Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
Survive…
The word gives me pause, and I fall silent as we start up the hill.
Is he really worried about survival? I mean, I’m not injured that badly, and he could always come back for our packs if I were. But then, what if he couldn’t find the bags again later? Or what if animals dragged them off to tear at the fabric until they got to the food inside? I guess it isn’t crazy to think that if we’re not careful, things could go downhill pretty fast.
It also isn’t crazy to see why Seven always jumps to “worst-case scenario” thinking. He’s lived through a lot of worst-case scenarios in his life, from his family almost losing their house as a kid, to Bettie’s traumatic divorce from his father, to ending up in prison for a crime he didn’t even commit, to his separation from his wife ending in her death and a traumatic injury to his daughter.
He hasn’t had a lot of experience with “easy” or even uncomplicated.
But I know it could be easy for us, that kiss proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt. That was the kind of kiss people write songs about, the kind you can’t believe is real until you’re lucky enough to experience one in real life.
Now that I have, I’m even more determined to fight for this, for us.
He can push me away for now, but if he thinks I’ll give up because he’s thrown up a wall, he’s got another think coming. I’m a rock climber. I can handle walls, and once we’re safe at his camp, I intend to put all my skills to use scaling Seven’s.
We are going to make it there safely. Fate can be a bitch, but not even the cruelest twist of her knife would give two people a kiss like that, then take them out before they could do more. I’m going to feel Seven against me again—properly, this time, with clean bodies in a clean bed—or I’m not the girl who named herself when she was just a kid.
He’s stubborn, but I’m way worse, and now that I have real evidence that he wants me too?
Well, he hasn’t seen anyone dig their heels in the way I’m about to dig in mine.
He thinks he’s seen obstinate from me, but he hasn’t seen anything yet.
Chapter 10
SEVEN
As morning becomes afternoon and the weight of carrying two packs starts to wear on me, I focus on the tension in my shoulders and the ache in my back. I focus on the way my damp hiking pants chafe at the waist and the repulsive feel of tacky boxer briefs clinging to my balls—anything to keep my mind off dry humping Binx in the mud.
But fuck…even physically miserable and hating myself for crossing that line, I can’t completely banish the memory. I can still feel the heat of her lips on mine, and every time I glance back to make sure she’s still behind me on the deer trail, meeting her gaze for a split second is enough to make me ache.
I want to hold her again, kiss her again. I want to forget all the reasons we can’t be together and lose myself in her beautiful body. I want to wrap myself in the sweet strength of this incredible woman and let her convince me that I’m the man for her.
Even though I know that’s not true.
I might be what she wants right now, but that wouldn’t last, and I’m sure as hell not what she needs.
I prove that by being a grouchy asshole when she asks to stop a little too soon after our last water break, only relenting when she asks if I would prefer that she pee her pants as we walk.
“Not particularly,” I say, swaying to a stop with a sigh.
“Then, I’m allowed to take a bathroom break?”
“Knock yourself out.” I shift to lean my back against the thick trunk of a tree behind me, letting it take some of the weight off my shoulders. In return, it sends a sprinkle of raindrops down on my head. It stopped raining several hours ago, but the fall leaves are holding on to enough moisture that we’ll be dribbled on as long as we’re in the woods today.
And we’re going to be in the woods for at least a couple more hours. Between Binx’s injury and me being weighed down by two packs, we’ll be lucky to make it to my camp before nightfall, and that’s if nothing else goes wrong.
Binx pauses on her way off the deer path, arching a brow my way. “Don’t you want to take the packs off for a few minutes? Take a rest?”
I shake my head and fold my arms over my chest. “I don’t want to waste time getting them back on. We have to keep moving.”