Matt hit the floor with a wheeze, and then it was Ty's turn to be smug. "Gotcha."
Hell, no. They'd been at it for thirty minutes, and Matt was exhausted to the bone, but the last one down had to buy breakfast. Kicking out, he knocked Ty's feet from beneath him. Then it was Ty's turn to land with a satisfying thud.
"Jesus," Josh muttered from the weight bench.
Josh was also a good friend, but he didn't know much about having fun. He was a doctor, which left his taste for occasional recreational violence greatly diminished.
"You keep going at each other like that," Josh said, "and you'll end up in my ER."
Breathless, Matt rolled to his back. "Sorry, I only play doctor with the ladies.
I can't believe you lied about chocolate," Mallory said. "Lying about chocolate is...sanctimonious. Do you remember all those bad girl lessons you gave me?"
Amy rubbed the spot between her eyes where a headache was starting. "You mean the lessons that landed you the sexy hunk you're currently sleeping with?"
"Well, yes. But my point is that maybe you need good girl lessons. And good girl lesson number one is never tease when it comes to chocolate."
-Amy and Mallory
Listen," she finally said. "I might've given you the wrong impression when I...bumped into you with the bear thing."
"Bumped into me?" He couldn't help it, he laughed. "You tried to crawl up my body."
"Which is my point," she said stiffly. "My sleep-out adventure isn't going to include crawling up anyone's body."
"Will it include sleeping?"
-Amy and Matt
From around the blind curve of the trail, the main appeared. He was tall, built, and armed and dangerous, though not to her physical well-being. Nope, nothing about the tough, sinewy, gorgeous forest ranger was a threat to her body.
But Matt Bowers was lethal to her peace of mind.
You're not going to be bear bait," he promised, turning her so that she was behind him. "Not today anyway."
She grabbed a fistful of the back of his uniform shirt and pressed up against his back. "How do you know?"
"Well, you're behind me, for one thing. So if anyone's going to be bear bait, it'll be me. And brown bears are extremely passive. If we take a step toward him, he'll take off."
She let go of him, presumably so he could do just that, even giving him a little nudge that was actually more like a push. With a laugh, Matt obliged and stepped toward the bear, waving his arms. With a look of reproof, the bear lumbered to his feet and vanished into the bush.
She found herself smiling. "Was the big, bad forest ranger scared?"
"I stared a fire," he said instead of answering, and the typical guy avoidance of admitting fear made her smile in the dark. "But even after I had a roaring fire, I still felt watched."
"What did you do?"
His hand was still gliding up and down her back, absently soothing, not-so-absently arousing her further. "I got up and searched the perimeter," he said. "Often. I finally fell asleep holding my gun, and at first light was startled awake by a curious teenage bear."
"Oh my God," she said on a horrified laugh. "What happened?"
Amusement came into his voice. "I shot the shit out of a tree and scared the hell out of us both. I fell backward off the log I'd fallen asleep on, and the bear did the same. Then we both scrambled to our feet, and he went running off to his mama. If my mama had been anywhere within two thousand miles, I'd have gone running off to her just the same as the bear."
-Matt on his first night out as a ranger
He slid her a look, and she held up her hand in a solemn vow, making him smile. "Were you a Girl Scout?" he asked.
"Not even a little bit," she said.
-Matt and Amy
He turned her ninety degrees. "To get back to the ranger station and your car, you want to go southwest," he said.
Right. She knew that, and she stalked off in the correct direction.
"Watch out for bears," Matt called after her.
"Yeah, okay," she muttered, "and I'll also keep an eye out for the Tooth Fairy."
"Three o'clock."
Amy craned her neck and froze. Oh sweet baby Jesus, there really was a bear at three o'clock. Enjoying the last of the sun, he was big, brown and shaggy, and big. He lay flat on his back, his huge paws in the air as he stretched, confident that he sat at the top of the food chain. "Holy shit," she whispered, every Discovery Channel bear mauling she'd ever seen flashing in her mind. She backed up a step, and then another, until she bumped into a brick wall and nearly screamed.
"Just a brown bear," said the brick wall that was Matt.
Does he even see us?" she whispered.
As she spoke, the bear slowly tipped his big, furry head back, lazily studying Amy and Matt from his upside down perch.
Yeah, he saw them. Reacting instinctively, she turned and burrowed right into Matt. "If you laugh at me," she warned as his warm, strong arms closed around her. "I'll kill you."
He didn't laugh or mock her. For once, he was unsmiling, his jaw dark with stubble, eyes hidden behind his reflective Oakleys. "No worries, Tough Girl," he said, his warm, strong arms closing around her. "And anyway, I'm hard to kill.
Good girl lesson #2: When your BFF sends you a gorgeous guy, you call her and thank her. That's good manners. Good girl lesson #3: Stop scowling. You'll scare away the aforementioned gorgeous guy.
Jill Shalvis« erste vorherige
Seite 15 von 25.
nächste letzte »
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.