AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, no, no. Don’t go there . . .
But my brain did.
In fact, it went there in 4D.
On a bed. Jack flipping my dress up, exposing my bare ass. His big hand connecting with my skin with a loud thwack. Me bucking forward just before he palmed my ass cheeks to soothe the mark.
Oh God, help me. I’m into red flag carriers. Just like my sister.
“You just want to fall tonight, don’t you?” he asked, and I hated I couldn’t see his face clearly enough to read the expression that went along with his jab.
“You should’ve let me fall. Both times,” my stubborn self responded. I wasn’t used to men rescuing me. Or doing anything remotely heroic. And I could never allow myself to get used to having someone to rely on.
“Oh yeah?” he asked, his tone casual.
I grunted. Not very ladylike. And I didn’t care. “Why are you still holding me?”
“Because there are ants crawling all over the place. And if I set you down, you might wind up pissing them off even more than you already did when you tripped.”
Oh, okay, well, in that case, my pride could shove it. “How can you even see them?” I craned my neck to search out the trail, keying in on a tiny beam of evening light that spliced through the canopy. It was just enough to illuminate the buzz of movement on the ground.
Yeah, being covered in ants wasn’t on my to-do list. Not that I had lists. Lists were for normal people with normal lives. People who didn’t panic move, as Lucy called it, at every sign of a possible problem because they didn’t have anyone to save them from falling. Or, well, from dying.
“Maybe you should walk a bit faster, then? Before it’s just us and the ants alone out here,” I suggested, returning my attention to his face. He shifted just right so the little trickle of light allowed me to make out his strong jawline.
“I will if you tell me what you’re really doing here.”
So, you’re stubborn, too? Figures. I unhooked my arm from behind his neck and palmed his chest, contemplating my options. Push away and deal with ants? Or deal with the man whose heartbeat was so steady beneath my touch, I almost felt reassurance and safety with every beat. “Same reason as you. For the money. Clearly. Not for love.”
An unexpected laugh rumbled through his chest, and the warmth of his breath fanned across my cheek. The light cutting through the branches and leaves nearly a hundred feet overhead moved, placing him fully back into the darkness again, erasing his features from view. “Try again, sweetheart.”
“Do I look like a ‘sweetheart’ to you?”
“No, at the moment, you look like a pain in my ass. But your ass happens to be pretty much in my hands right now,” he fired back, a hint of humor still clinging to his tone.
And that naughty-spanking thought popped back into my head with the same level of intensity as the imaginary swat on my rear end had.
“You two coming or what?” someone called out, interrupting the weird moment we were having.
It sounded like Stephen, but it could’ve been anyone, the sound of his voice muted and lackluster as it drifted back to us.
The jungle, however, was very much alive and vibrant—every little sound echoing around us. Buzzing. Humming. Chirping. And yet, I was pretty sure I could still make out the sounds of both our heartbeats. They seemed to be competing for attention. Beat for beat.
“Coming. Saved her from an army of ants,” Jack hollered as he began walking, still carrying my “pain in the ass” self.
“Let me down,” I demanded a minute later, squirming in his arms.
He finally relented and lowered me to the ground. When I faced forward, prepared to flee what I’d worried would be inquisition part two of the evening, Jack snatched my wrist, stopping me from bolting.
“Just tell me one thing,” he said a bit more roughly this time. “The question you didn’t want to answer back there . . . did someone hurt you or someone you care about? And are they dead?”
How in the world had he read that situation like that? Jumped to that conclusion?
I blinked in shock, thankful he couldn’t see the rapid fluttering of my eyelashes. “I’m not answering that.” I tugged my wrist free of his hold.
“I need to know.” Zero humor. Only grit.
I faced him. “Why?”
