Page 7 of Driven Wild By The Grizzly

But I know she feels the connection between us, too. Her beautiful dark eyes kept running over me when she thought I wasn’t looking, and I heard the hitch in her breathing, saw the way her tongue ran across her lips. And when she turned her back on me for what she thought was the last time—

My beast swells inside me.

I saw the naked regret in her eyes.

She’s my mate. She knows it’s wrong for us to be apart.

As the trail meanders, I make sure to stay just out of sight. If she turns around and sees me now, she’ll probably call the cops. But staying so far away from her is killing me.

As is my cock. It’s been like a rock ever since she walked down the bus and I touched her for the first time. Now it’s so hard it hurts. I keep adjusting my pants over the bulge, fighting the urge to jerk off, take off some of the pressure.

When Jessica comes to a side trail, she pulls out her phone and checks the directions. Then she continues confidently along the main track. She’s so smart. Doing so well for someone who said she doesn’t like the forest much.

It made me sad when she said that, but I’ll show her. Teach her that life in the forest is more real and beautiful than the artifices and bullshit of the outside world—

Craaackk! An almighty sound stops me in my tracks.

Thunder, rumbling in the distance.

Darn.I knew a storm was coming. I just hoped Jessica would make it back to Twin Falls before it arrived. High above the treetops, the sky has gotten dark and the scent of ozone is heavy in the air. Hopefully it’ll hold off for another hour at least.

Boom!go the heavens, and a fork of lightning sears across the sky. Shit. There goes that idea.

She makes a small sound, of surprise or dismay, and it stabs me right in the heart. Every fiber of my being is telling me to run to her, enfold her in my arms, and lead her home—to my cabin, where she belongs.

There’s a long, tense silence, a feeling of the universe gathering itself. Then the rain starts to fall.

Fast, then stupid fast—a deluge, gushing from the sky like an upturned bucket.

She’s gonna get soaked to the skin.

Crap.Time for plan B.

4

Jessica

Sheesh,what is this—the apocalypse? Noah’s Ark II?

The rain is falling in sheets. I duck beneath a pine tree, pressing myself against its trunk, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.

I feel like some angry gods just dunked an immortal-sized bucket of water over the world, and I amdrenched. Shirt, jeans. Sneakers. My backpack is supposed to be waterproof, but I’m not about to check it and find out whether my notebooks and laptop have been annihilated.

I feel like even my underwear might be wet, and not in a good way.

Actually, truth be told, my pantiesmayalready have been a little damp before the flood started. But I didn’t sign up for this kind of just-fell-into-the swimming-pool soaked.

And now I’m lost as well.

There I was, walking along, fantasizing…uh, thinking… about a certain unfeasibly sexy bus driver, and wishing I’d had the guts to give him my number, when the sky started gushing down on me. The pine trees don’t keep the rain off much, but I thought I saw some kind of wooden shelter in the distance, so I jumped off the trail to go see. Unfortunately, it was a rotted old heap of wood, with no roof.No problemo,I thought. I’ll just return to the trail. But my phone’s GPS has stopped working, and I’ve gotten turned around, and… I have no idea which way leads back to the trail.

I turn around and around in the dark wood and pouring rain, trying not to freak out.

Think,Jessica. What looks familiar?

Everything.

Nothing.

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