by Tatum Throne
“I was freaking out,” she said.
“You’re okay, then?”
“I’m good.”
“All right. Let’s try to make it out of here before it cuts loose again.”
By the time they hiked it back to her Wrangler, both were a muddy mess. The access road was washed out by a roar of rushing water, too. They were trapped on the beach until the flash flood receded. The possibility of being stuck overnight with Kade was very real.
Unless she wanted to risk it with the Wrangler. Right now, she didn’t.
“I think we’re stuck overnight,” he said.
Annoyance flexed through the hard line of his muscled body. Wynn wondered what his problem was. There was no way they could get over this river without a fight. “I think you’re right.”
He turned, and their gazes locked. Lightning flashed across the sky. There was something predatory in the way he regarded her so closely.
Chapter Three
He wanted her. The realization made him feel out of control.
Kade didn’t want to think about how he crossed the double yellow line and was about to hit the guardrail in a spin he knew he couldn’t recover from. The woman standing beside him wasn’t like any he’d ever met before. Her vibrant green eyes stared up at him as though she cautiously expected everything to be taken away from her.
She did not trust men. Something dark and deeply male crept up and took hold of his rational side. He wanted to know who had hurt her and go hurt them.
Her yellow-blonde hair was plastered to her head from the rain, giving her a sexy, tussled look. Kade wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt so possessive of the woman, but he did. There was something exotic about her that made him want to protect her with his life.
It was as though he found something special he didn’t even know he was looking for. Everything before and after didn’t matter, as long as she was at his side.
What the hell was wrong with him? He had no claim on this woman he’d just met. That annoyed the hell out of him. Why her? Why now? He was obviously caught up in the moment and in the kinetic energy of the storm.
He wasn’t looking for love. He was satisfied with the few dates he had now and again.
Kade ran a frustrated hand through his hair as she wandered over to the cliffs that edged up against the beach. She was earthy and erotic as hell with her simple style. Kade couldn’t ever remember noticing what a woman wore that wasn’t short or spilling out.
She’s different.
The words whispered through his head as though someone else had spoken them.
His mouth went dry as she smoothed her hands over the wet rock, making envy reach up and grab him by the balls. He wanted her hands on him, and he wanted his hands all over her.
Kade wanted to run his hands through her wet hair and make love until the sun came up in the summer grass.
He froze. He wasn’t a possessive man, but right then the desire to know everything about her struck him so hard it left him feeling stunned.
There were secrets in her gaze when she looked at him, as though she was trying to figure him out. The kind of secrets that could get a man in trouble if he let it go there for too long. She smiled, and it made him forget all about what he was out there supposed to be doing.
His job.
Browynn South was reported missing by a man that wanted her back. Kade didn’t want to make that call reporting that he found her, not until he knew what was going on, not until he knew she wanted to be found. Sometimes women ran from men due to domestic violence. Kade was not about to offer her up to an abusive lover until he knew everything was okay. That meant he had to do his job.
“The break in the rain isn’t going to last long,” he said.
“No, probably not.”
She paced the jagged rock line. Kade wanted to talk about everything and anything else that wasn’t his job. Once he went into work mode, he knew he’d destroy everything that happened between them. He knew he’d ruin the trust he worked so hard to gain from her when they kissed under the alcove.
“Have you always worked for the Forest Service?” she asked.
“I’ve had other law enforcement jobs.”
Kade watched her pace away from the cliffs and across Pebble Beach to the raging water. Instinct had him hurrying over to her side as she got close to the edge. His hand came up around her wrist, and she startled.
“Not so close to the edge. I don’t want to have to do a water rescue tonight.”
Her smile was quick and shy. “I’ll be careful. Promise.”
“I’d be happier if you weren’t so near.”
She sighed in pretend exasperation. “Okay.”
Up close, Kade noticed her dark freckles on the bridge of her nose from extra time in the sunshine. He wondered if she freckled anywhere else.
“What?” she asked.
Kade didn’t want to scare her away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. “You have mud on your cheek.”
She reached up to touch her cheek as he used his handkerchief to wipe the smudge. Their eyes held with a curious intimacy he’d never experienced with any woman.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
He turned away, rolling his eyes at the fact that he couldn’t find the right words to say to her. He’d never had problems talking with women. The only thing Kade felt completely comfortable in was his job. It was probably why he didn’t have long-term relationships. Most women couldn’t get past the hours he put in on the job. The women that stuck usually considered his work the third lover he was cheating with.
Lightning snapped off in the distance with thunder chasing down the rain. The sky cracked open, and the rain started to fall. It wouldn’t be long before the rain started to hammer again. Wynn turned her head up to the building raindrops.
She looked incredibly sexy with the dewy mist clinging to her flushed cheeks. Kade had to check the urge to kiss his way over her wet lips as she parted them for the rain. Drops of rain clung to her long lashes. She licked her tongue out over her lips, catching the rain. Kade felt his sex harden. He thought of those lips tipping his dick into her mouth, and he nearly came. His teeth locked down hard as he struggled to keep his spunk in his dick by thinking about baseball.
It didn’t work. He half shot into his tactical pants.
Chapter Four
Rain hammered down on both of them. Wynn wasn’t sure what the change in Kade was all about. Something passed within his eyes she didn’t know how to define. For a split second, she saw his eyes dilate before he looked away.
Maybe she read it wrong. It was probably something animal that came along with the hunt of the job. She knew that feeling. It was the shot of adrenaline that hit right into the heart. It always came before she took down her target. The tables were turning hard. She was losing control.
“We can sit in my Jeep and talk,” he offered.
Ranger Gentry’s older model government-issued Jeep Cherokee was parked next to hers, blocking her in. Kade opened the door to the passenger side, and she got inside. She watched as Gentry moved around the front and slid behind the wheel.
He ran a hand through his black hair as the memory of her fingers doing the same minutes ago made her pussy weep with unfulfilled need. Half an orgasm was never enough. She needed penetration to feel complete.
“Are you out here investigating a crime,” she asked.
“Missing person.”
A tickle of uncertainty clenched around her heart. The radio crackled, and Gentry replied. She pretended not to know what he was talking about. “Oh? Who’s missing?”
His eyes locked onto her in such a way that made her breathless. “You are.”
Her heart raced for the wrong reason. “I’m not missing.”
“We have a report out of Boston. You and your Jeep were reported missing nearly a week ago.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied.
For some od
d reason, she couldn’t lie well to him. It felt so wrong, as though he could tell every word coming out of her mouth wasn’t true.
The ranger’s voice came from far away. Wynn felt dizzy and sick to her stomach at the possibility of more lies to come. She had to get out of there. She grabbed for the handle, fumbled, and dove out of the car. She heard Gentry call her name, but she couldn’t make out the words. They were lost under the echo of thunder and lightning and rain. Wynn’s body felt sluggish as she tried to run through the muck to her Jeep.
She didn’t make it before Gentry came up from behind, stopping her with his palm on the door. She turned around, but he was in the way. He blocked her in with all muscle.
“Tell me what’s wrong.”
She struggled to get away from the ranger, but he wasn’t making it easy. She couldn’t get the truth to pass over her lips. The words caught in the back of her throat when she opened her mouth. She wanted to trust him, but she didn’t trust anyone anymore.
Gentry’s hands clamped down on her shoulders. “Tell me what’s going on.”
There was a long stretch where Gentry regarded her as a man with a lot of hard-bitten experience. Rangers working with the Forest Service didn’t get that type of experience chasing down climbers or peeling drunk campers off the cliffs. It was then that she knew there was more to the man than what was in his personnel file.
Wynn knew she couldn’t tell him the truth. She’d be breaking all the rules. I’m already breaking all the rules. Once he found out that she was IA investigating the pipeline, he’d never want to talk to her again. Wynn knew someone on the inside wasn’t doing their job, and that meant she had to investigate Kade to rule him out.
She broke all the rules by kissing him. Her career was over if word got out about that kiss. That one forbidden moment would ruin her for a lifetime. Everything she worked for was as good as gone.
She had to get out of the Red now.
She groaned, and her legs gave out. Gentry caught her with his hands and legs. Wynn felt the solid force of his thigh slip between her legs.
“Breathe. Keep your eyes open. Deep breaths. Don’t pass out on me.”
The ranger’s lips whispered against her ear. A forbidden heat spun through her core. She turned her cheek against his, letting his warmth seep over her skin. She wanted to believe that all the allegations about Kade weren’t true, but she wouldn’t know unless she did her job.
He used the side of her Wrangler and his size to keep her up. His radio crackled to life, and Gentry responded. Wynn found her fingers digging into Gentry’s shirt for support. She couldn’t stay here. She jerked wildly.
“Easy now. Let’s get out of the rain where you can tell me what’s going on,” he said.
Wynn pushed against him, but he didn’t let her move away. He held on tight. “No! I’m okay. Really, it’s nothing.”
“Whatever it is, I can protect you.”
“It’s not like that...”
She moaned and felt the ground go upside down. Tingles moved up from her hands and hit her in the head with the force of a thunderclap.
Wynn felt the ground rush up to her side and Gentry’s arms around her before she went down. He scooped her up easily. She had the sense of movement. The feel of hard rain hitting her in the face. Then it stopped.
She felt his hands caress her arm, her shoulder, and her neck to check her pulse. The sound of the rain pounding on metal above them slowly brought Wynn back to the here and now. The darkness that had taken her under suddenly lightened.
The ranger held her within his strong arms. Wynn kept her eyes closed as she listened to the solid beat of Kade’s heart. Slowly, she opened her eyes when his hand brushed her wet hair away from her temples. He had popped the door on the trunk and sat down on the edge.
“I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay,” he whispered.
She tightened her fingers in the front of his shirt, unknowingly drawing him closer. She wanted to believe that everything was going to be all right when he said those words, but she didn’t. There were already too many secrets between them for either one of them to come out unscathed.
“I hope you’re right.”
She saw his eyes harden with questions she wasn’t ready or willing to answer. Wynn felt the ranger’s fingers move up the base of her neck in a slow caress. She shivered.
“Chilly?”
She bit her lip. “A little.”
He moved her closer. She tried to tell herself it was him trying to get more comfortable with the weight of her across his lap, but she knew it was something more. He seemed to be struggling with emotions. Kade pulled his jacket from the backseat and curled it around her shoulders.
Their eyes locked. “I need your license and registration.”
“The glove box isn’t locked. My wallet is in my backpack.”
Wynn scooted from his lap and sat next to him on the edge of trunk. Kade reached around to a small cooler and opened it. He pulled out a juice and snapped open the lid.
“This will get your blood sugar back up. Take small sips.”
“Thanks.”
Wynn usually loved the sound of the rain when she was inside, but everything felt off and dark. She sipped her juice and peeked into the cooler. Lunch was a bag of thinly sliced carrots with a small cup of low-fat dressing. She picked up a small container that held a tofu-looking salad and gave it a puzzled shake. Another bag held crunchy noodles for the salad, and there was a chocolate protein bar for dessert.
Kade was half in her Wrangler as he dug through her glove box. His radio crackled, and he responded with a mix of codes. He reached in the backseat for her bag and started searching through it. A flush crept over her cheeks as she remembered what was in the bag.
She saw the ranger stiffen as he stared into her backpack as though he’d been stung by a swarm of Africanized bees. He reached in and took out her small wallet and left her pink thong inside. He came around and sat inside his patrol vehicle and ran her background.
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“Much. Thanks.”
She couldn’t meet his gaze in the rearview. Instead, she stared out over the ravine and thought about starting over in another division of the FS. She’d probably be demoted, too. They’d want to know why she was requesting the move. They wouldn’t let her go without knowing the truth.
She couldn’t throw it all away. There had to be a way for her to have it all. Most times there wasn’t. Something always had to give. That was just the nature of working in the FS.
The sound of Kade closing the car door brought her around. She didn’t like the way he was looking at her as he stood in front of her. He looked like he wanted to forget the rules and protect her at all costs. He looked like a law enforcement officer that had stepped over the line and wasn’t sure what he stepped into. She wouldn’t allow him to get close again. He handed back her registration and license.
“Your story checks out. Is it an ex-lover trying to find you?” he asked.
“No. It’s more complicated.”
“Complicated how? Your husband?”
Betrayal slashed through his eyes before she saw him temper it with professionalism. “No. I’m not married.”
He waited patiently, and she struggled with the right words. She couldn’t find them at all. It was better that he didn’t know the truth of it, she decided then.
“You can trust me,” he said.
“I know.”
Determination was set in the hard glint of his predatory gaze. Wynn was certain that Kade was a man that couldn’t let go. He sat down beside her, getting out from the rain. Night was pushing in fast.
His radio cracked as he pressed the microphone. “43-50 to Central.”
“Go ahead 43-50.”
“Be advised Pebble Beach is flooded. The climber and I are going to wait it out. It may be five or six hours.”
“10-4. The National Weather Service is indicating another three hours of storms.”
Kade reached around the seat and unlocked the back, flipping it down to give them more leg room.
“You’re stuck with me for a while,” Kade said.
“I think I can handle that.”
He linked his hands and stretched back, leaning his wide shoulders against the back of the front seat. He crossed his feet at the ankles. Wynn didn’t trust herself around Kade. She wanted him to wrap her in his arms again. Lightning snapped across the sky, making her shiver. She moved away from the open trunk door to sit next to Kade. Rain hammered the roof of the Jeep.
“So what brought you to the Red?” he asked.
You. “I always heard the climbing was good.”
He nodded. “You’re from Boston?”
No. Some genius at the FS decided to make the missing persons report out of Boston. “I worked there for a while. I’m from Cincinnati originally.”
She looked away. She didn’t like lying. The temperature was dropping and not just because of the rain. When he looked at her that way, she wanted to confess the truth to him. Kade went to the end of the Jeep and pulled the trunk door shut. Wynn slipped off her wet shoes.
“Might as well get comfortable. We have a long night ahead of us,” he said.
The rain wasn’t letting up anytime soon. It’d be half the night before the water lowered. “So...how long have you been a ranger?”
“Almost five years.”
“Have you run into trouble up here?”
“Just drunk hikers.”
“I’ve heard rumors about drugs being planted in the hills.”
His gaze narrowed for a moment as though he were considering something. “There are. It’s a game of how quick can we find them and shut them down before they harvest.”