Rescued by Love(21)

He took her hand and they walked in silence. After a few minutes he said, “I get it. Being scared shitless, I mean.”

“Are you still scared?” She looked away, realizing his answer mattered more than she’d anticipated.

“Only that you’ll go away and I won’t have done all I could have to convince you we’re right together.”

“Jake…” She paused, swallowing a multitude of knee-jerk responses that came so easily. He deserved more than that.

Before she could get another word out he said, “Tell me about your trip. Why are you so dead set on trekking through the Silver Mountains alone?”

“Why not?” So much for refraining from flippant responses.

His deadpan stare was well deserved. He’d been blatantly honest with her and deserved to hear the truth. Her legs stopped moving, refusing to carry her as she tried to muster the courage to reveal such a big part of herself. She drew in a lungful of air, along with whatever strength of his she could borrow, and said, “I’m not sure.”

“Come on, Addy. I thought we were past toying with each other.”

“It’s the truth,” she said evenly, although her insides were weaving themselves into knots.

“You’re not sure? Then why insist on doing it alone? Let me come with you to—”

“No,” she interrupted. “I’m definitely doing this alone. I have to, and I have big plans to clear my head and see what I’m really made of. I’m going to set up camp at Riser’s Ridge, hike five to six miles in a different direction each day to see as much as I possibly can, and spend one night on Pirate’s Peak.”

He exhaled loudly. “You’re climbing Pirate’s Peak alone?”

“I sure am. People do it all the time. I’m sorry, but this is something I need to do on my own.”

“Why ten days alone on a mountain? It’s dangerous.”

“You’re going to think my reasons are stupid, but I’ll tell you anyway, because I don’t think they’re stupid. First of all, I’m going for ten days because that’s how long it’ll take to see all the places I want to explore. And what would I be proving to myself if I went for two or three days? That’s nothing. Anyone could do that. Besides, you’re the inspiration behind the trip. You should think it’s a good thing.”

“Oh no, don’t you blame me for this.”

“Chill out, okay? Not you specifically. When Gabby met Duke, I was doing some research on him and his business. You know, to see what Gabby was up against, and I saw all those pictures of everything you’d accomplished and the places you’d been on your Facebook page—”

“My Facebook page?”

“Duke didn’t have one. It was research. Don’t get so hung up on that. It’s not like I even knew you existed at that point, but…then I did, so I lingered.” She’d been immediately taken with his rugged good looks. The deeper she dug—okay, snooped—the more appealing she’d found him. Her favorite picture was of Jake and his mother standing on a grassy lawn. His hands hung loosely by his sides, his head slightly bent, a small smile on his face, and his mother’s hand was resting on his cheek. It was as if he were caught in the most unguarded, meaningful moment. Addy had spent endless nights wondering about the man behind the image, who relinquished his rugged facade for the woman who had brought him into the world. And when she finally met him, she couldn’t reconcile that tender image with the über-alpha, slick-talking player. Now, after catching glimpses of his softer side, she found herself thinking of that picture once again.

“Uh-huh,” he said. “And how long were you on my page?”

“I don’t know.” There was no way she’d tell him she was on there half the day. He had a lot of half-naked pictures in all sorts of interesting places, like mountains and forests, which she’d studied, feeding her late-night-fantasies mental camera roll until it was nice and plump for cold winter nights. But her search had also turned up something she’d never anticipated.

“Looking at your pictures made me realize that I haven’t pushed myself to do anything out of my comfort zone since college. Sure, I refused my parents’ money and built a life for myself, but it’s a comfortable life. While I was traveling in first class to international fashion shows, pampered to the hilt, you were roughing it in the heart of nature. I wanted to experience that so badly I could taste it. I’ve never even gone camping.”

“We’ll get back to the Facebook stalking thing, but you’ve never camped and you’re going to spend time alone in the mountains?” An incredulous laugh escaped. “That puts a new spin on things. Are you out of your mind? It’s iffy for an experienced person to go hiking alone in the mountains for a long stretch of time, but an inexperienced hiker? That’s dangerous, Addy. I wish you’d rethink this.”

“Says the man who puts his life on the line with every unfamiliar terrain when you do search and rescue.” She gazed down the beach at the lights of the resort shining against the evening sky. So much had changed over the past two days. For months she’d fought the urge to give in to the heat between them, and now that they’d crossed that bridge, they were crossing another. How did they get to the point where he felt like he was allowed to question her decisions? And why did she want to explain them instead of telling him it was none of his business?

She’d thought they had only one thing in common: the desire for hot, aggressive sex. But it didn’t end there. Not even close. He was just as stubborn as she was. When she met his gaze, frustration and desire stared back at her, and it was the combination of the two that stopped her in her tracks.

He reached for her hand. She needed space to give him the honesty he deserved, but she inhaled an unsteady breath, focusing on the tingling in her chest, the way his hand swallowed hers, and how much she liked those things, rather than focusing on the vulnerability swimming inside her.

He tightened his grip and must have thought better of it, because he dropped her hand and moved closer, putting a possessive—protective?—arm around her shoulder. And God, that felt even better than holding his hand. How did he know exactly what she needed to get through this conversation, when it was the absolute opposite of what she thought she needed?

He didn’t say a word, letting the silence settle in the sounds of the waves breaking against the shore, and pressed a kiss to the side of her head, unraveling the knots inside her.

Addy mentally picked apart all the reasons she wanted to take the solo trip in the mountains and decided the only way to explain it was to start at the beginning, which meant revealing a part of herself she’d only partially shared with Gabriella. Drawing every ounce of courage she could muster, she said, “You know how you have all those great memories of exploring and fishing and learning cool things with your family?”

“Sure.”

“All those rites of childhood that you enjoyed were things I was sheltered from. My parents adore me—don’t get me wrong. I’m not a broken, unloved girl who rebels as a way to get attention. I’m the girl who was loved and cherished like a fine diamond, when all I wanted was to be allowed to get dulled and scratched and chipped up by life.”

“It’s not that uncommon for parents as well off as yours to protect the kids, is it?” he asked. “I mean, look at Paris Hilton.”

“You did not just compare me to Paris Hilton.”

He laughed, squeezing her a little tighter. “Not you. Just the idea of being pampered by well-to-do parents.”

She weighed that answer and smiled. “Okay, you can live.”

Leaning down with a devilish grin on his handsome face, he cupped the nape of her neck and kissed her. He tasted so good, felt so right, she turned to him, giving herself over to the slow, scrumptious kiss. He kissed her as he never had before, with a tenderness and possessiveness that melted her heart.

“I know you’re not a pampered princess.” He looked at her with such genuine affection, she had the urge to crawl beneath his skin and pour out her soul. Those feelings might be new, but they were becoming more familiar by the second, and any doubts she’d had about whether they were real or imagined drifted away like smoke in the wind.

“Thank you.”

He looked at her for a long, silent moment before pulling back. She had the sense that he was giving her space to recover from the heat simmering between them. She was surprised by how much she appreciated the gesture, no matter how much she disliked the space between them.

As if he sensed her displeasure with his gentlemanly move, he crushed her against his side again, gave her a chaste kiss, and began walking. Recovering from Jake’s inherent knowledge of what she needed wasn’t as immediate as she’d hoped. The emotions were too powerful to simply push aside. No wonder Gabriella fell so fast for Duke. It was as exhilarating as it was frightening, and trying to make sense of it without her entire world catching fire was like walking through a minefield.

“So this trip is your way of doing what you wished you could have done when you were younger?”