25. Remi

Chapter 25

Remi

M ere minutes ago, I’d made the mistake of thinking, Angie’s a natural. I’d followed her for a couple miles, letting her choose the path of least resistance to the viewpoint awaiting us. Myles and I had made a predawn ride to make sure this route was appropriate for an amateur.

She’d taken off faster than a sneeze through a screen door. Her previous experience with tractors and other ATVs proved an asset in taking on two wheels. The pure joy I’d seen in her eyes after her first loop gave me a high better than any drug. It challenged me to a new mission in life: search out anything and everything to make Angie look like she’d harnessed the rays of the sun.

I’d done my legwork to make ensure the most successful outcome—and all my work had been paying off … until Angie lost her mind. Her tires bobbed and weaved with the motion of her head, which she kept shaking back and forth.

Twisting the throttle, I accelerated to her position just in time for her bike to tip onto its side at full speed.

I hit the brakes.

Shit. Shit. Shit!

Angie propelled forward, rolling well beyond where her motorcycle got hung up in a grove of trees. Not bothering to kill my engine or put the kickstand down, I dropped my handlebars. I barely registered the plastics scraping against the ground, running to where Angie lay.

As soon as her momentum slowed, she hopped up and slapped at her helmet. “ Get it out! ” She flicked her goggles off and kept messing with her helmet. “Wasp!”

Understanding hit me. But how had a wasp managed to get inside her helmet?

I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to remain still. As fast as I could, I undid the clasp around her neck, and she threw the helmet from her head. Once freed, she tossed her hair back and forth, undoing her braid and slapping at its ends.

“Is it gone?” she asked, still smacking at her head.

“I think so.” I checked the inside of the helmet and went to retrieve her goggles.

My bike chugged on its side. I jogged back to it and hit the kill switch, then stood it up. A wasp? She’d wrecked her bike because of a tiny insect. What if she’d severely injured herself? This could have happened in a much more pivotal spot along the trail, and she would have ended up rolling down a steep ravine.

I turned on her. “What the hell were you thinking?” Images of her beautiful body tumbling down a cliff tore at me, sharpening my anger at myself. I took off my gloves and threw them to the ground.

“Uh. Fighting for my life . That beast could have stung me.”

“A tiny insect bite? So you wreck your bike at full speed? Remember clutch, brake? Clutch. Brake!” I stepped closer to her and removed her elbow pads, checking for possible injuries. “You can’t take risks like that.”

“It was in my goggles ! It got sucked in by my face current.” She jerked her arm from me and pointed at her eyes. “Its nasty body touched my iris. It could have given me wasp herpes! I’m going to go blind.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” I rolled up her sleeve, watching for bruising. “Wasp herpes,” I scoffed under my breath.

“It’s a real thing,” she mumbled.

Even though she and I both knew it’d come from her overactive imagination. I unclicked her chest protector and slipped my fingertips under its bottom edge.

She took a couple of steps away from me until she’d backed into a tree. “What are you doing?”

“Checking you for injuries.” Her bike lay silent on its side, the handlebar possibly bent, the engine probably flooded since it no longer ran. I’d spent thousands of dollars on her bike on this outing, and I’d be furious at myself if that money resulted in her getting hurt.

This had to stop. My attempt to buy her land could put her in the hospital. Where I usually believed in any means necessary to close a deal, especially this one, I’d never forgive myself if my actions got Angie paralyzed or worse, killed.

It didn’t take long, being a part of the extreme sports circuit, to see horrific accidents. Once on a BASE jump, the guy right in front of me fell to his death when his canopy didn’t open. All of us knew the risks you took to be part of these sports, but never thought we’d be one of the stats.

When I’d agreed to this plan to take Angie on these extreme-sporting outings, I never considered how badly she could get hurt. I also never envisioned I wouldn’t want her to be with another man.

I never dreamed how I would come to care for her. To want her all to myself. I wanted to be a part of every one of her adventures.

“I feel fine.” Her hesitant, shaky voice brought me back to the present. “I-I can take it off myself.”

I stood with my hand still on her. This close to her, the almost tangible chemical reaction between us rose in temperature until it scalded me, making it impossible to ignore.

The further down this road I walked, the more complicated my life became. Getting involved with her would shake my resolve to manipulate her into a position where I’d go in for the kill shot and force her to sign over her land.

Even in a town as small as Clear Springs, I had plenty of women to choose from. Tonight, I could go to the bar and have my pick of them. My options were endless. But somewhere between shoveling manure and growing corn, Angie had become the only one who would satisfy me.

“No. Let me.” Why did she—the one woman I needed to stay away from—have to be the most tempting creature on Earth?

With little fight she released her grip on her shoulder straps. Angling my eyes down to her, I lifted the chest protector over her head, never releasing her from my gaze. Her hair caught on it, then released to pool around her face and shoulders. Our bodies were mere inches apart. Stripping her of her protective gear strained the desire I’d managed to keep in check to its breaking point.

Without it, her soft curves became exposed for my perusal. Under the guise of inspecting for injuries, I allowed myself to examine the shape of her thighs, the narrowing of her waist, and the curve of her perfectly shaped breasts. My eyes lingered on the spot on her neck, where I’d imagined placing my lips countless times.

How could she see herself as anything less than perfect?

I ran my hands along her shoulders and her upper arms. “Does this hurt?”

She shook her head. Her lips parted, and she brushed them with her tongue, leaving behind an irresistible sheen. I moved my hands to her waist, slipping them under her silky shirt to her smooth skin underneath.

Dipping my head just enough that my mouth brushed her ear, I whispered, “What about here?”

Birds sang from the trees. The mountain stream gurgled in its tract along the road. Leaves rustled together in the breeze, which cooled the warmth in my face. All these forest sounds faded into the background as the beat of Angie’s heart pounding in rhythm with mine took center stage.

She stiffened, tense as a rabbit preparing to run from a fox, yet she stayed. Shifting my hands from her waist to her back, I pulled her against me, tracing from her shoulder blades to the base of her spine.

I stretched my fingers until my hands encompassed her lower back, slipping ever so slightly onto the upper roundness of her bottom. “And what about here?”

My breath set the blonde strands of her hair near her ear along her neck to motion. Visible goosebumps rose where it brushed against her. Her chest lifted and fell against me as she took in shorter and shorter breaths, yet her arms remained straight as sticks by her sides.

I could think of a half billion reasons why I should stop myself from rubbing circles on her back, from taking control of her mouth, delving my tongue into that forbidden vault, tasting, testing, savoring everything it had to offer. Five hundred million excuses why I should move away from her and backpedal our relationship to the bickering one of employer and employee.

She tilted her head, yielding me access to the length of her neck where her pulse thudded against her skin. Caution flags ignited and disintegrated like ash in the wind, and my desire consumed me.

I pressed my lips gently to her velvety skin. One taste was all it took for me to hunger for more. Freeing one hand from her shirt, I threaded it into her hair and nudged her head back further.

Trailing kisses to the hollow of her clavicle, I teased her with my tongue. Relishing every touch, I snaked my way back to her chin, growing ever closer to the lips that’d taunted and tortured me for more than two months.

And I was more than ready to return the favor.