Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia #2) (34 page)

He frowned, like I had offended him. “I was a boy scout until I was twelve. I was so awesome I didn’t need to continue after that.”

“Oh please,” I continued to laugh, trying to catch my breath.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Hardly,” I bit my lip to hold back more laughter.

He puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips. “I was the best boy scout ever, I’ll have you know.”

“So if a bear happens to wander by, what will you do?”

“I’ll wrestle it to the ground, of course,” he flexed his arm muscles. “No bear can withstand these.”

Shaking my head, I said, “Your confidence never ceases to amaze me.”

He chuckled, placing a hand to his chest. “Never doubt my bear fighting abilities.” He nodded his head towards the woods, coaxing me to follow him.

I was still a bit wary, but I knew Trace was bound to know these woods like the back of his hand and the chances of being eaten by a bear were minimal.

There didn’t seem to be any discernable trail, and while I was an outdoorsy girl, hiking had never been my thing.

Trace helped me over fallen trees and always made sure he held my hand so I didn’t fall. We’d been hiking for about fifteen minutes when I asked, “How much farther?”

“A lot farther.”

“How much is a lot farther?” I skidded around a stick I was convinced was actually a snake.

“A lot farther,” he repeated.

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

Another fifteen minutes later he said, “Almost there.”

The sun was beginning to rise and bits of brightness peeked through the tree branches.

Trace stopped and turned to me. “Ready?”

“For what?” I questioned hesitantly. Lord only knew what Trace had up his sleeve.

“To have your mind blown,” he grinned crookedly.

Nodding his head, he led me further into the trees. I was looking down at the ground, so I didn’t see what was in front of me. He slammed his arm against my chest to halt my progress and I momentarily panicked, thinking there really was a bear or something.

With my heart racing, I looked up and my mouth fell open.

“Holy crap,” I gasped.

The ground stopped suddenly, dropping straight into a small river. I didn’t know how I had missed the sound of rushing water, but it could probably be explained away by my thinking a snake, bear, moose, or other woodland creature was going to attack me.

The sunrise reflected on the crystal clear water, igniting it with oranges and reds.

I had honestly never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life. I wished I had a camera so I could take a picture and remember this moment exactly as it was. I didn’t want to tell Trace, but this was definitely worth getting out of bed for.

He turned to me with a smirk. “Glad I woke you up?”

I reluctantly nodded. There was no point in lying. He could tell from the awe on my face that I was mesmerized.

“How did you know about this place?” I gasped, looking around me.

“Exploring,” he shrugged, bracing a hand against a tree trunk. “Trent and I found it.”

I toed the ground, kicking a rock and watching it fall into the water. I looked below and wondered aloud, “How far down do you think it is?”

He shrugged. “Twenty feet maybe…but I’m not really sure.”

Before my brain could process what he was doing, he tossed his shirt off and started working on the belt of his pants. I noticed he was wearing swim trunks and it began to click as to why he had told me to wear a swimsuit.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hoping I was wrong.

He looked at me like I was the crazy one. “Jumping.”

“Jumping…as in jumping down
there?
” I pointed to the water below.

“Yeah,” he kicked his jeans off.

“Is that safe?”

He chuckled. “Olivia, I’ve done this every summer for practically as long as I can remember.”

“That still doesn’t make me feel better about you jumping.”

“You’re jumping too,” he grinned.

“What? No way,” I looked down at the water churning below. “That water looks really rough.”

“I’ll hold your hand.”

I swallowed, gazing at the water uneasily. “I don’t think you holding my hand is going to save me from drowning,” I gulped.

“Olivia,” he took my face in his hands, forcing my stare away from the water, “it’s the things that scare us that are the most worthwhile. Like falling in love,” he rubbed his thumbs over the curves of my cheeks, “it scared the shit out of me, but it’s been the best rush I’ve ever experienced. This is a memory I want us to make together.
Please.
”

I closed my eyes, repeating his words.

When I first met Trace, I had been desperate to
live, make mistakes, be wild
and
spontaneous.
Why did that have to suddenly stop after the list was complete?

I opened my eyes and smiled slowly.

“I’ll do it.”

“I knew you’d see things my way,” he kissed me leisurely, purposely trying to make me forget what I was about to do. He more than succeeded.

I removed my shorts, lifted my shirt off, and kicked off my shoes. Before I could let myself think about it a second longer, I took his outstretched hand.

“One, two, three—” He counted.

With a scream, I jumped.

I hit the water feet first and its cool depths surrounded me, blanketing me. Somewhere along the way I’d lost my hold on his hand. I kicked for the surface and came up gasping for air. The water wasn’t nearly as choppy as it looked from above.

Trace surfaced a few feet away from me and flicked his dark hair out of his eyes.

“You okay?” He asked, his shoulders rising and falling with labored breaths.

“Great,” I smiled as he swam towards me.

He wrapped an arm around me and my legs automatically found his waist. My fingers tangled in his wet hair as I gazed at him with heated eyes.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to have to kiss you,” he confessed as my eyes greedily watched a water droplet that clung to his kissable lips.

“Then do it,” I challenged.

So he did.

The kiss was intense and passionate, but sweet at the same time, a lot like us.

He nipped at my lip and my mouth opened beneath his, welcoming him.

The water sloshed against our shoulders, moving us with the current, but we didn’t care. I clung to his shoulders, tightening my legs around his waist.

His lips moved to my chin and he sprinkled small kisses down my neck.

“Was it worth the fall?” He asked huskily with warm green eyes.

“Yes,” I answered, knowing he wasn’t referring to the jump.

“Good,” he kissed me again.

By the time we extracted ourselves from each other’s arms and made it to shore, my fingers were wrinkled. Shivering, I said, “I’m not looking forward to walking back up there with no shoes.”

“Stay here,” he pinched my side as he passed me. “I’ll throw your stuff down and then you can walk up.”

The twigs on the ground didn’t seem to bother his feet as he walked back up to the cliff. Maybe he really had been a boy scout.

He threw my shoes down and I ducked to avoid them.

“Sorry!” He called.

“Uh-huh, sure you are,” I laughed, retrieving my shorts and t-shirt.

Once my shoes were tied I made my way back up to the top of the cliff, luckily I managed to avoid falling and skinning my knees.

The trek back to the house went a little faster, but I was still on the lookout for critters that might be determined to take a bite out of me. I knew I was small and defenseless looking, the perfect target for a hungry bear.

When we stepped into the yard, I breathed a sigh of relief that I’d made it through alive.

Trace made us breakfast and we ate outside before settling on the big leather couch in the family room. He didn’t turn the TV on, but he did turn the gas fireplace on low. It was completely unnecessary, but I loved it nonetheless. It would definitely be fun to visit this place in the winter and see all the snow. We didn’t usually get much snow where we lived in Virginia and I actually missed it.

I curled myself against Trace’s side but soon found myself sprawled on my back with him hovering above me.

“What are you doing?” I giggled.

“Nothing.”

“You’re up to something,” I remarked.

His lips quirked at the corners. “That may be so.”

Suddenly, he rolled off the couch, taking me with him. I landed against his chest and the air gusted out of my lungs.

“What was that for?” I gasped.

“I thought the rug looked mighty comfortable, of course,” he spread out his arms and legs like one would if making snow angels.

“I’m sure it’s very comfortable,” I commented, going to move off his chest, but he rolled over again and pinned me beneath him.

“Seriously,” I laughed, “what are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “Playing, I guess.”

“What are we, five?” My body shook with laughter.

“Yeah,” he grinned, “wanna wrestle?”

I snorted. “Yeah, because I’m really going to be able to take you on,” I gripped his muscular arms.

“I’ll go easy on you,” he smiled boyishly.

“Fine,” I smiled.

“One, two—”

Before he said three I brought one of my legs up and wrapped it around his waist. Levering my weight, I flipped him off of me. He landed on his back with me straddling him. His eyes widened in surprise. I grabbed his arms, forcing them above his head where I held them down. Bending my head, and letting my hair fall around us like a curtain, I closed the distance between us like I was about to kiss him. When my lips grazed his, I breathed, “I win.”

He growled low in his throat. “You tricked me.”

“I’m small, I have to use
something
to my advantage,” I sat up, smiling down at him.

He narrowed his eyes. He reached up and placed his hand against my neck, caressing me. My eyes closed and before I could take another breath, gravity tilted and he had me beneath him. He lowered himself so that his whole body was pressed firmly against mine and I had no chance of escape.

I tilted my head up, pressing kisses against his collarbone and neck in the hopes of distracting him long enough to gain control of the situations. His lips found mine, and his fingers pulled at my hair, but not so hard that it hurt.

All thoughts of the game we’d been playing left my mind.

My hands skimmed under his shirt, over the smooth skin of his toned stomach. He sat up long enough to remove the shirt and then he was on top of me again. My hands greedily memorized every curve and dip of his muscular chest and stomach. God, he was like a work of art.

He raised my shirt over my head and kissed the dip between my breasts. His tongue flicked out, licking a wet trail down my stomach. My back arched off the rug. “Trace,” I moaned his name as his tongue circled around my belly button ring.

He continued down my body, undoing the button on my shorts. I raised my hips so that he could tug them off. He kissed the skin of my stomach, just above the top of my bikini bottoms.

My heart rate accelerated in the anticipation of what was to come.

His fingers began to tug on the string holding my bikini top in place.

Before he could undo the knot, both our phones began to ring at the same time.

He pulled back slightly and from his expression I knew he was tempted to ignore them, but when both calls ended the phones started ringing again.

“Fuck,” he groaned, rolling off of me and into a standing position. He reached down to haul me up. “And just when it was getting to the good part.”

He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and answered it.

I found my phone on the kitchen counter and puzzled as to why Trent would be calling me. What if something happened to Ace?

“Hello?” I answered.

“Olivia,” Trent sounded breathless, “you guys have to come home right now.”

“Why?” I questioned, my gut telling me I didn’t want to know the answer.

“It’s Gramps,” his voice was tense.

At his words I lost my hold on the phone and it crashed to the ground. I watched it shatter apart, exactly like my insides.

I looked up into Trace’s pale face.

While we’d been happy and joking around, Gramps had…

“Trace,” I crashed into his arms, both of us crying.

My heart hurt as it broke. This wasn’t fair. Why did Gramps have to die? He didn’t deserve this. He was a good man, better than most people. Why did he have to get sick and suffer like this?

“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” my voice was muffled against his chest.

“There’s still time,” he murmured, his lips brushing against the top of my head.

“There is?” I tilted my head back, looking at him with wide eyes, scared to hope.

“That was my mom,” he wiped away his tears with one hand. “Gramps is in the hospital…things are bad, Olivia. Real bad. He only has a few days left.”

“We’re not going to make it back in time, are we?” I began to cry harder.

“I’m going to make sure we’re there,” he took my face between his hands. “My mom’s getting us plane tickets now. I’ll pay someone to drive the car back to me.”

His words relieved me. We’d get to see Gramps again. There was so much I wanted to tell him…but none of it mattered. All I wanted to do was hug him.

“We need to pack,” Trace whispered, “and get to the airport.”

I nodded. “You get our stuff from the laundry room and I’ll head upstairs and get a head start there.”

He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me close. “I need you,” he said softly.

I realized then, that sometimes those words were even more powerful than
I love you
.