CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jaxon
“See anything?” I ask as Honey tiptoes up to the rock face and bends to look into the dark hole near the ground. Her ass, clad in yoga pants, rises into the air like an invitation and it’s all I can do not to run over and answer the call.
It’s been a week of this woman in my bed and out on the trails with me. A week of touches and kisses and laughter. Every moment I spend with her, I’m falling harder. Last night, I was up until one in the morning while she slept in my bed, trying to figure out if it would be possible for me to leave my old life behind and disappear from the public eye forever with her.
In this age of cell phone cameras and highly paid paparazzi, it seems unlikely.
I’m not in my Bigfoot costume today. Yesterday, when I went out in it, we were spotted by a group of women who were more interested in asking Honey what kind of lover I am than trying to get pictures of me.
Luckily, they didn’t place Honey as the woman in the video of the diner fight, but the risk is too great for me to go out as Bigfoot again. It’s one thing for Jaxon Hayes to be spotted hiking with his ‘girlfriend,’ and it’s another for it to come out that Jaxon Hayes has been playing Bigfoot for the past six months.
I want a way out of my life in LA that doesn’t include a stint in rehab or a mental health institution.
“I don’t see anything.” Honey walks back over to me. She’s still nervous in the woods, but she’s come a long way from how terrified she was of every shadow and twig snap when we first started coming out here. “I don’t think this is the spot.”
I pull her against me and kiss her. She sinks into me immediately, melting for me even in this natural world that scares her so much.
Gripping her ass, I pull her tighter against me so she can feel how hard I am. “Want to try sex in the woods?”
She shoves me away with a grimace. “Have you lost your mind? I am not risking getting bugs or poison ivy up here.” She gestures at her lady garden.
“We can do it over there.” I point to a rock outcropping that juts off the side of the mountain, offering a view of a small, secluded glen below. “No poison ivy or bugs there.”
I press myself against her back, wrapping an arm around her waist. “There’s no one out here to hear you scream my name.”
“No way.” But her voice is soft, and I can tell she’s considering my offer.
I slide a hand into her pants, finding her bare beneath. “You aren’t wearing underwear?”
“Nobody wears underwear with yoga pants.” She huffs. “It’s not an invitation.”
I pull my hand out of her pants. “Are you saying you don’t want to make out?” I step away from her. “Because I’m totally fine with that. We can just hike back down the mountain.”
She grabs the waistband of my cargo pants and pulls me back to her. “I didn’t say I don’t want to make out. I said, I don’t want to have sex in the wilderness.”
I scoop her up and kiss her as I walk us over to the rock. I lower her to her feet, then sit on the rock, pulling her down with me to straddle my lap.
She makes a deep rumble of a sound that’s somewhere between a sigh of pleasure and of relief, and something deep in my chest settles into place. This moment is everything.
I sink my hands back into her pants, her ass warm against my palms, and everything else in the world slips away as we kiss. We make out until we’re both panting and, somehow, I’ve lost my shirt.
“I changed my mind.” She’s grips my chin, her expression intense. “I want to have sex right here.”
“That’s a wonderful coincidence. I also want to have sex right here.”
She reaches between us to unbutton my pants and wraps her hand around my hard cock when it springs free. “I guess great minds think alike.”
She insists we leave most of our clothes on in case we have to flee forest monsters, but we take off just enough that I can slide into her warmth. She takes control, riding me until she throws back her head and screams her release along with my name. It is possibly the most beautiful moment of my life, with the backdrop of the forest, bright green in springtime, and the valley below.
I follow her with my own orgasm quickly after and snuggle her close as we both come back down to earth and catch our breath.
I love you. I love you. I love you. The words rest heavy in the back of my throat, but speaking them would be making a promise I can’t keep.
Instead, I press a soft, lingering kiss to her cheek and hug her more tightly.
She shifts on my lap and rests her chin on my shoulder. “Jaxon, I… Wait… Oh, my goddess.”
She clambers off my lap and pulls her yoga pants back up, pointing even before they’re settled again around her waist.
I hop up, buttoning my pants as I stand next to her and look out to where she’s pointing.
“Is it just me?” she asks. “Please tell me that boulder down there looks like a skull.”
I don’t even have to tilt my head or squint. I’ve never seen a boulder that looks more like a skull. “It isn’t just you.”
She hops and lets out a little squeal. “That has to be it, right? That has to be where the treasure is.”
I don’t share her excitement. Finding the treasure means an end to her needing me, an end to my excuse for staying here when I should head back to LA. “It seems likely. Want to try to get down there?”
Below the rock outcropping we’re on, there’s a straight drop to the small valley below. We’re deep in the mountains, far from the actual valley where Catalpa Creek rests. This is more like a dip, a several acres wide divot in the mountain range. And it’s several hundred feet down from where we’re standing.
“There.” Honey points to the west and a more sloping climb down. It looks like there might even be a narrow trail, probably created by deer.
“Want to go now? We only have a few hours before the sun sets.”
“We’ll make it quick,” she says. “I just want to know if there’s any obvious place a treasure might be hidden.”
Her excitement is contagious, lighting me up with renewed energy. “Let’s go.”
There’s no path to the slope Honey spotted, and it’s slow going through dead leaves and overgrown brush, dodging bramble bushes and low-hanging branches. Honey hasn’t said a word, but she’s gripping the back of my shirt so hard it’s pulling at my neck and she’s panting like we’re working much harder than we are.
She’s clearly out of her comfort zone and terrified, but there’s not a chance in hell she’s going to back down now. It’s been beyond impressive to see her confront her fear day after day, but this is pushing the envelope.
“You want to piggyback?” I ask, ready to move my pack to my chest and pull her onto my back.
“No.” She bites the word out like it’s painful. “I’m fine.”
She relaxes her grip on my shirt once we reach the deer trail and start down the hill. I reach back and lace my fingers through hers, gripping her hand tight as we make our way down.
We’re about halfway down when my phone rings. I don’t usually get service this far out in the woods, and I almost never get calls anymore.
“You should answer it.” Honey pulls me to a stop. “It might be the PI or a security agent.”
She doesn’t have to say that she’s worried something’s happened to one of her sisters. Her concern is clear on her face.
I pull off my pack and dig out my phone, but it’s stopped ringing by the time I get to it. I hit the missed call from the private investigator, and wait while it rings, my heart thumping with nerves.
“Dell’s at the Weston house,” the private investigator, Arielle Mayson, says without preamble. “I’ve sent in a security agent and told her to keep a low profile. She’s acting as a friend of Honey’s who’s stopping by to see her, and she’s going to do her best to run interference on whatever Dell is up to.”
“We’re headed back there now.” Honey’s face has gone ghostly pale and her eyes are glassy. “Thanks.”
I hang up and push down my own worry and doubt. This is Honey’s family. I need to be the rock for her. “Dell’s at your house, but a security agent is there to keep him from causing any trouble.”
She slaps a hand over her mouth, and a tear spills down her cheek. “He’s never going to leave me alone.”
I’ve had the same thought. This guy might say he wants money, but what’s stopping him from coming back for more? It’s one reason I’ve held off on paying him. I’ve been hoping Arielle could uncover some dirt that would get him sent to prison for years and years, far longer than the few months he’d probably get if I pressed charge for the diner fight.
So far, Ariel’s come up empty. The guy is a ghost.
I hug Honey. “They’re okay, baby. Arielle has her best people on this and we can be there in an hour.”
She pulls in a deep breath and nods against my chest. “Okay. Let’s go.”
We race back up the hill, through the underbrush and deep leaves, getting scratched and smacked by tree branches, but we don’t slow down. Honey seems to have forgotten her fear of the forest as she runs full tilt.
She’s more scared of what Dell might say or do to her sisters than about anything we might face out here.