Page 18 of Under Pressure

“I guess I am kind of looking forward to seeing the endangered species in their home. I’m glad they’re being taken care of properly.”

Cole takes a sip of black coffee, his face going serious as he chews on a piece of bacon. “Remember when we were kids, and you always talked about opening your own shelter for rescue dogs?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t talk about that anymore.”

I shrug. “Work is busy, and there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to find a place or get things in order.”

“So, you’d still like to do that.”

I nod. “Yeah, I would.”

“What was it you wanted to call it? Bed and Barkfest?”

I laugh. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

His bare foot touches mine beneath the table. “I remember everything, Reese.”

So, do I.

“Tell me about your job in Colorado,” I say, remembering the times he talked about opening his own adventure camp. Is that something he still thinks about?

His face lights with a smile, and it’s clear he loves what he does. No surprise there. Unlike me, Cole always was an adrenaline junkie who needed adventure to thrive.

“I love it.” He gives a slow shake of his head. “The rapids, the scenery, the steep stretches, and the whitewater.” He opens his hands wide. “It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. For most people, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, and I get to do it every week. How lucky am I, right?”

“Very,” I say, unease moving through me. I keep telling myself I’m a big girl and don’t need Cole, but it’s going to kill me when he leaves again.

“One of the trips includes camping and visiting a cattle ranch. You should come visit. I’ll take you out.”

“No, thanks,” I say quickly.

“One of the rafting trips includes horseback riding. You’d love that.”

“Can I skip the rafting and just do the horseback riding?”

He pops a piece of bacon into his mouth and grins. “Yeah, you can do that, Reesey Piecey. But come on, you went shark diving. It’s all anticlimactic after that.”

As if on cue, my nipple pops out again, and Cole clears his throat. “Speaking of climactic,” he says, and I readjust myself to hide my turgid nipple.

As much as I like where his mind is going, I point at his breakfast. “Hurry up and eat. We have a bus to catch in thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be fast,” he says.

“Cole,” I warn.

He laughs and takes a swig of coffee. “Hey, can’t blame a guy for trying.”

No, I can’t. He’s a guy and guys think about sex. All. The. Time. Even if this was more than that for him, which it’s not, our lives are in two different places. Mine, New York. His, Colorado. I would never ask him to give that up, or try to change him.

Chapter Six

Cole

After a long bus ride through the awesome scenery of the plains and cliffs of desert-like Klein Karoo, we arrive at our destination in the Western Cape. As we all climb off and stretch out our legs, we’re greeted by our guide and led to our hotel room to get ourselves settled before the tour of the endangered species ranch.

My room is next to Reese’s. I can’t help but think it’s a waste of money. We could have spared whoever sponsored this trip the cost of two rooms and just shared one. We’ve done that numerous times, even when we weren’t sleeping together.

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