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“It’s beautiful here!”
“It is,” he agreed. “I’m not sure if we’re staying here though. I have to see whether we’re as close to the water as I think we are.”
He got out of the SUV, and she unbuckled and followed him into the trees. Although he checked his phone, he kept walking in more or less the same direction. A couple of minutes into the woods, they came to an opening that turned out to be a small river. It meandered through the forest, slow and lazy, gleaming in the late sunlight like a blue ribbon that had spilled from its spool. There was scrubby grass from where they stood, right to the riverbank.
“Sand at the bottom of the river here. Nice,” Luke commented. “There may be good fishing down by the weeds there, too.”
“Fishing?”
“Yup.”
“But I thought . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. Fishing was not what she had in mind.
He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I need to set up the tent and we need to eat something before I defile you. If I can be patient after being teased all day, you can be patient too.”
“Defile me?” She laughed nervously, trying to ease some of the tension. “Does that involve locking me in your tower and ripping my bodice open or something?”
His gaze dropped to the front of her shirt. “I could probably rip through that if you’d like. I might need to use the utility knife I bought.”
Was he teasing? He had to be teasing.
Shit.
His smile was evil.
And here she was in the woods alone with him, where no one could hear her scream. “Um,” she fumbled through some responses in her head, then swallowed hard. “I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“So we’ll put knife play on your hard-limit list.” He winked, and the danger was gone.
But the danger had been fun . . .
“For today,” she shot back, then wondered where that had come from.
His gaze moved over her, neutral, dangerous, assessing. A man who’d maybe played with knives before and had liked it.
She shivered.
“Fair enough.” His voice was orgasmic. It made her want him to whisper sexy threats in her ear.
They walked back to the SUV and unloaded, then carried the tent and supplies to the edge of the tree line. He had her read the directions for the tent while he ignored her and set it up, like he’d done it a million times before and just needed to keep her busy. The air mattress and sleeping bags were next, then they moved their clothes in but left the snacks in the SUV to keep away animals.
Next, he took her down to the river to fish. She sat on a boulder and watched him with interest as he cast the line and waited. This suddenly felt so surreal. Just last night she’d been getting hammered at a party and now she was in the middle of nowhere about to eat fresh-caught fish for dinner with a man who had dastardly plans for her.
As strange as things had turned out, she was glad of it. Something about this whole thing felt . . . right. Getting away from the monotony, from people pestering, and from her own sad memories. Doing something spontaneous was exactly what she’d needed.
Luke caught a fish far faster than she would have thought possible, then they walked back to the campsite. There, he started a fire, cleaned the fish, then wrapped it in the aluminum foil they’d picked up, and set it on the outer edge of the heat.
“Who are you? Bear Grylls?” she asked above the crackling fire. They were sitting on top of one of the sleeping bags they’d dragged out next to the fire. “Were
you an Eagle Scout or something?”
With a modest shrug, he answered, “I’m just good at outdoorsy stuff.” He smiled, and she noticed again how his canine teeth were pointy enough to make a girl nervous. “My cousins and sister and I did a lot of camping with our dads.”
Her father had been from large family and had grown up poor, so he’d always said he would never sleep on the ground again by choice. They’d traveled and stayed in dozens of hotels but had never been camping. She’d never understood what the fuss was all about until now. There was something soothing about it. Even the less pleasant parts, like bugs and lack of plumbing, made her feel more grounded. She felt a little tougher, a little wilder.
They ate the fish with their fingers right off of the makeshift foil plate. It was the best she’d ever eaten. When they were done, they cleaned up, stashing anything that smelled like food in the SUV.
“So what next?” Luke asked as the sun dipped toward the horizon. “A swim, or are we waiting until morning?”
