Adventure Lover: Take Me, Lover, Book 3 Read online

  It took infinity for his head to bend to close the distance between them. His mouth covered hers, warm and firm and a little rough. His hand cupped her chin, holding her still, as if she were capable of moving away. The rasp of his fingers against her soft skin, the bite of the air, the heat of the kiss all combined to overwhelm her senses.

  I’m kissing a stranger on top of the world, she thought. Then she reached out tentatively, settling her hands on his waist. She wasn’t bold enough to use the hold to urge him closer, but she parted her lips in invitation, and after a slight hesitation, he took it.

  The kiss turned harder, hotter. His tongue found hers and stroked along it. She breathed in pure mountain air and woodsy male, tasted him, and curled her fingers into the fabric of his fleece pullover, wanting more.

  Instead, Ryan abruptly broke the kiss and raised his head. He stared down into her eyes. Then he released her and stepped back, so that she had to let go of him just as fast. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

  He might as well have been speaking Swahili. The words made no sense. “Why?”

  “Because I’m not included in your guide package.”

  “Duh.” Jill rolled her eyes and stuck her hands in her pockets, since she didn’t know where else to put them. “I knew you weren’t serious about that. You’ve been trying to get rid of me since you met me. But I have news for you, Ryan Lowe. You are stuck with me until this trip is over, and I’m not cutting it short, no matter how obnoxious you are. Or how much you kiss me.”

  “Kissing you is obnoxious?” His lips quirked, and she had to fight the urge to press hers against them to feel his almost-smile on her mouth.

  “Of course not. You’re hot, you’re single, you kiss like you know how and like it. But whatever we do or don’t do, I’m sticking.”

  He raised a brow at her. “How do you know I’m single?”

  “No ring. You spend at least half your time in the wilderness, which doesn’t say long-term-relationship material. Also, you don’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d go around kissing other women if you had a significant other.”

  “I could be a player.”

  She snorted. “Here? Please. This is only a meat market if you’re an elk or a rabbit.”

  “I like it here.”

  “My point exactly.” Jill looked around, and felt her lungs expand just from the view, let alone the air. “And I can see the attraction.”

  “Can you?” A shift in his tone made Jill look at Ryan again. He was watching her with an intent focus. “Why are you so determined to do this? If you just wanted to experience the outdoors, you didn’t have to climb a mountain with all your gear on your back to do it.”

  “I have my reasons.” Although he might think they were the wrong ones and she wasn’t about to subject herself to his judgment. She stuck her chin higher and went back to studying the vistas. They were worth studying. They were also a lot less depressing than her seriously in-the-red business ledger.

  “Tell me one.”

  “I lost a bet.” She told the lie without shame, knowing he wouldn’t believe her anyway.

  Ryan let out a short laugh. “Don’t tell me, then. Come on, Deer Lake is just a little farther.”

  They settled back into an easy pace, striding in tandem. It felt almost companionable. She still wasn’t Ryan’s type, but she was pretty sure he was done trying to get rid of her.

  She could still feel his kiss on her lips, the touch of his finger curled under her chin, and it warmed her from the inside. She might not be his type, but there was something between them. Something she wanted to explore while she had the chance.

  By the time Jill took her pack off, though, the only thing she wanted to explore was the inside of her sleeping bag. After meeting the bottom of a bottle of aspirin. “Oh, my God,” she groaned, letting the heavy pack thunk to the ground. “I’m dying. Bury me here so my corpse doesn’t have to go any farther.”

  Ryan laughed at her, the sadistic bastard. But he also put up the two-man tent and started a campfire while she collapsed on the ground, so she decided to forgive him. When he brought her a cup of warm soup and two ibuprofen, she swallowed the tablets gratefully. The soup tasted divine. She could actually distinguish individual vegetable flavors.

  “Marry me,” she sighed, batting her lashes at him.

  “You’re welcome.” His eyes glinted with humor. He sat back on his heels and took the cup after she finished. “Decision time.”

  “Not this again. I’m committed. We’re here. I’m staying. I was joking about dying.” Probably.

  “Not that decision.” The humor faded from Ryan’s face. “We’re sharing a tent. It can be platonic and professional. Or not.”

  Jill gave him an aggrieved look. “This is a decision? I thought you’d maybe just move closer in the middle of the night when it got cold or something. Events would take their course.” Assuming she didn’t die. Assuming she was capable of anything beyond lustful thoughts.

  His lips thinned into a hard line. “I’m not going to accidentally put my arm around you while I pretend to stretch. I’m not fourteen. Neither are you.”

  “Nope. We’re consenting adults.” She rolled onto her back and smiled at him. “I consent. I don’t want to talk about it, though, okay?”

  That made his eyes narrow. “You want me to fuck you in silence?”

  She could feel her cheeks scorching, and if she had any energy to spare, she’d be upset about showing her embarrassment. But she was out of energy. “Geez, Ryan. I meant I’m not going to analyze it or talk it to death. We’re all wrong for each other. I get that. It doesn’t change the fact that we have a certain chemistry, and there is no way I can cuddle up next to you for the next couple of nights and just go to sleep.”

  “So you’re going to go with the flow.”

  “Something like that.” Just talking about it was enough to get her blood flowing like molten lava. God, how long had it been since she’d felt this rush of anticipation, until she almost ached to be touched? Jill stretched to relieve the phantom ache and winced at an all-too-real one. “Then again, I am not used to this level of activity.”

  “I’ll do all the work.” His dark eyes held a glimmer of heat.

  Jill laughed. “I can’t imagine getting in bed with you just so I can lie back and think of England.”

  “No bed.”

  “That’s a problem. I can feel rocks digging into me now. I’m not going to be on the bottom.” She tossed the mock obstacle at him to see how much he wanted to get around it, almost holding her breath as she waited for his reaction.

  “I’ll take the bottom. I can still do all the work.”

  He was seducing her without a touch, Jill realized. Just like that. Just saying the words. She could almost feel him under her, warm and naked and hard everywhere.

  She squinted up at him. “Out of curiosity, how do you know I’m single?”

  “Because no man who had a claim on you would let you do this by yourself.” Assurance rang in his tone.

  “I’m not by myself,” Jill pointed out.

  “You’re alone with me.”

  “I see your point.” If she had been in a relationship, any relationship, however loose or undemanding, could she see a boyfriend agreeing to let her go into the wilds with a strange man?

  Ryan leaned forward. A butterfly-wing light kiss touched her forehead. “I’ll roll out the sleeping bags.”

  “Okay.” She watched while he retrieved hers and his from their separate packs and vanished with them into the tent.

  Then she swallowed. Hard. Was she really going to do this? Do the wild thing with a perfect stranger? Here? Now?

  An adventurous woman would. An adventurous woman wouldn’t be afraid to find out what might happen next, wouldn’t worry about tomorrow. She’d seize the moment.

  Be an adventure girl, Jill. Seize the moment. Seize the trail guide.

  “Hey,” Jill called after Ryan. His dark head popped out of the ten
t in answer to her voice. “Did you pack, you know, anything in that first aid kit?”

  “If you want to know if I have condoms, ask.”

  Right. Who was going to overhear? A squirrel? “Do you have condoms?”

  “I do.”

  “Enough?”

  He gave her a long look. “If we run out, we’ll have to get creative.” Then he disappeared back into the tent.

  She let her head thud against the earth as she imagined all the ways she’d like to get creative with Ryan Lowe.

  Chapter Four

  By the time Jill crawled into the tent, she was having serious doubts about her ability to do anything but fall into a coma.

  “I think you really did kill me on that damn trail,” she groaned before she collapsed on her belly, still dressed except for her boots. She could hear Ryan moving around, stowing their backpacks, zipping the tent closed. He’d smothered the campfire and cleaned up earlier, and now there was nothing but the light of a billion stars and a fat yellow moon to relieve the darkness.

  “Dead people are quieter.”

  “Ha-ha.”

  His hands settled on her hips and gripped. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  “My muscles hurt,” she said, feeling pitiful. “All of them. Including ones I didn’t think I had. Backpacking is hard. Why do people want to do this?”

  “To get where you can’t go unless you’re on foot.” His fingers dug in, released, then shifted to her butt. Jill started to protest, but then he did something with his thumbs, finding a spot in the center and applying pressure. At first it raised the low-level complaints her ass had been sending her brain for the last three hours, and then the pain eased and the relief staggered her.

  “That’s fantastic,” she mumbled. “More.”

  Ryan was already working the muscle farther down, kneading, pressing, making it hurt more and then taking the hurt away. “Tell me if it’s too much. Massage can be really intense.”

  “It’s intense,” she agreed, inhaling sharply as the pressure built. “But if you keep this up, I might be able to walk in the morning.”

  “I’m hoping you’ll feel better tonight.”

  “I feel better already.” Her mouth shaped a smile as she relaxed into his touch. She had no idea so many pressure points were in her butt or the backs of her thighs, but Ryan systematically searched them out, working magic. By the time he reached her calves, her body hummed with a sense of well being she wouldn’t have believed possible after the punishment she’d given it.

  She’d never done anything so physically demanding before. She’d also never experienced such sheer scenic variety in a single afternoon. She’d seen waterfalls, rainforest, and alpine vistas, all in a few hours.

  She’d sipped dried soup as if it was the nectar of the gods and devoured the lake fish Ryan had caught and baked in the coals of their fire, amazed at the flavor and texture. She’d never eaten fish that tasted like that at any restaurant.

  When she asked Ryan why everything tasted so good, he’d looked at her as if she was slow and said, “The water. The air.” Then he’d added, “And when was the last time you were really hungry?”

  Under his firm touch, she could feel a different hunger growing. When was the last time she’d been touched like this? Really touched. She couldn’t remember ever being with a man who’d explored her body so thoroughly before. She hungered for more, for the touch of his hands against her bare skin, his naked body pressed to hers, inside hers.

  Ryan flexed her leg and raised her foot, massaging the heel with so much pressure she bit her lip at the sudden pain, and then exhaled relief as pain fled and pleasure took its place. His fingers dug into the ball of her foot next, then her toes, releasing every tight muscle and leaving her limp, relaxed, and intensely aware of her entire body.

  When he peeled her wool socks off and rubbed the soles of her bare feet, his touch shifted from therapeutic to caressing. His hands moved up under her pant leg, tracing patterns around her ankles and lower calves, awakening nerve centers.

  Jill rolled onto her back and waited as his hands slid up the outsides of her legs before finding her waistband and unfastening her jeans. She raised her pelvis while Ryan peeled the denim down below her hips, all the way down her legs, and off. His hands returned, stroking up the insides this time in a single, unhurried movement from her ankles to the juncture of her thighs.

  A sharp breath escaped her at that first touch. Ryan drew his hands back and forth, rubbing lightly between her legs, the fabric of her panties the only barrier between them. He didn’t move them aside or cup her pubic mound. Instead, he kept going upward. His fingertips trailed across her hipbones, teased her belly, grazed her ribcage with a touch light enough to almost tickle, but instead it made her arch up, aching for his hands on her breasts.

  He cupped the undersides and rasped his thumbs over her nipples. They responded to the attention, tightening under her shirt and bra.

  “I have too many clothes on,” Jill said, putting her hands over his. “Help.”

  “I’ll have to stop touching you to do that.”

  She bit her lip. “That’s a problem. Tell you what, let’s race. I do mine, you do yours, we meet back here naked.”

  “What do I win?”

  She laughed, knowing he’d probably beat her even though she had a head start. “Anything you want.”

  Jill got down to skin faster than she’d ever undressed in her life, despite sore muscles and the awkwardness of doing it half-lying down in a small, enclosed space. Ryan was still faster. After she tossed her bra into a corner of the tent, his hands closed on her waist and pulled her close.

  She sucked in a breath at that first contact of skin to skin, her soft body conforming to the hard contours of his. His hands gripped her butt, bringing her even closer. She could feel his engorged shaft against her belly. His obvious arousal filled her with a mix of greed and wonder. All for me.

  “I win,” he informed her as his lips grazed her temple and his fingers dug into her ass.

  “Then I guess you get to claim your prize.” Her voice came out a little breathless, and she couldn’t blame it on hiking. She arched her back and rubbed her breasts against his chest, loving the heat and pressure. “What do you want?”

  “I want a kiss.”

  “Mmm.” Jill raised her head, feeling him on her lips already. “Is that all?”

  “A special kind of kiss.” He buried a hand in her hair and closed it into a fist. He used the hold to urge her in the direction he wanted her to go. Jill slid down his body, feeling daring and powerful and wanton, wanting to taste him on her tongue.

  Her mouth sought out his shaft and she pressed a chaste, closed-lip kiss the sensitive point below the head.

  “Tease.”

  “Mmm-hmmm.” She nipped the skin gently, then sucked at the spot. Then she let her mouth trail upward. Her tongue licked at the underside of the head while Ryan let out a low groan and tightened his grip in her hair.

  “Jill. Kiss me.”

  She slid her tongue up the crown, to the slit, and lapped at the salty drop of fluid there. Then she replaced her tongue with her lips, gradually opening them to deepen the kiss and take him inside her mouth. Ryan’s hips moved, just a little, just enough to push farther inside. Not overriding her control, but asking for more.

  Her tongue swirled around him, lapping and licking. She sucked gently, working her lips up and down, sliding a little of his shaft out before sucking him back in and widening her mouth to take more than she had before. When her teeth lightly grazed the sensitive spot she’d first kissed, Ryan gave a warning tug. The pressure on her roots was steady, not sharp or painful, and the effect was almost like a scalp massage.

  “Stop.”

  Jill let him slide out of her mouth to ask, “Why?”

  “Because that isn’t where I want to come the first time.”

  The admission that there’d be a second time gave her a rush. Ryan drew her up to lie side
by side with him again, facing each other.

  “I want inside you,” he rasped out, hands hard and urgent on her.

  “But I hardly know you,” Jill grinned against his skin, feeling utterly unlike herself. The girl who buried herself in her comfort zone until it threatened to bury her business had climbed a mountain and gone down on a stranger. Every new experience made her want more. She felt vibrantly, completely alive.

  “Didn’t I introduce myself?” He scooted down until he could use his mouth on her breasts while one hand cupped her between her legs. He stroked her folds with a finger, found her clit, and stroked her sex again, ending the caress with pressure on that sensitized nub of flesh. The heat of his mouth on her breasts and his tongue flicking her nipples sent waves of wanting through her. When his finger slid inside her, she let out a low sound of need.

  “Ryan.”

  She felt swollen and ripe, ready. She ground against his hand between her legs, thrust her nipple farther into his mouth, and felt something tighten deep inside her.

  He withdrew his hand and slid back up. His arms closed around her as he rolled onto his back and took her with him, so that her body covered his. Jill heard a crinkling sound as he reached for something off to the side. “Sit up a minute.”

  She did, keeping low so her head didn’t touch the top of the tent. The shift in position left her kneeling on top of him, thighs open, her sex pressed against his heated skin. The contact made her ache to be filled.

  Ryan tore open the packet and sheathed himself with the kind of efficiency she expected from him. She would have fumbled from lack of practice and nerves.

  Her heartbeat kicked up higher. This was it. She was actually doing this, doing him. Then his hands were on her again, pulling her down so that her torso met his and his lips found hers. Ryan kissed her with open-mouthed hunger as he gripped her hips and found his angle. Her slick, swollen sex gave way as the head of his cock pressed against her opening. Her natural lubrication let that much of him gain entry. And then he was pushing the full, hard width of himself into her inch by inch.