9. Champion #3
She beamed at me. “That wasn’t a no. What about a campground with the cute little cabins? Not that sleeping under the stars isn’t great, but think of the mosquitoes. The Arizona forests below the Grand Canyon are supposed to be gorgeous, but I’ve never been. Good thing I brought sleeping bags.”
“And pillows. You’re a regular girl scout: always prepared. Sounds like a plan.”
“Although you were in a big rush to get to Las Vegas the other night. Now it isn’t as urgent? Why not?” Her eyes were so big and beautiful.
“I got shot. If I go to Vegas, I’ll have to explain to my friends what happened, and that will be a hassle. It’s better to just slip in like I never left.” That was part of it, but we both needed time.
“Ah. You want to recover. Poor Mr. Honey must feel terrible. Maybe I should drive. I had a very nice nap.” She stretched to prove her point, arching her body, showing how lithe and flexible she was.
Every one of her movements was distracting, tempting, but I was not driven by my desires, however much it looked like it from the outside.
“It’s the pillows. You brought excellent pillows for our road trip. I always say you can be comfortable anywhere if you have the right pillows.”
She put her head back on the white down and smiled at me, so inviting, so sweet, like sunshine on a pillow. “You always say that?”
“Every day,” I said solemnly. “Why don’t you close your eyes and see if you can get a few more winks while I find us a campground.”
She obediently closed her eyes, and it was like sleeping beauty, waiting for a kiss. She’d asked me to kiss her. Somehow I backed away, went around the car, and got back in the driver’s side. She actually did fall back asleep, trusting me to find the way on my own.
The campground was small, run by a couple who lived in an RV and lectured us about firewood and littering before sending us to our cabin in the woods. When we almost hit an elk, Kitten gasped and grabbed my leg, sending a bolt of awareness through me that woke me all the way up.
“He’s so beautiful. I wish I could paint him.
” Her soft husky voice was serious bedroom fodder.
What was wrong with me? She was talking about an elk, not kissing, and she’d only mentioned kissing once.
I’d thought about it more than once on our drive.
Yeah, I’d been thinking about a lot of things once the gate to her lips was unlocked.
I had to reign in the lust or I’d terrify her.
She was a virgin. She admitted it without the slightest hesitation.
She liked being a virgin and wasn’t interested in changing that statistic.
I really was incredibly uncomfortable around that kind of thing, the innocent, the uninitiated, but somehow, it didn’t seem to matter with her.
I just wanted to be with her whatever that meant, as long as I could keep her out of the psychopath’s grasp.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a female,” I said. “It is gorgeous here. Good call, Kitten.” I patted her hand and subtly took it off my thigh.
We pulled up at the small cabin, big enough for a bed and not much else, and not the size of bed that I was accustomed to.
I got out slowly, feeling tired. Being shot did take it out of you, and so did driving, and so did not touching Sunshine Ray Wilson.
I went around the car to open the door for her, but she was already out, holding two pillows to her chest while she looked at me with those big luminous eyes, like she was afraid that I’d lured her into the woods to gobble her up. Made me want to gobble her up exactly the way she wanted me to.
“Can I carry those pillows for you? Maybe I’ll just carry you.
How are your hips feeling? Your bruising looks much better.
” I focused for a moment on the smooth column of her neck before my gaze went down to her chest where the remnant of a bright bruise had been covered before.
I lightly brushed the skin above the curve of her neckline. “That’s still pretty bad.”
She looked down and then hugged the pillows tighter, blocking the bruising. “That’s where he held me against the seat with his arm.” She smiled brightly, but her eyes were watery.
“Hey, Kitten, come here.” I held out my arms and for a moment she hesitated but then she fell against me too hard for how delicate she was. I held her gently, trying to lend her some sense of safety. “I’m going to do my best to keep you from harm, okay?”
She sniffed. “I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m getting emotional all of a sudden.”
“It was in the questionnaire you made for me. I want a woman with all the emotions.” Was she still the woman I wanted to spend six months with? There was absolutely no doubt about it.
“Moody and erratic,” she mumbled against my chest.
“No one is happy all the time, Kitten. And you know what? That’s just fine.
” We stayed there like that, me hugging her with the pillows between us.
Maybe it was weird, but we were in the middle of the woods with nothing but elk to judge us.
Finally, she pulled away and I let her go.
Her eyes were red-rimmed and her nose an adorable pink.
She sniffed and then handed me the pillows while she rummaged in her car for tissues.
“Okay, let’s take a tour of the grand mansion,” she said, slipping her arm in mine and smiling up at me.
That’s when I knew that she smiled to cover up her pain.
She did it so well, so effortlessly. She shouldn’t have so much practice hiding her misery.
I wanted to make her smile for real, and make her comfortable enough around me that she didn’t need to smile when she wasn’t really happy.
I shifted the pillows so I could pat her hand. “It’ll take some time. There’s the bathroom, which is a good walk to our left, and then the pond where we can do some fishing, maybe take a swim in the moonlight. The grand sleeping quarters are right before you.”
The grand sleeping quarters were two bunks built into the wall inside the teeny cabin, stacked on top of each other.
It was probably physically possible to have two people in one of those bunks, but it wouldn’t be comfortable.
Good. Sleeping on the bunk beneath her would keep me from crushing her in my sleep.
I wasn’t at all disappointed that she wouldn’t be making a pillow out of my shoulder and snuggling me all night.
“I get the bottom bunk,” I said, putting the pillow down. “That way I’m the first line of defense when the bears try to get us.”
“You already got shot protecting me.”
“I got shot protecting Christina, not you. He wouldn’t have shot if it put you at risk. Not that we’re talking about that. Let’s save all the unpleasant topics for when we’re pillow hugging. Right now, I’m going fishing to catch something for dinner. Do you want to come?”
She studied me for a long time. “Are you sure you aren’t tired and want to rest?”
“Fishing is extremely restful. Also, I’m feeling like a ten-year-old at scout camp, excited to cook my catch over the flames for dinner. Do you like fish?”
She nodded, but was looking at me so strangely. “Fish for dinner sounds lovely. And we can pick berries for breakfast.”
“That does sound adventurous.” I stepped close to her and kissed her forehead.
I held her carefully while I studied her eyes.
“Will you be okay here? You should be able to hear a motor coming, and I will be close down by the lake. We can’t exactly order in without phones, and I do get grumpy when I’m hungry. ”
She pursed her lips. “That’s okay, I just thought that you’d kiss me.”
“I kissed your forehead. Not the kissing you had in mind?”
“If you don’t want to kiss me, you don’t have to, I just thought…”
I brushed her cheek with my fingertips while she stared at me, completely oblivious about what she was asking for.
“Let’s settle down some. I can’t start kissing you in earnest, or I won’t stop even for dinner.
Kissing can get very addictive. It’s best not to start until you’ve got a good stretch of time and a large stock of snacks. We also need to talk about the plan.”
“Oh. Right. The plan,” she said, stepping away from me and tugging on a strand of her hair, clearly embarrassed, which was the last thing in the world I wanted.
She was so terribly sweet, innocent, not my usual speed.
Everything with her would be slow, other than throwing myself in front of her to take a bullet, of course.
She looked up at me with big eyes. “What’s the plan other than eating fish? ”
I smiled at her. “I want you with me for the next six months so I can protect you from your stalker and fulfil my mother’s demands. What do you want? Think about it, okay?”
“And if I want to kiss you?”
I almost laughed. She had a delightfully one-track mind.
“We can try that when we have a nice crackling fire and a sky stitched with stars for ambiance.” I winked at her and backed away before I forgot myself.
She was just too sweet. Also, she wanted to use me to help her forget about the awfully painful kissing Dupre had put her through.
I really wanted to make that right for her, to help her be in a better place after this six month’s experiment was over.
She laughed and then sighed. “I’m going to make up our beds while you hunt down dinner. You’ll have to teach me how to ask for kisses without it getting weird.”
I caught her hand and squeezed it. “I want kissing to be good for you, special. Casual kissing comes after you get comfortable with someone. At least that’s what they say.
I don’t personally know, never having seriously dated someone before.
This is a situation that is new for me, and I’m trying to do things right.
I don’t want you to feel awkward or dismissed.
Honey, I’ve wanted to taste your lips since the first time I saw you.
I just want to take my time, let you get comfortable with me, so you don’t have to ask, you just feel in the moment and don’t overthink.
” I ran a hand through my hair. “And here I am, definitely overthinking. What do you want me to bring in? It might be easier to keep most of the stuff in the car, since there isn’t much room inside. ”
“I can take things in,” she said, looking small and cute, and impossible not to kiss.
I leaned down and kissed her nose, leaving her blinking in surprise. “Yes, you can, but why would you want to when I have to earn your kisses?”
She gave me a shy and crooked smile before she raised her brows and looked imperious. “You’d better bring me dinner if you want serious kissing. I will see to the house while you take care of the hunting.”
“I do want serious kissing, and playful kissing, and all the kinds in between. Thank you.”
She blinked at me. “What for?”
“For saving me from Christina and all the other debs who would make fun of me for being a home health nurse.” For making me feel like a good guy, someone who protected instead of destroyed.
She gave me the most pointedly objectifying look she possibly could, which was still not very objectifying. “Muscles are for more than looking pretty, and you have so many of them.” She cocked her head, and her perusal took a different flavor. “I wonder if you’d let me draw you naked.”
If I were naked with her, drawing is not what she’d be doing.
“On that note, I’m going hunting. Holler if you need something.
I’ll probably be able to hear you if you use your diaphragm.
” I turned and headed into the trees, the ground generously covered in soft pine needles that I wouldn’t mind rolling around on with Kitten.
No one had ever asked me to kiss them before.
It was always a direct order, or women just kissed me.
I’d never even noticed until now, with Kitten so hesitant and shy about it.
She acted like it was something that she should get over, like kissing was a hurdle she hadn’t yet mastered, but it should be much more than that.
Once I’d helped her get over her kissing trauma, she’d be ready for so much more when she found someone else she wanted to have a relationship with.
After our six months. Because anything else would be insane.
Strange that thinking of her with someone else made me want to rip something apart.