Page 19 of Bear In A Boutique
Eighty-six steps of Olive’s ass.
She was petite, but she had just the right amount of curves. Her ponytail was thick and shiny, the blonde strands streaked with low lights and highlights that looked so pretty with her blue eyes.
The wind picked up, tossing her hair around her back, and tugging at her shirt. Cursing under his breath, Ryker hoped the rain would hold off until tonight as the weather forecast predicted.
Olive slowed her climb but didn’t stop until they reached the top.
“There’s a lock on the trapdoor just above your head,” he called out. “Pull the lever from the mechanism and then push the trapdoor up.”
She hefted it open and climbed inside. He paused to look at the skyline for storm clouds. Olive was peering down at him when he resumed climbing.
“Are you coming, slowpoke?”
“Slowpoke? I was going easy on you. I would have been up here an hour ago by myself.”
“Smartass.”
Pulling himself inside, he closed and locked the trapdoor then slipped off his backpack.
He grabbed a bottle of water, about to suggest Olive do the same but she was circling the small room, peering out the massive plexiglass windows to take in the three hundred and sixty-degree view.
“This is amazing! You can see for miles up here!”
“See? All the nature you could want from the safety of four walls.”
The interior was rugged but comfortable. There was a counter on the wall with a camping stove for cooking and a cupboard with kitchen essentials and canned food. Two twin cots sat on the other side of the room, a round table and chairs in the middle. Behind the cooking area, a narrow space had been sectioned off with a shower curtain to fashion a makeshift restroom with a camping toilet and wash basin, complete with several jugs of bottled water for cleaning up.
He grabbed a clipboard from a hook on the cupboard and flipped through the pages clipped there.
“What’s that?”
Olive made a slow walk through the room and came his way.
“I need to do inventory. The tower is staffed twenty-four hours a day, every day until the next snowfall starting on Monday. It’s my job to get supplies up here and keep the place stocked, in addition to taking my turn on fire watch.”
Her soft eyes dug into his soul. “You have a pretty exciting life. Working for the fire department, doing search and rescue, and getting to work in places like this for the forest department. It’s pretty cool.”
Maybe she stroked his ego a little. Or maybe it was something else. But Ryker closed the distance between them in four steps, holding her gaze, loving how her pupils dilated as she watched him approach.
“You know what the most exciting thing is?”
Her pretty lips parted as he hooked a finger under her chin and brought her face up.
“What?”
“Having you here with me.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “I thought you were going to say kissing me was the—”
Ryker pulled her against him, ignoring the voice in his head that said he shouldn’t, and brushed his lips across hers. Watching her, waiting for her reaction, his blood flamed when she gripped his shirt and rose on her toes to meet his lips.
Her flavor burst on his tongue, the headiest sweetness he’d ever experienced. Kissing her deeply, he chased the taste of her and the way it made him feel, trying to grab both and make them stay. Olive’s body melted against him. He dropped the clipboard to wrap his arms around her. Lifting her off her feet, he slid an arm beneath her as she wrapped her legs around his hips.
She kissed him with pure abandon, seeking the pleasure of his lips as much as he was hers. Her energy was wild and uninhibited as she cupped his face in her hands and dragged her lips along his with the barest touch.
Her lips were swollen when she pulled back, her voice raw and breathy. “What are we doing?”
His bear growled low, warning Ryker not to stop. He wanted to claim her, to keep her, to sink into her body and make her completely his.
