7. Chapter Six
Ryker watched in his rearview mirror as Olive pulled her little white car into the narrow parking lot and parked beside his Jeep. He’d had such a knee-jerk reaction to her hiking alone that he hadn’t thought this through.
The risk of her being alone in the woods this time of year spurred a slow-churning panic that he had zero experience with. Why should it matter to him what she did? She was a grown woman and perfectly capable of taking care of herself… maybe. He wasn’t willing to risk it. If something happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
They got out of their cars at the same time. The air was heavy with the scent of rain after a storm early this morning and the promise of more rain later.
Olive closed her eyes and smiled peacefully as she inhaled deeply. Ryker’s chest squeezed with the memory of how upset she’d been over something on her phone the other day. Had she wanted to go hiking to help clear her mind?
“Wow, that’s a nice view.”
She came around the car and slid her arms into the straps of her backpack while looking through the trees. He didn’t see what she did at first. He’d been up here so many times that he didn’t notice the scenery much anymore. Following her line of sight, he moved beside her and took a second to enjoy the mountain range cast in shades of dark blue, gray, and purple ahead of them.
“We’ve got a mile walk and it’s nearly a straight incline the entire way. You up for it?”
“Of course.”
He retrieved his pack from the back seat, slipped it on, then grabbed two metal water bottles.
“Do you have water?”
She held up a silver bottle and gave it a jiggle. “I have been hiking before, you know.”
He shoved one of his bottles into her free hand. “You can never have too much water.”
“Thanks.” She slipped the bottle into her backpack.
Ryker motioned for her to follow him and started down a narrow path. They walked in silence, and he became acutely aware of her presence behind him. He’d never noticed a woman quite the way he did Olive. Every time he saw her, he cataloged something new and different about her. Her smile. The sound of her footsteps. The way her body moved. He hadn’t realized how often he focused on her until he tried harder to ignore her. It wasn’t working and yesterday at the boutique had made it a hundred times worse.
Needing to break the silence, he thought of something to say.
“Did you do a lot of hiking in Missouri?”
“Not really.”
Aside from her home state, Ryker realized he knew nothing about her.
“How’d you get into hiking, then?”
“I started tagging along with Lulu and Fox on their hikes. Your brother never has a lack of awesome trails to take us on.”
Ryker chuffed. “He lives for that shit. Just don’t let him convince you to eat worms.”
“Gross.”
As a wilderness survival expert, Fox had a lot of disgusting survival tricks up his sleeve.
“Did you live in Missouri your whole life until you came here?”
She didn’t answer right away. “Yep.”
“Your family still lives there?”
Her silence stretched longer this time. Glancing over his shoulder, he paused to wait for her to catch up.
“Yeah.”
One word, hard and final. He took the hint. She clearly didn’t want to talk about herself.
The terrain quickly changed from a flat, even trail to a steep incline with logs wedged into the ground to make rudimentary stairs. The edges were splintered and crumbling, and Ryker knew from experience that one wrong step would cause your foot to slip. She could fall down the incline and break a leg, or worse, crack her head.
Maybe coming out here wasn’t the best idea after all. Olive came up behind him and inhaled deeply.
“I love that smell. “
His bear picked up scents constantly, to an overwhelming level. Ryker learned early how to block most of them out. “What smell?”
“Petrichor.”
He arched a brow. “Petrichor?”
“The way the Earth smells after it rains. Wet soil, decaying leaves, the amplified scent of flowers.” She adjusted her backpack. “There’s so much to love about this place, you know? The views, the sounds, the smells. I’m finding new things all the time.”
For an outsider, that was probably true. For him? Estes Park was just a place he wanted to leave.
“It’s not like this in the city, is it?”
“No, and I’m never going back.”
The bitter finality of her words said so much. Something had happened in her old home that caused her not to want to go back.
“Are we going up?”
“We are, but I need you to watch your foot placement carefully. Don’t rely on the logs to support you. They won’t and you’ll fall. Anchor your heel in front of each log and step up.”
“Got it.”
Ryker climbed the first three steps, then turned to check on her. Olive carefully placed her boots on the ground as he’d instructed, and they began the ascent. She was breathing heavily by the time they reached the last few steps. The incline made a sharp angle upwards. The soil was slippery from the rain, and large chunks of earth had eroded.
“These last three are treacherous. Take my hand.”
He planted his feet, swiveled at the waist, and held his hand to her. She grabbed ahold of him, her fingers making a death grip around him as he all but pulled her up.
“I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”
Ryker added his other hand to hers, supporting her, guiding her, and keeping her safe as they cleared the last steps.
“Wow!” She bent over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “That was nuts. My legs are burning.”
Ryker cracked his water bottle and handed it to her. She hesitated before accepting and taking a drink.
“We’ve got eighty-six steps to go. You up for it?”
She straightened and handed him the bottle. “I’m up for it.”
He thumbed behind him, grinning when she followed the movement and realized what was ahead.
The fire watch station towered over them. Built at the top of a peak, it was one of the only remaining fire towers still using manpower and not tech to detect wildfires. The walk-up wasn’t for the lighthearted.
“That’s impressive.”
“Wait until you see the view from the top. Ready?”
She walked beside him. “How far would you say we just hiked?”
“It’s a mile and a half from the parking lot to the tower.”
He didn’t like the smug look on her face.
“So, essentially I just went for a hike.”
Ryker pressed his lips into a line. He knew where this was going.
“Did I encounter any dangerous bears? No. So I would say that, once again, I have won this bet and you, Ryker Mitchell, are once again a loser.”
He scoffed. “A mile isn’t a hike. That’s a stroll.”
“Excuse me, but we never negotiated the terms of what did or did not constitute a hike. We hiked a mile through the woods, and nothing terrible happened to me, therefore I won.”
“You didn’t win.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Fine, what do you want?”
She tugged her lower lip between her teeth while observing him thoughtfully.
“I’ll think about it and let you know.”
Knowing he’d been outmaneuvered, Ryker gestured for her to begin climbing the metal steps leading up the fire tower. He waited until she’d gone up a few before following suit. His eyes tracked upward, his heart slamming against his chest.
Damn it. He should have gone up ahead of her, but he’d wanted to follow in case she ran into trouble, never considering that he would have a perfect view of her tight, round ass the entire way up.
Eighty-six steps of Olive’s ass.
She was petite, but she had just the right amount of curves. Her ponytail was thick and shiny, the blonde strands streaked with low lights and highlights that looked so pretty with her blue eyes.
The wind picked up, tossing her hair around her back, and tugging at her shirt. Cursing under his breath, Ryker hoped the rain would hold off until tonight as the weather forecast predicted.
Olive slowed her climb but didn’t stop until they reached the top.
“There’s a lock on the trapdoor just above your head,” he called out. “Pull the lever from the mechanism and then push the trapdoor up.”
She hefted it open and climbed inside. He paused to look at the skyline for storm clouds. Olive was peering down at him when he resumed climbing.
“Are you coming, slowpoke?”
“Slowpoke? I was going easy on you. I would have been up here an hour ago by myself.”
“Smartass.”
Pulling himself inside, he closed and locked the trapdoor then slipped off his backpack.
He grabbed a bottle of water, about to suggest Olive do the same but she was circling the small room, peering out the massive plexiglass windows to take in the three hundred and sixty-degree view.
“This is amazing! You can see for miles up here!”
“See? All the nature you could want from the safety of four walls.”
The interior was rugged but comfortable. There was a counter on the wall with a camping stove for cooking and a cupboard with kitchen essentials and canned food. Two twin cots sat on the other side of the room, a round table and chairs in the middle. Behind the cooking area, a narrow space had been sectioned off with a shower curtain to fashion a makeshift restroom with a camping toilet and wash basin, complete with several jugs of bottled water for cleaning up.
He grabbed a clipboard from a hook on the cupboard and flipped through the pages clipped there.
“What’s that?”
Olive made a slow walk through the room and came his way.
“I need to do inventory. The tower is staffed twenty-four hours a day, every day until the next snowfall starting on Monday. It’s my job to get supplies up here and keep the place stocked, in addition to taking my turn on fire watch.”
Her soft eyes dug into his soul. “You have a pretty exciting life. Working for the fire department, doing search and rescue, and getting to work in places like this for the forest department. It’s pretty cool.”
Maybe she stroked his ego a little. Or maybe it was something else. But Ryker closed the distance between them in four steps, holding her gaze, loving how her pupils dilated as she watched him approach.
“You know what the most exciting thing is?”
Her pretty lips parted as he hooked a finger under her chin and brought her face up.
“What?”
“Having you here with me.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “I thought you were going to say kissing me was the—”
Ryker pulled her against him, ignoring the voice in his head that said he shouldn’t, and brushed his lips across hers. Watching her, waiting for her reaction, his blood flamed when she gripped his shirt and rose on her toes to meet his lips.
Her flavor burst on his tongue, the headiest sweetness he’d ever experienced. Kissing her deeply, he chased the taste of her and the way it made him feel, trying to grab both and make them stay. Olive’s body melted against him. He dropped the clipboard to wrap his arms around her. Lifting her off her feet, he slid an arm beneath her as she wrapped her legs around his hips.
She kissed him with pure abandon, seeking the pleasure of his lips as much as he was hers. Her energy was wild and uninhibited as she cupped his face in her hands and dragged her lips along his with the barest touch.
Her lips were swollen when she pulled back, her voice raw and breathy. “What are we doing?”
His bear growled low, warning Ryker not to stop. He wanted to claim her, to keep her, to sink into her body and make her completely his.
But he couldn’t. He wasn’t staying in Estes Park. Nothing about his future was certain and Olive… she wanted to stay here.
Slowly, he released her and set her on her feet. “It was just a taste.”
“Oh.” Her hands slid from his body, leaving him empty.
Wiping her fingers across her lips, she stepped back and turned away.
“Hey, what’s this over here?”
Just like that, she crossed the room, leaving him standing there cursing himself.
He should have known better than to bring her here. What the hell did he think was going to happen?
Being alone with Olive would only lead to one thing, and it was the one thing he couldn’t offer her.
For both their sakes.