“Okay. And?”
She gave him a small smile. “Jase, you do the same thing.”
“What?”
“Jeez. You telling me you’re worried about her? That’s sensing her mood.” She broke it down further. “You touch her all the time. Bree is a touchy-feely kind of person. She leans into your touch and takes comfort from it.”
He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.”
She smirked. “That’s probably not why you were touching her, but that’s what she takes from it. Most of the time, anyway.”
He rocked back on his heels. “Thanks.”
She told herself the hollow feeling in her chest was from the knowledge that her friend finally found a guy that understood her and wanted to keep her happy. But she wasn’t about to let Jase off the hook without a warning.
“I’ll still feed you to my dogs if you fuck up again.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“I figured.” She turned back to the group of people, avoiding looking at Chris while scanning the rest of the guys. “So is there a plan or are we just going to sit around and drink all weekend?”
“Just tonight. Probably tomorrow.”
“So all weekend then?”
He grinned. “Yeah, pretty much. There’s fishing and hiking tomorrow, if people want.”
“Cool.” She forced a smile. “Let’s get to it then.”
They joined the group standing off to the side of the small fire burning in a good size circle of stones and Jase introduced Cole, Jordan, Matt, and Patrick.
“We doin’ a beer hunt?” Matt rolled the bottle in his hand, sloshing the little bit of liquid in the bottom.
“We’re hunting bear?” Bree asked.
“Bear’s not in season for another five months,” Denise said.
“Wow,” Paul said. “I’m impressed you know that.”
She shrugged. “I still go out with my dad every year.”
“In any case, he said beer, not bear,” Patrick said.
“What’s a beer hunt?” she asked. “And why are we hunting beer instead of drinking it?”
“It’s a friendly competition we do when we come out,” Jase said. “We stage beer at designated points and record the coordinates. Divide into two-man teams. Try to find as many of the locations as possible.”
“What’s the winner get?” Bree asked.
“Lots of beer,” Chris said.
Denise finally gave him her full attention. “What’s the loser get?”
He grinned, but it didn’t fully reach his eyes. “Less beer.”
His smile, even half-hearted, did things to her. Things that were out of her control and she hated not being able to rein them in. “Did you set out the beer?”
“I did. Wasn’t sure you girls were going to be up for it, so I brought extra in the truck,” Chris said.
Oh, fuck no. He should have learned his lesson three weeks ago. “I hear a challenge.” Denise faced Bree, hands on her hips. “Did you hear a challenge?”
Bree dropped her arm from Jase’s back and stood up straight. “I did, in fact, hear a challenge.”
“Y’all think you can beat us?” Cole asked.
She shared a look with Bree. They both loved showing up guys who underestimated them. She clapped her hands. “Let’s do this. What are the rules?”
“Chris, you got everything in your truck?” Jase asked.
“Yeah. Give me a sec.” She fought against watching his ass while he jogged to the edge of the clearing.
“Each team gets a map, a compass, and a list of coordinates.” Jase handed out the maps, lists, and V.E.T. Adventures backpacks Chris returned with. “You get an hour to find as many points and beer as you can.”
Bree pulled her hair back in a ponytail. “What happens to the beer that isn’t found?”
“We get it tomorrow.” Matt shrugged. “There are usually a few bottles left out there.”
“Cool. Let me get my hat,” Bree said. She came back from their tent, her hair pulled through a faded blue ball cap.
“You sure you don’t want to join up with a couple of the guys?” Chris asked.
Denise glared at him. Asshole was acting like nothing had happened. Fine. He wanted to play that game, she could, too. She folded her arms across her chest. “I’ll bet you ten bucks we come back with more beer than the guys.”
Chris matched her stance and smirked at her. “I’ll take that bet.”
“Yo! We doin’ this or what?” Cole asked.
Chris and Denise continued their stare-down for several more seconds. “Ten minutes to plot your points,” Chris said, never breaking eye contact.
Denise pivoted and joined Bree, already marking the map. “How many points are there?”
“Six,” Bree said. She moved the compass along the map. “Looks like there’s about half a mile between each point.”
“I think if we start at the farthest point and work back, we’ll be able to hit all the points and beat them back.”
“We can also leapfrog after we hit the first point. Get our bearings for the next point and one of us go to the next point while the other loads up the beer.”
“Good idea,” Denise said. “Have you been running?”
Bree tilted her head back and forth. “Ehh…”
“So I’m running?”
Bree laid her head on her shoulder. “I love you.”
“Ugh. You’re such a sap.”
She raised her head. “I know.”
“Ladies?” Cole asked.
“What?” Bree asked. “Oh. Yeah. We’re ready.”
Jase checked his watch. “Okay. I’ve got sixteen-oh-four. I’ll give you till seventeen-oh-five.”
“Aww, man. That’s so generous, that extra minute,” Cole said.
“Ready?” Jase asked.
“Wait,” Bree said. “Are the locations marked with anything?”
“Orange tape,” Chris said. “Go!”
“Bree.” Jase flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. “Be careful.”
Denise waited while Bree tipped her hat and they set off at a jog for the edge of the clearing. Once through the brush, they stopped and took their first direction.
“Got a point?” Bree asked.
“Yeah. You good to jog to the first one?”
“Ugh. I hate running.” Bree dragged her feet the first few steps but caught up with Denise. “So what’s going on with you and Chris?”
Shit, she’d been hoping she wouldn’t catch onto that. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, please. You were giving him the side eye all afternoon. And avoiding him. You don’t avoid anyone. You were also more snarky than your usual level of snarky.”
She shook her head. “We kissed.”
“What?” Bree stopped running.
Denise stopped and walked the few steps back to her, grabbed her arm and dragged her along.
“When? Why didn’t you say anything?”
She explained about the strip tease and their kiss, then him getting pissed she when to Fayetteville to get a dog.
“He said what?”
“Would you stop stopping?” Denise checked the compass and map. “You keep doing that and we’re going to lose.”
“Like hell we are, not after he mansplained that crap to you. No wonder you were bitchy.”
“I thought you said I was being snarky.”
“I was being nice,” Bree panted. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
It was Denise’s turn to stop and stare at Bree. “Are you serious? With everything you’ve had going on?”
Bree stopped and put her hands on her knees. “You have to quit doing this shit.”
“Doing what?”
“Shutting everything off and acting like nothing affects you.”
“I’m not like you, Bree. I don’t do the touchy-feely shit.”
Her friend stood. “You don’t have to do touchy-feely to let someone do
it for you. Or more importantly, to you.”
Denise rolled her eyes and caught a flash of orange tape. “Oh, hey. Orange tape.”
Bree followed her to the marked tree and took the bag from her shoulders. “You’re not getting off that easy.”
“I’m not getting off at all,” Denise said.
“Pretty sure that’s your problem.” Bree put the cans in the backpack and slipped it back on her shoulders. “You got the next point?”
Denise lined up the compass and map, orienting herself in the direction they needed to go. “That way.”
Bree fell in behind her. “I think that Jordan guy was there.”
She looked over her shoulder at her. “Where?”
“That convoy attack I was in.”
“Shit. Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he recognized you?”
“I don’t know. I think he was looking at me kind of funny.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re gorgeous and he’s jealous of Jase being all over you.”
“Ha ha. I don’t think that’s it.”
“What’re you going to do?”
“Ignore it if I can.”
“I like that plan,” Denise said. “It’s a good plan. Practical for all kinds of situations.”
Bree glared at her. “Not for you, missy.”
“We’ll see. I’m going to run on ahead. We’re going to that large fallen tree directly in front of us. I’ll take the next bearing on the other side.”
“Okay,” Bree panted. “Fuck, I hate running.”
Denise picked up her pace, alternating between watching her feet to avoid stepping into any holes and keeping track of the point she was running to. On the other side of the tree, she took her next bearing and checked on Bree. “You good?”
“Yeah,” she called. “Go on.” She waved her hand over her head.
She threw her a thumbs up and set off, concentrating on the rhythm of her feet hitting the ground, a steady cadence playing in her head. It helped clear her mind and kept it off Chris—the way his long-sleeved thermal had molded to his chest and abs. The way his butt had looked in the faded woodland camo pants.
She almost ran passed the second orange streamer. Yeah…so much for clearing her mind. Snatching the cans off the ground, she jogged back to Bree. “You going to make it?”
Bree turned her back to Denise so she could load the cans. “I need to start jogging again.”
“You know when I run.”
“I’m not running with you. You go too far. Two miles is my limit.”
She zipped the backpack closed. “You gonna suck it up so we don’t lose?” Bree groaned but fell in behind her again.
Denise continued to run ahead to each site, then backtrack to drag a protesting Bree behind her. Only once did she have to back track because she missed a point. She talked Bree into running full out for the quarter mile between the last location and camp and they burst out of the woods mere seconds before Cole and Matt. Bree managed to get the backpack off before she collapsed in a sprawl on the ground.
The guys spent some time teasing them about cheating, but it was all in fun. Good food, good music, and good people. She’d missed this kind of camaraderie. She was having a good time for the first time since she could really remember. Not that she didn’t fun with Bree, but having a good time with someone who knew all your secrets was different.
Then Jordan called Bree “Tampax.”
Chapter 8
Denise dropped her head into her hands and pushed her hair back from her forehead. Leaving the dogs had been a mistake, but who the hell saw that coming?
Tilting her head, she watched Jase carry Bree toward their tent and felt a pang deep in her chest. One of too damn many lately. Glad her best friend had found someone who literally had her, she couldn’t ignore that tiny kernel of jealousy. She sighed and pushed up from the camp chair. Even knowing Jase would take care of her, she wouldn’t be able to rest without checking on her. Bree would do the same—they’d always had each other’s six.
Chris stopped her a few yards from where Jase and Bree stood. “Denise—”
“Not right now, Chris.” That pang grew into an ache with him standing right beside her. Having what could be embracing in front of her and what could have been standing next to her, might be more than she could handle right at that moment.
“Jase has her.” His voice was low and coaxing. He hand curled gently around her elbow..
He didn’t get it. Bree had been there for her at the absolute lowest of low points in her entire life. No way was she going to watch Bree relive one of the worst moments of hers and not check on her. Fairy tale romance hero-to-the-rescue, or not.
“I know that, Chris. I’m not an idiot. But I also know that Bree is really fucking raw right now, because I know how fucking raw she was when it happened. So I don’t care if God Almighty reaches down with a caring hand, I will still check on my best friend when she’s hurting.”
“That’s not—”
“Chris, let her through,” Bree called.
It was impossible to read his look in the dark, but his fingers lingered on her skin before he released her.
Fighting the urge to rub her hand over the spot he’d touched, she joined Bree.
She fully intended to go to her own tent and try to sleep, but seeing Chris head into the tree line waylaid her plans and she veered off to follow him. His wide shoulders were barely visible in the darkness, the firelight failing to reach them in the trees.
“What the fuck was that?” she hissed.
“Jesus, Denise.” He glanced over his shoulder and did a little jig.
Watching his movements, she figured out too late what he’d gone into the trees to do.
Whoops. Oh, well. Wasn’t the first guy she’d caught peeing on a tree, but she gave him a few seconds to right himself and turn around.
She launched right into her tirade. “Who the fuck do you think you are to keep me from my best friend?”
He advanced the five steps between them, eating them up in three. “That’s not what I was trying to do.”
His presence washed over her. Surrounded and engulfed her and she struggled not to be overcome by it. “Then what were you doing?”
“Trying to apologize.”
“Oh.” Just like that her anger dissipated. She’d been looking for a fight, needing something to burn off the fucking emotions she was feeling as a byproduct of Bree’s upset, but Chris snatched it away from her.
“I’m sorry I got in your face about you going into Fayetteville to get that dog. In my defense, I didn’t know your background.”
“You knew I was in the Army,” she said.
“Yeah. So’s the fat fucking POG who works in the radiology clinic. Doesn’t mean he knows the pew end of a gun from the other.”
She didn’t know what to say. An apology was the last thing she’d expected, figuring his alpha-male ego wouldn’t have let him admit he’d been wrong about something.
His fingers traced the edge of her collar, sending shivers racing across her skin. “How’s the dog?” he asked.
She swallowed hard, trying to work up some moisture in her suddenly dry mouth. “She’s good. She made it.”
His other hand smoothed across her hip and around her back. “I missed you.”
Her scoff was immediate. “You haven’t known me long enough to miss me.”
“Yeah. Three weeks ago, I’d have said the same thing. Turns out I’d’ve been wrong, too.”
He kissed her.
No. That wasn’t right.
He consumed her. Branded her. Showed her with his lips and tongue how he had missed her. There was no space between their bodies. As soon as his mouth touched hers, he’d yanked her against him, pulling her off balance and forcing her arms around him.
He fisted her hair and tilted her head back. His mouth moved to the side of her chin and he nipped her jaw. “All I’ve been able to think about was that k
iss. One. Perfect. Fucking. Kiss.” His teeth bit and his tongue licked between each word.
She needed him to stop talking. Stop invading her mind with what ifs and might bes. She pulled his mouth back to hers, sucking his bottom lip between her teeth.
He let out a groan and shuffled her back.
“Oomph.” Her back hit the trunk of a tree, the sharp bark digging in through her shirt. Not that she cared. All her senses were focused on Chris’s hand, having found its way under her fleece pull-over, plumping her breast through her bra.
“Touch me, Denise,” he ordered against her lips.
She reached under his shirt and ran her fingers over the hard ridges of his stomach. It was hot, the way he took control, telling her what to do. Not a submissive by any means, nor did she have any desire to be in that type of relationship, but being the dominant personality all the time sucked after a while. Men assumed she’d be aggressive in bed. All she wanted was a little bit of rough. A guy who’d pull her hair and—
Chris tightened his fist in her hair and tilted her head back. “Stay with me, Denise.”
At the sting, she hissed in a breath through her teeth. Was he a mind reader? “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You weren’t paying attention.” He moved his hand between her legs, the heel of his hand pressing against the seam of her pants.
“My mind wandered.” Her head fell back against his hand and she bucked her hips. It had been too long since someone other than her BOB had gotten her off. Years. Not something she was necessarily proud of, but there was a distinct difference in the build-up going on in that small, compact spot between her legs.
He licked the spot on her neck, right below her ear. “To where?’
“Us fucking.”
She felt his smile against her skin. “Good place to wander.
A crash in the woods came from their right and they both froze, senses on high alert.
Jordan stumbled into a tree, bounced off, and fell to the ground.
“Fuck.” Chris dropped his forehead to hers. “Need to go help my battle buddy.”
“Yeah,” she whispered. Jesus, she needed to get her shit together. She’d been willing to fuck Chris against a tree in the woods, surrounded by other people.
If a woman comes in the forest, and there’s no one to hear it…?
Half-Broke Heart (Combat Hearts #1.5) Page 5