I woke up the next morning on the couch, my head still buzzing with Hartley’s body.

After everything went down between us, and I finally got a taste of that pussy, she retreated into her room like she was scared of getting too close. Which was fine with me, but the damn girl was so hot and cold. One second she couldn’t get enough, and the next she was running off like I had the plague.

Didn’t matter, though. We had a job to do and that was all that mattered. I got up off the couch, stretched, and headed into the kitchen. I made some coffee and waited for her to get up.

I didn’t have to wait long. Almost as if summoned by the deep, dark smell of the coffee, she stumbled out of her room with her hair up in a messy bun, looking sexy as fuck. I wanted to strip those short little shorts from her tight ass and taste her skin again, but I held back. We had work to do.

“Morning,” I grunted.

“Morning.” She poured herself some coffee. “You sleep okay last night?”

“I always sleep like a baby after a fucking like that.”

She blushed. “That’s good to hear.”

“Look at you,” I said, laughing. “We can’t talk about how you came nice and hard on my big cock last night?”

“We can,” she said. “I just didn’t know we needed to.”

“I can’t help but talk about that body some more.” I grinned at her, stepping close. “I mean, fuck, look at you. You’re practically still begging for it.”

“Maybe not,” she said, stepping away from me and heading back toward her room.

“Don’t run off and hide,” I said. “We have some work to do today.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Work?”

“Hell yeah. Remember that job we have to do?”

“How could I forget.”

I smirked at her. “Got any interest in riding some ATVs?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I thought we had work to do?”

I laughed. “This is work. You ever been on one before?”

“I lived on a farm, Travis. I know how to ride.”

“Good,” I said, my grin getting bigger. “Go get dressed. We got a date with some four-wheelers.”

She gave me a look and then disappeared back into her bedroom.

I knocked back my coffee and then got in the shower. We needed to stop back at the hotel room and grab the rest of my things, but that could wait.

I needed to see this girl ride again. If not my cock, then at least some big, powerful four-wheelers.

As the warm water washed down my skin, I smiled to myself. Today was going to be a fun fucking day.

* * *

The Caldwell family ran a little ATV tour company called Spirited Tours out in the hills out of their compound. It wasn’t a long ride out there, with just a short stop back at my hotel room to grab the rest of my stuff.

Hartley didn’t say much on the way out there, though she did eye my bag like she thought it was going to grow wings. She wasn’t exactly trying to hide her displeasure at me staying on her couch, but it didn’t matter.

I was doing this to save her ass. It didn’t matter if she was happy about the particulars, so long as she continued breathing during and after our time together. And if she wanted to press that pretty body up against mine and let me make her sweat, well, that was fine with me. I was more than happy, and practically always hard for her. But I wasn’t playing any games, not with so much at stake.

We pulled up outside the Caldwell family compound in the late morning. There were a few other cars parked in the lot, and I pulled in next to a little minivan.

We climbed out of the car. “How’s this place stay in business?” Hartley asked me.

“Low overhead,” I said. “And they’re not really making much on these tours. It’s mostly a front, I’d wager.”

“Still. Why do people come out here?”

I shrugged. “It’s an old mining area. Rich folks from down the hills want to ride around and see the country, get their eyes on some mine shafts, feel like they’re living the real backwoods life.”

“And the Caldwells are okay with that?”

“What do they care? Money is money, and letting some idiots ride around on ATVs isn’t hurting anyone.”

“You realize that we’ll be those idiots soon?” she asked.

I laughed. “Yeah, true. Let’s hope that’s all they think about us.”

I headed up the short walk and pushed open the main building’s door. Hartley followed me, and I held the door open like a true gentleman. She gave me a look but said nothing as I grinned at her.

“Can I help you folks?”

I recognized him immediately, though we’d never met before. The guy standing behind the front desk and wearing a Spirited Tours T-shirt was definitely one of Janey’s brothers, but I couldn’t recall which one.

I held out my hand for him. “I’m Travis. This is Hartley.”

“Travis, nice to meet you. I’m Brock.” We shook hands and he smiled at me, his teeth white and straight.

Brock was the youngest of the brothers, though still older than Janey. He was tall and broad with a dark beard and dark hair. Hartley shook his hand next.

“We’re looking to get a tour,” I said.

“Okay, great. You’re just in time, actually. We have a little group getting ready to head out now.”

“Perfect,” I said. “What’s the deal?”

“Sixty bucks for the two of you, though I’ll knock it down to fifty, say, since you’re squeezing in with this group.”

“Sounds great.” I got out my wallet and paid the man.

“Right this way.”

I smiled at Hartley as Brock led us toward the back door.

“How’s this tour going to help us again?” she whispered.

“It’s going to help us have some fun.”

She looked like she wanted to say more, but we passed through the back door and headed over toward a group of people getting some instructions on how to ride the ATVs.

“You know how to use this?” Brock asked me, pointing the two of us to our vehicles.

“Sure do,” I said. “Used to ride all the time as a kid.”

“And you?” he asked Hartley.

“Same,” she said. “Grew up on a farm.”

“Oh really? Where at?”

“Out west,” she said, keeping it vague.

“Well okay then. These here are yours. Wear the helmets at all times and listen to your group leader. That’s my oldest brother, King.”

“Thanks,” Hartley said as Brock waved and headed off.

We got onto our ATVs and joined up with the group. King looked just like his younger brother, but thinner and shorter. He was going on about keeping to the trail, about safety and such, which gave me ample time to look at my surroundings.

The compound was actually pretty straightforward. We’d come in through the front building. There was another building to the left, a large and simple thing, probably some sort of storage barn for the bikes. To our back were a few more outhouses, smaller storage buildings, and a few little covered, open-air areas where they parked the ATVs.

Out to our right were a few more buildings, residential-looking places, and a little paddock with two old horses grazing. All in all, the compound was pretty big, but not unreasonably huge. I’d never been up this way before, and the landscape was pretty gorgeous. A path wound its way forward into the woods and probably deeper into the hills. I knew the mining companies used to work back here, and I was betting that the Caldwells knew every inch of those mines like the back of their collective fucking hand.

Which was good and bad. There were probably mountains of bodies down there, dropped dead from the mining operations, but also dropped to their death from the Caldwells’ operations. The stolen shit could easily be hidden in any one of the compound’s many outhouses, or it could be safely stashed back in the mines.

This was just a preliminary operation, but I could already tell that there were going to be more problems than anticipated.

“You all ready?” King called out.

The tourists revved their engines, clearly eager to get going. There was a family of four, a younger couple, two older couples, and a group of older women, clearly friends. They looked about what I expected: well-to-do with soft hands and a desire to pretend to rough it for a few hours.

The herd slowly moved out, following behind King. I grinned at Hartley.

“Bet you can’t keep up,” I said.

She laughed. “We’re not supposed to ride out of line,” she said.

“You listened to that shit?”

“Nothing else to do.”

“Look at you, following the rules.” I revved my engine. “See you later then, loser.”

I peeled out and fell into line right behind the three older women. We went pretty slow, pulling out away from the compound and into the woods, following a well-worn and wide trail.

Hartley pulled in a few people back, behind the family of four. I glanced back and saw the annoyed expression on her face as the young boy swerved from side to side, blocking her from getting around. I laughed and spun my wheels again, kicking dirt up into the air.

The group moved north along the trail. I had to admit that the damn hill country was beautiful even though it was deadly and dotted with mines. Back before the companies moved in and started tearing up the earth, the hill country was an ideal place to live. Plenty of space, fresh air, deep woods, fresh rivers, wild game and more, it had everything you needed to survive out in the wilderness. That was why Knoxville was founded to begin with. Settlers found the hill country and they never wanted to look back.

These days, though, there weren’t many places left undeveloped and wild. The forest around the Caldwells’ was probably the cleanest and the best land in the area, but only because of the mine shafts. Most folks didn’t want to venture out into the wilderness for fear of dropping into one, which was good for the Caldwells. They probably liked to reinforce those feelings. That way they had the land to themselves, plus all the tourist dollars from the ATV tours.

We came around a bend and suddenly I heard an ATV engine rev. The sound of tires tearing through dirt was followed by a shout of surprise from that family’s mother.

Hartley tore up the path, pushing through underbrush, and blew by me. She glanced back and flipped me off as she shot past the older women, kicking up dirt and spraying them down with mud.

I laughed loudly and hit my own engine, tearing up after her. I blasted past the women, and they were clearly pissed about Hartley’s mud shower. The path narrowed up ahead, and Hartley was forced to slow down and get back in line. I fell in behind her, laughing loudly.

“Didn’t think you had it in you, Hartley,” I called out.

“You just try and keep up,” she said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a SEAL out here, you know.”

I laughed again, feeling a thrill run through me. I loved the wild way she laughed and grinned at me, and I was impressed by the way she rode. There was a confidence and a strength inside her that maybe she didn’t show often enough. She was a farm girl and seemed to know her way around the wilderness.

The group moved down the path and suddenly entered into a clearing. King stopped and killed his engine as the rest of us gathered up around him.

“Well now,” he said, “this is the first mine shaft. It’s an old one, probably an original, dug into these hills back in the eighteen hundreds.”

“Where is it?” one of the older women called out. I ignored the dirty looks they were giving Hartley and me.

“Right here.” King pointed to a patch of ground, overgrown. “Doesn’t look like much, but everyone get off your ATVs and come on over.”

The group killed their engines and walked over. The ground next to King looked normal right up until we were on top of him. Suddenly, in the underbrush, a hole into blackness opened up.

“Wow,” the young boy said. “How deep is that?”

“Who knows,” King said. “Truthfully, it’s not all that deep.”

“Have you been down there?” I asked him.

“Once, as a boy. It’s dangerous though. These old mine shafts are liable to collapse at any second, plus who knows what kind of gasses are in there.”

“What about the newer shafts?” I asked him. “Get into those?”

He grinned at me. “Sure, but we’re not supposed to. The safe ones are mostly still active, actually.” King grabbed a rock and dropped it down into the hole. The rock disappeared, and I never heard it hit the bottom.

“Seems deep to me,” one of the older women said.

“Oh, it’s deep, but relatively speaking it’s not that bad. A couple hundred feet, maybe, if I had to guess.”

I whistled and the group laughed. Hartley smiled at me.

“Okay, back on the road,” King said, and the group got back onto their ATVs.

As we pulled out back into line, I managed to swerve around Hartley, laughing as I went. That earned me a look from King, but at least I was ahead of Hartley in line.

The rest of the tour went about as I expected. As we got deeper into the hills, we couldn’t chase each other around as much and were forced to stay in line for the most part. King showed us more mine shafts, some active and some long abandoned. He told ghost stories about the area, pointed out local wild life, and at one point let us ride around in a muddy, swamp-like area, getting everyone absolutely covered in dirt.

The most satisfying moment of the whole trip was watching Hartley spray that family of four with mud during our little romp in the swamp. I couldn’t help but laugh at the evil grin on her face. The kids loved it, but the parents were clearly a little annoyed. That didn’t slow Hartley down one bit, though, and she managed to sneak into line ahead of me for the remainder of the ride.

Finally, after about an hour or two of riding, we wound our way back into the main compound. We dismounted and a couple of workers took the bikes, parking them and cleaning them off.

“Looks like I won,” Hartley said to me as we headed back toward the main building after a short debrief.

“Looks like it,” I said, smirking at her. “What’s your prize?”

“Just the honor of beating a badass SEAL.”

“Okay then. Consider yourself an honorary badass.”

“I’ve always been a badass; you just didn’t know it.”

I laughed as we came back into the main building. Brock was standing behind the counter, looking dumb and big as usual.

“How’d it go?” he asked.

“It went great,” Hartley said, flashing him her best disarming smile. That girl seemed to know instinctively when to turn her damn charm on.

“Hey, can I get a map of the area back there?” I asked Brock.

“Huh? Oh yeah. Sure.” He grabbed a little map from behind the counter.

“You mind showing me where those mine shafts are?”

“We’d love to show people what we saw,” Hartley said.

He glanced at me. “You’re not going back there, right?”

“Of course not,” I said. “We’re not dumb. This is just to brag to the buddies, you know.”

“Sure.” He began circling a few spots. “These are the ones you saw.”

“What about the ones we didn’t see?” Hartley asked, leaning against the counter.

Brock smiled at her. “Well now, there are a few of those, too.”

“Any of them fun?”

“They’re all fun, if you know what you’re doing.”

“Do you know?” Hartley asked.

“Course I know. I grew up here.”

“Wow. That’s so amazing. Can you show me some cool ones?”

“Well, there’s this one and this one. And this one here is deep as hell. People don’t go down there, but we do sometimes.” He circled a few spots and Hartley nodded along. “Maybe I can show you them one day. What you say about that?”

“I’d love it, Brock,” Hartley said, taking the map from him. “Call me.” She quickly walked out the front door.

“Wait. Your number?” he asked, but she was already gone.

“Thanks,” I grunted, and then followed her out.

Watching that was like seeing a master musician performing at the height of her power. She’d gotten all that information from him absolutely effortlessly. All she’d had to do was lean forward on that counter, show off a little cleavage, flash a little smile, and let him see her muddy, beautiful skin. Brock had fallen for it like the dumbass he was.

But fuck was she good. I’d thought I was going to have to get that stuff out of him myself, but she’d picked up on what I was doing immediately. My cock was half hard in my pants from watching it.

“How’d I do in there?” she asked as we climbed into the car.

“Fuck, Hartley. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that little performance got me very, very hard.”

She blushed and laughed. “I take it I did a good job.”

“You did a great fucking job.” I wanted to reach across the car and grab that thick hair of hers, pull her toward me, and kiss her hard.

Instead, I started the engine. “Let’s go clean this fucking mud off,” I said.

“Sounds good to me, badass.”

I grinned at her. I knew it wasn’t supposed to be fun, but I’d still had a fucking blast with Hartley. She was brave and funny and outgoing, and riding through the woods with her was the most fun I’d had with a woman in a long damn time. Normally it was all fucking, but Hartley wanted to make me impress her, as crazy as that was.

I was about to pull out of the parking lot, smiling to myself and buzzing with want for Hartley, when suddenly a person appeared next to the car.

I looked up and blinked, taken completely aback.

It was like seeing a ghost. She smiled at me, leaning down and squinting into the car at me. She waved, her long hair blowing in the wind, looking like the last time I saw her.

Jane Caldwell knocked on the window, looking curiously at me through the glass. I wanted to hit the gas and get the fuck out of there as my past came rushing back at me.

Instead, I rolled the window down and got my shit together.