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He knew from his childhood that the trail that followed the canyon actually skirted above it, so Shane ignored the packed dirt trail and cut into the narrow canyon itself. At this time of year, the stream was still a fairly healthy flow. In another month it would decrease to a trickle. But at least it wasn’t spring. Merry would have to work pretty hard to be swept away in this water, but during a wet spring, it would be damned hazardous.
“Merry!” he called again. He had to keep a close eye on his footing as the place was strewn with loose rocks and boulders that seemed to have been stacked on top of crumbling slate, but he stopped every dozen yards or so to sweep the area with his gaze.
Finally, about fifty yards up the canyon, he heard a voice. Singing. Shane sucked in a deep breath and sighed with relief. Okay. She was fine.
He rounded an outcropping of rock and found her walking toward him, singing a pop song he recognized from the radio. When she finally glanced up, the song turned into a screech of horror and she stumbled back so quickly she nearly fell on her ass in the narrow stream.
Shane jumped forward to steady her, but she waved him off. “Holy crap, you scared me!”
“Are you okay?”
“Aside from the fact that I almost wet my pants, yes.”
“Grace was worried about you. She said there was some kind of vandalism up here, and then neither of us could get a hold of you.”
“Oh.” She looked guiltily away. “I’m sorry. Yeah. There’s no signal up here. Thank you for coming to check on me.”
“It’s no problem. You’re sure you’re fine?”
“I’m good. In fact…” She brightened up and waved her hands. “Come back with me! I found the ice house! Or what’s left of it. I think. It’s pretty cool.”
He started to demur, but she was already scrambling back up the canyon, so he had no choice but to follow. Plus, he didn’t mind looking at her curvy hips ahead of him. Or the plump ass he’d curved his hand around when he’d kissed her good-night. A mix of relief over her safety and watching her swaying hips combined to cause him a problem he’d never experienced before: hiking with an erection.
“Christ, man,” he muttered. “Get a grip.”
After all, Merry didn’t seem the least bit aware of him as she rushed ahead. She was too busy being excited about the two decaying boards of wood she pointed toward. “Look!”
“Uh,” he responded, doing his best not to tell her it didn’t look anything like an ice house.
“It’s pretty broken down,” she explained unnecessarily.
“Yeah.”
“But look at the flat stones laid out here in this notch. I’m pretty sure this was the floor. See how it’s set down below the level of the dirt? And there’s still a board wedged in here.”
“Very cool.”
“Yeah.” She sighed, kneeling down to put her hands to the stones. Half of them were buried in silt from some long ago flood, but Merry didn’t seem to see that. She seemed to see a complete ice house here, newly built by hardworking folk and used as a summer playroom for mischievous children. “So cool,” she whispered. “We can’t make it part of the tour, obviously. It’s too treacherous up here, but I’ve got a lot of pictures. I can make a little display about it, use some quotes from the story I heard.”
“Right.”
She looked up at him with a huge grin, and Shane felt a now familiar rush of warmth fall through him. He knelt next to her.
“See this?”
“Merry.”
When she turned back to him, he kissed her, aware that he always had to draw her attention before he could claim her mouth. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that when his lips touched hers, she always melted into him. She always wanted more.
But why the hell did her greatest passion have to be the one thing he couldn’t support? If it was anything else, he could happily play second fiddle as long as she sighed like this when he touched her. As long as her shy tongue snuck in to taste him and drive him wild.
“Oh,” she said when he finally let her go.
“We should get back. The sun’s setting.”
“Okay.” She sighed, taking his hand when he stood to pull her up.
She followed him, quiet for once, in that way she only seemed to get around him. He liked her shyness around him, but he was happy when she finally spoke.
