Page 20 of The Bride's Secret

She looked out the window. “I’ll think about it.”

“Come here, Angel Fire.” He wrapped an arm across her shoulders again, and pulled her back up against his side. “We can do whatever makes you comfortable. You brought it up so I thought you wanted to know what I thought.”

Her eyes found his and their wide round depths were begging for understanding. “Am I emotionally stable? That’s what I really want to know.”

He laughed, but she had a good point. He had no idea really what it was like to go through what she had in the last week. Mentally, he chided himself and determined to once again put some sort of restraint on his attraction to her. “I’ll make it easier on you, Carisa.”

She reached for his hand again. “Well now, I don’t know if I want that either.”

He shrugged and they relaxed for the rest of their thirty minute drive.

She pointed out hot spots and beautiful landmarks,and he watched and listened and settled into a great comfortable peace at her side.

The guide stood and explained that conditions were safe for them to hike to the peak. It would take a couple hours. He warned them against the four mile hike to turtle bay because of the later hour of their afternoon tour. He didn’t want it to get dark while they were hiking.

Wyatt found her ear, brushing his lips against it while he whispered. “I say we find Turtle bay.”

She didn’t turn toward him, giving him longer access to her ear and so he pressed his lips to her lobe.

She tipped slightly, opening up her neck so he pressed his lips below her ear and down her neck to her shoulder.

“MMM.” Then she turned to him, eyes darkened.

“Was that too much?”

“Definitely too much. But I’m not complaining.” Her eyes found his lips but their guide asked them to stand and enter the visitor center.

Wyatt waved them all on. “I say we take off for this hike.”

“How do we even know where it starts?”

He pointed. “Signs.” The trail starter was clearly marked so they headed that direction. “I think we can easily see all of it in the time allowed.”

“Especially if we skip the visitor center tour.”

“You’re my kind of woman.”

“You like them emotionally needy and confused, do you?”

He laughed. “I’m sorry. That’s not even funny.” He looked away but gave in and laughed some more. “But it is funny. This whole thing might make a great story someday.”

“Yeah, a regular romance novel.” She squeezed his hand in hers so he didn’t worry about her dire tone too much.

They picked up their pace. As they walked the mile to the rim, the path became warmer and steeper.

But neither of them became too winded. Wyatt was pleasantly surprised. “You’re in great shape.”

“So are you. I ran your five mile workout. Good heavens. Do you always push that hard?”

“Not usually, not unless I’m trying to work something out of my system.”

She considered his words in silence for a few minutes. Then she said, “Well, I guess we’ve both been working some things through. We’ll be up at the top in no time.”

They started to sweat from the heat and soon she was down to her sports bra again and he shirtless.

Carisa pointed. “I think it’s just over that ridge.”

They rounded a final switch back on the trail and then stopped at the top. “Incredible.” Wyatt held his hand out, indicating all the black, flowing, glowing lava out to his front. “I’ve always wanted to see something like this.”

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