“I agree.”
She exhales in relief. “Really?!”
I smile as I watch her. “I’m not a murderer.”
“Then what are you doing out here?”
“I like the tranquility of the mountains.”
She’s staring at me with a scrunched-up face like she doesn’t understand at all.
“It’s quiet,” I say. “It’s beautiful. Mountains, trees, lakes, animals. I can catch my own food and cook it.”
She swallows hard as she watches me with that skeptical confused look still on her face. “You do know about restaurants, don’t you? You can just pick something off the menu and they bring it to you cooked! No need to hunt, skin, and cook it yourself.”
I laugh. “I like doing that stuff.”
“Why?”
The more I talk to this girl, the more I like her. I must be so intimidating to her out here in the woods. I’m a strange man who can do anything he wants to her, but she’s still questioning me, still pushing back. She doesn’t seem intimidated at all.
“Do you want to get warm and dry, or what?”
She nods with a shiver. “Yes, please!”
“My cabin is about a ten-minute walk this way.”
“But I have to go that way!” She points in the opposite direction.
I shrug my big shoulders. “Well, I only have one cabin and it’s this way.”
She’s nibbling on her bottom lip, contemplating it.
“You’re going to freeze to death if you go wandering through the forest alone,” I tell her, exaggerating just a bit. It’s not that cold out. “Unless the bears get you first.”
“Bears?” Her beautiful green eyes dart to mine.
“Yeah,” I say nonchalantly. “The grizzly bears around here are enormous. And they’re always hungry.”
She looks at the way she wanted to go for a moment and then turns back to me. “So, your cabin is this way?”
I fight back my chuckle as I start walking with her.
It’s hard to keep my eyes off her. I just want to stare at her and admire every inch of this beauty, but that would freak her out, so I have to settle for stealing quick glances whenever she looks around, probably looking for bears.
Her brown hair is starting to dry and it’s getting bigger and fluffier. There’s so much to discover about her. So much to know. I want to know her intimately.
I want to discover every inch of her body. I want to know how that lovely brain of hers works. I want to know her interests and loves and fears and desires, and then fulfill every single one of them.
“So, if you’re not with a gun-totting husband, what are you doing out here?” I ask.
I’ve been coming out here for weeks at a time for years and I’ve never run into anyone before. Not this far into the mountains. There are no campsites or hiking trails anywhere around here. I don’t even see hunters this deep into the forest. That’s why I like it.
“I was with my nine-year-old niece.”
My heart stops. I stop and whip my head around. “Was she in the canoe? Is she okay?!”
“She’s fine!” she says when she sees me starting to get worked up. “She got off with the group before I… didn’t.”
I look down and see her hand on my forearm.
She’s touching me. Skin on skin. My arm becomes hypersensitive and it feels like there are little jolts of energy darting between us.
She yanks her hand back when she sees me looking at it. Her cheeks blush into an adorable shade of pink as our eyes meet.
“Sorry,” she whispers as her eyes drop to the ground.
“Don’t be sorry,” I tell her. “You can touch me all you want.”
The air crackles with something hot as her eyes make their way up my body and they connect with mine once again. After a long moment of eye contact, we start walking.
“You were with a group?” I ask, wanting to hear her talk some more.
I hope it wasn’t a group of friends and she’s going to tell me there’s a boyfriend waiting for her. If that’s the case, I might just have to steal her away and trap her in my cabin until she realizes that I’m the man for her.
“The Young Adventurers Club,” she says in her sweet lyrical voice. “Ever heard of it?”
“Are those the kids who are always hawking vanilla cookies outside of grocery stores?”
“That’s them,” she says. “My niece Violet is one of them and I was accompanying her on the trip.”
“So, you weren’t with a boyfriend?” It just slips out. It’s been at the forefront of my mind and I have to know.
“What?” she asks, looking shocked. “Nope. Just me, a few kids, and a weirdo forest cop who is convinced I’m an alcoholic.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” she mutters with a shake of her head. “But I really should try and get back to the group. Violet must be worried sick.”
“You’re not getting back tonight.”