His fine, tight, perfectly rounded ass. Was it getting hot up here?
“You okay?” He looked back at her, and she immediately blushed.
“Yeah.” She nodded and gave herself a mental slap. Stop ogling the sexy guy, Autumn.
She stepped onto the loose stone, feeling it roll beneath her soles. She flexed her own muscles to keep herself steady, taking long slow steps to where Griff was waiting for her.
“The next bit is harder. Hold on to that rock for as long as you can,” he said, pointing at a large boulder. “It won’t move.”
She did as he directed, circling around the rock behind him, feeling her body warm with the exertion.
“If this is the easy trail, what’s the hard one like?” she called out to him.
“Hard,” he said again, and she swallowed down a grin.
A thin sheen of perspiration covered her face as she let go of the boulder and stretched her right foot out for the next step. Moving her left foot forward to complete the stride, she felt the rocks sliding out from beneath her, and found herself windmilling her arms in a desperate attempt to find something to grab onto.
Her fingers closed around the cotton of Griff’s t-shirt, bundling the gray fabric into her fist. Her knuckles pressed against his warm skin, and he turned immediately, reaching out for her wrist to stop her from sliding. He gently pulled her toward him, hooking his thick arms around her waist.
By instinct, she grabbed hold of his arms, feeling his iron-hard biceps beneath her palms. Her heart was hammering against her chest from a mixture of adrenaline and something else… something altogether more electrifying.
“You okay?” he murmured.
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly, feeling her hair tumble down around her shoulders. “It’s a rookie mistake. I stepped too far and lost my balance.”
He reached out and tucked the loose hair behind her ear, his finger leaving a trail of fire on her skin. “Do you want to go back?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “It was just a little slide.”
The corner of his lip quirked up. “We used to slide down this hill when we were young and stupid. Until Jackson fell over and broke his arm. Lucas’s folks gave us hell over it. He and Jackson were grounded for a month.”
“You slid down the scree?” Autumn asked, looking down the long slope they’d just climbed. “Are you crazy?”
He raised an eyebrow. “We were. Not so much anymore. Lucas is all about safety now.”
“He’s a fireman, right?”
They started to walk again, but this time Griff reached for her hand, sliding her palm into his.
“Yep. Captain of the Angel Sands Fire Station. We all give him hell for being cautious, but he’s right.”
“And how long were you grounded when your folks found out?” she asked him, trying to imagine a teenage Griff being forced to stay home. From the little she knew of him, that would be his worst nightmare.
“I wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I guess they didn’t care about it.” He shrugged.
They’d reached the crest of the hill, and Griff released her hand. She looked around at the view of the hills as they rose and dipped below them, the land stretching out to the coast, and the sparkling blue ocean.
“Come here,” Griff said, “I want to show you something.”
She raised an eyebrow, feeling flirtatious. “Oh yeah? What kind of thing?”
He laughed, the ease returning to his face. “It’s over here,” he said, walking along the hilltop to the other side. The air was cooler up here, enough for her to unknot her sweater from her waist and pull it over her head. As they came to a stop she could see a dilapidated two-story wooden building clinging to the side of the hill, with two large rusty metal chutes leading out of it to the valley below.
“What is that?” she asked, peering over.
“An old gold mine.”
“You’re kidding me.” She wanted to laugh. “No way.”
“It was one of the biggest producers of gold in its time. Back in the early 1900s, there were around fifty men working here. Most of them bunked in wooden cabins in the valley down there.”
“Do you think there’s any gold left?” she asked him. “We could get rich.”
“If there is, it’s probably buried far below the rocks. The mine’s been abandoned for almost a century.”
“Have you ever been inside?”
“Not that I’m telling.” His face was straight, but there was humor in his eyes. “It’s dangerous. See the signs?”
“So is pebble skiing.”
He chuckled. “Touché.”
She loved the way the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkled as he grinned at her. She could feel her heart race again, the way it always did when their gazes caught. A breeze ruffled his brown hair, revealing a jagged scar leading from his brow to his temple. Without thinking, she reached up to trace the silvery line.
“How’d you get this?” she asked.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, his gaze fiery as he looked down at her.
“Surfing accident.”
She couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand away from his face. It was too warm, too real, too him. She cupped her palm on his jaw, feeling the roughness of his beard growth on her palm. “It’s hot,” she said, the words spilling out before she could stop them.
He swallowed hard. “Autumn…”
“Yeah?”
“If you keep touching me like that, I’m going to touch you back.”
His words sent a shot of electricity through her. Up here, it felt like they were the only two people in the world, and she liked it. It made her feel brave and strong and like a completely different person.
The sort of person who wanted this strong, tall guy to kiss her.
She lifted her head, her eyes challenging his. “Go ahead. Touch me.”
His control had been hanging on a shoestring since he’d picked her up from the beach cottage. It wasn’t just those tight shorts that molded perfectly to her ass, nor the thin tank that she’d thankfully covered up with her sweater. It was the way she’d grinned at him, laughed with him, been more carefree than he’d thought she had in her.
Now she was looking up at him, her full, pink lips parted, her warm eyes sparkling beneath the afternoon sun, self confidence-radiating off her. It was sexy as hell.
The atmosphere between them sparked and flashed, sending a jolt of desire through his body. He could feel himself respond to her, need making him ache. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered, his voice thick and raw.
With the pad of his thumb, he traced the line of her jaw, then slid it to those full lips. He softly brushed them, and she opened her mouth to suck him in to her warm, wet mouth.
“Jesus,” he rasped.
The last vestige of control left him. Pulling his thumb from between her lips, he tucked it under her chin, angling her head before he leaned toward her to press his lips against hers.
Her breath was hot against his mouth as he pulled her against him, feeling the softness of her body press into his hard abdomen, the need pulsing inside him as he deepened the kiss. Their tongues slid together, and her arms hooked around his neck to steady herself.