Branded for You (11 page)

He’d brought wine coolers for her and beer for himself since she’d told him that she didn’t like beer the night they were at the restaurant.

“It’s wonderful,” she said after she savored her first bite of the delicious trout.

“Thanks to you,” he said with a smile. “We’d have been eating hot dogs if you hadn’t caught these.”

She gave him a smile in return. “I had a great teacher.”

As she ate, she found a couple of small soft bones they had missed in the trout and put them on her plate. She drank two wine coolers and was feeling very mellow while Ryan had a couple of beers.

The trout were small, but one and a half was enough to fill her up. Ryan had the other two along with the half she’d left on the trout platter.

When they had finished eating and had cleaned up everything, it was still before dusk.

He gestured to the forest. “How about going on a short walk before it gets dark?”

“I would love that.” She got up from the camping chair she’d been sitting in. “I’ll get my jacket from the camper. Where’s yours?”

He told her and she grabbed both jackets and they slipped them on. Before leaving camp he put out the fire and picked up his fly rod.

They walked toward a path they had noticed earlier on their hike back from the lake. The late afternoon was pleasant and the scenery was wonderful.

As they walked, she looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you for bringing me camping with you. This has been an amazing day.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Thank you for coming with me. I’ve loved every minute of it.” He gave her a quick kiss that made her smile even brighter.

Leaves, pine needles, and twigs crunched beneath their shoes as they made their way down a path that meandered through the woods. Birds twittered overhead and she heard the chatter of a squirrel. The air was cool and she was glad she had worn a jacket.

A good fifteen minutes from camp, he grasped her hand and brought her to a halt. He put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet, then gestured to their right. She squinted and tried to see what it was he was wanted her to see. Then she saw them—a pair of deer standing so still they almost blended with the forest. One of the deer looked majestic with its large set of antlers and Megan felt like the animal was staring right at her.

The deer stayed a few more moments then bolted into the forest. Three more deer she hadn’t noticed before followed the first two, their black-tipped tails sticking up in the air.

“A herd. They were beautiful.” Megan looked up at Ryan and smiled.

“Those were mule deer,” he said. “You can tell the difference from whitetail deer by the configuration of their antlers and the black tips on their tails.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Whitetail and mule deer grow antlers differently?”

“Yep.” Ryan started moving and she fell into step beside him. “Mule deer antlers fork as they grow where whitetail deer antlers branch from a single main beam and curl in.”

A woodpecker started drilling into a tree, the sound echoing through the forest. Megan looked ahead and saw a squirrel scamper up a tree and onto a branch.

When they reached the lake, Ryan nodded toward the water. “See the little trout rising?”

“Yes,” she said as tiny ripples disturbed the water.

He stepped away from her, held out his rod, and cast it into the water. He slowly reeled in the line and almost immediately his rod bowed a little and then a shimmer rose in the air as he reeled in a small trout.

“That was fast,” she said.

He unhooked the fish and tossed it back into the water, then cast his line again. He caught six trout in only about a dozen casts and released them all.

She shook her head. “You weren’t trying earlier today, were you,” she stated.

He laughed. “This time of day and mornings are the best for fly fishing.” He reeled in his line one more time and then they headed back toward camp.

It was nearly dusk by the time they got back. “I loved the walk and seeing the animals,” she said. “Especially the deer.”

He put up his rod and then said, “Since you like seeing game, how about some spotlighting?”

“I’m up for anything,” she said. “What’s spotlighting?”

“Come on.” He jerked his thumb toward the truck. “I’ll show you.” He grabbed a spotlight from the camper and they both climbed into his truck that was disconnected from the camper.

“Along the back roads is best,” he said as he plugged the spotlight into the cigarette lighter.

He started the truck, drove away from the campsite, and headed along a dirt road. He rolled down his window, and as he drove turned the spotlight on and held it up out of the window.

Intrigued, she watched as he angled the light so that it shone into the trees.

“Are those eyes?” she said with surprise as she looked into the forest. “They’re everywhere.”

“The spotlight lights up the animals’ eyes.” He slowed the truck. “Look there. A deer.”

“That is awesome.” She buzzed down the truck window as he continued on.

The air chilled her face as they drove along back roads, but she barely noticed as they saw more deer and numerous elk,

“That’s a magnificent rack.” Ryan gestured toward the elk when they spotted it.

Megan peered out at the creature. “By a rack do you mean the antlers?”

Ryan nodded.

“Is that where they get the term for a female?” she said as she turned to face him.

He grinned. “Yep.”

She shook her head. “Men,” she said but laughed.

“Well, hello there.” Ryan gestured to the right and came to a stop. “A bear. And a pretty good sized one.”

Megan’s eyes widened as she saw the big black creature staring at them from about twenty feet away, and her heart rate picked up so that it throbbed against her chest. “I did tell you I’m scared of bears.”

“We’ll move on,” Ryan said. “He won’t bother us and we won’t bother him.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” She looked from the beast to Ryan as he put the truck back into gear. “What about us sitting around a camp fire tonight with bears out there. I really didn’t know there were going to be bears around.”

“This is Bear Canyon.” Ryan laughed, reached over, and pinched her chin. “But you don’t need to worry about them. These are black bears and they don’t want anything to do with us. In the last twenty years or so, despite millions and millions of people out camping in Arizona, there have been maybe a handful of bear incidents. People left out food or the bear was protecting a cub she felt was threatened. You have nothing to worry about.”

Megan pouted her lower lip. “I don’t want to be one of a handful of incidents. They scare me.”

“Good thing you have me here with you, Megan,” Ryan said with a grin. “If one comes around, I will kick that bear’s ass.”

She held back a laugh. “You aren’t stronger than a bear.”

Ryan smiled raising an eyebrow. “You underestimate me. Actually I have a little assistance.”

Ryan reached into the console of his truck and pulled out a holstered gun.

“Why do you have that with you?” Megan asked. “For those bears you said don’t attack?”

“Naw. It’s for you,” he said. “To make you feel more at ease.”

“If you are thinking about bears, you’re having to keep one eye open looking for bears while you’re kissing me. You aren’t concentrating on me and it ruins the moment,” she teased.

“Is that so?” He grinned. “It is all about me focusing on you.”

“Well, I will admit the gun does make me feel a little safer.” she said. “It was pretty cool getting to see a bear, though,” she added. “As a matter of fact, it was great seeing all of the animals. Thanks for taking me.”

He looked away from the road and met her gaze and smiled. “I liked taking you.” He looked back at the road, found a place to turn his truck around, and they headed back to camp.

When they returned, Ryan built the fire up again. He turned on a camping lantern with LED lights and put it into the camper on low so that they’d have light later on.

“Do you like s’mores?”

“I’ve never had real s’mores on a camping trip,” she said. “But I bet I’ll love them.”

“You’re in for a special treat.” He cut off two thin green branches from a tree and cleaned them so that he had two sticks. He sharpened the ends to points.

While he prepared the sticks, Megan got out the marshmallows, graham crackers, and a giant chocolate bar. On a small table near the chairs by the fire, Megan arranged the chocolate and graham crackers. He handed her a stick and she pierced a marshmallow with the sharp end and put a marshmallow on his stick, too.

As they stood beside the fire, shadows jumped and flickered around them, the light dim. The heat from the fire warmed her skin as they stood close to the fire pit, and they put their marshmallows on their sticks and into the flames.

The marshmallows bubbled, toasting immediately so that they were nearly black on the outside. He held both sticks as she took a graham cracker and piece of chocolate and put it beneath the marshmallow, then another graham cracker on top of it them, and pulled it all away from the stick. To start, they made one for each of them.

Ryan ate his in a couple of bites. When Megan bit into the treat, her eyes fluttered closed as she tasted the combination of flavors. She gave a small moan as she took another bite and opened her eyes. She finished the s’more and licked her fingers. “That was great.”

“You did tell me to just wait until you ate a marshmallow.” He looked at her with heat in his gaze. “I’d say that was worth the wait.”

He stepped closer to her and brought his hand to her face. “You have a little chocolate, right here,” he said and lowered his head. His tongue darted out at the corner of her mouth and then he was kissing her.

She tasted chocolate and marshmallows, and his masculine flavor all in one. She moaned again, this time from desire.

When he raised his head, he spoke close to her lips, his voice husky. “Ready for another one?”

“Another kiss? Most definitely.” She knew that wasn’t what he’d meant, but she smiled and kissed him.

This time he groaned. He settled his hands at her waist and drew her closer to him so that their bodies were pressed together. Her belly fluttered as she felt the firm ridge of his erection against her abdomen. She wrapped her arms around his neck and his chest was hard against her breasts.

Their kiss grew almost frantic. She wanted to rip his clothes from his body, take him to the ground, and ride him. She didn’t care that they were in the middle of the forest. All she cared about was being with him.

He was the first to draw away. “Whoa.” He stepped away from her and caught her wrists in his hands. “I think we’ve got a runaway horse here. If we keep this up, I’m going to be carrying you to that camper and to hell with separate bunks.”

Yeah, to hell with that.

She was going to say so when he released her and turned back to the table with the s’mores ingredients. His jaw was tense and there was a fire in his eyes that seemed barely controlled.

He grabbed one of the sticks and jammed a marshmallow on it. She could see the play of muscles in his forearms as he moved.

She went to him, caught his face in her hands, and kissed him.

“Meg, my self-control is on a thin leash.” His breathing seemed heavier and the flash in his eyes was like a flame licking in their depths. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing.” She brought her mouth to his and kissed him hard.

He dropped the stick. And then his arms were around her and he was kissing her with fierce intensity, like he might come undone.

She wanted him to come undone. Wanted him in every way possible.

He grasped her by her ass and picked her up, and she wrapped her thighs around his hips. He stopped kissing her long enough to walk to the camper and fling open the door. Their eyes met and held for a long moment.

“Are you sure, Meg?” His voice was low and gravelly.

She nodded. “Very.”

He set her down long enough to turn around and kick dirt on the fire, then grasped her hand.

And then they were taking the three steps up into the camper and he shut the door behind them.

Chapter 13

Ryan pressed Megan close to his body. He was hard, lean, and muscular and his cock felt rigid against her belly. Butterflies swooped through her abdomen as she looked into his eyes and the burning depths of desire that was just for her.

She’d never really thought of herself as desirable, but he made her feel gorgeous and sexy, and completely wanton.

The light from the lantern was low and part of her was glad it was on so that she could see his gorgeous eyes and his rugged features. The other part wanted darkness because she was self-conscious about her body.

He kissed her, sliding his fingers into her hair before moving his palms down her neck to her shoulders. He rubbed her shoulders and her arms, caressing her through her T-shirt. His kiss was hungry and demanding, and she felt like he could lose control at any moment.

She wanted him to lose control.

“I love your curves.” He moved his hands down her sides, along the indentation of her waist and over her jeans to her hips. He grabbed her ass and squeezed the globes. “Your ass is so sexy.”

He slid his hands back up to her T-shirt and grasped the hem. Her heart beat faster and she gave a hungry moan as he started to push the shirt up and over her breasts. He raised his head, breaking the kiss.

She helped him pull the T-shirt over her head, leaving her in her bra with the cool air brushing her skin. He tossed the shirt on the table behind him then cupped her breasts, almost reverently. “I love these. They fill my hands.”

Heat flushed through her body, her excitement rising as he told her how much he loved her attributes.

He reached up and pulled her hair out of its ponytail and let it fall around her shoulders. His carnal expression sent thrills through her as he slid his hands into her hair and rubbed her scalp with his fingertips.

“Damn you’re beautiful, Megan. Every part of you.” He searched her gaze with his. “From the first moment I saw you I knew that I had to get your attention and get to know you better.”