The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male

  “Mornin’,” Colt said in a raspy drawl.

  “Um, hi,” she said, and ran a hand over her hair. It had dried sometime in the night into unruly waves. Lovely. She probably looked like a hot mess. “How’d you sleep?”

  “Well enough considering the splinter up my ass,” he said. “You?”

  “Like a baby,” she said. She laughed but it was kind of the truth. She’d slept well in his arms, given the circumstances. Almost too well. Of course, she’d never admit that to Colt. He didn’t even like her.

  “It’s still raining,” he pointed out.

  “Still?” she said with dismay. “That means the river’s still going to be too high to cross, then?”

  “’Fraid so,” he said, except she could have sworn he’d sounded pleased about it.

  “You’re having fun with all this, aren’t you?”

  “’Fraid so,” he repeated with a grin. “This sort of thing’s a challenge, but it’s nice to push yourself against the elements, see who comes out on top.”

  “Right now it’s the elements one, Beth Ann zero,” she pointed out.

  He simply smiled, one corner of his mouth tugging up. Through the day’s growth of stubble, she saw a dimple. Heaven help her.

  She stood up and stretched, then tugged the shirt down over her panties, remembering that her thong didn’t cover much. He’d stood and began to put on his pants again, and she didn’t watch, but she did notice what he was wearing. Tighty whities. She could see that. He was all business to the core.

  Beth Ann reached out and grasped the hem of her dress and grimaced. “Still wet.” Wet and cold to boot. The cloak was like one big soggy towel. She sighed and turned back to him. “So what’s the plan?”

  He put his hands on his hips and she noticed the marines symbol tattooed over one hard, flat pectoral. His stomach was flat and lean and his shoulders were hard with muscle. Had she really rested up against that all night? Mercy. She felt weak in the knees.

  “You lead. I’m just here to make sure you don’t get into trouble.” His lean, predatory gaze stroked over her.

  She was staring at him. She flushed and dropped her gaze, pretending to look at a fleck of mud on her big toe. “Well, seeing as how I have no clue of what I’m doing, I think it’s your call.”

  “There’s a supply shack the survival business keeps stocked in case of school emergency not too far from here,” he admitted. “We could skirt the river and head toward it. Might not be drier than here, but there’s some emergency supplies. And enough open area to build a fire.”

  “That sounds like as good a plan as any,” Beth Ann said. Fire sounded awesome.

  She leaned over and picked up her bag, and fished out one totally destroyed Louboutin. “I’m not going to be able to walk far in these.” She stared at it, and then peered over at him. “I don’t suppose you could snap the heels off?”

  “Snap the heels?”

  “Like in that movie.” Beth Ann didn’t remember which one. “So I can walk better.” She held the shoe out to him.

  He took it in hand and gave her an odd look. “Might not be a bad idea. Hope they aren’t expensive.”

  “Twelve hundred dollars,” she admitted, just as he snapped the first heel off and handed it to her.

  He looked a little sick at the thought. “Twelve hundred?”

  “Yup,” she said cheerfully, and handed him the other shoe to destroy. “If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t my money.”

  “Allan?” he guessed, and snapped the other heel off and handed it back to her.

  “He always thought I had a weakness for shoes,” she admitted.

  “And do you?” His keen gaze rested on her legs as she slid the shoes on. They were tilted at an odd angle to support the heel that was now missing, but she wouldn’t sink in the mud anymore. That was a plus.

  “Not really,” Beth Ann said. “All I ever asked from him was faithfulness. Instead, I got expensive shoes, Coach handbags, and Tiffany jewelry.”

  “I don’t know what any of that is,” Colt drawled. “Expensive?”

  She nodded. “Useless, too.”

  That dimple reappeared, and she felt like she’d suddenly said the right thing. “Keep the heels. Maybe you can get part of your money back.”

  She snorted, and then touched the hem of her damp dress. “I’ll change back into this if you don’t mind turning around.”

  He turned away from her, and she slipped his shirt off and her dress back on. She shivered as the damp, cold fabric slithered down her body, and then held his shirt out to him reluctantly. “Here you go.”

  He took it and turned, then frowned at her. “Cold already?”

  “I didn’t buy this because it was incredibly warm,” she admitted.

  He handed the shirt back to her. “Put this on over your dress.”

  “I—but you—”

  He ran a hand over his own chest and her gaze was drawn there like a beacon. “I can stand a little cold.”

  She needed to quit staring at his far too nice pectorals. “Okay,” she said weakly, and tugged the shirt back over her head. It helped, a lot. “Thank you.”

  He squinted at the sky, then at her. “It’s letting up. We can grab some of those apples to eat and head out for the cabin before it starts to rain again. You sure you want to do this?”

  “I’m good,” she affirmed. “A little hike won’t kill me. And your knee?”

  Colt gave her a hard look. “If I avoided hiking because my knee hurt me, I wouldn’t be much use as a survival instructor, would I?”

  Ouch. She’d insulted him with her question. “Sorry. You’re right. I wasn’t trying to question your ability.”

  For some reason, his mouth quirked at that. “Oh, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of your needs.”

  A hot flush swept over her face at that. Oh mercy, he didn’t mean that how she’d taken it. Did he? Because now she was thinking naughty things.

  He handed her a few apples, oblivious to her blushing.

  She took them and placed them in her plastic bag, along with another bottle of alcohol. Why not. She’d probably need a stiff drink by tonight. Her hand hesitated over the now-soggy box of condoms. She could toss them. Or she…could keep them. Beth Ann flushed even harder, thinking of his hand casually grazing over his chest, and how she’d wanted that to be her own hand.

  I’m perfectly capable of taking care of your needs.

  Wishful thinking, she told herself, but she left the box in. She was way too cowardly to make a move anyhow, and he likely saw her as an annoying burden for the weekend.

  “Anyone looking for you?”

  His sharp voice startled her out of her reverie and she clasped the bag tightly shut, cheeks flaming. “What?”

  He gave her another one of those intense, narrow-eyed gazes that seemed to see right through her. “You didn’t go home last night. Anyone going to be looking for you?”

  “Oh.” She thought for a moment. “My clients will be annoyed when they get to the salon and I’m not there, but I’ll reschedule them and give a discount, and we should be okay.”

  “I meant family. Boyfriend?”

  There went that flush again. “My parents will think I flounced back to the salon to hide out for the weekend. When I get mad at them, I do that. Living at home is too claustrophobic.” She thought for a minute, and then grinned. “I’ve been doing a lot of weekend flouncing lately.”

  He gave her a slow, wicked smile in return that made the pit of her belly flutter with excitement. “Parents?”

  “What?”

  “You said you hide from your parents. Aren’t you a little old for that?”

  “I moved back in with them after I left Allan,” she admitted. “Everyone thought it would be pretty temporary…except me.” She smiled over at him. “Eleven months later, here I am. Still living at home.”

  “Nothing to be ashamed of in that,” he said, and she could have sworn that he was pleased.

 
“You?” she asked casually. “Anyone waiting at home for you?”

  “Just Grant,” he said with a drawl. “Probably wanting to go over class schedules again. So no.”

  “Ah,” she said. So he was a total bachelor? It seemed weird and awkward to ask him if he had a girlfriend, but she suddenly really wanted to know.

  “So no boyfriend?” His lazy drawl almost sounded interested, and her pulse fluttered.

  “No boyfriend,” she admitted, feeling as shy as a schoolgirl.

  He grunted, then stared at the sky. “Come on,” he said abruptly, interrupting her thoughts. “Let’s get a move on before the rain comes down again.”

  FOUR

  Almost there,” Colt told her as they crossed a low, muddy ridge. “In the next valley.”

  “I’ll never be so happy to see a roof in my life,” she said cheerfully, her breath coming in short pants.

  He bit back his own smile in response. Colt was enjoying her company a little too much for his own good. It wasn’t just that she was sexy and appealing, and that when the rain had started, his shirt had begun to cling to her like a second skin, or the fact that when she bent over, panting, to take a quick breather, that he thought very nasty things about having her bent over.

  He…kind of liked her. And he’d be damned if that wasn’t a surprise. Beth Ann’s personality was cheerful and she was hard-working. The hike hadn’t been a fun one—when the rain had returned, so had the mud, and it sucked at their feet at every step. She’d slipped and fallen twice, and he’d helped her back up. But instead of losing her shit about breaking a nail or whining about being tired, she’d simply given a self-conscious little laugh and cracked jokes about her now heel-less Louboutins.

  When she’d asked him to show her which way was north, his curiosity had been piqued and he’d taken her aside for a few minutes to show her how to tell which direction was north when there was no sun and only cloud cover. He’d shown her how to make a compass with a needle and a bit of water. Not that he’d needed it, but she’d wanted to know. She’d seemed interested, and so he’d grudgingly demonstrated as they walked which branches made the best firewood, and how to cut pine bark from a tree to cook. She’d gamely taken a bite and laughed anew when he’d made a bitter face at the sour taste.

  “I’m glad it wasn’t just me, then,” she’d exclaimed, and her gleeful delight had made his mouth tug up in a smile.

  Dammit. She was supposed to be a spoiled princess. He remembered her in high school, always hanging on the arm of Allan Sunquist, jock and jackass. She’d seemed content back then to be arm candy, and he hadn’t had much of an opinion of her. He thought of her when he’d first come back to town—his first sight of her had nearly knocked him flat. She’d been pretty in high school but she was flat-out amazing as an adult. Her blond hair was always perfectly styled, her clothing born to accentuate a long-legged figure. And she’d also been quick to cast him withering look after withering look that had quickly put his back up. He’d learned to avoid her after that.

  Where had that vapid blond belle gone? He couldn’t ask that, of course.

  They moved over the ridge and he offered her a hand to slide down the steep side. She took it, and stepped down after him, her eyes scanning the horizon. “I thought I saw it.”

  “You did.” He pointed off into the trees. “About fifty feet that way.”

  She gave a fist-pump and grinned at him. “If that thing doesn’t have a roof, I’m going to cry,” she told him, but her face wore a wide smile that made his lips itch to kiss.

  “It has a roof,” he told her. “I had to repair it when we moved in.”

  “Repair it?” she asked as they hiked forward. “So it’s been here awhile?”

  “A long while,” he agreed, pushing past a low-hanging tree branch. “Probably before the emu farm that was here before we bought the place. It’s an old hunter’s cabin, so we don’t use it much, but Brenna likes to keep it stocked in case of client emergency.”

  She visibly perked despite the rain trickling down over both of them. “Stocked?”

  “Just a couple of MREs and some firewood. Nothing to get excited about.”

  “I’m already excited,” she said. “I’ve never had an MRE and I’m already tired of apples.” They’d eaten them along the way, but six apples later, and she was already looking for alternatives.

  “We’ll have a fire and I’ll fix you a meal, then,” Colt said. “But you have to ask nicely.”

  “I am excellent at pleading my case,” she said in a silky, teasing voice. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

  Well damn. He’d just gone instantly hard. Luckily for him, the cabin came into view and she gasped at the sight of it. “We’re here,” he said.

  It was also smaller than he’d remembered, he thought critically, looking at the little thing. The one window was caked with dirt and the old roof sagged on one side.

  “I am so thrilled to see that thing right about now,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t wait to make a fire. It’ll be so nice to be warm again. I’m going to have permanent goose bumps at this rate.”

  A twinge of guilt fired over him. It was his fault she was out here this weekend, just because he was a petty jackass. He squashed the feeling. “Why don’t you check it out and I’ll start gathering some firewood.”

  Maybe if he built her a nice big fire, he’d feel a little better about being a lying dick. Worth a shot.

  There was wood in the cabin, but he didn’t want to clean it out the first night they were there, so he went to forage in the woods. When he returned with an armful of wet tinder, he heard an enormous thwack from inside the cabin.

  “Beth Ann?” he called out, warningly. “You okay in there?”

  She came out a minute later, holding a stick like a club. Her breath came in rapid gasps and her blue eyes were lit up. “I just killed a rat the size of my foot.”

  “Probably more like a possum,” he said, amused.

  “Oh.” She panted for a moment, then tilted her head at him. “Should we keep it?”

  “Keep it?”

  She nodded and wiped a hand over her brow, as if killing a creature had been a big effort. “You know, in case we have to eat it.”

  “We don’t have to eat it,” he drawled.

  But she bristled at that. “We’re surviving, right? You’d make your students eat it, wouldn’t you?”

  “First of all,” he said, dumping the armful of wood. “I wouldn’t make my students eat it, because it’s most likely diseased. And second of all, we have MREs and we’re only going to be stuck here for the weekend. You won’t starve.”

  Her eyes gleamed with a challenging light and she studied her stick. “You don’t think I can eat it, do you?”

  “I don’t think I can eat it,” he pointed out. “And I’ve eaten a lot of disgusting things in the name of survival.”

  “I could eat it,” she repeated.

  He stepped up to her and looked down into her beautiful, clean face. She was just as pretty without a bit of makeup, he decided just then. Especially with that wicked gleam in her eye. “You tryin’ to prove something to me, Beth Ann?”

  “I’m tougher than I look,” she said up to him, her gaze assessing. “And if I needed to eat a possum, I’d do it.”

  “Of that, I have no doubt,” he drawled. “But I already know you’re tougher than you look. You’ve already proved it.”

  Her eyes glittered with the compliment and her smile grew even wider, as if he’d just told her that she was the most beautiful woman on earth. “I could kiss you right about now for saying that,” she said, smiling up at him.

  You could, he thought.

  But she didn’t make a move. Just smiled.

  Figured. Just girly talk. He gave her one of his lazy, “I don’t give a shit” smiles and turned away. “I’m going to get some more wood.”

  Damn. She’d totally blown that moment. She’d been hitting on him hard and he hadn’t even take
n her up on it. Had she lost her mojo? Was she horribly unsexy? Or did Colt find her revolting? Weak? Both? She knew he was extremely disciplined and spent a lot of time in the woods, honing his craft. Was that why he was ignoring her feeble attempts at flirting?

  Ugh. She didn’t like to think that he might not respect her or was only tolerating her because he had to. Sure, they had to be together this weekend, but that didn’t mean he had to loathe her company, right?

  She didn’t like to dwell on those sorts of things. That wasn’t her style. But if she liked him, she needed to put it out there in the open or else he’d never get the hint.

  Still, a little help on his end would not be amiss.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back,” he said, without glancing over at her.

  “Don’t have to tell me twice,” she said, and rubbed her calves. They’d done enough hiking today. The cabin was set up at a prime location, slightly raised off the ground and thick with grass, which meant less mud. She liked less mud.

  As he disappeared back into the woods to get another armful of firewood, she gathered rocks to line the fire pit. She didn’t know much about fires, but the ones in movies had rocks around the edges, right? So she’d do what she could. Her strappy shoes were just about destroyed from the day’s hike anyhow. They’d cut into her feet for hours but she didn’t have any other shoes, so it did no good to complain. Too bad she couldn’t burn them, she thought with a grimace. She did find a water bucket that she put outside to collect rainwater.

  After another armful of wood, Colt knelt beside the ring of rocks and began to set up the wood in a tepee fashion. She bent over to watch. He wasn’t really instructing, but even she could pick up on the basics. He’d taken a handful of tinder out from the supplies in the cabin—she hadn’t known what to make of the bucket of it, but now she was glad that they had it—and stuck it underneath the tepee of wood. Then, he pulled out an oversized pocket knife and flicked out a piece of square metal.