by Nell Dixon
The Adam’s apple bobbed in the boy’s throat. “Honest, I don’t know nothing. Let me go, you’re hurting me.”
Jerome growled and pushed the boy back a little harder onto the tree. “Tell me.”
“I dunno his name. He was in the pub, got a flashy car. He gave me twenty quid to come up here and scare you a bit,” the boy gabbled in reply.
Gemma let out a breath of relief. “What did he look like?”
“Sort of self-important, lots of money. I don’t know nothing else, I swear.”
Jerome relaxed his grip on the lad’s top. The boy immediately spotted his chance and wriggled free. He bolted away through the trees and disappeared from sight before they could stop him. Jerome slumped against the tree trunk and she noticed a cut in his hairline oozing blood.
“You’re hurt.” She slipped her arm around his waist. “Come on, let’s get this cleaned up.”
“I’m okay, it’s just a graze. Here, give me the gun.”
She passed him the shotgun and he emptied out the remaining cartridges. Water dripped from the green, leafy canopy above their heads as they walked back towards the tents. Her legs shook as she pulled the small first aid box from the tent. Jerome sat down on one of the low rocks near the camp stove and dropped the gun on the grass.
“You could have been killed, chasing off like that.” She cleaned the cut on Jerome’s forehead with a piece of gauze.
He winced and moved his head under her ministrations. “Yeah, well, I thought of that at about the same time as I wrestled the gun off him.”
Gemma shook her head in despair and stuck a plaster over the cut. “Do you think he’ll come back?”
“I doubt it. Gerald won’t risk anything that could be traced to him. I’m surprised he risked sending that kid up here.”
She shivered. Her wet clothes were stuck to her back and the chill from the mist had seeped through to her bones. “You’re sure Gerald was behind it?” Even as she asked the question she knew it had to be him.
“Who else?” Jerome stood up and encircled her in his arms. “You’d better get out of those wet clothes before you catch pneumonia.” His mouth closed on hers and heat spread through her body.
“You still need to work on those pick up lines,” she said as he broke the kiss.
He chuckled as she eased out of his embrace and bolted for her tent, her lips still tingling from his kiss. Gemma zipped the canvas flaps shut with the sound of his amusement ringing in her ears.
Her fingers trembled as she peeled off her sodden clothing and scrubbed her cold skin dry with a large towel from her backpack. She dressed in new clothes as quickly as her stiff fingers would allow, pulling on a warm fleecy tracksuit and dry socks.
“Knock, knock.”
Gemma unzipped the tent-flap to see Jerome, dressed in dry clothes and holding two steaming mugs.
“I made some soup.”
She bundled her wet things into a carrier bag as he eased his way inside her tent and handed her a mug. She cradled the soup and felt some warmth creep back into her hands.
“What do we do now? Shouldn’t we call the police or something?” She sipped the chicken soup and felt the heat slide down her throat and into her stomach.
“Even if we had some kind of reception for the mobile to contact them, which we don’t, that kid will be miles away by now.” Jerome stared into his mug and blew some of the steam from the rim.
“It just feels wrong to let him get away with it.”
He shrugged. “We don’t have much choice.”
Gemma chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. “You don’t think that maybe we should pack up and go home?”
Jerome continued to gaze into his mug for a long moment before he answered her. “I doubt if Gerald will dare try anything else and besides, I have a job to do. If you want to leave, I’ll walk you to the car and you can go and get a room at a B&B down in the village.” He lifted his head and his ice-blue eyes fixed on her face. “I won’t blame you if you’d rather leave,” he added in a gentle voice.
Gemma allowed herself a few seconds to think longingly of a proper bed with pillows and a bathroom with porcelain fittings. “No, that’s okay. I wanted a more exciting life. I guess I can’t complain now, although I would prefer not to be shot at.”
He smiled at her and the last of the chill left her body. “That’s my girl.”
Gemma blushed and wondered how it would feel if she really was his girl. Okay, so he seemed to enjoy flirting with her and kissing her. Heck, if the shotgun-happy kid hadn’t interrupted them she would have enjoyed more than just kissing. Her cheeks glowed hotter at the thought.
On a deeper, more meaningful level, though, she didn’t know where she stood. Jerome had quite a reputation as a ladies’ man and although she was looking for excitement she didn’t want to be just another notch on his bedpost.
“I hope this fog will go so we can go out and do some reconnoitering tonight.” He peered through the flap of the tent. It had grown darker already and the cloud seemed to have thickened still further around the campsite.
“It doesn’t look as if it’ll lift to me.” Gemma took another drink of her soup and wondered if her bladder would hold out a while longer. She didn’t fancy going out to relieve herself in the cold, wet, darkness.
“The weather changes so quickly up here. The locals will tell you that you can experience all four seasons in one day.” He let the flap fall back into place, casting his face into shadow.
Gemma fidgeted on her sleeping bag. “Um, do you think I could borrow the lamp? I need to go to the bathroom.” Her face burnt with embarrassment.
“Sure, I’d better come with you.” He scrambled out of the tent and stood holding the flap up so she could follow him.
“You can’t, I mean…”
“Gemma, it’s really foggy. If you wander off you could easily miss the campsite. I don’t want you lost on the mountain.” He retrieved the lamp from his tent and turned it on. “I promise you’ll be nice and private.”
She followed him across the scree back towards the trees. It had been years since she’d felt this embarrassed, probably not since she’d been at high school and had accidentally come out of the bathroom with her skirt tucked into her knickers.
“Here, take the lamp and I’ll wait for you,” he said once they had reached the edge of the forest. He handed her the light and she set off into the undergrowth.
* * * *
Jerome turned his back and leaned against a tree while he waited for her to return. He rubbed his face to clear his head, wincing as he caught the edge of the cut on his hairline.
Maybe he should have insisted on Gemma going back to the village. What was supposed to have been a nice relaxing weekend of camping and picture-taking had already turned into a nightmare. He lifted his chin and squinted at the cloud swirling all about him. Even the weather was against them.
He heard twigs snapping underfoot and turned to see Gemma’s lantern bobbing back towards him. His heart lifted when she smiled at him. She really was amazing. He didn’t know one woman in a million who would have gone through a day like today and still be smiling. Most of the women he knew would have run down the mountain screaming even before the gunshots, and that was the very few who would have agreed to come with him in the first place.
“I’m glad you came with me,” she said as she fell into step beside him and they made their way back toward the tents. “It’s a bit spooky out here now.”
The rain had ceased but the air swirled moist and cold around them, obscuring their vision, leaving their faces clammy and damp.
“I’m really sorry you’ve been dragged into all this. So much for a fun weekend, huh?” He glanced at her face, pale in the misty light.
“Oh well, I love being shot at, soaked and frozen on my weekends off.” She looked back up at him, the corners of her lips curving upwards as she spoke.
Jerome swallowed. She looked so small and cute in her heavy waterproof coat with
her hair curling around her face. “You can’t say I don’t know how to show a girl a good time.”
She shook her head in disbelief and laughed. Jerome halted next to the boulder they had sheltered behind earlier. The earlier flirting games he’d shared with Gemma seemed childish and inconsequential now. He wondered what would have happened earlier if the kid with the gun hadn’t interrupted them.
“If you’ll chance another weekend away with me, then I promise I’ll take you somewhere special to make up for this.” He pictured Gemma in a large, comfy four-poster bed in some luxury country hotel and his body hardened with desire.
She looked up at him, her mouth quirking. “Will wherever you take me have a real bathroom?”
Jerome wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “Does that mean you’d say yes and come with me?”
He waited for her response, willing her to agree to another date. To his surprise she took a small step backwards out of his arms.
“I don’t know, Jerome.”
“I see.” Although he didn’t see, not really. Disappointment stabbed at his ribs.
“Everything’s always been fun between us, you know, messing about, but…”
“There’s always a ‘but’.” He made the quip but his tone was serious.
“I just came out of a relationship that I thought was going to be for keeps, and I don’t want to get hurt like that again.” She wrapped her arms protectively across her chest, the lamp dangling from her fingers casting an eerie yellow light in the fog.
Jerome dug his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. “You know I’d never hurt you. I just thought you were up for some fun.”
“Yeah, well, so did I. I guess we were both wrong.” Her eyes were sad. “I’ll be in my tent.”
Jerome heard the sound of the zip being fastened. Alone in the mist he thought about what Gemma had said. He kicked one of the small stones near his boot, sending it bouncing into a wiry clump of grass.
A faint glow came from a crack in the entrance of Gemma’s tent. He’d spent years avoiding emotional entanglements. His lifestyle had been too unsettled for any kind of long-term relationships. Not too many women would be prepared to put up with him disappearing for weeks on end into dangerous places to photograph wildlife.
He’d resigned himself to being alone and until just lately it had suited him.
Until Gemma. He moodily kicked another pebble as he tried to work out his feelings towards her.
Gemma was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. She was smart, sexy, had a good sense of humor… Heck, she’d even come roughing it in a tent without complaining! He sighed and scratched his head as he puzzled over what to do now.
He couldn’t blame her for backing off, because he was well aware of his reputation with women. To an extent he’d encouraged it, figuring that if the women knew he wasn’t in the market for the long haul they could hardly complain that he’d deceived them.
Now, though, he had to work out what he did want. Nathalie had warned him that Gemma was an all-or-nothing kind of girl. He glanced again at the tiny ray of light spilling from the tent and knew he couldn’t bear it to be nothing.
Chapter Six
Gemma wriggled down inside her sleeping bag and pulled a magazine and a family-sized block of chocolate from her backpack as she got comfortable. She could hear Jerome wandering about outside the tent, his feet crunching on the gravel.
Half-a-dozen squares of chocolate later, she felt better. She wondered what he was doing out there in the rain. When he’d held her in his arms and asked her to go away with him again she had really wanted to say yes. Gemma sighed and closed her magazine.
It was impossible to concentrate when her head was full of Jerome. She pummeled her pillow into shape and rolled on to her back to stare up at the canvas. It was time to face the facts. No matter how much she tried to make out that she was a flirtatious woman of the world out for a good time without any strings, the truth was that simply wasn’t her at all.
If she allowed herself to keep on flirting with Jerome and enjoying his kisses she would be well on her way to a broken heart. She shuffled uncomfortably. Who was she trying to kid? Her heart was already likely to be broken by him.
A tear trickled from the corner of her eye. Gemma blinked. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been warned about Jerome. Nathalie had been clear about her brother’s reputation. Jerome had always been up front with her, too, so why had it hurt so much when he’d said he was just out for fun?
Gemma wiped the salty water from her cheek and sniffed. For someone who was supposed to be quite smart, she didn’t seem to be doing a very good job when it came down to choosing men. She gazed around the interior of the tent and sighed.
“Gemma, can I come in?”
She dried her eyes quickly with a tissue and sat up. “Yes, of course.”
Jerome unzipped the entrance of the tent and poked his head through the gap. He frowned and squeezed inside. “Your eyes look pink. Have you been crying?”
Gemma moved her legs to make room for him. “There was a sad story in my magazine.” She offered him a piece of her chocolate and hoped he’d buy her explanation.
“Bit different from the last chocolate we shared.” He handed her the rest of the bar back.
She glared at him.
“Sorry.” He had the grace to look abashed as he popped the chocolate into his mouth. “We’re still friends, aren’t we?”
“I guess. Just not ‘kissing’ friends.” Gemma swallowed and forced herself to look composed.
Jerome lifted an eyebrow. “You sure?”
“Yes. I’m out of the dating game for a while. I made a mistake flirting with you and I gave you the wrong impression.”
He was silent for a long moment after she’d spoken. “Gemma, I’d never have the wrong idea about you.” His eyes met hers and a shiver of desire ran along her spine.
“In that case, I know you’ll understand why I think it’s better if we stay buddies.” She squashed her traitorous feelings flat.
“Friends it is, then,” he agreed.
She couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes. “It’s getting late. Has the weather improved?”
He shook his head and stretched his legs out next to hers. “I think we’ll have to look for tracks tomorrow and pick put the best spots then. It looks as if we’ll be getting an early night.”
Gemma wasn’t sure if she was relieved or sorry not to be going back out into the fog with Jerome. On the one hand she was relieved to be staying warm, dry and out of temptation by having some space between them. But on the other hand she ached to be with him, sharing his world and feeling his lips on hers.
She realized he was waiting for a response. “That’s a shame.”
“The forecast is supposed to be much better in the morning. I promise you we’ll have a much better day.” He smiled at her and Gemma felt her heart tighten.
“I guess.”
He gave her a curious glance and scrambled back into a crouched position ready to leave. “I’ll wake you in the morning. If you need to go out in the night, come and get me.” For a second she thought he was about to kiss her and her body hummed in anticipation.
“Night, Gemma. Sleep well.”
He zipped the tent-flap closed behind him and Gemma slumped back on her pillow. She wanted to groan out loud but she could still hear him walking about the campsite. Tomorrow. She just had to get through tomorrow, then once they’d got the photos they could go home.
She snuggled back inside her sleeping bag. Once they got home, they’d look back on this expedition and laugh. She could retreat to the safety of the bridal shop, and she wouldn’t have to see Jerome except when he called in to visit Nathalie.
The thought didn’t comfort her as much as she’d thought it would. She turned off the lamp and rolled on to her side to listen to the unfamiliar sound of the stream running down the hillside on the far side of the camp.
It had been a huge error of
judgment to think she could play with fire and not get burned. She just hadn’t realized how painful an emotional burn to the heart could be.
* * * *
The next morning, Gemma lay still for a moment before she opened her eyes. The mountain was waking up around her. Birds twittered, the stream babbled and she was certain she could smell bacon.
“Get dressed, sleepyhead. Breakfast in five minutes.”
She shot upright at the sound of Jerome’s deep, sexy voice. It was dangerously close to the tent.
“Coming.” She hurried to get dressed, muttering under her breath at the confined space as she attempted to restore some sort of order to her hair before she emerged into bright sunlight.
Jerome was crouched over the tiny camp stove. Stubble lay dark all along his jaw and his hair was spiked in tufts all over his head. He smiled at her as she walked across to him, the dimple in his cheek deepening at her approach.
All the heart searching she’d done before she’d fallen asleep last night had been wasted if he could reduce her to jelly with one smile. Gemma’s stomach flipped over at the twinkle in his eyes as he handed her a plate of bacon sandwiches, and she wondered if he could read her thoughts.
“I’ll have coffee done in a minute, unless you’d rather have tea?”
Her hand shook as she accepted the plate. “Coffee will be fine.” She wandered over to the flat rock where she’d sat the previous afternoon, glad of the chance to put a little distance between them.
The fog and rain from the night before had disappeared completely, leaving the mountainside clean and sparkling like the set of a motion picture. She half expected Julie Andrews to come careening around the boulders towards her as she looked around at the view. Gemma bit into her breakfast and savored the heat and taste of the bacon.
Jerome swapped the small pan he’d used for the bacon for the water pot. She watched him prepare the mugs for their drinks, and admired the economy of his movements. Aware she was staring, she dragged her eyes away and forced herself to concentrate on a couple of grey rabbits cavorting on the grass just a few feet away from where she sat.