Instant Temptation (Wilder #3)(75)

“So I should wear dark glasses, or better yet, keep my eyes closed?”

“It’s possible another part of your body would call to me.”

“Like?”

“Like your ass. You have a great ass, Harley.”

“My ass calls to you?”

“You have no idea.”

“What if I wore—”

“Let me save you some time. All of your parts call to me.” His voice lowered, and his smile went from teasing to something far more devastating. “Everything about you calls to me.”

Her heart pretty much turned over and exposed its underbelly. And that’s when she knew she was in big trouble.

As in unless he did something fast, it’d be too late to save herself.





CHAPTER 25


Nick picked them up as planned and drove back to Wilder Adventures. Harley was quiet on the ride home, and TJ wondered what she was thinking. Back at the lodge, she helped unload, promised the coeds a disk full of pictures from her camera, and hugged Nick good-bye.

Then turned to TJ.

He smiled and reached for her, but she backed up, whispered “good-bye,” and headed for her truck.

He barely caught up with her, playfully trapping her against her driver’s door, pinning her hands at her sides as he leaned in and nipped at her bottom lip. “So…”

Closing her eyes, she let out a shaky, aroused breath at his touch. He knew the feeling. A glutton for punishment, he ran a hand down her arm for the sheer pleasure of touching her and smiled. “How about dinner?”

“I can’t.”

His smile faded as he took in her solemn eyes. “Okay, then how about a game of pool later?”

“I have to catch up on my research work.” She shifted her gaze away. “Sorry.”

“Harley.”

She stared at his throat.

“Harley.” He accompanied the word with a finger beneath her chin, and she finally looked at him, the emotion in her eyes nearly cutting off his air supply. “I’m leaving in five days,” he whispered.

“I know,” she whispered back.

“That second trip is a distinct possibility as well. If I take them both you might be gone to Colorado when I get back.”

“I know that, too.”

“So let’s be together before I go, and say our good-bye.”

Pain flickered in her gaze. “Good-bye,” she whispered.

He stared at her, then closed his eyes for a beat. “Okay, now see, I meant a temporary good-bye. The kind where we get naked and sweaty, have a mutually good time, maybe multiple mutually good times, and then we say hello again the next time we see each other. But I’m thinking that you meant the kind of good-bye that doesn’t come with that eventual hello.”

“TJ.” She let out a long, shaky breath. “I thought I could do this.”

“This.”

“You know. Temporary. Casual. Turns out I’m not going to be so good at it.”

“Really? Because you’re better at it than you think. You go through life skimming the surface, not letting anything in too deep. Hell, that’s what you’re doing right now, cutting this off at the knees before you get in too deep. Isn’t that right, Harley?”

He heard her harsh intake of breath and knew that had been a direct hit, but before he could react, she slipped out from beneath his arm to walk away.

He barely grabbed her.

“TJ—”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, shaking his head. He wasn’t about to beg her to want him. “I’m assuming you’re heading back to Desolation sooner rather than later.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t go alone.”

“TJ, I—”

“Promise me.”

She hesitated and he tightened his grip. “Promise me, Harley.”

She blew out a breath. “I promise I won’t go alone.”

Good enough. She tugged and he let her go, standing there as she drove off, without looking back.

TJ spent the next two days running his ass ragged with short client trips. His brothers did the same. It seemed everyone wanted to get their last adventures in before the weather turned.

But even that didn’t deter people from booking future trips. According to their schedule, the upcoming winter was going to be their busiest yet. The economy might have taken a hit, but there were still people willing and able to pay for their outdoor adventures.

In a few days, he was leaving for Alaska.

Normally, he’d be fine with that. Hell, he’d be great with that. But somehow this time at home, using the lodge as his home base while taking the shorter trips, felt different. It was making him want things that made no sense.

Things, and…people.

Harley.

He hadn’t seen her since landing back at Wilder. For two days he’d gone over and over what had happened in his head, the entire kayaking trip, wondering where it had gone wrong.

Where he had gone wrong.

He was afraid he knew exactly—starting with when he’d said that it wasn’t the mountain that made him happy, but her.

And ending when he’d forced her to face it with the sheer magnitude of their physical relationship. Even he wouldn’t have called what they’d done just sex, and he doubted she could either.