“Well, I’m glad I exceeded expectations.” She huffed and leaned back onto the boulder, staring up at the sky beyond. It was starting to turn pink around the edges as the sun sank beyond the horizon. It would be dark soon, anyway. They wouldn’t have been able to hike on through the night, so at least she had the consolation that she’d made it through the entire day, even if she wasn’t certain that was going to assuage her injured pride.
He laughed and pulled the pack off his shoulders, glancing around them as if he were surveying the area before he replied. His fingers scratched through the stubble that was already starting to show after only one day of not shaving along his jawline. He glanced back at her once he was done.
“This is a pretty good place to settle for the night. I can set up a camp stove and the tent over there, and we can tuck in after dinner for a good night’s sleep. I’m pretty sure we’re both going to need it after today.”
No matter how infuriated with him and the entire situation Celeste might be, she wasn’t going to argue with the fact that a hot dinner and a good night’s sleep was exactly what she wanted right now. Honestly, she would have given just about anything to be back at her apartment and sink into a full tub of hot water and a bath bomb, but this was going to have to do until then.
“Alright, just let me know what you need help with.” She didn’t want to move, but she was going to push off this rock as soon as he gave her the word that he needed her to do something. He put one hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down into a sitting position the second he tried to move.
“You sit right there, Princess. Rest that foot. I’m not going to be the one who makes you get up on a twisted ankle and set up camp even if you are a stubborn ass who refused to give up on hiking until you were aching like a ninety-five-year-old woman.” He grabbed the pack she’d dropped by the side of the rock and carried it to the nearby clearing while she sat and watched, a little in shock the he’d realized how much pain she’d been in all along.
❖
It had probably been the longest day in Celeste’s entire life. She was absolutely exhausted, and camp wasn’t what she’d been expecting in the slightest. Drake had mentioned the fact that he’d brought a tent along for the two of them, though she couldn’t picture how a tent had fit into the two fairly small packs they’d been hauling along the trail all day.
When he went into her pack and pulled out a bundle about the size of a basketball, then unfurled it into the smallest tent she’d ever seen in real life, she realized exactly what he meant by a two-man tent. Two people were going to have to get really damned friendly to spend the night in a tent that size. She’d half expected him to pull out another one just like it and tell her they each had their own, but that didn’t happen.
“We’re seriously supposed to both fit in a tent that small?” She finally spoke up from the rock where he’d pushed her back down into a sitting position while he set up the tiny can of gas and burner that was their camp stove along with a tiny electric lantern he’d pulled from the pack to combat the fact that the sun was slowly sinking below the horizon.
“Well, I mean you can stay out here and pray it doesn’t rain, snow and no owls decide to use your nose as a perch if you feel like it. That’s a two man tent, and I’d be happy to have all the room to myself.”
“Two man tent?” She scoffed. “Two men would be sleeping in each other’s arms in that tent. Hell, I’m pretty sure you and I are going to have to spoon to fit in there, but I mean, if it’s that or sleeping with the coyotes… At least I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to eat me.”
The laugh that got from him sent the color rising into her cheeks again. She’d made a double entendre without intending to, but it was already out of her mouth before she could change her mind.
“Oh, Princess, I promise you’ll like it if I decide to.” He glanced up from his work at the camp stove with a wink and another laugh at the redness in her cheeks before he went back to lighting it up and balancing a small pot of water on top of the flame in the bracket that seemed perfectly made to hold it.
Celeste decided to keep her mouth shut from then on out. It seemed like every time she opened it she was just putting her foot inside it instead of accomplishing anything worthwhile. Every time she got one over on Drake, he made her pay for it. Maybe just staying silent for a while was the best option. She put all her focus on paying attention to what he was doing. He pulled a pouch from one of the backpacks once he got the water boiling, dumping its contents into the pot and stirring with a tiny spoon that he’d produced from one of the pockets of his pack.
It wasn’t long before the surrounding air was filled with the scent of stew. Celeste chanced getting up from her rock to move closer and watch him from a better vantage point. She regretted moving the moment she put all her weight on the ankle that she’d turned yet again.
She let out a tiny sound of pain and was half tempted to just sink back onto the rock behind her, but Drake was at her side before she could make a decision to move either direction.
“Come on, Princess, quit being a stubborn ass and let me help you over to the tent so you can at least have some dinner and get ready for bed, okay? I promise not to throw it up in your face that you needed my help in the morning, and if we wind up spooning in the tent over there, I won’t put it on my social media profiles or anything, I swear.” He laughed again, and Celeste decided to just give up.
“Fine, but only because I’m pretty sure I’m going to fall flat on my ass if I try to make it on my own.” He walked over to her after she agreed to help for the first time on the entire trip, offering her his arm to help her stand and letting her lean on him as she limped across the learning to where the tent was set up.
“At least you didn’t come hiking out here in those damned high heels. We’d both have fallen off the side of a mountain by now.” He laughed again, and she wasn’t sure if it was infuriating or endearing.
“I have more sense than you give me credit for, Drake. Besides, I’d like to see you try to walk a half a foot in them, much less all day.”
“I don’t think I’m cut out for heels, besides they’d make it hard to catch stray calves and the dogs would probably trip me up.”
They’d finally reached the campsite, and Drake lowered her to sit at the open end of the tent where he’d rolled out a couple of sleeping bags. The night air was getting cold, and when he brought over a cup of hot stew and a spoon to where she was sitting, Celeste wasn’t certain that she’d ever had food that tasted quite that good, even if she didn’t want to say so. It was bad enough that he was getting the satisfaction of having to help her through the trip. He was far more experienced than her. She had to give him that, but she was already mad at herself for not being able to at least keep up.
He settled down on a log near the tent, and tucked into his food without speaking, though she wasn’t sure why or if she’d done something to offend him. The sounds of the woods around them grew more noticeable in the silence, and the world slowly began to darken around them until the stars were erupting above them one by one. Celeste didn’t think she’d ever seen so many stars in all her life.
She got a little lost in looking up, so much so that she half forgot about the cup of hot stew in her hands.
“I know my cooking is bad, but I figured you’d be a lot hungrier than that, Princess.”
She shook her head at him before rolling her eyes.
“The food is fine, Drake. I just haven’t ever seen this many stars in my life. You can’t actually see any of them in Los Angeles. There’s too much light even late at night. It’s almost as bright in Denver, even if I’ve seen a few of them. I guess I didn’t even realize how many of them there were.” She glanced up again before returning her attention to the cup of stew in her hand.
“Yeah, that was one of the things I missed when I lived in LA.” He trailed off, putting his attention back on the food.
“Wait a damn minute? You lived in Los Angeles?”<
br />
“Don’t tell me you don’t know my ex-wife. You’re my lawyer, so I don’t know what I’m paying you for if you haven’t done your research. She wanted to live there, so we gave it a go. It just turned out that it worked out better for one of us than the other.”
Celeste seemed to have half-forgotten that Drake had been married before, and that it had been to Vanessa Archer one of the bigger names around Hollywood these days. It had even further slipped her mind that he must have spent time in LA with her. It just seemed so out of character to imagine Drake in the city. She couldn’t really even picture him in Denver, much less in somewhere more metropolitan like Los Angeles.
“Yeah… I mean I know who she is, and where she lives and all the details. I think I’ve seen her around a time or two back in the city. It’s just… it doesn’t seem to fit you?” She stumbled over her words, not certain how to say what she was thinking without stepping all over his toes.
“That’s the understatement of the year.” Drake glanced down at the mug in his hand without any more commentary on whatever was running through his head. “So, I’m done eating. I’m guessing you’re pretty close. The sun is down, and there’s not going to be much of a moon tonight. Instead of sitting around in the dark and reminiscing, what do you say about us going to bed?”
He’d changed the subject, but she wasn’t going to push it any harder.
“Alright, Drake. I’m exhausted anyway, so I think a good night’s rest would do the both of us a world of good.”
8
It had been easy enough to talk Celeste into heading to bed. The truth was, Drake had had enough of that line of conversation. He didn’t like thinking about the time he’d spent living in Los Angeles. All it had succeeded in doing was leaving him jaded with most of humanity. He much preferred animals to people these days, but for some reason, he was actually enjoying having Celeste on this damned camping trip with him.
He’d figured it would be a chore, that he’d wind up babysitting her through the entire trip just to prove a point, but it hadn’t really occurred to him that she hadn’t ever seen what the stars looked like out on the mountaintops this kind of year. The colder air gave them an ever crisper quality than the summer would have. It was just the perfect time of year to out here. Cold enough so that you knew when it was time to go to bed and not so cold you were going to freeze to death at night. He’d still brought a pair of subzero sleeping bags for them to curl up inside for the night anyhow.
The tent was a standard two-person tent, but anyone who’d ever used one of those before knew it meant that you were getting up close and personal with anyone you shared the tent with. He couldn’t have afforded the backpack space for two of them, and there was nothing bigger he was going to be able to have the two of them carry up into the mountains so this was it. Maybe if Celeste saw how cramped quarters were going to be, she would cut the trip in half and have them hike it out of there after the first night.
Mostly, though, she was just so tired that it didn’t matter to her how tight the fit in the tent was. Drake hadn’t thought it was going to be a problem for himself, but he hadn’t counted on the exact combination of things that was going to conspire to keep him awake.
It seemed like Celeste fell asleep as soon as she got zipped into the sleeping bag. The tent was such a tight fit that the two of them had to slide in on their sides to get into the confined space which essentially left Drake spooning Celeste as she slept peacefully molded into his body. At first, it hadn’t been a problem, but when she slowly melted into him as sleep took her, it left almost her entire weight pressed against his body which responded like any other guy’s would have with a beautiful young woman essentially curled into his chest. In the end, there was nothing he could do, but drape his arm around her and just let her cuddle into him in her sleep.
If only things had left off there, maybe Drake could have brought himself around to sleep eventually, but it was as if everything was working against him tonight. As it turned out, Celeste talked in her sleep. At first it was amusing. She kept babbling about something incoherent he couldn’t quite make out in spite of the fact he was listening pretty intently. It was funny until the one word he made out was his own name.
“Drake…” He had no idea what she was dreaming about, but it included him. It didn’t help that the next sound that came out of her mouth was a soft whimpering moan.
Drake let out a moan and stared up at the roof of the tent. It was too close for him to roll over and try to get away without waking her, so he was struck with laying there listening to whatever played out. It only got worse from there.
She kept up the whimpering and the moaning as she squirmed against him, and even though there were two sleeping bags between them, it was absolute torture.
“No, we shouldn’t… I work for you.” That one was followed by her rolling her weight back into him and letting her arm fall between the two of them.
He wouldn’t have thought her possible of pulling him in with that much strength even when she was awake, but with her arm free of the sleeping bag, she looped it around his body and rolled back into him brushing a kiss across his lips. He wanted to return it. It had been the thing he’d wanted more than anything since she’d started up with this whole ‘anything you can do I can do better’ spiel. But it wasn’t fair for him to take advantage of the fact that she was asleep. Instead, all he could do was let her get whatever this was out of her sleep drugged system and try to fall asleep.
Finally, she pulled away, draping her arm around his body and soothed herself from whatever fevered dream she was involved in. He would have liked to have had a fly on the wall view of whatever was playing out behind those still closed eyes, but he was just going to have to judge based on the way she’d behaved. It was entirely out of character for Celeste, but he’d just met her. In all honesty, he had no way of knowing how she behaved when she wasn’t trying to be professional.
If you’d asked him earlier in the day, he’d have sworn she hated him, but now, there were other possibilities playing out in his mind. This camping trip just took on an entirely different dimension, and if she was going to keep on playing these tough city girl games, then he could play a game of his own.
Maybe it gave him an unfair advantage to be privy to her dreams, but he wasn’t necessarily a fan of playing fair when you had the upper hand. Now it was all just a matter of making this trip as torturous as she’d managed to make his night.
One of two things was going to happen, either she was going to crack and wind up in his arms or she was going to run away screaming. Either way, he came out on the winning end of the stick. He was going to have a gorgeous smart woman in his arms, or he was going to send her running back to the city as soon as she could catch a flight out of Denver and back to Southern California.
She had a lot of potential. He had to admit that to himself. She was determined, smart and stubborn. Every one of those qualities reminded Drake of himself, but she was impractical at times, and far too hung up on heading back to that hell hole of a city she’d grown up in. Maybe she couldn’t help it. She’d never experienced life outside of that urban sprawl and didn’t know what she was missing. There was hope yet for Celeste. Now, it was just a matter of whether she was going to rise to the occasion or run screaming.
Drake wasn’t certain how late it was when he finally got to sleep, but he knew it was well past midnight when he was finally able to turn off the wheels turning in his mind and drift off. He did know that he had a plan formed for the next few days that were designed to torture Celeste in the worst possible way, and he was going to have the time of his life enacting it.
9
Celeste had no idea what time it was when she woke to a blindingly brilliant sun peeking in through the open zipper of the tiny tent. She’d had the strangest night and the strangest dreams. She supposed that the combination of being absolutely exhausted and crammed in such a small space with someone she had to admit to herself she was physical
ly attracted to made for the oddest combination. She would have blushed if she’d been asked to recount what had played on in her mind overnight out loud to anyone, even her closest girlfriend.
Drake was technically her boss. There was no way she should be having thoughts like that about one of her clients. She knew better than that. She’d even remembered saying as much in her dreams, but it hadn’t stopped much of what had happened after that. In fact, there was something about it being slightly forbidden that made it that much better. At least that’s what she remembered from the series of dreams that had come to her in her sleep. It had been far more than one, but one dream in particular stood out in her dreams.
Maybe it was because she’d dreamed of exactly the scenario that the two of them had found themselves in. Zipped up together in a tiny tent out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but each other to keep warm with, only there was far less than two sets of clothes and two sleeping bags between them in her dream. Her lips still felt like they stung from the searing kiss that had led to the two of them wrapped up in each other’s arms.
That kind of dream back at home would have ended up with Celeste spending far more time than necessary in the shower before she got herself together for the rest of her day. It would have at least given her a chance to get it out of her system, but here in the woods, she wasn’t going to be alone long enough to take care of the tight knot of energy that had seated itself in her abdomen.
She was alone in the tent for the time being, but the noises just outside the thin layer of fabric told her that Drake was close by. She sat up with a soft groan, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and squeezing her thighs together trying to find even the slightest release.
Drake: A Rocky Mountain Romance Page 5
