Page 9 of Cold Foot Croc (Wreck’s Mountains #3)

“Are you angry?”

Garret was putting his chainsaw away after cutting up a log that had fallen and dried out on the edge of the camp. “Angry? About what?”

“About your brother taking your truck?”

Garret’s bright-teal eyes darted to the tire tracks in the snow that led back down the mountain trail. A smile cracked his face and he shook his head. “Nah.”

“I get really angry if anyone takes anything of mine without permission.”

“Territorial?”

“Very. The animal doesn’t attach to much, but if she does, nobody is allowed to take it.”

“Mmm. It’s not like that with Dylan. We shared a lot growing up. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so we even shared our first truck. We had this lawn care business for years, saving up, and when he turned sixteen, we paid cash for this old truck that barely ran. A Ranger, actually,” he said, gesturing to her new Ranger. “Not as nice as yours.”

“It’s not mine yet,” she murmured. “I still have to pay back the down payment, and I owe a lot on the loan.”

A frown dragged his eyebrows down. “I get that. Me and my brother shared our first truck for years until we could each afford our own.”

“You’re really close then.”

“Yeah, he’s my best friend. Every fight I got in when I was in school? They had to deal with Dylan too. And vice versa. We had the same friend group, we always lived in the same town. He’s a safety net.”

“Did he…” She shook her head at the stupid question she was about to ask. She was not one of those jealous girls, and it was none of her business.

“Did he what?”

“Never mind. I just called myself out in my head for being way too girly.”

His eyes narrowed as he knelt there by the woodpile he’d been arranging by the firepit they’d dug out. “Ask. I’m going to be wondering all day if you don’t.”

“Did Dylan like your ex?”

“God no. He thought she was too needy, and she annoyed him.”

“Because he wanted all of your attention?”

“No, because she started fights all the time and talked shit about me to everyone, him included. It was either really good, or really bad. She loved taking pretty pictures of us that made us look like some perfect couple, but that wasn’t us. I hated the show. Dylan did too. He didn’t think she was the one.”

Apologetically, she said, “I don’t mean to keep bringing up your ex. I’ve never been curious like this before with a man. In my defense though, I didn’t have that great first love before I went to prison, and then the breeding happened, and I don’t know if I’m even built for deep connections anymore, you know? Maybe I’m ruined, or jaded now. Back when I was dating, before prison, I didn’t care if a man was just casually dating me. If I found out he was dating other women, I just bounced. There were no hurt feelings, I was just on to the next. I was in it for fun, and distraction, maybe. We were in a smaller town, and I needed to live close to my mom so I could keep an eye and an ear out for drama in her house. Everyone in town knew I was a croc shifter. I had my own pond that I shared with my brother, Mace, and everything, and no one was allowed to be in it or around it but us. The town even set up fencing with razor wire to keep kids from going in there on a dare, and to prevent an accident from happening while me or my brother were Changed. I was a freak, but I was fun at parties, so sometimes the boys liked to try and date me. I wasn’t the one they were ever going to bring home to their mom though, and I figured that out early on and adjusted my expectations.”

“Sounds kind of lonely,” he said.

She shrugged. “Maybe. At the time I didn’t feel lonely though. Not that I remember. I was busy and happy, and having fun around the times my mom’s boyfriend was being a dick.”

“Will you ever go back to your hometown?”

“No.” She surprised herself with how fast she said that. Raynah dusted the thin layer of snow off the chair. She took a seat and pulled her bottled water to her lips, took a long drink, then replaced the cap. “I think it would bring back too many memories, and I don’t think I would be welcome there. No matter what my reasons were for doing what I did, people don’t understand it. It doesn’t matter if my intentions for my family were good, I’m the bad guy, you know? My mom was angry with me for calling the police over the years, and got angry with my bad-talking her boyfriend, and got angry that I was trying to separate them. Chh.” She shook her head. “Other than the letter Mace sent, no one contacted me or tried to visit. It’s not like anyone would really travel to Alaska, and it’s not like visitors were really allowed, but calls were allowed. No one checked in. The rumors did what they did in that town, and I saw Harold Price’s obituary. He was remembered as some upstanding citizen who would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need, and I was the villain who took his life too soon.” She scrunched up her face. “Some things are best left in the past. I won’t ever return to that place.”

He nodded thoughtfully, then stood. “I don’t know if I can go back to my hometown either.”

“Why not?”

“Uuuuh, I accidentally Changed in the middle of the street in front of a bunch of people, and terrorized the town. I did it in front of the local Baptist church on a Sunday, just as service was letting out. Animal control had to tranquilize me.”

“Oh my gosh.”

“Yep.” He pursed his lips and lowered his chin. “Did you know when you get shot three times in the left ass cheek with tranquilizers, the city sends you a bill, and demands that you register as a shifter? I didn’t want to do that, because I didn’t understand what my Maker wanted with me, and didn’t want to give him a way to track me, so I came here. There were a few reasons we moved to a place where no one knows who I am.”

“You’re on the run? Bad boy.” She giggled, but tried to stop herself. “It’s not funny, I know.”

“Not funny at all.” But his lips were quirking up into a smile.

“It’s kind of funny.”

“It was traumatizing.”

“Yeah, but what a way to make an entrance. Your bear was like, ‘I exist, good law-abiding townspeople. I’m here.’”

He chuckled. “Yeah, he knew how to make an entrance, for sure. Everyone had to lock themselves in the church while my bear trashed the sign out front. I don’t even know why he was pissed at the dang sign in the first place. I made the newspaper for like three weeks.”

She doubled over with a laugh. “Hey, at least you didn’t make the newspaper for eating a man.”

“Yeah, that’s wild. You straight up ate him?”

“Not all of him. My animal left his dominant arm,” she assured him. “It was his favorite weapon. She left it right on the edge of my swamp, so his family would have something to bury.”

He laughed, and used her words. “It’s not funny, I know.”

She considered it. No, it wasn’t funny. She’d stayed a crocodile for a week after she’d done that, and lost the human side of herself completely there for a little while. The chaos and the arrest afterward was a mess. But with Garret, who wasn’t judging her at all, she could finally see a little humor in how stupid that entire situation was.

“Do you want to stay here?” he asked. “With me?”

Surprised by the question, Raynah looked around at the little campsite, and at her truck, then back to him. “Forever?”

“Until tomorrow morning? I have to work tomorrow, early, but we could stay the night here again. Just you and me.”

The slow spread of the smile on her face felt good. “I don’t have to work until tomorrow afternoon. I called in today already.”

“I like when we’re out here. You don’t have any tension, and you talk easy. You like being outside, I can tell.”

“It’s way better out here than four walls of a small cell I have to share with someone else,” she murmured softly. “And it’s better than Wreck’s Mountains, where everyone is just looking at me like I’m some kind of ticking time bomb.” She shrugged her shoulders up to her ears and scanned the beautiful, snow-caked pine trees around them, then canted her head at him. “The company isn’t bad either.”

“You like being around me?” he asked, with such seriousness to his tone.

With a nod, she whispered, “Very much.”

His eyes were on fire with intensity, and under his gaze, she’d never felt more wanted. She couldn’t look away even if she tried. A tremble worked its way up her spine and landed in her shoulders.

“Cold?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she said, if a little breathlessly, because she didn’t want to fully admit that the way he looked at her made her body react.

He pulled his jacket off and set it over her lap. “Give me a few minutes.” He turned and ducked under the flap of the tent.

She’d slept in there a couple of hours last night, and it hadn’t been bad because she’d been too exhausted to notice how uncomfortable a sleeping bag on hard ground was, but the strange, mechanical sound that started up inside of the tent perked her up.

He was inflating something.

The tent shook, and the sound of zippers filled the air, and now she was insatiably curious. Raynah stood and hugged Garret’s jacket close to herself as she made her way to the tent.

She pushed open the flap and scanned the tent. It already looked different. It was one of those two-room tents that apparently had clear plastic windows that could be exposed by unzipping the inside covers. Even the ceiling had clear plastic material, so she could see the tree branches near them and the snow falling down. Garret was inflating a newly unboxed queen-sized air mattress with an automatic pump. He had unfastened the straps of a couple extra sleeping bags that she’d seen in the corner last night, but had been too tired to mess with.

He was over in the corner making a fire in the wood-burning stove, which was vented to the outside through a small hole in the ceiling. She understood what he was doing. He was making a little nest in here so she could get warmed up.

She liked it. She liked this space with him.

In fact, she hadn’t felt so at home in a place in as long as she could remember.

Smiling to herself, Raynah brushed her fingertips across his shoulders in a silent thank-you and made her way to the bed, where she began spreading the sleeping bags in layers over the air mattress. There was only one pillow, but she wadded up his jacket for a second one. They would make do with what they had.

“It’s a hot tent, so it’ll heat up just fine with the wood stove running for a bit. Are you hungry?”

“A little,” she admitted.

“Here, I’ll tuck you in and then go get snacks.”

Well, that made her nice and mushy. “You’re going to tuck me in?”

He huffed a laugh and hung his head, and she could see the blush in his cheeks from here. “I don’t know why I said that. That was lame.”

“No, no! I…tucking me in would be nice.”

Garret’s teal eyes lifted to hers, and God, he was so hot.

Raynah pulled off her jacket and kicked off her snow boots. When she straightened her spine back up to stretch it, Garret’s hand slipped easily to the swell of her belly. He slid it down slowly to cup her body just above her hips, leaned in, and kissed her lips. When he eased back, it took her a few seconds to convince herself to open her eyes. She loved the way he touched her, the way he tasted, his confidence that warred with shyness, his being a capable man who could make a camp and have deep conversation in such a short span of time. She loved his layers. Every one of them.

Out here, it was just the two of them. Hang the past, hang both of their histories…none of that mattered.

Here, in this tent, in the middle of the snowy woods, the rest of their problems didn’t exist.

She felt drunk with the freedom.

Already it was warming up in here, and the chill had left her. Perhaps it was the crackling wood-burning stove filling this small space with heat, or maybe it was being this close to a furnace of a man. Or maybe it was her blood heating just being touched by a man she was falling so hard for. Perhaps it was all three.

Raynah peeled her sweater over her head and reveled in the shaky breath he exhaled as he dragged his attention over her lace-bra-covered breasts.

“Um, I want to take my leggings off, but there is nothing attractive or sexy about a woman tuna-fish-flopping out of these things.”

He laughed and stepped closer, slid his strong hand to her waist, and then leaned in. Lips near her ear, he whispered, “Let me.”

“Spandex is tricky,” she warned him, but that man dropped down to the edge of the air mattress, hooked his fingers into the stretchy maternity waistband, and pulled them down smoothly, but stopped right at the most unattractive part.

He let the tight waist sit halfway down her ass. “I want to see,” he said low, his eyes hungry.

She pulled a face. “I’m trying to seduce you. This is not the way.”

He laughed, but he was nodding as he slowly turned her in front of him. “For me it is.”

Mortified, she turned and stared out the plastic windowpane at the snow falling outside. She couldn’t even imagine what she looked like right now, with her waistband strangling her ass. A busted can of biscuits? Probably.

She squeezed her eyes closed against the embarrassment that threatened to consume her.

When his hands slid across her ass and squeezed, though, she opened her eyes in surprise. He was massaging her above the waist, and below. “Your ass is perfect,” he whispered reverently.

A baffled smile took her lips. “Really?”

“Oh my God, yes, Raynah. Look.”

She twisted around and looked at where he was grabbing his hard cock behind the zipper of his jeans. She could so easily see the outline of it against the denim fabric.

Okay, he was a booty man. Good.

“Can I take a picture of it?” he asked.

“Hmm. Depends on how many girls’ pictures you have saved in your phone.”

He huffed a laugh. “None but yours.” Truth.

“Then yes,” she said softly. “I don’t want to see them though.”

“Mmmm, you should see them though. You should see how good you look.”

“No spanks.”

He chuckled, and then she heard the click of his phone camera.

“Look at me,” he murmured in this gritty, sexy voice.

“Yes, sir,” she said with a naughty look over her shoulder.

“Oh fuck,” he said, lying back on the mattress. His shirt was off now, and his six-pack abs were flexed, holding him up partially to take pictures. He was so hot like this, with his thick cock pressed against his jeans.

“Take them off,” he said, and ooooh, the confidence in his voice. She was getting high on it.

She would do just about anything he told her to in this moment.

She pushed her leggings down with her back to him, and he groaned a curse word.

After kicking out of them completely, she stood and pulled the hairband out of her hair, loosing her waves down her back.

“Mmmm, now run your fingers through your hair. Good girl. One knee bent. Perfect. Now turn to the side.”

“You…you want to see my belly?”

“Never wanted to see anything more.”

“It has stretch marks,” she said, her confidence deflating. “They’ll probably heal after I have him. Maybe.”

“Let me see,” he crooned in that deep voice.

Raynah blew out a breath and turned, her hands clenched at her sides. Her body hadn’t belonged to her in months.

Click. Garret took a picture, then dropped his phone to the mattress and sat up, and you know? How could she feel less than beautiful when a man looked at her like this?

Garret’s eyes were glued to her, dragging up and down her body, and he had this smirk on his lips that said he loved every inch of what he saw.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said. “And I know you can hear the truth in my voice. Come here.”

Fighting the blush that was settling into her cheeks, she closed the yard of space between them and settled her knees between his as he wrapped his arms around her lower back. He leaned down with no hesitation and kissed the dark-red marks across her stomach. She had them on both sides, just below her belly button, which was now an outie.

His lips were so soft against her scarred skin, and moment by moment as he kissed every mark, then moved to the other side to pay attention to those, she did feel beautiful. She felt comfortable in her skin.

Garret was doing that for her.

This man was a healer.

She felt that with every fiber of her being. He was a wall-destroying, build-up-a-woman healer.

There was nothing more attractive to her in this world than him.

She lifted a knee and settled it beside him on the air mattress, and then did the same with the other, slowly, straddling him.

Her stomach created distance, but he curved his body around hers to kiss her. Please let this mattress hold all of our weight on this side, she prayed silently .

His lips moved against hers easily, like he’d been kissing her all his life, and his hands were everything as he gripped her gently in all the right places.

She cupped his cheeks, her shoulders shrugged up to her ears, as she kissed him back and reveled in the feel of his touch. The sound of his heartbeat raced hers, and beyond was the crackling of the wood in the stove and the soft pitter-patter of snowflakes hitting the tent.

His kiss became more intense as he slid a hand between them and down the front of her panties. He slipped his touch to her wet sex, and groaned as her rubbed her there. Raynah rolled her hips against his touch and arched her head back, holding him tight as she rolled her eyes closed.

“I want it,” he growled against her ear.

“You can have it,” she whispered breathlessly, and nipped the lobe of his ear.

They had hit a rhythm with rocking against each other, but he halted it to lean back and undo his jeans. She pushed up just enough to let him shove his pants down, exposing his enormous, hard cock.

Another tremble of excitement took her as he ripped her lace panties, pulled them from her, and threw them on the floor. She rubbed against the length of his shaft as he kissed her again, plunging his tongue deep into her mouth. Raynah groaned at how good this felt.

His thumb was gently on her throat, pushing her chin up so his lips could reach the tripping pulse there.

The way his mouth moved against her, the way his body moved against her…she couldn’t stop anymore, not even if she tried.

Harder, she rolled her hips against him, teasing the head of his cock with her entrance.

A sexy growl sounded from him, and in a blur his hands went to her hips and lifted her up just enough. He slid into her slow, and she shuddered as she took the entire length of him.

Every nerve ending was firing off in sensations like she’d never felt before. Holy shit, nothing had felt this good before.

He moved deep within her, slow at first, dragging her toward release so fast it was overwhelming. Oh, he knew what to do with her body.

The way his strong body rolled against her was everything.

Raynah got lost. The world disappeared and it was just them here, and Garret’s touch was the only thing that meant anything. He consumed her like the fire consumed the branches in that stove in the corner.

The feel of his muscles under her hands, and his warm, smooth skin, made her want more and more. She wanted this to last forever. It had been so damn long since she’d just been able to…be.

He moved deeper within her, gripping her hips, and she was there, crying out his name, tossing her head back. He gripped her hair in the back, and the fingers of his other hand dug into the curve of her thigh as he bucked into her.

When she looked into his eyes, they were so bright—the color of the ocean if it was glowing from the depths.

God, he was something to behold—his wide shoulders flexed as he gripped her and dragged her against him over and over. She felt like she would explode with ecstasy, and buried her face against his neck as she hugged him tighter.

“Are you there?” he asked in a whisper. “Yeah, you’re there. That’s a good girl. I can feel how close you are.”

And his words were enough to finish her. Raynah groaned helplessly as her body broke against him in crashing waves of pleasure.

“Fuck, Raynah,” he gritted out through a clenched jaw, and bucked into her faster, faster, harder. He wrapped his arms around her, holding the back of her neck, the other arm around her waist as he stayed deep in her, fucking her breathless.

Her orgasm was met with his as thick jets of warmth streamed into her in throbbing waves.

Panting his name mindlessly, over and over, Raynah melted into him completely, until she didn’t exist anymore. Until she was boneless.

When the pulses of both of their releases had faded away, he stayed just like that, holding her close. He rocked her gently as their heart rates came down slowly. At last, he inched back and searched her eyes, and she witnessed something astonishing. The slow smile that drifted across his face said he cared so deeply for her. Perhaps deeper than anyone had ever cared for her before.

It loosened up something inside of her that she hadn’t realized was wound so tight.

She blew out slow breath after slow breath, and he just watched her like she was the moon and the stars. “You’re okay,” he murmured.

She nodded once. Twice. “I’m okay.” And she could hear her own honesty in those words.

She was okay. Truly.

Garret eased her down to the bed and pulled the covers over her bare skin, and then moved to get up.

“Stay,” she whispered.

“Do you need food?”

She huffed a laugh. He was a good man. He was a caregiver. “In a little while. I don’t want this to end just yet.” Or ever, if she was being honest.

His eyes softened and he relaxed beside her, allowing her to tuck the double layer of sleeping bags over them.

“Tired?” he asked softly, as if he was trying to protect the magic of the moment.

“Relaxed.”

Garret ran a finger gently down her cheek. “None of that bothered you?”

She frowned. “Why would it bother me?”

“Because of what happened to you in Cold Foot.”

Ooooh. He was talking about her being a breeder, and not a willing one. Her eyes widened as she thought about it. Something huge hit her. “Do you know, I didn’t think about any of that?” Shocked, she told him, “You just made my head go entirely quiet.”

“Good,” he rumbled. “I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Her heart was so touched by his oath. She believed him. She could tell he believed himself.

She’d been around the other couples in the Cold Foot Crew, but she’d never understood the invisible bond that hung so thick in the air between them until now. She’d never understood the chemistry. Never understood the devotion, or the confidence they had with choosing their forever person.

The smile faded from his lips, and he propped up on his elbow. “Your eyes.”

She shook her head, not understanding.

“They’re brighter, and your pupils are just little slits.”

She checked herself. She felt fine, but she could feel the animal pressing against her mind. Not yet. Soon, but not yet, she told herself silently.

The animal didn’t answer, but Raynah could feel how she felt. There was no animosity, no panic, no desire to Change and risk the baby. Raynah could tell why she was pushing to be here.

“She is just saying hi to you,” Raynah whispered.

He traced her jawline and lay back down beside her, head resting on the jacket she’d wadded up for a pillow. “Beautiful Raynah,” he murmured. “You were wrong earlier.”

“About what?”

He swallowed audibly and traced his finger under her eye so gently. “You’re the one a man brings home to his mom.”

She didn’t know why, but those words made her want to cry. He was teaching her so much about herself.

“I take back my answer earlier,” he told her. “I would go back to my hometown again, when you and the baby are ready. I’ll take you.”

It wasn’t a blatant “I love you,” but it was as close as she’d ever come to hearing one from a man.

She should say something smooth back. Something where he would know she was falling in love with him too. “I promise I’ll never eat you.”

A split-second of surprise commandeered his face, and then he rolled onto his back and belted out a laugh.

“I’m serious. I won’t.” Leave it up to her to ruin a romantic moment.

“I never once questioned if you were going to eat me, Raynah,” he punched out through his laughter.

“Well, I was trying to be romantic!”

That made him laugh even harder, and now she was giggling because laughter was contagious.

“Good Lord, Raynah.”

“Your dick is too good.”

“Oh hell,” he laughed, rolling back toward her and dragging her close.

Now she was in full joking mode because his laughter was filling her soul with the good stuff. “As long as you give me an occasional good wienering, you can live.”

He was laughing so hard now, his shoulders shook with it.

The air mattress under them popped suddenly, and they whooshed to the ground. Raynah yelped, but he pulled her partially on top of himself in a blur so she didn’t hit the hard floor of the tent like he did. That caused round two of their cackling laughter, and today was her favorite day of her entire life. Hands down, it was the best.

She’d never felt so happy, or so free to be her exact self.

Oh, she was falling so hard for this man, and with each hour that passed with him, she became more hopeful about everything.

Maybe Garret had been right.

Maybe her punishment was done.

Maybe she was past the bad.