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“I’d rather you know how I think about you.”

Her lips parted and her eyes went wide. To be honest, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. But now that he had done what he’d teased about earlier—put his head right in the gutter—he walked over to where she was bent, hands tracing the curves of the water in the same way he’d imagined tracing her silhouette.

“And, at the risk of not liking the answer, what do you think of me?”

Jax drew his bottom lip between his teeth. He could tell her that she was stunningly beautiful, driven in a way that spoke to his core, and frustratingly difficult to understand sometimes.

Or he could show her.

He gave his fingers permission to tuck a long, frazzled curl behind her ear, keeping her gaze. She didn’t flinch, didn’t avert her eyes. As he dipped close enough to catch the whiff of floral sweetness with an edge of salt from her hard work, she gave a subtle nod.

I hope you know what you’re doing. She won’t be okay with a one-night stand.

Didn’t he know it. Though he wasn’t sure what he could offer her in terms of a future, he knew with absolute certainty how he wanted to spend the next few weeks in her arms, if possible. Maybe if they let this heat building between them simmer, it would bake off any ill feelings they’d had before.

His lips were a breath away from hers, and it seemed as if the whole canyon stilled to watch. The water slowed to a meandering pace, the breeze went in search of other places to play, and even the heartbeat loud in his ears a moment ago became a distant echo.

And then two things happened at the same time. First, Jill gripped his arms as if she were clinging to life itself. Her nails dug into his skin, and he started to pull back, to ask if this was her way of leaning into a kiss or was he reading things all wrong. Instead, she let out a blood-curdling scream that pierced his eardrums and sent him careening off-balance.

He wobbled, teetering on the water’s edge for a fraction of a second before realizing that she still had a vice grip on him. Jax saw it happening as if it were happening to someone else, slowly and frame by frame. His instability on the balls of his feet finally gave in to gravity, and they tumbled into the creek.

Jax was completely submerged, and Jill still hadn’t let go.

He stood, sputtering the water from his airway. “What the heck was that?” he asked, wiping the water from his eyes. His chest heaved in huge gulps of air. And still, Jill latched onto him like a baby colt afraid to venture out in the field.

“J-J-Jax, look.”

When his vision came back and his pulse calmed the hell down, he followed her terrified stare along the opposite bank until he saw the familiar black ball of fur and his much larger furry mama.

“Damn,” he muttered.

“I know,” Jill hissed, her chin wobbling. By now, she was close to drawing blood from his biceps if she didn’t let up. “It’s a bear, Jackson!”

“Two bears, actually, and what I meant by damn is that he’s grown up since I last saw him. I can’t believe he’s a teenager already.” He waved and nodded at them, and the momma bear sent him a grumble back.

“Did you just wave at a bear?” Her voice had gone full-blown operatic. The animal observers didn’t pay attention to her shrill screeching, but he had to hold back a laugh.

“Yeah, and she waved back in her own way. Jill, they’re friends, remember? As long as we keep to our side of the creek, they’re just checking in and feeding and we let ’em. Don’t we, Gertrude?”

“You’ve named her?” Jill was full-blown hysterical.

Jax cupped her cheeks, which hilariously put Jill’s own hands above her head since she still hadn’t let him go.

“Jill, look at me.” Her lips were shaking, but she didn’t look away from the bear duo. They, however, couldn’t have cared less about him and Jill. “Jill. They won’t hurt you. I’ll protect you if they even get close, okay?”

She nodded and slowly, her chin migrated so she was facing Jax, the terror still evident in her scrunched-up forehead and wide eyes. But at least she wasn’t shaking as badly.

“I’ll protect you,” he whispered as he placed his forehead to hers. Her fingers relaxed but didn’t leave his arms. They slid up until they perched on his shoulders.

“I know you will.”

A deep, feral want welled up inside his chest, but he put aside the need to feel her lips on his, to know the feel of her body pressed against his. The cool water dripped off the tip of his nose, and his breath stalled in his lungs. As sexy as this woman looked in a suit or adorable with dirt and grease stains marring her skin, it was nothing compared to the fire in his stomach at seeing her drenched and dripping, the tight white fabric of her tank top clinging to her skin. Every new iteration of her wowed him more than the last.

“I’m sorry I knocked us in here,” she said. Her voice had taken on a sultry deep tone that turned him on.

“Don’t be.” It was the plan all along, even if he was gonna go about it with a little less falling and a lot more suaveness.

He cupped his palm, dipped it into the cool water, and poured it over Jill’s shoulder. Using the pad of his thumb, he rubbed the grease until it dissolved. He repeated the process on both shoulders, then her back. When his fingers wrapped around the base of her neck, she nuzzled against his palm while he cleaned the dirt and grime from her cheeks.