The redwoods loomed like giants over my head. Even though the spring day was warm, I shivered as I walked up to them. There was something way too ominous about those towering trees.

It was quarter to noon. I’d made sure I wouldn’t be late, but I didn’t want to get here too early either and risk drawing attention to myself waiting around. Hiking along the trail from the parking lot where the taxi had dropped me off, I’d been able to see why Jeremy had picked this spot. He obviously knew the park well. The area between the redwood forest and the visitor’s center was mostly open rocky ground scattered with smaller trees and shrubs. He’d be able to watch anyone coming while hidden in the forest’s shadows, to confirm no one was following me.

I stopped by the first line of redwoods, hugging my purse strap. A squirrel chittered and darted around the trunk. The rich woody smell filled my nose as I inhaled deeply, but I still didn’t relax. It was hard to imagine ever being completely relaxed again after the week I’d just had.

Footsteps crunched over the fallen twigs on the forest floor. I moved toward the sound instinctively, venturing into the forest. It’d be better for Jeremy if he didn’t put himself in view, even if I couldn’t see anyone nearby right now.

I’d only taken a few steps when I caught sight of him. The shadows made his chestnut hair look almost black, and his eyes were dark too, but they brightened when they met mine. A smile lit the rest of his face. He hurried forward.

“Grace.” He came to a halt in front of me, raising his hands to the level of my cheeks but not touching me. His gaze slid down me as if checking to be sure every part of me was okay.

“It all went fine,” I said. “I survived unharmed. Have you been out here the whole time?”

He nodded. “I know the area well enough to stay out of the way of any rangers on patrol. I’m so glad to see you.”

He let his hands come to rest on either side of my jaw then, tipping my head up as he leaned in to kiss me. I kissed him back, relief and longing mixing together in a heady concoction. My fingers curled into the front of his shirt. The solid muscles underneath flexed against my knuckles, setting off a deeper bolt of desire.

“Same back at you,” I said, a little breathless, when he eased back. He gave me another smile, one so adoring it made my heart flutter.

“Come with me. There’s a better place for us to talk.” He glanced beyond me. “I assume you didn’t see any sign that you were followed.”

I shook my head. “I took kind of a roundabout route and then grabbed the first taxi I saw. For a lot of the trip I couldn’t see any other cars on the road behind us. Not a lot of traffic out this way in the middle of a weekday.”

He took my hand, swinging my arm gently as we walked through the forest. The atmosphere that had felt foreboding a few minutes ago had lightened with his presence. For a moment it felt as if we could be nothing more than young lovers, strolling through the woods without any care except each other.

Lord, I wished that were true.

My fingers squeezed Jeremy’s a little tighter. He caressed the back of my hand with his thumb. “I heard your conversation with Malcolm through the door. Tell me what happened after you went down to the bar.”

“Oh, I just babbled a lot about not much of anything. Still pretending I was freaked out about you and hadn’t seen you since the accident.” It was easier to brush off my little chat with Malcolm now that I wasn’t sitting across a polished black table from him and his watery blue eyes anymore. “Obviously there wasn’t much I could tell him that he could find useful. But I acted incredibly grateful that he was trying to ‘help’ me.”

Jeremy chuckled. “And how did he respond to all that?”

“I think he bought it. He didn’t ask anything that showed he was suspicious, anyway. I have the feeling I annoyed him after a bit, and he wrapped things up as soon as I let him. We couldn’t have been at the bar for more than an hour. I just wanted to make sure you’d have enough time to get well away.”

“Well, it seems like your trick worked.” He stroked his thumb over my hand again. A more pleasant shiver traveled up my arm. He glanced over at me, waiting until I met his eyes. “Thank you for that. You have no idea how much I hated watching you go out there to confront him.”

“There wasn’t anything you could do,” I said quietly. “Other than giving yourself up.”

“I know. I still don’t like it.”

“Hopefully we’ll never be in a situation like that again,” I said, putting as much optimism into the words as I could summon.

Jeremy smiled—a real smile that relaxed me too. “I might actually have contributed to that goal last night.”

My eyebrows rose. “Oh, really? Sounds like you’ve got some stuff to tell me too.”

“I was thinking maybe I could hurry Malcolm and his people out of the city. So I came up with a little plan of my own.”

“Out of the city,” I repeated, my pulse skipping. “Does that mean you’re still going to try to stay here?”

He nodded. “I’d like to, if I can. I called up my—a friend of mine who’s got some computer skills, although a little more on the black hat side of things than yours are... He’s going to leave a trail of little ‘mistakes’ with the name they’ll have from the apartment records, right across the country. The first one should have popped up sometime overnight.”

I grinned, catching on. “So then they’ll be sure you’ve already left. That’s perfect.” But I hadn’t missed the hesitation in his words. I’d heard it before when he talked about how he got by, always partly on the run. The little things he didn’t think he could trust me with yet.

No, not that he didn’t trust me, I reminded myself. He didn’t trust Malcolm’s people not to hurt me to try to get any information I had. The less I had, the less motivation they’ve have to come after me.

It made sense, but I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of disappointment. Of course Jeremy had to be careful. But if we were really going to be in this together, if he really meant to stay like he was suggesting—to stay with me...

I pushed aside that line of thinking. This wasn’t the time for worrying about exactly how open he was being. He’d shared so much of himself and put so much trust in me already.

“Do you think, once they’ve gone after you somewhere else, they’ll assume San Jose is a dead end? Or would they come back later to check for you again when they don’t find you anywhere?”

“I don’t know. But I guess I’ll just keep my eyes open like I always do and tackle problems as they come.” He came to a halt at the edge of the trees. Beyond the stretch of forest, an expanse of dusty fields rolled out alongside a tan cliff face.

Jeremy tugged me gently so I turned to face him. His expression had gone serious.

“I want to stay,” he said. “And I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen. But unfortunately, after all the attention they’ve focused on you, I think we’ll have to keep our relationship secret for a while. Even if they’re not in the city, they might keep tracking your comings and goings. We can’t risk them wondering about a new guy suddenly in your life. I know—”

“Jeremy,” I said, touching his chest to stop him. “I get it. You don’t have to apologize. Knowing you’re safe is a heck of a lot more important to me than showing you off around town. As much as I might be looking forward to that.”

I gave him a cheeky smile, and the tension went out of his face. He leaned close enough to brush a kiss to my forehead. “You have no idea how much I’d like to show you off.”

I’d never really thought of myself as someone special enough to be shown off, but when he looked at me like that, talked to me in that low clear voice, I believed it. I was pretty sure I was glowing right now.

He drew me over to the cliff. “This is where I’ve been staying,” he said. “I scoped it out as a possible refuge not long after I first moved here.” He hopped up on a ledge and offered me a hand up to follow him.

As soon as I’d gotten to my feet on the ledge, I saw that what I’d thought was a shadow on the rock was the narrow entrance to a cave. A couple of Jeremy’s bags were leaning against the cave wall, a thin sleeping bag rolled and tied to one. Ready to be grabbed quickly if need be.

In the course of a couple of days he’d gone from living in that nice apartment downtown to squatting in a literal cave. Anger flared inside me. I was never going to understand how anyone could run another human being to the ground like that. All because he had a power they wanted to exploit.

But Jeremy had taken it all in stride. He’d barely shown any anger. That was the kind of man he was. Always focused on what he could do, not dwelling on things he couldn’t change, no matter how unfair they were.

I’d never met anyone so determined to do the right thing. That mix of strength and passion made me want to do all kinds of things to him.

I grasped his wrist and leaned against the wall of the cave, tugging him to me. “If I might not get to spend that much time with you for the next while, you’d better believe I’m going to put the time I have now to good use.”

Jeremy laughed lightly, his lips just an inch from mine. “Somehow I’m getting the sense your idea of good use is very similar to mine.”

I slipped my hand around the back of his head, tangling my fingers in his soft, thick hair, and he closed that inch to kiss me. His mouth angled hot against mine. All the passion in him was focused on me now, branding me from head to toe.

We’d managed to get interrupted last time even though I’d been doing my best to hurry things along. I wasn’t wasting any time today.

I broke from our kiss just long enough to yank Jeremy’s shirt up over his head. He tossed it on the ground and claimed my mouth again. His hands worked at the buttons down my shirt. Every brush of them against my chest left my skin burning in the most blissful way. Those sensations combined with the roughness of the rock behind me left me trembling.

Jeremy undid the last button, and I lowered my arms to let the shirt fall. His hands slid up my sides to fondle my breasts. I whimpered into his mouth as he stroked them. With a quick tug behind me, he’d freed them from my bra. He teased both my nipples to peaks at the same time with swivels of his thumbs. I arched into him, pleasure racing over my skin.

This man was just addictive. I couldn’t imagine ever getting enough of him.

He leaned in to kiss me harder, bracing his arm between me and the cave wall, his naked chest pressed against my bare breasts. The heat building between us was already scorching.

Too many clothes still. I fumbled with the button of his jeans. When I’d gotten the zipper down, he kicked them off easily. My fingers shot straight to the hard length of his cock. He groaned as I gripped him through his boxers. His kisses became wilder. His hips pumped in time with my strokes.

He wrenched at my pants. I squirmed out of them with his help, kissing him back just as desperately. He paused to trail his fingers down over my panties to the wetness spreading between my legs. His breath caught when he felt it.

“So beautiful,” he murmured. “So fucking hot.”

I gasped as his thumb rubbed my clit. “Enough talking. I’m ready to get to the fucking.”

He gave a choked laugh and yanked my panties down too. A pulse of pleasure shot through me with each stroke of his fingers against my core. I tugged down his boxers and caressed his cock, skin to silky skin. It twitched against my palm.

Jeremy gave me a long, deep kiss as our hips arched together. Then he glanced around. I ducked to quickly grab my recent purchase from my purse. When I’d retrieve the foil packet, he’d already stepped away from the wall.

He held out his hand to me, magnificent in his nakedness. And it wasn’t just the sculpted muscles of his body, the length of his ready cock, or the gleam in his gorgeous eyes. Suddenly I could feel a sort of energy humming off of him. It tingled over my skin, taking my breath away.

I took his hand. “I’m going to make you fly,” he said in a low voice, his expression full of promise. He knelt down on the cave floor, drawing me with him. But as he laid me down and bent over me, my back didn’t touch the hard ground. The air seemed to catch me, holding me with a warm, steady pressure just beneath my body.

I stared up at Jeremy, and he grinned. He was holding me. Holding both of us off the ground with the power of his mind while his literal hands traveled over my body again, teasing my nipples into stiffer peaks, dipping between my thighs until I was shaking with need.

“Jeremy,” I whimpered. He plunged into me, sending pleasure radiating through my entire body. His shaft filled my core with a blissful burn. He gripped my hip and stroked my breast, and his presence surrounded me. We drifted higher as if propelled by the heat flaring between us.

I bucked to meet him, and he thrust harder, his teeth grazing down the side of my neck. The pressure holding me up shifted around me, forming tendrils of contact that kissed the backs of my knees, the crooks of my shoulders, the small of my back, all at the same time. “Oh, God,” I cried as the swell of sensation swept through me.

Jeremy drove into me with one last stroke, and I shattered apart. Sparks shot from the place where we were joined and burst behind my eyes. “Grace,” Jeremy muttered. “Fuck, Grace.” The pumping of his hips turned erratic. He thrust harder, deeper, and I careened right back over the edge again with a gasp and a fresh wave of bliss. This time he came with me. His hips jerked, and he clutched me harder. We rocked against each other, riding out our release together.

As Jeremy’s muscles relaxed, we floated back to earth. He braced himself as we settled onto the ground so that his weight didn’t push me into the stone floor.

“I should have gotten out the sleeping bag,” he said, brushing a strand of hair back from my eyes. “I just couldn’t stand to wait another second...”

“It was fine,” I said, and laughed at how inadequate that sounded. “It was amazing, Jeremy. How many guys could make me literally float away with pleasure?”

He gave me a sly smile and a gentle kiss. “I might have a few other tricks up my sleeve I’ve always wanted to try out.”

“Oh, yeah.” I’d just been satisfied, but at those words, a new ache formed between my legs. I ran my hand up and down his arm. “I’d love a demonstration.”

It was amazing how simple being with him felt. As if the talent he’d put to use making me writhe in desire hadn’t also made him the target of enemies he might never completely shake.