Too Hot to Handle (Romancing the Clarksons #1)(58)

“What the hell did you get us into?” Rita shouted at Peggy, struggling to be heard over the wind funneling through the open-top Jeep. On the opposite side of Peggy, Aaron sat with eyes closed, arms folded, looking as if he were attempting to meditate the anger away. Sage and Belmont were in the second Jeep, probably trying to stare one another to death, a situation that still hadn’t been explained to Rita’s satisfaction. Hell, at all.

Peggy reached over and patted Rita’s leg. “It’ll be good for us.”

Rita’s scoff was lost in the racing wind. “How far out do they need to take us?”

“The idea is to remove yourself from the trappings of everyday life,” Glen himself called back from the driver’s seat just as they overtook a giant dune, leaving Rita’s stomach hovering midair. “To strip down to your most basic layer to get to the truth, with the help of your loved ones.”

“Loved ones? That’s a stretch,” Aaron said. At her brother’s words, Peggy slumped down in her seat, twisting a curl around her finger, prompting a sigh from Aaron and a few uncomfortable glances in his younger sister’s direction. After a minute of visibly wrestling with himself, he put an arm around Peggy’s shoulder. “Crybaby.”

Humor trickled into Peggy’s dejection. “Shut up.”

Pretending she wasn’t seeing a rare display of affection between siblings, Rita stared out over the dark, endless expanse of sand, wondering if she’d sold the desert excursion idea short. Maybe her sister was right and any form of forced interaction would be good for them.

Or they’d just die out there in the remote desert, their identifying features pecked away by buzzards, never to be seen or heard from again.

What was Jasper doing right now? Did he think she’d already left?

The unwanted thoughts bombarded Rita just as the Jeeps pulled to a stop alongside a charred cement circle surrounded by three, equal-sized logs. “At least you were telling the truth about the bonfire,” Rita murmured.

Ten minutes later they were seated around a crackling fire that whipped side to side in the wind. Rita shared a log with the two guides, Glen and Milap, Sage and Belmont took one for themselves, Peggy and Aaron sat on the other. They were halfway through their hot dogs when Glen stood and circled the group a few times, wrists crossed at the small of his back. “Tonight is going to be a difficult journey, but a rewarding one. I sense a lot of negative energy among this group.”

“Yeah. Can I see a business license?”

“Aaron,” Peggy admonished, shoving her brother’s shoulder before returning her attention to Glen. “That’s a very astute observation. Please continue.”

Glen inclined his head. “I’d like to begin with—”

The sound of an engine brought everyone up short. Actually, it freaked Rita out. She couldn’t see a damn thing outside the lit circle, so heavy machinery barreling in their direction with an unknown occupant was undesirable at best. “Are w-we expecting someone else?”

“We’re always prepared to expect the unexpected,” Glen hedged, but Rita caught the nervous look he sent the other guide.

Aaron stood up. “All right. I’m really going to need that business license.”

Everyone was in a state of suspended animation until the unknown vehicle’s engine cut out and a familiar voice broke the silence. “Rita.”

It was Jasper. She couldn’t see him in the darkness, but it was Jasper. He was there. Blood rushed into her limbs, warming them after being frozen solid all day.

“Rita?”

“Yeah,” she called.

“Well, don’t strive for romance,” Aaron commented.

Rita ignored her brother, searching futilely in the darkness for Jasper. When he walked into the circle of light a second later and came to a stop mere inches away, an invisible blanket of relief and comfort draped over her shoulders. God, he was freaking gorgeous in faded jeans and slightly rumpled flannel, hair a total mess. He still hadn’t shaved, giving him a rugged appearance, and it was everything Rita could do to refrain from jumping him, holding him, apologizing, but the potential gravity of what she’d done earlier kept her rooted to the spot.

Jasper didn’t remove his rapt attention from Rita, even as he addressed Glen. “You were told to shut this operation down. Drive them on back to the motel now.”

“Who told you we were here?” Glen all but whined. “Nate again, wasn’t it?”

“Knew it,” Aaron said, pacing in a circle while Peggy poked him in the ribs. “Never let a hippie drive you into the desert.”

“Why did you come?” Rita whispered, hearing the starry-eyed quality to her voice and giving zero fucks. “Just to protect us?”

Jasper stepped closer, obviously prepared to give an answer. “Rita—”

“We are doing this goddamn trust exercise, do you hear me?” Peggy chose that moment to go full tantrum, forcing Rita to look away from him. “We’re here and it’s happening. And I’m not moving until it’s over and everyone stops acting like giant assholes.”

Sage moved toward Peggy, laying a hand on her shoulder, which seemed to relax Peggy considerably. Rita recalled the way the wedding planner had calmed Belmont the night before after the bar brawl. Was Sage some kind of voodoo priestess? “We’re already here,” Sage said, sending Belmont a shy glance. “Might as well give it a shot, right?”