Miranda panted, still clutching the tree. She should turn around, give him a flirty look. Toss him an airy smile and thank him for proving a point for her. But she was so stunned in the aftermath of the orgasm that she was…well, she was just a little lost for words.
She remembered their make-out session in the closet all those years ago. She remembered her previous boyfriends, unable to bring her to orgasm, who’d eventually given up on satisfying her in bed when she remained cold and unable to respond. She remembered buying a vibrator just because she’d been so frustrated, and it had helped, but it was nothing like…this.
Holy shit.
One thing was clear—she totally had to do this again.
SIX
Well, f**k.
Dane hitched his pants around his hips again, trying not to look over at Miranda. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours and he’d broken his word. The first piece of tail that had come swinging at him, and he’d gone after her with grabby hands.
Colt and Grant were going to kill him. Murder him dead and bury him in the woods. And he’d deserve it. He scrubbed a hand over his face, thinking hard. It just wasn’t fair. Of all the women they’d decided to rope in for their little scheme, did it have to be Miranda? And did she have to look as good as—no, better than—she had in high school?
He glanced over at her, where she remained propped up against the tree. She hadn’t moved. Waiting to gloat at him? He pulled his shirt down over his pants and studied her face.
Miranda wore the most blissed-out expression he’d ever seen. Her mouth hung open slightly, her lips curved into a smile, and she stared dreamily out into the forest. Her clothes were still on the ground, her naked br**sts bare in the moonlight. She’d propped her arms up over her head and simply leaned against the tree, as if she needed time to contemplate everything.
That was unexpected. The sight of her languid smile made his body surge with lust again, and he felt the urge to reach over and pull her away from that tree and against him, and see if he could make that contented look change to one of desire again.
But he couldn’t. She was off-limits. Clenching one fist to rein himself in, Dane waited for Miranda to say something. And when she didn’t move, he took the initiative. “Well?”
Those blissful, sleepy eyes turned to him, and she gave him a satisfied look. “Well, what?”
“What now?” He scowled at her. Was she going to run to Colt and Grant and tell them that he hadn’t been able to keep it in his pants after all?
She blinked, then looked at him, really looked at him for the first time. “Right. We’re done here, aren’t we?” She tugged her long hair over her br**sts and bent over to pick her shorts back up.
“We need to talk—” he began.
“No, we don’t,” she said cheerfully.
“What about your bite?” he said.
Her gaze moved back to his mouth and she looked confused—and turned on—for a moment. Hell. His body hardened in response.
“You said you were bitten…?”
“Oh!” Her expression changed, and he could have sworn she was blushing in the dark. “That’s right.” She looked up at him, sheepish. “I lied.”
He’d guessed that. “So it was all a plot to drag me out here into the woods and have sex with me?”
She tied the laces on her shorts and gave a throaty giggle as she put her shirt back on. “Sort of. Yeah. I guess it was, wasn’t it?”
“And that’s why we need to talk about this. I need to know what you plan on saying to the others—”
She yawned, patting her mouth delicately. “I’m not going to tell them anything. That would ruin any fun we plan on having this week.”
Fun? This week? Did she intend for them to do this again? He stared at her in surprise. So this wasn’t some sort of trap after all? Or was it, and he just couldn’t seem to figure it out?
Miranda moved away from him and gestured to the camp. “I’m going to head back now. You hang back a few minutes, and then follow me in so it doesn’t look like we were together.”
He said nothing.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said, then moved back to him, grabbed the front of his shirt, and pulled his mouth down against hers for a quick, hot kiss. Her tongue flicked against his, and then before he could react, she pulled away again. “Like I said, we’re not telling anyone about this. All right?”
And then she walked away, leaving Dane behind her in the woods, dumbfounded and staring.
What the hell had just happened? Had she just used him? For sex?
That…was unexpected.
* * *
Always a light sleeper, Miranda stirred awake before the others. The sun was just beginning to purple the edges of the sky. After she’d returned to her solitary shelter, Dane had paced around camp. She saw that he’d bunked down with the rest of the men in the shelter, his body slightly apart from theirs. The others still snored.
She stretched in her bunk, feeling incredible physically…and incredibly torn emotionally. She was a bit sore between her legs and her palms were scratched up from how hard she’d gripped the tree last night, but…her body felt alive and the blood sang in her veins.
And it was all due to that bastard Dane, which was why she was a little torn at the moment.
She’d slept with her worst enemy. Told him her biggest secret—that she couldn’t have an orgasm with a man. Just blabbed it and left herself completely vulnerable to him. It was an uneasy feeling. Part of her hadn’t expected to get so caught up in the moment. She’d suspected it would end up like every other sexual encounter she’d ever had: She’d come on to the man, they’d kiss, and when it progressed past kissing, her body would turn off like a switch and she’d spend the next ten minutes waiting for him to be done and faking an orgasm. But last night? She hadn’t had to fake anything. He’d caught her off guard and had knocked down all her defenses.
And she’d come. So incredibly hard that it had nearly made her see stars. Miranda wasn’t sure if she should be happy that she’d had such intense sex, or devastated that she’d responded like a wanton to a man she professed to hate. She shouldn’t be upset about that, though, right? She was on this trip to be strong and aggressive and take charge of her life…and to ruin his.
So she’d used him a little last night. It was payback, in a sense, for the way he’d destroyed her reputation. And so she got an utterly amazing orgasm out of it—the first one that hadn’t involved her vibrator in nine years. So what?