Celeste could hear the amusement in his voice, and she hated the idea that he might be laughing at her. However, there was this little part of her brain that told her maybe the best way to shut him up was to land a kiss on his lips. She had to push that to the side. Never mind the fact that it would be the least professional thing she could do, she really didn’t like Drake Fulton. She wanted to impress him. She needed to show him that she was capable of doing everything he could do and more, but that was the end of it. She had no idea where that intrusive thought had come from.
“Hopefully,” Celeste just let the ideas that had popped into her head unbidden go and walked over to the packs. “So which one is mine?” She glanced back over her shoulder at Drake and waited on him to come over to her side.
“The smaller one. Didn’t want you to waste all your energy on the first day of the hike and be useless for the rest of the trip. Besides, it’s your first time. You’ll have to work your way up to being able to walk that far with a full pack on your back. Baby steps.” He still had that same damned grin on his face, and Celeste had to take a deep breath.
She turned her focus back to the packs in front of her and grabbed the larger one. She was going to show him she was in better shape than he imagined. It took a lot of muscle to walk in those high heels he talked about so much, and she’d spent more than her fair amount of time in the gym even back in Los Angeles. There was no way this could be that much harder than one of the 5k runs she’d been on. Celeste could hear his laugh as she shoved her clothes into the pack.
“Suit yourself, Princess. Just remember if you change your mind we can always switch.” He grabbed the remaining pack, using his foot and one hand to lever it off the ground and threw it over one shoulder.
Celeste shot him a glare and pulled her own pack up with two hands, maneuvering it to fit across her back and slid both arms through the shoulder straps before buckling everything into place. It was heavier than she’d expected, and she half suspected Drake had filled the thing with rocks just to piss her off.
“I’ll be fine, Drake. I’m sure I’m in good enough shape to manage. I just hope you can keep up. I mean you are getting older so I’m sure it’s harder to manage when the oxygen starts to get thin up in the higher elevations.” She tried to look as smug as she thought he looked every time she’d managed to steal a glance as she turned to face him. That damned smirk of his was still there even if she had managed to get in a strike against him.
“I’m sure we’ll both manage, Princess. Why don’t we make a little bet?” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and gave her another one of those grins that would have melted her from the inside out if it had come from anyone else.
“And what’s that?” She tried to match his stance, but there was no way she could completely hide the uncertainty in her voice.
“We’ll hike today until one of us calls uncle and we find a place to camp for the night. First one to give up loses.”
That was a bet she could live with, but on what terms?
“Fine, and if I win you stop calling me Princess, admit that I’m just as good at all of this as you, and stop giving me hell about my convertible. And we get down to business on all of this expansion. Deal?” She stared him down, waiting for his response.
“Deal, but you’re keeping that pack on the entire day. The minute you ask to swap packs the bet is off. And if I win, you owe me one favor. Anything I want, but just once. That fine with you?”
One favor. That was a wide open deal. He could ask for anything, and that tiny little part of Celeste’s brain that found him attractive was hoping he’d ask for something that involved the two of them hooking up. She was starting to call that part of her mind the cave woman half of her every time it popped up in her thoughts. The rest of her rational mind figured it would just be work related or something stupid like slopping out the horse stalls at the ranch for a week. Probably something entirely embarrassing and disgusting.
“That’s fine. Well,” she glanced down the trail they were about to head out on for the day, “why don’t we get started so you have plenty of time to give up?” This trail was one of the many in the area. Hiking was a big pastime here in Colorado, and she wasn’t surprised it was something that Drake was into or that he had asked her to join him out here on the trail.
“Ladies first.” Drake gestured down the trail and waited for Celeste to set out ahead of him with that same smirk back on his face.
“We both know that’s just so men can look at women’s asses while they walk ahead of them, but if you insist.” She was a little surprised at how snarky she’d become with a client, but Drake took it well. Most of the time, she was entirely professional, but professional had gone out the window as soon as the two of them had met. She wasn’t certain professional was ever going to be something the two of them found again. The best they could hope for was a friendly working relationship instead of outright hating each other at this point. Maybe that was the reason she was so determined to impress him. Maybe it was something else, but the desire was real. It was the driving reason behind everything she said and did at this point.
Celeste knew she and Drake both had a long day ahead of them, and if he was half as stubborn as he seemed it was going to take a lot to get him to admit defeat. She knew herself that she was way more stubborn than she let on, so the two of them would be walking until the beginning of the next century at this rate. She just hoped she was prepared for what she’d gotten herself into.
6
Drake could tell every stitch of clothes that Celeste had on was brand new. He could practically smell it on her. That could all be fixed all by a few days out in the wilderness. It wasn’t like there was plumbing or anything close to a hot shower out on the trail. At least she hadn’t brought an entire suitcase of clothes that the two of them had to fit into one of the packs. She was smart. He had to give her credit for that, but he was pretty certain she was overestimating her ability to keep up out on the trail. It wasn’t like she was in bad shape. He’d seen enough of the way she moved to know that she took care of herself, but out here on the trail there were an entirely different set of muscles that she was going to have to be able to use that she wasn’t going to be able to work out in the gym. Climbing, hiking, and even setting up camp took a lot out of a person, and if you weren’t used to doing things like that, it could wear you out faster than you realized.
Celeste had no idea. She was a city girl through and through. Camping wouldn’t have been on her repertoire of skills. She could probably shop like nobody’s business, and the way she fit into those jeans told him she’d been to more Pilates and aerobics classes than he would want to shake a stick at. The only thing she was right about so far this morning was his ‘ladies first’ comment. He wasn’t going to even try to stop himself from admitting she was attractive.
Attractive didn’t mean much through. At least not these days. He’d been through his spell with letting something attractive distract him from what he really wanted, and he wasn’t planning on letting that happen again. Not that he hadn’t loved his first wife. If he hadn’t loved her, he wouldn’t have tried making a go of the city as long as he had. He wouldn’t even have moved for her, no matter how much he begged. The fact that he was willing to sacrifice so much of what he held important for what she wanted said everything. It just so happened that sometimes love wasn’t enough, especially when someone had a goal that they weren’t going to let anything at all stop them from getting.
He could see that same drive in Celeste. She was stubborn, and she was used to getting what she set her sights on. He knew from his conversations with both her and Sam Albertson that she had her sights set on a managing partnership back in LA. This stint in Denver was nothing more than a speed bump on her way to getting there. He didn’t hate her for it, but it made him think the two of them had a little less in common than he might have otherwise believed. He liked her stubborn streak. It reminded him of himself, but he didn’t
like the idea that she was going to waste all those brains on living in a place where the only thing that mattered was whether or not you had a pretty face.
She had a pretty face, a pretty everything. More than pretty if he was honest with himself. There was more to it than pretty though. She was smart. She was driven. In any other set of circumstances he would have been openly attracted to her, but she had that one thing that was going to be the deal breaker for both of them. She wasn’t going to be here long. She was leaving as soon as she could. Those were her own words, and the last thing Drake was going to do was leave here ever again.
A long time ago, Vanessa had been a lot like Celeste. She was smart, she was beautiful, and she was driven. Driven meaning she was determined to have a career at modeling and spend the rest of her life in Los Angeles or whatever other damned city meant she could wake up no more than a five minute walk from a restaurant, coffee shop, and ideally, a boutique where she could buy clothes that cost more than his first truck. The difference was that she’d been born here in Colorado. Both of them had. She was bound and determined to get out of here though, just like Celeste seemed to be.
It was really a shame with how determined she was. She could have made a go of it out here in the mountains. It might even have suited her. Drake made sure to stay behind her on the trail. It would have been too easy for her to fall behind and hurt herself if he didn’t keep an eye on her. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she was tough. She was tough. She proved that in spades every time he challenged her to something different. The sheer fact that she was out here meant that she was determined, and that she’d made it this far without turning around and going home meant she was strong and tough. But she was a beginner. There were things out here in the mountains she had no idea how to deal with — pumas, bears, cliffs. Never mind the fact that she’d just recently sprained an ankle and moved from somewhere basically at sea level. There were a dozen things that could go wrong, and she wouldn’t know what to do.
He couldn’t avoid watching her though. It was easy enough. He could tell himself that it was all under the pretense of making sure she made it along the trail without any incidents, but he knew better. She was gorgeous. He was a red-blooded man with eyes, so it made sense that he was going to look.
* * *
❖
It was long past the time he’d expected her to give up, though. He was getting used to knowing that she was tougher than he’d guessed when she surprised him by going down all of a sudden. One minute she was right there in front of him, the next she was falling down a slope. At least it wasn’t too steep and didn’t lead to a sharp drop off. The two of them would have been in a heap of trouble if it had. He knew what had happened before he scrambled to help her to her feet again. She was only about twenty feet away when she came to a stop, but she was covered in leaves and twigs.
Her ankle had given way. It had to have been too much after half a day of hiking on a freshly injured ankle. Drake immediately felt bad about having put her up to a hike and camping trip this soon after the spill she took at the work site. He should have known better.
Drake was at her side before she could even manage to get up on her own. He reached over and plucked a twig from her hair right above her ear, giving her a concerned look.
“You alright there, Princess?” The glare she shot him at the nickname was priceless.
“Yeah, I’m going to be fine. I just tripped.” Celeste made an attempt to get up as Drake moved out of her way, allowing her enough room to maneuver.
He didn’t hesitate to reach out to steady her as she tried to get to her feet again and wobbled. This time he was there to catch her when she almost took another spill. This time she wound up in his arms, pressed against his chest instead of rolling down the rest of the hillside she’d managed to avoid the first time.
“Yeah, you’re fantastic there.” He chuckled and kept her there as long as she’d let him. She was warm, and he had to admit it had been a long damned time since he’d had a woman in his arms. There was something about it that had a knot tightening in the pit of his stomach. The things that had run through his mind earlier simply as a matter of course from being with a gorgeous young woman out in the middle of nowhere came flooding to the front of his mind and took over his thoughts.
“I’m fine. Just give me a minute to get myself back into sorts, and we can keep going.” He could see the grit in her eyes as she responded though she didn’t try to move away from his embrace and put her weight back on her own two feet for now. Drake took in a deep breath, steadying himself and supporting her weight as much as she would let him, but it was a struggle not to stop her from talking by pulling her in for the long kiss wanted to shut her up with since the minute she showed up at his ranch dressed in a pair of jeans for the first time.
“You don’t seem fine.” His voice was deep and husky, and he knew that keeping her this close was going to get dangerous for the both of them soon. It was either going to end up in her slapping him so hard he was going to be feeling it for days, or the two of them doing something they were both going to regret. So he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed when she finally pulled away, carefully putting her weight back on her own two feet.
“I wrenched my ankle on a loose rock. It’s still a little wobbly from the other day. It’s fine I promise.” Her mouth was set like she was determined not to make the mistake of leaning on him for help again.
Her first steps were unsteady, and Drake was worried he was going to have to catch her to keep her from falling again. When he went in to stand close enough to be there in case she needed him again, she waved him off.
“I told you, I’ve got it.” Her voice was hard like the rock she’d said she twisted her ankle on again, and he pulled away.
“Alright, Princess, suit yourself. But if you break your leg out here, I’m not carrying you back to civilization. You want to be on your own you’ve got it.” He steeled himself and prepared to keep on walking. If she was going to push off any offer of help from him just because she was stubbornly trying to push through another sprained ankle, then he wasn’t going to stand in her way. Let her go ahead and learn the lesson the hard way if that’s what she needed to do.
7
Every step was excruciating, but Celeste would have died rather than admit how much pain she was in. Admitting it out loud would have meant stopping for the evening, and that would have meant that she was losing the bet. She was still in the lead of the pair as they made their way up the trail, higher and higher in elevation. She was pretty sure that was on purpose. He was expecting her to fall again. She saw it in the way he’d watched every step she’d taken since they’d left the cars behind.
When she’d finally gone down, she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks in embarrassment while he came to her rescue. It made her feel like everything he expected her to be — a spoiled city girl who wasn’t going to be able to pull her own out here on the trail. Then when he’d caught her from the second fall and kept her close to his chest, she felt the heat travel from her cheeks down into the rest of her body. It was like she forgot how to walk for a moment.
And there he was calling her Princess and acting like she couldn’t walk on her own. It just made her more determined not to give in to the stupid urges the cave woman in her head kept droning on about and focus on making sure she showed him exactly what she was capable of out on the trail even if that meant every step sent a shock of burning pain from her ankle up her calf. She’d walked in heels that made her wish she could cut her feet off at the ankles at plenty of parties. This wasn’t much different than that. At least that’s what she kept telling herself, but as the day wore on, it became increasingly clear that she was going to be the one who gave up first. Drake wasn’t out of breath, didn’t seem winded in the slightest, and here she was struggling to put one foot in front of the other until finally she just couldn’t take it anymore.
Celeste sank her entire weight onto one of the boulders a
t the edge of the path with a sigh. She frowned, furrowing her brows as Drake came to a stop in front of her. She wanted him closer. Denying that to herself would have been a lie, but he was just far enough away that she couldn’t feel the heat off his body against her now chilled skin. Even though she’d worn plenty of clothes, the late fall air up here in the mountains was colder than anything she’d ever experienced back in Los Angeles. Maybe she wasn’t as cut out for this as she thought.
“I quit. I give up. I lose…” Celeste threw her hands up in the air and let them fall limply down at her sides. She could already feel the aching setting into her muscles. She was going to pay for overdoing it tomorrow, and there wasn’t anything she was going to be able to do about it. Add to that humiliation the fact that she was sitting here and losing on her end of the bet for the day. She was well and thoroughly embarrassed, but she wasn’t going to let that show either. She was as good at hiding her emotions as she was at hiding the pain that she was going through until all became too much.
“You made it longer than I expected, to be honest. I figured you’d give up after that fall.” The smug look on his face made him even more handsome. Of course, he would be the winner, and of course he would be smug about it, and of course, it would make her insides melt to see it written all over his face. Celeste cursed her body for betraying her inside no matter how good she was at keeping a cool exterior. Much like being able to hide the pain in her foot, there was going to be a point at which the shell she had built up was going to crack, and she was going to wind up doing something stupid.
She hated and loved that grin he had on his face once she finally gave way, and she wasn’t sure what about it she loved and what about it drove her insane. She had that urge to kiss it off his stupid face again. That was going to get them both in trouble before all was said and done.
Drake: A Rocky Mountain Romance Page 4
