He’d said Jessie and Bree. River wasn’t sure if it was a given she was going too or a given she wasn’t. At this point, Easton should know better than to try to leave her behind. “What about me?”
The marmot chirped as it scuttled behind Easton’s feet.
“You and the fluffball have to go home. Feel free to fill out a comment card.” Easton’s teasing look turned more heated as his voice grew huskier. “You’ve always been ready, River.”
Well, if he wanted to put it that way…
“Are you filming this?” Bree muttered to Jessie.
“What do you think?”
The smugness in Jessie’s voice made River suddenly realize how close she and Easton were standing. Like there were only two people on this mountain instead of five. At least it was freezing cold so no one would see the flush of heat on her neck and cheeks. Easton didn’t seem bothered at all. Instead, he looped an arm around her waist as if it was completely normal to stand with her like that.
“Stay hydrated and stay in camp,” he rumbled before glancing at her crew. “No adventures without me, people. This isn’t the right site for it.”
“I’m not getting a cheerful, ‘everything’s super safe here, guys’ vibe,” Jessie drawled.
“It isn’t.” Easton added, “If we don’t radio or return by morning, call for help. Absolutely no rescue attempts in the Veil. River’s in charge. She’s the only one who can get you two back down the icefalls if something happens to us.”
“What’s the likelihood of that?”
“The Veil is a cauldron of pure evil,” Ben told them cheerfully. “It’s more likely than you think.”
Collectively, they cringed. Easton aimed an exasperated look at Ben. “Don’t tell them that.”
“You told me that.”
Easton gave River’s waist a gentle squeeze before dropping his arm and shouldering his pack. He started to hand her a radio, but before she could take it, Easton tilted it back.
“Under no circumstances, no matter what, are you to go into the Veil after us. I mean it, River. The ground is swiss cheese with crevasses, and visibility is next to zero. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll never come back out again. Promise me.”
She didn’t promise. Instead, River pushed up her goggles, holding his eyes. “I’m going to be pissed if you get hurt.”
The look he gave her didn’t make her knees weak…it set her on fire. “The feeling is mutual. I’m on channel four, same as last time. Try not to cause too much trouble while I’m gone.”
“Does that sound like me?”
“That sounds exactly like you.” Easton dropped a quick kiss to her forehead, in front of everyone. Bree was smirking at her as the pair headed out of the camp. River watched as they picked a trail, hiking steadily up the ridge until they disappeared out of sight.
River turned to her crew. “Does it bother anyone else that they left us here, possibly never to be seen again?”
“On a mountainside somewhere below a shrieking banshee of epic proportions? Nah, I’m good.” Jessie shrugged. “So, what are we doing first? Filming or setting camp?”
“Setting camp,” River replied immediately. “You never know when the weather’s going to turn. We need to have shelter.”
At this point, they could have set up camp with their eyes closed. Bree stuck close to her side, sharing in the tasks that one of them could have handled alone. Even though they had all been on top of one another since they’d stepped into Alaska, River appreciated her friend’s company.
Finally indulging the part of her unable to stop worrying, River turned to Bree. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”
“In the cauldron of pure evil?” Bree grinned. “Have you considered they could be headed down the mountain right now just to get rid of us?”
River had to laugh at the mental image. “Watch the whole Veil thing be an elaborate ruse to get a running head start.”
They finished setting camp, then went about heating up food at the edge of the dining tent. The marmot must have tried to follow the two guides, but whatever the Veil was had forced it to turn back. Returning to camp, it sat next to Easton’s tent, making high-pitched barking noises as it scolded them. Even though Easton had said not to, Bree snuck it a couple of bites of a granola bar.
“If it chokes on a peanut, you’re the one giving mouth-to-mouth,” River warned her. “It doesn’t like me.”
“You’re direct competition.” Tossing another chunk of granola between them, Bree added, “All’s fair in love and marmot war.”
“Well, we might as well film something,” River decided. “Unless you want to rest, Jessie.”
“I can’t sleep with them out there.” Covering his face with an arm, he yawned. “Yeah, let’s get this going.”
“Do you want a mirror?” Bree asked her.
“Is that a nice way of saying I need a mirror?” River joked.
“You said it, not me. And yes. You really do.”
The glass on the miniature compact kept fogging over every time she wiped it clear, so River settled on letting Bree and Jessie poke and prod her into respectability.
“No one expects me to be at my best, right?” Turning to the cameras as they started filming, River put her actress face in place.
“Speak for yourself,” Jessie said. “I look great for not being able to feel my feet.”
“You can’t feel your feet?” Bree’s head snapped up, filming forgotten. “Take your boots off. We need to check you for frostbite.”
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t have frostbite.”
“Jessie, we’re not kidding around.” River aimed her best in-charge look. “Take off your boots.”
“No way.”
What resulted afterward wasn’t River’s finest hour, but between her and Bree, they managed to convince Jessie that taking off his boots was more important to his health and happiness than continuing filming. Some tackling and threatening might have been involved.
“See?” he grumped as he pulled his socks back on. “I’m fine.”
“I’m worried about how cold your skin felt. I’ll ask Easton to check you when he comes back.”
Jessie grumbled about that, but when River settled herself back in front of the camera, she grinned at him. “We never turned off the camera. Do you think all the future viewers could hear your squeaks of resistance?”
“I didn’t squeak. And I didn’t want to shove over a week’s worth of stinky feet in your faces.”
“It was rancid,” Bree agreed. “We still love you, but we’ll never look at you the same.”
Nodding emphatically, River added, “I’ve got to go with Bree on this one.”
“Enough about me. Focus, ladies. River. You’re not a professional climber, but you do have climbing experience. If you were talking to an amateur who wanted to come up here solo, what would you say?”
“I would say they’re crazy,” River joked. Then she sighed with contentment. “I’d say, I get it. The longer I’m up here, the more I understand. It’s like…” Hesitating, River closed her eyes. “At first, you want to see if you can. But the longer you’re up here, it’s not about if you can. It becomes this primal need to reach the top. I’m supposed to be focusing on the documentary. But when I close my eyes, all I see is the summit.”
Turning back to the camera, she exhaled softly. “To be honest, I’ve never wanted anything this much in my entire life.”
“Even Easton?” Bree teased.
Feeling a flush of heat in her cheeks, River still grinned. “Okay, that’s getting cut. What about the rest of it? How did I do? We can start over if you want.”
“We’re good. I’ve got what I need.” Jessie shared a look with Bree, who failed to hide the triumph on her face.
“What?” River didn’t understand whatever pass
ed between them, but neither answered.
As they took down the cameras and settled into a game of UniMagP, River tried to pretend that she wasn’t keeping the radio glued to her hand. She tried to read when the game was over, but eventually, she gave up and picked up the radio.
“Easton? How about giving a girl a check-in?”
Silence.
“Easton, Ben, if I’m in charge, that makes me in charge of everyone. Give me a progress update. Over.”
A crackling static noise made her fingers reflexively tighten on the radio. “Someone’s pushy,” Ben joked through the radio, his voice nearly lost beneath the roaring of the wind. “We’re taking a break right now. Boss man says to tell you someone else came through here and made a mess of his lines. He’s been swearing up and down this mountain, but we’re almost done fixing the new ones.”
Nodding, River said, “Tell boss man he’d better get back down here soon.”
“Ten-four.”
That low chuckle was undoubtedly Easton. He must have been standing right next to Ben. For some reason, hearing his voice helped calm the nerves that had been spiked from knowing they were up there, doing something dangerous without River to keep a watchful eye on him.
Them. Watchful eye on them.
When she set the radio down, she saw her coproducer watching her knowingly. “You really do like him, don’t you?”
River didn’t need to answer Jessie. They both knew she did.
• • •
They’d been gone a total of four hours before they got the second call.
Frankly, Easton was surprised she’d lasted so long. River wasn’t the type to sit around wondering what was happening. If he hadn’t been so close to camp, Easton would have radioed her in a few minutes anyway. His respect for her as a mountaineer and as a woman far outweighed his respect for her patience.
“Easton, Ben, it’s River. Over.”
“Riverover? Not sure what that means,” Easton teased her.
There was a pause, followed by an audible sigh of relief. “You may be the most annoying human being alive. You know that, right?”
“Have you met my best friend?”
“Yes, and I’m increasingly aware of how you and Graham are made for each other. How soon will you be back?”
Easton answered, taking his long, sweet time to do so. “We’re coming around the outcrop now. Don’t be worried about the blood.”
“The blood?”
Ben shot him a wolfish grin when Easton didn’t answer her. “That was mean.”
“She’s earned a little teasing. You should hear the crap she’s been giving me since we met.”
“True,” Ben agreed. “But she watches out for you almost as much as you watch out for her. Don’t be surprised if she’s ready to skin you alive when we get there.”
Sure enough, River was waiting for him outside camp, radio in hand and first aid kit tucked under her arm. Her concern was cute, but the expression on her face was far less cute when she realized he’d been messing with her. Smart man that he was, Ben kept walking, leaving Easton in relative privacy with River.
“Blood? Really?” Hmm. It had been a long time since a woman had looked so ticked at him, like she had every right to put him in his place. To be honest, he rather liked it.
Chuckling, Easton wrapped his arm around River’s shoulders, hauling her into a big hug. At first, she resisted the hug, a wolverine ready to chew his face off, but Easton had it on good authority that he gave especially good hug.
Even River could only last for so long.
“Uhhh. You’re so warm. It’s so good, but it’s so bad.”
“You were worried about me,” he teased her.
“Shut up. I wasn’t.”
“Were too.”
She snuck a peek up at him. “Are you sure you’re okay? The blood was a joke, right?”
He was absolutely fine. The fact that it mattered to her though…
“I’m perfect.” He couldn’t feel her cheek through the thick glove he wore, but he liked the pressure of her leaning into his palm.
“Can I kiss you?” River asked softly.
A woman had never asked him that before. Blinking somewhat stupidly, he said nothing.
“Okay, well that answers that.”
With the wind biting into their skin, flushing their cheeks rosy, there was no way to tell if he’d embarrassed her or not. But when she took a step backward, her rueful smile said it all.
“You could’ve kissed me. I wouldn’t have minded.”
“Nope, you can’t grab someone and kiss the crap out of them.” With a small huff, River added, “Even if you would look cute dipped in a dramatic embrace, consent is sexy, Easton. Try to keep up with the times.”
She wasn’t wrong. Knowing she wanted to kiss him only made him want to even more. Easton didn’t chase women. He was too large, his presence too overwhelming to too many people. He never wanted anyone to feel uncomfortable around him, especially not a woman half his weight and a foot shorter than him. But if she wanted him, Easton was more than willing to oblige her.
“River, you don’t ever have to ask me if you can kiss me,” he told her, voice lowered and husky with desire. Reaching for her hand, Easton gave her gloved fingers a gentle tug, an open invitation. “Consider this a yes for whatever.”
“Hold on there, buddy.” Her bright, pretty smile stole his breath away, the way a hard day’s climb couldn’t. “I’m not offering whatever. Just a kiss.”
Leaning down to make his face more accessible, Easton waited. And waited.
“Well, we’ve overtalked it now. You’ll have to wait for the moment again.”
With a playful growl, Easton snagged her around the waist. River burst out laughing as he spun her in a circle. Her booted foot hooked behind his knee for balance, her arms grasping his neck. Face-to-face, Easton stopped, holding her up with one arm, his free hand carefully threading into her hair.
“I think we’re back in the moment,” River whispered, her cold nose brushing his.
“Are you sure?” he rumbled, because her breath was warm on his skin, and he was ready to know if her lips were as soft as they looked.
“So sure. Super-duper sure.”
“Extra sure?” Easton started to tease her, but River had already pressed her mouth to his.
It should have started soft, sweet. A first kiss, to see what this was between them. But the moment their lips met, it was like fire and cinnamon, sweet and hot and burning him up from the inside out. Just like she was…perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
Chapter 12
Naps were almost as good as kisses above twelve thousand feet.
Both Easton and Ben were tired from their much longer day. Being used to the altitude didn’t mean exertion in lower oxygen didn’t get to them. After a quick hot meal, both crashed out in their tents. And if River ended up snuggled next to Easton’s side, sleeping beneath the heavy, reassuring weight of his muscled arm, that was purely for logistical reasons. He was warm. She was cold. See? It made total sense.
The marmot threw an absolute fit at being left out in the cold, but River knew there was a perfectly warm dining tent where the marmot was more than welcome. She felt bad about the ousting, but the marmot was getting aggressive in its determination to win Easton as its mate. River refused to get bitten out of jealousy, especially when the fluffy adorable thing had started getting a murderous look in its eyes every time Easton stepped anywhere close to River.
“This is the first time I’ve woken up in days without a marmot butt in my face,” Easton told her when he woke up a few hours later. It was early morning, and River could have stayed asleep a few more hours easily. Well, if the marmot wasn’t still crying its heart out at being ousted from the tent.
She yawned. “By the looks I was
getting when I zipped up the tent, I may have started a war.”
His low rumble was even better with his arms around her. Easton could have started the whole kissing thing again. River was totally on board for that. Instead, he wanted to look at her feet.
It was River’s fault, really. Mentioning to Easton about Jessie’s feet had triggered a desire in him to poke and prod at all her extremities, which was far less sexy than it could have been, given different circumstances. It was hard to flirt, so they talked instead. Easton was much better at kissing than small talk, but River appreciated his strong hands massaging her feet so pleasantly.
“So you’ve never seen one of my movies.”
Easton pulled River’s foot into his lap. “You sound relieved.”
“Well, let’s say it’s nice meeting someone who doesn’t connect me to my roles.”
“I’m not a big movie guy,” Easton admitted, rolling down her sock. “All your toes look good. Can you feel my fingers?”
He squeezed each of her toes one by one. Nodding, River yelped when he ran a fingernail playfully along the underside of her arch, tickling her. “Hey.”
“You’re ticklish.”
“I’m too ticklish. As in don’t do it, or risk the consequences. I’m not responsible for any flailing that may or may not occur. I once accidentally tossed a boyfriend who thought it was funny to tickle me headfirst through a desk drawer.”
“Ouch.”
“I flail,” River reminded him because she could see his thumb twitch. “Don’t do it.”
“You realize it only makes it more tempting, right?”
“You’re kind of an adrenaline junkie, aren’t you?”
As he turned his attention to her other foot, Easton pulled her other sock off. “I like to think of it as taking well-considered and appropriate risks. If I ever end up going to climb Everest, I’m not going barefoot with my crampons between my teeth.”
“Are you actually going to go to Nepal?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I want to. But I’m not sure if it’s fair.”
“How so?”
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