Chapter 30 - Austin

Sometimes all you can do is hold on for the ride and hope you still have your man junk when it’s over.

~ Austin Brite

“I don’t know what you said to Empress, but damn, baby, you brought the girl with the most inflated ego and boobs I’ve ever seen to a grinding halt. How’d you do it?” I whispered in Bee’s ear, slinking my arms around her waist as we finished saying our goodbyes to my family.

When Bee had followed Empress towards the back of the restaurant, I had anticipated destruction. I’d even dialed Walker and had him on standby to send in the troops, aka Mac, to help calm Bee’s ass when everything went to hell in a hand basket.  Only, there had been no destruction. The building remained intact, and even though Empress was a little on the pale side when she returned to the table, she didn’t so much as glance in my direction again and kept relatively quiet for the remainder of the evening. She even stood up for my chosen profession in carpentry when Niall tried his condescending hand yet again right before dessert.

“Blackmail is such an ugly word, so let’s say I used gentle persuasion. I saw some nasty crud in her soul, things her and her father were planning to do to your father, and I just explained how unhappy that would make me.”

Anger rushed through my veins and my arms tightened around Bee’s waist ever so slightly. I, for the most part, was a laid back individual, but threaten my family and shit got real, fast.

“What kind of nasty crud?” I growled, barely recognizing my own gruff voice.

Bee waved me off and offered me a sultry smile that didn’t help diffuse the irritation that had flared to life inside me.

“Just stuff, but I handled it. Trust me, Music Man, nobody messes with what’s mine. You are mine which makes your family mine. Unless Empress and her daddy want to see their entire world crumble to the ground, they will back the eff off.”

I liked the defensive way Bee talked of my family. It helped my anger dissolve, and a swell of pride hit me right in the chest. Damn, if the girl wasn’t falling in love with me. There was no way in hell I’d point it out to her, which would likely have her running for the furthest and highest hill, but I knew it on a soul deep level and that was enough to placate me.

“We are going to return to this conversation at a later date,” I gently reprimanded her, and she simply shrugged with a pleased smile on her red lips.

“You still want to get wild with me?” Bee asked, her voice a seductive purr.

“You know I do, Sugar.”

Bee’s warm hands clasped behind my neck and brought me down for a kiss that slammed into my heart, the imprint of her touch searing into the organ and leaving a permanent mark, one of passion, heat, and need. Her soft lips glided over mine with expertise, and her tongue slipped into my mouth and retreated before I could really taste her. My hands fell to her ass and grabbed the soft globes, forcing her against the hardness behind my zipper. When Bee abruptly pulled away, I would have leaned in to recapture those lips I could never get enough of when a hot, searing breeze fanned over my skin. The long sleeved shirt and pants I’d been wearing seconds before were gone, and I was now dressed in what looked like an orange hazard suit, if I were to guess. Glancing around I realized we were no longer outside the restaurant anymore. Fuck, I was pretty sure we were no longer in America anymore.

“Where are we?”

“Nicaragua.”

Holy shit. I glanced out across the dark ash that fell over the side of the mountain and just stared. We were standing on a fucking volcano. It was kind of cool being able to travel so quickly around the world and not needing a passport.

“Be brave, baby. I’ll keep you safe,” Bee murmured and I raised a brow.

“Forgive me, Sugar, I’ve never had hot lava bubbling at the crease of my ass.”

Bee rolled her eyes and laughed. “The lava is far enough away it won’t harm you, and you’re protected by the suit.”

“I look like I should be in prison right now.”

I felt ridiculous, and while I was dressed like an orange telly tubby, Bee was in a pair of skinny jeans, sneakers, and a tight fitting t-shirt that read ‘if being hot is a crime, arrest me.’ She looked . . . fucking hot. I looked . . . fucking absurd.

Looking around, my eyes caught the spectacular view. Yeah, we were on a volcano, it was hot, it was definitely active, with miles of soot and ash, and stretching out to the horizon were green hills and valleys. We appeared to be the only living, breathing beings around. Turning, I found smoking cracks in the mountain, steam billowing into the air that stunk like rotten eggs. Fuck me, an active volcano right under my feet, ready to turn me into a puff of ash. Bee moved beside me, and when I turned to see what she was up to, I found her sitting on something that resembled a toboggan.

“What are you up to, Sugar?”

She pointed to another toboggan and indicated I should have a seat, too. Trusting she wasn’t about to get me deep fried, I sat down and clenched my fists around the handles.

“You ever tobogganed down a volcano?” she asked, a smirk on her face which told me right away she knew I’d never tobogganed down a fucking volcano.

“First one to the bottom gets dibs on any sexual favor they want.”

And with that, she pushed off the edge and began to slide down the steep hill over the soot and ash. Wanting that sexual favor like I wanted a glass of water, I pushed my toboggan over the edge and felt my stomach dip as I fell away, the board beneath me free falling down the side of the monster mountain. I picked up speed pretty fast and was already gaining on Bee. She had her elbows tucked in and was leaning forward, a determined look on her face. My extra weight, however, brought me up alongside her, and soon I overtook her, my eyes glued to the bottom of the volcano which gradually dropped off to a flat surface.

My heart was hammering in my chest, the hot wind was blowing around my body, and I was laughing like an idiot as I finally began to slow enough to roll off my board and land with a soft thud on the hard ground. Bee slid in a few seconds behind me, cursing me with every non-curse word she could come up with. On unsteady legs, I stood and grinned wickedly at the gorgeous angel whose gaze was currently spearing my heart with daggers. Yeah, she didn’t like to lose, I got that. But, the thing was, I really, really liked to win, too.

“You owe me, Sugar.” I said, pointing at her. She huffed out a breath of air. “But first, I want to do that again.”

The annoyance over losing left her features, and her gaze softened, a small smile playing on her lips. Reaching out her fist for a bump, I ignored the gesture and pulled her in for a quick kiss. When I opened my eyes, we were back at the top of the volcano. This moving within the blink of an eye business was pretty damn handy.

We tobogganed four more times before Bee whisked me off again and this time I opened my eyes to find us standing on the side of a cliff, crystal clear blue oceanic waters below us. It almost seemed like an inlet surrounded by both manmade and natural rock.

“Ever been cliff diving?” she asked, and as my startled gaze found hers, I realized she was wearing a tiny, red bikini with black dots, and a cute ruffle around the waist. Noticing her eyes wandering over my body, I looked down and found myself in a pair of low slung black board shorts and nothing else. “You want to jump together?”

“You sure I won’t splatter? It’s a long jump,” I hedged.

Even though heights had never bothered me, the thought of jumping from this cliff was enough to make my stomach lurch. I expected sarcasm, or at the very least, a roll of her eyes. Instead, she simply held out her hand, a bright smile on her beautiful face. Enclosing my much larger hand around hers, I glanced at the drop once more.

“How deep is it?”

“Deep enough,” Bee answered.

Trusting her, I took a step forward.

“On three . . . one, two, three!”

We jumped together and fell. The wind rushed past me, my heart slammed hard in my chest, and to soon my feet entered the water, and I was completely submerged by the crisp, salt water. I found my way to the top, and as I broke the surface, it was with a loud laugh and shout. Flicking the water from my eyes, I quickly found Bee wading beside me. I pulled her close and kissed her again. I’d never been a big kisser, the act itself usually nothing more one of platitude after one night of bliss with some random, faceless woman. With Bee, though, I could imagine myself kissing her good morning and goodnight, and at every opportunity between.

We jumped again and again and again, before Bee did her magic and we found ourselves surrounded by snow. Pretty soon we were involved in a pretty intense snow-ball fight, neither of us wanting to lose. It ended abruptly when Bee unexpectedly dropped to her knees before me, slowly dragged down the zipper on my snow pants, and proceeded to gift me my sexual favor for losing the toboggan race. She blew me in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but endless ice. It was . . . wild!

Our adventure continued with bungee jumping in Switzerland, a stroll through the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, and finally cocktails in a tiny bar in Quebec. I’d been around the world in less than twenty-four hours; I’d done things that would never have even made it on my bucket list. A day of crazy adventure with the majestic beauty at my side had opened my eyes, my heart, and my soul. I was completely in love with her, vulnerable to her irrational fear of attachment. If she left me now, she’d take everything that I had, leaving behind nothing but a shell.

“All that thinking looks painful,” Bee murmured.

A small smile tugged at my lips as I again glanced around my exotic surroundings. Walls of dark brick encased me on all sides and a low roof arched in a way that made each side of the room too short for my height, reminding me I wasn’t in the US. And if the unusual bar hadn’t clued me in, the icy cold winds and snow right outside the entrance would have. The bar was stocked with every liquor you could imagine and was lit up in a garish contrast to the dark ambience in the room.

“So this is how you live your life? Traveling, tobogganing on volcanoes, playing in the snow?”

Bee shook her head. “I work, remember?” She mimed shooting an arrow.

“You have to clock a certain amount of hours a day?” I chuckled.

“No, but I do have to release a certain amount of arrows, and if I don’t make my quota, they are doubled the next day.”

We fell into a comfortable silence before I turned to her and decided to lay it all out there. The thought of losing everything I was investing into the girl was freaking me the fuck out. I just needed to know where she stood.

“And you hate love, but still have to let those arrows fly?”

“Yep.”

“What about now?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, finishing her cocktail.

“Does this scare you? You and me? Do you still hate love?”