My thoughts turn to tomorrow and the promise I’d made. I’m going hunting? There are so many things wrong with that idea it’s not even funny. I’m gonna get lost, or starve to death, and definitely get attacked by a bear. Trey is going to blame himself for leaving me alone up here with an injured mountain man who couldn’t protect me from the vicious grizzly attack, and Brad will bawl big, melodramatic tears at my funeral while looking spectacular in head-to-toe black, of course.
Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad. But I do worry that Aubrey is overdoing it, as evidenced by his impromptu nap right now. Especially considering he said he’s usually going sunup to sundown. Hiking and hunting may not be the best idea tomorrow, but I have no faith in my ability to talk him down from his plan.
Deciding that I should take a play from my nursing guidebook, I begin searching for a long, thick stick that would make a good walking stick. I know better than to call it a cane because a man like Aubrey would never use a cane or a crutch. But a walking stick is a tried and true hiking aide, one that I can hopefully get him to use.
The mission gives me focus as I search far and wide for the perfect option, making sure to keep the cabin in sight the whole time just to be safe. Finally, I kick a thatch of fallen leaves and the perfect stick emerges from the pile. I pick it up, pulling a few thin sprouts of twigs off and smiling. I need to get the bark off because it’s rather brittle, but I think it’ll work.
I test it out as I walk to the back porch and decide that this is going to be a negotiating factor for tomorrow. Aubrey is using the stick to help him walk or we’re not going. And I know he wants, maybe needs, to go hunting. I settle in the rocking chair, picking at the bark to get down to fresh wood as I watch the sun dip below the horizon line and listen to the forest come to life with the buzz of night creatures.
It takes me a long while, and eventually, I even use Aubrey’s axe to get a few stubborn areas of bark off. But my work pays off, the surface of the tall stick smooth to the touch and just what Aubrey will need tomorrow.
I lean the stick near the back door, knowing that I’ll have to surprise him with my gift in the morning if I have any hope of his actually using it. Sneaking quietly back inside, I see that Aubrey is still asleep but has rolled to his side, trying in vain to somehow fit his huge form onto the skinny couch.
With a small smile, I gently rub his shoulder. “Aubrey, wake up. Let’s move you to the bed so you can get comfortable.” It takes a couple of repeats, and some cringes from discomfort on his part, but I manage to help him shuffle to his bedroom and lie down.
As he plops onto the bed, he mutters, “You too, Sweet Ana. Stay with me, at least for tonight.”
I don’t answer, my voice stuck behind the lump in my throat. But I pat him, trying to get Aubrey to settle back to sleep without an agreement from me. But he’s not having it, and he pulls me to the bed next to him. I let out a cry as I tumble down, trying desperately to not smoosh him, especially on his sore ribs. “Whoa! Aubrey, get some rest, okay?”
He opens his eyes, bleary but still focused on me. “Stay, Ana. Please.” His voice is rough with sleep, sexy and rumbly, but it’s the ‘please’ that does me in.
“Fine, I’ll stay. But let me fix your ankle up.” I sit up on the bed, carefully unlacing his boot and pulling it off. He winces at the pressure, his eyes popping open, clear and brown and staring daggers at me. “Sorry, need to check it out and prop your foot on some pillows.”
He’s already back to sleep before I finish my explanation, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like “Nurse Ratchet . . . nice, my ass.”
I hold the giggle in, ever the consummate professional. Or not, considering present circumstances. I do a quick check of Aubrey’s ankle, noting that the swelling does look significantly better and the bruising is already starting to change colors as it goes through the long healing process. I cradle his foot, slipping a stack of pillows underneath it, and then I stand back to assess.
I should sleep on the couch. I’d still be staying like he asked, but not so dangerously close to him. Even as I talk myself into it, I know Aubrey will give me shit about it in the morning if I do that.
Pausing in the doorway, I realize that I don’t want to sleep on the couch. I want to sleep in this big bed with this big beast of a man, curled up against his body. It’s stupid, clearly a rash decision made more on lust than logic, but how many opportunities like this come up in a lifetime? None? One? Maybe more if you’re lucky enough to get some sort of fairytale miracle?
Decision made, I slip my jeans off, leaving my T-shirt and undies on for polite manners and slide into the bed next to Aubrey. He instantly wraps his arms around me, holding my cheek to his thick chest and cupping my thigh where it lies across his. I fall asleep without a single question on my mind, the simple feeling of settling in Aubrey’s arms as comfortable and easy as coming home.
Chapter 13
Aubrey
This is crazy. I was sure that Ana hated my guts. I’m still not convinced she doesn’t, but after the past two days, I’m so fuck-drunk that I’m willing to admit there’s a chance she doesn’t.
We didn’t go hunting the day after our first fuck as I’d made her agree to. Instead, she convinced me to stay home one more day, promising to spend the whole day and night with me. It was a price worth the delay, and we spent the next twenty-four hours in my cabin, eating food from the fridge between bouts of sex.
I’m not naive enough to think it was anything more than two people relieving a desperate need. Lord knows, I’d gone so long without sex I had enough stored inside my balls to fill a water tower, and poor Ana has just been the receptacle for all my raging lust.
But from her moans and enthusiasm, I know for a fact she’s enjoyed every minute of it. I swear, I’ve woken up more than once where instead of nursing my ankle, she’s nursing me back to another hard-on so she can get another dose of my cock.
What isn’t important are the positions, the multitudes of times I’ve left her full of cum, or whether she came on my fingers, my tongue, or my cock. What’s important is that we haven’t spoken about the past.
She’s declared over and over that it doesn’t mean anything and she wants to stay focused on the here and now, calling me a stubborn asshole every time I try to bring it up or talk about something more serious than ‘where do you want it?’
But I have hope. Hope that she’ll eventually listen. Hope that she might find it in her heart to forgive me.
It’s just going to take time. And with her only being here for a short time before she returns home to care for folks who actually need her help, time might not be on my side.
Our issues aren’t going to be resolved by me unburdening my heart. You can’t just forgive and forget in an instant after all these years. And she needs to know that I didn’t run because I’m a coward, even if I do feel like one right now because knowing that I’m going to have to come clean scares the shit out of me. All this time, I’ve dealt with it in my own way and without talking about it to anyone else. The burdens of the past have weighed heavily on my shoulders alone.
“You’re all set,” Ana says, bent over at my knee. The bandage and brace aren’t pretty, but they’ll fit inside my strongest boot, and that’ll have to be enough. “You shouldn’t put much weight on it, but it doesn’t seem like you listen to a thing I say.”
“I’ll be fine,” I reply, standing up and testing my ankle. It’s a lot better than I expected. Who knew that taking a day off my feet would help so damn much? Guess I just needed the right motivation for staying in bed. “I’m gonna let you do most of the work anyway.”
Ana stands up, gazing up at me and looking sexy as fuck. She’s dressed like some hunting calendar dream, cute in her jeans, boots, and a borrowed camo shirt that’s tied off. She’s not wearing a bra, and the curves of her breasts pressed against her shirt look tempting as fuck. The sight of her nipples pressing against the shirt is just for me. The whole picture is topped off
with her bare face and a messy knot of her honey hair underneath one of my old ballcaps. “You sure keep saying that. Sounds like you want us to starve.”
I grin, knowing she’s mostly teasing. “We both know you brought enough food for a month, so we aren’t starving either way. Besides, even if we weren’t going out, Rex has to get out for a walk sometimes. No way he’d let me sit in here all day, jacked-up ankle or not. Unless you want to take him for a stroll while I kick back?”
Ana glances at Rex, who’s sitting by the door, ready and waiting, silently saying, Let’s go, let’s go! She shakes her head. “No, thanks. I’m still not convinced he likes me. I might just end up being the food.”
I laugh, teasing back. “Well, I’d happily eat you morning, noon, and night every day.”
She flushes and then says, “Close your eyes.”
I wiggle my eyebrows at her meaningfully. “Okay by me, but we are getting out to hunt at some point today so it’ll have to be a quickie this time.”
I hear her quiet giggle then a put-upon sigh. “It’s not always about sex, Aubrey. I have a surprise for you.”
I grin, keeping my eyes closed. “That still sounds like you’re talking about sex, best surprise I can think of.” The banter feels good. It’s been our go-to mode for the last day. Easy and light, nothing dark or heavy to test the blossoming connection we’re rekindling. That’ll come. It has to. But for now, this is working.
I hear the back door open and then close, then Ana says, “Okay, open.” I open my eyes to see her standing directly in front of me, handing me . . . a stick? I take it from her, confusion written across my face.
“It’s a walking stick, to help with your ankle while we’re hiking today,” she explains, as though that should be obvious. Actually, now that she says it, that’s completely apparent. I just didn’t think of it because I’m a stubborn asshole, as we’ve well established.
“No way. Where’d you even get this?” I ask, trying to hand it back to Ana, but she shoves it back toward me with open palms.
“I made it for you. And you’re using it today on our hunting hike or we’re not going.” Her voice is serious, inviting no discussion or argument. I realize this is her professional, I-mean-business tone.
I look at the stick again, turning it in my hands. It’s crude, nothing fancy or polished, just a long length of smooth wood. But she made this for me, spent time searching for the right one, debarking it, and prepping it. All the while, thinking of me. My heart fills with warmth. Progress. I’m making progress with her, slowly but surely.
I nod and plant the end on the floor. It’s perfect, just long enough to give me good support, and strong too. It’s slightly against my dignity . . . but it’s only temporary, and besides, Ana made it. “Fine, fine. I’ll use it. Ana . . .”
I wait for her eyes to meet mine, the smile already plastered on her face at my agreement to use the stick, and I realize she expected much more of an argument. “Thank you.”
Her smile spreads wider and her eyes shine, and I think she might actually be tearing up a bit. Shit, is that good? Bad? I don’t know for sure, so I redirect as quickly as possible. “Come on, I’ve got the place picked out already.”
We go out to my ATV, quickly loading up with what we’ll need for the day as Rex runs back and forth from the shed to the house on a loop, following in our footsteps. Apparently, the day indoors yesterday made him a bit antsy too. I give him a pat on the head and instruct him to ‘watch the house’, and he lopes off, setting a path around the perimeter of the cabin. Ana laughs, but I assure her, “Don’t worry, he won’t walk paces the whole time we’re gone. Just for a bit until he’s confident there’s nothing looming, then he’ll take turns on the front porch and then the back, laying out and dozing off and on.”
She shakes her head in disbelief but climbs on the ATV behind me and we drive out. It feels good to have her arms wrapped around my waist even over the jackets we’re wearing, and I’m a little regretful when it’s over. “We walk from here. Don’t worry, it’s not far, just about two hundred yards.”
The day’s beautiful as we slowly make our way through the woods with clear blue skies above us. A cool wind is coming down from up-mountain, and the hint of moisture in the air’s even better. It’s exactly what we need to stay fresh as we hike the short distance. Of course, I use the walking stick Ana made me, willing to ding my own ego if it puts a smile on her face.
“Here we are,” I note as we reach the spot, a deer stand that I use a lot. “Up and at ‘em.”
I unsling my light pack and climb the handful of steps using just my left leg in an awkward hopping motion, leaving Ana down on the ground, scowling at me. “What the heck are you doing?”
I reach the top, and it’s hard not to laugh as I look down at her. She’s so cute when she’s indignant. “You told me I need to stay off my ankle. That’s what I’m doing.”
“And what am I supposed to do?”
I grin, pointing back at the cases on the ATV’s cargo rack. “All the work. While I watch.”
“You’re out of your mind!” Ana says, huffing. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You’ll learn, Miss Nurse,” I joke.
Ana throws her hands up, picking up the smaller of the two hard cases. “I can’t with you! You know this is blackmail, right?”
I smirk at her cockily, wagging a finger. “It’s just about patience. How are you supposed to nurse my ankle if you don’t have any patience?”
“Trust me, I have a lot of it,” Ana says as she hands up the first case. “Just not much for an overgrown asshole.”
I grin, looking into her beautiful eyes and lowering my voice until it’s husky the way she likes. “Don’t forget, this overgrown asshole knows how to dick you until you’re screaming at the top of your lungs. So I’m useful for something, at least.”
Ana drops the few feet down, growling as she stomps over to get the next item to hand up.
I have to grin as she stomps off, nearly foaming at the mouth. I enjoy seeing this side of her. Sweet Ana, all flustered and sassy with pink cheeks, turns me on. She stays gone for a good five minutes before coming back to hand me the second case. Then she stands there with her hands on her hips, looking up at me.
“Alright, what am I supposed to be doing?”
I look down from my seat and nod, grinning. “I knew you’d see it my way. Climb on up here, and don’t forget the knapsack.”
Ana obeys, and when she reaches the stand, she looks around. It’s a little tight, but not too bad. I didn’t build this thing to have more than one person in it, but she’s so small, we can squeeze in. “No funny business. You might not believe me, but I do know my way out of here. I’ll leave you high and dry.”
“Then you’d be guilt-ridden forever,” I tease, opening up the smaller of the two cases and taking out the pieces. “Now, here’s what you’ll be using.”
“A . . . crossbow?” Ana asks before stopping.
“Yep. You can’t learn to use a bow in one sitting, but a crossbow’s a lot like a rifle,” I explain, locking the pieces into place. “Aim and shoot. Ever shot a rifle?”
“Only shooting I’ve done is laser tag with Trey,” Ana admits. “Does that count?”
“It could,” I hedge. I finish assembling the crossbow and then set it aside to put together my bow. “This is just in case you need backup. Now, let’s see how you handle the crossbow.”
I demonstrate, putting a bolt in an old target I have set up on a tree before handing it to Ana. “Your turn.”
She looks at the bright green bolt sticking out of the tree, then looks at me. “You want me to do that?”
I nod. “Bring the stock up to your shoulder . . . just a little higher. Get this on your cheek.”
I guide Ana through how to shoot, moving behind her and adjusting her as needed. Holding her still, I’m aware of her body and how warm she feels in the cool stand, but I keep myself professional even as my cock hardens and pre
sses against her ass. “Now, when you want to fire, you stroke the trigger. Don’t yank it.”
Ana lowers the crossbow, looking back at me. “Stroke it, don’t yank it? Really?”
“I didn’t mean it as a pun, but it does sound like fun, doesn’t it?” I grin, leaning in and kissing her quickly and deeply. When our lips break, I’m smirking hard. “Now, you ready to try and fire something?”
“I still don’t get why you don’t use a gun,” Ana says as I recock the bow and seat a bolt. “Isn’t it easier?”
“It is, but this always feels like a more balanced battle to me. Now, just like we practiced.”
Amazingly, Ana’s a natural, hitting the black circle I’ve painted on the target wood with her first three shots without even needing a single hint. “Wow, I’m a deadeye.”
“Don’t get too cocky. Now we wait. The boar come through here, usually around sunset.”
“Sunset?” Ana asks, surprised. “But it’s barely after lunch!”
“And we needed time to make sure you could shoot right and not scare off the boar,” I explain. “Now . . . quiet.”
Silence drops between us, the crossbow set aside as we settle in to wait. I let her sit up front, my body close to her so I can talk quietly with her. “How’d it feel to hit the target?”
“Good,” she whispers back.
“You’re a natural. Ana, look, I feel like I should . . .” I start, my voice barely a whisper in her ear as I tempt fate, and her anger, by trying to explain about our past, about what happened.
She knows where my mind is heading, though, and puts the brakes on that train of thought with a sad sigh. “Don’t, Aubrey. Really . . . don’t. This is nice, we’re having fun, and I don’t want to turn the rest of my time here into a trip down memory lane, especially when it’s a sad and angry trip.”
Untamed (Irresistible Bachelors Book 9) Page 10