“She’s going to give you her business card to give to your brother,” she replied.
Sure enough, Simone came back with her business card in hand. She passed it to Cole. “I work with sportspeople,” she said. “Motivational and mindset techniques. Maybe you could pass that along to him.”
“I will,” he said, sliding the card into his back pocket. He turned to Dani. “Shall we go?”
She nodded and pushed him out of the door before Simone could ask anything else about Cole’s brother.
“See you, Simone,” Cole said as he was ushered through the door.
“See you soon, honey. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t…”
Dani shut the front door and followed Cole to his truck. “Simone gets a little excitable sometimes, but she means well.”
“I like her,” Cole said. “I’ll make sure I pass her card on to Brad.”
“She’s very good at her job,” Dani said. “She’s worked with Olympic athletes, football players, and even an entire women’s soccer team once.”
Cole opened the passenger door for Dani. She climbed in. He went around to the other side, got in, and started the engine. “Thing is,” he said, “I’m not sure Brad would be able to concentrate on work with Simone around. She’s exactly the type of woman he goes for. Pretty, curvy and smart.”
Dani laughed. “Sounds like a match made in heaven, because I’ve seen Brad’s picture and he’s definitely Simone’s type.”
Cole pulled out onto the road and nodded, grinning. “I’ll make sure he gets her card.”
“So where are we going this afternoon?” Dani asked.
“Well, I see you wore your boots so how about a walk in the woods?”
The thought of entering the woods made Dani freeze for a moment, but she told herself that everything would be okay.
I’ll be safe with Cole.
“Sure,” she said.
“There’s a place I know. I don’t think you’ve been there before.”
“Oh? I grew up here, remember.”
“Yeah, you did. But I don’t think you’ve ever been to this place.”
“Okay, Mr. Mysterious, surprise me.”
“I intend to.”
She sat back and smiled. Cole was easy to speak to. He made her feel relaxed.
“There’s another surprise,” he said. “Take a look in that bag by your feet.”
Intrigued, Dani leaned forward and found a faded blue canvas bag. She lifted it onto the seat between them.
“Open it,” Cole said.
She opened the straps and looked inside. The bag was filled with tubes of watercolor paints, and various-sized brushes.
“There’re a couple of watercolor pads on the back seat,” Cole said. “You said you couldn’t bring your paints with you so I got you those.”
“Thanks,” Dani said. The word came out of her mouth sounding anything but grateful.
“Something wrong?” Cole asked.
“No, really, I love that you thought of me and got these. It’s just that since the attack two years ago, my painting has suffered, and that’s an understatement.”
He frowned with confusion. “You said you love to paint.”
“I do love it. It’s all I ever really wanted to do. I used to paint all the time, but when I got out of the hospital, I couldn’t do it anymore. Nothing came out right. Simone wanted me to bring my paints on this vacation because she thought I should face my fear and get over it. It’s part of her big bear theory.”
“Big bear theory?” He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“Yeah, she thinks everyone should face their fear and move on with their lives. She calls the fear the “big bear”. I know it makes sense, but just because it sounds good in theory doesn’t mean it’s easy to do for real.”
Cole turned the truck onto a narrow trail that led deeper into the woods. “I know it’s difficult to face your fears, but Simone is probably right.”
“I’m coming to the woods,” Dani said. “Believe me, that’s a big step forward. Anyway, what do you know about fear? I’m guessing you’re pretty fearless.”
“I get scared sometimes.”
“Yeah? Like when?”
“Like yesterday. I was scared for your safety.”
Dani felt a warm glow at his concern. “It all turned out okay in the end.”
He looked at her and smiled. “It did.”
She felt her face heat up as she remembered what they had done last night.
“Okay,” Cole said, “I have my own big bear theory.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“My theory is that anybody who gets attacked by a bear shouldn’t hate all bears because of it.”
“What about shifters?”
“Definitely shifters. Just because you got attacked by one, does that mean you should hate all shifters?’
“Yes,” Dani said flatly.
“I think you’re letting your emotions control you. What if you had been attacked by, let’s say, a woman in a green sweater. Would that mean you’d hate all women in green sweaters?”
“No, of course not.”
“Why not? It’s the same thing as hating all shifters.”
“No, it isn’t. Shifters are monsters.”
He sighed and watched the road ahead as he drove them along a track that climbed up a steep incline.
“Is that how you got your scars?” Dani asked. “From a shifter?”
He nodded.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you later. I need to explain a few things first.”
“You really are Mr. Mysterious, aren’t you?”
“I don’t mean to be. I want to tell you everything, but all in good time.”
Dani laughed. “Maybe you’re trying to intrigue me.”
“Maybe I am.”
He pulled the truck over into a small parking area and turned off the engine. Driving up the steep road had brought them up into the mountains, and the view through the trees was stunning. Dani could see Silver Rock in the valley below. The houses were so small she felt like she could reach down and pick them up like tiny dollhouses.
“What do you think?” Cole asked after they had climbed out of the truck and were standing in the pine-scented breeze, taking in the view.
“It looks gorgeous,” she replied.
“It isn’t the only thing that looks gorgeous from where I’m standing.”
She grinned uncontrollably. “Thank you, but I really don’t feel gorgeous in this huge shirt.”
“You rock that shirt.”
Dani shook her head but found herself smiling at his comment.
“I didn’t bring you up here to look at the view,” he said.
“Oh? Did you bring me up here to have your wicked way with me?” He didn’t need to drive her into the mountains to do that; he could have taken her to his bedroom, and she would have given herself to him more than willingly.
“You think I’m wicked?” He gave her an innocent look.
Dani slapped his hard shoulder. “The wickedest. I don’t usually go throwing myself at men, you know.”
“I know. And anything that felt as incredible as last night has to be at least a little wicked, right?”
He had just called sex with her incredible. Dani was ready to swoon into his arms right now and let him do whatever he wanted with her.
Cole opened the back of the truck and took out a backpack, which he leaned against the truck. He also grabbed a large camera case and hung it around his neck. “This view isn’t what I brought you out here for. We need to hike up the mountain a little. I’m going to get some pictures while we’re up there,” he said. “Do you want to bring the paints?”
Dani guessed it would be rude not to, since Cole had bought them especially for her. “Sure,” she said, telling herself that if she painted something and it came out too bad, she wouldn’t show it to him.
He took the canvas bag of paints from the truck and stuf
fed it into the backpack. Then he showed Dani two spiral-bound Strathmore watercolor pads. “Are these okay for you? The woman at the store said these were the best they had.”
“They’re perfect,” Dani said. “But we only need to take one with us. Each pad has twelve sheets, and I’m not planning to do more than twelve pictures today.” She was afraid to try and paint even one, never mind a dozen.
Cole put one of the pads back into the truck, and slid the other into a pocket on the backpack. “Ready?” he asked Dani.
She nodded. She felt safe with Cole, despite the fact that they were in a remote area. She had the feeling that he could protect her even from the shifter that seemed hell-bent on killing her.
“Let’s go,” he said, striding along a barely visible trail that led from the parking area into the trees. Dani followed, catching up with him and walking beside him.
“Mind if we slow down a little?”
“Sorry,” he said, slowing his pace. “Sometimes I forget how fast I walk.”
“Do you come up here a lot?”
“Yeah, I like the view from up here.”
“Is that why you moved to Silver Rock? For the view?”
“That’s part of it. I love nature, and this area has a lot of it.”
“Where are you from originally?”
“Ever hear of a small town called Paxton Falls in Massachusetts?”
Dani shook her head. “No.”
“That’s where I’m from. My brothers and I were raised there. As we grew up, we drifted away from the place. Brad had his tennis tournaments, Carter wanted to see more of the country, and I travelled around for various photo assignments. We used to go back there every year, like you and Simone come back to Silver Rock, but after our parents died, there didn’t seem to be any point.”
“I’m sorry,” Dani said.
Cole shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I stay in touch with Brad and Carter. They’re all the family I have left.”
“What about a family of your own? Do you want that?” Dani wasn’t sure why she had asked such a personal question so soon, but she felt as if she could ask Cole anything. She had heard stories of people meeting and feeling as if they had known each other for years. She had never believed those stories until now, because that was exactly how she felt with Cole.
“Someday,” he said. “I definitely want little ones. How about you?”
“Yeah, I do,” she said. She had always wanted kids but had kept the idea at the back of her mind and hadn’t really thought about it too much. She had known she didn’t want children with Henry, so she had suppressed her maternal instincts during their relationship. Now that Cole mentioned it, her hidden thoughts emerged. It would be nice to have a family of her own someday. “I come from a big Italian family,” she said. “Plenty of uncles, aunts, and cousins.”
They topped a small rise in an area where the trees disappeared to reveal a stunning view of the vivid blue sky and the woods below. The town of Silver Rock looked even smaller from here.
“I guessed you were of Italian descent,” Cole said. “Your big brown eyes, long black hair, and olive skin kind of gave it away.”
“Not to mention the wide hips I inherited from my mother.”
“You have perfect hips,” he said. “What’s your family name? I bet I can guess it.”
Dani grinned. “I bet you can’t.”
“Rossi,” he said.
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“De Luca?”
“No.”
“Ferrari?” he guessed.
“No, shall I tell you?”
“Yeah, you should tell me before I name every Italian car I know.”
“Columbo.”
“Columbo. Like the detective?”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Everyone asks that. Yes, like the detective.”
The trail led them back down into the woods, the tall pines obscuring the view of the valley beyond. The sun was warm on Dani’s face, and birds sang songs in the trees. She had never ventured this far on the trail before, so whatever it was that Cole was going to show her, it would be new to her, as he had promised.
He veered off the trail and began to walk through the undergrowth between the trees. “This way,” he said.
Dani followed. He really was going to take her somewhere off the beaten path.
Ten minutes later, they emerged from the trees and stood on the grassy bank of the river. The water was deep and slow, moving lazily between the bank on this side and a rock face on the other. The rocks rose up vertically at least fifty feet. The cliff was topped with dense trees.
“There,” Cole said, pointing at the rocks on the far side of the river.
Dani frowned in confusion. “I don’t see anything.”
“See that dark cleft in the rock there?”
Dani scanned the rocks and her eyes came to rest on a dark, narrow fissure at the base of the cliff. “Yeah, I see it.”
“That’s where we’re going.”
She looked along the river in both directions. “Is there a bridge?”
Cole laughed and shook his head. “You can swim, can’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s worth it, I promise.”
Dani looked at the sincerity in Cole’s eyes. Whatever it was he wanted to show her, it was across the river so why the hell shouldn’t she swim across? It was a warm day, and a cool dip in the water wouldn’t hurt.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to take some things off first. I don’t want to be walking around in wet clothing.”
“I was hoping you’d take it all off,” Cole said. “I’m going across there naked. Like you said, no point getting our clothes wet.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Ah, I see. This is just an excuse to get me naked.”
“No, not at all. Although I won’t lie, I’m looking forward to it.”
Dani blushed. But she had nothing to hide from Cole. He had seen her curves and her scars, and he seemed to be hugely turned on by her body. His appreciation of her made her want to show him whatever he wanted to see, whenever he wanted to see it. The lust in his eyes when he looked at her was a powerful aphrodisiac, making Dani want him all the more.
He started to undress. Dani felt like standing there and watching him. Her appreciation of his muscular, toned body was just as great as Cole’s appreciation of her feminine curves.
She took off her clothes, thinking how different this was to the many times she had made Henry turn off the light before she got undressed.
After a few minutes, she and Cole stood naked by the river.
The hard lines of Cole’s body excited Dani. His smooth skin shone in the sunlight. His cock was half-erect, and as Cole looked over at Dani’s naked form, it stirred, lengthening and hardening until it was fully hard. Dani swallowed, feeling her sex become lubricated with slick heat. Her nipples, already hard as the breeze played over them, tightened into erect buds, yearning for the sensation of Cole’s hot mouth on their puckered flesh.
“We should get across the river,” Cole said. His voice had deepened with excitement. Taking their clothing, he placed it into a plastic bag he had produced from the backpack and secured it so it was watertight.
Together, they waded into the river. Dani felt the current tug at her legs but it wasn’t so strong that she couldn’t swim across. Leaning forward, she gasped as the cold water covered her shoulders and back, and swam for the rocks quickly.
When she climbed out on the other side, the sun began to warm her skin immediately. Cole was waiting for her, standing on the rocks like a chiseled Adonis, water droplets glistening on his muscles. His eyes roamed over Dani’s figure greedily as she stood before him.
“Follow me,” he said, taking her hand and leading her into the fissure in the rocks. Taking a lighter from his backpack, he lit a candle that was waiting just inside the passageway, and held it in front of him as he led Dani deeper into the rocks.
The glowing candlelight picke
d out another candle set in a ledge. Cole lit it and searched for another candle, which he found and lit also. Soon, he had lit at least a dozen candles on the walls. The glow revealed a small cave.
In the center of the cave, a pile of twigs and logs sat within a circle of stones. Cole lit them, looking up at Dani as the fire caught. “I prepared this earlier,” he said.
Two blankets, adorned with Indian designs, had been laid on the rock floor.
“Come and warm yourself,” Cole said.
Dani joined him on the blankets. The fire grew and gave off a pleasurable heat that mingled with the heat she felt inside her body. She was too turned on to think of anything but sex.
“There’s a natural chimney up there in the roof,” Cole said. “This is an old Indian cave. There are paintings on the walls. I want to show them to you.”
Dani leaned forward, displaying her big breasts to Cole. “Show me later,” she whispered. “Right now, I just want you to fuck me.”
In the flickering firelight, she saw his cock twitch. Cole raised his hand to her cheek and stroked away a stray lock of wet hair. Then he kissed her long and deep. “I’ve been waiting to do that all afternoon,” he said when their lips parted.
“You only had to ask,” she told him, sliding her hand over his thickly-muscled thigh to his erection. She circled her fingers around his hard shaft and stroked him. Cole groaned.
Dani had never been a woman who did much more than missionary sex before now, but the feel of Cole’s cock in her hand made her want to taste it, to give Cole pleasure with her mouth. She pushed against the strong muscles of his chest, urging him to lie back. He did, his thick member rising from his groin proudly.
Dani leaned forward and opened her mouth, taking the head of his cock between her lips. Cole growled with pleasure and pushed his hips up, feeding Dani with more of his erect dick. He grabbed her wet hair with both of his hands, keeping her head steady while he fucked her mouth.
She loved the taste of him and the knowledge that she was giving him so much pleasure. Each time his cock slid between her lips and Dani stroked her tongue against its hardness, Cole groaned, his muscular thighs trembling.
Dani stroked her hand down to his tight balls, playing her nails lightly over the tight sack.
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 7
