The Beginnings: Babe in the Woods Read online

  Becker’s masterful kisses alternated teeth-grinding passion with slow, wet, teasing nibbles. His hands cradled her head to position her mouth however he wanted.

  If the hardness pressing into her hip was any indication, he wanted her. Big time.

  Lacy grabbed handfuls of his T-shirt until he impatiently yanked it off.

  Oh. His skin was hot. Smooth. Perfect. Chest muscles rippled beneath her fingertips as she traced his hard contours.

  Groaning, he shifted, wedging his muscular leg between her softer thighs and clamped his hands on her ass, grinding her pelvis against his.

  She bowed beneath him, greedy to gorge on all the carnal delights his body promised.

  Becker trailed openmouthed kisses down her throat, flicking his tongue in tandem with her racing pulse. Then he sank his mouth into the magic spot where her neck met shoulder and bit down.

  Lacy let out a moan, lost in his intoxicating masculine scent, and the thrilling feel of his reckless lips branding her skin.

  His hands slipped beneath her tank top. Rough fingertips tickled her bare belly as his thumbs lazily grazed the underside of her breasts. He stopped kissing her neck, pressing his damp lips to her ear. “Lift your arms.”

  Her shirt disappeared. Then his silky mouth closed over her right nipple.

  He sucked softly. Forcefully. The teasing nip of his teeth was followed by wet swirls of his tongue. His hot breath beaded the tip into a painful point.

  Her brain fogged with pleasure. “More.”

  The stubble on his chin raked the tender skin on her chest. He soothed the sting with petal-soft kisses and switched to the other breast. “You taste sweet, cupcake.”

  His hoarse whisper sent a rush of moisture south.

  The flannel sleeping bag stroked her flesh as Lacy thrashed. She ached. Every scrape of his beard, every suctioning kiss and deliberate lick made her slick and ready. She turned her head…and saw a pair of beady red eyes staring back at her.

  She screamed and tried to roll away—an impossible feat with two hundred pounds of amorous male crushing her to the ground.

  Becker went still. “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a wild animal!”

  “Where?”

  “By the tree.”

  He sat up. Paused. “The squirrel? That’s what scared you?”

  Lacy peeked over Becker’s shoulder. A fluffy tail swished up the trunk as it scampered away.

  She’d freaked about a squirrel. How mortifying. She reached for her shirt, giving Becker her back.

  “Lacy—”

  “Save it. I’m an idiot. Go ahead and laugh.” She pressed herself into the zippered side of the joined bags, leaving a big gap between them.

  “I’m not going to laugh at you,” he said quietly.

  “You’d be the first.”

  The last thing Lacy heard Becker say was, “I’m not like him. You’d best remember that.”

  Her heart turned over, but she didn’t. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

  Chapter Four

  Becker’s snores woke Lacy up. She snuck off, snickering at his quaint phrasing about bodily functions. When she returned, Becker had already rolled up the sleeping bags and their backpacks rested against the log.He gave her a crusty look. “Thought I told you to tell me when you needed—”

  “I don’t need you to hold my hand,” she retorted sweetly.

  “Could’ve fooled me last night.”

  Her face flamed. Damn Nordic genes. “Sorry. It won’t happen again.” She tied her sleeping bag to her pack, grabbed her toothbrush and uncapped her canteen. Empty. Without another word, she headed for the creek.

  Scrubbing her face and teeth improved her mood. Until she noticed Becker leaning against a tree, glaring at her.

  “What? Hoping to see me fall in and get washed downstream?”

  Becker scowled. “You have a real high opinion of me.” He sidestepped her and bent to fill his canteen.

  “I assume you’ve got a plan for getting us back to civilization?”

  Why did his back stiffen?

  “Yeah. I think we should walk east. Because if we keep going west, we’ll get deeper into the mountains. There are houses and roads at the foothills.”

  She considered it. “Makes sense.”

  “You aren’t going to question my plan?”

  “No. I trust you.”

  Relief flitted through his eyes. “What’s our food situation?”

  “Don’t you have anything in your pack?”

  “No.”

  A guide with no supplies? Something about that didn’t ring true. “I’ve got one protein bar left.”

  “Save it. Keep an eye out for berries or something edible.”

  “While I’m foraging what will you be doing?”

  “Keepin’ you safe from wild critters, darlin’.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Although, I liked it when you wanted my protection from them last night.”

  Incredulous, she said, “You did?”

  He nodded.

  “You aren’t upset?”

  “Only if I won’t get another shot at protecting you tonight.”

  A sexy smile broke across his handsome face and made Lacy weak-kneed. How was she supposed to hike with him wreaking havoc on her system?

  “Come on, cupcake. Let’s get moving.”

  * * *

  “Tell me about your job in New York,” Becker said to take their minds off the grueling uphill hike.

  “It’s not nearly as exciting as what you do. I’m in advertising. I try to sell people things they don’t need.”

  Becker grinned. An apt—and surprisingly honest answer.

  Lacy launched into an explanation about the rigors of her day-to-day life that sounded exactly like his. “But I’m ready for a change.”

  “Like?”

  “Like working in a low-pressure job so I can savor life instead of making it a competition.”

  “Are you competitive in everything?”

  “Yep.” Lacy smiled saucily before taking off up the steep incline.

  He chased her. She won. This time.

  They stood atop the rise, wheezing, staring at the never-ending sea of greenish-black pine trees.

  She sighed. Sipped from her canteen and handed it to him.

  “What?”

  “I’d hoped to find a Super 8 on the other side of this hill.”

  Was she sorry she’d listened to him? Especially when he was winging it about forging a way out of the mountains?

  She trusts you. Don’t let her down.

  Becker wiped the water from his chin, passing back the canteen. “Let’s keep walking. Never know what’s over the next rise.”

  Once they’d returned to the shaded woods, she said, “Tell me about your mother. Is she still into that ‘New Age’ crap?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that why you are the way you are?”

  He knew Lacy meant his persona as a mountain guide, but he answered honestly. “I’m the way I am in spite of my upbringing.”

  “She doesn’t approve of your chosen field?”

  “No.” His mother was half-Irish/half-Lakota Sioux. She’d expected him to help run the family pub after college. Becker preferred to pursue other goals. Now that he’d exceeded his own expectations, he was ready for a new direction in his life. Taking the summer off to help his cousin launch a new venture was shaping up to be the best decision he’d made.

  Despite the fact he and Lacy were lost.

  “Does your family think you should abandon the ad biz?” He picked up a branch blocking their path.

  “No. That’s why Cat made me the bracelet. To remind me I’m in charge of my own destiny.”

  Before Becker could respond, Lacy wandered into a patch of sunshine. He watched her poking around in a cluster of low bushes. “What’d you find?”

  “Raspberry canes.” She held out her hand. Nestled in her palm were tiny red fruit.

/>   “How does a Manhattanite recognize a raspberry bush?”

  Lacy blushed. “My grandmother lived outside of Spearfish. We used to go raspberry picking in the Black Hills the summers I stayed with her.”

  “So you do have some wilderness skills.”

  “I thought I did until that time I got lost and my parents forbid me from visiting Grandma again.”

  Becker froze. “Lost?”

  “Ah. Yeah.”

  “What happened?”

  “I wandered off. Grandma thought I’d gone back to the house. She didn’t realize I wasn’t around until it was dark.” She kicked the dirt. “Then it was too late to search so I spent the night in the woods alone scared out of my mind.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Nine.”

  He grasped her by the upper arms. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “Because my parents accused me of getting lost on purpose just for the attention. I didn’t want you to think the same.”

  Another thought notched his guilt. “Did your ex-boyfriend know you’d gotten lost in the woods as a child?”

  Lacy nodded.

  “And yet he still booked you on this wilderness hiking trip?”

  “Yes. He’s probably at base camp laughing that I’m missing.”

  “He’s there?”

  “Yes. Waiting to go in the next group. Instead of canceling, I moved my trip up a week.”

  Becker’s hands fell. He stared at the stubborn tilt to her elfin chin. He spun away to hide his mortification. Jesus. He’d acted the super-macho asshole, just like her ex. She’d been scared shitless last night and he’d used it as an excuse to get his hands and mouth all over her lush body.

  Talk about caveman tendencies.

  He heard Lacy’s footsteps fading He needed a minute to wallow in his self-reproach before he offered her an apology.

  When Becker regained control, he tracked her to a sun-washed clearing. She sat on a stump like a beautiful woodland fairy, eating raspberries.

  He groaned. The fruit was the exact color of her nipples. His zipper grew snug as he remembered the sweet taste and those rosy tips hardening against his stroking tongue.

  She offered her hand. “Berry for your thoughts?”

  “Cupcake, you’d run if you knew what I was thinking.”

  “You don’t scare me, mountain man. Besides. I beat you once.”

  “I let you win.”

  Lacy said, “You wish. But, I’d probably let you catch me anyway.”

  He gave her a wolfish smile. “Prove it.”

  * * *

  Lacy trudged after Becker, panting at his breakneck speed. Seemed he was anxious to make good on the lust-filled challenge she’d read in his eyes.

  He stopped so suddenly she smacked into his backpack.

  “Do you smell that?”

  “What?”

  “Water. Thank God. I’m out.” He shot off, cutting through underbrush, skirting trees and disappearing down a slope.

  She found him by a sharp bend in a wide stream.

  “See? I told you.”

  “I never doubted your woodsman abilities, Becker.”

  He frowned.

  Lacy untied her boots, peeled off her socks and waded in.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Cooling off.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I am.” The icy water felt sublime. She aimed for a flat rock on the other side when the bottom literally fell from beneath her.

  The cold shock of submersion caused an involuntary gasp and her mouth filled with frigid water. She couldn’t breathe. She kicked, thrashing to reach the surface for air.

  Her head hit a rock. Or was it the bottom? She flailed, dredging up silt and sank deeper into nothingness.

  Oh God. She was drowning.

  An eternity passed before powerfully built arms lifted her from the black hole.

  Becker.

  He dragged her to the clearing and wouldn’t let her go. Even after she finished coughing up half the river.

  Once she could breathe, she slumped against his heaving chest. “Thanks.” Several minutes later when Becker hadn’t responded, she peered at him warily. “Tired of rescuing me?”

  “Stop.”

  Lacy swallowed hard at the fierceness in his dark eyes. “You were right. I—”

  “Shut-up,” he snarled, grabbing her shoulders. “Just shut the hell up.” His mouth dropped over hers. He consumed her in a kiss so fiery she was amazed the forest didn’t ignite from the heat.

  Becker kissed her until she was dizzy from the onslaught, drunk on the taste of hot, demanding male.

  Then he touched her while exploring the depths of her mouth, reassuring them both she was alive and well. Stroking her hair. Face. Throat. Breasts. Between her thighs. Thorough, reverent caresses spiked with passion until her blood heated and steam poured from every pore in her body.

  He broke free from her lips to drag wet kisses down the arch of her neck.

  She moaned.

  He tugged her shirt. “Off.”

  Lacy’s tank top sailed to the ground followed by Becker’s T-shirt. Strong hands cupped her breasts. A rough thumb rasped over her nipples.

  Her pelvis sought his. She dug her nails into his brawny shoulders, anchoring herself against the storm he’d unleashed between them.

  “Lacy,” he breathed against her skin, “you scared me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I never should’ve let—”

  “Ssh. You talk too much. Touch me.”

  Impatient fingers unzipped her shorts, slipping them and her underwear off. He cupped her bare ass, picked her up and walked backward until her spine hit a tree.

  Once her feet touched the ground, she reached for his zipper.

  “No. My way.”

  One possessive hand covered her breast. Becker fastened his lips to hers. Ran his palm down the center of her body, through the moist curls. He pushed a thick finger deep inside her damp heat, groaning at the creamy wetness he found. He added another finger and pumped in and out, feathering his thumb over her throbbing clit until it flowered beneath his persistent stroking. He ate at her mouth, then those voracious kisses veered south.

  He dropped to his knees and licked her quivering belly.

  “Sam—”

  “Say my name again.”

  “Sam.” Her swollen sex was weeping for his attention.

  “Say it while my mouth is on you.” He flattened his tongue and made long, calculated sweeps from her opening to her pubic bone, avoiding the hot spot aching for his notice.

  “Please—”

  “Say it,” he growled, retreating to scatter love bites inside her sensitive thigh.

  “Sam! Sam, please—” Lacy fisted her hands in his glossy hair, jerking him back to where she burned.

  “Goddamn you taste sweet.” His thumbs spread her wide. Teasing tongue flicks on her clit turned precise. He settled his wicked mouth on that engorged nub and sucked. The blood in her body gathered in a pulsating rhythm and burst against his darting tongue as she shattered.

  The sheer force of her climax elicited a shriek, scattering birds from the treetops. She wilted against the tree, her legs trembling, bark scoring her naked back.

  Through her ragged breathing she heard his shorts hit the dirt. Felt his gentle touch on her cheek.

  Lacy’s mouth went dry even as moisture flooded her core from the raw hunger on Sam’s face.

  He boosted her against the trunk. “Wrap your legs around my waist and hold on.”

  She reached for the low-hanging limbs. He leaned back, aligning the tip of his cock to her molten entrance.

  Locking his gaze to hers, he slammed home.

  Lacy moaned at the luscious feeling of all that male hardness filling her. Her lids fluttered shut in pure bliss.

  “Don’t close your eyes. Watch.”

  “Sam—”

  “Do it.”

  In
the back of her mind she knew the adrenaline rush from life or death situations created over-inflated primal responses. Becker’s domination didn’t scare her; it inflamed her.

  Their impassioned gazes clashed.

  He kneaded her ass and lifted her torso higher. “These are the berries I want.” Sam’s hot mouth latched onto her nipple. He suckled strongly. “Mmm. Mmm.”

  The tugs of his teeth along with his greedy sex ramming into her over and over coiled her desire until she nearly burst. “Please. Sam.”

  Abruptly he changed the angle of his hips, driving deeper until she felt his balls slapping her ass.

  “Like that, do you?”

  “Yes!”

  He growled. “The harder I fuck you the shorter it’ll last.”

  “Then harder.” Lacy squeezed her internal muscles as he pulled out.

  Sam hissed. “You are so tight and hot it’s like shoving my dick into a live electrical socket.”

  Her body tingled in a line from where his busy mouth seared her skin to where her breasts jiggled from his powerful thrusts. Gradually contractions built deep within her cervix. Then wham! The strength of the spasms around his thick cock caused her to scream.

  In the aftermath of another orgasm that blew her mind, her breath heaved. The pulses faded to soft throbs.

  He’d stopped moving inside her. His fingers dug into her hips. Sweat dripped down his face and over his clenched jaw.

  “Sam? What’s wrong?”

  “Watch me come, like I watched you.” He began to thrust, shallow, then deep, keeping those dark eyes on hers. The deep-seated strokes became piston-fast. He whispered her name, arched his back and exploded inside her with a ferocity that sent another orgasm ripping through her still quaking body.

  Exhausted, sated, stunned, they clung to each other.

  She whispered, “Tiimmbbberr.”

  His laugh rumbled against her throat.

  Then Sam gifted her with the sweetest kiss of her life. She breathed him in, wreathing her arms around his neck. Being lost in the woods wasn’t nearly as scary as the way this man made her feel.

  Chapter Five

  Becker attempted to stay upright. His cock twitched inside Lacy’s snug walls as air billowed from his lungs.She licked his earlobe. Bit down. Chills racked his system. “You gonna drag me off to your cave now?”