Lost in You (5 page)

“Are you competitive in everything?”
 

“Yep.” Lacy smiled saucily before taking off up the steep incline.
 

He chased her. She won. This time.
 

They stood atop the rise, wheezing, staring at the never-ending sea of greenish-black pine trees.
 

She sighed. Sipped from her canteen and handed it to him.
 

“What?”
 

“I’d hoped to find a Super 8 on the other side of this hill.”
 

Was she sorry she’d listened to him? Especially when he had no idea what he was doing? He was winging it as far as forging a way out of the mountains.
 

 
She trusts you. Don’t let her down.
 

Becker wiped the water from his chin, passing back the canteen.
 

“Let’s keep walking. Never know what’s over the next rise.”
 

Once they’d returned to the shaded woods, she said, “Tell me about your mother. Is she still into that ‘New Age’ crap?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“Is that why you are the way you are?”
 

He knew Lacy meant his persona as a mountain guide, but he answered honestly. “I’m the way I am in
spite
of my upbringing.”
 

“She doesn’t approve of your chosen field?”
 

“No.” His mother was half-Irish/half-Lakota Sioux. She’d expected him to help run the family pub after college. Becker preferred to pursue other goals. Now that he’d exceeded his own expectations, he was ready for a new direction in his life. Taking the summer off to help his cousin launch a new venture was shaping up to be the best decision he’d made. “Does your family think you should abandon the ad biz?” He picked up a branch blocking their path.
 

“No. That’s why Cat made me the bracelet. To remind me I’m in charge of my own destiny.”
 

Before Becker could respond, Lacy wandered into a patch of sunshine. He watched her poking around in a cluster of low bushes.
 

“What’d you find?”
 

“Raspberry canes.” She held out her hand. Nestled in her palm were tiny red fruit.
 

“How does a Manhattanite recognize a raspberry bush?”
 

Lacy blushed. “My grandmother lived outside of Spearfish. We used to go raspberry picking in the Black Hills the summers I stayed with her.”
 

“So you do have some wilderness skills.”
 

“I thought I did until that time I got lost and my parents forbid me from visiting Grandma again.”
 

Becker froze. “You got lost?”
 

“Ah. Yeah.”
 

“What happened?”
 

“I wandered off. Grandma thought I’d gone back to the house. She didn’t realize I wasn’t around until it was dark.” She kicked the dirt.
 

“Then it was too late to search so I spent the night in the woods alone scared out of my mind.”
 

“How old were you?”
 

“Nine.”
 

 
He grasped her by the upper arms. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before?”
 

“Because my parents accused me of getting lost on purpose just for the attention. I didn’t want you to think the same.”
 

Another thought notched his guilt. “Did your ex-boyfriend know you’d gotten lost in the woods as a child?”
 

Lacy nodded.
 

“And yet he still booked you on this wilderness hiking trip?”
 

“Yes. He’s probably at base camp laughing that I’m missing.”
 

“He’s
there
?”
 

“Yes. Waiting to go in the next group. Instead of canceling, I moved my trip up a week.”
 

Becker’s hands fell. He stared at the stubborn tilt to her elfin chin. He spun away to hide his mortification. Jesus. He’d acted the super-macho asshole, just like her ex. She’d been scared shitless last night and he’d used it as an excuse to get his hands and mouth all over her lush body.
 

Talk about caveman tendencies.
 

He heard Lacy’s footsteps fading. He needed a minute to wallow in his self-reproach before he offered her an apology.
 

When Becker regained control, he tracked her to a sun-washed clearing. She sat on a stump like a beautiful woodland fairy, eating raspberries.
 

He groaned. The fruit was the exact color of her nipples. His zipper grew snug as he remembered the sweet taste and those rosy tips hardening against his stroking tongue.
 

She offered her hand. “Berry for your thoughts?”
 

“Cupcake, you’d run if you knew what I was thinking.”
 

“You don’t scare me, mountain man. Besides. I beat you once.”
 

“I
let
you win.”
 

Lacy said, “You wish. But, I’d probably let you catch me anyway.”
 

He gave her a wolfish smile. “Prove it.”

 
Lacy trudged after Becker, panting at his breakneck speed. Seemed he was anxious to make good on the lust-filled challenge she’d read in his eyes.
 

He stopped so suddenly she smacked into his backpack.
 

“Do you smell that?”
 

“What?”
 

“Water. Thank God. I’m out.” He shot off, cutting through underbrush, skirting trees and disappearing down a slope.
 

She found him by a sharp bend in a wide stream.
 

“See? I told you.”
 

“I never doubted your woodsman abilities, Becker.”
 

He frowned.
 

Lacy untied her boots, peeled off her socks and waded in.
 

“What are you doing?”
 

“Cooling off.”
 

“Be careful.”
 

“I am.” The icy water felt sublime. She aimed for a flat rock on the other side when the bottom literally fell from beneath her.
 

The cold shock of submersion caused an involuntary gasp and her mouth filled with frigid water. She couldn’t breathe. She kicked, thrashing to reach the surface for air.
 

Her head hit a rock. Or was it the bottom? She flailed, dredging up silt and sank deeper into nothingness.
 

Oh God. She was drowning.
 

An eternity passed before powerfully built arms lifted her from the black hole.
 

Becker.
 

He dragged her to the clearing and wouldn’t let her go. Even after she finished coughing up half the river.
 

Once she could breathe, she slumped against his heaving chest.
 

“Thanks.” Several minutes later when Becker hadn’t responded, she peered at him warily. “Tired of rescuing me?”
 

“Stop.”
 

Lacy swallowed hard at the fierceness in his dark eyes. “You were right. I—”
 

“Shut-up,” he snarled, grabbing her shoulders. “Just shut the hell up.” His mouth dropped over hers. He consumed her in a kiss so fiery she was amazed the forest didn’t ignite from the heat.
 

Becker kissed her until she was dizzy from the onslaught, drunk on the taste of hot, demanding male.
 

Then he touched her while exploring the depths of her mouth, reassuring them both she was alive and well. Stroking her hair. Her face. Her throat. Her breasts. Thorough, reverent caresses spiked with passion until her blood heated and steam poured from every pore in her body.
 

He broke free from her lips to drag wet kisses down the arch of her neck.
 

She moaned.
 

He tugged her shirt. “Off.”
 

Lacy’s tank top sailed to the ground followed by Becker’s T-shirt.
 

Strong hands cupped her breasts. A rough thumb rasped over her nipples.
 

Her pelvis sought his. She dug her nails into his brawny shoulders, anchoring herself against the storm he’d unleashed between them.
 

“Lacy,” he breathed against her skin, “you scared me.”
 

“I’m sorry.”
 

“I never should’ve let—”
 

“Ssh. You talk too much. Touch me.”
 

Impatient fingers unzipped her shorts, slipping them and her underwear off. He cupped her bare ass, picked her up and walked backward until her spine hit a tree.
 

Once her feet touched the ground, she reached for his zipper.
 

“No. My way.”
 

One possessive hand covered her breast. Becker fastened his lips to hers. Ran his palm down the center of her body, through the moist curls. He pushed a thick finger deep inside her damp heat, groaning at the creamy wetness he found. He added another finger and pumped in and out, feathering his thumb over her throbbing clit until it flowered beneath his persistent stroking. He ate at her mouth, then those voracious kisses veered south.
 

He dropped to his knees and licked her quivering belly.
 

“Sam—”
 

“Say my name again.”
 

“Sam.” Her swollen sex was weeping for his attention.
 

“Say it while my mouth is on you.” He flattened his tongue and made long, calculated sweeps from her opening to her pubic bone, avoiding the hot spot aching for his notice.
 

“Please—”
 

“Say it,” he growled, retreating to scatter love bites on the inside of her thigh.
 

“Sam! Sam, please—” Lacy fisted her hands in his glossy hair, jerking him back to where she burned.
 

“Goddamn you taste sweet.” His thumbs spread her wide. Teasing tongue flicks on her clit turned precise. He settled his wicked mouth on that engorged nub and sucked. The blood in her body gathered in a pulsating rhythm and burst against his darting tongue as she shattered.
 

The sheer sudden force of her climax elicited a shriek, scattering birds from the treetops. She wilted against the tree, her legs trembling, bark scoring her naked back.
 

Through her ragged breathing she heard his shorts hit the dirt. Felt his gentle touch on her cheek.
 

Lacy’s mouth went dry even as moisture flooded her core from the raw hunger on Sam’s face.
 

He boosted her against the trunk. “Wrap your legs around my waist and hold on.”
 

She reached for the low-hanging limbs. He leaned back, aligning the tip of his cock to her molten entrance.
 

Locking his gaze to hers, he slammed home.
 

Lacy moaned at the luscious feeling of all that male hardness filling her. Her lids fluttered shut in pure bliss.
 

“Don’t close your eyes. Watch me. Watch us.”
 

“Sam—”
 

“Do it.”
 

In the back of her mind she knew the adrenaline rush from life or death situations created over-inflated primal responses. Becker’s domination didn’t scare her; it inflamed her.
 

Their impassioned gazes clashed.