by Holly Renee
She turned her head slowly and looked up at me. I hated how much hesitation was in her eyes. It was hesitation that I put there.
I smiled at her to help ease some of the tension, and she hesitantly smiled back. I was opening my mouth to say something to her. What I don’t know, but something, when Kat’s voice rang out around the campground. “Where the hell is Erica?”
Erica shot up into a sitting position and looked at me with wide eyes. She looked panicked, but there was a small smile on her face. I sat up beside her and shrugged my shoulders. She giggled quietly before unzipping the tent and leaving this odd little bubble we had developed around us last night.
I didn’t want her to leave my tent. I didn’t want to face the world around us or anything that was outside of that bubble. I knew nothing had actually changed between us last night. She was just being Erica. The girl with a huge fucking heart. She wouldn’t let her worst enemy be hurt. I was example A. I had become her worst enemy.
I heard Kat’s shocked gasp as soon as Erica disappeared out of my tent. I reached for my t-shirt and slid it over my head as Kat’s head peeked into my tent. I think she was looking to see if I was in there. The look on her face was almost comical. That was until her confused face morphed into one of anger.
I braced myself for whatever she was about to say, but fortunately for me, Blake walked up behind her right before she was about to rip into me. “Come on, Kat. Leave them alone.”
I smiled at her, and it was a mistake. Her eyes squinted further, and she pointed two fingers at her eyes then at me. I couldn’t help but laugh.
I knew that she assumed I was an asshole and brought Erica in here under false pretenses. Hell, if I was her I would have thought the same thing.
I climbed out of the tent and into the bright morning sun. It smelled so good out here. The smell of the nearby river and woods combined with Erica’s scent across my skin was refreshing.
The tension around the campground was palpable, but this time it wasn’t from me and Erica. Everyone else was watching the two of us with eagle eyes. I knew the nosey bastards wanted to know what happened between us last night, but they didn’t dare ask while the both of us were present.
No one spoke for a few seconds so I decided to break the tension.
“What time are we heading hiking,” I asked while looking at Kat.
“As soon as we eat breakfast.” She had her hand on the curve of her hip and was still looking at me through slit eyes.
Erica hadn’t said much of anything since she had left my tent this morning. She was probably in the same state of mind as me. Stuck in the limbo of what are we doing.
Last night changed something between us. We had been avoiding each other for so long, and last night we crossed a line that we hadn’t dared come close to before. I knew that I wasn’t good enough for her, and every logical thought in my head told me to stay away from her. When I woke up from that nightmare and saw her gorgeous face staring down at me with tears in her eyes, I wanted to throw away every damn bit of logic that I possessed. I wanted to run my hands through her curls and hold on to her for dear life.
I was too selfish to stay away from her. I needed her in my life in one capacity or another. One thing I knew for sure was that I was through watching Johnny flirt with her right in front of my face.
She giggled at something he said as he leaned his head close to hers, and I was seconds away from tackling him to the ground. I don’t know what was coming over me. I had never been this protective over anyone besides my sister. That thought made me pause.
I walked up to the happy little duo and smiled at Erica. It took her by surprise, and I was happy by that. I liked throwing her off her game.
“You ready to go find this waterfall?”
She stared at me as if I had lost my damn mind, and maybe I had. Just yesterday we were avoiding each other like the plague.
“Yes?” She said it as if it was a question. She wasn’t sure of her answer or why I was asking.
I just smiled reassuringly at her. “Well let’s hit the trail. We’re burning daylight.”
I glanced over at Johnny, and he had his eyes narrowed at me as if he was suspicious of my behavior. I didn’t give a damn what he was suspicious about. I raised an eyebrow at him before walking off and following Erica toward Kat and Blake.
The trail was a rough one. I don’t know who picked it. Probably Blake, no doubt. I was in shape so it wasn’t an issue for me, but the girls were struggling. We stopped for a fourth water break.
“I can’t feel my legs.” Kat leaned against a rock as she squirted water into her mouth.
“I wish. I think I can feel every single muscle in my legs, and they are begging me to sit here for at least an hour.” Erica massaged her hands against her thighs.
“Get up. We’re almost there. You two can make it,” Blake rolled his eyes.
“Go on without us.” Erica raised her hand dramatically toward Blake. “Save yourselves.”
Blake groaned while I laughed. Erica looked up at me with an embarrassed smile on her face. It was almost as if she didn’t want to act like herself in front of me.
When we finally made it to the top of the trail, it was completely worth it. The waterfall was surrounded by the changing leaves in the trees. Oranges, yellows, and reds surrounded us as the water cascaded down the side of the mountain. It would have been beautiful all on its own, but watching Erica stand in front of the waterfall with her arms open wide, a giant smile on her face that was covered in sunlight was beyond anything else. Nothing compared to the view in front of me. Her curls were blowing around her face by the force of the waterfall. She looked like an angel.
My staring was interrupted by Kat’s squealing. I looked over to see Blake holding her in the air and threatening to throw her into the water. We both knew he wouldn’t, but Kat was laughing and screaming as if she was in a life or death situation. I couldn’t help but laugh with them. I wanted what they had. I ached for it. I would never be able to have it.
Erica began walking toward the waterfall and I couldn’t help gravitating toward her. I could see her trying to figure out how to get behind it, but she didn’t dare ask for help. She was too damn stubborn for that. She finally found a small opening that allowed her to walk behind the cascade of the waterfall and stand in the alcove behind it.
I followed her into the dark, damp area and watched her as she looked around. She pulled her arms around herself and rubbed her hands against her upper arms.
“You want my jacket?” As soon as the words left my mouth, she jumped and squealed. Her right foot slipped on the water, and I barely caught her before she hit the ground.
She slapped me in the chest. “You scared the living crap out of me!”
I smiled down at her theatrics, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “What the heck are you smiling at?”
I didn’t dare tell her that I was happy as hell to be holding her close to me again. Instead, I said, “You’re cute.”
“Cute?” She sounded outraged. “It is not cute to give someone a heart attack.” She pushed against my chest and out of my arms.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she winced in pain.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I scanned over her entire body.
“I think I turned my ankle.” She began hobbling around.
I leaned down and swooped her up with my arms beneath her legs and behind her shoulders.
“Put me down.”
“Not happening. Your ankle’s hurt, and we need to get back out into the light so I can check it out.”
She didn’t argue after that, but she didn’t hold on to me either. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted as I carried her back out to where Kat and Blake were still horsing around.
Kat stopped as soon as she saw us and walked straight to us. I sat Erica on a large rock and took her injured ankle in my hands.
“What happened?” Kat grabbed Erica’s hand and sat down beside her.
> “This asshole right here scared me so bad that I think I broke my ankle.”
I looked up at her disbelievingly and saw a large sneaky smile on her face.
Kat looked at me in outrage and put her hands on her hips. “Really, Gabe. Don’t you think you’ve hurt her enough?”
I saw Erica wince out of the corner of my eye so I decided to steer the conversation away from where Kat was taking it. We didn’t need to have that conversation with Kat and Blake present.
“First of all, her ankle isn’t broken. It may be sprained.” I moved her delicate ankle around in my hands. “Secondly, I didn’t mean to scare her. I was offering her my jacket because it was cold behind the waterfall.”
“Oh.” That was probably the shortest sentence I had ever heard Kat say.
“Let’s head back to the camp so we can wrap this up. I have an ace bandage in my bag.”
Kat and Erica stood up, and I shook my head as Erica began hobbling toward the trail. That woman was so stubborn.
I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her then stood in front of her. “Put your hands around my neck and jump on.”
“What?” She sounded appalled. “You are not carrying me all the way back to camp.”
“Yes. I am.”
“Not happening, Gabe. Move out of my way.”
I turned toward her and leaned in close to her ear so only she could hear me. “You either get on my back and let me carry you, or I’ll throw that sexy ass of yours over my shoulder and I’ll have an amazing view for the whole hike.”
She looked stunned when I leaned back to see her face, but I didn’t care. She wasn’t wobbling her hurt ass down this trail. It would happen over my dead body.
I turned away from her again and reached my hands behind me to get her legs. Her soft hands snaked their way around my neck softly, and I grabbed ahold of her thighs and lifted her onto my back. She tightened her arms around my shoulders to hold on as I started toward the trail. For a moment, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, but it had nothing to do with how tight she was holding me and had everything to do with how I never wanted to let her go.
With every step he took, my body bounced against his back. His strong arms held onto my legs as if I could fall off at any second, and I loved the feel of his rough hands against my skin. His scent surrounded me, and I couldn’t breathe in any fresh air that didn’t have the linger of Gabe in it. It was infuriating and refreshing. By the time we made it back to the camp, I was irritated, hurting, and completely aroused. It pissed me off.
He sat me on top of the picnic table as he went into his tent for his backpack. I watched his ass as he walked away from me. Good God. He may have been infuriating, but he was hot as hell. There was nothing that could change that fact.
He walked back out of his tent and toward me. He sat down on the bench in front of me. I pushed my thighs together to try to relieve some of the ache I was feeling between them, and his gaze was drawn to that exact spot. I took deep breaths as he grabbed my right foot and placed it in his lap.
I looked around for someone to help break this trance he seemed to have me in, but no one was around. Johnny and Cash were still fishing, and Kat and Blake walked down to the river to see how they were doing.
It was just me and the man I hated and loved more than any other.
He gently untied my tennis shoe and pulled it off along with my sock. He slowly ran his fingers of both hands from my calf down to my foot. I had to stifle my moan.
“What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
He looked up at me and his eyes shone with hunger. I started to press my thighs together again then I realized that my leg was still in his hold.
“I’m just making sure you haven’t hurt anything besides your ankle. Does it hurt when I touch your leg?”
He watched my face, and he slowly moved his fingers back up my calf. I had to close my eyes at one point because I was getting so turned on. How could him checking my injuries be so damn hot?
“Did that hurt?” His voice sounded husky.
I opened my eyes and shook my head no. He slid his hands back down the back of my calf and reached beside him for the ace bandage. He diligently wrapped the bandage around my ankle and secured it with a small clip.
“Thank you,” I said as I moved my leg around him to get off the table.
He stopped my movement with his hand on my thigh and pushed it back to the other side of him. He was sitting directly between my thighs now and his right hand was still on top of my thigh.
I tried to avoid looking down at him and prayed that Kat and Blake would come back at any moment. I was too overwhelmed with him this close to me. We hadn’t barely said two words to each other since he had been home, and now here he was once again between my thighs.
“I’m sorry.”
His words shocked me. I looked down at him half expecting to see someone else sitting there. Gabe didn’t do apologies. At least not with me.
“What?” My question was barely a whisper.
“I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry that I made you fall and hurt your ankle, and I’m sorry that I ever caused you any pain. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I never meant for you to get in as deep as you did.” He turned his face away from me as he said the last words.
“I didn’t think I was the only one that was getting in deep. That was what hurt the worst.” I knew I should have been ecstatic that he was apologizing, and I was, but I was also pissed.
“You don’t think I was in deep?” He swung his bright green gaze around to meet mine. “Why do you think I had to leave?”
“I don’t have a damn clue why you had to leave because you never let me in,” I practically growled at him.
My anger seemed to shock him momentarily, but he quickly replaced it with his own anger.
“I left because I knew that if we went any damn further than we already were that we would get hurt. I would hurt you, and it would wreck me.”
“Well, while you were protecting yourself, you managed to wreck me.” I pushed against his chest and swung my legs around to get off the table. He stopped me before my butt ever left the wood and stood in front of me. He leaned so close to me that I had to catch myself on my hands before I fell backwards.
“You don’t think I know that? You don’t think I know that I wreck everything that ever really means anything to me? You are too fucking good for me, Erica, and I’m well aware of that. I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I’m not sorry for what led to the wreckage. Thinking about you underneath me, on top of me, and surrounding me is the only way I can keep the nightmares away at night. So I’m sorry that I ever tainted you, but I don’t regret it for a second.”
I sat in shock as he walked away from me and toward his tent. He jerked the zipper down with too much force as he stepped inside.
I was confused. My body was on fire and begged for me to go after him, but my mind had no damn clue what was going on. Gabe was like fire and ice. I could never tell if he wanted me or if he was trying to push me away with everything he had.
My legs felt wobbly as I stood from the table. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I couldn’t just let our conversation end like that. We had made so much progress on being able to be around each other today, and he went and ruined it.
I gimped my way over to his tent and was about to open the zipper when I heard laughter. Blake, Kat, Johnny, and Cash were all walking back up to the campsite. I abandoned my mission and hobbled toward them. There was no way we were finishing this conversation with all of their nosy ears around.
I sat down next to the unlit fire pit and rested my hurt ankle on the chair next to me. Staring into the ashes from last night, I thought about what Gabe had just said. He was sorry that he tainted me? How did he taint me?
It killed me to know how badly he thought of himself. He wasn’t some bad guy who injected poison into anything he touched. Had he wrecked me? Yes. But the wreckage came from his abandonment, not from him letting me in
. Those few moments that he had let me in had been the best of my life. I just wasn’t sure why he couldn’t see that.
That was it. I had made my decision. If he wanted to play bad guys, then that was what we would do. I was going to prove to him that he was worth more than he thought, and I didn’t care if I had to play dirty to do it.
I knew it was pretty lame of me, but I faked a headache for most of the day and kept to myself. I could see Erica watching me every time I came out of my tent, but I didn’t dare look her way. I couldn’t believe I had said those things to her. I was trying my hardest to make her think I didn’t give a damn, but I just blew that out of the water in one damn conversation.
At dinner, I sat as far away from her as possible and joked with my boys. It felt good to be with them and laugh. Laughing wasn’t something I had been doing much of since I left. It was unusual for me. I was typically the one making everyone laugh. It made me feel bad. My bad mood wasn’t only affecting me. It was affecting my friends as well.
When night time finally rolled around and everyone got up to go to their tent, it took everything I had not to march over to her and pull her away from Johnny and into my tent. She belonged with me. Not in the tent of one of my best friends.
Instead of swallowing my pride, I ripped the zipper up on my tent and stormed inside. I took my anger out on my boots as I ripped them from my feet. For a moment, I thought I heard Erica giggle, but I couldn’t be sure.
I laid in my tent and tossed and turned. My mind was flooded with thoughts of her and the fact that she wasn’t in my damn tent. When I closed my eyes, I could picture everything about her so easily. Her bright blue eyes and large blonde curls were so warped into my memories, and they had been the star in too many of my fantasies as I laid in bed at night.
I needed to get laid. My dick was going to go on strike if I didn’t let it hang out with someone other than my hand soon. It longed for Erica as much as I did. We really were a sad pair.
My hand rubbed over my hard dick to help alleviate the ache that hadn’t went away since I was balls deep in my favorite blonde. I looked around the tent as I slid my hand into my boxers. Erica was so damn close to me yet so far away. I needed a release to take the edge off. I still had to spend the whole day with her tomorrow.
