Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 111038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
“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 snapped 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.”