Hiking for Danger

by Capri Montgomery

  She checked her watch. “Ha, take that you rats.” It had officially been eleven minutes of hiking and she had easily accomplished that.

  “What?” Cody asked without looking back.

  “Nothing,” she smiled.

  They hiked for five hours before making their final stop for the night. The campground sat tucked away in the small clearing of trees. It wasn’t stacked with all the amenities, not like she had thought it would be. After all, she had read the brochures online and some of the trails had campgrounds with restrooms and grills. This apparently was not one of them. Then again, they were higher up than she had imagined they would go.

  She had survived the hike so far at least. Now, she just had to make it through three more days of full hiking with one final day of a white water rafting trip down to where they would meet the bus. If she could survive that long then she really would have a story to share when she got back to New Mexico. Of course she might want to leave out the part about how she royally screwed up and misunderstood what trip she was actually booking. Yeah, she would leave that part out for sure.

  Chapter Two

  “You can share with me,” Cody said as he rolled out his sleeping bag. The others were setting up their areas either with sleeping bags or the tents they had brought in their little cases but he had always preferred sleeping out beneath the stars. With the small patches between the trees he could catch a glimpse of a few stars.

  “Excuse me?” Her voice cracked.

  “Well I’m not giving up my bag,” he said as if she had asked.

  “No, of course not. That is, I’m not asking you to…”

  “So you can share with me. It’ll be a little tight, but it’ll work.” He looked at the hesitation on her face. From the way she had looked at him all day he had thought she might have been feeling some sense of attraction, but maybe he had been wrong.

  “You can’t sleep on a rock,” he said. Of course he guessed if she had mastered the art of sleeping while sitting up then maybe she could. “So pull your boots off and get in.”

  He tucked himself in as far over as he could, leaving room for her. She hesitated, but obviously decided he was right because she did as he said.

  “Take your jacket off and use it under your head.”

  She refused. “It’s too cold.”

  “It’s not that cold.” He was used to the cooler weather. It was barely down to fifty degrees and everybody else seemed to be managing just fine.

  “I’m anemic,” she said as if she had read his mind. “I take medication for it, but every month is a new month if you know what I mean. It just never seems to get where it should be and so I get colder faster than most.”

  “I’ll keep you warm.” He was sure his voice had lowered an octave because while he was thinking of their combined body heat warming up his sleeping bag he was also very much thinking about a plethora of ways he would love to warm up that delectable body of hers.

  “I don’t know.” Her voice was a little huskier. He would say she understood the double entendre in his words, even if he hadn’t meant to convey them. Either that or she really had her own set of ideas on how he could keep her warm.

  “Are you that cold?”

  “Yeah, I am. Like I said, I get colder and more tired than the average in-shape person I guess. I think I’m doing all right on the energy level for now, but I really did think this was just a four hour hike. I don’t know how I messed that up.” She crawled into the sleeping bag and tried to stretch out. Of course the jacket wasn’t going to work between the two of them.

  “Pull it off. I’ll keep you warm,” he said in a voice that was low and sultry. He was glad her mistake had landed her on his hiking trip. There was a shorter hike set to commence in a week’s time, but he wouldn’t be leading it. He never did the day hikes. He was always the guy leading the three to ten day hikes because he was also a ranger for the park and during his times off from active duty he loved nature enough to get back out in it and open up the glorious possibilities of the wild to other adventurers. It was a nice break, he would say, from his normal activities of making sure the park was safe from day to day. He made sure lost hikers found their way home, animals didn’t get to the humans while raiding the stash of sweets they left out of the bag at their campsite, animals of the two legged persuasion didn’t assault any hikers and overall that the park, its wildlife and its visitors, remained safe and got back to where they belonged safely.

  In all his years as a park ranger he had only had five instances where things got out of hand and pointed toward being deadly. The first was a guy hiding from the law. He had taken a woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day hostage from her job at the bank and came out here to hide. Authorities had searched for weeks when Cody came upon signs of human life and then found the lowlife jerk. A week is how long the guy had her. The woman was lucky she wasn’t dead or bodily harmed more than a few bruises.

  “She’ll have me willingly,” Eduardo Montabon had said. She hadn’t come willingly so he figured knocking her around would make her change her mind. Cody had his rifle with him and he didn’t hesitate to take the shot when the guy pulled out his pistol. One saved, he had said, and then he went on with his life as a ranger and took joy in the days when the biggest problem was a lost hiker or a drunken hunter. Both situations could be deadly, but at least with those two things he knew what he was dealing with. When it came to men ready to kill to get what they wanted all bets were off and his day of work could end up being his last day of life. He loved his job; he did, but that didn’t mean those times when things went from normal to deadly that he didn’t’ feel the adrenaline kick up a thousand notches. When he was younger maybe he loved that kind of rush, but now he preferred this rush, being in nature enjoying the peace and calm. He liked not thinking about the crazed world around him. He knew it was there, but out here he could see the beauty instead of the pain of the world. He would say it was probably time for him to move on, to maybe kick his profession down to just doing the adventure tours, but then he would miss being a ranger, and since he didn’t like the new management of this company he wasn’t really sure how much longer he would be able to stay on here. He loved what he did, back when what he did meant something. The new owners were changing things, moving the company away from what it was. The bottom dollar was the only concern for them. He understood the need to make money. Everybody had bills to pay and people didn’t go into business for the fun of it—they had every right to make a profit, but the adventure tour company was doing just fine, turning a profit, the largest and most respected in Colorado and here they came, messing things up.

  People and safety had to be more important than money. That’s how the company had always been run up until about a year ago when the changes that weren’t supposed to happen started happening. He should have known Derrick Miller had lied when he gathered them all together to introduce himself as one of the new owners and to tell them that things weren’t going to change. Things had changed—a lot.

  “You can get closer,” he told Sahara as she shivered beside him.

  She did as he said curling close to him. Her legs entwined with his; her arm wrapped around his waist and her chest pressed firmly against him. He zipped the bag as far as he could and then pulled her closer. She was trembling fiercely. “God you really are cold aren’t you?”

  “Uh huh,” she shivered again. As if it were possible for her to be any closer, he pulled at her again until it was difficult to tell where he ended and she began. He was tall, and he imagined if she stretched out he would still extend nearly a foot past her body, but he liked where she had placed herself just fine and he hadn’t intended to let her shift either way, except to get closer. She tucked her head to his shoulder and relaxed for the night.

  Cody looked up at the sky thinking about the fact that in all his years of pulling double duty being a park ranger and then doing the hiking guide thing on the side, he had never come across a situation where anybody
showed up this unprepared for a hike. He had never come across anybody who thought they booked one thing only to find out they hadn’t. There was a first time for everything and he knew that. It worked out to his favor, he thought as he looked down at the woman who had fallen asleep in his arms. Yeah, this definitely had worked out in his favor. She was beautiful. He liked what he saw a lot, but he liked her spirit too. He wouldn’t have thought he would have gone for a novice. He was nature and she was lab. He loved the outdoors and adventure while she seemed to be happy studying her bugs. She was his complete opposite and yet he still wanted to know more about her.

  He watched her throughout the day, stealing observatory glances when he could. He knew she was determined, a bit stubborn too he would say, and despite her lack of experience, she seemed to be enjoying nature. He watched the smile that tugged her lips upward as she watched a bird flitter above, or observed a flower, or a bug. He never knew a woman who liked bugs—much like Shell Baker, Cody was impressed.

  He really shouldn’t have been thinking about Sahara Daniels so much, but he was. He wondered if his attraction was amplified based on the fact that his friends had found good women. Thomas had Thena. They had just gotten married three months ago. Gavin had London, even if he was going stir crazy at the bed and breakfast. His friend Hollister had Jewels, and his baby brother, Tolan, had just settled down with a smart and enthusiastic woman who shared his passion for adventure. Cody shook his head. Tolan was twenty-eight, living his dream as a nature photographer in the Arctic and his woman, Doctor Justice Caster-Donovan, was leading the exhibition that he had attached himself too.

  Justice was thirty-six to his brothers twenty-eight years of life, but they made it work. Nobody would know the difference in age swung the other way because Justice still looked young enough to give any twenty-something a run for her money and his baby brother was far from being a baby. Two mature, adventure loving people had fallen in love on the first Arctic trip and when Tolan brought her home and said she was to be his wife, Cody was shocked. His parents were shocked, but they had all accepted Justice. Now she was family both legally and from the heart. His brother had found love and maybe that was something that had Cody realizing he wanted the same thing. He, of course, thought he would find a woman who liked nature as much as he did; a woman who would go hike in unknown locations and spend days in the wild sleeping, gathering food and living off the land. Sahara didn’t fit that part of the bill, but he was still looking at her as a woman he wouldn’t mind attaching himself to—in every way.

  What was it about this woman that had his mind turning to mush around her? What was it about her that pulled him to her? He barely knew the woman and yet here he was trying to figure out how he would see her after this trip ended; here he was thinking about all the things he wished he could do with her right now, tomorrow, the next day and for months or years to come. God he was in trouble if after only a day he wanted to know this woman completely, to have her completely, exclusively.

  He sighed as the fog in his head grew thicker. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.

  Sahara awoke a few hours later, or at least she thought it was a few hours later. She shifted and his grip on her tightened as if he didn’t want her to move from the spot she was in. To be honest, she didn’t want to move either, but when she awakened her body just naturally tried to move away from him. It felt as if it were time to get up and get moving. “Was that thunder?”

  “Yeah,” he spoke softly. His words were audible for her and her alone. “It sounds as if it’s over the next stopping range a hike west of us.”

  She wondered how he could know that, but then she would guess he had been serving as a tour guide for quite some time. He seemed like he knew the trail better than most people knew their backyard. “It should stay up there and to the west of us, but if it rolls down and over this way we’re going to get a little wet,” he said as if this sort of thing happened all the time. “It’ll make for a difficult hike tomorrow with the ground being soft from the rain. Will you be okay?”

  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be angry that he had to ask, or happy that he cared. All day, every time they stopped for one of their half hour breaks, he kept asking if she were okay. She wondered if he thought she couldn’t handle herself, but then she dismissed it, realizing that her lack of preparedness had pretty much signaled just that. “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said. “Will going up or down be more difficult,” she wanted to keep him talking. His voice was arousing. His touch and closeness was the height of her serenity.

  “Both.” Which meant they would have to work harder to get up and then even harder to fight gravity on the way down. They wouldn’t be hiking downward for a little while, but if it rained each night then the ground would be too wet and soggy to get good footing which in her mind meant it wouldn’t dry out before their descent and therefore would probably be more dangerous going downward.

  They had a long day—long and tiring. With all the stops they made for people to take pictures, relieve themselves or snack on their food they had covered some distance, but not so much that they were likely to get back to civilization earlier than planned. She figured Cody hadn’t expected them to get back early anyway, and even if they did they would still have to wait on the bus. They actually hadn’t hiked for five hours; they had more or less been hiking for four hours after all the breaks were factored in. If tomorrow was anything like today they would have a lot of breaks breaking up their walking time. It wasn’t as if she was in a hurry to get back to her room at the hotel, but she was thinking the longer they stayed out there the more likely she was to do something stupid that would ruin her “I’ll show them” moment and turn it into the next joke of family night.

  “So it’s going to be really tough, huh?” Tough didn’t sound all that good to her.

  “The ground might dry out some before the hike down, but definitely not the hike up. Go back to sleep. You’ll need your rest.”

  “Okay,” she sighed. He had to be the sexiest man she had met in a long time. Since her breakup with Devin she wondered if she would ever have that feeling of sheer joy of being in a man’s arms. She felt it now. She felt it with him and though she had only known him for a matter of hours, she wanted to know more.

  She tried to get closer to him as if she wasn’t already close enough. It was just that the way they were in each other’s arms she felt something within her stirring and she couldn’t stop the ache in her body from spreading to between her legs. She moaned before she could catch herself.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Her voice was husky. She mentally scolded herself for being so free with her thoughts while she was in his arms. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the tell-tell sexual moan, maybe he would assume she had just been slipping back into sleep and let out a moan of contentment.

  He pulled her closer, her body fitting his in just about every way and she wondered if he would fit in the way she had wanted him. She tightened her arm around him, curling in and once again letting the fantasy hit her hard. She couldn’t stop it—she hadn’t wanted to. It wasn’t until she caught herself in a slow undulation that she realized she had better knock it off or he was going to kick her out of his bag.

  “Are you sure you’re okay,” his voice had lowered and it was more sensual and arousing than before.

  She cleared her throat, “just trying to get comfortable.” Right, as if that was all she was trying to do.

  “You keep that up and we’re going to have a problem,” he said. She felt the pressure of his growing erection.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said, but she wasn’t sorry. Maybe he had wanted her as much as she had wanted him. Or maybe he was just reacting as any man would in the given situation. Maybe, she thought before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

  Sahara was amazed with the atmosphere around her. They were in beautiful surroundings; everybody, for the most part, seemed to be getting along and breakfast was peaceful—albeit
a bit scarce for her. She dug around in her bag and found her Slim Fast drink, but after taking one look at it and remembering how far they had to go still she decided to save it for later. She still had a little trail mix left.

  Cody dug around in his bag and pulled an energy bar out. “Take this,” he said.

  “I’m okay,” she shook her head. She was already taking over the man’s camping bag she wouldn’t take his food too.”

  “I guess you mistook my words for a question. I wasn’t asking you, Sahara. Take this,” he jabbed it toward her again. She wanted to tell him off and refuse again except she really was hungry. She stuffed her trail mix back in her bag and took the bar from him.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he nodded. “Next time don’t be so obstinate.”

  She looked at the upward turn of his lips and realized while he was serious he didn’t mean any disrespect. She ate breakfast with him and shared a couple laughs over something he had told her about nature, or some joke he knew. He was really a nice guy, but he was also a guy who stuck to schedule and it was time to move on. He went about making sure everybody was ready to go after telling her to be sure she had everything in her pack. She hadn’t taken much out. She had taken out a change of panties, which he so graciously left her to the sleeping bag alone so she could change them before anybody else got up. She knew she had everything, but she looked around again just in case. If anything could go wrong it was nearly guaranteed it would happen to her so she figured a look around her area just to be sure she didn’t accidently lose something out her bag wasn’t such a bad thing.