“River? You okay in there?” Outside her tent, Ben sounded concerned.
“You count as a man, Benjamin. You’re not exempt.”
“Okeydokey. Easton said to tell you he’s got coffee going.”
Okay. So maybe he wasn’t quite as terrible as he’d seemed a moment ago. River dressed, then started applying liberal amounts of sunscreen and the heavy-duty moisturizer she had brought for her lips. Finished with her preparations for the day, River put her heavy jacket aside, opting for a windbreaker instead of the thinner long-sleeve shirt Easton had been wearing. Emerging from her tent, River rubbed her arms briskly against the cold air.
“Easton’s nuts for not needing a jacket,” River told Ben when she saw him. “You are too.”
Ben headed over to make the rounds past Bree’s and Jessie’s tents. “I don’t know,” he called over his shoulder. “Feels good to me.”
True, the sun was heating up the mountainside, but River had spent too many years in the mild temperatures of Los Angeles. It was more than cold enough for her.
As they crawled out of their own tents, River noticed her crew were dragging their feet.
“Why are you all so tired?” River asked them, joining her friends. “I slept like a baby.”
Jessie rolled his eyes at her.
“At least someone got some rest.” Bree rubbed tired-looking eyes with the back of her hand.
“It’s your fault,” Jessie told River as they headed to the dining tent.
“What did I do?”
“You and Sasquatch over there kept wanting to talk,” he grumped. “It was so annoying.”
Easton was heating up coffee for their breakfast inside the tent, where the heater’s fumes could air outside and not make anyone sick. At Jessie’s comment, he merely raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, I don’t care how many scary eyebrows you waggle at me. You two need to figure out whatever this is.” Jessie made a circle in the air, indicating both River and Easton. “I need my sleep, man.”
Ignoring Jessie and his snarking, Easton walked over and handed River a thermos of coffee. “Are you feeling up to another climb?”
Before she could answer, Easton took her elbow, silently asking her to step away from everyone for a private conversation. Since he’d brought her coffee, River was more than happy to sneak away with Easton, even if the sneaking away was a few boot scoots to the left outside the tent’s entrance.
“If you aren’t, there’s no shame in that,” Easton added. “It’s better to know now than to get in trouble later. We have a solid day ahead of us, and all this powder isn’t going to make the traveling any easier.”
As she looked around her, River could see what he was talking about. The snow had piled on, leaving their camp mostly buried. She could only imagine what the unfamiliar ground in front of them would be like.
“I’ll be fine,” River promised, enjoying a sip of the hot liquid.
“Drink up.” His voice was gentler than usual. “And if you start to feel off at all or start to get another headache, tell me. We can take breaks if we need to or redistribute the gear.”
“Are you saying I can’t pull my own weight?”
“I wouldn’t dare.” Easton took a sip of his own coffee, nodding in greeting to Ben as the other guide went past and into the tent. Then Easton dropped his voice even quieter. “Listen. Yesterday, before the call came in. And earlier, at my place.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Outside your torture barn?”
“It’s not a torture barn.”
“It really seems like a torture barn.”
Easton snorted, but she could see amusement in his eyes. “Outside my perfectly normal barn, things got a little…”
River waited for him to finish. Instead, he paused midsentence.
“What?” she asked.
“This is where you usually jump in with a clever comment. I’ve started building in breaks for you, so the conversation flows more freely.”
Sticking her tongue out at him for the second time that day didn’t make River any more mature, but it sure felt good.
“Things got heated,” River finished for him because Easton was still waiting for her. “And they were on the verge of getting a lot more heated.”
Easton gazed down at her. “Were they?”
“Weren’t they?”
“I want to make sure you and I are on the same page. And if we’re not, I won’t mind.”
That stung more than it should have. “Way to show a lady the love.”
Easton turned his head to scan the rest of the campsite. Since all three of their companions were busy eating breakfast, Easton rested a hand on her hip, then slipped an arm around her waist.
“What I’m saying is, if you want me to keep doing things like this, tell me. If you don’t, tell me. The last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable.”
“Did it ever occur to you that I’m the one making you uncomfortable?” Her fingernails traced down his breastbone.
“Different kind of uncomfortable,” Easton rumbled. Could his voice be any sexier, his mouth warm against her ear? “And all. The. Time.”
“You should have kissed me at the barn,” River told him.
“Definitely.”
Moving closer, she added, “And yesterday.”
He nodded in agreement. “Exactly what I’ve been thinking.”
River smirked at him. “Or about three seconds ago, before I smelled breakfast. Too bad, huh?”
This time, his warm laughter stole her breath away. “Terrible.” Easton’s arm lingered for a moment, strong and solid around her waist. Then he stepped back. “Guess I better work on my timing.”
“You really should.”
As she ducked back into the dining tent, River winked at him over her shoulder. “Hey, Easton. It would have been an amazing kiss. Just so you know.”
This guy was killing her, one sexy chuckle at a time. But when he was serious, it was even worse.
“Trust me,” Easton said huskily. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
• • •
If River’s headache hadn’t responded to the painkillers, Easton would have stayed in place one more day. Acute mountain sickness could strike even lower than where they were at, and even though Easton always made sure to ascend slowly enough for his clients to acclimate to the lower oxygen levels, it was nothing to take lightly. He’d seen his fair share of great climbers taken down unexpectedly. But she wasn’t, so he didn’t.
In fact, once River had gotten a thermos of coffee in her, she’d been full of energy and raring to go. Still, Easton kept one eye on her as they packed up their gear and started off. The Veil was within a day’s hike, but instead of taking them higher in elevation, he decided he wanted to take her somewhere off the direct path. Somewhere worth filming and only slightly higher elevation than their current camp.
He kept telling himself he would have done the same with any other client, but even Easton knew he was lying to himself. River was…different. And until he was certain she was in the clear, Easton wasn’t taking her one step higher on this mountain than he had to.
Ben never called him out on his indirect path, seeming content to follow Jessie and Bree and pause when they wanted something from the extra filming supplies Ben had on his pack. Every time the film crew grew distracted, Easton obliged his clients by stopping so they could shoot, which was constantly. Even though he knew it was killing their progress, every pause gave him the opportunity to evaluate River, to make sure she wasn’t getting another headache or starting to lag behind in pace. But to her credit, the woman was solid as the rock they were standing on.
She never faltered a step.
The marmot had decided to continue accompanying the expedition, and unlike the rest of them, the fresh snow didn’t hinder it. Able to
stay on the crust of the snowpack, the marmot scurried along at Easton’s side, pausing every so often to gaze at him with shiny, fervent eyes. Its particular suffocating brand of love should have been annoying, but for some reason, the furball was growing on him.
Cuddling up during a storm tended to do that for a guy and his marmot.
Eventually, they reached the location Easton had intended on taking his clients to, but not without Easton finally having to nudge the film crew along. This was one of his favorite locations on the mountain. The glacier beneath them was starting to crack, like candy coating on an ice cream cone. The result was a far more interesting series of vertical ascents on the ice. Beautiful and more challenging.
He’d really wanted River to see it, hopeful she’d enjoy the challenge too.
True to form, River had thrown herself at the climb exuberantly, and between the two of them, they made short work of the ascent. The others…not so much. In the most technical part of the day’s climb by far, River’s natural abilities not only shone through but resulted in them cresting the top of this rockface far before the others. The chance to sit alone with her was nice, but even the marmot was starting to look bored.
“I should have scheduled an extra week for this.” Easton looked down the mountain at Ben, where the other guide waited for Bree and Jessie to scale the section Easton and River had climbed almost half an hour earlier. “Those two want to film every handful of snow they pass.”
Her eyes were safely tucked behind his best snow goggles, but her smile was all visible for him to see.
“And yet you’re still hanging out with me instead of going down there and pushing them along. Why do I get the feeling you’re being overprotective?” River settled in to wait for the rest of the team, sitting closer to Easton than was technically necessary. “You set the slowest pace we’ve ever had today.”
“Maybe a little.” Easton bumped her shoulder companionably.
The air in their lungs was cold, and the wind bit into their clothes. Still, River’s good mood hadn’t left. The woman he’d stopped for on the side of the road had teemed with frustration. This River was exactly where she wanted to be, and it showed.
Sitting at her side, legs dangling over the edge of the massive block of ice they were perched on, was exactly where Easton wanted to be too.
“What’s that over there?” River asked, pointing toward the rest of the glacier sweeping down the mountainside. Like a painting of an overturned pot of boiling water, the mountainside was an image frozen: a churning cauldron of blocks of ice bigger than houses, rolling and tumbling over one another.
“The same thing we’re sitting on over here.” Easton patted one gloved hand on the ice beneath them. “All of this is an icefall, although we’re on the far edge…the more stable edge. It’s not as bad as the Khumbu Icefall on Everest. That one scares even me.”
“Have you noticed all paths lead to Everest for you?” River teased.
“It’s been in the back of my mind for a long time.”
“Now we know what the man bun is hiding.” She waggled her eyebrows comically. “Your ambition is under there.”
“Better than a bald spot.”
When she giggled, looking guilty, Easton knew she was busted. “That’s why you kept staring at my head, isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You thought I was bald.”
“Bald guys are hot. And no. I thought maybe you were balding. Bald-ing. The ‘ing’ is the important part.” Slender fingers plucked her glove off, touching his hair. “And your hair is very sexy.”
Easton took her hand, carefully tugging her glove back on. Then, because she was hip to hip with him and Ben was stuck trying to get Jessie and his gear up the fall instead of him, Easton slipped her hand inside his and stuffed them both inside his jacket pocket for warmth.
The goggles hid her eyes, but there was no hiding the way she leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder.
He looked down at her, then tugged the end of her braided hair. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to judge people by their looks?”
“No. She taught me never to marry a bull rider, unless I wanted to spend my life with a man all beat up from chasing belt buckles. And if a man chased my belt buckle, pull a Colt Forty-five on him and see what he’s made of.”
Easton blinked. “Your mother scares me.”
“Says the man everyone is scared of. I don’t buy it though. I think you’re soft and squishy beneath that overwhelmingly follicular display of masculinity.”
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not.”
With another giggle, River bit her lower lip. Never had he wanted a pair of goggles off more. He was dying to see her eyes again, eyes bluer than the glacier they were on. Easton touched his finger to her nose, nudging them down a smidge.
Damn, she took his breath away.
“Have you ever climbed it?”
Lost in her eyes, Easton barely heard—much less comprehended—what she was saying. Especially when her voice grew smoother, richer. He was drowning in her, and there was nothing that could make him come up for air.
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever climbed the icefall?” River repeated.
“Skirting it is safer. Over here, the ice blocks aren’t as broken up and unstable. Those tip and crush people.”
“I didn’t ask if you guided people up it. I asked if you—Easton Lockett—ever climbed the icefall.”
“Yeah,” he murmured. “Once with Ben. The second time, I soloed.”
And if his sister ever found out, Ash would kick his butt from there to Moose Springs.
“Let’s climb it.” Her whole face lit up at the idea.
“Right now?”
“You and me,” River breathed. “Right now.”
In that moment, his mind raced, calculating the day it was, the time of year, the supplies they had. Could they? Because damn, he wanted to. Every time he saw the icefall, he wanted to test his skills over there again. But the clients who trusted him to get them safely up to the summit and back down had always been more important.
“You have a movie to make.”
“So? Let’s make the movie over there.”
“Because even expert climbers get hurt trying to cross them. It’s probably not one of the best places to encourage visitors to come see.” Easton squeezed her hand. “I’m not a superstitious guy, but until this climb is done, let’s not have you over there.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. The footage we’re getting from here will be good enough.” After a moment, River looked back up at him. “But someday, let’s come back here. You, me, and the marmot. We’ll climb it.”
There was nothing else he could do but nod, a slow, stupid smile crossing his face.
“Yeah,” Easton promised her, meaning it completely. “One day.”
• • •
They spent the night at the icefall, then woke up the next morning to the toughest climb so far. Easton led them in a straight path up the mountain along the steepest trail they’d encountered. For the first time, they were required to use their ice axes to aid their climb, and it didn’t escape River’s notice that slipping here could result in sliding down several meters or more if they were unlucky. She was glad Easton had insisted on the spiky crampons strapped to their feet.
The higher they climbed, the clearer the mountain range stretched around them…and below them. They were now seeing the tops of other peaks that had seemed to rise into the sky at lower elevations. The view was breathtaking and disconcerting at the same time, making her heart beat faster.
She’d never experienced anything as exhilarating as this.
The wind had always been a constant above the tree line, but as they approached the campsite Easton had picked out, River found he
rself growing increasingly distracted by the wind’s shrill shrieking. Rising in pitch and volume, it only grew until Easton led them into a protected shelter of rock beneath an overhanging cliff face. The site was level and out of the elements as much as one could be when on the side of a mountain. Buffered from the wind, the noise was still loud, if not unbearable.
“You found us the luxury suite,” River called to him.
“What is that?” Bree asked, twisting around.
“It’s the wind coming through the Veil. It’s above us, about a thousand feet up.” Ben pulled out a small bag of foam earplugs from his pack. “Here. They won’t be as soft as normal, so don’t shove them in too far, but they should help.”
He wasn’t wrong. The temperature had dropped to ten below, so she made quick work of molding the earplugs to fit inside her ear canals. Easton’s eyes followed her movements, and she had the sense he wasn’t pleased with her fingers being outside her gloves.
Easton nodded his head toward the peak above them. “When we’re above the Veil, it’ll be better.”
When Easton unshouldered his gear, Ben followed suit, dropping his pack next to Easton’s. At a nod from their guide, Ben started to unpack a series of ropes and stakes.
“I haven’t been up here since May,” Easton informed them, arms crossed over his muscled chest. “I don’t know the condition of the line I set through the Veil, so Ben and I are going to go check it. You three are setting up camp, including our tents. We’ll be a while.”
“Does that mean you’re taking us through?” River perked up.
So far, he’d been unwilling to commit to that or to taking them all the way to the summit.
Easton nodded, smiling at her. “Jessie and Bree are getting better by the day. The skill set is there. As long as the conditions in the Veil are passable, I’ll take them through.”
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