Big Mac came by to hand us paper bags with our lunch in them once we’d finished breakfast, telling us he’d included a bottle of water each but to make sure we stayed hydrated. After a quick stop back at our hotel room to pick up a backpack with our supplies, we got into the taxi I’d ordered for us earlier.
The trail was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The dense forest it was cut into made it impossible to see much beyond the path, but the towering trees, the birdsong, and the views as we ascended made it a truly unique experience.
Unlike some other hikes, there wasn’t only one way up this mountain. Several different paths branched off from the main one, and Lindsay and I chose one of the quieter ones. It was well enough signposted that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost.
Signs of civilization had made it up here too, but the small information huts also carried medical kits and were built entirely of natural materials. It made them unobtrusive, and since we could also refill our water bottles there, they came in real handy real soon.
Sweat glistened on Lindsay’s brow, but whenever she looked at me, her eyes were alive and she very much had a bounce in her step. About halfway up, we came across a little girl standing in the middle of the path, tears gushing from her eyes as she looked around.
Lindsay and I exchanged a glance before we both rushed to her side. I got to her first, dropping into a crouch and discreetly checking her for injuries while I spoke. “Hey, sweetheart. Do you speak English? What happened? Are you okay?”
She shook her head, her lower lip trembling as she answered Lindsay instead of me. “I got lost. I can’t find my mom or dad anywhere.”
Her voice was heavily accented with an Australian lilt, but at least she understood us. Lindsay gave me a worried look before lowering to her haunches next to me. “Where did you last see them?”
“They were asking about the waterfalls at one of the kiosks. I didn’t mean to go so far away from them.”
“Can you remember which way you came from?” I asked. “Were you going uphill or downhill?”
“Down.” Her lip trembled again. “But there’s a fork just up there and I can’t remember which way to go.”
“That’s okay,” Lindsay said soothingly. “This is Jaxon and I’m Lindsay. You did the right thing by just standing still when you realized you were that lost.”
“We’ll help you find your parents,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Tammy.” Her voice shook. “I’m not supposed to speak to strangers.”
“I understand,” I said. “We’re not going to hurt you, okay? There are a lot of people out here even though we seem pretty alone at the moment. Neither of us will lay a hand on you, and if you feel unsafe with us at all, you can scream and scream. Someone will definitely hear you and come help.”
“How do I know you won’t stop me from screaming?” she asked.
Smart kid.
Shifting on my heels, I extracted my phone from my pocket. “Do you know your parents’ cell number?”
She nodded and I handed the device over after unlocking it. “Call them and ask them where they are. You can talk to them while we walk. How does that sound?”
“Good.” She sniffed, already dialing a foreign number.
When her parents answered and heard her voice, they were so frantic that I could hear them from a couple of feet away. Tammy explained what had happened and whose phone she was using, then gave us the name of the hut they’d returned to when they couldn’t find her.
Apparently, they’d already called for help.
Unzipping the backpack, I found the map we’d gotten at the bottom of the trail and quickly located the hut. I couldn’t pinpoint our exact location, but I gave Tammy the name of the trail we were on, and she relayed the information.
Five minutes later as we were heading up the hill, a tear-streaked couple came running around the corner and swept the little girl up in their arms. They thanked us profusely for taking care of their daughter and left shortly after to call off the help they’d summoned from the authorities and search-and-rescue.
“You’re actually quite good with children,” Lindsay commented once we were alone on the path again.
“I don’t like seeing people looking lost or hurt.” I raised my shoulders and pushed my hair off my face. “It was nothing really. Just coming up with a plan to let her know she was safe with us until we could find her parents.”
“It might have been nothing to you, but it meant everything to them.” A thoughtful expression came onto her face before she looked up at me with a mischievous smile forming on her lips. “Come with me.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, following her when she disappeared off the trail and wound her way through the wide trunks of the trees surrounding it.
“I want to do something spontaneous,” she called.
When I walked around the tree her voice had come from, she was topless and in the process of shimmying out of her pants. My jaw slackened as I drank her in, raking my gaze over her nearly naked chest and all the curves on display.
My dick stirred again, and this time, I didn’t ignore it. A grin spread on my lips as I took the step separating us and pushed her up against the tree. “I thought you weren’t a fan of sex in public.”
“So did I.” She smirked as she pushed her hands under my shirt, her fingertips trailing along my abdomen. “But seeing you in white-knight mode was seriously hot. I didn’t think you’d object to me having a change of heart about it.”
“Keep your sneakers on,” I growled as I bent my head to nip and lick at her neck. “You never know what might be lurking around here.”
She moaned when I sucked at an apparently sensitive spot below her jaw, and I pulled back to look into her eyes. “Keep it down, baby. We’re not very far away from the trail and we wouldn’t want to get arrested, now would we?”
Chapter 19
LINDSAY
Holy. Shit.
I didn’t know who this girl was that had brazenly taken off her shirt in the middle of a tropical forest with people all over the mountain, but I liked her. Being her was so thrilling that my panties were soaked even before Jaxon’s body pressed me up against the rough bark of the tree.
Although it wasn’t just the liberation of acting on what I wanted that had gotten me that way. I’d been pretty much raring to go since I woke up, and getting my blood flowing on the hike hadn’t helped.
I’d gotten distracted by the beauty of our surroundings, but every so often, my mind strayed to what it would be like to slip off the beaten track and then have Jaxon slipping into me. Seeing him once again taking complete charge of a situation and then helping that little girl had inspired me to take charge of my own situation.
There was no denying that I wanted him, and I suddenly couldn’t think of a reason why not to act on it. As his lips pressed to my jaw and he shoved his hand into my panties a little more roughly than before, I mentally patted myself on the back for having had the courage to take what I wanted.
Jaxon groaned into my ear when he found me slick between my legs, and his tongue darted out to suck the lobe between his teeth. “Are you always this fucking wet?”
“Never.” I gave him complete honesty. “It usually takes me a while to get into it.”
“Not in my experience, but I fucking love it,” he mumbled, sliding his fingers lower and pushing my legs apart with one of his. “You’re going to be good and keep it down for me, right? I promise I’ll make it up to you later. You’ll be lifting the roof when we get back to the bungalow.”
I nodded, sucking both lips into my mouth to keep quiet when he pressed down on my throbbing clit. He spoke with his lips still next to my ear, his breath causing goosebumps to rise on my flesh as it ghosted over my heated skin.
“Good. Let me know if you need any help keeping it down.” Without any further warning, he plunged a thick finger inside me while he started playing with me.
He freed my breasts from my
bra with his other hand, pinching my nipple before dipping his head to soothe the hardened nub with lavish kisses. I pressed up against him, wanting more of what he was doing—everywhere.
I felt his hard length against my hip, suddenly more desperate to touch him than I’d ever been. Reaching down between us, I skimmed my fingers past the waistband of his jogging shorts and relished the rumble of his groan against my chest when I brushed against his tip.
His erection was firm but his skin was as soft as satin in my grip. I ran my fingers over his length, all the way down to his taut balls before scraping my fingernails gently against his skin on my way back up. He let out that hissing noise again, then slammed his mouth down onto mine to swallow the moans slipping from my lips as he curled his fingers inside me.
My inner muscles pulsed around his fingers, and it was my turn to absorb the noises he made. This kiss was different to any of the ones we’d shared the other night. Deeper, faster, and more carnal.
It spoke to the fact that we weren’t there to take our time and explore one another. We were there to fuck. Hard and fast.
Not that the other night hadn’t been hard, but it surely hadn’t been fast. I’d felt him between my legs the whole of the next day, and I frankly couldn’t wait to feel him there again.
Adding a second finger, he pumped into me faster while also strumming me with his thumb. A pleasurable shiver ran through me, and he rammed me into the tree with his hips, using them and the rough bark to keep me upright.
“I’ve never done this standing up before,” I confessed between passionate kisses.
“I won’t let you fall,” he promised, his voice rough as he moved his pelvis farther forward as if trying to reassure me.
It made stroking him a little more difficult, but I was losing speed as my climax crept up on me anyway. It didn’t seem to bother him. If anything, he was just getting more into it.
“Come for me, Linds. Just remember to keep quiet.” His voice was a harsh whisper.
I buried my head in the crook of his neck, biting his shoulder to keep any sounds from escaping as heat spread through my veins and that euphoric precipice was so close my toes were already curling. A retort about how bossy he was in the bedroom—or the forest for that matter—died on my lips when I went tumbling headfirst over the edge with another flick of his thumb.
My body tensed against his, but I didn’t feel like he was about to let me fall. Somehow in the midst of everything that we’d done together, I had come to trust him. Really trust him.
The realization sent powerful aftershocks ripping through me before I finally went all but limp in his arms. Looking up at the savage expression on his face as he watched me in the aftermath of coming apart, I knew he wasn’t done with me yet.
Despite him following through on his promises the first time we were together, I felt so sated that I really doubted I’d get there again. Seeing that look on his handsome face made my insides involuntarily clench again, though.
How? How does this guy have such an intense effect on me? I didn’t know, but this was hardly the time to question him. Not that I thought he knew, but at least I was pretty darn confident it was the same for him.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice almost tender even while he was pulling a condom out of his wallet and shoving his pants and underwear down over his large cock.
I nodded before dropping my head back to kiss his lips while hooking one leg around his hip. “How are we going to do this?”
He kissed me, fast and demanding, before he brought his palms to my thighs and lifted me against him. “How’s that bark against your back?”
I didn’t even have time to answer him before he released one of my legs to yank his shirt off over his head. He blanketed it over my shoulders before resting me against the tree again. Instead of answering him with words, I offered my mouth again and he took it as he lined himself up.
Concern clouded his gaze when he glanced down at me again. “This is going to be hard and fast. You okay with that?”
“It’s like you read my mind.” I looped my arms around his shoulders and burrowed my hands into his hair, kissing him again as he thrust into me.
I would’ve cried out if his mouth hadn’t already been on mine, but it came out as a muffled moan instead. He withdrew as far as he could before returning to me like he just couldn’t help himself.
His hips set a brutal pace, but I loved every minute of it. I worked to meet his thrusts, but it was almost impossible to do much in this position.
Leveraging my arms on his shoulders and calling on muscles I didn’t even know I had, I managed to roll into him instead of thrusting, but my efforts felt pretty amazing to me. From the concentration on his features when I opened my eyes to sneak a peek at him, I’d say he felt the same way.
At this angle, with him filling me up and hitting me in all kinds of places as a result of my own actions, it didn’t take me long before I was fluttering around him again. Pleasure swelled up from deep inside me, cascading out in an almost violent wave when the dam walls burst and I let him have it all.
He moaned right along with me, his rhythm finally breaking as he slammed into me three more times before finding his own release. I felt him expand deep inside me, his powerful muscles quivering as he rode out his climax.
When he was done, he dropped his forehead against my shoulder, breathing heavily as he placed kisses on my bare skin and whispered between them. “Fuck, Linds. That was incredible, but we need to get dressed.”
“Could you give me a minute?” I held on to him, unable to feel my extremities but also more than hesitant to let him go in such an intimate moment.
He nodded without removing his head, waiting until I wriggled before pulling back to look at me. “You okay now?”
“I think so.” I flexed my fingers to be sure, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay. The rest of the walk might be a little interesting, though.”
He chuckled, keeping a careful eye on me as he let me down. “I could carry you, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t let me.”
“You guess correctly.” My feet touched the ground and Jaxon stepped away when he was satisfied that my legs were stable enough to hold me up. “I’ve never been like this, you know? I’ve never done anything like that before.”
My limbs still felt like jelly, but I managed to get my clothes back on once I shook the leaves out of them. One or two stuck to me, but I picked them off with one hand while Jaxon wrapped the other up in his and guided us back to the path.
He looked sexy as all hell with his hair tousled from my fingers, his lips swollen, and his eyes still dark when he looked at me. “I’m sure you say that to all the guys you have sex with in a Fijian forest.”
I hit his shoulder, but it lacked the intention to actually harm him in any way. “Is that any way to speak to your wife, baby bear? I think not. You’ve obviously been a bad influence on me.”
Light came back to his eyes when he laughed, kissing me again just before we rejoined the rest of the tourists sticking to the trails. “I’ve always wanted to be one of those. Thanks for the compliment, princess.”
“I’m no princess,” I said against his lips, tossing my ponytail over my shoulder as I pulled away from him. “I’m a queen. Don’t ever forget it.”
He laughed and gave me a playful smack on the ass before slinging his arm around my shoulders as we made our way to the nearest waterfall. “Trust me. There’s absolutely no way I’d ever forget that. You have a permanent spot carved into my memories, my queen. I’ll always remember every minute that we’ve spent together.”
For the first time, it dawned on me that our holiday—and by extension, our fake marriage—was quickly coming to an end. My heart flipped over at the thought, which was surprising because it wasn’t supposed to be involved at all.
As I settled in against his side, where I really had become just as comfortable as he’d teased me about the other day, I felt tears pricking at the backs of my eyes. I wasn’t
ready to let him go, and yet it wasn’t like we could stay.
Well, this is an unexpected turn of events.
Chapter 20
JAXON
I reached for Lindsay before I even opened my eyes, but my fingers didn’t touch anything other than air and bedding. A frown tugged at my brows when I realized she wasn’t there.
Worry punched me in the gut, but then I remembered where we were, and I figured she probably just needed to be alone for a while. She’d probably gone for a walk on the beach, not wanting to wake me up after all my complaining about early mornings.
Glancing at the windows, I saw that the sun was already up but it didn’t look like it’d been that way for very long. The light was still too soft and it had that definite early morning haziness to it.
Flopping back on the mattress, I yawned and let a smile break free as I thought about our hike. And after.
Sex in the woods had been fucking hot, but I hated that she had to keep quiet. I wasn’t exactly a stranger to fucking in public or semi-public places, but I’d never been as greedy for a woman’s moans as I was for hers.
At least I’d kept my promise about making her raise the roof later. We’d had a picnic near a stream when we reached the waterfall. The afternoon had been spent talking, exploring a few of the shallower caves, and having an early dinner at a small local restaurant on our way back to the hotel.
When we’d reached our bungalow, I’d hauled her into the bedroom and kept her there for the rest of the night. At around midnight, we’d ordered grilled cheese and ice cream for a snack along with a bottle of champagne, eaten in bed, and then I’d guzzled the drink from her bare flesh before we finally fell asleep at some godforsaken hour of the morning.
At times, between rounds of enjoying our time together, I’d noticed her drifting off into her head. Knowing that she probably had a lot to work out was why I wasn’t upset about her leaving me alone after all the time we’d been spending together.
Maybe it's Fate Page 13