Page 20 of Those Who Are Bound

Jonah quipped, “Is this your competitive edge talking?”

Elliott snickered. “Try to keep up, Montgomery.” And she stepped around him to reclaim the path. She limped for a couple of steps as her body adjusted itself, but kept going stubbornly. “Keep going up, right?”

Jonah jogged up the hill after her. “I admire your grit.”

“I had an older brother, remember,” she pointed out. “Seven years older than me, and he wasn’t about to have a sissy for a kid sister.” She looked over her shoulder at him, cautiously pausing on the trail to do so. “His reputation wouldn’t stand for it. And then there was Dad; the family motto wasSoldiers Don’t Cry, so a scraped knee was a badge of honor, not a cause for hysterics.”

“Seven years apart.”

“Yeah. I was twelve when he went into the Marines, but he left a pretty toughened up kid by the time he did. And every leave he came home, he made sure he spent time with me. He got out when I was in college. He’d had enough after eight years, returned to KC, and started Easy Street Events.”

“So in spite of the age difference, you were close with your brother.”

“He was all I had…” She stumbled on the words. “He’s all the family I had after our folks died, so, yeah. He was in my life a lot… until he wasn’t,” she said the last quietly; he might not have even heard it as she climbed up the terrain.

“Was he the only man in your life? Your brother?”

Elliott turned and looked down at him, off guard, thinking he couldn’t possibly know anything about the other man who was a permanent fixture. “What do you mean?My dad? He died before Gage.”

Jonah looked back up at her and shook his head. “No, I meant other men.”

Why would he ask her about other men in her life? She hedged, unsure, “I do believe, Mr. Montgomery, that’s a question you’re not supposed to ask on a first date.”

He climbed up the hill after her. “We aren’t eighteen; we’re both adults. You have a history. Again, I’m making an assumption. If I’m not man enough to hear about it now, then I’m not man enough.” He caught up and looked down at her. “We’re startingourstory. We get to figure out what we say and when.” He moved past her.

Elliott watched him go, her stomach flipping and heart pounding from something other than the exercise. He said all the right things, and he was hotter than a ghost pepper. But there was history, and there washistory. Most people had a vanilla history; hers was not that.

“If you don’t want to tell me, just say so,” he called back.

There was no judgment in his voice. No, the judgments would come after. At the moment, he was imagining a couple of random boyfriends, and she’d had those. But herhistory…

Elliott slowly followed and asked, “Well, what about you? How come the twenty questions are all directed at me?”

He chuckled. “I’m just noisier.” He glanced over his shoulder and teased, “And I’m not gasping for air.”

“Oh!”

She scooped up a stick and pitched it at him. It whizzed by his hip, which made him laugh. “You missed.”

“I meant to miss,” she called after him, kicking into high gear. She dug her heels in and ran up the incline in an effort to beat him to the top, grabbing on to smaller trees to help propel her upward.

But Jonah was already at the top. He turned as she barreled up the path, holding out a hand to her. With her momentum and his added help, she found herself slamming into his side. He turned more fully toward her, and suddenly she was in his arms. He smiled as though she had answered a question for him.

Elliott stared up at him, still panting from her run to the top of the hill, but it would be fairer to say that the tingling at the intimate contact was leaving her more breathless. Her nipples tightened and her cheeks flushed; there was no way he could miss it. She didn’t want him to. Pressing closer, she hoped that he would kiss her. Her focus dropped to his lips, willing them to come closer, for his mouth to cover hers, to claim her.

Instead, he lifted an eyebrow and cocked his head to the left. “Can I show you that?”

Dragging her gaze from his mouth, she looked to where he indicated and let out a small gasp. Below them, the Missouri River flowed in spectacular glory.“Oh. That’s beautiful.”

Jonah released her as he guided her more fully onto the Bluffs Trail. She walked over to a tree that partially dangled over the cliff and leaned on it, looking out over the river.

“Careful,” he said.

She graced him with a grin, enjoying his attention on her like she was his scenery. And she really liked the unnecessary but protective instruction, that male part of him that wanted to take care of her. She allowed herself to be enchanted by all of it as she braced against the tree: him, watching her as she took in the river below rolling along in the morning light. She looked everywhere, trying to take it all in, attempting to commit the scenery to memory.

She eventually pushed off the tree and straightened, looking back at him. He dropped his gaze from the sky to her. “You said there’s an observation area?” She held her hand out to him.

He grasped her hand firmly in his and pulled her in beside him as they started walking. “An overlook; this way.”

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