And now she was gone.
“Dude, why was she pointing a gun at you?” Matt asked. It was full dark now, and the outdoor light strands that illuminated the trailer park cast one side of his face in shadows.
“I like her,” Willa quipped with a big grin on her face.
Jason made a ticking sound behind his teeth. “You would,” he muttered.
“Why, Jason?” Creed asked. “What did you do to her?”
“I kissed her, okay? I kissed her, and it pissed her off.” At least he thought so. She’d seemed to be into their little make-out session, but apparently he’d been mistaken. More proof he didn’t know jack about women.
“Do you want me to bring her back here?” Easton asked, his green eyes blazing as he looked at the road Georgia had disappeared down.
“What? No. She doesn’t belong here, and I don’t want anything to do with her.” Lies, and if he could hear the false note in his voice, so could the others.
Frustrated at Willa’s snickering, he blew past them and called over his shoulder. “Someone take the vegetables off the grill. Dinner’s on.”
“Where are you going?” Gia, Creed’s pregnant mate, asked.
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
The Gray Backs hurled questions at him, but he wasn’t answering anything else right now. He needed a minute to wrap his head around what had just happened. He hadn’t connected on an emotional level with a woman since Tessa, so why in the balls had he made a move on the park ranger? Sure, he was trying to get her mind off her fear before she met Beaston, but if he was being honest, that kiss meant more than a distraction to him. Relief at the break she offered from Tessa’s constant hounding perhaps? Or was it more? Maybe it was the way her tan uniform had clung to those big, soft lookin’ tits of hers, or the way her pants hugged those thighs he wanted to grab and wrap around his waist. Fuck, he was hard as a rock right now.
He slammed his trailer door behind him and strode straight for the bathroom where he hit the tap and waited for the shower to heat up. He needed to get his head on straight again before he talked to anyone in his crew about what had just happened. Something inside of him had shifted, and for a minute there, even his bear had drawn up and stopped snarling.
Jason peeled off his clothes and stepped under the battering hot water. Leaning on his elbows, he allowed the stream to slide down his back as he rested his forehead against the shower wall and closed his eyes. She was there—Georgia Ames. With her full lips and freckles. With that wild hair he wanted to grip as he rammed into her from behind. His breath came in short pants as he pulled the first stroke of his dick. Geez, he was hard and throbbing already as if he was ready to come just thinking about her. He tightened his grip and imagined sliding into her. Legs locked around him, begging him to fuck her harder. His hips bucked as he jerked off faster. The water made his skin slick, and he closed his eyes tighter, imagined burying himself in her completely. He groaned as the pressure built. Faster, faster, and he lurched backward until his shoulder blades hit the wall. He gripped himself harder and yelled out as cum shot up on his stomach in warm streams. His breath shook as he milked every thrust until his hips bucked erratically. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes closed and leaned his head back against the cold, plastic shower wall. Usually, this was the part where the guilt over Tessa kicked in. Where masturbating to another woman would make him feel like a cheater because Tessa was still around, filling up his head and making him feel bad about every mistake he’d made when they’d been together.
This time, however, he didn’t feel anything but relief.
Jason showered and turned off the water. He grabbed a towel from the hook near the shower curtain, but startled to a stop as he looked up to find Tessa standing across the bathroom, watching him.
“You thought about her, didn’t you?”
“Get out,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You said her name.”
Had he said Georgia? Sounded about right, even if he hadn’t meant to. He didn’t have to explain himself to a figment of his psychotic imagination though, so he ignored her observations and toweled off his hair.
Tessa’s eyes narrowed with fury as she whispered, “Go to hell.”
As her skin melted away and her scream rattled his skull in the dramatic way she always left him, Jason muttered, “I’m already there.”
****
Poachers were the worst part of this job.
Most hunters were respectful of hunting seasons and bought the proper licenses. They took the hunter safety courses and practiced on their aim, planned all year to take an animal humanely and fed their families on the meat. And hell, hunters gave more to land conservation than any other organized group. She came from a giving community of hunters and had been raised on grass-fed, hormone-free game meat. It was that or starve because red meat was hard to afford on Mom’s single, small salary when Georgia had lived in Big Canoe.