Page 9 of Forever Finds Us (Wisper Dreams #7)

Chapter Seven

Roxanne

The hike back to the parking area took for-freaking-ever.

It was well after midnight, and I wanted to curl into a ball in the dirt myself and take a nap.

The mountain and the feeling of success buzzing through my body had melted my anxiety away, and the lazy lapping of the water against the lakeshore could’ve lulled me right to sleep.

Above the trees, stars dotted the night sky, twinkling like little congratulatory sparks of light.

Bax and Bea had hurried ahead of our group with a quick wave goodbye, probably excited to get to the consummating part of their wedding night now that Natalie had been found safe. Evan and Misty had gone on ahead too. Brand and I were the weary stragglers, but he let me lead us back.

“How do you know Evan Moran?” I asked as we walked.

“Went to school with him. He lived up in the woods outside the park, but he got bussed down to Wisper for high school. He’s younger than me, but he used to rodeo, and my brothers and I would go out to watch him sometimes. Kid was damn good with a rope.”

“Huh. I’ve met him several times on search and rescue cases. He volunteers. He knows the GTNP like the back of his hand, but I never knew he rodeoed.”

A few minutes passed in silence except for our breath as we hiked up and down the small hills along the trail.

“Do you have to work tomorrow?” Brand asked.

“S’posed to, but Dan will probably take my shift. The Wisper sheriff’s station is a small outpost, so when there isn’t a big case goin’ on, we work solo for traffic stuff and non-emergency calls. I’ll shoot him a text when we get back to my truck and can get a better signal.”

“It’s nice you can rely on and help each other.”

“Yeah.”

His footsteps on the dirt trail behind me were nearly silent. “You and Dan ever…”

I snorted and looked over my shoulder while Brand caught up to me. “Uh, that’s a hard no, sir. I have never hooked up with Dan Draven. Ew.”

He smiled at my answer. “So no, then. Got it.”

We continued walking. “No, he’s a nice guy, extremely dedicated to the job, but he’s not my type. Plus, we started the same day at the Wisper station, and I made the decision to loathe him pretty much from the first minute we met.”

“Loathe is a strong word.”

“I’m jokin’. I don’t hate him. He and I just get under each other’s skin sometimes. He’s like my shorter, older brother who I’d like to poke in the face with a stick.”

Brand laughed, and I practically swooned right there in the middle of the Grand Teton National Forest, his low, rumbling voice like a little generator instantly revving my body into overdrive.

Tired? Who’s tired?

“He’s too short for me anyway. Can you imagine us tryin’ to get it on in the shower?”

I stopped short, clapping my hand over my mouth. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that.

“Scratch that. Please don’t imagine that.” Oh my God, Roxi, the shit that comes out of your mouth sometimes is enough to mortify you to death! “I’m sorry. I’m tired. I’m not makin’ sense.”

“Oh no? Makes perfect sense to me.”

Brand moved in front of me. He didn’t laugh this time, and gently, he removed my hand from my mouth and lowered it to my side. The hooded look in his eyes sent shivers down my spine and sparks to my special girl cave.

When he spoke again, I nearly melted and it was still only thirty degrees outside.

“Thank God you’re not into him because I can’t imagine it.

I don’t want to. What I want to imagine is you in that shower, naked and waitin’ for me , the water running over your body, slipping between your thighs.

” When he said it, he looked down at mine, and suddenly, my whole body flushed.

I felt like a juicy piece of chicken. All he needed was a bottle of barbeque sauce, and he could slather me up and take a bite.

Breath punched out of my lungs in a rush. “You do?”

“Yes.”

Had I lost my mind, or had his breathing rate sped up too? He looked over my shoulder and turned to make sure there weren’t any other cops or volunteers nearby. There weren’t.

We were completely secluded in the forest.

“Am I alone in this fantasy?” he murmured, the dark surrounding us making his eyes seem even more mysterious than I had already determined them to be, but they sparkled like aquamarine as they searched my face.

“N-no.” The nerdy, tall, basketball-dunking Roxi couldn’t believe what he was saying, but adult Roxi was about to throw down in the dirt with this man. And the fact that he had to tilt his head down to make eye contact with me didn’t hurt one little bit. “I can imagine you too.”

Looking in his eyes was too much. When I did, I thought my heart might beat right out of my chest, so instead, my slow gaze traveled down the cords of his neck to his T-shirt covering his chest beneath the open, red and black fleece-lined flannel jacket the paramedics had returned to him.

And when my appreciative study landed on the front of his jeans, nerdy Roxi was quite sure she could detect a bulge thickening beneath them.

He still wore his hat backwards, and little flips of soft brown hair licked around its sides.

“Good. Now,” he said, “imagine that same scenario with me. How tall are you? Six-foot? I’m six-two. A perfect fit.”

I whimpered. What else could I do, because the tinge of bossiness in his tone was hot as sin, and I was already picturing it: Brand pressing me to my shower wall, his chest stuck to my back, warm water fusing our bodies together and my hands planted flat on the ceramic tiles, his strong fingers gripping my naked hips, his knees bent just a little as he pounded into me from behind.

Oh God. The ladies at book club would get a kick out of that little daydream . I was sure I’d read a close representation of the same scenario in a romance book at some point .

But when I imagined myself replacing the heroine of some epic story and pictured Brand as the hero, my eyes fluttered closed, and I whispered, “Perfect.”

He hummed quietly. “Yes, you are.”

Some kind of boldness took over my body like an alien invasion, and without bothering to look behind me, I grabbed him by his belt and backed up, dragging him with me and hoping we wouldn’t stumble over a tree root and fall on our asses, but I knew there were trees behind me somewhere. Eventually, I’d bump into one.

Finally, my back hit bark, and Brand followed willingly. He stalked me to my tree and placed his hand over my stomach above my jacket, and then he unzipped it. Cold air rushed over my chest, and my nipples hardened beneath my uniform and undershirt.

My mouth popped open, but I swallowed down the moan that wanted to slip out, and then his tongue was inside me as he kissed me. He held nothing back, and it felt like all the heightened emotion from our search for Natalie had taken over.

Heat ruled the moment. He slipped his hand between my legs, the moan crawled right back up and rushed past my lips, and the little tingle I’d felt earlier turned into exploding bottle rockets in my belly.

He breathed, “Tonight was insane, right?”

I nodded, my head knocking the tree trunk behind me. My hat had fallen off at some point, but I had no clue where it was. “It’s understandable we’d be amped up.”

Against my lips, he mumbled, “Maybe, but that isn’t all this is.” He moaned this time and kissed me harder, one hand planted above my head on the tree and the other searched beneath the waistband of my ugly, polyester work pants.

“Huh?” I couldn’t concentrate with his fingers so close to such sensitive areas. I imagined them sliding inside me, pumping…

“I’ve wanted you since you rescued me from the side of the highway the night I came home.”

“Y-you have?”

Yes! Thank the sweet baby Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph too!

“Yes,” he breathed, and he gave up trying to find his opening between the bottom of my tucked-in shirt and the waist of my pants.

He popped open the button and unzipped them, and then his hand found hot flesh, and he caressed my skin, moving lower, his fingers toying with the elastic band at the top of my boyshort briefs.

“Brand, wait.” Oh God. Somebody shut me up. “I-I can’t do this.”

He stilled, his hand and those obscenely long fingers hovering an inch away from where I really, really needed them. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had sex, I mean, besides with myself and my handy little silicone helper.

“I’m armed. I can’t do this with a gun strapped to my thigh.”

“I know,” he murmured, and he licked and pinched my bottom lip between his teeth softly. “It’s really turnin’ me on.”

This could not be happening to me. I’d finally found a man who wanted me, who I wanted right back, and who might want to rip off my clothes and ravish my overly tall body, but I couldn’t let him.

But damn, he was so hot, I was afraid to touch his skin for fear of my fingerprints burning off. When the SAR dogs found the wrecked, spent—and utterly satisfied—carcass of my body, nobody would know it was me. They’d have to pull some DNA for that shit.

Tearing his mouth from my lips, he moved to my neck and reached up to pull my hair out of the low pony I’d gathered it into before our hike. It billowed down to my shoulders, fluttering against the side of his face, and he inhaled deeply against my skin and groaned.

“God, you smell so good. What is that?”

I was sliding down the tree now, inch by inch, my body trying so hard to make me give in. It was like he’d shoved a goddamn tuning fork inside me, and it rang like a bell and buzzed for him. “Sh-shampoo. Honeysuckle and roses.”

He moaned, but somehow, I found the will to correct the mistake I was currently in the middle of making.

“Stop.”

He did, and he looked up at me. His cheeks were flushed from the heat between us and the need for sexual release, and I almost said, “fuck it,” but anybody could’ve come traipsing back down the trail.

We’d signed our names on that form. Someone would try to account for us at some point, and then they’d come looking.

And then I’d get fired.

“Nearest hotel?” he asked, his hand sliding over my hip under my pants, and he grabbed my ass.

“Um,” I said, breathless. I had to think about it. “There’s a couple inns back down the highway. Not too far.”

“You drive. I’ll get us a room. Let’s go.”

Once he’d rezipped and buttoned my pants, he bent to fetch my hat out of the dirt at our feet, and then the speed with which he dragged me back to my truck by my hand was impressive.

When we exited the trail and found a few officers and rangers still lingering in the parking area, I pulled my hand from his.

We checked in with the volunteer so she could tick our names off her list, and we did have to retell our wolf story a couple times, but then we were both feigning utter exhaustion.

But the last thing on my mind was sleep.

Yawning dramatically one more time for optimal effect and waving awkwardly to the men as Brand backed toward my truck and tugged at the back of my jacket, I turned and we picked up our pace. But ever the dork, I called over my shoulder, “Congrats on a successful mission, lads!”

Brand snorted, and when we were out of sight, he slid his hand over mine again, his fingers grasping mine tightly.

He held my door open for me, and once I was in my truck, I started the engine, then unhooked my gun holster and began to discard Tasers and flashlights and the rest of the tools attached to my body.

I stowed them in my center console and locked it, but I didn’t miss the way he eyed my handcuffs as he clipped his seatbelt into place.

I asked, “Are you sure you want to?—”

“Yes. Drive.”

“Okeydokey then.”

Oh my God, Roxi, SHUT. UP.