DuBois, Edith - Rugged Glimpse [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Edith DuBois

  Bloody fucking hell, indeed.

  Chapter Two

  The brown-spotted, bulbous body of the spider tilted from side to side with each step it took. The web beneath its legs trembled, and inches away from its pincers a moth struggled against the spider’s sticky silk. The spider moved in, its glassy eyes focused only on its prey. It stretched its pincers wide and then sank its fangs into the moth’s soft, giving body.

  Elena didn’t breathe. She slightly adjusted the lens of her camera until the outline of the spider’s body was hard and clear while the outline of the writhing moth appeared soft and fuzzy. Then Elena snapped. Her camera didn’t make a loud noise, just a soft click, but it was music, a symphony, her favorite song. Even after years of hearing it, that click still managed to affect her every time she heard it.

  As the spider’s venom paralyzed the moth, the prey’s movements becoming twitchy and lifeless, Elena continued to photograph. The spider began its work. With fast, practiced movements, it attached a thick strand of silk to its web, it grasped the moth with its free legs and began twirling, winding and winding and winding the silk around the moth until it was completely covered, until it was nothing but a blob of silk on the spider’s vast web.

  Elena widened her shot, adjusted her angle, and took in the rest of the web. More blobs of silk became apparent, more mummified insects.

  She was so focused on the spider and its victim that when the door to Savage Valley Sheriff’s Department swung open, she jumped, nearly dropping her camera.

  “You’re here early.” Deputy Caleb Kinman let the screen door slam behind him and then held out a cup of coffee for her. She held up her camera as explanation, and with a nod he set her cup on the wood railing that ran the length of the porch. Glad that her camera at least gave her an excuse to hide her face, Elena hated the way her skin flushed at the sight of the gorgeous man.

  She’d been in Savage Valley for almost two weeks and had seen Caleb almost every morning of those two weeks, yet each time he strode through the rickety screen door, a quick thrill raced through her blood. Warmth pulsed from her pussy, stretched through her veins, and worked as well as a shot of caffeine to wake her up.

  The morning after arriving in Savage Valley, with no better course of action to hand, she’d taken Sheriff Kinman up on his offer and gone by the sheriff’s office to see about finding a guide, of sorts, to help her navigate through the thick woods and surrounding mountainous terrain. However, instead of Joseph Kinman, she’d encountered his brother, Caleb, who she soon discovered was deputy of Savage Valley.

  Once again, she’d found her breath knocked out of her lungs at the sight of a man. Once was enough in a week. Twice was just exasperating.

  The spider’s web was in the corner of the porch, and after she took one final shot of it and its various inhabitants, she left the corner to stand next to Caleb and sip on her coffee. Like Joseph had informed her, the Sheriff’s Department was on Main Street, Savage Valley’s thoroughfare and the only road with more than one lane. Even though it was barely seven in the morning, people were already bustling.

  One of the first things she’d noticed upon arriving two weeks earlier was that most people in Savage Valley walked. It was only about a mile from one side of town to the other and less than a half mile in width. It took less than half an hour to walk anywhere. And if a person didn’t want to walk, she rode a bike.

  There was no Underground. There were no taxis. There was nothing like what Elena was used to in London.

  But then the air in Savage Valley was the freshest she’d ever breathed. The sky was the bluest she’d ever seen. The flowers, the grass, the trees—everything was vibrant. She had to keep her twitching hand in check because she wanted to photograph everything she saw. Even the Dumpsters in the parking lot looked photograph-worthy with the dark smudge of mountains as a backdrop.

  Thinking of her twitching hand, Elena couldn’t count how many times she’d had to stop herself from snapping a picture of Caleb in an unguarded moment. Since he was her guide, and she spent hours each day in the forest with him, it took almost more self-control than she could muster not to use all of her film on him. She liked how the sun caught a few golden strands of his dark blond hair and then threw the golden glimmer back at her as he walked ahead. She liked when he stood in the deep shade, how he became nothing more than a hulking shadow beneath the foliage. She liked when he hummed quietly as they walked along the trails and through the forest. His humming would stop when he pointed out interesting plant life or crawling insects that he thought she might have an interest in. He would squat down, and his long, straight nose would be in profile to her, his full lips moving as he spoke.

  Peeking over at him now as she took a sip of her coffee, she studied his suntanned cheeks, his sturdy brow, his wide mouth. He was unlike any of the models she was used to photographing. They were always soft around the edges. Caleb was hard and strong and broad. Just as the models belonged to the city, Caleb belonged to the mountains.

  His eyes darted over to her, and she quickly forced her own eyes down, peering into the murky liquid of her cup. She’d never seen eyes so black. Even when he peered into the sunlight, his eyes were black with no hint of brown, just like his older brother. Their eyes disconcerted Elena, and she darted her gaze away anytime they turned those dark orbs on her.

  “I have a good buddy, Jeremiah Greenwood.” Caleb scratched at a splinter of wood on the porch railing, peeling it off. “Says he’s been finding a bunch of elk tracks up around Brown Trout Lake.”

  A thrill shot through Elena. So far the only critters they’d come across on their daily ramblings were insects and some fish and some birds. They’d stumbled across a fox’s den one afternoon, but the fox had never shown. Caleb said it’d probably smelled them and left.

  “It’s pretty cool this morning. They should be active. You up for a hike?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Do you have everything you need?”

  Elena nodded.

  “Then we should start now. Elk generally eat all day in the summer, but it’s best to catch them as early as possible.”

  With that, Caleb took their cups back inside, and then they set off. At first Elena thought he was taking them along their usual route—down Main Street to Treaty Lane and then around Brown Trout Lake—but when they got to the lake, they split from the main trail to head around the northern side instead of the southern.

  “This is Old Deer Trail.”

  Elena jotted the information down in her field notes.

  “Elk and deer and moose have used this trail for thousands of years. Brown Trout Lake has been a local wildlife watering hole for centuries.”

  “How big is the lake, do you know?” They’d only been along a small part of its southern shores, and it hadn’t seemed very large. But as they continued along Old Deer Trail for well over an hour without losing sight of the lake, she realized it was considerably larger than she’d originally thought. It reminded her of the great lochs in Scotland where her parents had taken her camping many summers ago. She didn’t want to pull her camera away from her face, but she also didn’t want to miss out on elk.

  “Brown Trout Lake is about a mile long, I’d say. Maybe two hundred feet deep. The Greenwoods can give you specific data on that if you need it. They live in the wildlife center. We passed the turnoff to the center a while back, but we can stop by on our way back if you’d like.”

  “Yes, thank you.” She smiled warmly at him, and he smiled back. There was a sort of friendship between them out in the woods. It was much more difficult to be shy with him in the forest and by the lake.

  Caleb continued to bring her attention to points of interest or oddities along the trail. He kept his deep, rumbling voice low, and the gentle rhythm of his speech curled up deep inside her. His voice aroused her. His words and his intelligence, too, until Elena found it difficult to focus on anything but the warm desire pulsing between her legs.

  “W
e’re getting close to where the trail splits off again, where Jeremiah said he saw the most tracks. If you need to ask me anything, keep your voice very low. Otherwise, follow my lead, okay?”

  Elena nodded.

  They were at a part of the lake where wild grasses grew past her waist. A few feet behind them, they had passed a small dock and a tiny fishing boat with no engine, only two holders for oars. Besides that, there was no sign that humans had ever walked this ground. She had no desire to get lost in the weeds, so she couldn’t help stepping closer to Caleb. He must have sensed her wariness because he reached out his hand and grabbed hers, leading her slowly and cautiously. Inhaling sharply through her nose, she tried not to read too much into the gesture. Caleb Kinman had been nothing but professional from day one.

  In front of her, Caleb crouched down below the top of the grasses, so Elena did the same. Suddenly he stopped and tugged her gently up next to him. Without a word, he pointed to a spot about two hundred feet along the lake’s shore. Elena could see dark brown blobs in the yellow grass, dipping down and then popping back up to momentarily scan the surroundings.

  Caleb leaned slowly toward her until his lips tickled the sensitive flesh of her ear, making her breath come in shallow spurts. “We need to move about fifty feet west. I don’t want them to catch our scent. They’ll leave if they get even a hint of us. Elk see by movement, so stay below the grass line, and watch your step for snakes.”

  Fighting back a thrill of desire as his hot breath flooded the inside of her ear, Elena nodded and then followed him off the small animal trail they’d been using to walk along the lake, admiring the way his wavy dark blond hair camouflaged him so perfectly with the dry grasses. She wore her hair in a high top bun on their morning excursions, but her hair was a little too dark to blend in as seamlessly as Caleb’s.

  After Caleb reached a point far enough downwind, he knelt on the ground and pulled out a pair of binoculars. “Looks like we’ve found a small group of nursing cows.” He spoke so softly that Elena could barely make out his words. “I see about four calves.”

  “May I look?”

  He handed the binoculars to Elena, his hand grazing over hers when he did. A frisson of lust snapped through her body. She wondered if he felt her the way she felt him. No, he couldn’t. He was much too professional for that.

  Besides, she was here for her profession. She couldn’t mess this up. Her career and her life depended on it. She needed to stop twittering around him like a naïve, inexperienced teenager.

  Putting the binoculars to her face with determination, she peered through. After watching the elk for a long moment, she noticed how the calves stayed grouped around one mama while the other mamas grazed the land, wandering far away from the group of babies. “Why do the calves stay with one cow? Surely they’re not all hers.”

  She handed the binoculars back to Caleb. His fingers grazed hers again, and she almost thought they lingered. She darted her eyes to his face.

  His black eyes were there.

  Quickly she looked away and then began rummaging through her bag, pulling out her most powerful lens since they were quite a distance from the animals.

  “A few days after a cow has her calf,” he said in a soft voice, so low she had to remind herself to not lean in toward him. “She joins a group of other nursing cows. Elk eat constantly over the summer in order to build up body fat for the winter, so while one mama guards the young calves, the other mamas get to graze. The youngsters are programmed to follow signals from the babysitting mama.”

  As he looked through the binoculars again, she gave in to indulgence and allowed herself a lengthy study of his features. She screwed the lens onto her camera, smiling and appreciating the rough whiskers that grew along his masculine jawline. Even though Caleb’s features could in no way be described as soft, they were less harsh than his older brother, Joseph’s. She had a strong desire to run her fingers along that hard jawline, letting his short whiskers scrape against the tender skin of her palm.

  Without warning, he pulled the binoculars away from his face and turned to look at Elena. Her stomach lurched as his black eyes met hers, and she could feel the flames of embarrassment licking beneath the surface of her skin. She didn’t like to be caught staring at someone, especially not someone as magnetic and attractive as Caleb and especially not in such a primal setting. It was only Caleb, herself, and the wilderness. So many things could happen in the wild.

  She didn’t know whether she felt more wary or more thrilled by that thought.

  “We’ll stay as long as you need.” His simple words sent fire through her veins. She wasn’t sure, because she no longer trusted her instincts where men were concerned, but she thought his voice sounded deeper, gruffer, tenser. Her insides tightened because she yearned so fiercely for him. Frowning, she looked down to her camera, unable to keep her eyes locked with his black depths.

  Her body burned, yet her mind reached out with an iron will to quell the animalistic instincts running rampant inside of her. She’d come to the secluded Savage Valley to escape. She’d come to take pictures of bugs and birds and animals. She’d come to ignore reality, to soothe the frayed and raw edges of her heart, to exist without complication. Under no circumstances could she give in to her attraction to Caleb Kinman.

  And if she was being completely honest with herself, she would have to work hard at reining in her attraction to Joseph Kinman as well. He was bigger, louder, rougher, and overall, more overwhelming than his younger brother, but Elena had caught him staring at her with black fire in his eyes. It called to something deep and powerful in her blood, and she often glanced away to hide her violent response.

  Elena ground her teeth together, trying to force away her base thoughts, as she set up a tripod and then attached her camera to the top. She set her level of exposure, snapped a couple frames, and then adjusted the exposure again. After she had taken almost a hundred frames, she realized that their position wasn’t going to work.

  She needed edge.

  At least that’s what her cousin, Nick Michaels, told her when he got her the gig with National Geographic. He’d said she needed a wide portfolio with something more than European fashion models. He’d said she needed something involving a conservation-minded theme and edge. And he’d said she needed to take her time.

  So Elena had booked a room at the Woodland Den, Savage Valley’s singles resort and lodge, for three months in order to traipse around the surrounding wilderness in the hopes of finding some edge.

  Elena wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for, but squatting in the grass taking pictures of grazing elk did not constitute edge. She knew that much.

  “Caleb, we need to move closer. I need to see their personalities, how they’re interacting.”

  His forehead creased over his dark brows, but after a moment he said, “I’m sorry. This is as close as we get.”

  “Why?”

  “If they catch a whiff of us or spot us approaching, I couldn’t risk one of the mamas charging us. Your protection is my responsibility.”

  “I understand your concerns and trust your advice, but can we at least try?”

  “No. I’m sorry, Elena, but I won’t take you any closer.”

  Elena took a deep breath and then, making her decision, began disassembling her camera and tripod. If Caleb wouldn’t take her, she would have to inch closer by herself. She wouldn’t pass up such an opportunity. She could not. This could be one of her only chances to photograph so many elk at once.

  Caleb watched her, but Elena didn’t meet his eyes. Once her tripod had been packed back up, she slipped her backpack straps over her shoulders and hung her camera around her neck. Crouching down on all fours, she began crawling toward the elk.

  It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was getting nowhere. She whipped her head around to find Caleb’s hand gripping her backpack and a stern look upon his rigid features.

  Elena rose up to a kneeling position and shrugged
her shoulders, attempting to dislodge his hand, but he didn’t loosen his grip. “Please let go of my backpack, Mr. Kinman.”

  He raised his eyebrow as if to say, Yeah right.

  “Look.” She kept her voice low, not wanting to scare the elk, but she didn’t bother hiding her irritation. “I appreciate your concern. I really do. But I hired you as a guide. I have considered your advice, but ultimately, this is my decision. I need to get closer. So would you please let go?” She shrugged again, but he didn’t budge.

  “I can’t let you go.”

  All of a sudden, a wild panic swept through Elena. A panic and a desperation and also a deep anger. She needed to get these shots. She needed to have something, some sort of proof, that she wasn’t on a wild goose chase. She needed to prove to herself that she could change. That she could break free from the shackles that Peter had placed around her heart, her life, her mind. She needed to prove to herself that she had gumption and courage and pluck. She wasn’t a pushover. No man could manipulate and control and dominate her life, demand everything from her, and then cheat on her. Leave her. Abandon everything they’d built together.

  No man could break her.

  She became overwhelmed with these thoughts. They took over her body. She began struggling wildly against Caleb’s hold on her backpack, all of her energy focused into breaking free from him. She flailed her arms. She twisted her shoulders violently. Her knees dug into the ground as she strove to get away. Her breathing came in short aggravated bursts. It felt like her lungs and her heart and her whole chest had begun to cave in on itself.

  “Whoa. Elena.” As Caleb whispered her name, he yanked her toward his body. Wrapping his forearms around her chest, he held her tightly against him. Elena continued to struggle, angered beyond rational thought. She strained with every ounce of force that she possessed, but Caleb’s arms held her tight. She struggled and struggled, all in vain, until finally, she was left with no energy, no fight.