Chapter Three

 

“What the hell!” I exclaimed as the first drop of rain landed on my nose. Where the hell had that come from? Remembering mountain man’s words that it was going to rain, I paused uncertainly and stared up at the sky. I was astonished to see the dark clouds moving fast. I’d been walking some twenty minutes to half an hour, trying to get to the main road. Now I suspected I was in between and as the heavens opened and torrents poured, I wasn’t sure which direction to head anymore.

Seeing a copse of bushes that looked thick enough to shelter me from the rain pummeling my skin, I set off at a dead run.

“Argh!” I cried out in pain as I tripped over a vine camouflaged by the fallen leaves. I hit the ground hard, stunned between having the wind knocked out of me and the pain shooting up my ankle.

“Dammit!” I groaned as I tried to get up but couldn’t stand on my right foot. I was soaked through from the icy tentacles of the rain. I started crawling on my knees towards the clump of bushes at the same time, strong arms wrapped around me and lifted me, as though I weighed no more than a baby. Although I hadn’t checked in a while, I was sure I was a good hundred and fifty pounds at least.

The rain made it hard for me to see my savior but, I didn’t need to see him to know who he was. How had he found me and why was he here? He was a long way from his cabin.

He brought me towards the bushes that I had been heading for and dumped me on my ass in the thickets. He pressed himself into the tight confines of the bushes too and we were mostly sheltered from the brutal rainfall. The clump of bushes was tightly packed together to provide proper shelter from the harsh element but, I found myself too close to mountain man with no means to escape the effect he had on me. Sitting so close to him just made me realize how big he was. Instead of alarming me, it was a little comforting.

“How’d you find me?” I asked. I didn’t need to shout even though the rain was pounding around us because of how close we were sitting. Our arms and thighs brushed. His was thick and corded with muscles and my cock jerked. Shit, this sort of instant attraction rarely happened to me. I was usually turned on by a man’s intellect, talking to him and getting to know him, forming a bond. I didn’t think mountain man here was the type of guy anyone bonded with.

“You were never lost,” he barked at me. “I followed you.”

“You followed me?” I asked in surprise. “Why?”

“You were traveling down the mountain alone,” he remarked, “without anything for defense and I’d just shot a coyote. If you didn’t end up being lost again, you might have turned into bait for some animal.”

I shivered against him at the bluntness of his words. “I’m not your responsibility,” I said argumentatively because I didn’t like the way he made me sound so hopeless. Like I didn’t have a chance of making it off this mountain alone which was probably true, but he didn’t have to point it out.

“Well, you ought to be somebody’s,” he quipped, “because you’re damn sure trying to get yourself killed. But do it when you get back to the city, pretty boy. Not in my backyard to have the authorities crawling up my mountain.”

“Don’t call me that,” I hissed, anger boiling inside me.

“What?”

“Don’t call me, pretty boy,” I said through clenched teeth.

“It’s a compliment, isn’t it?”

I couldn’t decide if he was being sincere or goading me. If he was being sincere then it would fit in with the vibe I was getting from him, that he was definitely gay. If he wasn’t, then he was just like Keith’s friends.

“How old are you anyway?” he asked.

“Twenty-two,” I replied and peeked at him to find he was looking at me. “And you?”

“Thirty-two.”

“Oh.” I did the quick calculation in my head before I realized what I was doing and turned my face away from him so he didn’t see my flushed cheeks. Why was I calculating his age to find out how much apart we are in age? It wasn’t like anything was going to happen between us, but if it did, ten years wasn’t so bad.

“We’ll have to wait out the worst of this rain,” he stated. “Sometimes it lasts for hours and another time it can last just a few minutes.”

I shifted and gasped at the pain in my ankle. “I should have never come up here,” I grumbled. “This has got to be the worst experience of my life. And I’ve had to come out of the closet.” The latter wasn’t necessary which had me wondering why I was giving him that tidbit of information. Perhaps hoping he’d share the same with me?

“It’s obvious you’re not the hiking type,” he remarked, disappointing me by not commenting on my suspicion of his sexual preference.

“No, I’m not,” I agreed. “Someone asked me to go along. I thought I’d be safe with the group.”

“Hmm.” He grunted then, and we settled in silence, me being conscious of him and the raw masculine energy flowing from his very pores. I couldn’t wait for the rain to cease so we could get out of this confined space. Being so close to him, feeling the muscles in his body, was messing with my head. And the last thing I needed was a rebound with a man like him.

“I’m Bryan,” I told him, realizing we hadn’t exchanged names.

“Tate,” was all he said which told me all I needed to know. He didn’t want to talk. I wanted to stay away from him, but I was soaked and cold. His body heat drew me in more ways than one. With a mind of its own, my body leaned even closer towards him.