“I regret all the dirt under my nails,” she admitted, and then added, “But nothing else.” And she kissed his hard mouth to prove it.
Her pulse fluttered at the sight of that dimple when he smiled.
They cleaned up the small campsite as best they could when the sun was high. Colt banked the fire while she straightened up the cabin and gathered trash. She hadn’t realized that they had any trash, but empty MRE bags and open condom wrappers qualified. So she’d stashed it all and tied the bag tight, tucking it into a corner of the shed. “Should we take it with us?”
“Nah. I’ll send Brenna out for it tomorrow, and she can resupply the cabin. Don’t worry about it.”
Beth Ann hefted the bottles of rum and stared at them thoughtfully. “Seems a shame not to at least taste our alcohol.”
Colt grimaced. “That’s a cheap brand of rum. You’re probably lucky you didn’t taste it.”
“Oh?” She studied the bottle.
“You’re probably used to drinking some fancy shit anyhow,” he said, using the side of his boot to rake mud and leaves over the remains of the fire pit.
“Actually I’ve never been drunk,” she admitted. “I kind of wanted to try it.”
“Never?” He looked down at her, incredulous, then picked up a bottle. “We’ll save one for you then. Maybe see what you’re like when you’re plastered. You’ve led a pretty sad life if you’ve never been drunk off of cheap alcohol, Miss Beth Ann.”
She grinned with wickedness. “I know.” It was like Allan’s wants and needs had ruled her life for the last nine years. Longer than that—they’d gotten together when she was in high school.
So much time wasted trying to please a man that couldn’t be pleased.
“Tired of being the good girl?”
“Not that,” she said, tugging one muddy, horrid shoe back on her foot. After this, she was going to wear sneakers for a week. “Tired of doing what everyone expects me to do. That’s all. I did it and it got me nowhere. I’m doing what I want to do, and if that means trying new, occasionally stupid things, I’m going to do it.”
“Atta girl,” he said, and then gestured at the woods. “Come on. Let’s see if we can make it back while the day is young enough.”
And to her surprise, he held out his hand. A warm feeling swept through her, and Beth Ann smiled. She took his hand and glanced around. “Where’s your slicker?” She was still wearing his shirt over her dress, and his chest was still bare. Streaks of mud dotted his skin, and she could have sworn that those were claw-marks from her nails on his back.
She could only imagine what she looked like.
“It’s pretty destroyed,” he admitted, and he glanced over at her, giving her a blade-sharp smile that made the dimple in his cheek appear. “Someone got carried away last night.”
She nudged him with her shoulder, blushing. “Two someones.”
“True enough,” he said with a chuckle.
He was cold, wet, tired, muddy, needed a shower and a shave…and he didn’t want the day to end. The woman at his side held his hand, and her tangle of hair brushed against his arm occasionally as they walked. She looked like a mess, too, but she seemed content. There was a sensual look in her eyes when she glanced over at him and it fired his blood all over again.
Last night had been incredibly hot. This morning had been incredibly hot, too. Here in the woods, she was all his. When they got back to civilization, she’d turn into pink and blond proper Beth Ann Williamson, queen bee of Bluebonnet, and he’d turn back into that white-trash Waggoner boy. She’d thank him for getting her out of the woods and the one-night stand would just be a dirty little secret between the two of them.
And for some reason, that didn’t sit right with him. Maybe it was because he needed another night of sex with her to get last night’s experience out of his mind. Maybe it wouldn’t be as good and she wouldn’t be as responsive, and he’d be done with her and could go back to work with an itch scratched. That’d be all right. But they didn’t have another night. After they got out of the woods, he was going to borrow Grant’s car (since his was supposed to be stranded along with hers), drive her home, and not think about her again.
But he kept thinking about last night, and her, as they walked.
He knew exactly where they were, of course. They were on Daughtry Ranch land, and he knew every acre by heart. He’d crawled over and under every shrub in the area in the past six months or so with their survival classes. And so he deliberately tracked back, circling over to one of the many creeks that cut through the area. The water was high, but not swollen and rushing. They crossed at a shallow point, and after they crossed, Beth Ann shivered with cold, and he pulled her in close to him for a minute.
“You going to be okay?” He could stand to hold her for a little while if she needed. When he pulled her close, he could smell the wood smoke in her hair, and her tight little n**ples brushed against his chest.
She nodded, biting her lip. “I’m glad we waited to cross,” she said with relief. “Just imagine how bad it would have been yesterday.”
Still crossable, he thought to himself, but only drawled a “Yup.” Then, he rubbed her back. “Let’s get going. Not too much farther now.”
The ground began to level out, the trees thinning, and he led her toward one of the trails. She promptly took off her shoes, smiling over at him and wiggling her toes in the still-damp earth. “Thank goodness. Those shoes are killing my feet.”
And here he felt all guilty again. “Almost there.”
It was another hour of walking until they reached the edge of the land, and the trail forked ahead of them. The trees were thick, but the branches overhead were clearing a bit more, and he knew this area by heart now. They were on the edge of the ranch proper, with the cozy group of cabins up ahead. Almost home. Almost back to reality.
“Which way?” she asked, turning to him. He noticed dark circles under her eyes. She was tired. Another thing he had to blame himself for. Damn. He hated feeling guilty, so he ignored it. “If we head left, we’ll run into Dane’s cabin. Mine is on the right fork of the trail.” Straight ahead would take them to the main house, and behind that was Grant’s cabin, and Brenna’s, and the spare that they’d had built.
Her eyes brightened at the mention of his cabin. “You mean we’re almost out of here?”
“Almost,” he said dryly, hating that enthusiasm in her voice.
“Could…could I borrow your shower? I hate to impose.”
Beth Ann wet, nak*d, and sudsy in his cabin? “Impose.”
She grinned. “Lead the way.”
Everyone that worked at the survival business had a small cabin built for themselves. It was one of the perks of being employees, and Grant had insisted. They were always nearby if needed, though the occasion hadn’t happened often. Dane’s cabin was the most remote, and he didn’t have electricity running to his cabin. If he wanted electricity, he’d explained to them, he’d have gotten a place in town. Dane was just intense about the survival stuff like that. His shower and water was hooked up to a well, too.
Neither Colt nor Grant was quite so fastidious about that sort of thing. Grant’s cabin was twice as big as anyone else’s, and full of luxuries. They’d even built a spare cabin for another instructor, should the need arise, and Brenna was currently staying there. Colt had the smallest cabin of the lot, but fully wired for electricity. His cabin was one large square room, but that was fine, because he didn’t need much.
The grass was slightly overgrown in the area—since it was a wilderness ranch, they didn’t bother with mowing except around the main cabin. Trees loomed overhead—he’d insisted on some shade. He knew it looked small from the outside, though, and wondered what Beth Ann was thinking.
He walked up the three short steps and opened the door, flicking on the light. Hard, bright lights shone and he moved to the side, gesturing for Beth Ann to enter. “Here we go.”
She stepped in, looking around. “Wow.” She blinked, then looked back at him with a smile. “You sure you live here?”
He looked around at his small cabin. The kitchenette was clean, all the dishes neatly put away in their places. He had a compact fridge off to one side, and across the room was his bed. A chair sat in one corner, and the TV perched atop his dresser, though he didn’t watch much here. If he wanted to watch TV or play video games, he’d go to the main lodge. They all hung out there. “There a problem?”
She laughed lightly and stepped farther in, her arms crossed over her chest. “Where’s all your stuff?”
He frowned at that little laugh. “Put away.”
She continued to pace inside, smiling as if amused. “This is how you live?”
He glanced around, then back at her. What was she getting at?
She gestured at his bed. “You made your bed?” She moved to the sink and peered in. “No dirty dishes. If I look in your sock drawer, are they all organized by color?”
He scowled. “I like things neat. Tidy. In their place.”
She chewed on her lip, studying the room. “I almost feel bad for trailing our dirt into here. We’re going to mess up the cabin.”
“It’ll clean,” he said gruffly.
Her gaze wandered to the fridge, where he had two pictures stuck there with magnets. She moved toward it and peered at them. “Who’s this?”
He knew what she was looking at, pushed down the ache in his throat. The only picture he’d kept of his time in the marines. Him and his buddies in his regiment, standing in front of a Humvee in Iraq. They’d all posed with their guns and helmets while in wife-beaters, just being a bunch of idiots, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. “Just a bunch of Devil Dogs.”
“Devil Dogs?” She turned to look at him and smiled. “Is that what you called each other?”
He nodded.
“Which one are you?”
“I’m the one in front. With the sunglasses.”
She smiled with delight, leaning in to squint at the picture. “You look so cute and young in this picture. Did you smoke back then?”
“Nah. Just for that picture.”
“You keep in contact with any of your friends?”
“Nah,” he said again.
Her face fell. “Are they…”
“Nah,” he said again. “They’re fine. Just scattered to the four winds. When I left I sorta fell off the radar. Spent some time in Alaska.”
Her face brightened and she turned back to the other picture. “Is this where you were?”
He moved to stand over her shoulder, staring down at the picture of the small log cabin with its plume of smoke rising from the chimney. It was a little blot of humanity tucked into the wild, nearly covered by the lush pine trees. In the distance, tall mountains rose. “Yup. I stayed there for over a year. Dane stayed with me for a while. That’s him in the picture.”