Crash and Burn Read online

  The kiss started out innocently enough, but the moment his tongue swept into her mouth, she was a goner. She closed her eyes, losing herself in the sensation of his tongue sliding against hers, his hands on her bare skin, and the desire building inside her. She clenched her thighs together as the restless ache inside her began to throb.

  “I don’t know if I could ever get enough of you,” he murmured as he nibbled at a sensitive spot below her ear.

  “I want you, Nate.”

  “You’ve got me, sweetheart.” He slid his hand between her legs, groaning as he touched her. “You’re so wet for me.”

  “Yes. Oh—” The sensation of his rough fingers against her sensitive flesh was almost too much. She gasped, pressing her hips against him.

  “Feel how hard you make me.” He thrust his iron shaft against her belly, and the ache between her legs increased tenfold. He kept stroking, grinding his cock against her belly as his fingers worked their magic, and she was too far gone to do anything but writhe against him, her hips bucking as he drove her right over the edge.

  “Nate,” she moaned.

  “Come for me, Isa.” He held her close, his hips pressing against hers as waves of blissful release rolled through her.

  “Oh…wow.” She went limp in his arms, still tingling with aftershocks. “You do that really well.”

  He gave her a long look through eyes hooded with desire. “I was just getting warmed up.”

  “Is that so?” She gripped his cock in her good hand, pumping her fist up and down his shaft. In some ways, it was a relief that they couldn’t think about sex. It let her lose herself in this moment without worrying about how far to let things go. And she was really going to enjoy getting him off like he’d just done for her.

  Nate drew her in for another kiss. “I have a small confession to make.”

  “Oh?” She kept her hand on him, thrilled by the way his cock pulsed beneath her grip and hoping his confession wasn’t going to ruin this moment.

  “There are two condoms in my bag.”

  “Oh.” Her fingers tightened around him. Oh.

  “I just thought you should know, but the decision is yours. I won’t lie and say I wouldn’t fucking love to make love to you, but if this is as far as you want to take it, I’m totally fine with that too.”

  Indecision whirled inside her until her head spun. “I’m not…I’m not sure.”

  “Then we’ll stop here. Whatever happens between us in this bed, you’ve got to be one hundred and ten percent sure about it.”

  “I’m not one hundred and ten percent sure about anything that’s happened since I got on your airplane,” she whispered, her heart in her throat. Because on one level, she wanted to make love to Nate more than she wanted her next breath. But she’d been with only two men in her whole life, and she’d been dating both of them for months before she let them take her to bed. She’d thought they were special, but in just four days, Nate had become incredibly special too.

  “That makes two of us.” His arms tightened around her. “But I’m sure you would have caught my eye no matter where or how we met, Isa.”

  “Really?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  “There’s one other thing I’m sure of,” she whispered.

  “Yeah?” He looked into her eyes, scorching her with his gaze.

  “I want you to come in my hand.”

  His cock jerked beneath her fingers. “Fuck, yes.”

  Nate was certain he’d never felt anything as wonderful as Isa’s hand working his cock. That little twist she gave at the top had him seeing stars each time. He slid a hand between her legs, feeling how aroused she was again from getting him off. He stroked her, matching the rhythm of her hand on his cock, letting their hips bump together on each thrust, and it was almost, almost as good as being inside her.

  “Nate,” she whispered. “That’s so good.”

  “I know it is, sweetheart.”

  She tilted her hips so that the head of his cock rubbed against her clit with each thrust. Then she threw her head back, moaning with pleasure. Her wetness slicked his length.

  “Even better,” he gritted, struggling to keep himself in check, because if this was the only time he had with Isa, he wanted to make every moment last. They groped and stroked as the shack filled with the sounds of their pleasure—her gasps, his groans, and the rhythmic bump and grind of their bodies.

  “Oh God, Nate…yes!” She convulsed around his fingers, and his cock pulsed in rhythm with her release, his need fueled by her pleasure. Her fist tightened around him.

  One hard, fast stroke of her hand. Two. And he came in a hot spurt against her belly. He groaned as the orgasm slammed through him, clutching her against him. They lay like that for a long time, panting. He was grinning like a fool. So was she.

  “That was amazing,” she said finally.

  “Sure was.” He reached for the towel she’d worn to bed, now twisted beneath them, and wiped them off.

  Isa stared up at him, all mussed and glowing with pleasure, so goddamn gorgeous she took his breath away. He leaned in and kissed her, slow and deep.

  “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” he murmured against her lips, “but I’m awfully damn glad for today.”

  “Me too.”

  Fatigue crashed over him, and the urge to sleep with Isa in his arms was almost overwhelming. But, like it or not, this was not a romantic getaway. “As much as I’d like to lie here in bed with you all afternoon, there are a few things we really need to get done.”

  “We’re staying here, right?”

  “I think it would be foolish not to,” he said. “In fact, as long as that wildfire keeps its distance, I think we should stay here until search and rescue finds us.”

  “I love that plan. This is seriously the best news since we crashed.” She leaned in to give him another kiss, grinning from ear to ear.

  He kissed her back, then climbed out of bed before he got distracted from the tasks at hand. First off, he walked outside to check on their clothes. His khaki shorts had dried, so he pulled those on, leaving everything else to keep baking in the sun.

  His next priority was to get a fire going in the wood stove. He and Isa were going to be warm and comfortable tonight, and they could even send up smoke signals if and when search and rescue caught up to them. He found a small amount of dry firewood underneath the shack. Hopefully there were matches inside. As he climbed the front steps, he passed Isa on her way out, again wearing the towel tucked between her breasts. His dick stirred at the memory of what they’d done in bed with that towel.

  Inside, he found a box containing three matches. Not much to work with, but he was determined to make a fire. Failure was not an option. He arranged a few larger pieces of wood inside the stove, then added as much dry kindling as he could find, even using the box from their granola bars as tinder.

  He lit the first match, touching it to the kindling. A flame burst to life in the paper and wood shavings he’d gathered. Yes.

  But less than a minute later, it had gone out. “Dammit.”

  Using his pocket knife, he cut a piece of fabric off the blanket on the bed and added it to the kindling pile. He lit the second match and held his breath. After a minute or so, the fabric caught fire, sending flames curling up and around the nearest log. He nursed the flames with more bits of bark and fabric until at last the log began to burn.

  Nate felt like Superman. He’d started a fire! Tonight, they would be able to enjoy a warm, comfortable night’s sleep and even a hot meal.

  He walked outside to tell Isa.

  She emerged from the woods behind the shack, wearing nothing but the towel and her sneakers, a pensive expression on her face. “I can’t find a path.”

  “No?” He’d hoped that the hunter or hunters who used this place might have tramped down a path to get here.

  She shook her head. “I followed a few spots that I thought might be a path, but there was nothing definitive, nothing I�
��d feel comfortable following. I also made an SOS sign over there near the stream.”

  “Did you put wildflowers in this one too?” he asked with a smile.

  “Of course I did.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I want them to be able to see it.”

  “You know, I was getting discouraged this morning, but now I feel more sure than ever that we’re going to get of this mess.”

  She gave him a sweet smile. “Me too.”

  “Even if the fire catches back up to us and we have to move on, we’ll have had a rest and some real food, and we’ll bring as many supplies as we can with us when we leave.”

  “Definitely.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “But there’s one supply I don’t want to bring with us.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?” He wrapped his arms around her to kiss her back.

  “The condoms,” she said, “because I want to use them with you here tonight.”

  9

  Isa looked up from the wood stove, and her breath caught in her throat. “You…you shaved.”

  He grinned at her. “Sure did.”

  “Hot date tonight?” she asked with a smile.

  “As a matter of fact.” He bent down to give her a kiss.

  “You’ve been holding out on me,” she murmured against his lips.

  “How so?”

  “You have a razor, and you haven’t let me borrow it?” She ran her fingers over his freshly shaven cheeks.

  “The thought of shaving hadn’t crossed my mind until tonight, but you’re welcome to it.”

  “Why, thank you.”

  “So which entrée would you like for our romantic dinner—raviolis or SpaghettiOs?” He rummaged through the cabinet behind her.

  “Surprise me.” She stood and picked up the razor he’d left on top of his duffel bag.

  “Isa.” His expression sobered. “I’m torn on how to ration food for tonight.”

  “We could share the can of SpaghettiOs,” she said, although the Spam was long gone now, and her stomach rumbled hungrily.

  “We could, or we could eat a decent meal, get our strength back up, and go looking for more food tomorrow.”

  She was already nodding. “Let’s do that. And we’ll still have the baked beans. It’s more than we had a few hours ago.”

  “Okay.” He took the pot out of the cabinet to start warming up their dinner.

  She went outside to make use of his razor down by the stream. If only she had packed makeup…or a skirt. But no matter how romantic tonight might feel, this was still a survival situation, and it was no time to be a girly-girl.

  Maybe if she and Nate made it out of here, they could go on a real date. She could dress up for him, and they could go out for a nice dinner and eat until they were stuffed.

  She smiled at the thought.

  So what if he lived four hundred miles away? He loved to fly. He could fly into town for their date.

  She was grinning like a fool as she shaved her legs, beautifying herself for her “date.” Two condoms. A happy shiver raced through her. She wasn’t even sure why she’d hesitated earlier. She and Nate had already been through more together than most couples ever endured. She cared about him, she trusted him, and most of all, she wanted him.

  Even if they never saw each other again after they were rescued, she’d never regret a moment of their time together. The rapport and the chemistry between them had kept her going when she was running on empty, and tonight would be incredibly special, no matter what happened tomorrow.

  After she’d finished shaving, she washed off in the stream. She even got out her travel-sized bottle of shampoo and washed her hair, which felt amazing. After toweling off, she dressed in her purple shirt and leggings, then gathered the rest of their clothes to bring them inside. The sun had already sunk behind the tree line, and although their jeans and sneakers were still damp, they’d dry better in front of the fire than out here in the cold, dark night.

  Before she went inside, she stood there for a few minutes in the darkening field and called for Maya. Why hadn’t she come back to them yet? Please let her be safe.

  Finally, she stepped inside the cabin and pulled the door shut behind her. “Of all the things I’m looking forward to tonight, having walls separating me from the bears and mountain lions is pretty high on the list.”

  “We are going to sleep so good tonight.” He gave her another one of those wickedly sexy smiles, and her insides went all warm and fluttery. He poured the contents of the pot into a battered metal bowl and handed it to her. “SpaghettiOs for the lady.”

  “I think SpaghettiOs are about to become my new favorite food.” She sat cross-legged on the end of the bed and began to eat. “Oh God,” she moaned as the first bite of steaming-hot pasta passed her lips.

  “I’m hard just watching you eat,” Nate said.

  Her gaze dropped to his crotch, where indeed a bulge had grown in the front of his shorts. Warmth flowed through her veins, pooling between her thighs. She took another big bite of her dinner and moaned again. “I will never take real hot food for granted again.”

  “Funny how it takes a situation like this to make you realize what’s really important in life.” He was still watching her intently, his gaze riveted on her mouth.

  “For real. I’ve joked with my friends before about ‘first world problems,’ but if we make it out of here, I’m never taking any of that stuff for granted again.”

  “When,” he said softly. “When we make it out of here, Isa.”

  She nodded as tears pricked behind her eyes. “When.”

  “Search and rescue will find us, and if they don’t, we’ll walk out of here ourselves.”

  “Yes.”

  “I want to hear you say that word a lot tonight.”

  The ache between her legs intensified. “I think you will.”

  “Food might be the best foreplay tonight,” he said as he poured his raviolis into a bowl and began to eat.

  Any other time, she would have laughed, but after four days of granola bars, cattails, and grubs, real hot food was practically orgasmic. They sat side by side on the bed, not talking much while they ate.

  “Man, that was good,” she said when she’d finished. She barely resisted the urge to lick the bowl. “I do feel a little bit bad, though. I mean, what if the hunter comes out here thinking he has a few days’ worth of food waiting for him, only to find we’ve raided his pantry?”

  Nate gave her a funny look. “Well, I didn’t want to mention it before we ate since we really needed the calories, but these cans expired a few months ago. I don’t think anyone’s been here in years, to be honest, and if the owner does come back, he’ll surely bring fresh food with him.”

  “Oh.” She pressed a hand to her stomach, but nope, she didn’t regret eating expired SpaghettiOs. Totally worth it to be free of the aching hunger that had gnawed at her insides for the last few days.

  Nate finished his raviolis and took both of their bowls over to the shelf above the wood stove. “We’ll rinse them in the stream when the sun comes up so that we can leave them clean in case the owner does come back.”

  She stared at his duffel bag, picturing the two condoms inside. “So you do this a lot—pick up women while you’re traveling for business?”

  He turned to face her. “I wouldn’t say I do it a lot, but I usually keep a couple of condoms in my bag in case I meet someone at a hotel bar or something like that.”

  The idea of picking up a random man at a hotel bar and taking him up to her room was so foreign to her that she couldn’t quite imagine it. “So no girlfriend waiting for you at home?”

  He came to sit beside her on the bed. “I may be a lot of things, but a cheater is not one of them.”

  “What kind of things are you, then?” she asked softly, staring into his brown eyes.

  “An entrepreneur, a pilot…a workaholic.” He paused before that last one, and something flickered in his eyes.

  “You know what they say a
bout all work and no play.” The air between them seemed to ignite. They weren’t touching, and yet her whole body burned for him.

  “It makes Nate a lonely, horny man.” He reached out to trail a hand through her hair. “You still want to do this, Isa?”

  She nodded, her throat gone dry. “The last four days have been absolutely crazy, but this feels right. No matter what happens tomorrow, I won’t regret it.”

  He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers with a kiss so gentle, so tender, that it melted away all her fears about tomorrow. For tonight, she wasn’t lost. Tonight, she’d found something amazing, something special here with Nate.

  She leaned in, kissing him back, drinking in the sensation of his mouth on hers, the hot stroke of his tongue, and the way his fingers tangled in her hair, anchoring her face to his. They kissed until her heart beat a frantic rhythm against her ribs and her chest heaved for breath.

  Night had fallen outside the cabin, and the only light now was the warm flicker of the fire in the stove. It set the mood perfectly, not to mention kept the air around them cozy and warm.

  “This so beats last night sitting against a tree trunk in the rain,” she whispered against his lips.

  “Fuck yes.” His hand slid down to cup her breast. “I woke up touching you like this, and I was too cold and miserable to even appreciate it.”

  “That was probably the worst night of my life.”

  “Mine too.” He stroked a thumb over her nipple, sending pleasure rippling through her. “And since you’ve reminded me, I’d better check on the fire before we get too distracted.”

  “Yes.” Because if it went out…well, they’d still be okay, but tonight was going to be so much better with its light and warmth to protect them. She stretched out on the bed, watching as he opened the stove, using the poker to adjust the wood inside before adding another log.

  Finally, he closed it and stood, the fire behind him casting dramatic shadows over his profile, exaggerating the contours of his face, the muscles on his bare chest, and whoa, the bulge in the front of his shorts. He slid into bed beside her, his body brushing up against hers.