Chapter 1
Fiona
“Fuck Randy,” I said, sitting on the ground. “This is all his fault.”
Jamie shook her head, her blonde hair like spun sunshine. I hated that she looked so good out here when I felt so grimy. “You can’t blame him for every single thing going wrong.”
“Yes, I can,” I said. “If it weren’t for him calling me boring, I wouldn’t have been out on this stupid hike, and I wouldn’t have twisted my ankle. He’s a no-good, lying, good-for-nothing piece of shit.”
Jamie chuckled. “The guide radioed for help. You’ll get back to the lodge in no time, and it won’t look so bad.” I looked up at her looking like a goddess on the mountain said and I was the little grouch next to her on the floor.
I shook my head. I was determined to feel sorry for myself. This was bullshit. I wasn’t an outdoors person. I didn’t like hiking and being in touch with nature and roughing it. I was a city girl. I liked my safe job as an actuary, my safe life nestled in routine and knowing that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. This adventure thing wasn’t me.
But Randy had broken up with me because I was too boring. Those were his words. And I was here trying to prove him wrong.
The only thing I had proven was that I sucked at this. And I couldn’t have chosen a worse place to hurt myself because we were about as far up in the mountains that this hike was going to go. Which meant it was a long way down to the lodge, and we had chosen the afternoon hike so the sun was getting low.
“Thanks for waiting with me,” I said to Jamie. She was a colleague from work, but we had become close over the years. She was willing to go on this mission with me where I proved myself to Randy. She was more adventurous than I was and she seemed to understand that I was lost. I wasn’t sure why she was willing to stick around, but a girl needs a shoulder when the love of her life dumps her. Thankfully, Jamie was willing to be that for me.
My parents hadn’t approved of Randy. Maybe, looking back, they had had a point. But we hadn’t spoken in three years. I wasn’t going to crawl back to them now, so I could hear them say “I told you so”. That meant that I had only Jamie to turn to when things were tough. Not my mom and certainly not my dad.
But a girl could cope without her parents, right? I didn’t need them.
Jamie sat down on the ground next to me.
“You know,” she said, “there are other ways of showing Randy you’re not who he thinks you are.”
“How?” I asked.
“You can move on with your life. Prove you don’t care what he said and that you don’t need him. That’s giving him the middle finger. Trying to prove him wrong is keeping you stuck on him.”
She didn’t add that it was also pathetic. I was grateful for it. I knew that it was pathetic without someone else confirming it for me.
“But I do care about what he said.” I pouted. “He was wrong, and I need to show him that. I need to show me that.”
“Is being stuck on a mountain with a twisted ankle really the way to go, though?”
I sighed. “I hate your logic sometimes. At least I don’t still have strep on top of this.” I had gotten strep throat a week before the hike, and I had asked my doctor for the strongest course of medicine I could find. I hadn’t wanted to cancel the hike. But it was looking grim now. “Can’t you let me be heartbroken in peace?”
Jamie shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“Don’t. Be ready with ice cream and wine when I need it.”
Jamie chuckled. “You got it.”
We heard footsteps crunching through the brush around us and a man – the most perfect man I had ever seen – stepped through the foliage. He brushed twigs off his jeans and walked toward us. Jamie and I both stared, and I couldn’t help but look him up and down.
He was gorgeous in that rugged alpha kind of way. He had sandy-colored hair with a beard that failed to hide his strong jawline and hair that hung almost down to his shoulders. He was well-built, his T-shirt straining around his muscles, and his jeans clung to his hips like he was doing them a favor. A tattoo snaked up his arm and disappeared under his shirt.
He looked like an Adonis, sent from the heavens to save me, the damsel in distress. He was like a Viking invader, and by God, I wanted him to invade me.
“What happened?” he asked. His voice was deep and smooth, velvet on my skin. I had to get my mind out of the gutter. When I looked at him, all I could think about was sex.
“She tripped and came down on her ankle wrong,” Jamie answered, and I realized the Viking had asked me a question.
“Would you mind if I touch you?” he asked.
“Not at all,” I said as my breath hitched. Jamie nudged me.
Viking put his hands on my ankle, pressing the bone with his fingertips, and I winced.
“It’s not broken,” he said. “But you’ve twisted it. I’ll have to take you down to the lodge, you can’t carry on with the hike.”
“Should I come with you?” Jamie asked.
Viking shook his head. “You carry on with the hike. I’ll make sure your friend gets back to the lodge safely.”
Jamie looked disappointed, but I was more than happy with the arrangement. I wanted time alone with this guy. I wanted him all to myself, in a big way. He held out his hand and helped me up, pulling me to my feet like I weighed nothing. I could only imagine what else he could do with that strength.
Stop it, I scolded myself. I couldn’t think dirty like this. But then, why not? I wasn’t in a relationship anymore. I could do whatever the hell I wanted. And what I wanted was the Viking. I couldn’t help but imagine what he would look like rearing over me with his clothes off, those strong arms planted on either side of my head. I shivered at the thought.
That wouldn’t be boring at all if I could get this guy to take me. He didn’t look like he would be average in bed. I had never done something so wild, but why not? Maybe I should take a chance. I could only imagine how amazing it would be if it worked. What was the worst that could happen?
He could say no. It would be a damn shame if he did, but what if I got a yes?
My stomach tightened at the thought.
I had never done anything as crazy as a one-night stand or no-strings-attached sex. I didn’t go home with men I didn’t know. With Randy, everything had been controlled and planned. We had a routine. We had been predictable. It was what I had liked about our relationship.
But that had been “boring.” Building something prolific together, heading toward our future, hadn’t been enough. Instead, he had wanted something else, and I couldn’t figure out what that was. All I knew was that I hadn’t been good enough.
Well, that was about to change. It wasn’t like I was doing all these new things to win Randy back, but I wanted to make him jealous. I wanted him to realize he was wrong and when he came crawling back to me, I wanted to be the one that could tell him to piss off.
It was why I had cut my hair and stopped straightening it. It was why I had gone under the needle for all kinds of tattoos. It was why I had come to the godforsaken mountain in New Hampshire even though I was a city girl and happy with my life.
Now that the hot Viking was here, I could prove that I wasn’t boring. I could throw away the safety net and jump with my eyes open, and I was pretty sure this man, stacked with muscles, would try to catch me. All I had to do was find a way to get him alone.
And near a bed. Although, any flat surface would do the trick. I just didn’t want to do anything out here, surrounded by nature. I was reaching out and showing my wild side, but I wasn’t that wild. He would take me back to the lodge, and there were plenty of places I could take him to let him have his way with me.
“Come on,” he said, putting his arm around my waist and helping me down the path. His arm was thick and strong, and I felt small and delicate against him. We started walking, me limping alongside him. When I tripped, he tightened his arm around me, pulling me closer to his body, and I liked it.
Heat washed over me and pooled between my legs. I hadn’t been turned on by a stranger before. This wasn’t me. But nothing I had done lately was the real me, and it had still been a thrill.
This was the biggest thrill so far, though. And I wanted to ride it out and take it all the way. I put my arm around his waist, barely able to reach around properly, and I felt his muscles ripple under his skin as he moved. If I limped a little more, he would hold me a little tighter, and we would move a little slower, and all this deliciousness would be drawn out.
I wanted it to last.