by J. S. Scott
Even though I loved steamy romance, I didn’t exactly broadcast it, except to my friends who read the same type of books.
Unfortunately, I’d gotten so lost in the hot fairy tale that I obviously hadn’t heard my first student arrive.
I shaded my eyes and looked up, curious because the voice was familiar, but I was pretty sure that since I lusted after Eli Stone, I was hearing that whiskey-smooth baritone voice only in my imagination.
My heart skittered as I focused in on the face belonging to the sexy male voice.
It was Eli Stone, and I gaped at him like an idiot because I couldn’t seem to reconcile him and being out in the middle of nowhere.
I scrambled to my feet, feeling at a disadvantage because I was so far below him. But the position change didn’t help all that much. I was average height, and Eli Stone was all muscle—broad, tall, and pretty damn intimidating, even though he was casually dressed in jeans, a T-shirt that only showed how ripped he was, and a pair of hiking boots.
For just a moment, my eyes were drawn to the dark scrolls and sharp angles of the tribal tattoo that covered his left arm, ending at his wrist. The markings were a stark black against his tanned skin, and the ferociousness of the design left me speechless.
I wasn’t into tats, and I’d seen Eli’s in images many times, but there was something about those markings that made my heart lodge in my throat. They were fierce, but for some reason they only made me feel . . . sadness.
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked hesitantly as my gaze went back to his face.
He folded his muscular arms in front of him as he answered, “You didn’t seem to want to come to me, so I’m coming to you. I’m your student for the next thirty-two hours or so, Jade.”
I might not have been fond of Eli Stone, but his presence was still a little bit overwhelming.
Okay, maybe more than a little bit.
It had been so long since I’d seen Eli in person that I’d started to tell myself that I’d overestimated the tension that had flowed between us in his office.
But I really hadn’t.
My body was taut just from being in close proximity to him, and the hypervigilant awareness I felt when I looked at him was very, very real.
The feelings were so powerful that I couldn’t focus on anything else but him.
I didn’t understand it.
But I was truly experiencing it.
The same awkward, potent attraction I’d fought in his office months ago.
I swallowed hard, my brain working to figure out exactly how I could get rid of Eli Stone before I made a complete and total fool of myself.
CHAPTER 3
ELI
Jade Sinclair looked like a deer in the headlights right now, and I could sense her panic.
Oddly, I didn’t really want her to be intimidated by me. She sure as hell hadn’t been when we’d met in my office.
Was it because we were alone in the middle of nowhere?
I suspected that wasn’t the case, since she was out here routinely with people she didn’t know.
Why in the fuck is she so afraid of me?
Granted, I’d lied to her when I told her in my office that I’d just wanted to see why she wanted to buy a piece of land that was worth almost nothing. But the truth was, I’d been intrigued by her reported character and skills for a long time.
One of my college acquaintances, a fellow adventure seeker, had taken one of Jade’s advanced survival classes, and he’d told me about her.
She had a reputation in the San Diego area of being one of the best survivalists around.
When I’d gotten the opportunity to see her in person, I’d taken it.
Yes, I had been curious about why she wanted some worthless property. But that hadn’t been my main motivation for wanting to meet her.
Unfortunately, I’d gotten caught up in a crisis right before her appointment time, so I’d had to make her wait.
I sure as hell hadn’t wanted to put off the meeting, but I’d been wrestling with an issue that could cost a lot of people their jobs, so I hadn’t had any choice.
I’d been relieved that she’d still been there when the crisis was over. Rather than discussing extreme survival with her, I’d ended up getting punched in the gut by the most beautiful, composed, outspoken, and entirely irresistible woman who had ever crossed my path.
She’d been nothing like I’d expected.
But everything I’d wanted just the same.
Since I was very much an amateur survivalist, I’d wondered if I could talk her into teaching me some of the things I didn’t know. I had limited time, so I was going to try to convince her to teach me specifics to save time.
Unlike my acquaintance who had taken her class, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the fact that a female knew more than I did about survival.
In fact, I’d been . . . intrigued.
Problem was, I hadn’t planned on being attracted to her.
For some unknown reason, I wanted Jade Sinclair more than I’d ever wanted any other woman in my bed.
And I was determined to make it happen.
I had to have her to shake her out of my system. I was pretty damn tired of thinking about her so much that I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t keep my mind on work, and couldn’t keep my dick deflated because she was becoming an obsession for me.
Unfortunately, getting her to spend time with me had been impossible. But I wasn’t the type of man to admit defeat.
“You have to go,” she finally said. “The class is full.”
“I know,” I answered. “I bought all of the spots over a month ago, plus I made a healthy donation to Save the Wildlife Corridors Fund that should go through today.”
The shock on her face was nothing short of adorable. I knew I really should stop baiting her, but I couldn’t help myself.
I wanted her.
And I never lost a deal or a competition that I really wanted to win.
I might have been born wealthy, but the empire I’d created after my father had passed away two years ago was all dogged determination. I never gave up when I knew I had to negotiate.
And there wasn’t much I wasn’t willing to put on the table to get a deal with Jade.
“I’m not doing this,” she said, her chin going up. “You’d treat this class like a joke, and it’s something that’s important to me.”
“Not even for a seven-figure donation to your charity?” I queried. Yeah, I kind of felt like a dick because I was trying to sway her with money. But her passion for wildlife was obviously a motivating factor for her, and I used any weaknesses I could find.
Her jaw dropped. “You gave that much to SWCF? Why?”
“Like you said, it’s important to you.”
“You could have just donated the land I wanted,” she said suspiciously.
I shook my head regretfully. “I can’t do that, Jade. And this isn’t a joke. A friend took one of your advanced courses. He sang your praises, even though he was a little intimidated that a woman was teaching him. I was impressed. I could use more survival skills. I have a lot of hobbies that could leave me in a situation where I need the information you could teach me to survive.”
Okay. Maybe that was just a little bit of bullshit, too, since I already had basic survival skills because of the extreme challenges I did on a regular basis. But I had to appeal to her sense of fairness somehow. And truthfully, Jade could teach me a lot more than I already knew.
Jade was intelligent and pretty much fearless, if the stories I’d heard were true.
Maybe she was a challenge, but it was more than that.
In the last several years, very little had intrigued me. But Jade did. And once my interest had been piqued, there had been no turning back.
I wanted to get to know her almost as much as I wanted to fuck her, which was new for me.
“Maybe I’m not all that good,” she challenged. “But I’ll teach you what I can, since you seem to need t
o be on television every damn week, so I assume you aren’t going to stop doing ridiculous challenges anytime soon.”
God, she’s stubborn, but I kind of like that about her.
Jade was a woman with fire. She’d just never found anybody to stoke the flames, and I was determined to be the man who did.
She reminded me of a beautiful butterfly who was still struggling to get free of her cocoon. Obviously, she had some hang-ups, but I wasn’t one to talk about that, since I was more fucked up than she could ever be.
“I don’t need to be on television,” I argued.
“For somebody who claims to not want attention, you certainly get plenty of it,” she grumbled.
She was right. I did get international recognition. I took on some crazy things that most normal people would never volunteer to do. “It’s always for a good cause. Most of the events I do are for charity.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “And the rocketry company?”
“I do that for myself, and hopefully it will someday benefit future generations. But most of the things being done there now are research and development. We need better systems and equipment before we can do test runs.”
I was determined not to lie to Jade again. I sensed that she’d appreciate honesty a whole lot more. Not that I was all that good at being candid, but there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to get Jade in my bed.
Starting at the top of her dark head, my eyes roamed over her to try to figure what it was about this woman that had my dick tied in knots.
Jade had an earthy beauty that had captured me at first glance. Her mass of thick, dark hair was secured in a ponytail at the back of her head, but the simple style just made her blue eyes brighter. Her body was curvy, but extremely fit, a form I was quickly becoming drawn to much more than any thin model had ever tempted me.
I liked every single thing about her, even her inherent bullheadedness.
“I won’t go easy on you,” she warned.
Jesus! I was pretty sure that Jade could use me any way she wanted, and I found that rather perplexing.
I like control.
I need control.
Yet something about this particular woman had made me want to throw my desire for self-discipline out the damn window.
Keep the crazy going!
I grimaced as the words ran unwanted through my brain.
Maybe I did keep doing things that some people thought were the mad stunts of an out-of-control rich guy, but none of them knew just what I was made of underneath.
I was calculated.
I was careful.
I planned everything out in advance.
I really wasn’t that big of a risk taker. I was just confident in what I could and couldn’t do.
Maybe I needed that mastery of myself to balance out the crazy, and I did what I had to in order to stay sane.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I told her.
“What survival experience do you have?”
I shrugged. “I survive in a world of business sharks.”
She shook her head. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Not as much as you have,” I confessed. “But I’m fairly handy to have around. I like working with my hands.”
I saw a momentary hesitation flicker in her eyes, but she quickly masked it. Was she trying to decide if my words were actually an innuendo?
They were.
But she was obviously trying to give me a pass because she wasn’t quite sure.
Behind Jade’s brave front, I could see her vulnerability. She was probably much too naive in some ways, but I kind of liked that, too.
For some reason, I really hated the game we had to play right now. Although it worked well in business, I didn’t like to see the wary look in her beautiful eyes when she glanced at me.
She was leery, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. Honestly, my beautiful butterfly should be running as fast as she could to get away from me.
“We usually start with foraging and looking for anything that will be helpful as we locate a water source,” she said carefully. “Did you bring the required items for the class?”
“Yep. Right here,” I said as I picked up my backpack.
“Did you check it yourself?”
“No,” I admitted. “My assistant got everything together for me. I was on a tight schedule.”
“First rule of survival . . . check everything yourself. Nobody cares more about your life than you do.”
Okay. I could live with that. I usually did check everything myself, because I was pretty much a perfectionist. Nobody cared about my conglomerate more than I did, so I stayed involved on all levels.
She continued, “Check your stuff and drop your backpack inside. Then we’ll move out.”
I went inside without an argument because what she said made perfect sense.
I smiled as I riffled through the items that had been prepared for me. Jade was bossy, and not unlike a diminutive, lovely drill sergeant when she was in her element.
I suddenly frowned as I realized even that made my dick hard.
CHAPTER 4
JADE
A few hours later, I began to realize that Eli had some standard skills.
He’d surveyed the landscape, using the basic signs to find a small stream where we’d filled up water bottles. We still had to boil the water, but Eli had managed to use his knowledge to find it.
Grudgingly, I had to admit that he really was interested in primitive survival.
I’d taught him some advanced skills, like how to make an underground still if he couldn’t find an obvious source of water, and a few more ways to get drinking water in other climates.
He listened, which made my irritation with him fade away a little.
I’d expected him to scoff at everything I said or the things I tried to teach him. Instead, it had been exactly the opposite. Eli Stone seemed to suck up knowledge like a sponge, and he asked a lot of intelligent questions.
“What are these?” he asked as he stopped on the hiking path we’d been following back to camp.
I came to a halt next to him, reaching for his hand as he went to touch the small fruit bush. “Be careful,” I warned as I gripped his fingers lightly. “These are really thorny. They’re Natal plums, and the red fruit is edible, but the stems and leaves are toxic.”
I let go of his hand and plucked one of the bright-red fruits from the tree. Pulling the knife I was carrying from its sheath on my belt, I carefully cut an edible portion and handed it to him.
The fact that he didn’t hesitate to eat it, obviously trusting my knowledge without question, made me smile as I popped a piece of fruit between my own lips.
Rather than being a pain in my ass as I’d completely expected, Eli was a perfect student, and I’d been intrigued by the sensible facts he already had stored in his head. Not that I, in any way, thought he was a nice guy, but he wasn’t as bad as I imagined him to be.
Unfortunately, that sexual tension in the air was ever-present, making it uncomfortable at times.
If I wasn’t so damn attracted to him, I could probably enjoy his company.
“It tastes kind of like a cranberry,” he said after he’d swallowed.
I nodded. “Sweet and sour.”
He shot me a grin. “I find that flavor very tempting lately.”
The flesh of the plum almost got caught in my throat, but I forced it down. I knew he was still playing his cat-and-mouse game, and that he was referring to me as the sweet and sour he found appealing. Unfortunately, the visual image his words conjured was automatic and vivid.
What would it be like to be devoured by Eli Stone?
I didn’t want to have imaginary images of that unlikely occurrence flash through my brain, but I couldn’t seem to control my errant thoughts.
I busied myself with cleaning my knife on nearby leaves and then shoved the blade back into its sheath. “We should get going,” I said breathlessly.
“Wait,”
Eli said as he caught my upper arm to stop me, then pushed me gently against a nearby tree as he added, “I know you don’t want to admit what we’re both feeling right now, Jade. You don’t want to talk about the fact that we’re attracted to each other. But can’t we just get it out there so you aren’t so suspicious of my motives, Butterfly?”
“I’m not a butterfly,” I said indignantly.
Did he really think I was a fragile, pretty living thing that had nothing better to do than flit from place to place?
“You are a butterfly,” he disagreed. “And I think you’re more than ready to emerge and fly free, but you haven’t found your way out of your safe place yet.”
God, it was almost terrifying that I pretty much felt the same way.
My body reacted immediately to being in such close proximity to his hot, hard, muscular body. My heart tripped as I looked up at him and saw the grim determination on his gorgeous face.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said hesitantly, even though his words had struck a chord.
The last thing I wanted Eli to know was that my lust for him was nearly uncontrollable. So wild that I wanted to burst out of my no one-night stands position inside my cocoon and let him teach me everything I wanted to know about hot, sweaty, orgasmic sex.
He caged me in by putting a strong arm on each side of my body. “That’s bullshit, Jade, and you know it. But if you won’t talk about it, I will. I’m not afraid to admit that I want to fuck you. That there’s not a single dirty thing I don’t want to do with you. And it’s driving me crazy.”
The tension between us was electric, and the strain in his expression mirrored my own frustration.
I pushed against his enormous chest. “I don’t just fuck any attractive man I see. That’s not who I am.”
He didn’t budge, not even as I applied as much force as I was able to.
“Then what do you want, Jade?” he rasped. “The desire is there for both of us. I know damn well that I’m not feeling this all by myself.”
“I want you,” I blurted out as our eyes met and held. “You’re an attractive guy. But I don’t like you.”
A flash of satisfaction moved across his face as he said, “You don’t know me.”
