Project Passion (3 page)

“
Um, thank you.
Braden.”

They took a look at each other, and
she wondered what he thought. The guy was tall, taller even than
her, and that was saying something. He was heavier too.

The mental picture of what this might
look like if it actually worked thrilled through her and she
wondered what was wrong with her breathing…

“
Let me help you get this
stuff out of the boat.” This was a nice safe subject and would buy
a little time.

She concentrated on just breathing and
not saying anything for a while. This had to work. It had
to.

Braden gave her a casual little pat on
the ass. Her nipples straightened up inside the tee
shirt.

“
Thank you. I’m sorry I
missed you at the boat launch, but I got hung up in
town.”

Heather said nothing as she still felt
guilty at bolting. It hadn’t done her any good anyway, had it?
She’d never had a man touch her there before. The shock was
intense. The wind whipped around her naked skin, bringing a flush
of new-found awareness. Her body was coming alive.

The pair of them worked at getting
Braden’s tent pitched, surprisingly big but he’d rented everything
at an outfitter’s and took what was offered. Heather felt Braden’s
eyes upon her, but it was all right after a little while, and in
their internet chats they had agreed beforehand that nothing might
happen. If so, they would try to enjoy the outdoors and shake hands
like friends when they left. The question of payment had never come
up. She would have done it, though.

It would be a shame not to give it an
even chance.

She had fantasized about it often
enough, but there was every chance the reality would be totally
different and not at all what she really wanted. They both knew
that in advance. They were both adults, and in control of
themselves.

They didn’t talk much at this stage of
the game.

#

A loon cackled out on the lake. The
breeze had died, and now with no wind it seemed a little warmer.
They sat on a big log beside the fire. His smell was just nice,
aftershave and a little sweat as she drank it in, testing
it.

Heather put some sticks on the fire to
build it up.

“
We’ll have to collect some
more wood. When was the last time you ate?”

Braden shrugged.

“
I had a good breakfast
this morning, and a cheeseburger and fries before leaving
town.”

Heather thought about it and bit the
bullet.

“
Well, ah…why don’t I throw
a big steak on and you can pour me a glass of wine. It’s in my
cooler. And if you wouldn’t mind gathering some more firewood
before it gets dark…”

Braden’s head bobbed in
acknowledgement as Heather sort of hung her head.

“
That’s a good idea.”
Braden stood. “Is everything all right, Heather?”

Surprised by the question, Heather
stood up too. She moved closer to Braden, standing a foot in front
of him and gazing into the other’s eyes.

“
Yeah. It’s just that I’m
really scared—scared, you know, and I know I’m not that
good-looking…” She felt terribly awkward, wooden and
inexperienced.

She wanted this to be right, she
wanted it to be so good, and it really wasn’t starting off all that
well.

“
I want this to
work.”

She was just too awkward.

Braden reached up and held her by her
upper arms.

“
Relax, and just be
yourself. This is going to be wonderful. Nothing bad is going to
happen, I promise.” He gently drew Heather in closer, heart beating
hard in her chest as she buried herself in Braden’s
neck.

The guy really was huge. Braden hugged
her for a while, and then gave her a quick kiss on the lips,
pausing to look into her eyes afterwards, which registered in a
shocked Heather’s mind, but she made no comment and no objections.
Braden went and got the wine, and poured out two glasses. Heather
licked her lips and thought about things. Braden handed her a
glass.

Heather gulped and Braden nodded,
sipping slowly at it, savouring the sight of Heather in all of her
slender vulnerability.

“
Oh, boy, I can’t wait for
dinner—and dessert.” He rubbed his belly, and then his hand stole
to his crotch as he held Heather’s eyes.

She blushed and looked away like the
pure virgin she was, yet there was also a gush of something else,
perhaps pure anticipation or even just lust or something. The
thought of being naked for Braden overwhelmed her and she thought
her heart would stop in her chest.

Then Braden turned and went off a side
trail without a look back, and after staring at his muscular calves
and arms for a long moment, Heather dropped down beside the cooler
to rummage around for the meat, still half hyperventilating and
licking her lips as if that could assuage her thirst any better
than the Merlot.

It was probably too late to run for
it. His boat had a motor and he would catch her for sure. He could
rape her right then and there, in the boat, bobbing around under
the moonlight.

#

Braden dumped his third heaping
armload of wood on the pile a few feet away from the fire pit where
a thick T-Bone sizzled on the stainless steel grate.

He came over and picked up his
wine.

“
Nice.” He nodded at the
steak.

His eyes took in a very shy Heather
and then were caught by something else, a reader on the end of the
long log that served this campsite as a bench.

“
What are you reading?”
That might help to break the ice.

“
Oh. Something about
forests.” Heather looked up, hot blood high in her cheeks, but
sensing the opportunity, she spoke up. “Apparently every species of
tree in the country will be affected by climate change.”

“
Oh?” Braden nodded
thoughtfully, looking around at the tall boles, soaring up into
green tops, and then down again at the carpet of red, dry needles
underfoot.

“
I mean…I never knew trees
migrated. But that’s what it said. If you think about it, trees
cast their seeds only so far. If conditions improve to the north
the trees will gradually move north. But climate change is moving
faster than that.”

Heather looked away and down at the
steaks.

“
We’ve got enough wood for
the moment, I’ll go out later and get some more. The steak’s close
to being done.”

She knelt awkwardly by the fire,
trying to keep her bare knees up out of the dirt, and flipped the
thing over with a fork. Heather was conscious of her long legs,
never before seen in public. Braden was looking too. She put a gob
of barbecue sauce on it and spread it around. Licking the fork, she
put it aside on a flat rock on the rim of the fireplace. Heather
had gotten rid of the surf slippers and put on her low white
moccassins.

“
That’s mine.” She smiled
and looked up.

Braden nodded gravely. He lifted the
glass and drained it.

“
Here, let me get you
another.”

Heather turned and bent to pick up her
glass, and Braden took a moment to admire the well-formed legs and
with nice ankles, which was unusual in a woman this age. Most
women’s ankles were either a little too thin or just plain thick.
The ass was nice too. She had dimples near her hip bones. She was a
tall, slender blonde with clear grey eyes. Her breasts looked like
a C-cup.

He went looking for the wine bottle
while Heather fiddled with the plates.

They were having steak and baked
potato, with niblets corn. There was more than one bottle in the
cooler, but Braden wondered just how much food they had if they
were really planning on staying a week. His own load was
surprisingly heavy, but he knew little of such things.

As Heather had sort of admitted in one
chat session or another, she wasn’t the best looking girl in the
world but she was surprisingly cute for a tall girl, with long,
graceful limbs, nice hands and feet, and a kind of natural
honey-coloured skin. The fearful vulnerability thing was a real
turn-on. She looked very sweet. The girl next door.

He sat down on the blanket. It was off
to one side, and the night was fairly warm. They didn’t need the
fire right there. Heather finished portioning out the steak, and
brought the plates over.

“
What’s your safe word?” It
was sheer impulse.

Braden dug in to the food
immediately.

“
Stop?” Then Heather
giggled, covering her mouth for a moment.

Braden laughed.

“
Wow, this is fantastic.”
People said food tasted better in the outdoors.

They were right.

“
Thank you.” She was
grateful for the compliment, which made sense considering her
background.

Braden lifted his glass in toast, and
after a moment, Heather caught on and picked up her own
glass.

“
Here’s to us.”

Heather was blushing beet red as they
clinked their glasses together and solemnly drank.

#

After dinner, Braden offered to help
with the dishes, but since he had no camping experience Heather
decided to do them herself. She’d never looked after a man before,
and it gave her time to think. It was an interesting notion. This
involved soap, a scrub pad and a lot of sand on the pans. When she
returned to the site, Braden was nowhere around so Heather grabbed
her toothbrush and headed down to the water again. Her man.
Hmn.

Stripping off the shorts, she waded
out into waist-deep water and did her ablutions, including washing
her face and hands.

“
I always wondered how you
do that.”

Braden stood on the shore. Slightly
hunched over in embarrassment, Heather didn’t quite know what to
do. She screwed up some courage.

“
Come on in! The water’s
fine.”

Braden shook his head.

“
No. You come
out.”

After a minor hesitation, Heather
realized her clothes were on shore and there was nowhere else to
go. The water was still pretty cold. Maybe if Braden just told her
what to do and she did it without thinking. She was determined to
make this work, now that she had him here.

She waded noisily up
through the shallows, with eyes locked on the other’s, feeling a
bit like Ursula Andress in a bikini in
Dr.
No
as Braden’s eyes raked up and down her
slender frame.

In spite of the fear, part of the
charm of the thing she supposed, she began to get
aroused.

She grabbed the towel and dried off as
Braden watched in a kind of clinical detachment.

“
I suppose you’ve seen a
woman naked before.” Heather stood there, trying to suck in her
belly, which was getting a little out of hand these days, and to
stand up straight, and not show too much fear.

Her nipples were sticking out like
sore thumbs.

“
Come here.”

Heather stepped in closer, heart
pounding. She dropped the towel.

“
Closer.”

Heather complied, never taking eyes
from Braden’s face.

“
You said you were a virgin
and I believe you. And you really are a nun.”

Heather said nothing, just
blinked.

“
Are you cold?”

“
Maybe a little.” This time
of year, the water was fairly warm but the sun was gone and the
breeze on her wet body sucked the heat right out of her.

She dropped the toothbrush in its
square tubular case beside her shorts and shirt but made no move to
pick them up and put them on. The general impression was one of
both defiance, and vulnerability.

Braden took off his beige bush shirt
and wrapped it around Heather as she stood shivering in fear and
anticipation.

“
What would make this
easier for you?”

Heather just shook her head, miserable
with her thoughts. What in the hell was she doing here?

“
No one will ever find out
about this…I give you my word.”

Yes, but what good was that? Heather
knew what the world was like, and Braden was a dominant person. Why
would he care about her? How much respect would he have?

He might think he owned Heather, which
he did…but only for a week. Then it was back to real life, where
there were very real consequences, at least in Heather’s
imagination.

“
May I hold
you?”

Heather nodded. It’s why she was here,
after all.

“
May I kiss
you?”

Heather gasped, but nodded.

“
That might
help.”

“
I had to deal with this
when I was very young. I know all about it.”

Heather blinked back tears.

Braden, who was a little taller, put
his hand behind Heather’s head and pulled her in close. Their eyes
were two inches apart.