Bursting With Love (4 page)

Savannah focused on the ground before her as she made her way back to the camp—her need to pee forgotten—Jack’s kiss still fresh on her lips, his harsh words battling with the pain she’d seen in his eyes, and her confused heart thundering someplace in between.

SATURDAY MORNING, AIDEN was up with the sun, chattering in his high-pitched voice. Savannah lay in her tent, thinking about the evening before and wishing she could transport home like they could on Star Trek. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No matter how much she loathed the idea of pretending nothing had happened, or admitting that it had, she had to join the group and face Jack. She touched her lips, remembering the way her body shivered while he kissed her—partly from the fear of seeing the bobcat, but mostly from how good it felt to be wrapped in his big, strong arms with his hot mouth devouring hers.
Stop it. No men, remember?
She couldn’t even stick to her resolutions for forty-eight hours. That had to be some sort of a record.

She still had to pee, too, which meant that not only would she have to face Jack, but she’d have to go back in the woods alone and possibly run into the bobcat again. Last night her fear had morphed into some sort of sexual hunger, and she’d been so wrapped up in their kiss that she’d forgotten to ask him if that bobcat might come back.
One thing is for sure. No more peeing in the woods alone at night
. She gathered her confidence, changed her clothes, and stepped out of her tent.

“Savannah, I waked up early!” Aiden shouted.

Savannah winced. She needed an announcement about her whereabouts like she needed a hole in her head. One quick scan of the site told her that Jack was not around.

“Good morning, Aiden. How’d you sleep?” she asked.

It always amazed her how much energy children had in the mornings.

“Good. We heard a big cat last night and I was scared, but Dad said it was just a bobcat, and I’m not afraid of bobcats. It’s not like they’re lions or tigers. My dad could scare away a bobcat. Mom told me all about them this m—”

Elizabeth put her hand on Aiden’s shoulder. In her jeans and tie-dyed shirt, she looked comfortable and relaxed. She wore a bandanna around her hair, secured beneath her dreadlocks.

“Sweetie, let’s let Savannah breathe a little. She just woke up, okay?” Elizabeth said to Aiden.

“Okay, Mom. Can we go to the water?”

“I’ll take you, buddy.” Lou crossed the campsite from where he’d been stacking wood for the evening’s fire.

“Have fun. Jack said he’d be back in half an hour,” Elizabeth said. Lou kissed Elizabeth, and she pulled him into a deeper kiss. When Lou and Aiden disappeared over the crest of the hill, Elizabeth said, “With a little one, I gotta get my fill of Lou every chance I get.” She winked at Savannah.

Pratt popped out of his tent, followed by Josie. Savannah’s jaw dropped.
After one night?
It dawned on her that she might have been doing the same thing if Jack hadn’t backed off.

“We’ll go with you, Lou.” Pratt reached behind him for Josie’s hand.

“Let me grab towels,” Josie said, and she headed to her tent.

“Nature calls. Be right back.” Savannah slipped into the woods and inspected her surroundings carefully before she chose a spot to take care of her bathroom needs. When she returned to the camp, Elizabeth was waiting for her.

“I want to go down to the stream, but I didn’t want to leave you alone. Do you want to come with me?” Elizabeth asked.

Savannah wasn’t used to not showering. She really wanted to get into the water to bathe and wash her hair with the organic shampoo she’d found at the Natural Store. She couldn’t do that around the others.

“No. It’s okay. I’ll go in a little while,” she answered. She knew Jack wouldn’t allow her to go alone, but once Pratt and Lou were back, she could ask Elizabeth to go with her.

Twenty minutes later, Savannah had finished organizing her belongings in the tent, and as she was backing out, she heard Jack’s heavy footsteps approach. Butterflies took flight in her stomach. She rolled her eyes, angry with herself for feeling anything after the way he had treated her and wishing she hadn’t enjoyed that kiss so damn much.
Okay, Savannah, just get it over with.
She took a deep breath and climbed from her tent.

Feigning a smile, she said, “Good morning.” As if she hadn’t experienced the greatest kiss of her life the night before.

Jack walked past the tents to the fire pit, not once looking at Savannah.

“Morning,” he grumbled as he began building a small fire.

Savannah tried to discern if she was witnessing Jack’s typical morning grogginess, or if he was sincerely going to grumble at her and pretend they hadn’t kissed.
I didn’t peg you as a pretender, too. Damn it. I hate pretending.

“The others went down to the water,” she said.

He continued silently building the fire.

“You’re not going to speak to me?” she asked.

“I said,
morning
,” he answered.

Savannah saw the others making their way back up the hill. She went to his side and said in a rushed whisper, “So we’re pretending last night didn’t happen?”

Jack’s hands stopped midair. He turned his head slowly, and Savannah’s breath caught when she saw his dark, sexy eyes, but the hard set of his jaw negated the desire she thought she’d seen.

“Probably for the best,” he said.

Savannah knew he was right. She wasn’t even looking for a relationship. In fact, she was running from one. So why did her heart feel like he’d squeezed it until it was ready to burst?

“Okay.” She didn’t recognize her frail voice. “I’m going down to the water to wash up.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You can’t go alone.”

He had a right to be upset over her breaking the rules, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to wash up, and now she didn’t want to be around anyone. And with what was going on between them—or not going on—she knew he would let her go.

“It’s daylight. I’ll be fine. Besides, I didn’t go when the others invited me, so I can’t ask them to go again.” Savannah gathered her towels and her toiletry bag and went down to the water, passing the others along the way.

“It’s beautiful down there,” Elizabeth said as she passed. “Want me to come?”

“No thanks. I’m good.”
And too confused to want company
. “I won’t be gone long.”

“Josie got water for coffee. I’ll save you some,” Elizabeth offered.

“Perfect, thanks.”

AFTER MAKING COFFEE and rolled oats for the group for breakfast, Jack checked his watch for the fourth time. Savannah hadn’t been gone even twenty minutes, but it felt like an hour. He knew the dangers of someone getting separated from the group, and he’d never before ignored his own rules. Now he was breaking every one of them. If he hadn’t kissed her—and if she hadn’t kissed him back with more passion than he’d ever felt—he wouldn’t have let her go to the stream alone. If she hadn’t made his body thrum with desire, he would be down at the water’s edge so she wasn’t alone. Goddamn it. The whole situation was fucked up.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. No one leaves the site,” Jack said to the others. “Today we’re doing field instruction, so rest up while you can. You’re gonna need it.” He headed toward the stream, reminding himself that Savannah was just another survival camp student. In a few days, he’d never see her again.

The sun beamed through the trees, warming the last of the morning chill. As he neared the bottom of the hill, he heard Savannah’s voice and he stopped to listen. She was singing something he couldn’t make out, but he enjoyed the melody as it filtered through the air. He tried to make out the words, but all he could hold on to was the sweet tone of her voice—and he realized that Savannah was anything but
just another student
.

He took a few steps closer, and the water came into view. Jack scanned the banks for Savannah, but didn’t see her. He followed the sound of her voice through the woods to his right. When she came into view, he stopped cold. The sun glistened off of the water and illuminated Savannah’s naked body.
Her perfect naked body
. Her full breasts swayed with each scrub of her hands through her hair. Jack felt a tightening in his groin as he drank in her incredibly sexy curves and the narrow sweep of her hips. She sank into the water up to her shoulders and arched her neck, rinsing the lather from her hair. Jack’s hands instinctively flexed, the memory of the soft hairs on the back of her neck still alive on his palm. She disappeared under the water and then broke through the surface again, shaking the excess water from her tresses. Jack’s mouth went dry. It was like watching an X-rated movie, only Savannah wasn’t acting. She turned back toward the shore and scanned the edge of the water before walking too damn slowly to the water’s edge and leisurely picking up her towel and wrapping it around her body.
Holy shit, she is sexy
. Jack could barely breathe—again—and he definitely couldn’t think, which is why, when she dried herself off and lifted one foot to step into her panties, he lost his footing and slid down the hill on his ass, bumping right into a large, prickly bush.

Savannah shot a look in his direction. She pulled up her panties and her hands flew across her breasts. “Jack? What…are you spying on me?” She scowled and spun around, frantically picking up the rest of her clothes.

Jack scrambled to his feet and rushed to her side. His mind was still in an intoxicated Savannah fog. “I wasn’t spying. I swear…”

She spun around, clutching her clothes in front of her body. Her eyebrows were drawn together, and her beautiful lips were pinched tight. Goddamn it, how was he going to explain this, and why were his eyes still locked on the milky skin of the side of her breast as it poked out beneath her arm?

“Then what were you doing?”

Shit.
“You’re not supposed to leave camp by yourself. Don’t you remember the bobcat?” He knew he should turn away, back up, move apart from where she was, but all he could do was stand there and argue with her.

“You knew I was coming here and you didn’t stop me. Why would I know it was a problem?”

“Goddamn it, Savannah.”

“Turn around,” she spat.

He forced himself to turn away, fisting his hands.
Why did I have to look?
It if had been Elizabeth or Josie, he would have covered his eyes and called out from the hill. But damn it, he was only human, and he hadn’t been with—or even wanted to be with—a woman in more than seven hundred days. How the hell was he supposed to react?

“First you kiss me, then you say you regret kissing me, and then you spy on me?”

The venom in her voice hurt more than the accusation.

“Real class act, Jack Remington. Is that your MO? Lure women to your mountain, and then reel them in and play with their minds?”

“Goddamn it, Savannah.” His chest filled with anger and he spun around. “Who told you to get naked—”

She finished buttoning her jeans but made no move to hide her bare chest.

“Jesus.” He turned back around. “Sorry. I thought you were dressed.”

“Well, I’m not, and I’m not going to do what you tell me. I’m not your fucking toy. I’ll dress when I’m damn good and ready, and I’ll bathe when I want. And, Jack Remington”—he felt her hand on the back of his neck, and heat rushed through him—“I’ll kiss whomever I please, whenever I please.” Her hot breath on his ear only heightened his arousal and rooted his feet to the earth while Savannah stalked off toward the camp with all her possessions in her arms.

One glance of the dimples at the base of her spine, just above her low-waisted jeans, made his entire body shudder.

“WHAT’S GOING ON with you and Jack?” Elizabeth asked Savannah.

Savannah nearly choked. “What do you mean?” They’d been hiking for two hours, and every time Jack stopped to identify a plant or an animal print, he made a point of not looking at Savannah, but when her back was turned, she could feel his eyes burning a path to her. She didn’t think anyone else had noticed. When she’d heard him slip down the hill at the stream, at first she’d thought it was another bobcat. A second later, when she saw him sliding on his ass, a momentary flash of relief swept through her, but it hadn’t lasted long. She quickly realized that he must have been watching her bathe. The angrier she got, the more flustered he’d become, and when Jack was flustered, his eyes filled with uncertainty—quite a difference from the piercing stares he usually doled out—and his sharp edges softened with that uncertainty. As quickly as Savannah had become angry, it had turned to amusement and flattery.

“I don’t know. He left the camp in the direction of the stream this morning, and ten minutes later you came stomping back even though you didn’t seem mad, and now he won’t even look at you. I might be married, but I’ve still got that female Spidey sense.” Elizabeth arched a brow.

“He did come down to the stream when I was washing up, and I was embarrassed, but nothing happened between us. I don’t know why he doesn’t look at me. He’s a weird guy,” she said.

Elizabeth flashed a wide, bright smile that reached her brown eyes. “I think thou doth protest too much,” she teased.

Savannah laughed.

They’d stopped again beneath a cluster of pine trees. Jack put one finger to his lips and put his other hand out in front of the group to stop them from walking any farther. Then he picked up a long stick.

“Josie, you might want to hang on to Pratt. We’ve found ourselves a little snake.” He shot a look at Josie, who huddled against Pratt’s side.

“A snake? I wanna see a snake,” Aiden said.

Jack held up his finger again and shushed him. “We don’t want to spook him, buddy. Do you remember why?”

“Because we’re the visitors. This is his home,” Aiden said.

“That’s right,” Jack said, just above a whisper. “I’m gonna lift this leaf, and you’ll see the snake. I spotted his tail as we approached, but, Josie, you cannot scream. Got it?”

Josie nodded. “Got it,” she said.

Pratt held her close.

Jack was so kind to Aiden and so harsh to the adults that Savannah wondered if he had children. She knew almost nothing about him, other than he was an incredible kisser, he’d lost his wife a couple of years earlier, he had been in the military, and he appeared to be just as confused about women as she was about men.

He lifted the leaf, and Pratt laughed.

“That’s a garter snake,” he said. “Shit, you can find those back home.”

Jack stood back up to his full height, towering over Pratt. “Yeah, you’re right, you can. Would you rather have seen a rattler? Something venomous? Because guess what, crackpot. You have no idea what’s slithering into your tent right now, do you?” Jack shifted his gaze back to Aiden. “What’s the rule for when you’re in the wild?”

“Um…I know this.” Aiden bit his lower lip and looked up at Elizabeth with wide eyes. “Oh, don’t leave anything behind?”

“Right. Always leave things the way they were.” He put the leaf back where it had been. “So we replace the leaf, and I’ll even replace the stick.” Jack put the stick back where he’d found it. “Pratt, take a look behind you, just to the right of the trail. What kind of print is that?”

Pratt didn’t move. His lanky arms hung loosely by his sides, his hair curled out from beneath his tuque, and he looked at Jack with a challenge in his eyes.

“Go on. Take a look.” The seriousness returned to Jack’s voice. His shoulders rode high and tight just below his ears, as if he were ready to strike.

Josie moved away from Pratt’s side, her eyes darting between the two men. She pulled at a lock of her hair, running the ends between her fingers and thumb. Pratt took a few steps up the trail, and Jack grabbed his arm.

“Hold up.” He trained his eyes on Pratt and turned his back to the group, then spoke in a quieter voice. “I’m here to keep you safe, and I can’t do that if you fight me. Whatever’s eating you up, you gotta deal with it. Take that shit out of your head and think about it, talk about it, then get rid of it. Trust me on this. Don’t shove it so far down that it’s impossible to single out. Deal with it.”

Pratt shrugged out of his grasp and headed for the trail again. “Whatever, man.” He took a step deeper into the woods.

“It’s my trail, Pratt.” The warning in Jack’s deep voice caused Josie to gasp—and Pratt to stop cold.

Savannah was intrigued by Jack’s behavior. On the one hand, he was right. It was his job to keep them safe, so she and the others couldn’t just wander off, but on the other hand, she’d just heard him tell Pratt to deal with whatever was bothering him, and from what Savannah had seen, Jack was holding in something that was not only eating away at him, but pushing him away from everyone else at the same time—except maybe Aiden.

“Your life is in my hands. The track that was beside you was from what looked to be a bobcat, a very large one.” Jack’s eyes shifted to Savannah and held, just long enough to unleash the fluttering in her stomach again. “Bobcats don’t usually attack people, but if you come up on them feeding, or with pups, they’re a whole different creature.”

“Bobcat? Will it come back?” The words left Savannah’s lips before she had time to stop them.

Jack continued pinning Pratt with a cold stare and ignored Savannah’s question. Pratt gritted his teeth and took a step backward, allowing Jack to once again lead the way.

Resentment swelled within her at Jack’s complete disregard for her question—and her privacy when she had been down at the lake. Annoyed, she turned her focus to Pratt. He was either dealing with something pretty heavy, or he was just a brooding twentysomething. She couldn’t tell which. But the more she got to know Josie, the more she liked her, and she wanted to be sure Josie wasn’t getting involved with someone who could bring trouble down the road. She glanced at Jack’s broad back as he led them farther up the mountain.
Why is it so easy to see trouble a mile away when I’m looking at someone else and so easy to ignore when it happens to me?

They hiked for another few hours, and when the afternoon sun fell from the sky and the clouds rolled in, they headed back toward their campsite.

“Aiden, how many poisonous plants are in this forest?” Jack asked.

“Seven,” Aiden said proudly.

“Excellent. Why are you so good at remembering things?” Jack asked.

“My mom homeschools me, and she says I’m a book boy not a TV boy and that’s what makes me so smart.” Aiden reached for Jack’s hand.

Jack furrowed his brow and looked at him, then looked back at Elizabeth and Lou. Elizabeth mouthed,
Sorry
. Jack’s enormous paw engulfed Aiden’s tiny hand, and Aiden looked up at Jack as they walked.

“Watch your feet, not me,” Jack said.

“Okay,” Aiden replied.

“Do you remember what any of the poisonous plants look like?” Jack asked them.

Savannah watched him from behind, and she swore the muscles in his shoulders had settled down an inch or two, and he moved with a little less rigidity in his limbs as walked hand in hand with Aiden.

“Three leaves let it be,” Aiden said.

Jack flashed a bright smile over his shoulder at Elizabeth and Lou. It was the first time Savannah had seen him look happy. The smile lightened his dark eyes and brightened his skin, as if he were looking into the sun. It instantly stole his serious, grumbly facade, changing his entire persona without a single word spoken. He looked approachable, likable. He looked like someone Savannah might like to get to know better.

“Three leaves, green, shiny sometimes, sometimes they have notches like cutouts and sometimes they’re smooth, right?” Aiden looked up at Jack again.

Jack nodded. “Perfect.”

“Someday I’m gonna live in the woods just like you, Jack. My dad said I can do that if I want to after I’m all grown up,” Aiden said.

Savannah couldn’t see Jack’s face from her position a few feet behind him, but she noticed the way he kept glancing at Aiden, and the attentiveness struck her. The word
dangerous
didn’t seem to fit him any longer. When he was with Aiden, the words
interested
and
sweet
came to mind.

Aiden described the other poisonous plants that he remembered, and then he went through a list of which plants were not poisonous. By the time they reached the camp, the temperature had dipped another ten degrees. Savannah grabbed a hoodie from her tent and then offered to get water from the stream with the help of Elizabeth and Josie. She couldn’t take another minute of being treated as if she didn’t exist.

“ARE WE HAVING fun yet?” Josie asked as they reached the water’s edge. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her jet-black hair and dunked the pot in the water.

“What’s up with Pratt?” Savannah asked. She and Elizabeth sat on a boulder a few feet from the water’s edge. Streaks of sun cut through the center of the trees and cast long, active shadows across the water. Savannah watched Josie flip her black hair over her shoulder as she set the pot on the ground and began pacing.

“He’s complicated, I guess. God, I always do this. I came here to sort of find myself, you know?” Her blue eyes shifted between Savannah and Elizabeth. She pulled forward a lock of hair and ran her finger and thumb over the ends, first with the right hand, then the left, in a quick, repetitive pattern. “I always hook up with the wrong guys. Then, when things go bad—which they always do—I swear off men and end up doing the same thing over again,” Josie said.

“Welcome to the club.” Savannah gathered her hair over one shoulder and pulled her hood up, too.

Elizabeth took Savannah’s hand. “You girls just haven’t found the right men yet. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.”

“I’ve kissed enough frogs for both of us,” Savannah said. “You and Lou seem happy and compatible, and Aiden is too cute for words, but I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t miss my window of opportunity. I’m thirty…something…and most guys are married by the time they’re in their mid-thirties. Well, my brothers weren’t, and one is still way too single, but he’s younger than the rest of us. I think in general, by the time you hit your mid-thirties, you’re either unattached for a reason, which is usually not good, or you’ve already been married and divorced, and that’s not always great either.”

“So I only have five more years to find the man I’ll fall in love with forever? What if I never do?” Josie sat on the other side of Elizabeth, leaned her elbows on her knees, and rested her face in her hands. She stared at the ground, the corners of her mouth turned down.

“What about Jack?” Elizabeth asked.

“You keep acting like there’s something there. There’s not; trust me,” Savannah said.

Elizabeth shook her head. “I still have the feeling there’s something between you two. He’s going to way too much trouble not to look at you.”

“She’s right,” Josie said. “When we were getting ready to leave the campsite this morning, I saw him sneaking glances at you every time you looked away.”

Last night, Savannah had felt something between them—a long, hard something—but for someone else to notice the connection meant that she wasn’t just making it up in her lonely little head.

“I’m here to get over a bad relationship, not to jump into a complicated one,” Savannah said.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Josie said emphatically. “I don’t know how I ended up in bed with Pratt. He’s a nice guy, you know. He’s just a little lost right now. Did you know that he’s an artist? He’s a sculptor. He has a degree in engineering, but he’s passionate about sculpting.”

“A moody artist. His personality fits him perfectly,” Savannah said.

“I don’t think he’s just moody. I think he really feels stuck. His parents are all over him to stop messing around with art and get a real job. I mean, he lives on his own, he has a studio, but he’s barely making it by each day, so they’re pushing him to give up,” Josie explained. “He came here to get away from them and to try to make a decision on his own.”

“What kind of parents would do that to their child? He’s not even a child. He’s a man.” Elizabeth took the bandanna off and tied it around her dreadlocks, creating a thick, snaky ponytail.

“Can I touch your hair?” Savannah asked.

“Of course. Go ahead.” Elizabeth turned around.

Savannah ran her hands over the dreadlocks. “I thought they’d feel prickly or overly dry, but they don’t. They’re like soft ropes of hair.” Touching them brought her back to Jack, who looked like he was made of hard edges and rough plateaus, but he was soft, his muscles strong yet tender. Remembering the way he’d cupped his palm around the back of her neck sent a chill up her spine.

She couldn’t think about Jack. It only made his ignoring her that much harder. She turned her focus back to Elizabeth. “My father would never do things that way. He’d give me an opinion but leave the decision up to me in the end,” Savannah said.

Josie jumped to her feet. “What I can’t figure out is what Pratt might be like if his parents weren’t doing this to him.”

“You’ve only known him a day. Give it time,” Elizabeth said. “Maybe he’s a really sweet guy.”

Savannah thought of Jack. “Or maybe he’s too broken to ever heal.”

“Thanks, Savannah,” Josie teased.

Savannah rose to her feet. “Don’t mind me. I’m just in my own little world today. We should probably bring the water back up or Les Stroud will come looking for us.”

Josie picked up the pot of water and they began their walk back up the hill. “So you guys don’t think I’m a slut?”

She said it so quietly that Savannah almost missed the question. She put her arm over Josie’s shoulder. “You’re no more of a slut than I am. You’re young and free. Why not enjoy it? As long as no one is getting hurt, why shouldn’t you enjoy each other? Even if it’s only for a few days.”