I wasn’t prepared for a shirtless Declan. That night we had met… the room had been dark, body parts slapping and entangling, my hair flinging, kisses interrupting my views of his body. But here, with the afternoon sun blaring through the open window, his abs bunching as he worked open the top of his jeans, I was getting the full effect. Long sinewy muscles connecting strong shoulders, beefy biceps and toned chest muscles. He had those V muscles, which I do remember scraping my nails along as I’d taken him down my throat. I blushed, whirling to face the door as his pants fell to the floor, the belt buckle clanking loudly upon impact. I covered my eyes as an additional precaution, a move which earned a chuckle from behind me.
“I’ve got underwear on. There’s nothing to see.”
Nothing to see? I half choked on the concept, my mind permanently fried with the view’s imprint. I was already rethinking my brain fart from the camp house. You know, when he asked what I wanted—namely, did I want his beautiful penis inside of me—and I had stuttered along like a crackhead. There was a rustle of clothes and the sound of a zipper being drawn.
“There. Fully covered.”
I turned slightly, not trusting him until my peripheral vision showed him clothed, in a head to toe getup that instantly sent my vagina into Sahara territory. “Huh.” I dropped my hands from my eyes. “Sexy.”
“Don’t laugh.” He held up a smaller version of his own overalls. “I got one for you, too.”
“I’m not wearing that.” I made a face, and did a convincing job of waving my hands in the air in an emphatic gesture that clearly communicated the concept.
“We’ll be going through some high brush and wet areas. That, combined with the bugs and the snakes…” He thrust out the garment. “Just wear it. It’ll make me worry less.”
As a fellow worrier, I took the item out of professional courtesy. Plus, if I looked half as ridiculous as he did, then that was one more brick in the Not-Having-Sex and Keeping-Things-Platonic wall. Apparently, I needed to build that bad boy high enough to keep my libido at bay. I held the outfit against my chest and nodded at the door. “Can I have some privacy?”
He winced. “You know how to smash a guy’s hopes and dreams.” Moving past me, he paused by the door, glancing down at my boots. “Mine had built-in footwear, but the smaller sizes don’t. Just tuck the bottoms into your boots.”
“Sure.” I waited until the door shut behind him, then quickly undid my boots and stripped out of my shorts. The outfit was huge below, my socks swimming in fabric as I stepped in and pulled the giant straps over my shoulders and clipped them to the front bib. I found a big plastic zipper along the side and pulled it up, the outfit tightening a little. I made the mistake of glancing in the small mirror over the sink. Wow. I’d thought the potato dress was bad. This made that look like a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader uniform.
“You’re killing me…” Declan called from the front porch.
“You can come in.” I sat down on the bed and lifted up my first boot. “I’m dressed.”
He cracked open the door, testing the waters, then stepped inside. When he saw me, he didn’t react, making me wonder exactly how many women he’d seen in this getup. A sharp pain hit my gut, one I recognized as jealousy. I pushed it away and pulled my hair into a ponytail.
He peered down at me. “Let me get you a better shirt.”
I glanced down. “What’s wrong with this one?”
He ignored the question, fishing through the big bag and finding a long-sleeve tee covered in a leafy print, just like the one he had on. Passing it to me, he turned away. “Go ahead. I’m not looking.”
I grimaced, unhooking the overalls and quickly swapping my tank top for the scratchy long-sleeved tee. Re-hooking the clasps, I stood. “Okay. Thoroughly covered.” I held out my arms for his inspection.
He turned, gave me the once-over, and then flashed me a thumbs up. “Perfect.”
Perfect? This guy needed to get his eyes checked.
We were ass deep in the woods when the skies opened. I smiled when the sprinkles began, appreciating the cool dots of them on my face. But then, without warning, it was a monsoon, torrential rain soaking us the moment it hit. Declan grabbed his gun and threw a cover over the skeet shooter, waving me toward the truck. I scrambled to grab my bag, struggling with the heavy tote as I splashed through the downfall toward the truck. Declan rescued me, reaching out and grabbing the tote’s handle. “I got this!” he called over the rain. “Go!”
I abandoned the bag and ran, climbing into the truck and slamming the door. Wiping rain from my eyes, I searched for something to dry off with. It was a hopeless situation, my hair a portable water bucket, one that was leaking water all over the place. I leaned forward over the floorboard and tried to wring out the thick blonde strands, grateful for the rubber floor mats. Through the blurry downpour, I watched as Declan ran around the front of the truck and opened the back door, tossing the heavy gun into the back where he’d put my bag. A moment later, he joined me in the front seat.
“Damn.” He took off his baseball cap and shook the head of it out. “That came from nowhere.”
“The clouds were there. I should have realized it was growing.” I peered out the window, looking up at the sky, now dark with cloud cover. At least there wasn’t any lightning. “Can we make it back through this?”
“It’ll pass over in a little bit. Let’s wait it out. We can eat those sandwiches.”
My stomach instantly cheered at the idea, even as a cold shiver vibrated through me. He noticed the tremor and nodded to me, his brow pinching. “You need to get out of those wet clothes.” He reached for the keys and started the ignition, turning the dial to start the heat. “This’ll help, but not if you’re sitting there in that soaked shirt.”
I was well aware of the dangers, and wasn’t ready to court disaster with a cold. I squeezed the right sleeve, testing the viability of wringing it dry, but it was a useless endeavor. I glanced at the back. “I don’t have another shirt.”
He undid the top of his coveralls, then skinned the wet cotton off, over his head. “I’d offer you this one, but it’s worse than yours.”
I weighed my options, watching as he left the top of his overalls undone, the cut of his hip visible, the edge of his black underwear showing. The cold seemed to be sinking into my bones, and I felt the annoying click of my teeth beginning to chatter. I made my decision and moved quickly, the soaked material suction-cupping itself to my skin as I peeled it off. I got the long-sleeved shirt over my head and dropped it onto the floorboard with a wet splat.
Leaving my bra on, I angled the vents toward me, almost moaning in pleasure as the warm air hit my bare skin.
“Better?” Declan’s voice was a little husky, and I glanced over to see him watching me, his own skin goosebumping along his chest muscles.
I looked away, rubbing my hands over my arms. “So much better.” I did a foot check, my toes nice and dry, thanks to my boots.
He twisted around, reaching into the backseat and grabbing the small cooler from the back. We’d stopped at a little deli in the last town before the camp, getting Pepsis and some ham and cheese hoagies. He passed me one and I unrolled it, spreading the paper across my lap and picking up the sub. A clap of lightning hit, and I jumped, the strike bright enough to light the interior of the cab.
“That felt close.” Declan peered out the front window, looking up at the sky.
I nodded and took a big bite of the sandwich, surprised by how hungry I was. Thinking back, it had been five hours since we’d eaten, and that had just been a banana and one of Ansley’s blueberry muffins, the snack passed through the window right before we’d pulled away from her house. He seemed similarly famished, and we fell into a companionable silence, save the crack of a soda and the steady cadence of rain.
I turned the heat down, my body temperature back to normal, and relaxed against the seat, slowly chewing a bite of the sandwich. They’d put pickles on it, which I normally wasn’t a
fan of, but honestly—it wasn’t bad.
“So… No Nate?” I opened the sub and picked through its ingredients, pulling the remaining pickles off and depositing them on the white wrap. “What happened?”
“He didn’t exactly say.” He wiped at his mouth with a napkin. “But chances are, it’s something to do with our client.”
“A romantic something?”
He chuckled. “Yeah.”
“So, he’s single?”
He nodded, finishing a sip of his soda before speaking. “Obsessively so.”
I took a sip of soda and watched the water streaming down the windshield. I hated to admit it, but I was almost glad they weren’t coming. While their presence would have helped my stronghold of virtue, it was nice to be alone with Declan. It had been fun to watch him shoot and hear his stories. His dad had taught him everything he knew about guns, and hunting and—after Declan’s mom died—about life. He sounded like a really great man, even if his love was hidden behind what sounded to be five layers of prickly exterior. Declan had shown me the proper safety techniques to handling a gun, though I had drawn the line at actually firing it.
It was kinda sexy, I had to admit, watching him out in the woods, his shirt sleeves pushed up, hitting each target with unwavering precision. And I’d be lying if I said my mind hadn’t been skittering all over the place with thoughts of what we were going to spend this alone time doing.
I nodded to the rain. “How long do you think this will last?”
“Ten, maybe fifteen minutes, tops.”
Two hours later, I rested my head in his lap and stared up at the truck’s ceiling. The rain was unrelenting, the beat of it against the roof unwavering and constant.
“And her current boyfriend, according to Nate’s sister’s snooping—which, by the way, rivals yours—is a shrink. Which”—he tilted his head to one side with a rueful grin—“Isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe he’ll understand her more than I ever did.”
I watched his face, looking for hurt or longing, but it was … amused? If someone had cheated on me, it would have left deep emotional scars, but he seemed to be fine with the fact that his ex-girlfriend had humped her way across the capital city. I squinted and did the math. They had broken up the day of the plane crash… which had been almost seven months ago. Thinking back over my time watching Declan, he had changed, his mood more somber at the beginning, and lightening up as time had passed. I’d barely noticed the subtle transformation, but I’d been going through my own mourning and healing process. I looked away, and played with the back of his hand, which rested on my bare stomach.
He looked down at me. “What about you?”
I pretended to misunderstand the question. “Oh, God no. My shrink is a complete tool bag.” I made a face at the thought of Dr. E in a sexual scenario. “Plus, he knows all about my undying love for you.”
He crooked one brow and I laughed. “Okay, not love. Obsession? Possessive twerk?” I tried out the different titles, then shrugged. “Let’s just say he knows that you and I are inexplicably bound by circumstance.”
“And he hasn’t committed you yet?” He tilted his hand back and I threaded my fingers through his. “No offense.”
“None taken.” I smiled. “He doesn’t believe that I have extraordinary guardian angel powers, but he does think that my attempts to protect you are helping me heal from my mom’s death.” It was surprising how comfortable I felt telling him that. I hadn’t even shared that fact with Ansley, though she’d often accused me of channeling my guilt over Mom into my Declan crusade.
“That makes sense.” He tightened his fingers, squeezing my hand, and I risked a peek upward, into his face. It was kind, non-judgmental, despite the guardian angel mention that always sent Ansley into a tizzy.
“I mean,” I said quickly. “I’m still crazy. Obviously.”
“Obviously,” he repeated with mock severity. “But beautifully so.”
I hiccupped out a laugh, closing my eyes when he reached across his body with his left hand and tucked a loose tendril of hair behind my ear. “Yeah?” I asked, lulled into a dreamy state by the gentle brush of his fingertips across my face.
“And it’s sweet how you watch out for me. How you worry over me.” He leaned forward, and his face came into focus, my eyes drinking in every high-definition detail. His short-clipped beard. The flecks of hazel in his eyes. The concerned pinch of the muscle between his brows. The pale tint of his lips. “I don’t mind it.”
“Thank God, since it seems to be the only thing holding my sanity in check,” I quipped, surprised when he shifted on the seat, his hands sliding under my shoulders and pulling me up into his lap. He was going to kiss me. I could feel it, the crackle of expectation, that heady moment where I wanted it and he wanted it, and I was probably giving him bedroom eyes and all of the signs, and oh my god, I think I’m leaning into this.
And then, Declan Moss kissed me. He kissed me and I forgot about Dr. E. I forgot about his ex. I forgot about my duties as a guardian angel, and any rules I should be following, and I responded as any red-blooded woman would.
I grabbed at the back of his head and, with the rain drilling a romantic cadence along the roof, kissed him back.
33
“Well.”
Declan watched as Autumn cleaned out the backseat of his truck with the efficiency of a deranged woman.
“That can NOT happen again.”
He smiled as she slung a Pepsi can into a trash bag as if it had personally wronged her.
“I mean, what is wrong with us?” She spun to him, her face flushed, hair wild, and God, he could fall in love with her. He realized it in the same moment that she stabbed the air between them with her finger. “We need to get our act together!”
He closed the distance between them, pinning her back against the side of the truck, a surprised squawk coming from her in the moment before his lips closed on hers. She argued against his mouth, her hands attempting to shove him back even as her mouth fought for more. He slid his hands down her body, cupping her delicious ass and pulling it against him, branding her as his own. Fuck, he couldn’t get enough of her.
When he finally came up for air, she was clinging to him for support. He ensured that she had stable footing, then gave her a quick final kiss. He smiled at her. “Let me clean the truck out. Go get those boots off and relax.”
She scowled at him. “I’m not going to relax, Declan. You obviously aren’t taking this problem seriously.”
He moved around the open door and took her spot, pulling the gun bag out. “What problem? Us being attracted to each other? That’s not a problem.”
She followed him toward the camp house. “You realize what just happened right? We had sex back there.” She whispered the word as if there were anyone around to hear it.
He smiled and set down the bag by the door. “Yes, I remember.” And that was a memory that would be branded on him for a while. Stripping her down in the front seat. Reclining back, her bare feet settling next to his thighs, his hands lifting her up and down atop him. He’d never be able to grab that roof handle again without remembering her holding onto it for balance, her eyes shuttering closed, her mouth opening in a silent O of pleasure.
“…and all the kissing, and the looks…” She was ticking items off on her hand, her focus flipping to him as he turned to head back to the truck. “Hey!” She jogged next to him. “This is important!”
“I’m not going to stop kissing and looking at you.” He pulled at the tailgate handle, lowering the door and frowning at the kindling he’d collected before shooting, now too wet to do anything with. The same went for the charcoal he’d brought for the grill, which was now a damp mess, the bag weakened and split from the rain. He’d have to chop up some of the logs they had and get to their dry centers. He closed the tailgate.
“I came here to keep you safe, not to bounce around on your penis,” she said plaintively, and he couldn’t stop the laugh that fell out of him.
<
br /> Coming to a stop, he turned to face her. “I’m sorry I had sex with you.”
She fidgeted. “Well, it wasn’t all your fault. I was a pretty willing participant.”
“Yeah, the whooping and hollering kind of gave you away.” He smiled, expecting her to react and was rewarded by her irritated eye-roll.
“We both know there wasn’t whooping and hollering. Not this time.” She held up her hands in surrender. “I can’t be held responsible for what happened that first night.”
His dick twitched at the comparison. She was right, there hadn’t been any loud cries of pleasure this time. Instead, he’d experienced an entirely different set of Autumn sounds. Soft inhales. A quiet mew of pleasure when she’d settled down on him. His name in a dozen different ways—panted, begged, whispered, and worshipped. It had only gotten better when he’d laid her across the bench seat and settled on top of her.
Thunder rumbled and her neck snapped toward the sound. “We should get inside.”
“I’ll get the rest of the stuff out of the truck. You go on in.”
She listened to him, going into the building without an argument. By the time he brought the last box of clays in, she had the cooler lid up and half the contents out on the table. He pulled the screen door shut and her head popped up.
“What are you thinking about for dinner?” She gestured to the items. “You kind of have a hodgepodge of stuff here.”
“I packed it thinking Nate would be with us.” He came closer, looking over the items. “You want steaks or burgers? There’s a grill on the side we can use.”
She winced when a strike of lightning hit nearby. “Outside? No way.” She gestured to the stove. “I could do burgers in a skillet, if you have one.”
“There’s a ton of pots and pans inside the oven. Feel free to go nuts.”
She smiled, and he felt his heart flip a little in response.
Tripping on a Halo Page 17
