Wild Hearts: One Wild Weekend

by Jodi Lynn Copeland

  She would have fun this weekend. As much fun as Jan and Rex were having. Thoughts of sweaty, tangled limbs and undoubtedly naked events they were most likely taking part in even now flashed through her mind and she laughed shortly. That much, or rather type, of fun wasn’t bound to happen this weekend. Still, she would have a great time and not allow her anxiety around strangers to unveil itself as clumsiness the way it too often had a tendency to do.

  Clinging tight to the confident thoughts that belied the restlessness of her belly, Kelsey pushed open the driver’s door. Intent on coming across as self-assured from step one, she bounded out of the Jeep with both feet forward. The soles of her hiking boots touched down on earth made slippery by a week of on-again/off-again rain, and she was airborne before she could do a thing about it. She landed with a painful thwack on her backside, chunks of mud plastering her bare arms and legs. The shriek of surprise that tore from her mouth ensured those who hadn’t seen the mishap were looking at her now, many of them smiling. All of them, she guessed, fighting laughter.

  Heat rushed into her cheeks and she hid her face in her hands and groaned. “Why couldn’t I have just stayed home?”

  * * * * *

  Nate breathed a sigh of relief that the attention of the cluster of women below was focused on something other than him as he exited his truck. The cute though obviously balance-challenged brunette floundering in the mud and talking to herself was as good a distraction as any. Duane had said he would turn him into a woman so hot Nate would want to jump his own bones. While he’d never considered his looks to be even remotely feminine, Nate had to admit Duane had done a decent job. He wasn’t so hot he would chase after himself, but between the honey blonde wig, carefully applied makeup and generously padded bra, he might take himself home after a few too many drinks.

  That is, until he stood up and realized how damned big he was.

  Hell, who was he kidding? The odds he would be able to pull this off were less than slim. There might be women here as tall as he was, many with gym-honed bodies, but it was doubtful they would be as obviously built. He should leave right now before someone spotted him. Only the image of Joe’s cocky smile wouldn’t let him.

  His brother had come over to see Duane’s handiwork this afternoon. If Nate had thought there was a chance Joe would let up on his belief he couldn’t handle a friendship with an attractive woman, then he’d been wrong. Between his brother’s smile and parting words of “See you tomorrow” when he knew damned well the event lasted all weekend, it was clear he expected Nate to fail. He wouldn’t fail. He never failed. And if he allowed this time to be a first, he would never hear the end of it.

  The brunette stood and, grabbing a towel from the back door of a red Jeep, started wiping the mud from her body. She draped the towel around her back, then holding an end in each hand, rubbed it along her ass like she was waxing a car. It was the strangest damned thing Nate had ever seen. The strangest and oddly one of the most unexpectedly arousing. His cock stirred to life, expanding within the confines of the cup and spandex shorts that covered it. He gritted his teeth, and gazed down at the black nylon unisex pants. As much as the layers of confining clothes and plastic might hurt at times, they hid the bulge that would otherwise be an obvious giveaway to his gender.

  Too bad they didn’t mask the effect his suddenly stampeding testosterone had on the rest of him. His heart rate picked up and his fingers itched to reach out and have a nice, long feel of the cute little brunette’s nicely round rear end.

  And that is exactly what he wouldn’t be doing this weekend.

  Drawing in a cooling breath, Nate mentally calmed his erection. When the distressingly snug feeling of the cup was alleviated, he took a look in his truck’s driver’s side mirror. Even if it weren’t for the makeup, he looked incredibly different than he had a few short hours ago. Different than he had in the seven years since he’d first started wearing a mustache. The remainder of his facial hair grew slowly and came in sparse. For years he’d hated the fact he couldn’t grow a beard, then he’d simply accepted it and grown a mustache instead. Now that too was gone, and he felt oddly different. Not quite like himself. Not like a monster of a woman named Natalie either, but just not like himself.

  He would be himself soon enough. Until then he had a weekend ahead of him, surrounded by women. Women he would be bonding with mentally instead of sexually. It was merely a change of pace. One that sounded almost as exciting as the Tuesday nights he spent at the bingo hall with his grandmother. At least there he had entertainment, watching Earl spit endless streams of tobacco into a plastic cup or old lady Jennings tooting out a symphony so gassy it had the whole place ready to explode with the first match lit.

  Boring or not, he wasn’t turning back. With one last glance in the mirror to ensure everything still looked as it should, Nate started toward the growing throng of women. He’d taken a few steps when an engine gunned to life. He glanced over in time to see the brunette backing her Jeep out of the muddy lot. She turned it around and headed toward him on the narrow trail.

  The vehicle came to a stop several feet away, and the woman looked at him through the windshield, obviously waiting for him to move out of her way so she could leave. He started to move to the side then stopped. Why was she leaving when she’d only just gotten here? Not to mention when he’d already pegged her ability to make a scene as the best means to keep the attention away from him?

  She poked her head out the window and peered at him through clear gray eyes. Her face was free of makeup and between her smooth complexion and shiny, straight hair, she looked exceedingly young.

  “Um, could you please move?” she asked.

  “Going somewhere?” Nate paused at the feminine sound of his voice. He had a deep voice, one that had a tendency to sound brash whether he wanted it to or not. During his visit today, Joe, who was head of engineering at a technology development plant, had given him a voice alteration device to wear over his vocal cords. The downside was to keep it camouflaged he had to wear a turtleneck or at least a high collar shirt regardless of the early summer humidity. The upside was that it worked. Amazingly well.

  “Home.” The brunette’s eyes narrowed slightly and fine lines marred her forehead, the effect stepping her age up from somewhere in her late teens to her early to mid-twenties. Though her voice remained warm, he could tell she didn’t appreciate him blocking her exit.

  Too bad for her he had no intention of moving. He planted his feet a little wider, hoping the action didn’t look as masculine as it felt. So far she seemed oblivious to the idea he was anyone but the woman he’d done his best to look like. It would be asinine to blow his cover over one wrong move. “You’re not staying for the weekend?”

  She looked away and muttered, “I never should have come.”

  He didn’t miss the slight catch in her voice or the subtle streak of color fanning along her neck. Obviously that fall she’d taken had embarrassed her. He didn’t have a mind or generally the time for cute women who turned red at the slightest incident. Today, he didn’t have a choice but to make time. “You aren’t into the outdoors?”

  She looked back at him and frowned. “Yeah, but…” She shook her head. “Nothing. Have a great time.”

  Her window started to rise and Nate’s heart beat faster. He wasn’t one to be fazed easily, but at the moment he was counting on the distraction her clumsy nature would supply more than his next breath. He hustled to the side of the Jeep and blurted the first thing that came to him. “It would be better if I knew someone.”

  The window stopped its slow ascent then returned to its wide-open state. The brunette bit down on her bottom lip and eyed him curiously, as if she couldn’t quite decide to trust him or not. Finally, she asked, “You’re here alone?”

  He fought back a triumphant grin. There was acceptance in the question, acceptance in her eyes as well. Acceptance that said he had her. She was about to give in and stay. Clearly, she was one of those women into helpi
ng others, the kind who picked up strays and took them home.

  Though he’d had more than a few women offer to take him home, had allowed many of them to do just that, he’d never been called a stray before, far from it. Right now he wasn’t about to mince words. What he was about to do was lay on the “poor me” act as thick as he could get it.

  “Yeah. I just moved to the area and don’t know anyone.” He glanced to the group of women in the near distance, noted most wore shorts and T-shirts that showed off legions of succulent female flesh and feigned a shiver. “There are just so many of them. It’s…” Like a dream come true. All those women, all outdoor lovers, and just one me. How the hell could’ve he ever been upset with Joe for pushing him into this? He glanced back to the brunette and shrugged. “It’s pretty intimidating.”

  “Yes, it is.” Her gaze roamed the length of him, from the long, blonde wig to the plain, black running outfit with its top zipped to his chin. Nate forgot all about the legion of womanly curves in the near distance and fought the uncomfortable sensation to justify his appearance. He was used to being thought of as good-looking, perhaps even arrogantly so at times. He wasn’t used to feeling disconcerted for a second. He sure as hell wasn’t used to feeling intimidated. Though he had claimed to feel so for the sake of drawing her in, he honest to God felt that way under her intense scrutiny.

  None too soon, she returned her attention to his eyes. “You don’t really seem like the type who would be intimidated easily.”

  He wasn’t. Not until you stuck him in the middle of the woods with a case of makeup, a padded bra and a duffel bag of women’s clothing as his only means of defense. He shook off the thought. No matter how his gut suddenly felt knotted with tension, he wasn’t intimidated. A little out of his element perhaps, but never intimidated. Least of all by a shy, little slip of a woman. “Because I’m big?”

  Color streamed into her cheeks and she bit down on her lip once more. “Uh, yeah, though I didn’t mean it to sound quite so rude.”

  He smiled at her discomfort, able to well imagine just how much more so she would be if she knew who she was really talking with. She wouldn’t find out. At least, not if he could help it. If somehow it did leak to the press he’d spent the weekend parading as a woman he would simply play it off as a marketing tactic. Learning what it was the female outdoor enthusiast wanted by submerging himself right into the thick of things. “It wasn’t rude, just a fact. My whole family is big.” Remembering he was supposed to be playing to her sympathetic nature, he continued, “I don’t mind really, just sometimes it can turn people away. They seem to think that because I’m big I’m an ogress or something. That I don’t have feelings. I do have feelings.”

  The sniff he’d added for effect obviously spoke right to her tender, little heart as her eyes turned a soft shade of ash and she sent him a soulful look. “I don’t get that impression about you at all. You seem like a wonderful person.”

  A twinge of guilt hit Nate in the gut. When he’d agreed to come here and make friends he hadn’t put much thought into what would happen after the weekend was over. More importantly, how his new friends would deal with his sudden disappearance. Seeing the genuine concern in the brunette’s eyes now, he was thinking about it in a big way.

  He might not currently have any female friends, but having grown up with two sisters who were routinely upset with something the other or one of their girlfriends had said or done, he knew just how much women allowed their feelings to get wrapped up in things. Unless he selected the right women to befriend this weekend, his leaving without so much as a goodbye could cause some serious hurt. He wouldn’t harm anyone over a stupid challenge, and that meant he’d simply have to find someone to make nice with who was far stronger than his current companion.

  Settled by the thought, he said, “You aren’t the type.”

  A flare of something that looked surprisingly like temper entered her eyes. “Just what type do you think I am?”

  Cute. Innocent. Gullible as hell. The type of woman he veered away from at every turn even if she did happen to have a nice ass. “Warm. Outgoing. The type who isn’t afraid of coming alone to an event like this because she knows her personality will have her being the center of attention within the first hour she arrives.” That last part was true anyway. She’d had most of the camp staring at her within two seconds of exiting her vehicle.

  The temper left her expression and a smile tugged at her lips. One that continued to grow until it blossomed fully and turned her undeniably plump lips a most appealing shade of pink. Her eyes lit until they sparkled and a dimple emerged in her cheek.

  Nate swallowed hard at the sudden desire to lean forward and run his tongue over that sexy as hell indention. The transformation that had just taken place before his eyes was almost too unreal to believe. Gone was the bashful girl without any friends, and in her place was a siren just waiting to be uncovered. She might not be wearing the most alluring of clothes, sure as hell not the tight, slinky dress and strappy heels the women he generally spent time with favored, but she was a looker all the same. One that, between that exquisite divot in her cheek and the salacious lips she seemed intent on keeping moist, had his mind voyaging into an area it knew better than to go.

  The thought of stripping her T-shirt away and tugging her shorts and panties down her long legs until her sweetly rounded curves were exposed to him was too tempting to pass up. All the blood in his body cruised through his veins on a due south journey as he envisioned unhooking her bra to find her nipples standing on end, impatiently waiting to be pulled into his mouth and sucked on. He worked his tongue against his inner cheek almost able to feel their texture, taste their sweet and salty mix. He’d bite down tenderly, sink his teeth into her aroused flesh just far enough to make her nerves stand on end and those full, pouty lips of hers to part and release throaty mewls of sensual pleasure. Cries that would grow all the louder when he trailed his tongue over the gentle swell of her breasts and down her belly to feast from the wet, swollen lips of her pussy.

  “I guess if it would make you more comfortable, I could stay.”

  Nate’s ball-tightening thoughts came to a staggering halt as her softly spoken words caught up with him. He smothered a laugh at their irony. Five seconds ago he’d have said that was exactly what her presence would bring him. Comfort among the masses. Now, as his throbbing cock pinched painfully against the sides of the cup and he moved closer to the Jeep to hide his hand as he made a seriously necessary adjustment, he knew just how wrong he’d been. She and her unexpectedly enticing smile and the carnal pull that came along with it weren’t going to bring him comfort in the least. What they were going to do was make this weekend harder than he’d ever imagined.

  Harder, and yet he had no choice. He’d already backed himself into a corner by making it clear he wanted her to stay. Resigned to continue as he’d begun, he forced his eyes wide. “Oh, no. You can’t stay just for my sake. I’m sure you have much better plans for this weekend than spending it at some silly outdoor event.”

  She shook her head, her face coming more alive, her eyes more expressive with each passing second. “It’s not just for you. I love the outdoors. Actually, I’m in them more often than not for the sake of my job, but my friend bailed at the last minute and I was considering doing the same.” She nodded toward the parking spot she had vacated moments before. “Just give me a second to park and I’ll walk down with you.” She started backing the Jeep up and then stopped and leaned back out the window. The dimple reappeared in her cheek as she smiled. “I just realized I didn’t get your name.”

  And he just realized how bad a judge of character he was. Not only was she not friendless or soft and shy the way he’d assumed, but that damned dimple might just be the death of him. Or at the very least the death of his assurance he could handle a nonsexual relationship with a woman he found attractive. “Nate, er, Natalie.” Er, hell, why had he ever let Joe talk him into this?

  “Kelsey.
Be right back.”

  “Take your time. I’ll be here.” Wishing to hell I wasn’t.

  Nate breathed out a sigh and glanced back at the swarm of women who milled about in the fading daylight. All those women, all that succulent female flesh, and just one him. Oh, yeah, this was going to be one hell of a long, hard weekend.

  Chapter Two

  Why did she feel so comfortable with Natalie?

  It was the question Kelsey had been asking herself since the moment the giant of a woman had lumbered into her path. It was the question she was still asking herself as they sat with a couple dozen other women around an immense bonfire over an hour later. Natalie had claimed many women were put off by her size, that they made it a point to steer clear of her. Kelsey had to admit that her first inclination was to do just that. Then they’d started talking and she’d soon realized how bad her snap judgment had been. Both rude and completely inaccurate.

  She didn’t feel dwarfed or intimidated by Natalie’s size the way she thought she would. She felt comfortable, and not in the way she felt around Jan either, but the way she typically only experienced around men.

  It was that comfort level Kelsey managed to achieve around men that always ended up leading her toward a painful goodbye where relationships were concerned. Whether it had to do with being primarily raised by an older brother who lived, ate and breathed the outdoors or something else altogether, she could simply relate to men better than most women, and for that reason she also found herself trusting them way too easily.

  It was amazing—or maybe stupid was the better choice of words—but no matter how many times she trusted a man only to learn he was a lying jerk weeks to months later, she just had to go back for more.