Who knew shapely legs that short could move that fast and eyes got that big? She was truly afraid… and curvy.
“It’s done, Deidre!” I yelled after her. “There’s no more of them! You can come back now!”
At least, come back and shut this damn GPS up. Well, she didn’t even look back let alone was going to come back, which she wouldn’t. Not after getting proof of her worries that a nest of ‘no-shoulders having fuckers’ had been squatting in my cabin who knew how long. Her words, not mine, and her voice had a smoking-hot quality made for phone sex. In our case, for joining forces, debating defense strategy, wheel and deal lawyer fees and how she’d get here.
Speaking of deals, the squatters were the same as a breach of contract. We still had to pay her for keeping her end of the deal by showing up here and now, taking away her services thanks to a no-shoulders having fucker. Only the worst luck on earth let her catch me doing my due diligence of fucker-hunting. Now, I had to catch her.
Tossing the reptile parts into the pile scheduled to burn in the pit at the border of the woods whenever the wind died down, I took off after her. She had no clue that her journey’s end was at the beginning of a ravine. It would reveal itself to her only after she was tumbling down its side. As swift as she was moving, she’d arrive at it in no time. I had extreme misgivings about her surviving the twenty-foot fall. DeAngelo damn near didn’t, while trying to leap from one end of the ravine’s wall to the other idiotically.
If it hadn’t been for the one-off of three blizzards blowing in one right after the other and dumping a foot and a half of snow in the bottom of the gorge, he would’ve died fifteen years ago. It hadn’t stormed like that here since.
“Deidre, stop! There’s a ravine up that way!” I managed to relay just before she crashed through the tree line, disappearing from my sight.
Shit!
It was as good thing that she made it easy to follow. All the racket her boots caused from stampeding on frozen shrubbery and fallen sticks could be heard by the deaf. DeAngelo’s favorite backpack was a neon orange target. That eyesore a.) obscured her top half from the rear, b.) left her mouthwatering, apple-shaped ass visible to me, and c.) created its own fuss by tearing off low level twigs from the trees. If she stayed on this course, she was headed into a hell of a lot more danger than a nonvenomous asp posed.
As the cliché went, good things didn’t last forever and I was running out of time to save my sexy savior. Long before she got to the ravine, older trees with heavier branches would sprout up. Her forehead or the backpack would meet one sooner or later as we ran deeper into the forest. The pack increased her height by a foot, almost fated that a tree limb would clothesline it if not her, putting a painful end to her mad dash somewhere near the ravine.
I didn’t know the first thing about first aid. Damn near scared out of my mind for her safety at this point, I put on a useless burst of speed. At six foot two and two hundred pounds, a burst of anything shouldn’t have been required. I should’ve easily ate up the gap between us a minute ago too. Then again, when phobias were triggered, getting away on itty-bitty legs from a long-legged pursuer and what was terrifying the pursued wasn’t the impossible feat it should’ve been. Catching up to the frightened woman was. Until she believed what was in front of her was more terrifying than what was behind her, I wouldn’t catch up.
It was time for a little white lie that she may not ever forgive me for. “Deidre, there’s a bed of rattlesnakes I hadn’t gotten to in this area! Stop running and turn! A! Round!”
Heeding my own warning, I went motionless amid two huge tree trunks, bent at the knees, and braced for impact. Predictably, Deidre skidded to a stop to change flight plans. I could almost see the smoke coming off her heels. She raced toward me at full speed as I suspected she would.
“Get out the way and run, fool!” the bossy little woman commanded.
I did no such thing, remaining a wall of muscle to obstruct her path and hold her still long enough to talk some reason into her. If I failed at either, she might run right up my front then over my head and down my back, if I let her. She was so not using me as a ramp, came out better going around. Should she try to pass by me, my hands were stretched out to grab her midflight.
“I’m going to run right over your ass if you don’t MOVE!” she cautioned at an eardrum-piercing octave from a few feet away.
She wasn’t tall as shit, but her voice sure as hell was.
“I figured you might try that!” I fired back, “It’s not happening. Stop running. There isn’t any more snakes.”
Deidre kept coming. “Stand there then!”
She really wasn’t going to stop and I hadn’t really expected her to, just wished it. I waited, but didn’t factor in her not slowing down when invading my personal space, or jumping up to reach for my shoulders while planting a small foot on my thigh dangerously close to my crotch. Her momentum would certainly have carried her up and over me.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” I palmed her slight shoulders, pushing down gently to drive her back to the ground before I got a face full of her breasts.
That would’ve been fine under other circumstances.
She knocked my hands away with surprising strength. Her foot put more pressure on my thigh as she leaped up once more, using my coat as climbing gear to get level with my shoulders. I grasped hers again, pressing her back down. That ticked her off but good.
She grabbed two more handfuls of jacket at my chest, lunging herself up to get in my face where she howled bloody murder, “LET ME BY!”
I shrunk back at that display of fury. Right then, the only thing scarier than her getting hurt or dying was her.
“Jesus Christ, lady! Settle down! I was ly—”
“No!” Up close, her almond-shaped peepers consisted of majorly dilated pupils with a minor ring of dark coffee-tinted irises instead of the other way around. “I’m going home if I have to kill you to move you!”
Shocked by the ferociousness coming from the mini-hellcat, I was unprepared when Deidre became a whirlwind of movement again. Her other foot found my other thigh. In this moment, I almost wanted her to go home too. She was this close to neutering me. Her boots didn’t stay in that area for long, finding toeholds on my stomach. The Tasmanian devil was well on her way to climbing me like a rock wall then vaulting over me.
After heaving herself upwards for the third time, she stood up on my legs. I did get a face full of her breasts then. It wasn’t a small amount either. Under threat of suffocation, I shoved my fingers between the backpack and her body, seizing her waist. The goal was to lightly crush her body against mine, curbing her travels. She was so damn petite my fingertips nearly touched. I was afraid to grip her waist any harder for fear of bruising and/or breaking her.
“Goddamnit, woman, stop it! I’m not your personal springboard! You’re safe! I was lying about there being more snakes out here!” Eventually, I was going to pay dearly for that confession, but I needed her to calm down now. I’d deal with the fallout from lying later.
Ignoring me, Deidre cashed in on our proximity, clutching onto the material at my shoulders and walking up my abs. She did exactly what I had tried to prevent in the first place. A man wanted feet in his chest under one circumstance. This wasn’t it. I lowered her down then swung her bottom half out from my body. Eventually, her legs would run out of length and had to hit the ground.
Deidre checkmated my move with refusing to let go of my jacket, which stalled out my swinging her away effort and kept her feet well in perching range on my chest. She sat in the air with me bearing all her weight plus the pack’s, huffing and puffing oxygen while glaring at me like a way too cute kitten with claws hooked deep in my clothes.
For the love of God, what would it take to get the half-pint on the ground? Probably a mirror because if she saw herself, she would be highly embarrassed. Or not. I knew I was: my manhood was being severely tested. She was putting up a gargantuan of a fight and I was finding it harder
than an erection in a strip club to get her off me and calmed.
“You will not get my feet on this damn ground unless I’m running,” she hissed, her full succulent lips pursed tight, teeth gritted and intense eyes narrowed.
Damn, she was adorable when furious and deadly serious. Not adorable when walking all over me literally and figuratively. Now that she was just clinging to me, there was the slimmest chance that she could be reasoned with.
“On my life, Deidre, I was lying about the snake bed. I told you that because I needed to get you to stop running before you fell into the ravine a few hundred yards away and damn near if not completely killed yourself. Listen and look around if you don’t believe me. There’s nothing out here but you, me, the woods and the cold weather.”
She peeped down at the dirt once. Her boots marched further up my chest, parking near my shoulders. Oh God, she was settling in and quite limber. “I don’t believe you. What about the snake at the cabin? If there’s one, there’s more.”
A little out of breath myself, I sucked in a lungful of air. “I have no one to blame but myself for you not believing me, but I promise the cabin is creepy-crawler and slither-er free. I spent three days patching up holes, spraying pesticide, playing animal control and was about to euthanize the last squatter for you when you arrived. If it makes you feel more secure, I’ll carry you back to the cabin from here and you can check the place out for yourself.”
My proposal had her jerking hard, eyes bugging out.
“I take that as a no-go then. Okay, I can check the place out for you. You inspect from above, like you’re doing now. If you find one thing you don’t like, I’ll risk escorting you back to the road and wait for your ride with you.”
Hopefully, she didn’t go. There was nothing else I could bargain, say nor do to make her stay. It was imperative she did. Most of the reasons I wanted her to stay, I wouldn’t cop to. They weren’t professional. This was supposed to be business. Those personal reasons for keeping her around started listing themselves in my head anyway. Beautiful,…
She freed one hand, punching me in the chest. I barely felt what equated to a love-tap before her puny fist was balled up in my coat again.
What the… She just…!
“Why’d you hit me?” I rumbled indignantly although I didn’t feel the punch.
My outrage was about the principle.
She craned her neck until our faces where inches apart, a challenge if ever there was one. “You lied to me.”
Her warm, minty breath flowed over my face, raising goose bumps on my skin everywhere, and I was slowly losing track of this conversation. “Oh. The bill for lying to you came due already? Damn. I anticipated that happening much, much later and it is so noted not to lie to you even if it is to save your life and me from a heart attack. You get violent… or run off at the speed of light,” I added dryly.
The corners of her mouth twitched as if suppressing a laugh. Then, she re-batten down the hatches of her lush mouth, a lot less tighter than earlier. She seemed a lot less tense and frightened too. The ring of her gorgeous eye-color was more visible. Liking her striking eyes much, much better that way, I made a mental note to make her laugh if she was ever mad with me. Swiftly, I realized that I didn’t ever want her to be mad with me, but shit happened.
She leaned back, eying my coat. “You couldn’t have felt that punch, you big baby. This jacket’s as thick as a cow’s ass. How are you not sweating your ass off in it?”
I was hella distracted by her lips and smiling for us both after that crack at my winter gear. “You mean a goose’s ass. Best cooling goose down money can buy, and yes, I lied. It worked. You’re okay. If you hadn’t fell in the ravine, you’d have ran head first or pack first into a branch sooner than later, but you wouldn’t listen. I did what I had to.”
Sadly, her eyes shrunk to little more than slits and thick lashes sweeping rounded, high cheeks. She didn’t respond right away, laser-focused on searching my face for something. Likely for evidence of me lying again. Naturally, she would, being female and a good attorney.
DeAngelo swore she was the latter. His word was good with me who waited patiently for her to get her fill of dwelling into the windows of my soul. I let her, wanting, no, needing her to trust me. So, we stared at one another from our respective positions until she finally spoke. Couldn’t have been more than one or three words, her lips didn’t move that much. I was doing more than looking at her, I was stargazing. Yet, I missed whatever it was she said, lost in her gaze. It was consuming. Devastating. Riveting.
She was too damn hypnotizing up close. That was a bad thing. Losing myself in any woman for any amount of time when I didn’t want to was new. Distractions from growing the firm and reclaiming my liberty could cost me something precious. Like my focus. And my heart. Who was this woman?
Respond, Brock.
To what? Right. She had spoken.
I had to shake off the spell I was under in order to ask, “Huh?”
She couldn’t hold back a sultry laugh that time, her humor totally at my expense. “I said thanks and a piggyback. You know for saving my life and to your offer of a ride to carry me back. My adrenaline’s gone and I’m beyond tired after all that walking then running, which is all your fault.”
Piggyback? I decided I could do that. Shouldn’t though. It would cost me a spine and a week in traction with all the survival gear DeAngelo would’ve recommended she bring. He didn’t understand the meaning of ‘pack light’ after the ravine accident, wanted to be ready for anything. Add to that women tending to transport everything but the kitchen sink on getaways and I was in over my head, well, my back.
“Okay. Let’s get you on my back,” left my mouth anyway.
Idiot.
Deidre’s grin emerged with a bit of deviousness .
I cocked my head. “You’re smiling way too hard, lady. You’re going to make me regret this, whatever you’re up to, aren’t you?” Which should scare the snot out of me.
It didn’t and Deidre never replied. Instead, she examined the ground beneath her. Finding it clear, she retracted her legs, crisscrossing them into her chest somehow before lowering them slowly to the ground where they belonged unless that special situation was in play. It wasn’t. I think. She didn’t so much as grunt or graze me during that amazing show of agility. Good God, she had to be a gymnast who had found my Achilles’ heel.
My nostrils flared as unbridled lust battered a part of me best left nameless. She certainly better sit on my back, not my front. If she so much as brushed my man parts the wrong—
Ha! There is no such thing as a wrong way at the moment, and we’d never get out of here if she brushed my little head at all.
Then, I would initiate that special situation that we’d both get satisfaction from. Several times. Alas, my freedom, future and firm demanded we get this show on the road. Not on the ground. Not up against a tree. Hating to let her waist go, I practically twirled around like a ballerina, minimizing the chances of her getting two eyefuls of what her little stunt while getting down had did to me. Crouching before her, I reached back one hand to lend her aid up onto my body.
“Step up.”
She did as told, mounting my back. Some part of me pondered why I was being so obliging to her. Piggyback rides? I didn’t do that shit for anyone, for any purpose, especially not women. They took the smallest deed of mine, turned into an act it was never intended to be, and then ran with it. The one behind me could haul ass like nobody’s business for sure. Still, I gave her ammunition to shoot at me with later, just by sinking into her eyes and offering piggyback rides. I knew better, but couldn’t help myself.
What made Deidre so different from the others?
Whatever it was, I wasn’t uncomfortable enough with it to shy away from her in spite of still not being ready for a relationship. As if Deidre was offering me one. She wasn’t, too busy shuffling around on my spinal column establishing a secure seat on me. She’d slip right back off if I
didn’t put my head in the game. The big one.
I hooked my arms under her supple thighs to hold her in place. Linking her fingers on my chest, she scooted further up my waist so her forearms could rest comfortably on my shoulders. My knees nearly buckled when her flaming-hot lady parts grinded on my spine. The rock-hard erection weighting down my hips pulsed and jumped in my jeans, absolutely seeking a way out of my pants to get to her. I guessed it didn’t matter where or how she rubbed me, it felt right to my hard-on.
As soon as she settled in, she uttered seductively by my ear, “Giddyup, horsey,” then bounced on me, her sultry yet childish antics making me choke out a laugh.
She could have meant for me to move for real, sick of being in the woods already. If she was, she was being a good sport about it. I could practically hear the smile on her lips, which brought my own grin and joking mood out to play. Damn if her dispositions weren’t infectious, her heat going to make me walk us right into a tree.
Just in case she really wanted inside four walls, I began our five-minute trek back at a hurried pace. “I knew you was up to something with that grin and I bet it hurt to hold that ‘giddyup horsey’ in for as long as you did.”
“Like you would never believe,” she professed in a spine-tingling, husky tone with sexy giggle tacked on.
Then, she purred, “It’s beautiful out here when you’re not worried about being bit or eaten by animals.”
Crooking my neck, I glimpsed up at her scanning her surroundings with wide eyes. Easy to mistake her for as a child absorbing something new for the first time. Too often, adults got bogged down with the burden of living and forgot to enjoy the world they were living in. I had. Not her.
“It is beautiful,” I concurred, albeit not talking about the outdoors.
She was too preoccupied with taking in the view from up top to notice what I was taking in from below. That was how I wanted it. Things always changed when women noticed my attraction to them. Deidre didn’t bother to peek down at all.
Cabin Fever Page 45