Crushing on Love (The Bradens of Peaceful Harbor, Book Four) (24 page)

“It was a brilliant idea to hold the rally the afternoon of the barn dance,” Jade added.

“Right?” Max said. “Everyone will be excited, and hopefully the dance will be a
real
celebration.”

“I bet we’ll see a lot of new dance moves that night,” Treat added.

“Right, Steve?” Rex said with a coy look.

“Should be great.” Steve turned away, but not before Shannon caught sight of the nervous look in his eyes.

She wondered if he was thinking about her leaving, as she was, or if he and Rex had an inside joke about her dancing with Cal the other night. Cal was busy chatting with Rachel. Clearly
he
wasn’t worried about an inside joke.

“You guys have taken a triple two-step into this relationship,” Jade said.

Steve ran a hand down his face.

“No, they didn’t.” Max raised her brows. “They line danced right through the barn doors.”

She knew they were teasing Steve because he didn’t dance, and bit her tongue because although Steve was shaking his head, he was smiling.

“You think, sweetness?” Treat said to Max. He turned a teasing grin to Steve. “I think they’ve been waltzing since Rex and Jade’s wedding, and they’ve finally mastered the ‘Cotton-Eyed Joe.’”

“Christ,” Steve mumbled.

“Okay, that’s enough, you guys.” Shannon didn’t mean to raise her voice, but that was
enough
teasing. “You guys are relentless. So Steve doesn’t dance? Leave him alone.”

Steve turned a warm smile on her. “I’m fine, baby. Are you?”

“Yes.” She loved him so much she could feel the ache of it in her bones. She was glad that he wasn’t crazy jealous the way Rex was. She loved Rex to pieces, but she could never stop dancing just because Steve didn’t like to dance, and she didn’t need everyone making such a big deal out of it.

She laced her fingers with his, feeling like the luckiest girl on earth to have found such a loving, thoughtful man who was also, undeniably, the sexiest man on the planet. If only she could take him back home to Peaceful Harbor. But she couldn’t ask him to leave his life here in Colorado any more than she could step away from hers in Peaceful Harbor.

Maybe she should put her efforts into DNA cloning. Or a 3-D printer.

“Thanks to Max and Jo,” Steve said, “who have offered to take over the social media
nightmare
—”

“Hey!” Shannon swatted his arm.

He laughed. “I mean, social media
mania
, Shan and I are going camping tonight,” Steve said. “If you need us, wish upon a star, because we’ll be sleeping beneath them.”

Her throat thickened. There was no way she could stop seeing him. Could a person die from boyfriend withdrawal?

Suddenly a long-distance relationship didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

AFTER LEAVING THE café, Steve and Shannon gathered their camping gear and headed into the mountains. They hiked up to the first habitat Shannon wanted to observe, and she gathered data all afternoon. While she studied the habitat, Steve made a wide sweep of the surrounding area, looking for evidence of bear activity. They’d opted to bring foods they didn’t have to cook, so they wouldn’t have to worry about cleanup. Subsisting on cheese and crackers, energy bars, and jerky wouldn’t kill him. Steve didn’t care what he ate—or if he ate, for that matter. He just wanted this time alone with Shannon and to know she was safe while out in the wilderness. Shannon, on the other hand, might die without her requisite sugar fix, which was why Steve had packed Pop-Tarts, a pink-frosted cupcake he’d picked up while they were in town, and one of those premade fancy Starbucks drinks.

She’d insisted she carry as much gear as Steve, but when she’d gone inside to use the bathroom, he’d taken half of her gear and added it to his. He admired her desire to pull her own weight, but she didn’t have to prove a darn thing to him. He admired everything about her. She was sitting on a bed of rocks taking notes in one of her notebooks with a pen that wrote with pink ink. He’d noticed she had two notebooks, and in each she’d used both pink and blue ink. The fact that he’d even noticed such a thing—much less thought it was too adorable for words—told him just how far gone he was over her. As if he hadn’t already known.

He moved behind her and gathered her hair over her shoulder, kissing the back of her neck.

“Mm. That’s nice,” she said with a dreamy sigh.

“How’s the research coming?” He breathed in her unique scent he’d come to love so much.

“Good. I’ve got enough data for today.” She looked up at the dimming sky. “We should get our tent up, shouldn’t we?”

He’d brought a tent, but he had something more fun planned. “I thought we’d build a shelter.”

She set her notebook down on the rock and her eyes widened. “No way. You would build a fort with me?”

“Don’t you know by now I’d do anything with you?”

As he leaned in for a kiss, she sprang to her feet. He laughed and tugged her in for that kiss he wanted, and a few more to hold him over while they built their fort. “You lead, baby, and I’ll follow.”

She tapped her finger on her chin and scanned the woods. “We need tall branches. A bunch of them. And lots of leafy ones, too.”

Steve pulled a coil of pink rope from his bag.

She shouted with glee and threw her arms around his neck, her eyes twinkling in the dimming sun. “Have I told you lately that you’re the best boyfriend in the world?”

“No. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard the ‘B’ word come from your pretty mouth before.” He slid his hands beneath her hoodie, beneath her shirt, and ran them up her warm back, holding her tight against him. “And I like it a whole heck of a lot.”

Their mouths came together in a hot and hectic kiss. She rubbed against him like a cat, purring deep in her throat. As he roused her passion, his own grew stronger. She pushed her hands up the sides of his head, holding him possessively. Lord, did he love the feel of her claiming him—almost as much as he loved claiming her.

They came away breathless.

“Wow,” she said breathily. “Kissing you is like…” She bit her lower lip and narrowed her eyes. “It’s like the difference between breathing mountain air and city air.”

He kissed her again. “I want to be your
only
air.” It was a risky statement, one he hadn’t expected. As she melted against him, the sleek caress of her body told him how much she loved hearing it.

His hands moved down the length of her back. It was torture staving off the desire to undress her right then and watch the dusky evening roll in over her naked body. But he felt the distinct tingling beneath his skin that warned him of impending rain. They needed shelter. Once he knew she’d be warm and safe for the night, he’d make up for the time they’d lost.

And then some
.

An hour later they’d gathered branches and were halfway through constructing their teepee-style fort a safe distance from the fox den, so as not to disturb them. The clearing they chose was buffered by trees, as if the space had been dropped from the sky just for them. The ground was hard and cold, still working on the springtime thaw. He couldn’t wait to bring Shannon out when wildflowers were in full bloom and at the turn of fall, when autumn colors kissed every surface.

Emotions pooled inside him as they secured the tops of the branches with the pink twine.
Pipe dreams
.

Dangerous pipe dreams
.

They had only two more weeks together. The end of their time lurked like a villain in the dark, threatening to tear them apart. He’d known how powerful his emotions were even before they’d kissed, but he hadn’t realized she’d had the power to strip him to his very core. How would he survive her leaving?

He grimaced, pushing those feelings down as deep as he could. And then he pushed harder, forcing them further into the pit of himself as he spread their sleeping bags out inside the fort. Then he gathered their belongings and tucked them in the shelter. They’d built this fort together, and in his love-crazed mind, he saw a connection to the very heart of their relationship. They’d been laying a foundation for weeks,
building
things together. The land trust, this camping-research trip, going out with friends as a couple. They were building a
life
together.
A temporary life
. He unpacked the tent and began laying the waterproof material over the branches, wanting to stay the night in the shelter they’d built.

“I didn’t think you brought a tent.”

“I would never bring you out here completely unprepared,” he said more sharply than he’d meant to. His emotions were eating him up, and he had to figure out how to put them in their place before he burst.

Shannon danced around in her skintight jeans and pretty yellow hoodie, alternating between humming and singing different songs, jumbling up all the lyrics as she tossed leafy branches over the material. She swung her hips and made googly eyes at him while she sang, and Steve was having a heck of a time keeping his hands to himself. He was surprised when his feet began to move to the beat of her mixed-up songs. The rally coordination was the perfect excuse for his impromptu sessions with Rex and the others, which were definitely paying off. Every one of their friends showed up for the lessons, which was embarrassing but also endearing. He couldn’t believe he’d ever felt like an outsider around the people who were giving up an hour a day to help him find his right foot.

Shannon picked up a long, leafy branch and used it to fan him. “I could be your entire harem. Fanning you, feeding you grapes.”

He took the branch from her hands, tossed it onto the shelter, and gathered her in his arms. As he’d counted on, as he’d sworn by, as he never wanted to forget, her soft curves accommodated him, embraced him, washing away his tension.

“We have
now
.”

“What?” Shannon’s brow wrinkled.

Hell
. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her. “Now, baby. We have now, and I don’t want to waste a second of it.”

He lifted her knee to his hip and rocked against her. They both moaned, both grasped for more. This was how it always happened with them—a single kiss, a single spark caught fire, and they combusted. They tore at their clothes, ravenously eating at each other’s mouths. Her hoodie and shirt flew from his hands, her bra shredded with a single hard yank, earning a contagious burst of giggles. Laughter was part of them—laughter, heat,
love
. There was no slowing a storm of this magnitude. He dropped to his knees and she clung to his shoulders as he wrestled with her laces.

“The one time you tie the damn things.”

“Hurry,” she panted out, laughing as she ran a hand through his hair. “You will always be my Grizz, right?”

He stilled for a beat.
Yes. Stay. Please stay
. “Always, Butterfly.”

He tossed the boots aside, then worked his own feet free, and they both wrestled off their jeans. He hardly had time to take a breath, had to have her naked body against his. He tugged her against him and kissed her roughly, staving off the plea for her to stay. They had now. Now had to be enough.

“Long distance,” she said between kisses. “We can do that, right? See each other every few weeks?”

She met his fervent efforts with hard thrusts of her tongue, moaning and pleading into their kiss.

“Yes. We’ll make it work.”
We have to
.

He spread her legs wide and pushed his fingers into her. She gasped, and he paused, reading her, making sure he hadn’t hurt her. She bucked her hips, pushed his wrist down, forcing his fingers deeper inside her—giving him a green light. He sped right through, finding her pleasure point with lethal accuracy.

“Come for me,” he commanded. “Now, baby. Come so I can take you like you want to be taken.”

One perfectly placed stroke, and her eyes slammed shut as her orgasm tore through her. “Grizz!” echoed in the forest. “Oh, Grizz.” She clung to his neck, her body convulsing against his hand. “I love you.”

“Shannon.” Her name came out so low, so heated, it sounded as if it were ripped from the depths of his soul.

Her eyes darkened, full of challenge. When she said, “
More
,” the last shred of his restraint snapped.

He spun her in his arms, and she grabbed the branches of the fort. He couldn’t breathe. He needed her, needed to be inside her. She looked at him over her shoulder, and her hair tumbled over one eye. He needed to
see
her. He gathered her hair in his fist, telling himself not to tug, but how could he not when she was looking at him like she dared him to? The veins in his hands swelled like snakes slithering up his forearm from the restraint it took not to tug too hard. The burn of her stare intensified as he entered her sweet, hot center. They both groaned, loud and low. She was heaven. She was hell. She was the very air he breathed. Their eyes held as he drove into her, love and lust twining together with their frantic rhythm. She closed her eyes and he released her hair. Her head fell between her shoulders as he moved inside her, feeling her pulse throbbing around his shaft. Her fingers curled around the branches, her knuckles blanching at the force of their lovemaking. He slid one hand around her front, between her legs, and gave her the release she craved. She clung to the shelter with one hand, grabbed his forearm with the other, panting and moaning as her inner muscles clamped down around him in a sweet, erotic rhythm.