Taking the Heat (Jackson: Girls' Night Out 3)

“What?” Gabe snapped.

Veronica laughed. “That’s really all I can say. You’ll have to catch us out for girls’ night sometime. Buy her a drink and see if she’ll tell you the story.”

“Are you serious?”

She shrugged. “What, you don’t have any wanted fugitives as friends?”

“I probably do—I just don’t know it. But now I know you’re kick-ass enough to handle climbing.”

If her friends made her seem more interesting than she actually was, she didn’t mind, but no way could she imagine herself climbing any higher than a ladder. She wasn’t one of those girls. She’d known a lot of them. In high school and college, they’d been the amazing winter athletes, some of whom had moved here just to hone their skills for world championships. In New York, they’d been the girls unafraid to take on every challenge that the city offered. They’d been glamorous and magnetic and brave.

Veronica had felt as though she’d used up all her braveness just getting to the city. And she wasn’t even sure it could be called bravery, when she’d had no idea how difficult it all would be.

The trail took one last turn and they had to climb up two big rock steps, but they finally made it to the clearing she’d been aiming for. The trail cut between two huge boulders, then edged around a little ravine. Right at the top of the ravine, she stopped and faced the town.

“Here we are.”

“Wow,” he answered.

The setting sun turned the sky pink and gold in the west, and the highest peaks of the Tetons clawed at the colors like dark gray talons. The lower hills that marked the natural boundary of the town were already black with shadow, but beyond the grid of city blocks, the Elk Refuge stretched out for green miles. The river cut through the refuge, a winding line of deep blue that looked like a silk ribbon dropped into the middle of the grass.

Veronica sat down on a flat rock and Gabe joined her, but they didn’t speak for a long time. They just looked at the scenery.

The breeze picked up, shaking the trees around them. For the first time in a while, Veronica felt totally at peace.

“You take it for granted a little when you grow up here,” she said. “It’s not like there are parts of the valley that are ugly. It’s all beautiful. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss it when I went to the city.”

“Why did you move?” he asked, sounding totally dumbfounded.

She shrugged. She wasn’t sure why she’d done it, why it had been so important to her for so long. Maybe that was one of the things she needed to unpack in her life. Why going far away had seemed like the solution to everything. “It’s complicated. And it was a mistake. I can’t imagine ever going back.”

He was quiet and she looked up to find him watching her. He looked more serious than he ever had.

She shrugged again. “Maybe I just spent too many years living in paradise.” She lifted her chin toward the view. As a teenager, she’d spent a lot of time outdoors, but she’d always thought of it as her only option for escape. She hadn’t realized how much she’d loved it until she didn’t have it anymore.

He still watched her, as if he was trying to puzzle something out, but she didn’t want to reveal more. In the end he only nodded and bumped his shoulder gently against hers. “So...tell me what it means to be ‘pretty much’ a virgin.”

Veronica gasped in horror. “I’m not telling you that!”

“Come on. I’ve been wondering about it. The things you told me that first night.”

“When I was drunk!” she yelped.

“Yes, when you were drunk. And being honest. I mean, I was obviously intrigued, but after that kiss... I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered, her face going as hot as fire as she let her head drop. But her face wasn’t the only part of her heating up. That kiss had been so, so good. And if he was interested in what she’d said, then he was...interested. Hadn’t she just been thinking that she’d do almost anything to get her hands on him?

She felt him lean closer. “I only want to know what you want,” he whispered, his voice so close to her ear it made her shiver. “What you’re looking for.”

Just his voice was enough to make her warm, but then...then his lips touched the side of her neck. She inhaled so sharply that it sounded like a gasp. His warm mouth touched her again, and the brush of his beard sent goose bumps scattering along her skin and down to her hardening nipples.

“I don’t want to tell you about that,” she whispered, but she was arching her head away from him now, giving him more room to work. No one had ever kissed her this way. Softly. Slowly. As if he was exploring instead of persuading.

“Okay.” The word whispered over the skin behind her ear. She felt his fingers slide along the base of her skull, then trail down the nape of her neck. “Just tell me one thing, then. Anything.”

His tongue was shockingly hot when it touched her neck. Just a little flick that made her gasp again.

“I...” she tried, then groaned when his mouth opened against her and sucked gently. “I...I know a lot of things,” she managed to say. “All of it, really.”