“What?” I say, feeling self-conscious. “Is there a black fly on my forehead or something?”
I slap my forehead just in case.
His eyes never leave me as he finally waves me to the shore.
“Come,” he says and my body listens. My feet start moving on their own, going to him. “I’ll get you warm. I’ll give you everything you need.”
Everything? What I really need is a helicopter and a weekend booked at my favorite spa…
Water pours off my body as I walk out to my ankles. He’s staring at me as I step onto the shore.
The heated look in his eyes as I approach him tells me the needs he’s offering to provide are not the ones I’m thinking of.
And the heat beginning to billow up inside me is making me wonder what those needs are…
Chapter Three
Cyrus
* * *
Wow.
That’s the word going through my head on repeat as this gorgeous woman steps out of my lake. I can’t stop looking at her. My eyes are glued to her body. How am I ever going to look away?
She’s watching me skeptically as she unbuckles her life jacket and slips it off her shoulders. I swallow a moan.
Her wet clothes are sticking to her skin, giving me a show of her curvy hips and round breasts. She’s wearing those weird jeans that stop halfway down her calves, a blue shirt with a few buttons on top, and stylish shoes that don’t belong anywhere near the forest.
She’s not from around here. That much is clear. This girl has got city slicker written all over her.
If her complete lack of survival skills (I.e. the broken canoe) didn’t give it away, the broken laptop floating in the water would have. There’s no internet for miles around here. No cell reception either. It’s pure wilderness and that’s why I love it.
I’ve always come to these mountains to get away from people, but I ended up finding the one person I want to be with.
It’s crazy to think that after only a few minutes, but that’s where we are.
I’m standing here in stunned silence, watching her as my obsession takes root.
I want her.
Badly.
This is a foreign feeling for me. It’s shocked me to my core. I’ve always been the guy turning women down, never interested, never drawn to any of them no matter how pretty they were. But with her… fuck… this is different. She is different.
My heart feels like it’s pummelling the inside of my ribcage as I watch her fish her bag out of the water. She bends over to grab it and my eyes lock onto her gorgeous ass.
I can feel my skin tightening as I imagine what it would be like to slide those jeans down her thick legs. The sight of her ass in her panties, the smell of her pussy all wet with arousal. Oh shit…
I’m getting so hard. My cock lengthens and hardens like oak. I’ve got a fucking tree trunk in my pants.
“Oh, this is great,” she says as she lifts up her bag and water streams out. “Really happy I brought my nice camera and cell phone.”
I want to tell her that I’ll take care of her from now on. That I’ll buy her whatever she wants. But it’s so hard to talk when your whole body feels like it’s on fire. All I can do is stare in awe at her every movement.
She told me her husband is on the way. That’s a lie. If it were true, I’d drown him in the lake for letting her be in such a dangerous situation. No woman of mine would ever have gone over that waterfall. I would have died before I let that happen.
There’s no ring on her finger, so I’m pretty sure she made that up because she was nervous. I know I can be intimidating. I’m big and muscular and these dead rabbits aren’t helping me look any more approachable.
I put them down as she checks her camera. It’s ruined.
If it wasn’t, I’d take a picture of her so I could remember this moment forever. It’s the moment I fell in love. It’s the moment I met the angel meant for me.
“I don’t see your husband around,” I say when I finally find my voice.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah!” She starts looking around with her eyebrows up. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere! Probably cleaning his gun.”
I chuckle.
She frowns when she sees me chuckling. “It’s true!” she says defensively. “Matthew! I’m over here, Matthew!”
“I thought you said his name was Andrew.”
Her face drops as she stares at me in horror. “Shit.”
I can already tell this girl is going to keep things interesting for me. There will never be a dull moment again.
“Please don’t murder me,” she says with her hands clasped together. “I mean, it would be a total shame to survive the fall off that waterfall only to be killed a few minutes later.”