Cruel & Beautiful

by A. M. Hargrove

  “What in the world is so blooming important that we have to get up so early?”

  “I can’t tell you.” He stills my roaming hands. “Showing you will be so much better.”

  Damn, this better be worth putting off sex for the night.

  “Okay. Then kiss me goodnight, oh secretive one.”

  “You’ll love it, I promise,” he says as he presses his lips to mine.

  “I won’t love it nearly as much as I love having you inside of me.”

  “Damn, woman, you drive a hard bargain.”

  “Um, I think you have that backward. You’re the one driving the hard bargain.”

  He pinches my butt and says, “Smart ass.”

  Curling up along side of him, I lay my head on his chest and the next thing I know, he’s shaking me awake.

  “Cate, come on. Get up and shower.”

  “Huh?”

  “Up. Shower. It’s time.”

  “What the hell time is it?”

  “Five.”

  “Shit.”

  He drags me out of bed behind him, and we hit the shower. While I’m drying my hair, he tells me he’s going to pack for me since he refuses to tell me where we’re going. I find that unusual, but he’s seen me pull clothes out before so he knows where I keep everything. Since it’s only one night, I don’t worry too much. In record time, we’re out the door.

  We drive to a local diner and grab breakfast to go—bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee. Then we hit the road. It’s still dark out and I pester Drew about our final destination.

  “You’ll see. You don’t have much longer to wait.”

  About twenty minutes later, we pull into a state park and drive through the entrance.

  “A state park?”

  “Yep.” It’s all he says.

  He drives a bit before he parks the car. “Come on,” he says, extending his hand. I follow him along a trail that leads to a wooden bridge. The bridge crosses a narrow river and on either side there are steep rock formations. It’s quite beautiful even in the pre-dawn gray light. I’m sure when the day is bright, it’s spectacular.

  “Have a seat, my lady.” Drew indicates a place on the side of the bridge so I sink down and sit. He does the same. “Now watch over there.” He points over the rocks and we wait. About fifteen minutes later, the sun inches up over the horizon and its rays cast the rocks in an orange-red glow. At first, it’s not noticeable, but when the sun gets to a certain point, it makes the rocks look like they’re glowing. It happens so fast and lasts for only a minute or two, if we weren’t here at precisely the right moment, we would never have seen it.

  “Oh my god! How did you know?”

  “By sheer accident. I literally stumbled upon it camping one day. It’s really something, isn’t it?”

  “It’s phenomenal. I’ve never seen anything like it! Thank you for showing this to me.” I scoot my butt around to face him and notice he’s not watching the sunrise at all. He’s staring right at me. My body heats and my stomach flutters as that familiar sensation begins to grow within me. But then his words cause my heart to trip all over itself.

  “Cate, it’s nothing compared to you.” His hand reaches for mine as he leans in to kiss me. Before my brain goes to mush, all I can think is Drew McKnight is all kinds of amazing.

  We stay wrapped up in each other until the sun is high and the day is brighter. When he helps me to my feet, I can’t help but observe his impish grin. “So what do you have up your sleeve now, mister?”

  He winks. “You’ll see.”

  We walk back to the car and after a few minutes of driving we pull into the ranger’s station. “Stay right here. I’ll be back in a second.” He hops out and jogs inside. A couple minutes later, he gets back in the car. We drive around and soon we pull into a parking place that’s marked as number twelve. It has a gravel square, picnic table, campfire ring, and now I figure it out.

  “So, hot shot, I take it we’re camping?”

  “Yep,” he says eagerly as he pulls the car to a stop. When he turns to me he still wears his boyish look. “How do you feel about it?”

  “Hmm. You know, I went to camp as a kid and loved it, but I’ve never tent camped. So I’m game. But I have a question. Is this one of those tests?”

  Confusion furrows his brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’ve known guys who’ve tested girls before by taking them places or doing things they loved and if the girl didn’t love it then that was it.”

  “So, you’re asking me that if you don’t love camping, am I going to end it with you?”

  “Pretty much,” I say, with a slight frown.

  “Cate Forbes, do you really think that little of me?” He looks crushed. “Because if you do, I’ve done a terrible job of showing you how I feel about you.”

  I suck in my breath at his words. I can’t let him feel like this so I blurt out, “No! It’s just my inexperience, I suppose.” Now I feel shitty for asking him that.

  “Hear me now. If you hate camping, we will never do this again. That’s not to say I won’t, but you won’t have to endure one more night of it. Understand?”

  “Perfectly. And thank you. So you really love this, huh?”

  His smile returns as he says, “Oh, yeah. Just wait.” He starts pulling out all this gear from the back of his 4Runner and who knew? There is so much you need when you camp. After a while, I stop asking him what things are because I don’t want to be a pest.

  The day has warmed up significantly, and Drew has shed his sweatshirt, so now he wears a short-sleeved t-shirt. He’s putting up the tent and I stare at the muscles in his arms as he works. I’ve never really focused on them before because I was always lured in by his abs and pecs, but damn, those arms are amazing, too. They ripple as he grabs this and that and I find myself licking my lips over and over. But what I really love is when he has to raise his arms and his shirt exposes that sexy strip of flesh. It gives me all sorts of ideas and makes me want to fall to my knees and take a nibble here and there. I think I’m going to love camping.

  “Hey Cate, can you hand me that hammer over there?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  I find said hammer and then stand behind him as he pounds in the stakes. Only I don’t watch him do that, because now I’m riveted on his ass. He’s wearing my favorite jeans. They mold to his cheeks perfectly and I want to drop to my knees and bite him.

  “Cate? Cate? Cate where are you? Helllllooooo?”

  “Oh, sorry. What do you need?”

  “I need help with the fly.”

  “Really? You need help with your fly?” Excitement surges through me.

  He rolls his eyes, something he never does. “No Cate, not my fly. The fly. It covers the tent to protect us if it rains.”

  “Oh,” I answer in a small voice, feeling disappointed and slightly stupid.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I kinda got excited about helping you with your fly,” I answer.

  As a smile forms on his face, his eyes dance with wickedness. He drops whatever he’s holding, takes one giant step to reach me, and suddenly I’m enveloped in his arms before he kisses me. And it’s some kind of kiss. Rough, demanding, and completely unlike gentle Drew. He manages to unzip the tent without letting me go. We crouch down, and crawl inside.

  “Now you can help me with my fly all you want.”

  My hands fumble with his zipper as I go to work on his jeans and I feel his hands doing the same on mine. A question pops into my head.

  “Is anyone around us?”

  “I don’t know, nor do I care.”

  “Can they see through this tent?”

  “No, but they can hear.”

  Good to know. I finally get his pants pulled down enough for his cock to make an appearance, and all I want to do is lick it. So I do. He tastes so good and feels like velvet on my tongue.

  “Cate. That’s so fucking good.” He strokes my hair in sync with my mouth. The faster I mo
ve, the faster his hand moves. Then he stops my movement. “I want inside of you.”

  I rise up and he roughly tugs off my jeans, freeing my legs. He grabs a condom out of his pocket and puts it on. “Ride me, Cate. I love to see you on me.” I love to ride him as well, so I oblige us both. I sink down onto pleasure I’ve only known with Drew. There isn’t anything sweet about what we do. It’s hard and relentless as we lose control with one another. When our mouths slam together in a searing kiss, our hands join, and the brief slowness turns quick and rough as we soar to our peaks. His kiss swallows my groans and we both climax, Drew right after me.

  “Jesus, what the hell was that?” I ask, when I can form a coherent sentence again. I’m still on his lap as we stare at each other.

  “Damn awesome, that’s what.” He runs his nose along my neck and plants a dozen kisses there. “Every time with you is …” He slowly shakes his head as if to form words. “You never disappoint, Cate.”

  I can’t stop the wide grin. It feels empowering that I can move a man the way it seems I’ve moved him. “Can I just say that so far, camping is pretty cool?”

  His body rumbles with laughter. “I’ll have to remember that line about the fly. That was priceless.”

  My grin turns into a megawatt smile. “Okay. The truth is I’d been checking out your ass. I can’t help that you have such a fine ass.”

  “My ass? You’re joking?”

  I shake my head. “Why would I joke about your ass?”

  “My ass, huh?” He shrugs.

  “It’s a damn fine ass.”

  He bellows a laugh. “I guess we should finish setting up camp.”

  “Probably.” I don’t object, because he’s doing most of the work and I love watching him.

  The day is filled with hiking to a gorgeous waterfall. By the time we make it back to camp, it’s time to get dinner going.

  That night he cooks salmon in a cast iron skillet that he puts on the grate the camp provides, over the wood fire. He tosses a couple of potatoes wrapped in foil into the fire beforehand, and has premade a salad.

  “I can’t believe this. It’s restaurant worthy. I figured we’d be eating hotdogs or burgers on the high end. But this salmon … it has that smoky flavor from the fire.”

  “Yeah, it came out pretty good.”

  “So you’ve been camping your whole life?”

  “Uh, Eagle Scout here.” He gives me the salute.

  “Eagle Scout? I’m impressed. You never cease to amaze me. But they didn’t teach you how to cook salmon in Eagle Scouts.”

  He’s laughing now. “No, this is my own invention. Every summer a group of us go camping and fishing and we try to out do each other in the cooking arena. This is actually a test dish for me. I’ve never done it before but I figured it had to be good.”

  He starts putting the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate out for the s’mores. My mouth waters. “You ready?”

  Licking my lips, I say, “Yeah.”

  He hands me a stick and a marshmallow. I load it up and start the roasting.

  The fire crackles and our marshmallows are finished. We assemble our dessert and I take a bite. Marshmallow gushes out and smears all over my chin. Drew looks at me and shakes his head.

  “These things tastes so good, but they are a mess.” Then he leans over and licks the gooey stuff off my chin. “Mmm, I think you taste better than the marshmallow.”

  When he pulls back after not kissing me, his eyes crinkle at my confusion and longing. Then I realize he’s teasing me and we laugh.

  “How come you didn’t get any on your chin?” I ask.

  He shoots me sly look and waggles his eyebrows. “Cate, I’m an Eagle Scout, remember?”

  I almost spit out my mouthful of s’mores. Then he stands, stokes the fire, and puts another log on it. I love to watch him take care of this stuff. It’s so … manly. And sexy.

  “Um, Drew?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I have to pee.”

  “Okay. You have a couple of options. The camp has restrooms. They are a fair walk from here, or you can pee in the woods.”

  “Pee in the woods? Aren’t there critters in there?”

  “Yeah, they have to have a home, Cate.”

  “So, like pee in the woods. What if I’m peeing in the woods, and a snake jumps up and bites Louise?”

  He clamps his lips together and it’s so obvious he’s trying his best not to laugh. I let him know. “Don’t you laugh at me, Drew McKnight. I’m scared to pee in the woods and I hate snakes. Louise does too.”

  “Louise loves my snake, Cate.”

  I punch him in the arm. “That’s not fair. This is real. I have to pee and I’m afraid.”

  “Right. I’ll go with you and ward off any wayward snakes that might be thinking of jumping up and biting Louise. How’s that?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “What about other varmints, like rats and ’possum?”

  He slowly inhales and clamps his lips again. Then he stands, holds out his hand, rifles through a bag, and pulls out a roll of toilet paper. He turns on a flashlight and leads the way into the woods.

  When he finds the perfect spot, he says, “Here.” And turns his back while I squat to pee. But in my haste, I do something really stupid. I yank my jeans down and leave on my unders, so I pee my pants. “OH NO!”

  “What?” he spins to face me.

  “I just peed my pants!”

  “How’d you do that?”

  I explain and he drops the flashlight as he doubles over laughing. Now we have to hunt the flashlight and I’m stumbling around trying to get my jeans off without getting my pee on them.

  “So you peed on your ‘unders’? I’m not sure what’s funnier. You peeing on yourself or the fact that you call them unders.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s what my mom calls them so I just sort of inherited the term.”

  “I see. So, unders then.”

  “Yeah. Shit! Did you find the flashlight?”

  Laughing, he says, “Yeah.”

  I get straightened out and decide to walk back to the tent bare-assed so I can clean myself up appropriately. Drew laughs all the way back and I can’t blame him.

  “Can anyone see me like this?”

  “I don’t think so. Besides, the water spigot is behind the tent so it blocks the view. Here’s some soap and a washcloth if you want to clean off.”

  “Thank you for being so prepared.”

  “Eagle Scout.”

  I grumble and become the speedy cleaner-upper and am back in my jeans in no time.

  “I cannot believe I did something so dumb.”

  “Uh, I’d have to agree.”

  Sometime in the middle of the night, I wake to hear all kinds of noises—growling, scratching, and other creature sounds.

  “Drew! Something’s trying to tear up our tent!”

  “Huh?” a sleepy Drew asks.

  “There’s something outside of the tent trying to get us! Wake up!”

  “It’s nothing. Probably a raccoon. Go back to sleep.”

  He conks back out, leaving me to fret, awake. Of course, the giant, man-eating animals threatening to shred our tent and eat us alive resume their activities. I know there are dozens of them right outside of that flimsy piece of fabric that affords me zero protection from the monstrous beasts. I pull the sleeping bag over my head, as if that will help. But the noises grow even louder.

  “Drew! Wake up! I think there’s a grizzly out there!”

  He sits straight up in the tent and his head wobbles around like one of those old timey bobble headed dolls. I think he’s still asleep. So I grab his arm and shake him.

  “Waaakkkeee uppppp! There’s a bear out there!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Something is trying to eat us alive!”

  One hand rubs his eyes. “Jesus. Cate, nothing is out there, other than pesky raccoons or maybe skunks.”

  “SKUNKS! WHAT THE HELL!”<
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  Immediately, I scramble for the tent exit. Only there’s a problem. I’m still zipped in my sleeping bag, and it’s one of those mummy styles that narrow at the feet. In my crazed state, I try to stand, but end up taking a three-inch step and face plant in the dirt right outside the entrance to the tent. Now, I’m frantically trying to get up and run from the so-called grizzly bear or skunks that threaten to eat or stink me to death. My arms flail and I can’t do anything because of the stupid sleeping bag. Two arms grab me and haul me backward into the tent. I’m a mermaid out of water, wrapped in downy fluff, thrashing around like a madwoman. That is until a strong and sexy body traps me under it, grabs my chin, and plants a searing hot kiss on my lips. Heat replaces panic, and my arms stop flailing and find their way around his neck, fingers winding into his thick waves. What’s that mewling? It’s only after he lifts his mouth off mine that I realize it’s me.

  “Much better,” he says. “There is no bear, sweetheart. You’re perfectly safe in here with me. What do I need to do to prove it to you?”

  “I-I don’t know. I’m really scared.”

  “I know and I don’t want you to be. Let’s have a look around outside. Would that make you feel better?”

  “Maybe,” I say, my voice squeaking.

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  We get out of our sleeping bags, put our shoes on, and he grabs the flashlight. Then he does a thorough inspection outside of the tent and we don’t find a single thing. He turns to me, tucks a tendril of hair behind my ear, and says, “Honey, this is their home. The little creatures live here in the woods. Many of them come out at night to eat. They live on plants and things. They won’t hurt you, I promise. Sometimes they make noises when they feed and it sounds like they’re growling, but they’re not. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them. Would you be afraid of a rabbit if you saw one?”

  “No.”

  “Then you need not be afraid of these, either.”

  “But a skunk?”

  “Won’t bother you unless you threaten it.”

  I hang my head, feeling rather idiotic.

  He puts a finger under my chin, saying, “Hey, you didn’t know. This is your first time out here. It’s okay. Let’s go back to bed.” He takes my hand and I feel comforted, and not chastised. Wrapped in his arms, I fall into a deep hard sleep. By morning, I wake up surprisingly refreshed.