Instant Gratification

Yet unlike how she’d be at work, he was also relaxed. Laid-back.

All the things she wanted to learn to be. “What’s next?”

He handed her another little piece of paper, which she unfolded.

Be patient.

Ha. “If I knew how to be patient,” she said, “we wouldn’t be doing this.”

“Wouldn’t we?”

She met his gaze, his clear and green, and so direct it was hard to take. He allowed her to see his affection, his need for her, the heat, and she found herself swallowing hard. “I meant, I wouldn’t be here in Wishful. I’d have hired someone for my dad instead of coming to help him out.”

“Would you have? Really?”

She blew out a breath. “No.”

He smiled and reached for her hand. “Hi.”

“Hi?”

“Hi to the real Emma. Now stop thinking so hard and look around.”

She didn’t want to, because she instinctively knew that she was vulnerable to him, but she did as he asked and looked around. They were surrounded by woods, deep, dense, overgrown woods, and she could see nothing but pine and Manzanita bush and—

And suddenly, with one last turn, it all fell away and they were on the edge of a cliff.

Looking down. And down. And down…

It was staggering. Heart-stopping. She’d never in her life seen anything like it.

“The Tahoe Rim Trail,” he said quietly, turning off the engine so that the air was filled with nothing but a bird’s cry, the hum of unseen insects, the light brush of a breeze.

He hopped out of the Jeep and she followed him, walking to the edge of the drop-off, where hundreds of feet below, she could see the huge expanse of Lake Tahoe, spread out like some magnificent feast for her eyes.

“This way.” He led her along a very narrow trail that had her huffing and puffing in two minutes flat while his breathing remained perfectly steady.

“I could have relaxed easier at a spa,” she said, huffing like a freight train.

“Consider this the Wilder spa, and you’ve booked the Stone Special.”

She gasped for breath for another few hundred feet. “I think I’m dying.”

“It’s the altitude.” He opened his backpack and pulled out a water.

“You came prepared.”

“Don’t look surprised. It’s my job.”

It was, she realized, not just to have a good time, but to be ready for anything. Like her job, his required him to have whatever they’d need. She might have just gotten in the Jeep without thinking much about their plans, but he’d put thought into it, as he did into every trip he made because it was up to him to be in charge.

It was odd to think of his work that way, to compare it to hers, even in broad scope. But it reminded her that when she’d first come here, she’d seen him as a mountain bum. How perceptions change. She couldn’t help but wonder, had his perception of her changed too?

He pulled a third piece of paper from his pack and handed it to her:

Stop over-thinking.

“You think you know me pretty well, don’t you?”

Smiling, he handed her another.

Go with your gut instincts.

He’d kept walking while she read that last one. She eyed him just ahead of her, moving along with an easy confidence that was so sexy he made her mouth dry. His shirt was stretching the limits at the shoulders, playing over the muscles of his back, half tucked into his Levi’s, which were all in themselves a gift to her eyes. The jeans were loose and low on his hips, nicely taut across his extremely fit butt, and emphasized his long, powerful legs. “Go with my gut instincts on what?”

He kept walking.

With a huff, she shoved the notes in her pocket, downed some water, and followed. “Are there people up here?”

“Not on this trail, it’s hard to find.”

“I think TJ could probably find it.”

Stone flashed her a grin over his shoulder. “He’s in Desolation Wilderness on a group trek.”

“Ah. A great date trail, then.”

“You’re the first woman I’ve brought up here.”

She stared at his back in surprise, and then tripped over her own feet.

“Careful. I have an in with the doctor, but she wields needles and knows how to use them.” When he stopped, she nearly plowed into the back of him. He shifted to the side and she saw that they were in a sort of rock alcove, once again looking down at the Tahoe Rim Trail but from a far more private, secluded spot.

“My God,” she whispered, feeling like they were on top of the world. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Agreed,” he said quietly at her side, but when she turned to him, he was looking right at her.

“Stop.” She ran a hand over her hair. “I’m dusty and hot and icky.”

He smiled and grabbed her hand. “You can be the boss of your world all you want, Dr. Emma, but even you can’t tell me how to think.”

“I’m merely questioning your eyesight.”

“Twenty-twenty.”

“Ah.” She sipped some water. “Then you’re warming me up, thinking you’re going to get lucky up here in the middle of nowhere. Luckier than the last time you had me in the wilderness.”

He looked at her and slowly arched a brow. “You have it all figured out then?”

“Yeah. But let me assure you it’s not happening. My mind would be on all the bugs, and where they could crawl into, and you wouldn’t get very far with me.”