Chapter Eleven
A FOREST HIDEAWAY
or
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
I COULD BARELYconcentrate for the rest of the day.I went through the motions, all the while my head full of feelings and my body a tightrope of desire.
During supper I stayed away from Puck, and he didn’t approach me.I was scared to even look his way since I’d been told by two different people our affection for each other was obvious.I made polite conversation with Adam and Lorraine and asked Kamal a few general questions about pony training.
By the time darkness fell, the main house had grown quiet.I went upstairs and lay on my bed, listening to music on my phone and trying to quell my growing excitement.I kept checking the clock.
At ten thirty I pulled the buds from my ears and listened intently to the expansive quiet of the house outside my door.I heard laughter in the distance, and a door shut somewhere.Then there was nothing.
At ten forty-five, I put my phone and earbuds on the bedside table, grabbed the flashlight from its spot on my dresser, and eased my door open.I peeked my head out to make sure the coast was clear.
It was now or never.And never was not an option.
I stepped into the hall and closed the door behind me, locking it as softly as I could and making my way along to the stairs, then heading to the main level.Only the emergency lights were on, giving the place an eerie glow.I managed to make it out the back door with only one squeak of my shoe on the polished floor.Once on the porch, after I’d shut the door, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I checked my bearings to see if anyone else was outside.The coast was clear, so I descended onto the grass and walked in the direction of the bunkhouse.I didn’t turn on my flashlight until I was a good way along the path, so nobody at the main house would see a bouncing light and wonder.I sincerely hoped the guys in the bunkhouse were too busy to pay attention to anything but hijinks and whatever else a group of horny young men might get up to at this time of night.
Part of me was envious that they all got to hang out together in a very cool bunking arrangement.But I probably wouldn’t have dealt very well with having to hide my affection for Puck in such close confines, and where he might be—and probably was—approached frequently by other men.If what Lincoln had said was true, and they all knew there was something going on between me and Puck, I hoped it would keep them from approaching him.But I couldn’t hope for miracles.
The bunkhouse loomed ahead of me.
I kept my flashlight pointed at the ground so I could see my way but not betray my arrival.As I got close enough that the circle of its light touched the step below the door, I heard a cough.I aimed the beam of the flashlight in that direction, and it landed on a pair of bubble-gum pink Doc Marten’s with rainbow laces.
Puck.
The pretty boots started to move toward me as I followed the illumination along the long line of his jeans-clad legs, past the hem of his snug T-shirt, over the Spiderman Logo, up his neck and chin to his sweet smile and glinting, excited eyes, squinting in the bright light.
“You found me,” he said.
By now he was right in front of me.I lowered the flashlight so I could bathe in his proximity.I could still see his face, although not clearly in the darkness.But it didn’t matter, because in a moment, his lips found mine and caught me up in a surge of heat and desire.
His fingers gently pried the flashlight from my hand.
When he pulled away, he drifted the beam over me from head to foot and made a satisfied sound.“Hell, yes.So hot.Follow me.”
I’d worn a pair of ripped jeans, canvas runners, and a faded grey T-shirt with a black-checked button-down open over it to ward off the evening chill.Trying to look younger and maybe not so professional.
Puck reached out and took my hand.I loved the way he took me in hand and put me where I was wanted, as much as I liked the way he gave himself over to me when we got where we were going.I would go just about anywhere with this compelling and confusing young man.
Now we moved through dense brush to the songs of crickets and night birds.I wondered if he had a destination in mind and if there would be anything more than a rocky space on the ground to get up to what we so obviously wanted to do with each other.I held my tongue and trusted that he’d get us where we needed to be.
I watched the beam of the flashlight he held—my flashlight—bob ahead of us.It was spooky, to be honest, and I clutched his hand as if letting go would mean disaster.I cried out when a sudden fluttering of wings and the cry of a small animal sounded nearby.
Puck laughed.“We’re almost there.Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” I said, affecting nonchalance, although he could probably feel the clammy sweat on my palm.
“You’re trembling,” he said.
“How do you know that’s not just anticipation?”
“I don’t.Anyway, we’re here.It’s not much but there are four walls and a roof.”
