Quinn I (Undaunted Men #1) (21 page)

“All right then, let me do what I know how to do.” I walk around to the front of her body to rub her upper chest, and as I get down to her full, perky breasts, I have to gently pry her arm away from concealing herself. The second I do, I clench my teeth, stifling a groan. I pretend to be impervious to those pink nipples staring at me. Her breasts spill over into the palm of my hand, and I almost crush the metal spray can in my other hand to keep from touching her the way I really want to. Even though a cloth separates my hand from touching those perfect beauties, I’m in heaven. I can’t tell if she’s nervous about exposing herself, or if it’s me touching her breasts, because her breathing pattern has changed.

We’ve both grown quiet, and I’m thankful when she starts coming up with questions to keep us occupied.

“Why didn’t you get any?” she asks as I move over to her arm, rubbing the pesticide into her skin. I’m careful to avoid her scrapes and cuts from our fast and furious hike.

“All my gear and clothes were sprayed down beforehand with Permethrin. I don’t mess around when I hit the woods. I’ve been in your shoes one too many times.”
 

“Perm…what?”

“Permethrin. It’s a synthetic chemical used as an insecticide and insect repellant. It not only kills ticks, but it kills other critters and insects on contact. I spray everything with it, and it lasts for well over a month.”

“Did you happen to bring some of that stuff with you?” she asks hopefully, and I stop to grin at her.

“Sorry, Babe, I had no need to bring it along. Weight and space in my pack is a valuable thing.”
 

She frowns, disappointed in my answer.
 

“Well, what about Kimber? Is she covered in them?”

“Probably, but she’s on flea and tick control. I also brought a small bottle of flea and tick shampoo with me for this very reason.” I squat down to work the cloth over her torso, and then look up at her and smile. “She might share her bottle of shampoo with you if you’re nice,” I tease, trying to add some lightness to her distress.

“You’re sooo not funny,” she haughtily remarks as she covers her breasts back up with her free hand.
Damn shame.

“I thought I was.” I look over at Kimber, who’s taken interest looking out over the river, totally unaffected by what we’re doing.

“I’m not going to get Rocky Mountain fever, am I?”

I burst out laughing. She's such a city girl. “You mean Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and no, you’re not.”

“How do you know?” she asks indignantly.

“You don’t want to know,” I warn her.

“Oh, I
do
want to know, and I want to know how not to get so damn many of these things on me next time, and if I can help it, none.”
 

“Well, Darlin’,” I begin, “a seed tick is actually in a larva stage. They’re in the process of becoming an adult tick. They congregate in the thousands while waiting in some alternate tick universe for an innocent to walk by. Then, they’re transported through a multi-dimensional tick portal, instantly magnetized to adapt to human skin so they can stick to you like superglue. By the time you notice them, it’s too late, and generally what happens once you discover them is the person freaks the fuck out, like you just did.”

“I bet you’re really proud of yourself for that one, aren’t you?”

I stop rubbing her leg, look at her out of the corner of my eye, and smile from ear to ear. “As a matter-of-fact, I am. I’m a pretty funny guy.”

She huffs, truly not seeing one ounce of humor in her situation. “Whatever, just please de-tick me.”

“I’d like to do a little more than de-tick you,” I tease. Her lips thin, and she gives me a look of displeasure. “Not gonna happen, huh?” I stifle my grin, enjoying messing with her.

With her brows raised, she mouths a highly annoyed, “No.”
 

I tap her legs to have her spread them farther apart, and she hesitates. I look up into her eyes as I place my hand over hers, which is still trying to cover her mound. With my hand being bigger than hers, my fingertips are touching her most intimate area. We both grow serious and swallow the lump in our throats at the same time, each for different reasons. My chest constricts as she lets me remove her hand, and my eyes flick down to her pussy. I'm in a momentary trance, getting to see her up close and personal for the first time.

“Quinn,” she warns with a shaky whisper.
 

I shake myself out of the daze she’s put me in and begin rubbing over the little hairs on top of her mound. “It’s cool, Lexi,” I assure her, thankful my voice hasn’t betrayed me. “Trust me, you don’t want these ticks here.”
 

A few lucky bastards made it to nirvana
, I think to myself as I swipe over the area. So sad they’re never gonna get any pussy
.
I keep my mind busy thinking of stupid shit, and stifle a laugh every now and then at my own internal crass jokes to keep from ogling her. I can tell she keeps this area hair free with a Brazilian, but there’s a little stubble growing back, outlining what was previously waxed. I work my way down her legs, and the little suckers drop off in droves.
 

I’ve got one more place left to rub her down, and I’ve been avoiding it until the end. I’m an ass man, and I swear she has the finest muscled ass I’ve ever seen. I clear my throat to keep my voice from coming out husky, but I think I fail. “Turn around, Sweetheart.”
 

Without a word she complies, and I have to clench my hands tightly for a second to get myself under control. Her ass is well rounded, with creamy skin that begs me to run my bare hands over the heart-shaped globes. I want to put both hands on each of her ass cheeks, and I want to…
Stop
, I berate myself. Thankful she can't see, I adjust my hard-on in my pants.
 

I shake out the cloth, de-bugging it, and then squint my eyes so I can barely see the outline of her ass to keep myself from going insane. I rub her firm muscles as quickly as possible, and then work my way down the back of her legs to her calves. Bittersweet torture. If I have to spend one more second with her sexy ass in my face, I'll wind up taking her right here and now.

“All right,” I announce, gently slapping the back of her calf. “Time to wash this poison off. I hate for you to do this in the river, but you don’t have much of a choice at this point.”

I stand up and watch as she quickly walks over to the water, thinking she can escape my eyes. The woman is nothing but shapely muscle from head to toe from riding her horse. She thinks she’s overweight, but she’s not. She’s on the thick side, but in the most feminine of ways, because she’s got all these womanly curves going on, and I have the urge to run my hands over her hips and pull her into me. She’s a perfect fit.

She’s been a good sport about the ticks, and her antics have been nothing short of entertaining. She sticks her toes in the cool water and shudders. “Oh geez, it’s cold.” I guess she’s gonna need some encouragement, so I begin to undress.
 

She hears me rustling around behind her and looks over her shoulder with questioning eyes. “What are you doing? I don’t need your help, I’ve got this,” she argues nervously.

“Yeah, I can tell.” I strip down to my underwear, dig through my bag for Kimber’s shampoo, and then make my way over to her. She slowly backs up, holding out her hands as if that will stop me. She winds up uncovering those beautiful full breasts in the process.

“Showing me what you got sure as hell isn’t going to make me turn the other way.”
 

“Quinn,” she says with caution.

I pay no attention to her squeals as I pick her up in my arms and carry her out into the chilly river. It’s actually refreshing after the sweaty hike we just had. She wraps her arms around my neck, laughing and shivering as we get into the deeper part of the water.

Kimber barks at us from the shore while she wags her tail, thinking it’s playtime. She then decides to cool off too and joins us by leaping into the water with uncontained excitement. I laugh out loud, and shake my head at her antics. My heart swells with pride seeing her happy. I guess I’m going to need to de-tick her too while I’m at it.

I believe we’re out of harm's way for the moment, and I had planned on setting up camp here by the river. I know she’s going to be chilled when she comes out of the water, so I’ll need to start a fire.
 

She continues to cling to me after I let go of her, and I can't help but run my hands over her sexy hips. Touching her like this with my bare hands has me growing hard again. My poor dick is getting whiplash. I refrain myself from starting something, knowing this time, if things heat up, I won’t want to stop it. Not after discovering what her kisses are like, then seeing her naked, and now touching her naked body and being skin-on-skin.
 

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” I force out the words, not meaning them, and then turn her around in the water to make busy work. I open the bottle of shampoo as she takes out her ponytail.
 

“So why aren’t you settled down by now?” she asks innocently, but it hits a very sensitive nerve of mine. I tense up and stop massaging the shampoo into her hair, and she reaches back, touching my hand in understanding. “It’s okay; you don’t have to answer.” That would be a first, a woman willing to respect my privacy, but I feel I owe her some sort of explanation.

“I just haven’t found the right woman yet,” I explain, trying to be nonchalant about it. “Plus, I’ve always put my career first. I had a lot of things I wanted to accomplish before I even thought about settling down.”
 

“And have you? Accomplished those things?”

“Some…well, most of them, actually.”
 

She nods her head as if she understands and decides not to press me anymore. We both fall silent as I finish my task of washing her down, and then I check through her hair for any stragglers.

“All done, Angel,” I declare, and then I call out for Kimber. “All right, little girl, you’re next.” I let Alexis go and she floats off as I swim to shore to get a hold of Kimber, needing to wash her down. I’m careful to conserve the shampoo and use as little as possible, since I don’t like putting anything unnatural in the rivers.

Lexi watches us and grins at Kimber, who is totally enjoying the rubdown. When I’m done, I stand up to stretch out my back and watch as Kimber takes a swim out to Lexi.

She releases the most beautiful smile as Kimber makes her way to her. “Are you all clean now too?” she coos. “Huh, pretty baby?”

I shake my head at the two of them. They're nuts about each other. They both swim back to shore, and by the time Lexi gets out, I hold out a towel for her to slip into so she can regain some of her modesty.

“Thank you,” she whispers with genuine gratitude.
 

“You’re welcome.” As I help dry Lexi off, Kimber shakes herself dry, spraying us, and I laugh at Lexi's reaction.

“Kimber, stop,” she playfully scolds. “Why don’t you do that somewhere else? Some of us are trying to dry off, ya know.”

Once I get Lexi settled, I decide I’ll find a secure spot to make a much needed phone call on my SAT phone. Moretti has some explaining to do, and I’ll be extra pissed if he withheld pertinent information from me.
 

I help towel dry her long hair, noticing the sun has interspersed some natural golden highlights in her brown hair. It looks good on her. I spin her around and pull her into my hard body, wrapping my arms around her. Her hands come to rest on my bare chest, and I take a deep breath, trying not to think what it’d be like for her to run those feminine hands down my backside as I pump myself into her.
Oh hell, Quinn, get a grip. Stay focused.

I look Lexi in the eyes, and my features turn very serious. She stills in my hold, knowing a lecture is coming. “I believe I deserve to know everything you can tell me, no matter how insignificant it may be to you. We could’ve really gotten ourselves hurt today, or worse, one of us killed.”

She nods her head, her wide eyes staring deep into mine. “Okay, I will,” she solemnly replies.
 

“I don’t want you holding anything back from me,” I sternly repeat.

“I promise you, Quinn. I’ll tell you everything.” Her eyes mist over as she continues, “I’m so sorry that helping me has put your life at risk.”

“Shh,” I quiet her, not wanting her to worry or feel responsible for me. “I’m a big boy; I can handle it.” I pull her the rest of the way into my body and hold her tightly. I close my eyes and breathe in her fresh scent, thankful neither one of us got hurt today.

“I’m really scared,” she confesses on a whisper, and I can hear the fear in her voice. “My heart still hasn’t stopped pounding over it.” If she only knew of my background, it would put her mind more at ease, but I can’t tell her anything. It would only lead to questions that would compromise my position.
 

“I’ve taken care of you this far, and I think between Kimber and me, we’ll be able to protect you just fine.” She squeezes me tighter around the waist, not wanting to let go.

“You sound so sure of yourself.”

“I am beyond confident, Sweetheart. I’m not being arrogant about it either, but when I say fighting and backwoods living is my forte, it really is my strong suit.”

“I have to be honest with you, Quinn. Even though I’m in danger, it's odd, but I have never felt more safe and secure than I do with you.” She pulls her head back just enough to look up, gaze into my eyes, and ask, “Why? Why do I feel this way, and why are you willing to help me? Protect
me,
a complete stranger?”

I shrug my shoulders, not knowing how to answer her questions. She’d go ballistic if she knew her dad had enlisted me, but the reasons why I haven’t turned her over to her father yet are too complicated for even me to understand. I could've handed her over to her father days ago, and I’ve confused myself as to why I haven’t.
 

There is a deeper connection between us, beyond the physical, and she has me captivated and intrigued for reasons I cannot explain. Besides the fact I’m already caught in her enchanted web, I’m also compelled to get to the bottom of her story. I want something more between us, but I can’t do that until I have answers.