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She held on to another shriek as she gripped the sides of the boat and settled into her cockpit behind Luke.
‘Your paddle, ma’am.’
She sent Chad a caustic smile as she took the short lightweight pole.
‘OK, folks, you’re all set. Enjoy your trip.’
Chad gave the boat a hefty shove, jogging the kayak off the sandbank and propelling them into the water. Luke wheeled his paddle in a smooth arc that sent them into the current, the corded muscles of his upper arms flexing and stretching with each stroke.
Halle attempted to match her strokes to his rhythm.
Eventually, they settled into an even glide, the bright blue two-man kayak carried along by the current. Halle absorbed the sunlight on her skin, and the slight drift and pull of the river, managing to relax a little now that they hadn’t immediately capsized.
Riverbanks crowded with shrubs and trees let off a resinous perfume to go with the cool fresh scent of the water, any signs of human habitation vanishing as they left Chad and the drop-off location behind. The Tuckasegee River took a smooth sinuous course through the landscape. The swift current more manageable than she had expected as the water rippled over the stony riverbed.
Halle relaxed into their journey, clipping the surface with her paddle, while letting Luke do most of the work—with six hours to go she planned to conserve her energy.
He rotated his torso, rocking his hips to dig the double-ended paddle into the water. His shoulders lifted and tilted with each stroke, the muscles bunching against the arm-holes of his life vest.
She got a tiny bit transfixed.
Apparently, there was only so much scenery you could admire when you had a man of Luke’s physique displaying his natural athletic ability two feet from your nose. Especially if you hadn’t gotten laid in over a year.
‘Hey, look over there.’ He pointed towards the bank. Halle spotted the hawklike bird perched on the top of a hawthorn tree, regal and serene as it stared at them.
‘What is it?’ she asked as it launched off the branch and swooped into the sky.
‘An osprey, maybe. I have an e-book on the local wildlife on my iPad. We can check it out later.’
Halle smiled at his response. Luke had always been inquisitive, enthusiastic about discovering new things. ‘Since when did you become a twitcher?’
He glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow cocked. ‘I’m not the one who asked what it was.’
‘True.’
He nodded at her paddle, which she’d placed on the hull to watch the bird. ‘Start paddling, you freeloader. There’s no passengers allowed on this boat.’
‘Aye aye, Captain.’ She began paddling again, maybe exhaustion was the answer to curbing the liquid tug of the muscles in her abdomen.
Exhaustion was definitely the answer, followed by extreme boredom. For, however magnificent the Smoky Mountain scenery and its raw, primal overwhelming beauty, or Luke’s very flexible, very expansive shoulders, there was only so much of either one you could appreciate when your arms were about to drop off.
By hour three of their kayak adventure, the scenery—both natural and man-made—had become completely beside the point.
The only thing that had kept her going this far was that she didn’t want to give in first. She’d been on the receiving end of Luke’s superior look rather frequently in the past eight days while trying to keep up on various hikes and horse rides, but he showed no signs of tiring whatsoever.
She steeled herself for the familiar raised eyebrow. ‘Isn’t it about time for lunch?’
He lifted the paddle out of the water, swivelled round. ‘You knackered already? We’ve only been at it for a couple of hours.’
Hello, superior look.
‘I’m not knackered.’ Much. ‘I’m starving. It’s got to be about four hours since breakfast. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to eat before I start gnawing off my own arm. Or get third-degree sunburn.’
He tipped up the peak of her baseball cap. She struggled to match his superior look under the inspection, although it probably wasn’t that effective given that she was totally knackered.
‘Did you put the sunscreen on? Your nose looks pink.’
She wrinkled the nose in question, making it sting. ‘You’re not actually the captain of this little expedition, you know. That was just a joke on my part. Which I would never have made if I had realised you were Captain Bligh in a former life.’
