Page 28 of Liar & Champion
“Name it.” This would be interesting. Maybe she’d want me to teach her how to shoot a gun. I’d love that. Not that I had a gun on me, but I could get my hands on one easily enough. Gun laws in New Mexico weren’t…
She skated her sweet fingers down my forearm to my wrist and fingers, distracting me. “I want to kiss you.”
My lips were suddenly trembling, mouth-watering with that hunger she’d inspired the moment she opened her eyes. “Probably should hold off on that while I’m driving.”
She beamed at me. “That wasn’t a no. What about a campground with the cute little cabins? Not that sleeping under the stars isn’t great, but think of the mosquitoes. The Arizonaforests below the Grand Canyon are supposed to be gorgeous, but I’ve never been. Good thing I brought sleeping bags.”
“And pillows. You’re a regular girl scout: always prepared. Sounds like a plan.”
“Although you were in a big rush to get to Las Vegas the other night. Now it isn’t as urgent? Why not?” Her eyes were so big and beautiful.
“I got shot. If I go to Vegas, I’ll have to explain to my friends what happened, and that will be a hassle. It’s better to just slip in like I never left.” That was part of it, but we both needed time.
“Ah. You want to recover. Poor Mr. Honey must feel terrible. Maybe I should drive. I had a very nice nap.” She stretched to prove her point, arching her body, showing how lithe and flexible she was. Every one of her movements was distracting, tempting, but I was not driven by my desires, however much it looked like it from the outside.
“It’s the pillows. You brought excellent pillows for our road trip. I always say you can be comfortable anywhere if you have the right pillows.”
She put her head back on the white down and smiled at me, so inviting, so sweet, like sunshine on a pillow. “You always say that?”
“Every day,” I said solemnly. “Why don’t you close your eyes and see if you can get a few more winks while I find us a campground.”
She obediently closed her eyes, and it was like sleeping beauty, waiting for a kiss. She’d asked me to kiss her. Somehow I backed away, went around the car, and got back in the driver’s side. She actually did fall back asleep, trusting me to find the way on my own.
The campground was small, run by a couple who lived in an RV and lectured us about firewood and littering before sending us to our cabin in the woods. When we almost hit an elk, Kittengasped and grabbed my leg, sending a bolt of awareness through me that woke me all the way up.
“He’s so beautiful. I wish I could paint him.” Her soft husky voice was serious bedroom fodder. What was wrong with me? She was talking about an elk, not kissing, and she’d only mentioned kissing once. I’d thought about it more than once on our drive. Yeah, I’d been thinking about a lot of things once the gate to her lips was unlocked. I had to reign in the lust or I’d terrify her. She was a virgin. She admitted it without the slightest hesitation. She liked being a virgin and wasn’t interested in changing that statistic. I really was incredibly uncomfortable around that kind of thing, the innocent, the uninitiated, but somehow, it didn’t seem to matter with her. I just wanted to be with her whatever that meant, as long as I could keep her out of the psychopath’s grasp.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a female,” I said. “It is gorgeous here. Good call, Kitten.” I patted her hand and subtly took it off my thigh.
We pulled up at the small cabin, big enough for a bed and not much else, and not the size of bed that I was accustomed to.
I got out slowly, feeling tired. Being shot did take it out of you, and so did driving, and so did not touching Sunshine Ray Wilson.
I went around the car to open the door for her, but she was already out, holding two pillows to her chest while she looked at me with those big luminous eyes, like she was afraid that I’d lured her into the woods to gobble her up. Made me want to gobble her up exactly the way she wanted me to.
“Can I carry those pillows for you? Maybe I’ll just carry you. How are your hips feeling? Your bruising looks much better.” I focused for a moment on the smooth column of her neck before my gaze went down to her chest where the remnant of a brightbruise had been covered before. I lightly brushed the skin above the curve of her neckline. “That’s still pretty bad.”
She looked down and then hugged the pillows tighter, blocking the bruising. “That’s where he held me against the seat with his arm.” She smiled brightly, but her eyes were watery.
“Hey, Kitten, come here.” I held out my arms and for a moment she hesitated but then she fell against me too hard for how delicate she was. I held her gently, trying to lend her some sense of safety. “I’m going to do my best to keep you from harm, okay?”
She sniffed. “I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m getting emotional all of a sudden.”
“It was in the questionnaire you made for me. I want a woman with all the emotions.” Was she still the woman I wanted to spend six months with? There was absolutely no doubt about it.
“Moody and erratic,” she mumbled against my chest.
“No one is happy all the time, Kitten. And you know what? That’s just fine.” We stayed there like that, me hugging her with the pillows between us. Maybe it was weird, but we were in the middle of the woods with nothing but elk to judge us. Finally, she pulled away and I let her go. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her nose an adorable pink. She sniffed and then handed me the pillows while she rummaged in her car for tissues.
“Okay, let’s take a tour of the grand mansion,” she said, slipping her arm in mine and smiling up at me. That’s when I knew that she smiled to cover up her pain. She did it so well, so effortlessly. She shouldn’t have so much practice hiding her misery. I wanted to make her smile for real, and make her comfortable enough around me that she didn’t need to smile when she wasn’t really happy.
I shifted the pillows so I could pat her hand. “It’ll take some time. There’s the bathroom, which is a good walk to our left, andthen the pond where we can do some fishing, maybe take a swim in the moonlight. The grand sleeping quarters are right before you.”
The grand sleeping quarters were two bunks built into the wall inside the teeny cabin, stacked on top of each other. It was probably physically possible to have two people in one of those bunks, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. Good. Sleeping on the bunk beneath her would keep me from crushing her in my sleep. I wasn’t at all disappointed that she wouldn’t be making a pillow out of my shoulder and snuggling me all night.
“I get the bottom bunk,” I said, putting the pillow down. “That way I’m the first line of defense when the bears try to get us.”
“You already got shot protecting me.”
