* * *
The endless rain was putting a damper on Dani's spirits. She'd holed up in camp all day, ostensibly to work on her data, but in actuality didn't want to face another gloomy, wet day in the field. Her tent was as cozy as things got out here in the woods, and she was happy to bury herself in her sleeping bag and watch the playback from her cameras.
Her phone rang, and she checked the number then groaned. Yet another call from Ranger Rick.
Or should I call him Ranger Dick? He certainly enjoys acting like one.
Despite her pessimistic emotions, she couldn't dispel the thrill that ran through her body when she thought of him. She struggled with that feeling of desire, ordering herself to continue to ignore Caleb, and the reactions he provoked.
She accepted the call, mumbled "I'm fine" into the phone, and ended the call with the push of another button. Almost immediately her phone rang again. It was the ranger again. Dani sighed. It was her day of leisure, or "working on data," and he couldn't even respect that! Why couldn't he just leave her alone?
She shouted, "I said I'm fine!" into the phone this time and thought she heard him try to reply but she ended the call before she could be sure. If she heard his voice, it would rub salt into her too-raw wounds. He didn't feel like making conversation with her, fine, the feeling was mutual. He could rot before she'd say more than two words to him.
The phone rang again, and Dani groaned, turning her cell off and throwing it across her tent. She then covered her head with her pillow and breathed deeply.
What was it about this guy that set her off so? She'd known plenty of assholes, but none had ever gotten to her this quickly.
Maybe because you thought he wasn't an asshole, at least not while he was inside you.
Yes, that was true, he hadn't seemed so bad, especially when he'd been making her feel so good.
Desire, that's the problem. You want him. Bad.
Dani pursed her lips and blew a raspberry at her inner voice. So what? She'd wanted James Franco after she'd seen the Spiderman movie, but that didn't mean she would ever date a super villain. She liked nice men.
Like the dean?
It seemed like her inner voice was really being a bitch today. Dean Fischer wasn't a nice man. He was a narcissistic, sexist egotist who wasn't above trapping a woman into spending the night with him. If only Caleb knew it had been a trap. But the arrogant prick wouldn't even give her a chance to explain.
The rain hit the roof of the tent with a muffled patter that relaxed her. As Dani laid in the dim gloom of the tent, listening to the soft drum of the raindrops and remembering a certain ranger chopping firewood, she felt some of the tension leave her body. Before long she drifted into sleep, lulled by the rhythmic beat of the rain and the memory of the warmth of strong arms.
"Wake up," a rough voice said. She thought she was still in her dream. A dream in which she and the ranger had been making love in the rain. His big hands had framed her face, his soft lips pressing into hers, his tongue stroking hers in a way that made her shiver clear down to her toes.
The warm rain had been sliding down their naked bodies, his skin like a furnace where it touched hers. She'd run her hands up his muscled chest and locked her fingers together behind his neck. As he'd pressed into her, she could feel him rigid against her, ready to take them both on a journey that led to the ultimate in pleasure.
She'd licked the raindrops off his jaw and then his neck, and he'd moaned and proceeded to the do the same thing to her, sucking the raindrops off her aching breasts. The sensation sent hot tingles to her nether regions, and she clenched her legs in desire, hoping to relieve the pressure.
"Danielle, you've got to wake up." This time the voice was accompanied by a couple of hard shakes. She frowned and whimpered, her forehead scrunching up and her eyes sealed shut as she concentrated on her unraveling dream.
He'd just moved his hands around to grasp her ass and lift her. She slid her shapely legs around his waist and waited anxiously for that sweet sensation of penetration. But the voice would not rest, and neither would the shaking, and finally the dream burst like a pricked bubble and her eyes flew open.
Or maybe she was still dreaming. Caleb stood looking down at her, his warm hand grasping her shoulder. She looked down at that hand, its fingernails short and clean. She wondered briefly how he kept them so clean out here in the woods. Her own nails were a mess.
When he noticed her gaze he pulled away, and she fell back against the air mattress and into reality, realizing that her arms and legs were wrapped firmly around her body pillow. She blushed and frantically rearranged herself. "What are you doing here?" she asked, pulling her sleeping bag up over her shoulders.
"You've got to get up. We need to move. Grab your things."
"What are you talking about?" She burrowed deeper into her bag. Here he was, spouting orders again. Well, General Caleb could just blow his revelry somewhere else. She rolled over, ignoring him.
"There's no time to mess around. Get up. The Alsea has jumped its bank not far from here, and you're below the water level. The likelihood of a mudslide is pretty high. Grab your things so we can move you to somewhere safer.
"A mudslide? Sure, order me two." Her sleepy brain thought the joke was quite clever.
Apparently, the ranger didn't agree. He grabbed her legs through the sleeping bag and flipped her over, then yanked the bag off her entirely.
"Hey! I was using that!" she said, the cold helping to finally awaken her anger. "Now get out and leave me alone!"
"This isn't a game, Professor. Get up. Grab your gear. We need to get moving."
"All right, hold on," she grumbled, standing up and moving over to the door, slipping on her shoes and then grabbing her raincoat.
While he yanked her sleeping bag off her bed and began rolling it up, she trudged outside. The cold rain hit her face, completing her wake-up call. She could barely see through the trees because of the gray downpour. Suddenly her legs were wet. She looked down and realized she had been splashed by the fast-moving water flowing between her legs. Her campsite was flooding.
She felt him behind her before he spoke. "Even if there isn't a slide, this area could still flood out. We need to move to higher ground immediately. Grab your essentials and let's go."
"Okay." She wasn't one to fight when confronted with overwhelming evidence. Dani rushed back inside her tent and began gathering her research as quickly as possible. She slid her most important papers into her backpack, as well as her laptop, cell phone, and the remaining video equipment. "What about the generator?" she asked, and he shook his head.
"Too heavy. It will weigh us down, and we might need all the speed we can get."
"Do I have time to pack clothing?" Most of her clothes were in a pile next to her bed, waiting for the rain to end so they could be washed and hung out to dry.
In the woods, an ominous groan sounded. Dani thought it might have been a tree falling.
"No time," Caleb barked and grabbed her backpack from her. "Get whatever else you need right now and let's get to the ATV." Dani grabbed her toiletry bag and threw it into a duffel, along with a pile of books, her remaining folders of notes, and three specimen containers, each housing a noisy frog nestled within some twigs and leaves. She zipped it up, slung it over her shoulder, and followed the ranger out of the tent.
The pair jogged toward the ATV, the rushing water around their legs impeding their progress. Suddenly Dani was unable to move, her boot lodged in a thick patch of mud. She couldn't get her boot out, despite tugging.
Caleb turned around, grabbed her duffel, and put her things in the ATV. He then returned to her and pulled hard on her leg. It came loose but without the boot. They both stared at her sock in surprise for a moment.
"No time," he repeated, at last, pulling her into his arms and trudging to the ATV. Although she was nervous about the storm and the rapidly rising water level, Dani felt safe in his strong arms.
She frowned when the contact ended and blushed at the warmth that had suffused her body. She was already aroused thanks to her indecent dream, his touch stoking the fire to new heights.
He put her down gently, and she slid over to allow him to climb in. As he started the vehicle and attempted to turn it around, Dani searched the tree line across the camp from them. Water was flowing heavily out of the trees, and the ground itself was starting to move, the mud joining the water to create a dark, heavy flow.
"We better hurry," she said, tugging on his arm, unable to look away from their possible doom.
"Hold on." He gunned the ATV forward with enough force to free them from the mud, and also to slam her back against the seat. Her breath whooshed from her body, but she grabbed the handgrip and held on for dear life.
She could barely see anything in the driving rain, and she wondered how Caleb was able to navigate. He swung the vehicle off the main path and onto a tight deer run. Branches whacked the side of the cab as they sped up a long incline.
"Where are you going? This isn't the way to your cabin!"
"I don't think we've got time to make it to my place. There's a small hunting shack not far from here. It's in a stand of trees at the top of a small hill and should be high enough up to be safe."
She looked into his face and read doubt. His scowl seemed set in stone. She looked away, fear crawling down her spine like a supplicant before its master. If Caleb had doubts, how bad could the situation really be?
She'd read about mudslides; she knew how damaging they could be. Even if the mud missed you, the debris it carried could still do damage. And the debris it would pick up here in the forest was worrying.
Dani looked up at the towering pines, wondering how much mud it would take to dislodge one from its home and carry it across the forest to batter against the side of an old hunting shack. The water still rushed behind them, and Dani couldn't stop herself from grabbing his arm, clenching her fingers tight around the hard muscle. Would they really be safe?
She had no more time for questions as they pulled up in front of the shack. Caleb looked at her and gently removed her hand from his arm. "Stay here."
He climbed from the ATV, taking along her two bags and sleeping bag. He slung both rolls over his right shoulder and tucked the bag under his arm, then jogged to the back of the vehicle where he pulled out a canvas pouch from the storage compartment beneath one of the seats.
The ranger ran up to the shack and pushed against the door, but it wouldn't budge. He stepped back and in a quick motion forcefully kicked the door. It swung inward, and he disappeared inside.
In seconds, he was back out again and heading toward her. He bent and slid his arm under her legs, then picked her up again and jogged toward the hunting shack. Stepping inside he put her down and slammed the door shut.
Dani looked around at the small one-room shack. The room was dark and almost empty, except for the built-in furniture. Along one wall was the outline of a wooden bench, which appeared hard and uncomfortable. The opposite wall held a bed that came out of the wall about 4 feet off of the ground, with a small ladder at one end for climbing up. It was covered in a thin padding that looked old and worn.
Beneath the bed was an empty wire spool that must have been used for a table, but there were no chairs. At the far end of the shack was a rusty iron stove that had definitely seen better days. Sadly there was no firewood stacked beside the stove.
Caleb was watching her when she turned back to face him.
"Well," she said with a half-smile. "Now what?"