by Jill Shalvis
ready. Apparently agreeing, he let out a heartfelt groan, knelt between her spread thighs and entered her.
With an arch of her back, she gave him entry, and when he pushed all the way into her, their twin gasps of pleasure echoed in her ears. She’d have thought she was finished after that last orgasm, but he began to move and she clutched at him, rocking to meet his every thrust, shocked at how good she felt, how high, how utterly filled.
He whispered her name, cupped her head in his big hands and kissed her as deeply as he was within her body, and when he lost himself and came with her name on his lips, she followed him over.
It took her a long time to come back to herself, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry for her to. His mouth was against her throat, nuzzling. His muscles were still quaking faintly as he pressed his pelvis to hers, relishing the last of his pleasure.
And there’d been such pleasure. As she slowly came back to herself, she realized she was clutching him tight, digging her fingers into him. Yes, she was gripping his ass like a vice while still gasping for breath like she’d just run the marathon. With a sound of embarrassed regret, she started to pull free, but in what was perhaps the nicest moment of all, he didn’t move away from her, instead seemed content to stay and just kiss her neck, his hands slowly sweeping over her as if to help calm her.
Cuddling. They were cuddling. That’s when she remembered. She didn’t do the cuddle, never had, and she gave him a little push.
He obliged her by rolling off, but he didn’t go far. On his side now, he propped up his head with his hand. His other went to her hip, covering nearly the whole thing with just one warm, callused palm. An easy touch. A familiar touch.
Which, given what he’d just done to her—that being completely shattering her—he probably was feeling pretty damn familiar. Utterly unconcerned with his nudity, he smiled.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Good Lord, how had one guy gotten so sexy and cute at the same time? It seemed like an unfair disbursement of the goods, and if she ever stood in the line at the Pearly Gates, that would be the first thing she’d ask about.
But for now, she had places to go, people to see, things to do.
And a hot, sexy guy that threatened her very soul to get away from. Making her move, she shifted, getting to her belly before he slid a leg over her, holding her down. She turned her head and looked at him.
“Question,” he said lightly.
Seeing as she was pinned like a bug, she blew her hair from her face and did her best not to give herself away. “What?”
“Are you relaxed?”
Ha. “Let me go.”
“Because you were feeling pretty damn relaxed until about two seconds ago, when you realized you were hugging me for all you were worth. That’s when you got all uptight again.”
Okay, true. As was something else—she’d finally answered her own question on how his stubble would feel against her skin.
Like heaven. “Let me up now.”
His leg slid from her immediately. “My apologies.”
Fine. He was insulted. She’d deal with that later. She got out of the bed and realized her clothes were in the living room. Which was why she liked her affairs simple and in the dark.
He’d rolled to his back, hands behind his head, and was watching her from beneath lowered lashes, giving nothing of himself away.
Except, of course, the fact that he was sprawled out naked as the day he’d been born, revealing everything, anything she wanted to see.
Damn. To be that open. She whirled around, found one of his shirts and shoved it over her head, forgoing both panties and bra. On the other side of the country, her mother was rolling over in her grave.
Goodness, darling, you could have had Spencer. That boy’s a surgeon, and he’d have left the light off.
Rolling her eyes, she headed toward the door. But suddenly, the man lounging so lazily on the bed beat her to it, and put a hand on the handle. Before she could say a word, he’d opened it for her, not attempting to hold her in.
She looked up into his eyes.
He flashed a smile that didn’t quite make it to his usual full potential. “I take it we’re done here tonight.”
“Yeah, I have to—”
He put a finger over her lips. “Don’t make up an excuse to run away. I don’t need a pretty lie.”
Fair enough. “I just have to go.”
“Did I scare you?”
Yes. He scared her by showing her the very depths of his soul, and reflecting hers right back at her. He scared her by making her feel. Her initial reaction was to offer a denial but he’d just asked for no pretty lies, so she just looked up at him.
He pretty much gave her the opposite reaction she expected. Standing there, naked, he chuckled. “Tough question, huh?”
“Yes.” There. The truth. “Care to try an easier one?”
“All right.” He stroked a strand of hair from her face. “You going to steal another of my shirts?”
“It appears so.”
“Go out with me, Emma.”
Tempted beyond belief, she looked at his mouth, wishing it was back on hers. “You should know. I’m unusually slow to get on board when it comes to these things.”
“What just happened between us didn’t feel slow. It felt like a freight train slamming into my heart.”
Hers skipped a beat at that. “You should also know that men don’t tend to hold on to me for long. I only tell you this to save you some time and effort. Give you a short cut to the exit.”
A slight smile tipped his mouth upward at her somber tone. “I don’t tend to take short cuts. I also tend to jump right in.”
“Well we both did that today.”
“Yeah, but I meant more, too.”
There was that more thing again. “I definitely don’t do more.”
“Has that ever worked out for you, the not doing more thing?” he asked.
“No.”
He just smiled, both sweet and challenging at the same time.
And sexy.
So damn sexy.
“I get that you’re a thinker,” he said gently. “You need to think, process. Analyze.”
“I do.”
“Premeditated thinking doesn’t work for me.”
“Because you jump right in.”
“That’s right. So I’m already on the page. The us page.”
“Oh, God.”
“It’s okay. You go home and think. Process and analyze. Whatever you have to do.”
Whatever she had to do? Hell, she had to run far and fast. Only she couldn’t, she was stuck here in Wishful.
Yeah. She was in big trouble.
Emma dreamt about Stone, about his couch, his floor…his bed. About what he wanted from her. And she woke up hot and bothered.
Cost of processing and analyzing: two hours of sleep.
Cost of thinking: two more hours of sleep.
Cost of giving the elusive more to the insanely sexy Stone Wilder: priceless.
And something she couldn’t face, not and function properly. Already exhausted before she even began her day, she heated up one of the casseroles labeled breakfast for her and Spencer, who was embarking on a long day hike.
By himself.
“Don’t worry,” he told her, scooping more cholesterol into his bowl. “TJ mapped out the trek for me. They said I couldn’t get lost if I stayed on the trail. I’m looking forward to being by myself.”
They hadn’t talked about the fact that she’d chosen Stone over him. Nor that she’d taken two hours to come back the night before. “You won’t be by yourself,” she said. “There’ll be spiders and bears and coyotes, oh my.”
Spencer grinned. “Then come with me. Protect me.”
“Ha. Maybe if it was spa day.” She was still pining for Starbucks and Thai take-out, still missing the crowded, noisy, bustling streets, where the scents came from sidewalk vendors and exhaust, where wide open spaces were to be mistrusted.<
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Missing all of it.
Wasn’t she?
She wasn’t sure. The truth was, the air here was amazing, clean and fresh, and she’d saved a fortune by not buying from a menu every time she ate. Plus, she’d gotten damn good at making her own coffee.
Interesting.
She drove Spencer up to Wilder Adventures, the starting point for his trek, holding her breath on the narrow road between town and the lodge. “Damn roads out here are barbaric.”
“It’s the rains,” he said. “You’re doing much better these days.”
Better was relative, but they made it without incident. It’d rained heavily all night long, but though it’d momentarily tapered off to a light drizzle, the skies were still dark and threatening. “Are you sure about this?”
Not appearing at all bothered by the prospect that he’d likely be wet all day long, he nodded, “It’s going to be good.”
At Wilder Lodge, he got out of the truck and went to the back for his gear. Emma got out, too, looked up at the dark sky again, and shook her head. “Not too late to change your mind.”
“Not too late to come.”
“Like I said, let me know when it’s spa day, with good food service and no bears.” She pulled him in for a hug, closing her eyes when he tightened his grip. “Spence—” She didn’t want to lose him. “About you and me. I—”
“Em.” He smiled, tugging at a strand of her hair. “I’m okay. Really.”
“Are we okay?”
“Very okay.”
“Really?”
“Yes, why?”
“It’s just that you got over me pretty darn quick.”
He laughed, and patted his chest. “Fickle heart, remember?”
God, she loved him. She cupped his face. “Be safe.”
“And you take it easy on yourself. As in try to get into the slower pace or something.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“Don’t worry. Soon enough you’ll be back in your big, crazy city, and this will all be just a bad dream.”
A bad dream. And a good one…She watched him go, heading off into the wild forest willingly. Happily.
Darling, what’s YOUR day long trek?
At her mom’s words in her head, she sighed. The question was valid. What was there in her life that made her as at peace as Spencer had looked just now?
That the answer was a big, fat nothing didn’t help.
God, she was tired of herself. “And you too, mom.” She got back into the truck, taking a quick glance at the lodge as she drove off, wondering what Stone was doing.
Was he still in bed? The bed she’d been in last night, panting his name, leaving nail imprints in his ass—
Above her, the sky opened up with a bright burst of lightning, accompanied by a sonic boom that had her nearly leaping out of her skin. Startled, she jerked to a stop right in the middle of the road. The rain started up again, pummeling the truck in tune to her pounding heart.
She looked out the windshield.
There was nothing on this stretch of road, just trees, trees, and more trees. Oh, and two ditches running alongside.
Her gut clenched but she put the truck back into gear. This weather wouldn’t have stopped Stone, and it wouldn’t stop her either. She hit the gas, but in the past few minutes, the road seemed to have turned into an instant muddy swamp.
Not good.
Tightening both hands on the wheel, she concentrated on staying on the road and not sliding off into either ditch. She was doing good too, but then something hopped out of the driving rain and bounced across the road right in front of her truck. A deer. She hit the brake as the thing vanished into the trees, and the truck’s wheels lost their tenuous grip in the muddy road, slipping, hitting a rut and jerking her off the road—
Right where she didn’t want to be—into one of the ditches.
Chapter 16
Stone drove like a bat out of hell, hoping it wasn’t bad.
“Jesus, man.” TJ tightened his seatbelt. “Slow down. She didn’t say there was a three alarm fire. She said she’d driven into a ditch.”
Stone tried to peer ahead through the fog and rain but visibility was nonexistent. He and TJ had been talking to Cam on iChat, having a grand old time, laughing at Cam’s recollection of him taking Katie zip-lining across the rain forest, and how she’d screamed her way through it.
Then they’d heard Harley on the radio say she was responding to a truck in the ditch between Wishful and the lodge, and Stone had hung up on Cam.
Because there’d only been one truck on that road today—Emma’s. And so no, regardless of the fact that the level headed TJ had a point, Stone didn’t slow down. A mile later, he was glad as he came to a stop just behind Harley, who had pulled up just in front of them.
Emma had indeed gone into the ditch. The truck was grounded on its belly, the front wheels firmly in the muddy ditch, the back wheels no longer touching the ground. Emma stood to one side, out in the driving rain, an arm wrapped around her middle, the other shoving her wet hair out of her eyes
Harley moved toward Emma. “Good one.”
Emma turned and looked at her. “You’re roadside assistance?”
Harley, in a ski cap and coveralls, nodded. “Until I pass my finals,” she said proudly, then turned to look at the truck. “So you’ve introduced yourself to the ditch, up close and personal. Let’s un-introduce you.”
“It got the better of me.”
“Happens to all of us at least once. You hurt?”
“I—” That’s when she noticed Stone and TJ and closed her mouth. Harley turned and looked, caught sight of TJ, and swore. “She called for roadside assistance, not an audience.”
TJ’s usual smile was nowhere in sight. In fact, his scowl matched Harley’s. “We heard the radio call go out and thought maybe you could use some help muscling the truck out of the ditch. We thought maybe you’d appreciate the help.”
“This is my job, Wilder.” Harley accompanied the statement with a finger in TJ’s chest. She was a full foot shorter than him, yet somehow managed to look down her nose at him. “So back off and let me do it.”
TJ lifted his hands in surrender, and looking unaccustomedly irritated, stepped back.
Stone left those two to their tempers and looked at Emma. “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah.”
Behind them, small but mighty, Harley didn’t appear at all daunted by the task ahead of her as she went around to the back of her truck and began to pull out a large set of chains. “If you want to you can wait in the cab of my truck,” she said to Emma. “It’s dry, at least.”
“I’ll help.”
Harley looked over Emma’s pinstriped trousers, silk blouse, and light cashmere sweater. “That would be great, except I think your outfit probably cost more than all of my clothes put together. I’ve got this.” Harley’s sharp eyes narrowed in on what Stone had also narrowed in on—Emma holding her ribs. “Really. You go sit.”
