I smirk and glance briefly at the pile of clothes she’d abandoned for the springs. “Yeah? Do you have a flashlight to read the map?”
Grooves mark the space between her dark winged brows. Her eyes are stunning in their shape and intensity, even if I can’t place the precise color in the fading light.
“I can take you back. Someone like you shouldn’t be out here alone.”
Her frown deepens. “Someone like me?”
“You’re at least a mile from the retreat. You have no supplies and no provisions. Someone without a healthy fear of the wild outdoors, at this hour or any other, shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“I don’t need rescuing, okay?”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Another asshole from the city with too much ego and not enough sense. “Let’s go. I’ll take you back.”
Slowly she moves to the edge toward her clothes, never taking her eyes off me. “Look away, please.”
I laugh. “I’ve seen a lot more than you’re about to show me.”
Her eyes widened and her nostrils flare. Without another word, I turn casually to give her privacy that seems pointless after what I just witnessed. A minute later, the sound of her sneakers scraping against the rock prompts me to turn. She is fully dressed, and I allow myself a moment to appreciate her body with clothes on. Her jeans hug her thighs nicely, and her breasts look fuller in the tight shirt.
I dislodge the thoughts around that assessment before my cock starts misbehaving again. I haven’t been with a woman in a long time, and even though I despise everything this one probably stands for, I can’t help that the beast in me wants to tear her clothes off and bury myself inside her until we both come. Repeatedly.
I mutter a curse under my breath before turning and heading swiftly down the path.
A few minutes pass and I don’t need to look back. I hear ragged breathing and branches cracking under her careful footing—signs she is struggling to keep up. She has no business in the woods. Why Lou and Vi keep luring these idiots to this beautiful place is beyond me. People like her will never belong here. They’ll never appreciate this place the way they should. A week in the mountains is a fashion statement for most of these people, and I just want them out of my woods and off my mountain so I can enjoy what I came here for. Solitude. Peace. A simple life. A quiet dip in the springs without some sexy little city girl cluttering up my thoughts with her sweet pussy…because I’m pretty sure it’s sweet, and oh so tight.
I halt in my tracks and spin. The brunette nearly barrels into me. I catch her by the shoulders when she tips off balance. Somehow she feels smaller in my arms, just a little bit of flesh covering the delicate structure of her frame. Her wet hair dampens her shirt, drawing my attention to that lovely rack again. Goddamn, this woman is a distraction I didn’t ask for.
“You can get there from here,” I say gruffly.
Her eyes go wide again. “I can?”
The moonlight glints on her skin. If she’d worn makeup, the springs had washed it away, leaving her natural and bare. She’s definitely pretty. A pert nose and a little bow of a mouth. There’s nothing exotic or stark about her features, but she’s someone who looks perfectly gorgeous with no effort.
I release my hold on her and jab my thumb in the direction behind me. “It’s just a few yards down the path. You’ll see the lights, and they will lead you the rest of the way.”
“Thank you,” she says softly, almost too softly to hear if not for the near silence of the woods at night. Gone is the tone she’d given me earlier. How she’d gone from rapture to claiming that she didn’t need rescuing, I didn’t know. But maybe that had been fear talking.
I wince, because I don’t like the idea of being feared. I’d never hurt her, or anyone. Even if I didn’t want them in my woods. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do. You could have left me there, or…”
“Or?” I lift an eyebrow, challenging her to say it out loud.
True enough, I could have done all the things I couldn’t stop thinking about right now. I could have gotten myself between her silky thighs, plunged into her, stretched her pussy around me, and satisfied her in ways those pretty little fingers never would.
But she doesn’t say any of that. She doesn’t say a word. She only gazes up at me, and for a second I wonder if she can read my thoughts, if somehow this unexpected depravity radiates off me. Then her hands slide up the front of my chest, and I almost forget how to breathe.
“What’s your name?” Her voice is a whisper now, like she’s hiding from her own words.
When had a woman touched me last? I can’t fucking breathe.
“Good night.”
I push past her, forcing my legs to move me back up the trail. I have to get the hell away from her.
* * *