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"Okay fine! I thought a deer was working their way through the trees and I wanted to get a picture because I think they're magical, majestic creatures and really pretty too." She took a breath while I held mine. "I couldn't find it. I went right to where I'd heard it. They like that line of trees and I see one there at least every other day."

"Where does Bigfoot come into play?"

"I was about halfway back to the house when there was this loud crash. Like a branch collapsing into the brush or whatever. I turned to see if I could figure out what happened and aside from a few leaves and the birds getting the heck out of there, nothing. No deer leaping away. No bear crashing around. And then all of a sudden something tall jumped up and ran away. It was all in the shadows so I couldn't make anything out."

That bad feeling was back. "Something tall?" I rolled off her and sat up.

"Taller than a deer and more agile than a bear."

"Bears aren't so bad." I ran my hand down my face. "And you went with Bigfoot instead of a lost hiker?"

All the color drained from her face. "You think it was a person? A human person? You're always telling me we're all alone out here!"

She was scared of whatever it was. Scared enough that she locked herself inside and hid in the most remote room of the house. "I think this is the time of year where people forget there's a difference between private property and the National Forest." I didn't like that idea. Not one bit. This was Marley's safe space and I needed it to be that. "If they were lost or hiking around and came up on the house, they probably realized they weren't where they were supposed to be and ran." The only thing that kept me from wondering if ODX's weirdo from today had anything to do with it was the fact that we were with the weirdo when this happened.

It had to be someone else. Which, now that I thought about it, was just as bad.

"Now I kind of hate myself for kicking you out this morning when you told me you had a bad feeling. Well, feeling confirmed, mister. You have wicked senses."

I slid back down beside her, moving the laptop out of the way, and traced her face with my finger. "We'll keep an ear out for stories of wandering hikers. We hear it all at ODX and what we don't hear, Willow does. Or Scottie."

Maybe there had been too many murder mystery books lying around, or maybe TBCIMA meetings were seeping into my subconscious, or all their joking about a serial killer hiding in our mountains had finally gotten to me. Either way, I wasn't going to let Marley out of my sight until we had answers.

"Should I stop going outside when I'm alone?"

I absolutely hated how small her voice sounded. "I don't think so. But I don't plan on leaving you alone until we know more. Can you take me to where all this happened?"

"Yeah, of course." She started to get up.

I kept her in the bed because before we went trudging through the brush, I needed her to calm down and relax.

Her eyebrows went up. "Jackson?"

"We've never had sex down here." The hot tub saw some heavy foreplay, but never the guest bedroom. "We could defile the bed before Charley gets here."

She threaded her fingers through mine. "One, I'm absolutely fine with defiling the bed. And two, I was thinking she could stay in the barn so we could still have our privacy."

I really didn't want to have nice sex when Charley arrived. Not that there was anything wrong with nice sex. I liked nice sex and sometimes I even craved it, but not having the option for wild, screaming, windows open sex made the nice sex seem more like a punishment.

"Charley is absolutely staying in the barn. I am one hundred percent on board with that." I ran my hand over her breasts and down her stomach, teasing her clit through her shorts. She lit up for me so easily and my dick was already swelling. "What does my girl need?"

She huffed. "After today? After hiding and worrying? I need a little wild."

"No more thinking," I demanded. "No more worrying. I've got you." It was what I needed too. To get lost in her and forget, for a few minutes, that I had bad feelings and weird shit happening. I didn't want to think about anything that might come between us.

So I peeled her tank-top over her head but didn't pull it off. Instead, I left it over her face, trapping her arms above her head.

Marley laughed. "Oh, so it's like this, is it?"

A blindfold and an arm bind? "Yes it is, ma'am. Now stop thinking, stop trying to see, and just feel what I do to you." There was no bra to get rid of. She was already bare up top. Something about compression doing all the work. I didn't question the gift that was braless tank-tops.

The shorts she picked up at the ODX store were just as easy to slip off and toss to some corner of the room. I admired the sight of her naked on the bed, all tangled up in her shirt, her body just waiting for me to touch it.

"I've been outside all day. Should I leave you like this while I shower?"

"No!" she shouted, wiggling.

"But it would give you so much time to wonder what I'll do to you." I teased because I could and because she loved it. I took a quick shower at ODX before I left so it wasn't like I was disgusting. I still wanted a proper shower with my soaps and preferably Marley helping, but only after I got us both very dirty again.