Instead of drowning in it and pulling them both under, Amanda met him with demands of her own, nipping at his bottom lip. Catching his answering gasp with her sweet mouth. He knew with the same certainty normally reserved for things like gravity that he would never get enough of kissing Amanda Southerland. He’d never get enough of the taste of her on his lips, of the feel of her in his arms. He could wake up every morning for the rest of his life with the press of her mouth against his and it still wouldn’t be enough. It was like being struck by lightning and resurrected in the same breath.
“Wow,” she said when he managed to stop kissing her long enough to catch his breath.
“Wow is right.”
“That was...” She let the words trail off and a part of him loved that she was having as much trouble speaking as he was.
“Yep.” Like a poet, he was. And now Yoda.
“We should do that ag—”
He didn’t wait for her to finish before he claimed her lips, sinking his fingers into her hair, anchoring her in place as he explored her mouth with his. She melted against him, her body fitted to his as if she were made for him. As if they were made for each other. In an instant, his whole world narrowed to the two of them. Amanda in his arms, Amanda in his heart.
“I’ve been waiting days for you to do that,” she said when he finally broke the kiss.
Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink and her eyes held a heavy lidded, dazed look.New goal: Make Amanda wear that expression as often as possible.
“I’ve been waiting weeks to do it.”
He paused for a second, hoping he hadn’t just brought Ethan into the space between them, but she simply smiled at him.
“That’s too long,” she said right before she snaked her arm around his neck and pulled his lips down to meet hers in a kiss that changed everything.
––––––––
IT WAS A thousand times better than she’d imagined. Kissing Michael, being kissed by him didn’t register on any scale she’d previously used. When he held her, the entire world shrunk to the circle of his arms. Nothing outside that mattered.
Except it did. They were outside in the middle of nowhere with miles to go and who knew how many challenges to face before they could rest for the night. She couldn’t stand there kissing Michael all day, but she was having a hard time remembering why.
Competition. Eco Challenge. Fifty miles by Sunday. Two days until civilization and a bed again.
It was the last bit that finally filtered through her lust-addled brain and made it to the surface of her consciousness. She slid her hands from their new favorite place tangled in the hair at the back of his head to his chest. Reluctantly she pressed her palms against the solid wall of muscle. The man had an amazing body. She let her fingers trail down over the flat plane of his stomach. Even through the thermal shirt he wore, she could feel the ridges of his abs. She had an overwhelming urge to trace them with her fingers. With her tongue.
“Go,” she said, her voice sounding breathy as she somehow managed to surface for air. “We have to go.”
Clearly dazed, he blinked a few times before nodding. It gave her way too much pleasure knowing their kiss had the same effect on him.
“Okay.” He pulled his hands away and reached for her pack on the ground. She missed his touch the moment it was gone and it took all her willpower not to just sayscrew itand drag him off behind a tree. Except there were leaves. And spiders. And being pressed up against a tree meant bark burn. The reality was never as sexy as the fantasy and the spiders were always bigger.
She had a dangerous feeling that wouldn’t be the case with Michael but she pushed it aside long enough to reach for the pack.
“Here, let me,” he said, holding it out for her to slip her arms into.
“Thanks.” She tightened the strap at her waist until the weight of the pack was anchored on her hips.
When she started to fasten the strap that ran across her sternum, Michael pushed her hair off her neck and bent to press his lips against the sensitive skin he bared. Her thoughts stuttered over the should-haves while her body went molten at his touch. At this rate, they’d be lucky to ever make it out of the woods again.
He was the one who managed to take a step back, reaching for his own pack. Before she could find the words to offer to help, he had the pack on his back and was fastening the straps. Ignoring the span of his chest under the straps and her traitorous body’s reaction to it, she picked up the discarded map and retraced their intended route. She hadn’t had any trouble so far finding their blazes on the trees. Their team’s color was purple and the trail had been well marked.
Assuming she was reading things right, they had another couple of miles to the place on the map marked for the first cache. At the pace they’d been keeping before the kissing started, it should take them less than an hour to reach the spot. She turned to show Michael, and he traded her his water bottle for the map. She watched him puzzle over the topographic lines while she took a swallow of the cold water.
“So we’re going this way.” He drew their route with his finger. “And this means it’s going to get steeper here?” he asked, pointing to the contour rings stacked close together.
“You’ve got it,” she said, her smile deepening when he rewarded her with one of his own. Everything about Michael felt good. Easy. She loved how willing he was to learn new things. “Let’s go. The trail’s not going to hike itself.”
It took every bit of an hour to reach the cache. The farther they’d gone, the harder it had gotten to follow the trail. It still wasn’t anything like real orienteering—not the kind she and her brothers had done when they were in college where the compass really mattered—but what had started as a wider hiking trail morphed into something more closely resembling a game trail. It had gotten so narrow in places the laurel scraped against their arms and snagged on their packs as they pushed their way through. She was grateful every time she saw a blaze telling them they were on the right track.
Finally, the trail opened up and they came to a clearing at the bottom of a rock fall. Huge granite boulders tumbled in a pile like they’d been dropped by a distracted giant. She shed her pack and checked the map. This was the spot but how in the world were they supposed to figure out where the cache was stashed? Michael dropped his pack and came to stand behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders as they studied the map.
