Page 28

Harper

Five days left to— Who cares, a fucking cougar is stalking us!

The look of terror on Eve’s face had me disobeying her orders out of sheer, primal instinct. But I couldn’t have predicted the sight in front of me when I spun around.

A cougar, gliding forward on near-silent paws.

Eve hooked an arm around my waist and shoved me behind her. Then fisted my T-shirt and said: “Do not run. That’ll make it chase you.”

“Eve,” I sputtered, already crying, already digging my heels in to do the exact opposite of what she’d said. She must have felt my body rebel and dragged me closer. “Eve, Eve, Eve, what the fuck, what the fuck?”

She was very slowly moving us backward. But the cougar was very slowly following. Clearly interested in us, its head tilted.

Too interested.

“Okay, okay,” she panted. “Monty… She taught me what to do if this ever happened.”

We took another step back. The big cat took a step forward. With each movement, its body rippled with coiled muscle, and its golden eyes never left us. Its tail twitched along the ground, sending alarm bells ringing through my body.

“So…so don’t run, got that,” I croaked over her shoulder. “What else?”

“Um…” Eve reached down and held up one of the heavy metal detectors. The cat’s ears flattened, and it took a step back. “We need to get big. Yell. Throw rocks at it.”

“So it won’t try and eat our faces off?”

Eve hurled a rock, and the cat hissed its annoyance, batting its paw.

“Uh-huh. Yep. You got it, Hendrix.” My fingers dug into her hips, pulling her backward. Then my foot collided with one of the shovels we brought. I scooped it up and hoisted it forward like a sword.

The cougar moved closer, then paused, its eyes assessing the shovel’s movement.

I didn’t trust its hesitation one bit.

Eve hurled another large stone. This time, it dodged it more easily—and didn’t look very pleased with us.

It lunged.

We screamed, stumbling backward down the trail.

We swung our metal detectors in arcs in front of us, forcing the animal back, who was snarling its anger.

Eve got a little too close, and the cat tried to swipe at her leg.

So I pulled her behind me and threw my shovel like a javelin.

The cat let out a short yelp and slunk back up the side of the canyon with a deadly grace, growling the whole time.

It never took its eyes from us.

“Did it hurt you?” I asked Eve, my arms out wide to protect her.

“No, but…holy shit, I can see the car. It’s close.”

The cougar shifted where it lay, back to standing again. I was shaking with fear and adrenaline now, absolutely trembling from head to toe, my face streaked with tears. The only sounds were the crunching of our shoes on the dirt and the utter roar of my own heart in my ears.

“Close enough to run to?” I asked.

Her arm was like a vise around my waist, banding me tight to her. “We can’t run. We can’t… Fuck .”

The cougar was on the move again. This was different—less curious hesitation and more lean, focused predator. Its speed was mind-boggling. Only Eve’s arm around my waist kept me from fleeing in total terror. We moved backward, toward the car, and it began to circle us with teeth bared.

“Don’t turn your back on it,” Eve murmured in my ear. “We have to…have to stay calm.”

It lunged again, and we tried to hit it with the detectors. Its big paw swiped so close to my ankle I felt the rush of air across my skin.

“You should go,” I said. “I’ll hold it off so you can get in the car. Then I’ll run after you.”

Eve squeezed me even tighter. “No way in hell, cowgirl. We stick together.”

My chest would have warmed at the stern affection in her voice if I wasn’t so preoccupied with whether or not I was about to get eaten.

The cat snarled again, hind legs primed like it was about to pounce right onto us. I covered as much of Eve’s body with my own as I could, pushing us backward toward the car quickly.

“Almost there…” she whispered. “Almost, almost, almost.”

We collided with the side door. One second later and I could feel Eve trying to jam her keys into the lock. It clicked open and then she was dragging me into the backseat by my shirt. With a yelp, I slammed the door shut and hit the lock.

The cougar slapped the window with a giant paw and snarled again.

It was right there , mere inches from us.

Eve and I scrambled as far back as we could, huddled together on the other side of the seat as we watched our tormentor grow almost comically disinterested.

Then it loped off back down the canyon, licking its lips.

I collapsed forward in sheer relief. Eve was curled around me, both of us panting and shaking. She was muttering holy shit holy shit into the space between my shoulder blades while I was laughing and crying, all at the same time.

After what could have been a minute, or an entire hour, I twisted around until we were facing each other. The sunlight filtering in through the windshield cast Eve in hues of sunset gold, bouncing off her dark curls and highlighting her flushed cheeks.

She was so heart-achingly beautiful , so delightfully and superbly alive . We were alive, both of us, and the euphoria that galloped through me couldn’t be contained.

Still panting for breath, we stared at each other in the quiet of the backseat. Our chests rising, gazes locked, barely a foot between us.

“You saved my life,” I breathed, throat tight with tears. “Eve…you saved us out there.”

She speared her hands into my hair. “But you protected me, Harper… No one’s ever…”

I closed the gap between us and kissed her. Desperate, breathless, grateful. There had never been a sweeter moment than this one: wrapped in Eve’s strong arms, her body warm, her mouth moving hungrily. Her lips slanted over mine—hot and demanding—and the sounds we made together were barely human.

We shuddered through kiss after kiss, hands roaming, grasping. Eve snaked an arm around my waist and yanked me into her lap so I was straddling her. Off came my shirt, my bra tossed into the front seat. Eve buried her face between my breasts with a sound of pure animal satisfaction.

My head fell back on a long moan as Eve palmed my breasts with reverence. I was grinding down on top of her, using the headrest for leverage, working myself in frantic circles as she sucked my nipple into her mouth with a rough groan.

Desire spiked between my legs, a pulsing, relentless need that had me pulling Eve back from my breasts so I could kiss her again. We moaned together, her hand fisted in my hair, the other expertly rolling my nipple until I cried out her name.

“God, I love the sound of that,” she growled, licking and kissing up my neck until I was crying out her name again. “Were you sent here to completely fucking ruin me, Harper?”

“Possibly.” I sighed. “Are you sure you weren’t sent here to ruin me ?”

Her arms locked tight, and then I was flat on my back on the seat, my legs opening wide and wrapping around Eve’s waist. She took my mouth again, our tongues stroking, her lips mesmerizing.

She only paused to sit up and shed her own shirt, followed by her pants, leaving her half naked, covered in dirt, adorably disheveled in black Calvin Klein briefs that hugged her narrow hips.

I gripped her there, holding her still so I could take her in: the colorful tattoos, her lean muscles, that rakish grin.

I pushed up halfway, using my arms, then tipped her forward and took one of her nipples into my mouth.

Hushed curse words spilled from her lips, making my toes curl.

I opened my eyes and lapped at her nipple, peering up at her through my lashes.

Her nostrils flared when we made eye contact. The grip on my hair tightened. Twisted.

“You’re not a good girl after all, are you?” she teased.

I swirled my tongue, watched her eyes grow heavy-lidded. “Not out here in the desert, I’m not.”

She shook her head, clicked her tongue. Slowly pushed me back down until she was hovering close, nudging the tip of her nose against mine. “You’re desperate for it, aren’t you?”

I arched beneath her. “Desperate for you.”

I grabbed her ass, dragging her cunt against mine.

There were still too many layers between us, but the initial friction felt so good that we moaned together.

Eve caught my lower lip with her teeth, tugged.

Scraped those same teeth at my jaw. Bit the spot where my throat met my shoulder, marking me. Claiming me.

Meanwhile, I was trying to shed my pants and underwear, wiggling beneath her. She laughed and pressed my hands to the seat.

“And who said you could do that?” she whispered in my ear.

“Please,” I begged. “Please fuck me, Eve. It’s all I ever think about.”

Eve caught my chin. Held me still as I writhed beneath her, her dark eyes burning into mine. “Are you sure?”

And I knew what she was really asking. Was I sure I wanted to complicate things? Was I sure I wanted to turn a relationship that was messy from the beginning into something even messier now?

She had certainly seemed sincere when she blurted out that she wasn’t ready for me to fly back to New York. I had no reason not to believe her, and yet every reason to believe she’d never want more than this. She’d only told me about a dozen times that sex for her was casual and temporary.

Except nothing between us had ever felt casual. Not our many arguments and misunderstandings, not our tentative trust, not this new and tender intimacy. And that potentially made me the same as every other person Eve had fucked in the backseat of this car.

It had never been like this with anyone else, this fraught and reckless passion that had my head spinning non-stop. But what if it was always like this for Eve?

What if I wasn’t special in the least?

If she was an expert in “casual,” then I was the expert in avoidance.

Back home, if I’d have met Eve, I would have run for the hills.

Because here I was, dangling my heart in front of her without any thought to the consequences.

But in the sticky heat of this moment, Eve was promising an electric ecstasy that my brain and body were demanding I trust.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said. Absolutely sure about the sex. Less sure about what happened after.

But I didn’t want to think about that.

Eve’s next kiss was slow, lingering. She drank me in almost lazily while she slipped her hand between my legs, cupping me through my yoga pants.

I gasped, breaking our kiss. Eve’s index finger trailed up the seam, stopping to lightly circle my clit. My back rose off the seat at the sudden surge in pleasure.

Eve’s mouth hovered at my temple. “Can I take the rest of your clothes off?”

I was so fucking ready that I helped her, shoving at my pants and underwear like they were personally offensive. We only stopped for a moment to grab wipes from Eve’s bag, hastily cleaning our fingers. Then I guided her hand back between my legs, so turned on I was practically whimpering.

Eve watched me, fascinated, before doing as I wanted and pushing two fingers deep inside of me.

“Oh god , I needed this,” I groaned. Looking down, I watched Eve’s hand working between my legs and blushed to the very tips of my ears. Amused, Eve kept her fingers moving and sucked on my nipples until I was sobbing, clenching, writhing.

“I like you like this, Hendrix,” she said, nipping at my mouth again, “completely at my mercy. I could keep you on the edge for hours. Just because I wanted to.”

I rolled my hips, trying to nudge her palm closer to my clit. “Don’t you fucking dare, Eve Bardot. Don’t you fucking dare .”

She chuckled, kissing me, her fingers slick and skillful. She added a third, and I started babbling.

“I’ll give you anything, anything, anything ,” I begged. “Please, Eve, please, please—”

“All I want is for you to come on my tongue,” she said. “Twice.”

Her next kiss left me with stars in my eyes, a kiss that promised certain euphoria for my good behavior. Eve shifted down the seat, draping my right leg over her shoulder and pressing my left knee wide. Leaving me completely exposed to her mouth.

A mouth that descended upon me with a deft and deliberate hunger. Keeping her fingers moving inside me, she made soft, careful circles around my clit. I cried out again at the contact, at the sight of her head between my thighs and the edges of her wicked grin.

“You taste fucking incredible,” she groaned, giving me a long, indulgent lick. “I could eat you all night.”

“Please, please do that,” I panted. “Eve, I’m so…I’m so…”

I didn’t need much, and she was adept at reading the cues of my body.

Her fingers worked, her tongue circled and circled, and my body broke apart beneath her focused attention.

My climax ripped through me, and I might have screamed or sobbed.

I crested and crested, the sensations unyielding, and then Eve did something exquisitely clever with her tongue—and I came again.

Twice on her tongue.

Just like she’d demanded.

And as she crawled back up my body for a sweet, delicate kiss, my heart whispered: You’re in big trouble now, cowgirl.