Chapter 2
Laird
I had parked my ATV as close to the trail as I could, but it was still a short hike to get there. I had to help this woman over patches of rock and through trees and shrubs. Her limp was quite bad, worse than I had thought it would be when I’d felt the bone.
But if she was in pain, she was in pain.
She leaned against me as I helped her to the four-wheeler. Her body was small and delicate against me, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a turn on.
I helped a lot of clients. Every now and then, someone on Charlie’s hike got hurt. It was up to Jackson and me to take care of them and get them back to the lodge so Charlie could carry on with his tour. I didn’t often get women this attractive. And I never had to rescue a woman I felt this drawn to.
This woman was mesmerizing. Since I had stepped out of the shrubs, something about her drew me. She had flaming red hair and bright green eyes that looked right into my soul.
I forced myself to be professional. I couldn’t feel this attracted to the clients that came on our hikes. It wasn’t right. They paid for a good time. But the kind of good time that came to mind when I looked at this woman wasn’t what was included in our hiking packages.
She leaned against me, her arm wrapped around my body like she was happy being this close to me. Her limp seemed to be getting worse by the minute. Was she playacting? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t say she was overreacting because I didn’t know what kind of pain she was in.
But she was using the opportunity to push herself right up against me, and I shouldn’t have liked it as much as I did.
There was no written rule about not fucking the clients. It went without saying. So I tried to stop thinking about it. I didn’t know why my mind was running away with me on this one, anyway. She was just another woman.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“It hurts,” she said in a small voice.
“We’re almost there,” I said. The four-wheeler wasn’t far now. She nodded against me and tripped again, and I held her tightly so she wouldn’t fall. It was my job, I told myself. I wasn’t only trying to press her up against me. That would be unprofessional, and I was a professional guy.
And lonely. We had a lot of women on our hikes, but since fucking them was out of the question, I had an arrangement with the blonde bartender at the lodge. We both had needs to fulfill, and we helped each other out.
But something was lacking. Friends-with-benefits was never satisfying. Fucking a total stranger, one as hot as this one would be a lot more satisfying.
I scolded myself again. It was wrong to perv over clients.
Finally, we reached the four-wheeler, and I helped her onto it. She straddled the seat, and I couldn’t help but think how hot she was with her legs spread like that.
“Hold onto this,” I said and patted the metal grid on the back of the seat. She reached behind her and grabbed the grid. The position arched her back, sticking her breasts out. I forced myself to look away.
I climbed onto the four-wheeler in front of her and started it.
“I’ll go slow,” I said.
“I don’t mind it fast.”
She didn’t mean that as seductive as it sounded, right?
I pulled off, and we drove for only a moment before her arms wrapped around my waist. The clients were able to hold onto the grid so they didn’t have to make any more physical contact than was necessary on the four-wheeler. But this one seemed to want the physical contact, and when she pressed her body against my back, I didn’t hate it.
The road was bumpy, and it seemed to push her up against me even tighter. I was aware of her breasts against my back. I tried not to be, but I couldn’t help it. Her body was warm against mine, and when a man was alone in the mountains for as long as I had been, that warmth was welcome. She must train, I thought. Her body was taut like she did cardio of some kind.
I turned my head.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I caught a whiff of her scent – delicate, feminine, sweet. Out of place out here where it smelled like rotting pine needles and wild animals.
“Fine,” she answered.
We carried on down the mountain. I was careful to choose a path with as few bumps as possible to accommodate her ankle.
We were about halfway down the mountain when she pressed herself up against me even tighter, lifting out of her seat and speaking in my ear. I tensed.
“Could we make a bathroom stop?”
I twisted, looking over my shoulder. “It’s still half an hour down the mountain to the lodge.”
She blinked large green eyes at me, and I sighed.
“My cabin is close by, we can stop there.”
She gave me a dazzling smile. I wondered if she knew how attractive she was. If she was doing this on purpose or if she was oblivious to the effect she had on me.
I weaved through the trees to my cabin. It had been pure luck that we were this close when she’d asked. I parked the four-wheeler in the spot where I usually parked my truck and climbed off, helping her off and toward my cabin. Her limp was still quite bad.
Inside, I helped her into the bathroom and pulled the door shut.
Shit, I was in trouble. This goddess was in my bathroom, in my cabin, and we were totally alone. I was thinking all sorts of nasty shit, and I had to get a grip before I did something stupid.
Because God knows I wanted to.
I walked to the fridge and cracked open a beer. I wasn’t supposed to drink on the job, but I had to clear my mind. A few sips of a cold one might fix me up. I wouldn’t finish the whole thing.
“Are you okay in there?” I asked after a while.
“Fine,” she answered through the door.
“We have to get back, soon.” I looked out of the window. “Night is on its way, and we need to get down to the lodge while we can.”
I heard the toilet flush and the water running. I put the open can of beer back into the fridge and closed it. I took a sip of water and rinsed out my mouth so I didn’t smell like I had been drinking.
The door opened, and she stepped out. Her eyes were on me, and when she came closer to me, I noticed she wasn’t limping so badly anymore. She had been faking it.
I wasn’t irritated at all. Usually, when people acted like their injury was worse than it was, it pissed me off. But she came to me all rolling hips and a seductive smile on her face, and all I could think was “yes, please.” Fuck I wanted this woman something awful. I wanted to rip her clothes off and bend her over and fuck her from behind. My cock twitched in my pants, and I turned toward the door so she wouldn’t see the growing bulge of the desire I couldn’t contain.
“We have to get down the mountain,” I said. The lust was thick in the air, and when I glanced at her, there was no question that she felt it, too.
“Do you need anything else?” I asked. It sounded like an invite. It was. I hadn’t meant for it to sound like a come-on, but I couldn’t pretend I didn’t feel that way.
I watched as she lifted her hand to her neck and slid it slowly down, her fingers on the skin of her chest. She tugged at her buttons, and I was aching for her to get naked. Was she accepting my invitation? To me it seemed she had understood what I was asking, and she looked like she was willing to give it to me.
It was wrong to fuck the clients, I reminded myself. It was wrong to have them in my cabin. It was wrong to picture doing something dirty to them.
It was wrong. It was wrong. It was wrong.
But when she started unbuttoning her shirt, and a lace bra peeked out at me, so help me, I was about to lose control.