“But she is totally into him,” Erika said. It wasn’t a question.
“Looks like it, yeah. She is the opposite of all those things.”
“Well, anyway, I bet they were dating at one time.” Erika sighed and dropped the scrubber at her side. “I’m tired of doing this. Think anyone delivers out here?”
“Doubt it—about the dating.” Mike moved some coals around haphazardly. He clearly had no clue about what he was doing. “There would be easiness or awkwardness with them, and there isn’t.”
“So just knocking boots, then,” Jenna summed up. “Does she know how desperate she looks? He can’t have any other options if he’s screwing her.”
“I—” Mike froze, his eyes over Jenna’s shoulder.
There was a presence behind Jenna that was hard to ignore. It was seething.
“You what?” Erika asked, smacking the grill with the scrubber, clearly thinking that beating it into submission would accomplish something. “Don’t even say you’d do her if you were single, because—” Jenna knocked Erika with a hard elbow. “Ow, what was that for?” Erika smacked Jenna with the scrubber.
“Are you three almost done here?” Chuck said from behind Jenna and Erika.
Jenna realized belatedly that Dale had moved away. She and Erika straightened up slowly, an “oh shit” expression on Erika’s face. They turned as one to face Chuck, who towered over Erika and merely loomed over Jenna.
The light from the sinking sun fell across his face, softening his strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. His hair looked even darker, making the color of his eyes glow like torches in a dark cave. Jenna stared, entranced. The man was incredibly handsome. Ridiculously so. Why’d he also have to be so terrifying?
Or maybe that made it better…
“Yes, Ranger Chuck,” Erika said quietly. Jenna just nodded.
“Mike, you go over to the vegetable table and help chop. Erika, you go help Dale set up lanterns—” He hesitated. “Actually, switch roles. Mike and Dale, you’re together. Erika, you’re with the veg table. Go.”
They all headed away without another word, even Dale, who had been standing on his own, staring at the ground.
“Divide and conquer?” Jenna said as she returned to scraping.
Chuck said nothing. Instead, he took hold of the scraper and bent over the grill. Strong arms bulging with muscle, he moved in quick, precise thrusts, clearing the detritus with only a few movements. Muscles were so much more efficient in things like this.
After a few moments of silence, he said, “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about the subject of Karen anymore. It is disrespectful to the leaders of this organization.”
“Spoken like a politician. That rule would be tough to enforce, though. Everyone loves to gossip.”
“It isn’t a rule, it is a request. And it’s why I’m asking you.”
“Why me?”
“Because they listen to you. They follow your lead.”
“They, huh? I don’t know about that, but I will take it under advisement.”
Chuck straightened up and turned to her. “Please.” His voice was soft and intimate. His eyes were hypnotic, putting himself at her mercy.
He was manipulating her!
She stuck out her hip, finding it hilarious that he should try to get one over on her. A smile crept up her face as her heart sang. “You’re good, Ranger Charlie, but not that good. You’re public figures, didn’t you know? Gossip is inevitable. But I promise to be more discreet about it—will that work?”
Chuck looked at her for a long time, his sunburst eyes measuring her, calculating. Finally he said, “You are full of useful skills.”
“Have you ever tried to survive the upper-tier social network of New York fashion, Ranger Charlie?”
Chuck seemed to be having a hard time hearing, as he was trying to read her lips. Without taking his eyes from her mouth, he shook his head slowly.
“Well, survival is a beast, and if one plans on making it out alive, one has to acquire many useful skills.”
“Are you ready for the meat?” Lewis asked, suddenly appearing right beside her.
“Oh!” She jumped. “You scared me.”
“Are you ready for the meat?” He had an odd look on his face, like he was pissed off and uneasy at the same time.
She looked back to Chuck to see if maybe their proximity was the problem, but Chuck was two feet away and no longer focusing on her. She shrugged it off. “I think so. It’s hot enough.”
“I know. You’re sweating.” Lewis’s voice was tinged with disgust. He handed her two trays of hamburger patties and abruptly turned away.
“I’m leaning over a hot fire!” She huffed at his retreating backside, then realized that her cleavage was beaded with moisture. She wiped her face, her fingers coming away with wetness.
“It’s not like it’s my fault,” she muttered. “What am I supposed to do, wear a cooling hazmat suit?”
Chuck went still next to her.
Great—apparently she did look that bad.
She kept her head down to hide her undoubtedly beet-red face as Chuck gruffly said, “We need to wait a little while before we throw it on. Put them on the table for now.”
She sighed in defeat and did as she was told.
Chapter Eleven
A white-hot rush of anger came over Josh. He clenched his teeth, trying to quell his urge to rip that turd’s arm off and beat him with it. His disgust at Jenna’s appearance was uncalled for and just plain disrespectful. No woman deserved that kind of treatment, especially one a man was supposed to care for. That he should have so much sway with her feelings touched one of Josh’s very violent places. Very, very violent.
He breathed through his nose to calm down, and then looked at Jenna, trying to think of something to say. She needed a kind word or the lightheartedness that her little friend would supply. That wasn’t what he was about anymore. It wasn’t something he could easily conjure up.
The truth was, she was damned hot looking the way she did. Her dress clung to her in obscene places, molding to her perfect breasts and sticking to her muscled butt. Even the insides of her thighs were not immune to the clingy fabric. Her face was flushed like it might be after a good dose of sex; her eyes were bright from exertion and her cleavage was glistening. Her body said, “Touch me,” and Josh’s dick was trying to reach out and do just that.
“It was good of you and the other guides to provide this plentiful meat. It must have been hard hunting a what—pig and a cow?” Jenna said in jest, cutting through his reverie.
“Very. Wily creatures. Hard to pin down.”
Jenna looked at him with squinting eyes, which he’d come to realize meant she’d figured out he was talking out of his ass.
“Who’s the master hunter? You?” she asked with a smile.
“I do all right. Those cows move awful fast, but sometimes I’m able to outsmart ’em.”
She laughed, a sound like a perfectly pitched bell. “Joking aside, you couldn’t have carried these in your packs, so how do you keep it cool?”
“Who was joking?”
“Har har.”
“A crew stocks it in the metal bins. Every night we’ll have dinner, and every morning breakfast. Lunch will be carried in our packs, also provided. Someone goes around on a go-kart to deposit food.”
“Wow. Talk about surviving in the wild, huh?”
Josh felt a smile bud. He hadn’t felt like smiling for so long that the act seemed almost foreign. Something about this hard-ass throwing out sarcastic jokes pleased him.
Just like when he had smirked earlier, that little grin had her full attention. She was looking at him with those clear blue eyes, drinking in every aspect of his face. It was intoxicating. And embarrassing. He wasn’t all that into scrutiny. He turned away.
Jenna watched Chuck turn away, a little sad that he’d let the smile slip so quickly. It really looked good on him. She wondered why he did it so seldom.
&
nbsp; Although she couldn’t really judge. She wasn’t exactly Miss Laughs-a-Lot herself.
Jenna let silence descend on their conversation. It was easy and effortless, without the need to fill the pause with nonsense. Laughter and the murmur of constant chatter drifted across the clearing, not as irritating as Jenna had first thought.
“Okay, Ranger Bob, I’m supposed to report back.” Erika walked up behind them with swinging arms and a bored bounce in her step.
Chuck spared a glance at the vegetable area, and then checked for Dale. “Finished chopping?”
It was clear he thought she’d abandoned her post—four people were still around the picnic table, talking and cutting away.
“I am, yes. I was thanked, told I was a good helper, and then shooed away because they had it covered. I don’t cook—I wasn’t lying. So anyway, here I am.”
“If none of you cook, how do you feed yourselves?” Chuck muttered, looking at Team Red’s various stations.
“Takeout,” Jenna and Erika said together, then both started laughing.
“Anderson,” Josh said, sparing a glance at Jenna, “watch the meat. Jones, go help Mike with the buns. They need to be split and brought here to toast. Clear?”
“Aye aye,” Erika said.
“That’s a sailor, Jones. We’re on land.”
“Ten-four, good buddy, over and out.” Erika gave a weird salute and bounded toward Mike.
Chuck shook his head with a slight lift of the corners of his mouth. “That was a trucker,” he said to no one in particular.
“Were you in the army or something?” Jenna rolled a few hot dogs across the grill. Deep black lines scorched one side.
Chuck’s face wiped clear, stony menace replacing good humor. He grabbed her hot dogs with his tongs and placed them in a corner of the grill, moving them away from the fiercest heat. With the other hand, he flipped a burger.
Jenna waited for him to answer, but as the uncomfortable silence stretched, she realized he didn’t plan to.
With any normal man, she would save that little nugget for when she either needed something, or wanted to goad him. She kept track of other people’s buttons—she never knew when she might need to push one. Knowledge was power, so acquiring it was always on her mind.
He wasn’t a normal man, though. Considering the way those eyes became animalistic at times, and the surges of psycho she saw burning and twisting in their depths. She didn’t want to know what he turned into when he got angry. It was probably a shade of green.
“Okay, everyone, food is nearly ready,” Karen called out. “Meat station, how goes it?”
“Ready when you are,” Chuck called over his shoulder. He still looked a little miffed. Jenna wondered if he had been kicked out of the army or something. Or maybe they wouldn’t accept him and that was why he had become a woods guide?
“You trying to burn the meat?” he growled.
She stopped staring at him and turned to a hamburger, smoking ominously. She couldn’t help giggling—her strange nervous reflex that eased the tension zinging through her body. Hot though he was, he was menacing.
“Hot cross buns.” Erika stopped opposite Jenna and placed a bun, top down, on the grill.
“Other way,” Chuck said.
Erika blinked up at him, her expression completely blank. She had absolutely no idea what his words were supposed to mean.
Jenna started laughing. “Flip them over, dummy.”
“Oh.” Erika giggled and flipped the buns. “I’ll master this pretty soon, just you watch.”
“Yeah, right.” Jenna flipped a burger before rolling a hot dog. “Not before me.”
“Hey, baby.” Jenna felt a hand snake around her middle. Lewis leaned up against her back.
It was odd and unexpected. It wasn’t like Lewis at all, but then, nothing about this trip was. “Cooking.” She looked back to make sure he was all right. His lips connected with hers, hard but devoid of passion.
She wiggled away, bumping into Chuck before Lewis let go. “What’s up?” she asked, confused. “You okay?”
“Just thinking about you,” he said in a pouty voice as he pulled her closer.
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll gladly sit in your lap.” She smiled at him and turned back to the grill, flipping the hamburger that Erika was pointing at.
“You’re welcome, said the master at grilling.” Erika sniffed and polished her nails on her sleeve.
“Not fair. I was distracted.” Jenna flipped another burger.
“Whatever.” Lewis’s hand left her middle. She heard his boots stomping away.
“What is up with him?” Jenna asked Erika. “He spends the whole time we’re together avoiding any public show of affection, and then we get out here and he picks the worst times to snuggle up.”
“He’s jealous.”
“Of who, Dale?” she said sarcastically. “He doesn’t get jealous; he has pissing contests. Just as annoying, but it doesn’t usually make him all lovey.”
“He’s jealous of that guy.” Erika threw a thumb in Chuck’s direction.
Chuck didn’t look up.
Jenna scoffed. “It’s like an apple being jealous of a tomato. One’s a fruit, the other’s a vegetable—different categories.”
“Technically, a tomato is a fruit. Has seeds.” Erika pointed at a hot dog.
“You know what I mean.” Jenna rolled it, and the one next to it, before Chuck’s muscular arm reached over her station and snatched it with the tongs. He put it off to the side with the other nearly burned ones.
“Horrible metaphor, though,” Erika said. “You always have the worst metaphors.”
“It was a simile, actually—”
“Steak,” Chuck interjected, his eyes still fixed on the grill in front of him.
Jenna checked his side of the grill in confusion, and then hers. Erika looked over her buns with widespread hands.
“What do you mean?” Jenna asked.
Chuck turned to her, his eyes intent. The roots of her hair tingled under the scrutiny, her flight reflex gearing up. He slowly turned to Erika, pinning her with the same stare. “In that metaphor, I would be a steak, not a tomato. Men aren’t tomatoes.”
“Or a pig with an apple in its mouth?” Erika smirked.
Chuck smirked too, and then went back to the meat. “In that case, a boar.”
“Whatever,” Jenna said, wrestling with her smile. “Hey, I was thinking, we should talk about that issue with the beam tonight with the crew. All these other yuksters are probably going to tell ghost stories or something, so we might as well get some work done.”
“No way! I want to hear the ghost stories.” Erika responded to Chuck’s pointed finger by flipping her bun.
“No, remove it.” Chuck leaned across the grill, his hard side bumping against Jenna.
“Jesus, what are you made of, stone?” Jenna said, giving his ribs a hard poke.
He jerked, savagely pulling his arm back to cover the spot. His elbow slammed into the side of her stomach. Dull pain throbbed as she staggered back with wide eyes. She’d never seen anyone move so fast. Not even her self-defense instructor caught her completely unaware like that.
“Oh my God, Jenna, are you okay?” Chuck dropped his utensils and grabbed her shoulders. He leaned down to look into her eyes. “I’m sorry—I’m ticklish. It was a reaction. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Are you okay?”
“Knock her again. She deserves it,” Erika said, chuckling. “But guys, the meat… Smoke.”
Jenna blinked up into that handsome face, struck mute for a second. The touch of his hands on her skin, strong and sure, set off a weird burn deep in her gut. It smoldered there, like a volcano, waiting to be woken.
“Sure, yeah,” she said wistfully, connecting with his gaze, seeing a spark of fire in his eyes that wasn’t from the glow of the coals. “No problem.”
“Seriously, you guys. The meat.”
Chuck’s hands dropped away slowly, his fingers leaving sc
orched lines along her skin. “Best not to poke me there.”
“Sure, yeah. Sorry.”
“Wow.” Erika put a fist to her hip. “She apologized. How did you do it? I need to learn.”
“Meat station?” Karen called.
“Had a hiccup. Under control,” Chuck said in an elevated voice. He had moved to the middle of the grill and was working with fast hands to reorganize the whole surface.
“Holy carnivore, Batman, you know what you’re doing.” Erika watched his hands with wide eyes. “You probably should’ve washed the utensils, though…”
Jenna stepped back up to the grill as the first wave of people came to the meat station with plates and smiles. They were laughing and joking, complimenting them on the cooking and the buns. They were the happiest people Jenna could ever remember seeing.
“What the hell are they so happy about?” Jenna muttered as the group passed through.
“Life,” Erika said.
“Eck.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “They need to tone it down a notch. Life ain’t that great.”
“One word: Prozac,” Erika said.
Jenna saw Chuck react. “Is Chuck chuckling?”
“Stop with that joke right there, Jenna.” Erika held up her pointer finger. “It’s going to be corny, I can already tell. Your jokes are no better than your metaphors.”
“Okay, but—”
“No, stop immediately! Besides, for the duration of our journey, he will be called Bob. Like, What about Bob? It sounds better than Chuck.”
“Are you girls on drugs?” Chuck asked, clearly bemused.
Erika gave him a wicked grin. “Not yet.”
The next group of overly happy people came through. It was the vegetable group. They were supportive of Erika’s buns, and complimentary about Jenna’s meat. Both Erika and Jenna managed to refrain from making innuendos, but only just.
Chuck was a celebrity because all his meat was perfectly cooked. The whole meat station looked on with straight faces, not sure how to handle the onslaught of cheer. When they finally passed, Erika and Jenna sighed with relief.
“You can certainly tell the New Yorkers,” Jenna said. “We’re the ones with frowns on our faces.”
Unexpected Hero (Skyline Trilogy Book 1) Page 8