by Miley Maine
“Oh, you have no idea,” I said. “I had a teammate get stabbed three times and kept going, but the next month an earthquake woke us up in the middle of the night, and he didn’t sleep for a week.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. We all react differently.” I got out of the car, and went around to her side again. I opened the door and pulled her to her feet. Remembering the big hug she’d given me in the airport, I wrapped my arms around her.
She laid her head on my shoulder, and even after all those hours with the stale plane air, she still smelled amazing. She also felt really good in my arms. But now was not the time to be thinking about that.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” I didn’t think the jackass who’d tried to rob her would be coming back, but you never knew. I grabbed her purse from the car and put my arm around her shoulders, walking her to the trunk of the car, where I retrieved her camera bag. With my arm still around her, I led her to the Jeep I’d rented, and nudged her into the passenger side.
I put the Jeep in drive and we took off.
“What about the car I rented?” she asked.
“We’re going to leave it there and return the keys now.” I drove right up to the return area and handed them the keys. “I’m not going to need the Nissan in spot seventy-six,” I said to the attendant. “We’ll call and handle the paperwork later.”
The attendant didn’t argue, so we got the hell out of there.
“Hey, I know you don’t really want to focus on your family right now, but do you think this guy could have been targeting you?” Based on the way he’d acted when I grilled him, I didn't think so, but I was still going to ask.
“No. I didn’t know him.”
“Did he mention anything that might make you think he knew who you were? Or was interested in your mother? Or father?”
“No. I think he was just some jerk.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“You spent more time with him than I did.”
That was true. “Can you tell me exactly what he said?”
“I don’t remember. But I know he mentioned my purse.”
“Your purse?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s a Hermes.”
Was that a brand? A secret code? “I don’t know what that means.”
“It cost around $3,000.”
Holy shit. I didn’t know purses could cost that much. Maybe the loser who’d attacked her knew though. He probably knew exactly how much he could resell it for too.
“Yeah I know. It’s nuts. I didn’t buy it for myself, if that makes it any better.”
“The cost of your purse is not my business. I’m just trying to make sure I don’t miss anything.”
“I really think it was random. It was just bad luck. Is that crazy?” she asked.
“No. That happens all the time.” I glanced over at her. “You want to give me directions to the place where your cousin’s getting married?”
“Yeah. Let me find them.”
She pulled her phone out but dropped it twice. She sighed and tried again, finally getting to the map application.
I did not feel good about dropping her off while she was this rattled. Hell, I was still rattled too. “Is any of your other family there yet?” I asked.
“The wedding planner’s there.”
It was stupid that I was even considering asking her to join me. There was no way I needed to acquire an extra person for my trip, especially not for a trip that was designed so I could get my head on straight. But leaving her wouldn’t feel right. If my little sister had been alive, I wouldn’t have wanted her to be left alone in this state. “You should come with me,” I said.
“Where?” she asked.
“Camping.” Not only did I not want her alone, I didn’t want her in a location where it would be possible for someone to track her, in case the guy from the parking lot really hadn’t been random. If someone was following Loren, he’d know she planned to go straight to the wedding venue. I wasn’t going to take that chance with her safety.
She turned in her seat, straining her seatbelt. Her face was animated again, for the first time since I’d seen that bastard grab her in the parking lot. “Me?”
I turned my head to the side. “Is there anyone else in the car?”
She laughed. It was a tiny sound, compared to the laughs she’d let loose on the plane, but I liked hearing it all the same. “You would actually let me come with you?”
“Yes.”
“I have to be back in time for the wedding. I need at least a full day to practice setting up the shots.”
“So how much time does that give us?” I asked.
“Let’s see.” It was seven p.m., and the sun wasn’t close to setting just yet. If we worked fast, we could go ahead and camp tonight. “Two full days.”
“If you’re really serious, then yes. I would love to.” She rolled the window down, and the chilly evening air flowed into the Jeep. “I know this is nothing compared to the scenery in parts of Alaska. But it’s so different from Georgia. I’ve seen it before, but I can’t tear my eyes away.”
What the hell was I going to do with a newly-traumatized young woman that I barely knew? Taking her camping with me was probably a terrible idea. And yet, I was relieved that Loren was going to come with me.
No matter what happened, I would do my best to protect her.
Chapter Eight
Loren
“So where are we headed?” I couldn’t believe I was even able to formulate a complete sentence. All those times my parents had warned me about the dangers of the world, I’d scoffed at them, and told them they were paranoid.
But in the scheme of things, what amounted to a mugging wasn’t that big of a deal. It happened to people every day, and they went on with their lives. People got mugged in downtown Atlanta, and I went there all the time. And I’d even seen someone be mugged when I was in London.
But even so, my head was filled with a weird buzzing. And now my arms were shaking, not just my hands.
But you had a bodyguard. So it never happened to you.
“We’ll start at a campground in Chugach State Park. It’s pretty close.”
The buzzing in my mind didn’t recede as we drove.
“How are you feeling?” Jackson asked.
There was no way I wanted to complain to him. He was a soldier, and he’d mentioned that he’d been deployed. He’d probably experienced real trauma, and been in real danger, many times.
“Good,” I said.
“You don’t have to pretend.”
“People get mugged all the time. And he didn’t even have a real gun.”
“You’ve never been mugged. And you didn’t know he didn’t have a gun. It’s better to assume it’s real, and that it’s loaded.”
I chewed on my fingernail before realizing what I was doing.
He kept talking. “I’ve had a gun aimed at me. It’s scary. And it’s always scary to have a stranger get that close to you, and threaten you. It’s okay to be freaked out.”
“It was pretty alarming.” I massaged my jaw. It was tight from where I’d been gritting my teeth. “I don’t think I thanked you.”
“No need.”
“How did you know what was happening?”
“Do you want the truth?” Jackson shot a glance my way. “Or the answer you’ll like better?”
“I want the truth.”
“Okay,” he said. “I followed you.”
“You followed me? I thought you were renting a car too, and you just happened to be there.”
“I was renting a car. but my Jeep was not close to yours.”
I twisted sideways in my seat until my seatbelt nearly choked me. “What in the world made you follow me?”
Jackson tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I was worried about you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“You won’t like my answer.”
“Please just tell me,” I said. “I
really want to know.”
“You’re young,” he said, gesturing with his hand. “You’re traveling alone, and you seem clueless about how to do it. None of that is your fault, but it makes you a target for the scum that tried to rob you.”
Part of me wanted to get mad. Or at least indignant. But I had been clueless when I entered the Atlanta airport, and I still was. I flopped over sideways, letting my head rest against the Jeep window. “I want to argue, but you’re right.”
“Don’t get discouraged. Like I said, this kind of thing can happen to anyone. But there are things you can do. It’s called situational awareness.”
“I’m going to need a crash course on that.”
“You came to the right person,” he said. “I’ve been told I’m paranoid more than once.”
“Better than being caught off guard.”
Jackson slowed the Jeep to a stop as we entered the park. The sky was not as bright now as the sun got close to setting, so I couldn’t see the landscape around us as I’d have liked, but what I saw was breathtaking. The trees were a vivid green, the lake water was clear, and gray mountains rose in the background.
“For tonight, we aren’t going too far off the beaten path, but I do have a private site reserved.”
Once he’d driven us to our spot and parked, I climbed out of the Jeep. My legs were still shaky, but at least I wasn’t about to puke now. I inhaled. The air even smelled clean, which was very welcome after a full day stuck on an airplane.
I was at an Alaskan campground, about to camp in a tent, which was something I’d always wanted to do. And I was with a gorgeous man. I was not going to let the incident at the car rental place screw this up for me. As Jackson popped the back of the Jeep open, I was grateful to have a task to focus on. “What happens first?”
“We set up the tent. We don’t really need one, but for a first-time camper, I think it’s best.” Jackson pulled one of his backpacks out of the Jeep and laid it on the ground. “You want to give it a try?”
I crouched down and touched the bundle with one finger. “That’s it?”
“Yep. You can touch it. It won’t bite. The tarp goes first.”
Ignoring my still unsteady hands, I rolled my eyes. I was used to unpacking delicate equipment, so surely I could figure this out. I unrolled the tarp until it was flat. I unzipped the nylon and started laying the parts out on the ground while Jackson watched. “Now the poles,” he said.
They weren’t hard. They snapped together in a frame that made sense.
“Okay, you just did that faster than some of my teammates. What gives?” he asked.
“Genius intellect?”
He smiled.
“Seriously, I have pretty good spatial awareness.” I threaded the fabric over the tent poles until we had a dome-like shape. “I’m guessing the stakes go next.”
“Yep.”
“Are you just going to stand there and watch me?” I asked.
“I am,” he said.
I grabbed the small hammer that had been tucked inside the tarp, and found the loops at the edges where the stakes went, and hammered them into the ground. I stood with my hands on my hips. “Does that pass inspection?”
Jackson gave the tent a good shove. It rocked, but it didn’t collapse.
“Pretty darn good,” he said. “Now you know how to do it.”
I squinted at him. “Did you plan that? Was that your sneaky way of cheering me up -- getting me to see that I could do something?”
“I promise I am not nearly that good at understanding human behavior. I just know that it feels good to accomplish something. And doing something physical helps get your head back on straight.”
The light from the golden sunset illuminated Jackson. I could look at him all day and night. “I think it’s pretty wise.”
“I’ll take all the compliments I can get,” he said.
“You deserve quite a few,” I said. “I’m serious.”
He ignored what I’d just said and walked off. “Next we need firewood,” he said over his shoulder. He walked closer to the treeline and picked up a stick. “This is what you need.”
I guess he didn’t want to talk about himself.
“Have you ever built a fire?” he asked.
I shot him a look. “What do you think?” When I was allowed to do activities as a child, they included things like tennis, and boating, and golf. Things that can be done in a country club. Nobody starts fires in a country club. Not if they want to stay out of jail.
He showed me step by step how to build a campfire, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He brushed the dirt off his hands and stood up. “Before long, you’ll be a survivalist.”
“I doubt that,” I said. “Now what?”
“Usually I’d cook on the open fire.” He pulled a small pan out of the backpack and unfolded the handle. “Are you hungry?”
“A little. Did you bring food?” I asked.
“I have a few things. But, most of the time I hunt.”
“What do you hunt?”
“Up here, mostly ducks. Some deer.”
“Wow.” Was there anything Jackson couldn't do?
“You’re not horrified?”
“No,” I said. “I’ve never been upset by hunting, not if it’s done for eating.”
“I can teach you that too.”
I didn’t want to be a survivalist exactly, but I wanted to know how to take care of myself. There were basic skills I’d never learned, skills that even the other rich kids learned, but I didn’t because my parents were always too busy. “That would be fabulous.”
We sat by the fire, and Jackson pulled out a packet of dehydrated pad thai, and dumped it in the small stainless steel pan. “It’s not gourmet, but we only need water.” He showed me how to cook the food over the open flame.
“I didn’t bring plates,” he said. “Or an extra fork. I didn’t expect to have a guest with me.”
“I don’t mind sharing,” I said. There was a lot I wouldn’t mind sharing with Jackson.
“Camping chairs are a little beyond my capacity,” he said. “But there’s an old towel in my Jeep.”
He handed over the pot and fork, and I took a big bite. Thai sauce went all over my face.
Pretty sexy, Loren. Way to go.
Jackson laughed, but he handed me a towel. “That’s your napkin for today. You’ll have to wash it out when you’re done. “
“I wish we had some marshmallows and chocolate.”
“I'll tell you what. If we get lucky enough to catch a few fish, I’ll be able to cook them on the fire.”
“That sounds delicious,” I said. “Do you bathe here?” I asked, pointing to the lake.
“I’d usually rinse off in the lake and use my shower bag if I need soap, but tonight we can use the campground facilities. And when you need drinking water, I have water sanitizing tablets.” He pulled out a small bar of soap and shampoo, gave me a pair of his flip flops and a towel. “I’ll show you where they are.”
I didn’t argue. Having him walk beside me was a relief. Inside the bare-bones shower, I washed my hair. The hot water not only got me clean, it felt like I was scrubbing the stress of the day off my body.
I got dressed in my spare outfit and brushed my teeth -- thank God I’d packed at least that much in my oversized Hermes purse, even if the stupid thing had gotten me mugged. When I walked out, Jackson was waiting on me. He’d clearly showered too. His thick black hair was starting to curl in spots, and his t-shirt was damp in spots, clinging to his chest and shoulders. Through the thin fabric, I could see way more of his strong muscles. I wanted to put my hands on them.
“I’ve only got one sleeping bag, but you can have it,” he said. “As I mentioned, I’ve slept in far worse places than here.”
“I don’t mind sharing it, if you don’t.”
Jackson lifted his eyebrows. “I’d ask if you’ve ever shared a tent with someone, but I already know the answer. We’d be very close.”
&nbs
p; I wanted to be closer to him. I’d been paralyzed with fear earlier in the day, when that asshole tried to take my purse. And I’d been so excited about traveling alone. I wasn’t going to let some thug ruin my trip.
And by some stroke of luck, I was rescued by a smoking hot soldier, one who was older than me. My life-long fantasy had come true. What was the saying? Carpe diem? I was going to seize the day.
When would I be alone with a guy like Jackson again? One that was such a true gentleman at heart, despite his fierce exterior? “I’m one-hundred percent sure.”
“If it’s too snug, or we get too warm, we can unzip it and cover up with the sleeping bag.” Jackson laid the bag out flat and then crawled in and I came in next. “Now zip the flap shut,” he said.
I did, and now it was time for me to lie down. I’d slow-danced with a few guys, and I’d kissed a lot of them, but I’d never had any real privacy. Not like this.
I slid down into the sleeping bag. My bare leg brushed Jackson’s and a shiver went down my spine. “This is a lot bigger than the My Little Pony sleeping bag I took into my backyard,” I said.
“I’m a big guy,” he said. “I got the biggest size I could find.”
I laid down flat, and now I was only inches from Jackson.
I wanted to kiss him. What was the worst that could happen? He could say no, and I’d be humiliated. But I wouldn’t have any regrets. And at least I’d know the truth.
He was lying on his side. I inched closer, trying not to be too obvious. His eyes were half closed, so I had to act now, before he fell asleep.
I licked my lips and leaned in. I pressed my mouth against his, just barely touching. Jackson acted immediately. He surged forward and covered my mouth with his. His mouth was searing-hot, and he tasted of peppermint. He immediately took over the kiss, licking into my mouth.
The feel of his hot tongue in my mouth spurred me into action.
Acting on instinct, I pushed my hips forward. Through my thin pants, I felt his erection. I’d felt a guy’s hard cock before, when they brushed up against me on a dance floor. But this was different. My stomach flipped over.
Then Jackson’s strong hands were on my shoulders. “You’re playing with fire,” he said.
