppings, the Alaskan sun dappling between the leaves of the surrounding trees and covering the open spaces in beautiful, bright light.
"It's gorgeous," she said with awe. A reaction that was becoming almost familiar in her weeks here in Cailkirn. "If Carey had shown them this place, we'd have filming scheduled here."
"It's a hike in. The ride takes about an hour, walking longer."
"I'm pretty sure Art would think it was worth it."
"It's not my land."
"Who owns it?"
"The State of Alaska."
Even better. She had a feeling the state would be easier to deal with than Rock. "I can totally picture the big failed love scene set here."
Rock swung down off the big stallion, patting its midnight black flank before the horse ambled over to the pool and bent down to drink.
Her stallion came over to help her down off of Amanda's back. Rock put his arms up and she let herself slide into them.
He held her to him as the big, grey Percheron mare moved away to join Orion at the water. "Do you ever take it off?"
"What?"
"Your acting cap?"
"Do you?"
"What?"
"Ever stop being Mr. Responsible, Scary Venture Capitalist."
"I'm not scary."
"Tell that to Art's assistants. They offer bribes to each other to get out of taking messages to you."
Rock rolled his eyes. "I haven't bitten anyone yet."
"Good thing, seeing as how you're not a vampire."
"Does he have to hire them so young?"
"At the salary he's paying? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. Besides, only Dino could be considered young. The second assistant is at least ten years older than me."
"Some boy carrying cable asked me if I was excited about being an extra."
She couldn't stifle her laughter. She pitied the hapless crew member who asked something so dumb, but man, Rock's look of disgusted chagrin was funny.
"Most people would love to be an extra in a movie."
"I noticed. The number of casual visitors I've had in the last two weeks is more than the past five years combined."
She had no trouble believing that. The man liked his privacy.
"Even Sloan wants a bit part," Rock said with disgust.
"The mayor?"
"Yes. He said it will be good for his image."
"Does he need help with his image?"
"The man likes attention. He is a politician."
"And your friend."
Rock's lips twisted. "Yes."
"Don't sound so happy about it."
"He made me introduce him to Art."
"I bet Art was thrilled." Getting the mayor's support would mean a lot to the director.
"You know your boss."
"I do."
"Not as well as you know me." Rock's tone dropped an octave to that husky timbre that sent shivers through her.
"I should hope not."
He leaned down and kissed her, the pleasure of their lips coming together blowing through her like a storm wind and leaving just as much devastation in its wake.
She stepped back from him. "Don't tell me you brought me here to go skinny dipping. That's so cliché."
They hadn't brought swim suits though.
His laughter filled the air around them. "The tributary that ends in that waterfall is off a glacier-fed river. It would take a braver man than I to go swimming in that water."
"But it's so beautiful here."
"Be my guest." He waved toward the water.
"You don't think I will?"
"It wasn't a dare, Deborah."
"Wasn't it?" Surely it wasn't that cold. The summer sun was high in the sky, the temperatures not exactly those of Sothern California, but definitely warm enough for swimming weather.
Before she could think better of it, Deborah stripped her clothes. "Is it deep enough to jump into?"
"Yes." He measured her with his sherry gaze. "You sure you want to go swimming. There's other things we can do now that you're naked."
She wasn't having him call her a flat-footer or city slicker. His home was filled with luxury, but he looked at the film cast and crew like they were a different species. Even her sometimes.
He wasn't going to look at her like a coward.
She turned and took a running leap into the beautiful pool.
The cold hit her with the power of a fist, surrounding and covering every inch of her body with ice prickling intensity. She was so shocked, she just sank at first.
Unexpected terror burst inside her, her body's reaction to cold so intense it hurt.
She kicked for the surface, her movements feeling sluggish and awkward, the freezing water sucking the coordination from her muscles.
She broke the surface and sucked in air before giving vent to her shock with a long, dedicated scream.
The sound of his laughter was nearly as loud, the big man clearly breathless with mirth.
She glared over at him. "It's not funny."
Her body gave a jolting shiver, her teeth clacking together in the cold.
"I warned you."
He had, which made it worse. "So, you never swim here?" she demanded, her stuttering from the cold detracting from the effect of the annoyance in her voice.
"Not in years and usually not until later in the summer."
"You're a peach."
"Come on out of there and I'll warm you up."
"I would if I could. My legs and arms don't want to move."
His expression turned serious in the blink of an eye. "Stop playing and get out of the water. You could end up with hypothermia if you're not careful."
"Maybe you should have thought of that before letting me jump into glacier runoff." A terrible idea formed in her mind.
He was standing on the edge of the water now. "I'm serious, beauty. Get your pretty ass out of that water."
She moved like she was trying but couldn't quite coordinate her movements. Which actually wasn't a huge stretch. "I'm trying."
He stripped so fast, his movements were almost a blur. Her conscience told her to warn him off, but the devil inside her wanted him to jump into the icy water like she had.
Even if she would have given into her better instincts, he didn't give her the chance, diving straight into the water.
Big hands curled around her waist even as he rose out of the water, bringing her up with him, so her breasts broke the surface. The grunt he gave in acknowledgement of the cold of the water was nothing like her scream.
She'd been prepared to laugh, but she couldn't. Not when he was looking at her like saving her from her own folly was all that mattered.
Her legs wrapped around his torso of their own volition, but she very consciously leaned forward and pressed her chilled body against his heat.
His eyes narrowed. "You said you couldn't move."
"I was teasing."
"You've got a mean streak."
"Maybe."
"This water is damn cold."
"You're not."
He didn't say anything as he maneuvered them to a big flat rock slab beside the water. Rock set her on the smooth surface warmed by the sun. The difference in temperature from the water made her gasp and she made to scramble to her feet, but he pressed her onto her back so her body was warmed from heel to shoulder by the warm stone.
"Stay there. I wasn't joking about the hypothermia."
"I'm s
orry. I shouldn't have teased you into coming after me." Though honestly, she never expected him to act so fast.
"On purpose or because you couldn't help it, every second in that water was lowering your body temperature."
"You're a very protective guy." It ran through his veins as sure as red blood cells.
He shrugged, his big body moving over hers in intriguing ways. "Someone had to be in my family."
"Tell me about it."
"Now?" he asked, giving a significant look to their naked bodies pressed together.
"Did you have something else in mind?"
He did. And it started with him licking every droplet of icy water from her rapidly heating body.
They were laying together afterward, her head on his chest, his heartbeat a steady rhythm in her ear, when he said, "I'm not sure why my parents decided to have the twins."
Deborah made an encouraging sound, but didn't speak, not wanting to break to spell of Rock opening up to her.
"Carey and Marilyn weren't accidents. Not like me."
She patted his hard stomach and couldn't help the small, quiet denial. "You weren't a mistake." He was planned by somebody. Anyone this amazing wasn't anyone's definition of a mistake.
"I think they had fantasies of being that Hollywood legacy family. Everything in their life was fantasy."
"But children need reality."
"They need real food, real clothes, real care."
He painted a bleak picture. "Your parents didn't offer those things?"
"When they remembered." His body went tense beneath hers. "They forgot a lot."
She couldn't hold back the wounded sound straight from her heart.
He tugged her closer, running his hand over her back. "It wasn't so bad when it was just me. I learned to fend for myself early. But when the twins came..."
She waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "You really did take care of them from birth."
"I was ten years old. Learning to change a diaper was hell. There was a part-time nanny at first. She fit Georgia's view of the fantasy, but when it came a choice between buying a designer dress for a red carpet event and keeping the nanny, they let her go."
"How old were the twins?"
"Six months maybe? Georgia was very proud of her newly slim figure."
"When did you all move to Alaska?"
"They bought Jepsom Acres as a retreat when the twins were five."
"Another fantasy they wanted to live out," she guessed.
"Exactly. They hired Mrs. Painter, Miss Bearcliff back then, the first time they flew down to LA without us."
"She stayed with you."
"Even when they forgot to pay her. Yes. She helped me with the twins, getting them into school, making sure they had food to eat, clothes to wear."
"Lydia is an amazing woman." And no wonder Carey was possessive of her like a mother.
"She is."
Deborah shifted so she could look into Rock's eyes. She wanted him to listen to her words and believe what she was about to say. "But you were an amazing kid and even more incredible man."
"I made mistakes."
"You were a child with the responsibilities of an adult."
"Georgia and Errol meant to sell Jepsom Acres when they got back from that last trip." Rock grimaced. "It didn't matter to them that Carey and Marilyn had made friends, that they had a life here. I'd already offered to keep them here with me."
"They refused?"
"They had a new fantasy."
"But then their plane crashed." She could imagine the conflicting emotions Rock must have gone through when that happened.
"My first reaction when the news came was relief. The kids weren't going to get uprooted again." The guilt in his tone tore at her heart.
"You grieved them though. I know you did." She leaned down and placed a kiss right over that strong heart he did such a good job of hiding from everyone but his family.
"Yes. I even missed them, but in that first moment of knowledge I felt relief."
"And you've never forgiven yourself."
"What is there to forgive? They never cared how their choices impacted their children. They never made a single decision with the twins' welfare in mind."
"Or yours."
He made a dismissive sound. "I was used to that."
"But you didn't get over it."
"I'm not a broken child."
"No, you are a very strong, highly intelligent man with a work ethic that rivals my own."
His chuckle was warm. She was glad he hadn't taken her words wrong.
Hopefully he wouldn't take these the wrong way either. She reached up and traced the line of his brow and down his cheek. "Your parents weren't neglectful because of their chosen profession."
"It didn't help."
"No." Most careers in the arts were consuming.
He trapped her hand against his face with his own. "But the choices were still theirs." It was a concession.
But she really needed him to understand. "And not the ones we all make."
She hadn't thrown her family away; they'd exiled her. And she'd tried so many times to make peace with her parents. They weren't interested in a daughter who wouldn't follow their plan for her life. They considered her a defect and had thrown her away like anything else that didn't work properly.
"How often do you see your family?" Rock asked, in tune with her thoughts in a way she did not question.
He might see their connection as purely sexual, but she hadn't since their first night together and she was fully aware that was her problem. Not his.
Her choices being evasions, lies or honesty, Deborah put the truth out there, raw and painful. "I haven't seen my parents since I was eighteen."
"Why?" he asked, judgment surprisingly lacking from his tone, his sherry gaze compelling more honesty from her, no matter how painful.
"They cut me out of their lives when I accepted a scholarship to a school for the performing arts instead of going to university and then law school like they expected."
"That seems pretty harsh."
"I thought so." What kind parents rejected their child because she didn't follow their plans for her life? Her parents. "My mother is a judge and my father is a surgeon on the board of his hospital."
"Med school wasn't an option?" Rock asked, his tone curious.
"They decided my aptitude for science wasn't strong enough in primary school."
Rock's body went rigid with tension, his expression tinged with disbelief. "And started grooming you for law school then?"
"Yes."
"But you rebelled."
"If you call excelling at something they didn't approve of well enough to land a decent scholarship rebellion, then yes."
"I bet they did."
He was right. Her mother had been livid, her father disappointed. "Yes, along with a lot of other less than complimentary things."
"They've never softened?" Rock rubbed her back, like he was comforting her for the decade old pain, for once nothing sexual in his touch.
"I invited them to my graduation."
"They didn't come?" He sounded like he couldn't imagine it.
He probably couldn't. As much as her industry had cost his family, he would never have made the same choice with his brother or sister, Deborah was positive of it.
"Not to that and not to a single thing I invited them to after." Not to a single movie premier. Not to a single industry award night.
Of course, she'd never been the star, or won something big and her mother had pointed that out when she'd told Deborah to stop pretending her little accomplishments meant something.
"Do you have siblings?" Rock asked.
"A younger sister." Deborah laid her head against his chest again, cuddling in for comfort she never allowed herself in a life where she was well and truly on her own. "We have a secret relationship my parents don't know about."
"That's bullshit."
"She doesn't want to lose them too. She
has two children. They don't even know who I am. They think I'm an old friend she sees once or twice a year when Grandmother and Grandfather are conveniently out of town."
"Your parents have serious control issues."
"Oh, yes." But they hadn't been able to control her.
He tipped her head up with hand under her chin, his own expression suffused with approval. "You fought to make your own way."
"Sometimes, I wonder if I didn't take the path I did in order to break away from them."
"Their rejection hurt you." He tugged until Deborah was fully on top of him, his big arms locked around her.
She nodded, acknowledging a pain she never shared with anyone else. But with his past, Rock would understand. "I knew they'd be mad, I didn't think they'd dump me like a car that turned out to be a lemon."
"And your sister toes the line, even now she's an adult." Disgust laced Rock's tone. "Did she become the lawyer?"
He wouldn't understand her sister's behavior. He'd spent his life taking care of his siblings and sacrificing for them. Rock couldn't conceive of not having Carey or Marilyn's back, even when it came to something he didn't agree with or understand.
"She's a doctor."
"Who lacks both a backbone and compassion. I pity her patients."
"Maybe she agrees with my parents."
Rock shook his head, like that was just crazy, but when he spoke it wasn't about Deborah's family. "Speaking of sisters, Marilyn is coming in next week."
Relieved they were off the topic of her painful past, Deborah smiled. "I thought she was going to stay on campus and work on her master's thesis during the summer break." Carey had mentioned it the week before.
"Marilyn wants to see a film in production. She's really excited about the whole making a movie in our home thing."
Unlike her big brother, who barely tolerated it.
"I look forward to meeting her," Deborah said with genuine anticipation.
"She'll love you."
For some reason, Deborah really hoped that was true. Fitting in with Rock's family was more important than it should be for what could only be a short-term relationship. But it was a relationship, no matter how short-term. Regardless that Rock classified it as just sex, there was nothing just about how he and Deborah interacted.
It had only been two weeks, but every day she spent in this man's world and in his bed, the less she wanted to leave it. She might have no more choice over that than she'd had over leaving her family, but she was determined to squeeze every drop of experience out of their time together she would get.
