Page 18 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Annie

While the air was much cleaner at the lake cabins than it’d been where Tripp had rescued me, there was still a haze that made everything look eerie as the sun dipped behind the mountains.

And while they were still in good condition, the cabins we were approaching looked tiny.

“Let’s go check things out before it gets too much darker,” Tripp suggested, nodding toward a slightly larger cabin that was tucked along the water’s edge, accessible by a long wooden platform.

“I don’t even know where we are.” I had a general idea that we were near the mountain pass that bordered Sage Springs, but once we crossed the river, I’d lost any sense of reference.

“North side of the West Peak Ranch. It’s on the other side of the river.

This is a natural spring-fed lake. They used to use these cabins as overflow during peak season,” Tripp explained, bending down to pull a small lock box from behind a bench on the little wrap around front porch.

“Now they just bring ranch guests up here for fishing day trips. They’re a little rough around the edges, but it should be safe and dry. ”

“Why here?” Was he staying at the ranch? Or had I missed something yesterday? I was more than a little curious how he knew the Wests. Maybe he was family I’d never met. I knew Charley had cousins, but since she was an only child, I knew he wasn’t her brother.

Before I could think too much about it, he started talking.

“This got a body of water between us and the fire. We can stay here tonight since it’d be dark before we could get back to the main lodge, but we’ll need to head out early.

I’d like to get the ranch hands together and run a back-burn line along the river bordering the west edge of the ranch, so it doesn’t jump. ”

“I can help.” I didn’t have the faintest idea about what a back-burn line was, or how to make one, but I knew if I gave myself too much time to think, I’d only freak out about the fact I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

“Don’t look at me like that. I can do more than just pour drinks.

I want to help. This is my community, too.

And Charley is a friend. I don’t want to see her home turn into what mine probably is. ”

Tripp nodded while he worked on finding the key to the front door of the cabin, flashing me a smile once he got it unlocked.

He held the door open and motioned for me to go in ahead of him.

My eyes scanned the dim space, sighing in relief when I saw it was furnished and seemed to be in good condition.

A palm cracked down on my ass, making me jump before I turned to glare at the man standing just inside the door with a mischievous smirk on his face.

“Hey, what the hell?”

He shrugged, stepping forward to tug on the end of one of my braids, wrapping it around his fist before he leaned in and kissed the skin beneath my ear.

“It looks good in those shorts. Especially now that I know what you don’t have on under them.”

Maybe he was more playful than I’d given him credit for yesterday. I guess he just needed a high stress rescue to get more of his personality to shine. And while I wasn’t used to it, I couldn’t deny that him spanking me had sent a little thrill up my spine.

“Are you expecting me to apologize for not having any clean underwear to put on this morning? You’re the one who tucked me into a bed that wasn’t mine.”

He chuckled, running his palms along my sides and pulling me into him, his lips hovering next to my ear. “And I plan to do the same tonight, too. But you won’t be going to bed alone. ”

“Awfully presumptuous for you to assume I’ll be getting into bed with you after only a day.” God, had it only been a little over twenty-four hours since I met this man? “You don’t even know me.”

He stepped back, framing my face with his hands as he looked down at me. “Maybe not, but we’re stuck out here together, so we should change that.”

Nodding, I tried to scan his expression to see if he was being sincere about getting to know me or if he was just trying to get into my pants again.

I already had one complicated situationship to deal with, I didn’t want to jump from one meaningless physical relationship to another.

Even if he was making me a little weak in the knees.

I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to have this strong of a reaction to another person.

Things weren’t like this between Jay and me. I wasn’t sure they ever had been.

Despite fairly regular sex—the last four months of abstinence excluded—I wasn’t sure if I’d ever had the kind of physical response I was having to this man before.

“Maybe we should get cleaned up first.”

“We should.” His thumbs traced my cheekbones before he leaned in to graze his lips against mine. I had to ball my fists at my sides to keep myself from reaching up and grabbing fistfuls of his hair to yank his mouth back to mine. “Even though I kind of prefer you dirty.”

“Well, you kinda stink,” I whispered, biting the inside of my lip to keep from laughing.

“Keep on teasing me, Rhey. It just makes me want to spank you again,” he replied before he turned around and walked toward a set of closed doors at the back of the small house.

He pulled out a flashlight I hadn’t known was in his pocket and clicked it on, shining it inside the first doorway before he moved to the other. I followed behind, seeing a tiny bathroom with a single vanity, toilet and a small combination bathtub/shower.

“Is there soap?” I asked, the thought of taking a warm shower taking precedence over the gnawing hunger that was trying to get my attention since I hadn’t eaten much today .

“Soap is the least of our worries. I don’t think they’ve brought any guests up here to stay the night this season, so I’m more concerned about the state of the water.

” Tripp turned the shower dial, and the pipes made some suspicious noises, but only a trickle of water flowed out of the faucet.

He frowned, reaching around me to try the sink, but nothing happened.

“Stay in here. I’m gonna go see if I can find the shut off for the inside water. They must not have turned the supply to the cabins back on after they were winterized last year.”

He’d only been gone a few minutes, but I was glad that he was here with me. I would have hated to be stranded in one of these creepy little cabins by myself. Although if I was by myself, I’d still be trapped in that pickup truck waiting for someone to save me from my reckless decisions.

The pipes made a suspicious rattling noise, followed by a rush of water spewing out of the tub fixture and the faucet. The dim light made it hard to tell, but it did not look like water I wanted to be bathing in.

Tripp joined me a few moments later, resting one hand on the side of my waist as he peered over my shoulder, aiming his flashlight at the stream of water.

“Okay, so maybe the lake looks like a better prospect for getting clean,” I mused, staring at the stream of brownish cloudy water that flowed out of the tap.

“Yeah, these cabins haven’t been used regularly in about five years with tourism down in the area, so I’m not surprised the plumbing needs flushed. If I had a compressor here, I could flush the lines, but…”

“I thought you hadn’t been back home in years,” I asked, looking up at him over my shoulder.

“But I paid attention when the Wests showed me the property a few weeks ago.”

“I thought you were a firefighter.”

“I am. But that’s just when I’m needed. There’s a reason they call me a volunteer firefighter. The ranch is my day job. ”

No wonder he was close by when I’d contacted 911. And it explained the horseback rescue.

“Is that what you did when you were living somewhere else? Were you a rancher? I gotta admit, the hot cowboy look is doing it for me.”

If you asked me yesterday, I would have laughed at the idea of ultra serious firefighter Tripp being a secret cowboy, but today he looked the part.

The tight jeans, the red button-up shirt, the cowboy hat, the scruffy facial hair accenting the mustache I’d noticed yesterday, and don’t even get me started on the bandana he’d been wearing when he found me.

If my panties weren’t in my pocket, they would’ve been wet.

“Good to know,” he chuckled, tickling my side. “No, I used to work as a specialist firefighter for the National Forest Service near a national park a few states north.”

“Fancy.”

Although it had me wondering why he went to another state, there were jobs for firefighters like that in Colorado, too.

Baker had wanted to be a smoke jumper when he first started out, but after he finished his training, he came back home.

Reese had returned from nursing school not long after, mostly because she wanted to be here to help me take care of our grandma, but there had been some small-town speculation about whether those two would finally end up together.

Instead, my sister had doubled down on a grudge—no one seemed to have any details on—and glared at him while he gave her a respectable distance. Which was especially awkward for two people who saw each other regularly because of their jobs.

“Not really. Once I completed my training to become a smoke jumper, I pretty much lived out of a duffel bag for about ten years. Hard to set down roots when they’re sending you all over the country.”

“Is that why you left?”

The warmth of his hand on my side suddenly disappeared, and he stepped back, heading toward the windows at the front of the cabin that overlooked the lake with his hands balled into tight fists.

I watched him take a deep breath and then flex his fingers, looking suddenly anxious about my question.

It appeared there was more to him coming home after seventeen years than he was ready to talk about.

“If we can’t use the shower, I might know a place where we can get clean. Then after, we should probably get settled for the night.”

Clearly, he was ready to move on from the topic of his past, not that I’d been all that forthcoming with mine either.

“The sun is just starting to set now. It can’t be that late.” The sun had mostly moved behind the mountains, but it wasn’t quite dark yet.

“But I’ll be putting you back in the saddle early tomorrow.

I don’t want to stick around here longer than we have to.

My extra batteries probably won’t last more than another day, and if that fire line moves this way, we need to be prepared.

I might be sidelined for this one, but I won’t leave the ranch vulnerable if I can do something. ”

He moved toward the closed door down the short hallway, nodding for me to go look in the bathroom for supplies. “Can you look under the sink to see if you can find any bars of soap? I’ll see if I can find any towels or clean clothes left behind.”

“You gonna tell me the real reason you’re not out with the fire department right now?” It was clear with how he talked he wanted to be helping, but he wasn’t out with the regular crew for a reason. I just wasn’t sure if he made that decision, or his superiors.

“Maybe,” he said, moving into the bedroom before he finished replying. “But we need to hurry if we want to get to the hot springs before the sun sets.”

“As long as you’re not making me get into that icy lake in the dark.” It may have been July, but it was still a lake in the middle of the mountains of Colorado.

“I told you I’d keep you safe,” he called out, and I could hear dresser drawers being opened while I looked in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. There was a plastic tub full of individual bars of soap and a few tiny bottles of shampoo. It wasn’t fancy, but it’d work.

“And I’m holding you to your word,” I hollered back. As I straightened up with my toiletry stash, he appeared in the doorway to the bathroom, holding a small stack of miscellaneous clothing and some white towels.

“I’m kinda hoping you hold me to something else,” he teased with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

I smiled at his playful tone until I realized that this man would most likely be seeing a lot more of me soon.

And to think I’d been feeling shy with him knowing I’d been going commando this whole time.