ELI
Jade Sinclair looked like a deer in the headlights right now, and I could sense her panic.
Oddly, I didn’t really want her to be intimidated by me. She sure as hell hadn’t been when we’d met in my office.
Was it because we were alone in the middle of nowhere?
I suspected that wasn’t the case, since she was out here routinely with people she didn’t know.
Why in the fuck is she so afraid of me?
Granted, I’d lied to her when I told her in my office that I’d just wanted to see why she wanted to buy a piece of land that was worth almost nothing. But the truth was, I’d been intrigued by her reported character and skills for a long time.
One of my college acquaintances, a fellow adventure seeker, had taken one of Jade’s advanced survival classes, and he’d told me about her.
She had a reputation in the San Diego area of being one of the best survivalists around.
When I’d gotten the opportunity to see her in person, I’d taken it.
Yes, I had been curious about why she wanted some worthless property. But that hadn’t been my main motivation for wanting to meet her.
Unfortunately, I’d gotten caught up in a crisis right before her appointment time, so I’d had to make her wait.
I sure as hell hadn’t wanted to put off the meeting, but I’d been wrestling with an issue that could cost a lot of people their jobs, so I hadn’t had any choice.
I’d been relieved that she’d still been there when the crisis was over. Rather than discussing extreme survival with her, I’d ended up getting punched in the gut by the most beautiful, composed, outspoken, and entirely irresistible woman who had ever crossed my path.
She’d been nothing like I’d expected.
But everything I’d wanted just the same.
Since I was very much an amateur survivalist, I’d wondered if I could talk her into teaching me some of the things I didn’t know. I had limited time, so I was going to try to convince her to teach me specifics to save time.
Unlike my acquaintance who had taken her class, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the fact that a female knew more than I did about survival.
In fact, I’d been . . . intrigued.
Problem was, I hadn’t planned on being attracted to her.
For some unknown reason, I wanted Jade Sinclair more than I’d ever wanted any other woman in my bed.
And I was determined to make it happen.
I had to have her to shake her out of my system. I was pretty damn tired of thinking about her so much that I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t keep my mind on work, and couldn’t keep my dick deflated because she was becoming an obsession for me.
Unfortunately, getting her to spend time with me had been impossible. But I wasn’t the type of man to admit defeat.
“You have to go,” she finally said. “The class is full.”
“I know,” I answered. “I bought all of the spots over a month ago, plus I made a healthy donation to Save the Wildlife Corridors Fund that should go through today.”
The shock on her face was nothing short of adorable. I knew I really should stop baiting her, but I couldn’t help myself.
I wanted her.
And I never lost a deal or a competition that I really wanted to win.
I might have been born wealthy, but the empire I’d created after my father had passed away two years ago was all dogged determination. I never gave up when I knew I had to negotiate.
And there wasn’t much I wasn’t willing to put on the table to get a deal with Jade.
“I’m not doing this,” she said, her chin going up. “You’d treat this class like a joke, and it’s something that’s important to me.”
“Not even for a seven-figure donation to your charity?” I queried. Yeah, I kind of felt like a dick because I was trying to sway her with money. But her passion for wildlife was obviously a motivating factor for her, and I used any weaknesses I could find.
Her jaw dropped. “You gave that much to SWCF? Why?”
“Like you said, it’s important to you.”
“You could have just donated the land I wanted,” she said suspiciously.
I shook my head regretfully. “I can’t do that, Jade. And this isn’t a joke. A friend took one of your advanced courses. He sang your praises, even though he was a little intimidated that a woman was teaching him. I was impressed. I could use more survival skills. I have a lot of hobbies that could leave me in a situation where I need the information you could teach me to survive.”
Okay. Maybe that was just a little bit of bullshit, too, since I already had basic survival skills because of the extreme challenges I did on a regular basis. But I had to appeal to her sense of fairness somehow. And truthfully, Jade could teach me a lot more than I already knew.
Jade was intelligent and pretty much fearless, if the stories I’d heard were true.
Maybe she was a challenge, but it was more than that.
In the last several years, very little had intrigued me. But Jade did. And once my interest had been piqued, there had been no turning back.
I wanted to get to know her almost as much as I wanted to fuck her, which was new for me.
“Maybe I’m not all that good,” she challenged. “But I’ll teach you what I can, since you seem to need to be on television every damn week, so I assume you aren’t going to stop doing ridiculous challenges anytime soon.”
God, she’s stubborn, but I kind of like that about her.
Jade was a woman with fire. She’d just never found anybody to stoke the flames, and I was determined to be the man who did.
She reminded me of a beautiful butterfly who was still struggling to get free of her cocoon. Obviously, she had some hang-ups, but I wasn’t one to talk about that, since I was more fucked up than she could ever be.
“I don’t need to be on television,” I argued.
“For somebody who claims to not want attention, you certainly get plenty of it,” she grumbled.
She was right. I did get international recognition. I took on some crazy things that most normal people would never volunteer to do. “It’s always for a good cause. Most of the events I do are for charity.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “And the rocketry company?”
“I do that for myself, and hopefully it will someday benefit future generations. But most of the things being done there now are research and development. We need better systems and equipment before we can do test runs.”
I was determined not to lie to Jade again. I sensed that she’d appreciate honesty a whole lot more. Not that I was all that good at being candid, but there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to get Jade in my bed.
Starting at the top of her dark head, my eyes roamed over her to try to figure what it was about this woman that had my dick tied in knots.
Jade had an earthy beauty that had captured me at first glance. Her mass of thick, dark hair was secured in a ponytail at the back of her head, but the simple style just made her blue eyes brighter. Her body was curvy, but extremely fit, a form I was quickly becoming drawn to much more than any thin model had ever tempted me.
I liked every single thing about her, even her inherent bullheadedness.
“I won’t go easy on you,” she warned.
Jesus! I was pretty sure that Jade could use me any way she wanted, and I found that rather perplexing.
I like control.
I need control.
Yet something about this particular woman had made me want to throw my desire for self-discipline out the damn window.
Keep the crazy going!
I grimaced as the words ran unwanted through my brain.
Maybe I did keep doing things that some people thought were the mad stunts of an out-of-control rich guy, but none of them knew just what I was made of underneath.
I was calculated.
I was careful.
I planned everything out in advance.
I really wasn’t that big of a risk taker. I was just confident in what I could and couldn’t do.
Maybe I needed that mastery of myself to balance out the crazy, and I did what I had to in order to stay sane.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I told her.
“What survival experience do you have?”
I shrugged. “I survive in a world of business sharks.”
She shook her head. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Not as much as you have,” I confessed. “But I’m fairly handy to have around. I like working with my hands.”
I saw a momentary hesitation flicker in her eyes, but she quickly masked it. Was she trying to decide if my words were actually an innuendo?
They were.
But she was obviously trying to give me a pass because she wasn’t quite sure.
Behind Jade’s brave front, I could see her vulnerability. She was probably much too naive in some ways, but I kind of liked that, too.
For some reason, I really hated the game we had to play right now. Although it worked well in business, I didn’t like to see the wary look in her beautiful eyes when she glanced at me.
She was leery, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. Honestly, my beautiful butterfly should be running as fast as she could to get away from me.
“We usually start with foraging and looking for anything that will be helpful as we locate a water source,” she said carefully. “Did you bring the required items for the class?”
“Yep. Right here,” I said as I picked up my backpack.
“Did you check it yourself?”
“No,” I admitted. “My assistant got everything together for me. I was on a tight schedule.”
“First rule of survival . . . check everything yourself. Nobody cares more about your life than you do.”
Okay. I could live with that. I usually did check everything myself, because I was pretty much a perfectionist. Nobody cared about my conglomerate more than I did, so I stayed involved on all levels.
She continued, “Check your stuff and drop your backpack inside. Then we’ll move out.”
I went inside without an argument because what she said made perfect sense.
I smiled as I riffled through the items that had been prepared for me. Jade was bossy, and not unlike a diminutive, lovely drill sergeant when she was in her element.
I suddenly frowned as I realized even that made my dick hard.