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The rumble of his voice was just as comforting as the words he whispered against the softness of her hair. “Sleep now, sweetheart. Sleep now for me.”
Chapter 20
He was more than a little delighted to see her standing outside that morning, wearing her prescribed outfit for the day: a tight white tank top and her cut-off denim shorts. She was even wearing the new hiking boots he’d bought for her; he wasn’t at all sure that he’d even need them, but he gave it his best guess on her shoe size. Kelsey looked absolutely mouthwatering, standing there in the blazing sun, skin well-tanned, her blonde hair even paler than it had been when she first arrived, the summer brilliance rendering her even more beautiful though he didn’t think that was possible.
“So, where are we headed, Uncle Max?”
He couldn’t help clenching his jaw at the moniker. He’d have to address that later. Again. “That’s for me to know, and you to do as you’re told.”
She glanced down at her shoes, posing one of her feet up on her toe, displaying the sleek muscles of her leg. It made him want to lick every inch of her. “I was a little surprised to see these waiting for me this morning. I love them!”
He dropped the heavy pack at her feet, pointing at it. “You’re carrying this.”
A fine line formed at the middle of her brow. “Hey, um, my pack is a lot bigger than yours.”
He grinned at her. “That’s because you’re going to be my little pack mule on this hike. You’re not just a pretty face and a great ass, you’re going to be working, too.”
It was adorable watching the wheels turn behind her eyes as she glanced down at the pack, and back at his, slung over his right shoulder. In truth, her pack wasn’t exactly everything. In his was where the water, food, and the magazines were. He’d decided to carry the Glock 19 with him on this one, the weapon secure in its holster, attached to his belt. Not that he expected he’d need it, but he was a man who always felt he was better safe than sorry.
Where they were going there would be no one around. They’d be on their own.
Her pack had the blankets, the emergency shelter, and a few other odds and ends. Like his weapon, he didn’t expect they’d need it but it was better to have it than not. That it made her pack bulky and heavy was a definite bonus. Apparently deciding that protest was not going to gain her anything, she crouched down, threading her arm through the straps of the pack and hauling it up. He helped her get it on, then stopped her. “No, this is all wrong. Drop the pack.”
She slipped the straps, and the pack thumped heavily to the ground. “What’s wrong?”
“This.” He wagged a finger at her chest. “Get the tank top off.”
Her head whipped around frantically, her eyes scanning the driveway, then further down into the canyon. “Right here? Like, now?”
For a heartbeat, she stared him down, as if weighing whether or not he was serious about his order. He gave her a slow nod.
She winced, acquiescing, reluctantly pulling the tank top off. She dropped it to the ground next to the pack, then crouched down, unzipping it and stuffing the top inside. She zipped it up, then stood once more. She looked decidedly uncomfortable, still glancing now and then down the road, her hands clasped to her thighs.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” He quirked an eyebrow, giving her a slight shake of his head. “Grab the pack.”
The sight of her as she slipped the pack back on, the straps compressing the upper slopes of her bouncing and wobbling breasts was entrancing indeed. She was blushing furiously by the time he helped her get the straps situated correctly so they didn’t cut into her too much.
“A very nice look, I think,” he said, flicking one of her nipples. “I should have done this a long time ago. Better late than never though.”
“Where are… where are we going?”
He pointed across to the other side of the canyon, due west of them. “See the top of the escarpment? That bluff there where all the trees are clustering? That’s where we’re headed. Let’s go.”
He took off then, without another word to her, expecting she would fall in behind him. Fortunately, she seemed to guess that he wasn’t going to brook any further delay or protest.
Where his house was situated, at the very top of the beginning of the canyon, the highway ran along the heights crossing in front of the entrance to the canyon like a T.
Foster Canyon itself seemed to be cut out of the very cliff side, as if a giant axe had crashed down and gouged a great crevasse out of the cliffs. And over time, and the never-ending running of the creek down that cut into the terrain, the canyon had widened into its present, dramatic configuration. At the bottom end, where most of the other homesteads congregated, it opened out into the flatlands running along the western banks of the Okanogan River.
But along the western end of the cliff’s lip, a great stand of Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine, and even some Lodgepole pine clustered along that edge, much more of it farther along up into the foothills further to the west. It was in that tangle of forest that he intended to take her. It was only a few miles, but on a hot day like this, in country that prominently featured rattlesnakes during the summertime, it would be a healthy distance to travel—and a mildly challenging hike.
She proved surprisingly game, keeping pace with him even over the roughest terrain including a section of pretty large boulders that had over the eons collected along the side of the canyon. The trail that they followed was little more than a footpath, and one that only residents of the canyon knew existed. They stopped now and then to drink water, Kelsey’s face blushing fiercely as he fondled her breasts, while he fed her drinks from his own bottle, admonishing her softly not to be greedy with it. Her nipples had grown hard at that, her blush deepening still.
It took hours but they made their way slowly up the slope, the path moving in switchbacks at times as it got steeper and steeper. Finally, they reached the lip of the canyon—and the impenetrable edge of the stand of timber.
“Oh, wow, look at the size of this thing, this log. It’s gotta be as thick as I am tall.” The trees there were clustered so closely that even the brush was virtually impassable to anything but wildlife. The trail essentially ended here, and she was smart enough to notice it. “It’s blocked though, isn’t it? Is there a way around?”
“Nope. This is where the trail ends.”
