My eyes snapped open, and I looked down to find her staring at the bulge in my shorts.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I followed a bead of water as it fell down the center of her chest, between her perfect breasts, to her soft stomach, and finally dipping into her belly button. At nineteen years old, I’d never seen a naked woman in person. I didn’t know how I’d expected to feel about it—excited, sure, but Camila had so much more to her than the way she looked. She was boldly confident and thirsty for knowledge, and the way she stood her ground had captured me from the beginning. But I couldn’t deny her natural beauty in all ways that surpassed innocent thought or intention. The fact that she knew she was beautiful made everything harder—everything.
I greedily drank her in a second longer before our eyes locked again. Sucking in a deep, controlled breath, I pulled the towel tighter around her shoulders and closed it in the front. “Get dressed. Now is not the time to be daring, Wild One.”
“Daring with my body or my truth?” she challenged me. “You seem to be frightened by all of it.”
A flame licked through me as I frowned. “You don’t scare me.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It’s not. You don’t scare me, Camila. You have never scared me. I scare myself when I’m with you. These thoughts—” I shook my head to try to clear every vision that had entered my mind. “They’re wrong.”
Her eyebrows knitted as she glared back let me. “What’s so wrong about me? It’s not like you’re living on Harold’s farm anymore. No one’s telling you to stay away from me.”
“I am telling me to stay away from you. You’re beautiful, Camila. I’d be lying to us both if I denied it. And you may not be a little girl anymore, but you’re still too young.”
“And Raven isn’t? I’m the same age as her, but you had no trouble staying in contact with her.”
The accusation in her tone was too much. The same flame that had lashed me earlier started spreading at a ferocious speed. “That’s because I have no interest in Raven. With you, it’s different. With you, I lose every battle of will, as you seem to have noticed.”
She searched my face like she was trying to grasp something while confusion danced across hers. “My papa wants me to be with Trip. Trip’s father too. He’s the same age as you, so obviously, age doesn’t matter.”
Her words were a punch in the gut. Trip was interested in Camila, and he had never tried to hide it. That their fathers were cheering them on from the sidelines stung. I ignored the comment about her age.
“Well, then maybe you should be with Trip.” I took a step back, away from the temptress with the devil in her eyes, and turned around before I changed my mind. “Get dressed, Camila. See you at the campsite.”
23
Camila
I wish I could hate him.
His rejection was brutal, more so than the year and a half he’d stayed away. As adventurous as I liked to believe I was, handling disappointment wasn’t one of my strong suits. It ate at me, gnawing away on my fragile core like venom through an apple. I didn’t normally sulk, but after lunch, when Ryker had returned to the campsite, Josie ran to him, and I was left in her dust.
Okay, so it didn’t happen as cruelly as it had played out on endless repeat in my mind, but she was in swoon-land, gaga over a new man. Everyone else had paired off, and I was alone.
The sun had nearly set when I parked my butt on the edge of a rock cliff that overlooked the lower blue lake basin. How can I exist in such a beautiful world and feel the sadness that aches in my chest? It was the same sense of loneliness I’d felt over the past year and a half. It came in waves. Some moments, I missed Ridge intensely, and other times, I allowed myself to get lost in my present world, one where he didn’t physically exist. In my mind, the loss of him had consumed me, and I coped without him and our hilltop the only way I knew how.
It had felt like a miracle when I spotted Ridge by that fire that first night in Ouray. As angry as I had been with him for leaving me, I’d thought we’d been given a second chance. Why did I ever think he might want the same?
I remained at the cliff’s edge long after the sun fell below the horizon, with my legs hanging dangerously over the edge, until nothing was visible save for a perfect moon and a canopy of stars.
I felt Ridge’s presence before the beam of his flashlight presented itself. Then he sat by my side.
“I won’t tell you how dangerous it is to be out here in the dark. You already know.” He switched off his light and leaned back on his hands.
He was barely visible by the glow of the moon, but I could see him looking at me before I turned my gaze back up to the endless night.
“I never did see the stars last night.”
Silence followed, but I could almost hear his unspoken apology for hurting me before his voice broke through the invisible barrier that stretched between us. “They’re far more beautiful up here than they would have been last night, anyway.”
“I guess five hundred feet makes a big difference, huh?”
“Proximity is important, yes. Without the distractions all around us competing for our attention, everything becomes clearer. It’s like the sky is naked out here. Exposed for only those who wander to see it in all its glory.”
Something inside me stirred. “Is that a subtle reference to me exposing myself to you earlier?”
He chuckled, and my heart swelled.
“Because if so, it’s not funny.”
He looked at me then. He was just a faint outline, thanks to nature’s light, but I could have sworn I could see him clearer in that moment. “You didn’t have to show me your body for me to see you, Camila. I see you. I’ve always seen you. You’ve got to know that’s the problem. It’s why I left. It’s why I’ve stayed away. But when Raven contacted me about the tour, I only agreed to be the guide because I saw your name on that list. I was weak. I wanted to see you again, even though I know I shouldn’t.”
“But why?” My voice was pleading. “Our parents, my age? None of that matters. Not when we share what we do. And don’t tell me that this is all in my head, because I saw the way you looked at me back there. You want me just as much as I want you.”
Adrenaline soared through me at my admission. My boldness had always been part of me, but I’d never begged for a man’s attention before, probably because I had never felt anything so intensely in my life.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Camila.” His voice was husky with unmistakable desire, and my heart raced because of it. “And maybe your age is no longer a factor, but there’s a lot to say about our families.”
“So what if our fathers hate each other. They’ll get over it. We’ve never done anything wrong.”
“Except trespassing.”
Fury swirled through me. “It wasn’t trespassing after you invited me onto your land to use as my passing route. I was your guest.”
“You know what I mean. You know it’s deeper than that. What do you think would happen if we did get together? Sneak around like we did to get to the hillside? Go on dates and pray your father isn’t waiting on the front porch with his shotgun?”