Page 12 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

Even after he closed his own eyes, he continued to hold onto my hand. I took that as permission to cuddle up next to him and draped one of my legs across his hips to pull him as close as possible.

I was still ecstatic over everything we’d done together, and the last edges of adrenaline hadn’t fully left my system. I could feel my veins buzzing under my skin.

Yet, I was also exhausted, and when I closed my eyes, I fell asleep almost instantly.

From the first moment I woke up the next morning, I felt like I was a teenager again. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Creed. From preparing our breakfast over the campfire, to packing up the tent and other supplies, my gaze was drawn to him every time he moved.

It was just like high school all over again.

Just over an hour after sunrise, we were packed up and ready to continue our hike. My bag was no different than before, but I swore it felt ten pounds lighter.

“Creed?” I asked after we’d been walking for a few minutes. “Did you do something to my pack?”

His silence was answer enough.

“You did! You put more of the supplies in your own bag. Why? I can carry my own weight on this trip.”

He mumbled something I couldn’t hear then started walking faster.

“What was that? Hey, don’t walk away from me. Explain yourself.”

He slowed down so I could catch up, but still kept his eyes pointed forward.

“You’re limping.”

“What?”

I stopped frozen in the middle of the trail, wondering if Creed was hallucinating.

Then the ache in my back reminded me of our activities of last night, and I realized what he meant.

“Creed,” his name dripped from my lips, half spoken word and half laughter.

“It’s not that bad. Okay, yes, there’s a slight hitch in my step.

What can I say? You’re a big boy, and you really worked me over last night.

But it’s nothing I’m not used to. I’ll be fine.

You don’t need to carry my supplies for me. ”

I tried to unclip one of the extra bags that was strapped to his main pack so I could add it to my own, but he danced out of my reach.

“I caused your discomfort,” he insisted. “So, I’ll shoulder the responsibility.”

“That doesn’t have to be so literal.” I tried to grab the bag again, but he easily maneuvered away from me. “Creed, come on. Stop being so stubborn.”

“Stop being so reckless with your own health.”

He turned his back on me, intending to walk away now that he’d made the final decision.

I wasn’t going to be thwarted so easily.

If I made another grab for the bag right away, he was bound to notice.

So, I waited. After another hour of hiking, I sidled up next to him, letting my hand trail up his arm in a teasing manner.

He gave me a suspicious glance, but didn’t try to stop me, so I went in for the kill.

Leaning closer, I pressed a quick kiss to the side of his neck.

It worked. A shiver traveled up Creed’s spine, which he tried to hide, but I could still see it from such closer proximity.

I placed another kiss on his neck, then behind his ear, then traveled down his jaw until I eventually reached his mouth. Once I had him locked into a proper kiss, I pushed him backward until I had him pressed up against a tree.

It was a make-out session worthy of any teenage romance. I slotted my leg between his, letting my thigh rub against his erection through his pants, just to make sure he was thoroughly distracted.

Then I reached for the bag again.

My hand never made it to its destination. The tips of my fingers just barely managed to brush cloth when my wrist was suddenly surrounded with an iron grip. Creed held my hand tight, keeping me from reaching my goal.

“You’re sneakier than I remember, Kay.”

There was a dark, husky edge to his voice that I’d never heard before. Not even when he’d been fucking me last night. The promises he made, just from the sound of that voice, left me breathless.

Before I realized what was happening, he flipped me around, so I was the one pressed against the tree. My hands were pinned above my head, and his hips pressed tight against mine, trapping me in place.

“I’m going to have to keep my guard up around you,” he said. The breath of his words ghosted against my lips, right before he kissed me.

Rough bark dug into my scalp as I angled my head to deepen the kiss. I was fully prepared to let him take me right then and there, but after only a few tantalizing moments, he pulled away and left me gasping.

“Later,” he said, sounding too composed for my liking. “We need to keep going now.”

“You...” I panted for breath, struggling to regain my wits after he’d sucked them right out of my head. “You bastard. You’re just a damn tease, that’s what you are.”

Creed laughed, but he didn’t stop or turn around. There would be no arguing with him. The man had gotten his way, and he knew it.

I started to follow him, when a sharp prick in my neck made me stop. Assuming it was a bug, I slapped at the spot, but that only made the pain worse. There was something hard imbedded in my neck.

Pulling it out, I held the strange object up in front of my eyes.

It looked like a dart.

I should have recognized what it was immediately, but I’d never seen such a thing outside of an action movie.

It was a tranquilizer dart.

I started to call for Creed, but his name wasn’t even halfway out of my mouth when the dart’s effects hit. The world spun around me for a moment. Then, all at once, like being pulled under by strong ocean wave, I tumbled into oblivion.

Drugged unconsciousness wasn’t the same as properly sleeping. There was no sense of falling asleep or waking up. One moment I was awake, then everything went black.

Then, what felt like only a moment later, I was awake again.

My mouth felt weird, like it was stuffed with cotton. It reminded me of the one time I’d gotten drunk enough to black out. I’d woken up with such a disgusting taste in my mouth—not to mention the pounding headache—that I swore to never drink again.

That promise hadn’t lasted, but I never again pushed my alcohol tolerance to the point of blacking out.

This almost felt the same, but there was one distinct difference. I wasn’t imaging the feeling of cotton filling my mouth.

It was real.

My eyes shot open. I was surrounded by darkness, so I couldn’t tell where I was, but I was gagged by a strip of cloth tied around my head.

The metal floor under me was painfully cold. I tried to sit up but was immediately halted. My hands were tied behind my back and attached to something behind me.

That was when everything caught up to me and I realized what had happened.

I’d been kidnapped.

I started to hyperventilate, breathing rapidly through my nose since my mouth was blocked.

Why would anyone kidnap me?

I’d never made any enemies. I’d never even got into a fight with anyone.

And how had they kidnapped me?

Last I remembered, I’d been out in the middle of the forest, halfway up a mountain with Creed.

Creed!

Had he been captured too, or was he wandering around that mountain wondering where I’d gone?

While I was lost in my panic, my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark until I could finally make out the shape of my surroundings. It was a small room, only a few feet wide, and there was something large lying right next to me.

Something distinctly human-shaped.

My legs weren’t bound, so I tapped the shape with my foot. It was soft, like a human would be, but I couldn’t see well enough to tell if it was Creed or not.

The floor beneath us jostled. I fell back and my head hit the wall. Stars danced in front of my eyes, and I groaned in pain as I blinked rapidly to clear my vision.

When I could see again, I noticed that the other person had shifted slightly. I could see part of their arm, revealing a familiar tattoo.

The other person was Creed after all.

I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Part of me was relieved that he was here, but another part of me wished he was far away.

He seemed to still be unconscious. I couldn’t see if he was breathing or not, but I refused to believe anything else. He had to just be unconscious.

The floor moved again, and I struggled to remain sitting upright.

Wait, why was the floor moving?

Now that it had caught my attention, I realized that all the walls and floor around us were constantly moving slightly. Most of the time it was too faint to notice, but every now and then everything would suddenly jump.

We weren’t in a room. We were in the back of a vehicle.

Squinting at one of the walls, I could just see the outline of a pair of doors. It looked like we were in the back of a large van.

I stretched out one of my legs toward the door, but I was at least two feet short of reaching them. They were probably locked, but even if I could open them it wouldn’t matter. My hands were chained to the wall. I wasn’t going anywhere.

There was nothing I could do as the van continued to carry us off.

Wherever we were headed, it couldn’t be anywhere good.