CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Jessica heard Mark’s SUV pull up outside right at seven. The man was punctual to a fault. She shouldered her backpack and reached for the cooler she’d packed, right next to the roll of blankets and sleeping bag. They would need them. It was going to drop into the forties overnight, but she knew they wouldn’t be cold. Not the way they heated each other up…
And not inside her flannel-lined sleeping bag, which was rated for colder weather than this anyway. She pulled open the front door and smiled at Mark. He had on well-worn jeans that hugged him like perfection, a long-sleeved black tee, an insulated black vest, and hiking boots.
“Hi.” She felt herself blushing as their eyes locked. The phone sex hadn’t been planned, but holy hell, it had beenhot.
“Hi yourself.” He pulled her in for a kiss, taking the blankets and cooler from her hands in the process. “I brought my sleeping bag too. We can zip them together. What’s in the cooler?”
“Cold fried chicken, cornbread, and some of Carly’s butterscotch cookies.”
“Nice.”
“There’s a bottle of wine in my backpack.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought of everything.” He kissed her again, his hands sliding down to palm her ass.
“Did you remember the condoms?”
He nodded, his dark eyes heated.
“Good,” she murmured against his lips. “Because after our phone call earlier, I really need to have you naked.”
“That makes two of us.” He deepened his kiss, his tongue dancing against hers, an erotic promise of things to come.
“Better get going then,” she said when they’d come up for air. “We need to set up before it gets dark. We could go back to that same field we camped in as teenagers. Do you remember the place?”
“That old access road is still there. I’ve thought about you every time I drove past it.”
“Aww.” She pressed a quick kiss to his lips even as she wondered if he was serious. Why would he have been thinking about her when he passed their old make-out spot? He’d been the one to run off and leave her without looking back. She’d assumed he’d wiped her from his mind when he enlisted. He sure as hell hadn’t gotten in touch.
He led the way to his SUV and loaded her things into the back.
“Where’s Bear?” she asked.
“Trent’s watching her tonight.”
“Oh.” She smiled at the thought. “What did you tell him?”
“Said I had business out of town.”
“Technically true,” she said as they climbed in and Mark turned the car out of Haven toward the wilderness beyond. They rode in silence. Once they’d left Haven town limits, there were only a few cabins tucked here and there in the woods.
About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the old access road that had been the scene of many stolen afternoons as teenagers. They never knew what the road had been intended for. The pavement was cracked and worn, punctured here and there by hardy weeds that sprouted through the cracks as nature attempted to reclaim the space. It led about a quarter mile into the woods then dead-ended.
And if they walked straight ahead for another quarter mile or so, they’d come into the clearing where they’d often gone as teenagers to cuddle and make out and, once, to camp beneath the stars. She could hardly wait to do it again.
“Think the field is still there?” she asked as they set out through the trees, carrying all their makeshift camping materials.
“Yeah.”
Did he sound so certain because he was Mark and never expressed doubt, or had he been here since that night? She pulled her jacket closer around her as they walked. It was already past chilly and headed toward flat-outcoldhere in the woods. Not to mention dark. She stayed close to him as they hiked together toward the field. It wasn’t long before it came into view before them, lit in a yellowish glow by the fading sun.
“It looks just like I remember it,” Jess said softly.
Mark nodded, leading the way toward the middle of the clearing. The ground here was soft and leaf-strewn. He stomped down a few weeds and saplings so that she could spread out the large, waterproof picnic blanket she’d brought to serve as their bottom layer. Once it was in place, she dropped the rest of the blankets and sleeping bags on top of it, toed out of her boots, and sat down in the middle to zip the two sleeping bags together.
Mark sat beside her, staring up at the sky.
