Page 33 of Love Hazard

Hazel lifted her arms in confusion from the back seat. Ishrugged as if to say, “Yeah, no clue how we got away with that.”

Grin smug, I was maybe a foot from the Jeep when I heard acrack and looked down.

A branch.

A branch under my foot.

Slowly, I looked over my right shoulder.

Hell was waiting for me there.

With a yell, I grabbed the driver’s side door and jerked itopen, then started the Jeep and hit the accelerator with a bear close behindme.

“Ahhhhh!” Hazel screamed as shegot thrown across the back seat. “I’m not buckled in.”

“But you are alive.” I took a turn,then another, then went up onto the highway and headed toward the small town ofCanon Beach. “You’re alive.”

I was damn near hyperventilatingwhen she crawled into the front seat, buckled up, and turned to me, her browneyes twinkling. “Naked and Afraid has nothing on us.”

“Well,” I joked, “at least the afraid part. We didn’t haveto get naked.”

The air thickened.

Shit.

Again, I did it to myself.

“I guess.” Her voice was quiet. “There are no rules innature, anyway.”

Vague.

I wanted to ask her what she meant, and then I wanted toanalyze and digest every part of the sentence.

My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “We’ll just find ahotel.”

Yes, because that would fix every ounce of sexualtension—forced proximity, a comfy bed, bathrobes, and adrenaline.

Sure.

Oh, the lies we tell ourselves.

ChapterTwelve

“When you’re a hot mess, the best choice is to just own itand jump in with both feet, then succumb to the hotness before youexplode.”—Hazel Titus

Hazel

We stopped at the first hotel we could find that was righton the beach, far, far away from the bear.

They had several rooms.

Which made it awkward. Did we pay for two?

I was about to ask for two when August requested a Kingcorner suite, then ordered wine and food.

No complaints.

It was easy to check into the hotel. We used the secretcredit card Great-Grandma had gotten for me so that neither of our dads couldtrace anything—not that either of them really had access, but we didn’t want totake any chances.

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