Not Too Tall to Love

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013 Berengaria Brown

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-501-3

Cover
Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
JC
Chute

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal.
 
No part of this book may be
used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a
work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.

NOT TOO TALL TO LOVE

Berengaria
Brown

Copyright
© 2013

Chapter One

Huldah
Anderson, usually known as Andy,
sat on her living room floor checking her hiking pack one last time. Very early
the next day she’d be leaving to walk the Blue Ridge Trail in
Haggity
National Park with her Hiking Club.

Andy loved walking. She wasn’t much into sports,
but hiking suited her long legs and athletic style. And even when she was
walking with the group she could still be essentially alone with her thoughts,
to admire the scenery and pace herself in her own competitive way.

This three-day hike was the most ambitious
she’d ever been on and Andy had planned for it carefully. At each night’s
camping place there’d be water, but she’d need to carry water for the day’s
walk, and water was comparatively heavy to carry. She also had to carry her
sleeping bag and one-man tent, all her food and clothing, yet the pack couldn’t
weigh more than one-third of her body weight so there was no space for non-essentials.
A waterproof jacket, a spare pair of jeans, three sets of underwear and three
t-shirts—but six pairs of socks, because healthy feet were the most important asset
of the hiker’s lifestyle.

It had taken her days to decide on what food
she’d take. She needed plenty of energy as the walk was a demanding one, but
again the issue of weight and space had to be considered. So it’d be rice and
pasta for the evening meals, with dehydrated soup, oranges, chocolate and trail
mix for snacks, and porridge for breakfast. But the midday meal had been the
hard decision and finally she had purchased three MREs—US Army-style, Meals
Ready
To
Eat.

A towel and washcloth, hairbrush, toothbrush,
deodorant, insect repellant, and a sunhat were added. Andy also tucked three
condoms into her pack—just in case.

Derek Nelson and Corey Turner were two totally
yummy men in her hiking club. Despite being constantly pursued by two young
women, who Andy mentally termed “the blonde bimbos”, Derek and Corey remained
immune to their skinny, plastic charms and were completely unattached. She’d
wondered if they were gay, but they definitely seemed to like women and had
given her some quite hot looks, so her gut feeling was that they were bisexual.

Hell, a woman can
hope,
she thought
as she packed the condoms. The men were very easy on the eyes and the
conversations she’d shared with them had proven them to be intelligent and
interesting company.

At five-foot-ten in her bare feet, which
translated to an even six feet tall in hiking boots, Andy had spent a lifetime
being told she was too tall, too manly, not a real woman. At the age of ten
she’d been as tall as her mother and the poor woman had given up trying to
force her into white lace dresses and let her wear jeans. Her only long-term
relationship had ended when she realized Perry would never take her anywhere
involving them standing side by side or dancing, as even in flat-soled shoes,
she was taller.

Derek’s taller than
Corey
, she mused,
but I reckon Corey’s still a good three
inches taller than I am. And his golden blond hair and dark eyes are to die
for. And Derek’s dark good looks are equally attractive. Like dark and light
chocolate. A perfectly balanced diet!
She giggled to herself.

But would they want a woman each? Or would they
share a woman the way they seemed to share so many things—a car, their meals,
their backpacks?

Oh well
,
maybe one of the other women will attract one of them and I’ll get the
other. I don’t mind which. More likely they’ll go off with the blonde bimbos
though
, Andy sighed.

* * * *

Andy was surprised to find only two other cars
in the parking lot at West Haggerty, the starting point for the Blue Ridge
Trail, at 5:00 a.m. the next day.

Howard Clegg, the administrator of the club,
was relieved to see her.

“Thank God you came,
Hul
—Andy.
I thought I might have to call the walk off, as there’s a minimum of three
hikers permitted in the group for this trail.”

“But I thought—”

“Yeah…Bryce had to work, and Jenny wouldn’t
come without him, and Sara and Cathy decided a three-day walk was a bit
ambitious for them.”

Sara and Cathy were the blonde bimbos, so their
not coming didn’t surprise her. They always seemed to disappear on the
physically-demanding walks, preferring the simpler ones. But she hadn’t
realized so few had intended to walk. The club had around a dozen regular
participants.

“Don’t worry, Andy. We’ll look after you,” said
Corey, loping over from beside his SUV.

“Absolutely,” added Derek, who was right behind
him.

Howard busied himself giving them each a map of
the track and repeating the National Park regulations.

“I’ll be waiting for you in the East
Haggity
parking lot from noon Sunday and I’ll drive you
back here to pick up your vehicles. The drive’s only a couple of hours, so you
should all be home by dark. Derek, I’m giving you the emergency beacon to
carry. You’re the most experienced walker. But none of you is to go off the
track or out of the camping grounds alone. Okay? This is an advanced walk and
while you may meet some other walkers on the trail, you can’t expect to. It’s
quite likely you’ll be up there alone the entire time. So you have to be
careful. Understand?”

Andy was still assimilating the idea that only the
three of them would be doing the hike. Just her and the two hunkiest men she’d
ever met.

And most likely not another soul
around for three full days.
And nights.
Well hell, if can’t get into their pants on this trip, I never will.

Chapter Two

The first hour of the Trail was both very easy
and very well-marked as it led from the parking lot to the Explorer’s Tree.
This was as far as many walkers went and there was plenty of evidence of kids
and families on the way. Corey meticulously picked up the occasional cigarette
butt and candy wrapper as they walked, putting them in a trash sack tied to the
outside of his backpack.

The air was crisp and clean, the sky blue above
the trees, and Andy enjoyed the feeling of her muscles loosening as she settled
into the steady pace of the hike.

A short distance past the tree, the trail
dipped steeply and led into a ravine. It quickly became narrow and rocky and
the trees almost met overhead, making the early morning light quite dull. The
men insisted she walk between them now and the light conversation they’d been
making dried up as they all concentrated more on watching their footing and
staying on the track.

Andy constantly found
herself
distracted by the sight of Corey’s ass and leg muscles as he led them all down
the ravine. He had a smooth, easy gait, and his muscles flexed and rippled in a
very enticing way that made her lick her lips and wish she was licking his butt
cheeks instead. His feet unerringly found the best places to step on the rocky
track and she simply followed his lead.

There must have been water in the ravine at
some stage as the trees were very tall and quite broad at the base, and the
undergrowth was lush as well. Whenever Andy dragged her gaze off Corey’s ass
she was inspired by the beauty of the trees and the valley.

And then they reached the bottom. The track
broadened out and they could walk three abreast on the grass and dirt as they
hiked down the valley.

It was now mid-morning. The sun was higher in
the sky and it shone strongly, making them
decide
to
stop to take off their sweaters and drink some water.

“It is a shame Bryce couldn’t get off work for
this trip,” said Derek. “Did you have any trouble getting leave time?”

Andy shook her head. “No, they’ve actually been
pressuring me to take some accrued leave. I work in planning and although we
have deadlines like anyone else, it’s all long-term stuff so taking off a week
here or there isn’t a problem.”

“Have you much leave time saved up?” asked
Corey.

“Yeah, over a month.
My previous boyfriend always talked
about us going overseas for a backpacking tour—Europe or UK—so I saved up leave
for that. But then we parted and I just haven’t gotten around to using it. When
this walk was planned it sounded excellent, so I booked vacation time for it
right away.”