by Tijan
I couldn’t wait for him to get here.
13
Blaise
I was armed with food and booze. That’s all you really needed when you went camping, right? Made sense to me.
I had gifts, and I wanted to get away from my life, at least for a night. I guess that was my theme, huh? Maybe Aspen and I were the same. I’d not seen another car in the last thirty minutes—this girl could define a new meaning of running away. Well, maybe not running because I knew where she was, but hiding? That was better.
Whatever the case, I wanted to make sure she was safe. That shit would eat me alive if it turned out she wasn’t, not to mention that my brother’s girlfriend would stab me. Literally. So besides the fact that I thought Aspen was chill in an odd way, I was coming out to make sure she was alive.
See? Good guy. Me.
I laughed to myself as I pulled up—my headlights finally hitting a tent and a campfire right before I turned the Wagon off—because no one could call me a good guy. No. One. Like, ever.
And that was enough thinking for me.
Time to get wasted. I hoped she was okay with that.
She moved toward me, and I could see her silhouette from the fire. Fuck.
She looked good.
She’d been hot before, but she was hotter, if that was possible.
And my dick was hard. Like, instant hard-on. That was going to be annoying.
“Yo.” I groaned, stuffing that shit way way down. “I brought presents.”
She was hesitant, but then came closer. “What presents?”
“You like sandwiches?” I tossed her the bag I’d gotten from a shop in Roussou, and she caught it, with a little surprised sound. “That needs to last tonight, and I can make a run for breakfast in the morning.”
She weighed the bag, a small frown on her face, and I could see the shadow of it from the lights in my Wagon. It was cute.
Cute.
Jesus.
I was such a pansy.
I didn’t like cute girls. I fucked hot girls. I banged model-types, though Aspen could be taken for a model. She had the height… I needed to stop checking this girl out. One kiss in a men’s room, and I needed my head fixed. What was I doing?
Was it because of Mara? People had started to put us together like we were a couple, and I didn’t do couples. I didn’t fucking date girls. I screwed them, and that was it.
I’m honest about it. I’m not a total asshole. Girls know the deal with me upfront or I won’t touch them. I’ve never needed to have a girlfriend, in New York or here.
I’d never wanted a relationship, but a flash of my brother and his woman came to my mind, and I paused.
No.
My chest was tight. I didn’t want what he had. It was just because my life was unsettled. Everything had been tipped upside down, and I wasn’t the kind of guy that handled not knowing shit very well.
“You okay?”
Aspen had drifted closer, her voice soft and concerned.
“Yeah,” I barked, then flinched. “Sorry.” I softened my tone. “Just stupid thoughts.”
And because she was right there, and her green eyes looked all nice and gentle, and I remembered how she’d tasted in the bathroom, I cupped the back of her head. Her eyes went wide, but her lips parted, and that was good enough for me.
I bent down, my lips finding hers, but I paused there.
I didn’t apply pressure.
I felt how stiff she’d gone, but then she melted into me. Her arms lifted. The bag dropped. I caught it and tossed it back into my Wagon, and her lips opened underneath mine. It was game on.
I’d only meant to have a quick taste, but this kiss was something else.
It was delicious and exciting. It was a promise of something more. My cock bulged, needing to be in her, but I just held her face, my tongue demanding entrance. She gave it, and I was in heaven. My tongue slid in, and this would be all I allowed myself—just this touch from her. When a chick opens herself up for you, it’s like she’s lifting a window for you to come in and escape the hardship of life, the cold out there. And you can’t deny yourself the warmth. That’s what Aspen was giving me. Her warmth. Her taste. And I wanted more.
I groaned, lifting my head. “I’m trying to be a good guy here, so I need you to walk away from me.” When she didn’t, I gritted out, “Right fucking now, Aspen.”
She tore herself away.
I saw tears, and dammit—I hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but I couldn’t say anything. Not yet. I needed to get myself under control. I’d been two seconds away from slipping my hand between her legs and pushing her inside my Wagon.
She took off, back to her tent and fire, and I was the asshole visiting.
I should’ve left. Right now.
I shouldn’t have brought my stuff to her front door. That’s what I’d done. I wanted to get away from my life, from the non-bio dad who’d decided to make a surprise visit to town. Seems he was going to be gone all summer, and instead of just calling to let me know, he’d flown to California to deliver the news. He was at the house right now, sitting, talking with my mom and my bio dad, who was still sticking around. Who knew how long that would last, but the adults could have a night. Not me.
I could still go to New York to see my guys, if I wanted. I wasn’t out here because of that. I was out here because I hadn’t asked for a surprise visit from him.
Aspen was on to something. Just hide here.
Grabbing everything, I approached her campsite.
She had the tent up. There was a kitchen area, a picnic table. She had a hammock up. There were blankets inside the tent.
“Is that a chair?”
She sat, poking at the fire, and looked over where I was indicating.
“Yeah. It’s a fold-out lounge chair.” She glanced back at me, all shy-like, before averting her eyes. “There’s a ton of cool camping gear out there.”
I was noticing.
She motioned to one of the chairs, because now I could see there were two of them. “You can sit on that.”
“Uh. Sure.”
But first I went to the table and put down the supplies I’d brought, including a bag of ice. When she saw it, she got up and pulled something over. It looked like a trash can, but when she lifted the lid, it wasn’t. I put the ice in there, feeling how cold it was.
“It’s a solar-powered cooler. Neat, huh?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You sit out here?” The place was lit up with her campfire and some lanterns, but still. “What do you do if someone comes up here that you don’t want? There are men who search for campers. You know that, right? Like, they actually search out single women camping.” I sat in the chair, but immediately stood again. “This is dangerous.”
She shoved to her feet. “I’ve been camping for years. And I pick places that are off the trail. I’m not stupid.”
“Bullshit.”
Her eyes got big. Her face got red. “Excuse me?”
“I said bullshit. I drove right up to your spot. You can’t hide—” I stopped and peered right at her. “Tell me you’ve never been scared out here by yourself. Tell me you’ve never had a guy poking around that made you uncomfortable.”
She huffed. “Besides you?”
“Tell me that’s never happened, Aspen. In all the years you’ve been this camping expert, you’ve never had an encounter with another camper that scared you?”
She didn’t say a word.
She looked at the ground, and I knew I was right.
Fuck. Fuck! It had happened.
“When?” I demanded.
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “It doesn’t even matter. I was smart. I got away, and it’s never happened since.”
But it happened.
It had happened once, and it could happen again.
My teeth ground against each other. “I’m not leaving you out here alone. You camp, I’m with you. Or someone else is with you. Enough of this alone shit.”
Her head s
napped up and her mouth fell open. “You—what? You can’t do that!”
I snorted, sitting at the table and finding a cup in the bag. I poured myself a drink. “Watch me. I’ll call for reinforcements if I have to.” I leveled her with a look. “I know people who wouldn’t like hearing about this. Don’t forget.”
She glared at me, collapsing back down. “You can’t do that. You can’t come in here and take all this away from me. You can’t!”
Her chin wobbled.
Well, crap.
But no, I had to push past the guilt that was easing in. “Aspen, this isn’t safe. There are big game animals that could hurt you too. I can’t—this isn’t safe. You want to camp, you need to have someone with you.”
“You?” She snorted, but she wasn’t looking at me anymore. Her head was down, and she was ripping a stick apart. Hell. She was shredding it, and then she threw the little pieces on the fire.
“Me or someone else you trust. I can’t leave you out here. The man in me won’t let me.”
“The man in you needs to take several seats down.”
Okay. I grinned. That was funny.
She glanced up, saw my grin, and smiled before she looked back down. “I’ve been camping for years. It’s something I did with my brother.”
Her brother.
I remembered—those movie producers were Nate Monson’s parents.
“You mean Nate?”
She stiffened before looking at me. “You know about my older brother?”
I shrugged. “I just put it together. Zeke’s obsessed with your brother’s best friend, so I hear those names quite a bit.”
The blood drained from her face. “You haven’t said anything to him about me, have you?”
I shook my head. “You want a drink?” I grabbed for some ice in that weird trash can/cooler thing.
She shook her head, then stopped. “Yeah.” She sighed. “You make me need to drink.”
I grinned, handing her mine. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She took the cup, making sure to avoid touching my fingers, and I wiggled my eyebrows, letting her know I was aware of what she’d done. Then I gave her a cocky smirk and she flushed, pulling the drink away.
After I poured myself a second cup, I moved to the chair, but that didn’t seem right. She was on the ground, so I eased down too, sitting close enough that my knee could touch hers if I wanted.
I sipped my drink. “I’ve not said anything to Zeke, but he’s going to ask me. He knows I took off tonight, so he’ll be up in my business, wanting to know where I went, who I was with—all that shit, just to warn you.”
“And you have to tell him?”
I thought a moment. “Zeke can be a douchebag, but he’s been a good friend to me. Doesn’t feel right to totally lie to him.” Alarm moved across her face. “But I won’t say shit about your family. And I could give two shits who your brother is or who he’s friends with.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders sagged. “Thank you.”
I nodded, watching her lips as she took a sip of her drink.
My dick twitched, and I tried to ignore that.
“Good?” I asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah.” She went back to watching the fire. “Nate’s not the brother I used to go camping with.”
I watched her and sipped my drink. I could do this all night long, and it would be a great fucking night. This level of contentment was alien to me, but I wasn’t thinking about that crap. I just listened.
“We had another brother—Owen…” She stopped, looking down.
A moment.
Her voice grew hoarse. “Owen and I camped together.”
That was it. That was all.
Didn’t need to read between the lines to figure out something had happened to Owen.
“That’s why you go camping?”
She nodded, her tone tight. “I usually ‘feel’ him, if that makes sense.”
I raised my eyebrows. “That frustrates you?”
“Well, this time I’ve not been feeling him. Does it make me crazy that I’m pissed about that?” Her voice took on a distant tone. “Camping’s like air to me. I need it to... I just need it.” Her eyes found mine, hardening. “You can’t take that away from me. I won’t let you.”
I held her gaze, reading a promise there. It hit me that she could disappear. She could easily pack up and take off, and I’d not know where she was until she decided to show up.
Well, fuck.
That just meant I had to sneak another app on her phone, ’cause if it came to that, she’d delete the other one.
I nodded. “Got it.” Yeah, right. She wasn’t going camping alone, not ever again. Was I an extra asshole for worrying about her? Who were the assholes that knew she did this and let her go? ’Cause they were the real assholes.
But she seemed appeased and nodded, lifting her drink again. “Thank you.” Then she frowned. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
I gave her a crooked grin. “Hiding. Same shit as you.”
ASPEN
I jolted when he said that.
Hiding.
Yeah, I was hiding, I guess. I was hiding from school, from my parents. I was hiding from being alone at the house. But I wasn’t only hiding. Who was this guy to come in and declare that I couldn’t do it anymore? He was the dick I’d heard stories about, that’s who. He wasn’t God. He didn’t get to decide these things about my life. He wasn’t my dad or my brother.
I mean, yeah, we’d kissed, and those were some amazing kisses, but that was it.
Were we even friends?
I had no clue.
All I knew was I was confused.
I’d been doing my own thing and then bam, Blaise DeVroe was in my life in a big way. He was at my campsite. That was about as big as it got for me, and he was here, shoving his weight around.
I sighed.
I missed Owen.
Why wasn’t I feeling my brother? It always happened when I went camping.
He’d abandoned me, and Owen was the one that never abandoned me.
I was nuts. That was the only answer for this. But I wasn’t. I was fine. It was normal to do something you’d enjoyed with a loved one to carry on the tradition, and with the idea that they were still with you, just on the other side. I wasn’t crazy for believing in that stuff. There were enough signs when Owen was around—like his favorite song coming on the radio or hearing his voice say my name.
“What are you thinking about over there, weird girl?” Blaise tossed a piece of bark at me.
I frowned, tossing it on the fire. “Don’t call me that.”
“Weird girl?”
“It’s insulting.”
“Okay.” He smirked. “How about Hottie? Hottie with the legs? Legs?”
I tried to glare at him, but I kinda liked the names.
“What?” he mocked, grinning. “Want me to go with Colorado? Colo? Asp? That sounds weird.”
“How about just Aspen?”
“Nah. I’ll go with Colorado. Or I can go with Tree? Birch?” His grin turned wicked, and I could almost imagine the next word to come out of him.
I held up a finger. “If you dare call me a female dog, I will slice your tires when you’re sleeping tonight.”
He paused, holding my gaze, weighing my words.
“Shit,” he muttered. “I think you’d actually do that.”
“Don’t mess with the Birch Lady.”
And he was back to grinning. “Noted. I will forever fear the Colorado Tree Lady.”
I grunted. “Damn right.”
Then he laughed. “Man, you’re a trip.”
I smiled too, but his laugh abruptly stopped, and he pulled out his phone.
He swiped over the screen and sighed audibly. “I gotta handle this. My mom’s throwing a fit.” The screen lit up, and he hit a button, putting it next to his ear. “Mom.”
A pause.
“I’m hanging out with friends.” More silenc
e, then a small growl. “Don’t even start with that. Mom! Mom.” He stood, his drink in one hand and the phone in the other. “I swear to God, Mom.” He stopped, his head falling back to look at the sky. His voice rose. “I didn’t ask him to come out here. I don’t want him here. That douchebag’s not here for me. He’s here for you. He’s sniffing around you, hearing you’re shacked up with your real baby daddy. I’m the goddamn excuse, and I ain’t dealing with it. Let’s go back to New York. Let’s pretend we’re back there, and the same shit would be happening. You and him are fighting about stuff that’s got nothing to do with me, and I’m gone. I’m not even in the house, and here you are calling me, trying to get me to come back, so you and him have a reason to be fighting. He doesn’t want you, but he doesn’t want to let you go either. It’s called a toxic relationship. I’m eighteen. I’ve got my own money. You’ve got nothing to ‘make me’ come back, so I’m not coming. As long as he’s there, I ain’t.” He stopped, listening again. Then his next words came out softer. “I know you’re hurting. He cheated on you, but I knew he was going to decide he wanted another go with you. That’s why I was going out there this summer. I wanted to see what he was going to do to mess with you. I can’t imagine what Stephen is thinking, and Stephen seems like a decent guy. Don’t let Griffith get in there and damage what you have with Stephe—” He stopped.
I could hear a female voice speaking on the other end.
He gave another sigh. “Mom. Mom, listen to me. No.” A pause. “I’m not coming back tonight. I told you, I’m with friends. Yeah. I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t let him sleep there, Mom. I mean it. If he’s sleeping there when I get back tomorrow, I’m going to beat his ass. I’m telling you what I’ll do.”
They kept talking, but some of the fight had left him, and after a few more minutes where he was just silent and listening to her, they hung up.
He sat frozen for a second before turning and throwing his drink as hard as he could across the campsite.
“That was an excellent throw.”
He barked out a laugh. “Shut—” He caught himself, raking a hand over his face. “Sorry. Bad habit.” His shoulders heaved up and down. “I called him Dad all my life, thought he was my dad. Then my mom finally walked in on him after five years of cheating on her. She declared they were getting a divorce. We moved back here, ’cause she likes it here, and the new boyfriend starts coming around. The new boyfriend looks a lot like me. The new boyfriend, as I found out, was my real dad, so what do I call the asshole who raised me? Griffith? He ain’t Griffith to me, but he’s not my dad anymore.”
