Taming Alaska (So Not Prince Charming Book 1) (18 page)

Shane just grunts, squeezing his eyes shut while he rolls his bad shoulder back. I slowly take off his coat to examine his shoulder. Dried blood stains his tee shirt.

“It’s not infected, but it’s not healing with what you’re carrying,” I say, admiring the corded muscle of his arms.

Recalling our earlier entanglement, I have to back away and hide my rapid breathing and the flush sweeping across my face.

“It probably won’t until we stop.” He pulls me into him, and I stop breathing. “We’re both exhausted, so let’s get some sleep.”

I swallow, feeling the strength of his grip and inhaling his woodsy scent. We’re both horny, so why doesn’t he make a move? If he would’ve asked me out after he started my car that day, I would’ve said yes, and we wouldn’t be going through this, and I could’ve taught him how to hold a knife and fork.

We crawl into the tent, Shane taking up the rear, his hot breath on my ass. My clit tingles and begs to be touched, even by his rough hands.

After we lay down beside each other, he turns a cold shoulder toward me, and my heart withers. It’s too late for him and me. I hold back the tears of losing Blake, from being out here, and from those men hunting us. And for making the costly mistake of losing Shane.

* * *

After spending the night next to Mr. Sexy Hard Body, who completely ignored me all night, I need a dip in the icy river. He definitely keeps me warm at night, and the dreams I had left me dangling on the brink of pleasure, but would I have agreed to come up here with Shane if he’d invited me? That’s doubtful. I hate it. I just want to go home to my comfy bed.

The sun isn’t even up, so I gather my clothes, the bear spray, soap and shampoo, and a hand towel I stole from the cabin.

I creep outside, so I don’t disturb Shane. My whole body aches, especially my legs and feet. We have more days of this, hiking over rough terrain while I stare at his manly butt and his gorgeous body. Eventually, I’ll have to face Blake’s lover. Besides Blake, the only thing we have in common is that we were both bitches in the relationship.

A bald eagle swoops down from the trees and captures some rodent hiding in the ground cover. I don’t know if I can last another week of being out here in the wild, even though I don’t have a choice. If it weren’t for Shane, I wouldn’t have made it this far. When and if we return, I’ll have to do something nice for him—introduce him to a girl who would enjoy this. I don’t know anyone though.

As I walk to the river, the clouds cast a dull grey to the landscape. This morning the air doesn’t feel cold enough to snow, but it’s heavy with moisture, and rain would suck on our cross-country trek. I don’t have any foul-weather pants, just a Gore-Tex shell to keep my upper half dry. The thought sends bone-deep chills into me.

In front of me, the river flows break-neck fast, but yesterday, I spotted several large boulders that create an eddy—my new vocab from Shane. Before getting in, I wash my face and hair and shave my legs. I hate hairy legs. I wonder if Shane will appreciate my effort. Even if he doesn’t like me, he does have to sleep next to me.

I remove my clothes and sink into the very refreshing water, my nipples hardening and my thighs squeezing together from the icy plunge. I soap up as quick as I can, and just as I reach for my towel, I scream, “Oh shit.”

The stupid black wolf snaps at my fingers, its tail flagging. I didn’t even hear it come up. I stumble and almost lose my balance on the slippery rocks. I grab a branch to steady myself.

The pepper spray sits right next to my clothes. While the wolf growls at me, its sharp teeth gnashing and drool foaming from its powerful jaws, I edge toward the pepper spray, willing my body to stop shaking, which is nearly impossible between the cold and the wolf’s audible threats.

I lunge for the spray. The wolf pounces for my arm, and my hand snaps back like a boomerang. I reach for it again, and before my fingers can clamp around the bottle, I slip on the mossy rock and plunge into the water where the current sweeps me up. It pulls me under, and as I resurface, I scream, “Shane.”

My body bounces off of rocks until I recall from river rafting to keep my feet up and in front of me. It doesn’t take too long until my feet and body are numb from the cold. A branch stabs me in my rib, so I cry out again just before the strong current sucks me under.

Chapter Sixteen

Shane

When I roll out of the sleeping bag, I wake to the aroma of fresh coffee, so I smile. The princess made me coffee. In only socks and jeans, I climb out of the tent and pour the steaming black liquid into a tin mug. Hers taste better than mine, and I have no idea why, other than I didn’t have to make it.

The coffee is black, hot, and rich—the way I like it. I don’t know why Cyn doesn’t like my Caribbean roast.

If she knew how much it excites me to sleep next to her, she wouldn’t come into the tent. I’ve dreamt of her naked every night, my imagination running wild about what she’d look like stripped of her clothes. I’m betting dark nipples to go with her olive skin.

“Cyn?” I call. I hope she didn’t go to the river to bathe without telling me first.

I stare down at the damp earth where large wolf prints from a single animal stamp the ground. They stop just beyond the fire and our tent, which means the pack is growing bolder. The coffee churns in my gut.

When Cyn screams, I drop the mug of coffee, dash into the tent for the 10mm Glock, and sprint to the river, my socked feet soaking up the damp earth. The black wolf lopes along the riverbank, halting every few feet to watch a blonde mass of hair with dark roots bobbing in the water.

When I intentionally shoot at the dirt behind the wolf, it tucks its tail and darts into the woods. As Cyn slams into a boulder, I flinch. She’ll be a bruised and bloody mess. I pray nothing’s broken because our survival depends on it, and I don’t want to see her hurt. When she spins around, a dead tree splayed across the river catches and stabs her in the shoulder. Blood plumes in the water.

Dammit. Gulping in air, I hurdle over rocks and fallen trees to retrieve her.

She coughs, spitting out water, and her arms dangle over the trunk. She breathes unevenly, laying her head on the trunk spread out on the river. I scoot out on the fallen tree, grab hold of her armpits, and scoop her out of the water.

She lets out a small yelp when her bare skin scrapes against the bark, scratching the swell of her breasts and the curves of her stomach and hips.

“Oh fuck.” She’s nasty hot and what I’ve imagined since I met that saucy little sixteen-year-old five years ago. My cock stiffens and bolts upright in my jeans.

“Bout time you got here,” she says in between her teeth chattering. Her head lies on my shoulder, and her naked, plump ass rests on my arms as I carry her back to the campsite.

“I’m so cold,” she mutters.

She clutches onto me, and I worry she may have broken something with the blood pouring from the gash in her shoulder and the bruises covering her arms and legs.

“You should’ve told me where you were going.” Anger and a touch of sexual frustration taint my words. “You could’ve been seriously hurt.” I stop and pick up her clothes and pepper spray and drape the hand towel on her shoulders. Her naked, shivering body curls into me, and I try my damnedest not to think about it.

Scratches and puncture wounds mark her soft olive skin. Dark smudges have formed crescent moons under her eyes from lack of sleep. I don’t know how much longer she can keep going—the cold, the long hikes, and now this.

“Where are you hurt?” I ask, tugging her closer to warm her up, her wet hair soaking my bare chest. Her fleshy, perky breasts dimpled by gooseflesh with dark, stiff nipples brush against me.

She glances up. “Everywhere.” She’s fighting off tears when she doesn’t need to.

I can’t help myself I kiss her wet hair. “Oh Princess. It’s okay to cry.”

Her damp hair cools my shoulder. I hold her very naked ass in my arms, her cold nipple prickling the hair on my bare chest. Ravenous need stirs within me, so I gulp in air and my heart beats so loudly it drowns out the world.

When we return, I sit her down in front of the fire then snatch the sleeping bag from the tent to wrap it around her. “Put this on.” I hand her my flannel shirt that I stuffed at the bottom of the bag to keep it warm when I put it on in the morning.

She tugs it over her head, stretching those breasts upward. Her teeth chatter while I pile more wood onto the fire. I pour her coffee, her trembling hands grasp the warm mug, and she sips.

“Sit on my lap.” I help her onto it, and her back leans against my chest. My body responds to this damp, very naked temptress resting her very fine ass against my groin. My breathing is uneven, and my heart is about to burst from my chest.

She tucks her bare feet into the sleeping bag and then the tears fall.

I hold her as close as humanly possible, rubbing the cold from her arms. “Let it out, Cyn.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” she sobs.

“Next time, disturb me.”

She wipes tears from her face, and it reminds me of that spunky young girl years ago. “I’m so stupid.”

“Yes, you are,” I say, smiling. “This is what happens when you don’t want me to see you naked.”

She cries, burying her runny nose into my chest.

I rock her in my arms, like I used to do for my younger brother and sister when they were little and needed comforting because Mom had left us. “It’s okay. We’re going to be fine.”

“How can you say that? You’ve had hardly any sleep.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” I whisper into her ear, “but there’s this hot woman sleeping next to me at night, humping on my leg.” I made that last bit up.

She chokes out a laugh.

“You’re excited,” she says, a smile creeping into her words.

“I have a very beautiful, naked woman sitting on my lap,” I say while my steel-hard cock bends at an uncomfortable angle between the cleft of her ass.

She lifts her chin, and those smoldering Spanish eyes peer up at me. “Did you just call me beautiful?”

“Yes.” I nuzzle my nose into her soft, freshly washed hair.

“I haven’t forgotten how you left me on the ground at my wedding.”

“You’ll get over that.” I help her put on her wool blend socks but let her slip on her panties and jeans on her own. That would be too much for me. My cock already hurts as it is.

I rub her arms some more and press my chest against her back while the fire warms her front. That’s where I’d like to be—bare chest to bare breasts, her full breasts pressed into me, the nipples taut and excited. I have to stop thinking like this before I lose all control. She just lost her husband, even if he was an ass.

Once she’s fully dressed and warmed up, she stands and gazes up at the bleak sky. “We should get started before the rain sets in.”

The grey clouds are plump with moisture and hang low in the sky. It’s going to rain and that’ll suck.

“You’re right. Let’s go.” So much for a littler R&R, but if we’d stayed any longer, I would’ve pulled her down onto the ground and taken her right then and given her that precious orgasm she’s never had. How I’d love to be the first.

She gives me a hand up.

“You’ve been a real trooper, Cyn. Most women would’ve given up by now.” Niki would’ve been in tears days ago, but Cyn keeps chugging along.

She leans her head against me, and my heart hammers. “I owe you, Shane.”

I know a way she could make it up to me, but that wouldn’t be right. “You don’t owe me. Are you going to be all right? Nothing’s broken?”

She nods. “I just hurt everywhere, but I’ll make it.”

I give her a hug. I don’t want to let go. “I’ll take care of you.”

“You already have many times.”

Not the way I’d like to.

We break down the tent and gather up our gear. Niki would’ve made me do everything, and at one time, I would’ve gladly done so. I hand Cyn some foul weather pants before we head out. “You should wear these in case it rains.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be good for a while,” I say, even though I can’t think straight with the images of a very naked Cyn holding my mind hostage.

Her lying next to me every night, her head on my shoulder, me carrying her naked body back to camp. In between ragged breaths and my heart stuttering in my chest, I climb along the narrow path and up the rocky terrain toward the gorge where we’ll face Loki and Red and where I may lose her.

Grizzly tracks, my bear, pockmark the muddy earth, yet I could care less about hunting it. My mind wraps around her long legs, that amazing ass, those breasts filling my hand and my mouth, and her lips swollen from kissing me. I have to stop this.

My dick bends at an awkward angle. I rearrange it before turning around to help Cyn over a particularly treacherous ledge. Hell, I just want to touch her.

“I can do it.” Cyn cocks her head, but then her hand reaches for my extended one. “Thank you.”

I help her up the steep incline, pulling her into my chest, and blood rushes into her face. She looks at me differently, and I can’t get a read on her.

I take Cyn along a tributary to make our way to the Yukon River. Within another couple days we’ll make it to the gorge that’s several miles up from the bridge. This is an easier route and less dangerous than going over the pass this time of year. Snow already whitens the peaks, and it’s heavy for this time of year. Storms often blow in, making the easiest trail impassable.

“Where are the wolves?” she asks. Unlike any woman I’ve ever known, Cyn doesn’t sound fragile.

My gaze scans over rocky scrub brush and the last of the autumn colors dulled by the cold. Snow will blanket and completely cover the lowlands soon. “They’re probably hunting.”

“For us?” Her voice slightly trembles.

It’s a concern. “I don’t know why they’re tracking us.”

“That black one wanted to eat me this morning.”

So do I. I let out a breath. “It’s going to rain soon.”

In another few minutes, the clouds break open, and rain pummels the earth. I help Cyn pull up her hood and then I do mine, even though my ball cap keeps the rain out of my eyes.