by Violet Howe
Dax came up for air just as I slid my khaki pants down my legs, and he let out a whoop of excitement. “You’re coming in?”
“I suppose.”
When I had folded my bra and panties and set them on top of my pants and shirt, I climbed onto the rock next to them and stared out across the water.
It was strangely liberating to be standing in the middle of the woods completely nude. The light breeze coming off the water cooled the sheen of sweat that lay upon my skin, and I closed my eyes and spread my arms to embrace the feeling.
“Not that I’m complaining about the view, but are you gonna jump or just stand there all day?” Dax asked.
I held my nose and plunged feet first into the water, unprepared for the frigid temperature awaiting me. All the air was knocked from my lungs as I sunk beneath the surface, and I kicked furiously to come back up and gulp a breath.
“Lord have mercy, this is cold! Why didn’t you tell me it was below freezing?”
“Because you wouldn’t have come in,” Dax said, swimming over to wrap his powerful arms around me. His skin was cold, even colder than the water, and I pulled back a little and kicked away from him.
“You’re freezing,” I said, pumping my feet and legs to stay afloat and try and get warm.
“It’s invigorating. You’ll get used to it. C’mere.” He extended his arms to welcome me, and it only took a few minutes of our bodies intertwined and our mouths crushed together to make the water temperature more bearable.
The pool was much deeper than it had looked from above, and I went under a couple of times to try to touch the bottom with my feet, but I couldn’t.
“So, you and your brother just stumbled on this place?” I asked, leaning back to look at the circle of trees surrounding us and the brilliant blue of the sky above us.
“There’s several springs on the property. Some of them we actually use with our trench system to keep water flowing for the cattle. But this one is the most isolated. It was our go-to hangout in high school, and all our friends knew about it, but it was too far for our parents to check in on us.”
“Naughty boys. So, are you sure none of your friends are going to show up this weekend?” I asked, looking down at my nakedness distorted by the ripples of the water as we moved.
“Nah. No one comes out here anymore. Except me.”
I wondered if he’d brought his wife to his special place, but it seemed pretty obvious that he would have if it meant so much to him. I didn’t want to ask, because I didn’t want to know, but I did ask the other question that had been burning at the back of my mind.
“Did you and your wife go out dancing often?”
“No. Deanna wasn’t a dancer. At all. Now, her sister—Revae—that girl could dance. She wouldn’t leave the dance floor until the lights came up and the music turned off. The four of us would go out, and Revae and I would hit the dance floor while William and Deanna sat and cheered us on from the sidelines.”
“You still keep in touch with them? With William and Revae?”
His smile faltered, but his eyes were warm with feeling. “Revae passed away a little over a year ago after a long illness. But yeah, William and I keep in touch. We were friends before we met the girls, and we’ll always be family. Their daughter, Piper, was just here two weeks ago, in fact. She brought a horse down for one of our ranch hands.”
He lay back and floated on the water, his arms and legs outstretched.
I lifted my legs and spread my arms to join him. The green of the trees against the blue of the sky was breathtaking, and the uninhibited freedom of nudity was almost as exhilarating as the water.
We floated for a while, occasionally bumping into each other.
I heard him splash and go under near me, but I was still surprised when he surfaced right beside me, closing the warmth of his mouth over my breast as it protruded from the water’s surface.
He slid his hand between my legs from underneath, and it was all I could do to remain afloat as he explored with his icy fingers.
“Unless you want me to drown,” I whispered, “we might want to take this activity out of the water.”
He laughed and kissed me before swimming toward the shore.
The water had been so relaxing that I’d forgotten to be on the lookout for snakes, but as we approached the bank, I became hyper-vigilant again. Long grass hung over the edge of the embankment, and the dark stalks growing beneath the water hid the sides of the natural pool.
Dax led me directly to a pile of rocks stacked beneath the surface, and I realized it was an established point of entry and exit. He climbed out of the pool with ease and turned back to offer me his hand, pulling me up and out of the water and into his arms.
My body shook with cold as the sun hit my dripping skin, hugging myself as I pressed against Dax, even though his own body was pretty much the same temperature as mine.
“Let’s get you dry,” he said, leading me over to the tent and unzipping the entry flap.
He reached in and got a towel, kneeling before me to dry my legs and then making his way up my body with it, leaving kisses on my skin as he went.
“As delightful as this is, I need to get a comb through my hair before we get sidetracked, or I’ll never get the tangles out.”
He pulled back the flap of the tent, and I bent to crawl inside, amazed at how spacious it looked within.
“It’s roomy,” I said as he joined me in the tent, zipping the flap closed behind him.
He had laid out the bed rolls on one side of the tent, using blankets as makeshift pillows. On the other side of the tent he’d neatly arranged his bag and mine along with the camp supplies. I knelt to dig through my bag and pulled out my conditioner, squirting it into my hands and then working it through my hair with a widetooth comb.
When I turned to face him, he was laid on his side on the bedroll, and I grinned as I crawled across the tent to join him.
We took our time pleasuring each other—exploring, touching, and caressing until the chill of the water on our skin had been replaced by a passion-driven heat.
I tossed aside my worries about woodland creatures and forgot any reservations I might have had about intimacy in the outdoors.
By the time we lay basking in the aftermath, the interior of the tent looked as though wild animals had attacked it, and any semblance of order was gone.
49 THE EARTH MOVED
The day’s ride combined with the swim and amorous activity had sapped all our energy, and we fell asleep in the delightful cross breeze coming through the mesh side panels of the tent.
It was nearly dark outside when I woke to the sound of Dax unzipping the doorway.
I sat up, a bit disoriented, and he turned with a smile, leaning over to give me a kiss.
“I need to gather some firewood before it gets too dark.”
I stretched my arms high above me and arched my back, already feeling the effects of the hard ground. “Well, don’t get lost. I have no idea how to find my way out of the woods and to the barn if you don’t come back.”
“I won’t get out of sight of the camp. Don’t worry.”
I lay back down as he exited the tent, pulling the thin blanket over me as I stared at the mesh skylight in the ceiling.
A state of contentment settled over me, and I closed my eyes and considered how much my life had changed since we met.
He’d brought me out of a shell I wasn’t aware I’d been confined in, and the wonder of it all was both exciting and frightening.
The more time we spent together, the more I wanted to see him. When we were apart, I mentally cataloged topics of interest or things that happened throughout my day, eager for our next conversation.
He was my first thought when I woke each morning, and I drifted to sleep with him foremost in my mind each night.
My carefully tended wall had begun to tumble, and though I was still terrified of what that would mean for my heart, I had no desire to stop that wall from falling.
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I rose and left the tent, a bit more self-conscious about my state of undress without Dax by my side. I grabbed my clothes, which were still warm from sitting in the sun, and quickly dressed.
Dax came back to camp right as I finished tucking my shirt into my khakis, and as always, my heart leapt at the sight of him.
He had put on his jeans, his boots, and his hat, but he wore no shirt, and the image of my rugged cowboy strolling out of the woods half-dressed was immediately committed to memory for use the next time I had to go to bed alone.
“Are you hungry?” he asked with a smile. “Because I’m starving.”
My stomach grumbled at the thought of food. “I could definitely eat. Is there something I could do to help you?”
“Sure,” he said, setting down the sticks and branches he’d gathered. “If you’ll look in the tent, there’s a cooler bag. In it are the steaks for dinner and then there’s a leather pack that has two potatoes, already wrapped in foil. Can you bring me those?”
I tried to restore some semblance of order to the tent as I dug through the bags to find the pack with the potatoes. When I opened the cooler to get the steaks, I saw a Ziploc bag with several mini Snickers bars, and I smiled.
“You brought Snickers?” I asked as I handed him the steaks and potatoes.
"You have them in a glass canister on your counter, and it’s the only candy I’ve ever seen you eat.”
I smiled and stretched up to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.”
“No problem. I couldn’t figure out how to get a birthday cake in a saddle bag, but I figured I could manage chocolate. How about you bring me a couple to hold me over until dinner’s done?”
We munched on Snickers as he cooked the steaks in an iron skillet over the campfire, occasionally turning the potatoes he had skewered with sticks and propped over the heat.
The sky was dark by the time we finished eating, and I helped Dax wash our dishes with water he’d scooped in a bucket from the spring.
The woods surrounding us were black without the light of the sun, but the glow of the campfire illuminated our immediate area.
We had placed a blanket on the ground in front of a log when we sat to eat, and I settled cross-legged on the blanket with my back against the log while Dax checked on the horses.
It was a beautiful night, and I wanted to imprint it on my mind so I could remember every detail.
The fire popped and crackled as heat radiated out across the campsite.
The trees danced in the breeze and their leaves rustled to the tune of the crickets and frogs.
I shifted my weight onto one hip, leaning to the side with my palm flat on the ground so I could tilt my head back and watch the clouds pass across the deep blue-black sky, occasionally parting to reveal the twinkling of a star.
A splash of wet cold hit my hand, and I looked down to see a long black ribbon curling across the blanket, pausing in its crawl about halfway across the back of my hand.
It seemed that I levitated, lifting off the blanket and hovering in mid-air for a moment as I screamed and struggled to get my feet out from underneath me so I could run.
I bolted toward the tree line, stopping when I realized I had outrun the ability of the light to show me where I was stepping.
I turned and ran back toward the fire, still screaming, hopping up and down as I ran, trying not to let my feet touch the ground any longer than necessary. My whole body itched with the sensation of things crawling on my skin, and I beat at my clothes to vanquish the imaginary invaders.
“It’s okay. It’s only a black racer. He’s harmless,” Dax said, walking toward me.
“Harmless? Tell that to my heart, because it’s about to beat out of my chest and give me a heart attack.”
I knew Dax was struggling not to laugh, and I wanted to punch him for even considering the situation humorous.
“I meant it’s not venomous,” he said. “You probably scared him more than he scared you.”
“Not likely.”
“Well, you damned sure scared the hell outta me and the horses. I didn’t know what was happening until I saw the little fellow scampering off the blanket.”
“Little? He was huge.”
Dax shrugged. “About two feet.”
“He was longer than that.”
The memory of seeing the snake crawling across my hand replayed in my head, and I shuddered.
The infuriating man in front of me couldn’t hold it in any longer and he burst out laughing. It took all I had not to kick him in the shin.
“I’m sorry,” he said, putting his hands up as he looked at my thunderous expression, “but I’ve never seen anyone move that fast or get started that slow. You were like a cartoon character who was winding up in one spot and then you took off in a blur.”
He bent over laughing, and I put my hands on his shoulders and shoved him backward.
“I don’t find this funny in the slightest. If you think I’m going to sleep in a tent where snakes can crawl all over me,” I shuddered again, “then you’re crazy. We need to go back to the barn. Now.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him as he struggled to get his laughter under control.
“C’mon, Maggie Mae, we’ve had the tent sealed tight all evening. I’ll get in with the flashlight before we go to bed to make sure there’s nothing moving in there other than you and me.”
“What if they get in while we’re sleeping?”
I could see mirth playing at the corners of his mouth and my eyes narrowed.
“They won’t,” he said. “He’s probably told all his friends about the crazy redhead by now, and they’ll steer clear of the campsite.”
“Don’t patronize me, Dax. Can a snake get in there?”
“No. We’ll have the tent zipped up tight. Nothing will get in. I promise.”
I bit my lip and wished that I could click my heels together and be back home.
He stepped forward and put his arms around me, but I kept mine crossed.
“I’m sorry I laughed at you,” he said. “I know that had to be pretty scary, and I’m sorry. But if you had only seen it from my point of view….“
I could feel his body tremble as he fought not to laugh again, and I glared up at him.
“Not laughing. Not funny.”
“I know. You’re right. It’s not.” He tried to kiss me, and I tried to resist, but mine was a half-hearted effort, and it didn’t take long for me to relax against him and open up to his apology.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said, leading me back to the tent as my eyes scanned the ground for any sign of movement.
He unzipped the entrance and went in, reemerging with a small Bluetooth speaker.
“I downloaded the music for our lessons onto my phone so I could practice anywhere. We can do that, or I downloaded a few other songs that make me want to dance with you when I hear them.”
I was curious what songs he meant, and while I certainly didn’t forget about the incident with the snake, by the time we’d gone through a few numbers on his playlist, I’d been able to push it to the back of my mind and relax again.
A few of his choices had been upbeat tempos that had us working up a sweat near the fire, so at first, I was happy when the breeze picked up. But then the temperature began to drop, and the tops of the trees started to sway as the wind intensified.
“Uh-oh. That’s not good,” Dax said, looking up at the swirling clouds overhead as he held me in his arms.
“Rain?” I lifted my face to smell the air and feel the moisture in the wind.
Dax nodded and released me to fold the blanket. “I need to get the horses hobbled so I can move them out from under the trees in case of lightning. Can you put that stuff inside the tent?”
“Is the tent waterproof?” I asked as I gathered the few items we’d left near the fire, keeping a close eye on the ground for any signs of my slithery friend.
“Yeah, I need to zip the skylight an
d pull the rain guards down over the side windows.”
He walked the horses over to the more open area of the clearing while I put away anything that wasn’t already in the tent. Then he came back to weatherproof the tent’s openings.
While he set about doing that, I spread my arms wide and let the wind blow against me. There was something almost electric in the air, and the energy of the pending storm flowed through me and charged me with excitement.
I could see Dax out of the corner of my eye, standing near the tent watching me.
“What? Why are you looking at me?”
“Because you’re so damned beautiful,” he whispered. He walked toward me with a hunger in his eyes that only fueled the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I flung my arms around his neck, and he twisted his hands in my hair to pull it back from my face, taking my mouth in his as the wind raged around us.
There were no warning sprinkles or intermittent drops. One minute we were dry, and the next minute the skies opened up and a deluge of water poured down upon us.
Dax grabbed my hand, and we sprinted for the tent, getting soaked as he struggled with the zipper.
The campfire hissed in the background in protest to being extinguished by the rain, and a clap of thunder shook the trees around us.
We fell into the tent laughing once he got it open, me scanning the darkness as Dax pulled the zipper shut on both the nylon outer layer and the mesh inner layer of the door.
He turned on the battery-operated lantern and did a quick inspection for my benefit before setting the lantern in the corner and returning to my arms.
“You’re soaked,” he said between kisses.
“So are you.”
He peeled the wet shirt over my head and reached behind me to deftly unsnap my bra with a flick of his thumb.
His skin was slick with rain, and I shivered as he took me in his arms, pressing his bare chest against mine.
Heavy raindrops battered the tent, and another boom of thunder crashed around us.
“Sounds like it’s gonna be a doozy,” he said, looking up at the ceiling of the tent.