Chapter Five
AIYLA STARTLED AWAKE at the sound of Ty’s phone alarm, their bodies still intertwined. He tightened his hold around her, the colorful sunrise reflecting in his eyes.
“Just one more minute,” he said in a groggy voice.
The alarm continued beeping from somewhere behind him. “Shouldn’t you at least turn it off?”
He nuzzled against her. “Not if it means letting go of you.”
“Finally y’all are awake.” Trixie’s voice startled them.
Ty groaned and pressed his hand to the back of Aiyla’s head, holding her still. “Don’t move,” he whispered conspiratorially. “She might mistake us for part of the landscape.”
A shadow fell over them as Trixie turned off Ty’s alarm and tossed his phone beside them. Her dark hair was pinned up in a high ponytail. She set her hands on her hips, flashing a playful smile. “That whole landscape thing isn’t really happening. Please tell me you’ve got pants on under there, because you’ve got an audience.”
She pointed up at the top of the ridge, where Speed and James and a handful of other people cheered and whistled and hollered.
“Thank God we’re not naked,” Aiyla said.
“There are worse things in life than getting caught in the arms of Ty Braden,” Trixie said. “Like skinny-dipping in a neighbor’s pool and realizing too late that they have motion sensor lights pointed directly at you.”
Aiyla winced. “That would be embarrassing.”
“Especially if you weren’t alone,” Trixie said on her way up the hill.
“I don’t want to know this about you.” Ty covered his ears.
Aiyla crawled out from under the blanket, and as Ty sat up, he grabbed her around the waist, hauling her onto his lap. Drawn to him like a bee to honey, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He pressed his lips to hers, causing more cheers to ring out from the peanut gallery.
“Thank you for hearing me out last night,” he said.
“Thank you for being honest with me.”
He eyed the gawkers at the top of the hill. “Shall we give them something to talk about?”
“Who gives a crap about them? Give me something to talk about.”
He kissed her deeply, earning a round of applause. She felt a momentary pang of embarrassment, but as quickly as the applause had sounded, it faded away, taking her embarrassment with it, until all she heard were the hungry sounds of her and Ty’s kisses and all she felt was the desire for more. His hands moved into her hair, something she’d already come to expect. When he wound her hair around his fingers, her insides flamed, and she felt him get hard beneath her.
He smiled against her lips. “If we didn’t have an audience, you might be in big trouble.” The devilish intent in his eyes left no room for misinterpretation.
“I wish we could stay right here all day.” Kissing and touching and making up for lost time.
“Ride with me today. Be my partner in the rafting race.”
Her heart screamed, Yes! But she was determined to complete this race on her own. “We signed up as singles, not a couple.”
“Hurry up, guys!” Trixie called. “You need to take down your tents!”
They pushed to their feet, and pain shot down her leg. She dug a few pain pills from her pocket, and Ty handed her a bottle of water from his backpack. “Thanks.”
He watched her take the pills as he gathered the blankets. “You’re basically living on those things.”
She grabbed his backpack and he took it from her and swung it over his shoulder.
“It’s just Motrin and Tylenol, to take the edge off. Today’s the rafting race, so there’ll be no strain on my leg, and by tomorrow I’ll be as good as new.”
He carried the blankets in one arm and put his other around her. “You know that’s not true. You’ll use your legs to anchor you in the boat in rough water.”
“I’ll be fine.” She didn’t want to argue about her capabilities, not after the beautiful night they’d had.
“Listen, Speed—Jon—is a doctor. Why don’t you let him check you out?”
“The ladies’ man? No thanks. I’m fine. It’s just overuse.” He was loaded down like a packrat with the backpack and blankets. “Do you want me to take one of those blankets?”
He draped one blanket around his neck, carrying the other under his arm. “Not a chance, my stubborn girl. I’m not putting any more weight on your leg than necessary. And I’m going up the hill behind you in case you have trouble.”
“What am I, five?” She cringed at her knee-jerk reaction and began climbing the rocky hill, stifling the urge to curse at the dull ache in her leg.
“You’re stubborn enough to be,” he teased.
“So I’ve been told.” Too many times to count. At the top of the hill, she pushed off with her foot. “Ow, shit.”
He put his hand on her ass, boosting her up to flat ground. “Babe, what have you got to prove? You’ll still finish the race for your sponsors.”
“I told you,” she ground out, limping toward her tent. She didn’t want to fight with him, but between the ache in her leg and not wanting to appear weak, she was stuck in some confusing middle ground. “I don’t need a knight in shining armor. I’ve got this.”
“Goddamn it, woman,” he said sharply. “I’m not trying to do the race for you. We just got past a major hurdle last night, and I want to spend time with you. Is that a fucking crime?”
She spun around, her heart squashing her pride one beat at a time. “You just want to spend time with me?”
“Yes! Is that so hard to believe?”
“Not because I’m limping?” she challenged. “Or because you think I’m scared to do it alone because of almost drowning? Because I’m not. That incident just made me more determined to kick every river’s butt every chance I get.”
“Jesus.” His tone softened, and her resolve followed. “How did I fall for the one woman who doesn’t want help?” A sexy smile lifted his lips. “I worry for the rivers you take on. I want you with me, Aiyla. Stubbornness and all.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?” she snapped. A whirlwind of emotions burgeoned inside her, and the frustration over the unrelenting pain in her leg made it difficult to control her emotions.
He dropped the blankets and closed the distance between them. “Either you need a hearing aid or I need English lessons.”
“I’m sorry,” she relented. “It’s my fault. My leg does hurt, and I hate to admit it, much less accept help to get past it. I thought you were just trying to…”
“Do the right thing?” he offered. “Be your boyfriend? Because that’s what I am now. We spent the night together under the stars. In some cultures, that means we’re married.”
She laughed and touched her forehead to the center of his chest, wishing she hadn’t reacted so poorly. “For a world traveler, you know very little about other cultures.”
“Are you saying I’m wrong? Because I’m pretty sure it’s the Bradonian way.”
“Ah, that culture. By that standard, we were married back in Saint-Luc.”
“Which explains my fidelity. Now kiss me before I drag you by your hair back to my tent and show you what happens to women who argue with Bradonian men.”
“Promises, promises.”
TY HAD TO do some fast talking and shell out a few bucks on the ride over to the river to get his buddies to give up their two-person raft and take his and Aiyla’s singles. As they geared up for the race, stealing kisses every chance they got, Trixie teased them about getting a room. He was all in, wanting privacy as badly as Trixie wanted them to find it. And from the heat in Aiyla’s touch, he knew she was on the same page. They were right back where they’d been his last night in Saint-Luc—only this time she knew the truth about his past, and she wasn’t holding back. By the time they started the race, Aiyla was favoring her leg even more than she had that morning, and they were closer than they’d been just hours earlier.
Aiyla sat in the front of the raft, paddling like her arms were made for it, keeping up a demanding pace to remain near the front of the competition. By midafternoon, her skin glistened with the sheen of a golden tan. The unforgiving sun beat down on them like a competitor all its own, oppressive and constant. The splash of the icy water was a welcome reprieve.
“My girlfriend is a fierce competitor in her own right,” he called out to her. “But together we’re unstoppable.”
“Double trouble,” they said in unison.
Ty had traveled all over the world, but as far as rivers went, none compared to the wild Colorado, which had carved its path over time, creating epic scenery of jagged cliffs, mountainous terrain, and flowering prairies. Ty had taken one of his favorite nature photographs on this very river—a rainbow in the mist by a waterfall. It was a heart-stopping picture. But when they hit calmer water and Aiyla glanced over her shoulder, locking her bright hazel eyes on him, nothing compared to the beauty sitting an arm’s length away.
“How are you holding up back there, Bradonian?” Before he could answer, she said, “Are your fingers itching to climb those rocks?”
“My fingers are itching, and there’s something I want to climb, but it’s not rocks.” He wanted to guide the boat to the shore and show her just how much he’d missed her. He’d start with massaging her leg, kissing away the pain, and work his way up her body, until he’d tasted and memorized every inch. He gripped the paddle tighter, trying to fight the onslaught of dirty thoughts.
Her laughter sailed around them, and she tipped her head up toward the sky and sighed. He imagined her gazing up at him when he was buried deep inside her, and just like that he was hard as stone. He dipped his hand into the cool water and splashed it on his face, but the image of her lying beneath him was too strong and the desire to make it real was even stronger. He doused his chest and groin with water, mentally trying to calculate the time it would take him to hike the final leg of the race tomorrow. Anything to distract himself from more cock-hardening thoughts.
When he was able to breathe a little easier, he said, “How’s your leg holding up?”
“Fine.” A second later she said, “Not exactly fine, but it’s okay. I could have done it alone, but I’m glad you asked me to ride with you. I’ve missed you.”
How could three words make his heart feel so full? “I’ve missed us.”
Damn, had he ever missed her. Her voice, that smile, those lips. Staying on safer topics than exploring the dips and curves of her body, he said, “Did you get to that little village outside Saint-Luc to take pictures?”
“You really do remember everything.” She glanced at him again, and in the few seconds their eyes connected, sparks ignited.
She faced front again and thrust her paddle in the water. He doused himself with more cold water, but short of diving in, he held no hope of his erection deflating.
“I never got there,” she said. “But I hope to someday. What about you? Did you get the assignment in South Africa you were vying for? In that Xhosa village?”
“It looks like it. We’re hoping to schedule time early next year.”
She whooped just as they hit the rapids. “I’m so happy for you! You’re going to get amazing pictures.”
When he’d first told her about the potential assignment, they’d talked for hours about the remote South African villages she’d visited with Ms. F as a teenager, and the ones she still wanted to visit. He’d imagined taking those trips together, spending days exploring, climbing, taking pictures and learning about the cultures, and spending long steamy nights wrapped in each other’s arms.
Come with me was on the tip of his tongue, but he forced himself to hold back, afraid of rushing her and wanting to push her in equal measure. Instead he said, “Remember when we made that list of the places we wanted to show each other?”
The nose of the raft lifted and fell over the rapids, dousing them with water, earning a shriek of delight from Aiyla. Music to his ears.
“How could I forget?” she hollered. “Your list included three of the world’s tallest mountains, and mine were mostly desolate little villages.”
They fell silent as they navigated rougher water, struggling to keep pace with the others as the raft careened at angles that could toss them out at any second. Ty’s entire focus shifted from winning the race to keeping Aiyla safe. But she was shrieking and laughing, taking it all in stride, as fearless as ever.
When the river widened and the rapids tamed, she glanced over her shoulder and he leaned in, stealing a slippery, rocky kiss, as the competition paddled by.
“We make a great team, baby.” He pulled her into another kiss, hearing more rafts approaching and Speed’s voice hollering something about taking their time.
He and Aiyla came away laughing. Her eyes were as bright as her smile. Her hair clung to her shoulders, drenched, like her clothing. Her arms were red from their efforts, and if she was fatigued, it didn’t show. He was falling head over heels for her all over again, with no desire to put on the brakes.
He leaned in for another kiss, and she said, “We’ll fall behind.”
He felt a smile tugging at his lips. “Never again, baby cakes. Don’t you feel it? We’re an invincible force. No one can touch us.”