“Hey,” called a voice back at the camp. “Anyone seen Dane?”
Dane jerked upright, nearly knocking her over in his haste to get to his feet. The look in his eyes had gone from sexy to wildly paranoid in a flash.
With a sigh, she realized that she wasn’t going to get what he’d promised after all. “Guess we’ll never find out if you’re full of hot air, will we? Shame.”
The look he gave her was hot, and he pulled her in for a quick, fierce kiss. “Tonight. You don’t say a thing, I don’t say a thing, and we meet again tonight.” Then he disappeared into the bushes, trudging his way back to camp.
Tonight? She curled her toes in anticipation at the thought, then sighed. The blood still throbbed in her veins and tonight was a very, very long day away. She waited a few minutes, then sauntered back to camp herself, tying the strings on her shorts as if to make it look like she’d been in the woods for a different reason.
Dane looked up as she reentered the camp and gave her a light wave, as if just now seeing her. What a faker. “Morning, Miranda. Sleep well?”
“Like a baby.” She said the lie with a grin, and moved to the far side of the camp to get her pack. As she walked, she let her hips roll, and swung her long, tangled hair over her shoulder, knowing that he was watching. Dane wanted to see her tonight. That thrilled her just a little too much to fit in with her plans, and she frowned to herself. If this revenge idea was going to work, she needed to keep control of the situation. And Dane had just taken control a few minutes ago. Worse, she’d been ready and willing to give it to him.
She was going to need to be tougher if she wanted to get revenge on Casanova Croft, rather than just be one of his conquests.
SEVEN
Once the entire team was awake, they ate a small breakfast of the last of their carefully saved PowerBars, boiled water to refill their canteens, and then broke camp. The shelter was disassembled, the fire put out, and their bags repacked. Then they shouldered their packs to move on to the next location.
Dane showed them how to make a fire bundle that would keep an ember smoldering while they walked, and he handed it to Miranda to carry. “It’s very important that you keep this going at all times,” he said to her, his face utterly serious. “If you keep it smoldering, you can rekindle a fire with just a touch.”
She stared at him, then at the fire bundle, her thoughts on things other than fire. Was his meaning what she thought it was…? She decided to test that theory. “I think I can manage to keep a spark burning,” she said in a low, husky voice, and licked her lips. “Even if it requires working it a little to fan the flame. It’ll be worth it, don’t you think?”
The look in his eyes grew hot, and she knew they were thinking the same thing. “See that you do. I’d hate to have to start all over, though…I’d be happy to show you how to tend it again, if need be.”
Her pulse fluttered and she tried not to blush. Show her how to tend her fires, indeed.
As the team hiked, Dane pointed out flora and fauna to them. He showed them a poisonous spider, demonstrated which nuts were edible, and gave them a nature lesson as they walked. Occasionally he’d pick up a bit of tinder or a particular leaf, his eyes constantly scanning the environment.
It was actually really interesting information, and Miranda would have appreciated it if she hadn’t been quite so distracted all the time. The vision of Dane’s tight ass muddied her thoughts of revenge, as did the incredible sex they’d had last night. And the conversation this morning. She couldn’t stop thinking about three orgasms. Three. It seemed like a sinful concept to her, when she struggled so hard to have just one in bed. Here he was offering her three. Her pu**y clenched at the thought of him between her legs, languidly licking her to orgasm, and she felt the slick wetness of arousal.
Her spark was definitely going to keep going all day. By the time they were able to sneak away tonight, she’d probably come as soon as he said hello to her. And then he’d give her a smug smile, showing her that he was the shit and she was just another dumb girl who had fallen for his prowess in the sack…
But even as she said it to herself, the puzzle pieces didn’t fit. Last night, when she’d come on to him, he hadn’t acted like it was his due, or that he’d expected it. He’d seem shocked—and then flattered. And then, he was just as turned on as she was. That didn’t match the womanizing flirt she remembered and the tabloids had loved to harass. The man in her mind was far more self-centered and smug than this one seemed. Had Dane learned humility at some point? Had Casanova Croft had all the womanizing arrogance beaten out of him?
She doubted it.
They hiked over a ridge and Dane suddenly staked the flag in the ground. “This will be our next campsite.”
Miranda glanced around, but there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about this spot. They’d passed the stream again about five minutes ago, so maybe that was why—nearby water in easy access.
The team dumped their packs on the ground and began to stretch, Pete wiping his brow. The gamer CEO was in worse shape than the rest of them; he began sweating as soon as they started hiking and didn’t stop until he went to sleep.
“What do we do now?” George said, looking expectantly at Dane.
Dane grinned and clapped the man on the back. “Now you’re going to get a chance to show me the survival skills that you’ve picked up. I showed you some things last night and this morning, and I want to see what you’ve learned.”
With that simple command, the team set to work. George left to go into the woods and begin setting up traps, and Pete headed off with the fishing line to do his task. He looked uncomfortable at the thought, but no one offered to help him with it. After the disastrous incident involving her boobs, Pete had been reassigned from water and firewood to fishing (to get him away from her, she suspected). She couldn’t say she was sorry for it.
So now it was Will who was assigned to help her with the firewood, and while she waited for him to bring back the first bundle, she examined their new campsite. There was a small, scorched area that told her someone had built a fire here in the past, and she ran her shoe over it, looking for small rocks that would pop when heated. Nothing. Holding her fire bundle in her hands, she glanced around.
Dane stood nearby, arms crossed, leaning against a tree. He’d been muttering something into his satellite phone. Even though he was concentrating on something else, his gaze was on her, watching her as she worked around the campsite. For some reason that made her blush. Dane Croft, she thought. So very, very arrogant and self-assured. So certain that she’d take him up on the three orgasms he’d offered her that evening, now that he was assured she wouldn’t run and tell his partners that he was sleeping with the clientele.