Taking the Heat (10 page)

Gabe held up a hand and took a few deep breaths. “I just got here two weeks ago. I'm still—” he took another deep breath “—acclimating.”

“Oh, thank God.” She dropped onto a boulder with a flat top and dug her water bottle from her pack. “We'd better take a break, then.”

He joined her on the rock. At first she was distracted by the way his chest moved with each breath. It was strange to see him breathing hard and a little sweaty. Intimate and unexpected.

His knee brushed hers, and she tried to take in every detail of his muscled thigh in the quickest of glances. She liked the way it looked next to hers. He was tan and hairy next to her smooth leg. If they were already sleeping together, she'd put her hand on his knee and slide it up. She'd let her fingers edge under his shorts and tease him with a touch on the inside of his thigh. God. Would he get hard for her? Would he drag her hand higher and make her feel what she'd done to him?

She didn't know. She didn't know if sex could really be as good as she'd heard. Every time she'd messed around with a guy, she'd ended up disappointed. She'd been...removed.
Un
moved. Completely clearheaded and disoriented by how much the guy seemed to be into it when she felt as though she were acting out a scene from tenth-grade health class.

Hell, she'd been more aroused by Gabe's kiss than she had been by anything the last guy she'd dated had done, and that included the time he'd gone down on her. That had mostly consisted of her staring at the ceiling for two minutes before telling him she was fine. He'd popped up so quickly, it had been clear he'd been waiting to be excused.

But with Gabe...just looking at his thigh turned her on. She wasn't even sure she cared that he might be throwing her a bone. She'd take that bone. She'd take it good.

Veronica glanced at her phone. “We'd better go. We've only got about thirty minutes before we should head down. Are you ready?”

“I think I can handle it.”

The trail widened as it looped through a high meadow, and Gabe could walk next to her now. The tufts of dried grass left after winter were pierced by green shoots, and a few tiny yellow flowers dusted the field. Almost all of the aspen were brightening up with green, though a few still shivered with fuzzy seeds.

“So you've never been up here for a climb?” she asked.

“No, there's only one decent rock-climbing area close to town. The rock in this area is too brittle. Not ideal to have chunks falling out when you're trying to anchor. All the decent climbing spots are a good hour out, and that doesn't include the time you might need to hike in.”

“So it takes a full day?”

“Well, it depends how early you want to get up. During the summer, it pays to head out before dawn. The main rock faces are swarming with tourists.”

Veronica remembered hearing that complaint when she was growing up here. How difficult it was to get space for climbing or skiing or camping once the season started, but she'd never paid much attention.

At the top of the meadow, the trail cut into the aspen. Veronica heard the rushing of fast water ahead and smiled. “The creek is still high,” she said. “We're lucky. This time last year it was a trickle.”

She hurried to get to the creek. It always looked like a postcard to her, the way the water danced and foamed over the jagged stones, dropping down in dozens of little waterfalls as it made its way down the mountain. The last of the sunlight glinted off still pools, and the shadows of shaking aspen leaves chased dark spots over the light.

“I love it here,” she said.

“It's beautiful. But I think I should've brought rope.”

“Nah, the log is fine. Just don't fall in.” She winked and jumped up onto the thick trunk of the dead pine tree that had been here for a decade.

The smooth surface of the wood was slightly damp, but earlier in the spring it had been icy in spots, so this was a piece of cake. She rushed the fifteen feet across and jumped off on the other side. She turned around to see if Gabe was following, only to find him landing on the ground inches from her.

“I'm going to take you climbing,” he said, smiling down at her.

“No, you're not.”

“You weren't the least bit nervous about that. You're a natural.”

“You're insane,” she said, laughing as she followed the trail along the creek. It got steep again, but this time she hardly noticed. This part of the hike was magical. The switchbacks wound through the trees, so it looked as if you were walking into dead ends of dark ponderosa pines, but then the trail would turn sharply and head into spring-green towers of aspens.

She turned to grin at Gabe behind her. “Isn't it amazing? I mean, it's not Yellowstone or Jenny Lake, but it's right in our backyard.”

“It is amazing,” he said. “Thanks for showing me. It's the perfect place to run after work. No one could be tense after this.”

“Is it a stressful job? I know Lauren hates preschool hour.”

“It's not that. Kids are fine. It's just a little weird to be brought in to change things, you know? Especially because I'm male, and all the female librarians here have more experience than I do, but I have to come in and say, ‘This is what you're doing wrong.' It's shitty on the face of it, but it's what I was hired to do.”

“I can put in a good word with Lauren, if you like.”

“It's no problem. Lauren is great, actually. If I didn't have her on my side, I'd probably beg you for help. I wouldn't want to fuck with Lauren.”

“She is pretty badass,” Veronica agreed. Both of her girls'-night-out companions were really badass, actually. “Have you met Isabelle yet? She's an artist. She comes into the library sometimes for reference materials when she's working.”

“I don't think so.”

“She's good friends with Lauren. A brunette. She's usually got paint in her hair?”

“No, I definitely haven't met her.”

“Anyway, she was a federal fugitive for a while.”

“What?” Gabe snapped.

Veronica laughed. “That's really all I can say. You'll have to catch us out for girls' night sometime. Buy her a drink and see if she'll tell you the story.”

“Are you serious?”

She shrugged. “What, you don't have any wanted fugitives as friends?”

“I probably do—I just don't know it. But now I
know
you're kick-ass enough to handle climbing.”

If her friends made her seem more interesting than she actually was, she didn't mind, but no way could she imagine herself climbing any higher than a ladder. She wasn't one of those girls. She'd known a lot of them. In high school and college, they'd been the amazing winter athletes, some of whom had moved here just to hone their skills for world championships. In New York, they'd been the girls unafraid to take on every challenge that the city offered. They'd been glamorous and magnetic and
brave
.

Veronica had felt as though she'd used up all her braveness just getting to the city. And she wasn't even sure it could be called bravery, when she'd had no idea how difficult it all would be.

The trail took one last turn and they had to climb up two big rock steps, but they finally made it to the clearing she'd been aiming for. The trail cut between two huge boulders, then edged around a little ravine. Right at the top of the ravine, she stopped and faced the town.

“Here we are.”

“Wow,” he answered.

The setting sun turned the sky pink and gold in the west, and the highest peaks of the Tetons clawed at the colors like dark gray talons. The lower hills that marked the natural boundary of the town were already black with shadow, but beyond the grid of city blocks, the Elk Refuge stretched out for green miles. The river cut through the refuge, a winding line of deep blue that looked like a silk ribbon dropped into the middle of the grass.

Veronica sat down on a flat rock and Gabe joined her, but they didn't speak for a long time. They just looked at the scenery.

The breeze picked up, shaking the trees around them. For the first time in a while, Veronica felt totally at peace.

“You take it for granted a little when you grow up here,” she said. “It's not like there are parts of the valley that are ugly. It's all beautiful. I didn't realize how much I'd miss it when I went to the city.”

“Why did you move?” he asked, sounding totally dumbfounded.

She shrugged. She wasn't sure why she'd done it, why it had been so important to her for so long. Maybe that was one of the things she needed to unpack in her life. Why going far away had seemed like the solution to everything. “It's complicated. And it was a mistake. I can't imagine ever going back.”

He was quiet and she looked up to find him watching her. He looked more serious than he ever had.

She shrugged again. “Maybe I just spent too many years living in paradise.” She lifted her chin toward the view. As a teenager, she'd spent a lot of time outdoors, but she'd always thought of it as her only option for escape. She hadn't realized how much she'd loved it until she didn't have it anymore.

He still watched her, as if he was trying to puzzle something out, but she didn't want to reveal more. In the end he only nodded and bumped his shoulder gently against hers. “So...tell me what it means to be ‘pretty much' a virgin.”

Veronica gasped in horror. “I'm not telling you that!”

“Come on. I've been wondering about it. The things you told me that first night.”

“When I was drunk!” she yelped.

“Yes, when you were drunk. And being honest. I mean, I was obviously intrigued, but after that kiss... I've been thinking about it a lot.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered, her face going as hot as fire as she let her head drop. But her face wasn't the only part of her heating up. That kiss had been so, so good. And if he was interested in what she'd said, then he was...
interested
. Hadn't she just been thinking that she'd do almost anything to get her hands on him?

She felt him lean closer. “I only want to know what you want,” he whispered, his voice so close to her ear it made her shiver. “What you're looking for.”

Just his voice was enough to make her warm, but then...then his lips touched the side of her neck. She inhaled so sharply that it sounded like a gasp. His warm mouth touched her again, and the brush of his beard sent goose bumps scattering along her skin and down to her hardening nipples.

“I don't want to tell you about that,” she whispered, but she was arching her head away from him now, giving him more room to work. No one had ever kissed her this way. Softly. Slowly. As if he was exploring instead of persuading.

“Okay.” The word whispered over the skin behind her ear. She felt his fingers slide along the base of her skull, then trail down the nape of her neck. “Just tell me one thing, then. Anything.”

His tongue was shockingly hot when it touched her neck. Just a little flick that made her gasp again.

“I...” she tried, then groaned when his mouth opened against her and sucked gently. “I...I know a lot of things,” she managed to say. “All of it, really.”

“Mmm.” The sound vibrated against her.

“And I've done things.”

“What things?” he whispered.

Oh, God, she couldn't say any of this out loud. It was too much. She didn't want to tell; she just wanted to
do
. With
him
.

He drew back a little, and she followed him, her body leaning closer, chasing after his mouth.

“Come 'ere,” he murmured. She wasn't sure what he meant until his arm slipped under her knees and he lifted her up and onto his lap.

She grabbed on to him in shock, feeling as if she'd slide right off his knees, but his legs were strong, and his arms stayed around her to hold her steady.

She wasn't sure that sitting on his lap was quite...appropriate. But when his mouth settled into the crook of her neck and he tasted her again, any thought she'd had for returning to her own side of the boulder vanished. She didn't want to go anywhere. She wanted to be right here on his hard thighs, with his hands spreading over her back and his mouth creating magic on her neck.

“Oh,” she sighed, settling more comfortably into his chest.

“You've obviously kissed before,” he said. “You're very good at it.”

He kissed his way up to her jaw, and when she turned toward him, his mouth caught hers.

Was she good at it? She had no idea, but he made her feel hungry and languid and
right
. But she got to kiss him back for only a brief moment before his mouth left hers. “Have you come before?” he asked, his voice a little rougher than it had been.

Oh, God. She closed her eyes. “Yes,” she answered.

He kissed her lower lip. Bit it gently. Let it go. “With a man?”

She didn't want to say. She couldn't. She was a challenge. Hard work for a guy. No one wanted to be hard work in bed. But she finally shook her head. “No.”

He exhaled deeply. One of his hands slid up her back to cradle the nape of her neck. His fingertips felt textured against her skin. Calloused. “No?” he murmured against her mouth.

She shook her head, the tiniest movement, letting her parted lips brush over his. He kissed her again finally. An urgent, dark kiss, his hand still on her neck, keeping her close.

Wanting to be even closer, she twisted toward him, sliding her knee up, and then his hand was on her leg, lifting it over his thighs so that she straddled him.

Veronica held him now. Her hands slid up his shoulders and his neck, and she cradled his face and kissed him more deeply. His hands went to her thighs, and his fingers rubbed slowly up and down, up and down, from her knees to the tops of her legs. She wanted him to go higher. She was spread open, straddling him, and she wanted him to rub her there. Right
there
. She wanted it to feel the way she'd always hoped it would. But his hands stayed on her thighs.