“Tell me to stop,” he said against her lips. “Tell me I’m hurting you physically or emotionally, and I swear I’ll back away. But God, Wildfire, I can’t stand to see another man touching you. Not Bo, not anyone.”
She should stop this. She knew she should stop this, but everything about it felt so good. Everything about his body fit so perfectly against hers. Everything he was doing was what she needed.
“No, don’t stop. It doesn’t change anything about our situation, but don’t stop.”
He was dragging her jacket off before she even finished her sentence. She did the same to his, trying to take care of his fingers, but he wouldn’t let her.
“What happened to your fingers?”
“Lost a fight with a tree.”
The race was really wearing on him. “Riley.” She pushed him back until he was against the bench seat and lowered himself to sit.
She climbed onto him, straddling his hips. He hooked a hand around the back of her neck to bring her in for another hard kiss, but she resisted, threading her fingers into his hair behind his ears and rubbing her thumbs down his temple so she could look into those brown eyes. “Riley.”
She could almost feel the adrenaline buzzing through him. He pulled away and nipped down her jaw. She didn’t mind being his outlet, she’d been his outlet for this on more than one occasion, but she wanted to make sure he was all right. “Phoenix. Hey.”
She closed her hands around his cheeks, holding him still. He closed his eyes, then leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry. What am I doing? This isn’t fair to you.”
“I’m okay. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Shit. Zac was right.”
His face was so agonized. She ran her thumbs over his wrinkled forehead. “Right about what?”
“I’m hurting you.”
She ground her hips down against his. “Trust me. Nothing about this hurts.” He shook his head but didn’t turn away when she brought her lips in to kiss him. “It’s okay, Phoenix. I want you.”
She wanted him now more than ever. She’d regret it, but she wanted him.
He wanted her too. The evidence was rocking up against her, driving her crazy. “Kiss me, Phoenix. Make me burn.”
He let out a strangled groan, and she knew she’d won.
His lips fell on hers with a ferocity that left her gasping. His hands locked around her shoulders and pulled her tighter against him. When his lips fell to her neck, she let out a sigh. Whatever price she ended up paying for this would be worth it. But at the small sound, he stopped. His hands fell away from her hips and his lips moved from her throat.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know that sound.”
“What sound?”
“Resignation.”
She cupped his cheeks. “Riley, I want you. You are not coercing me in any way.”
“But you also know you’re going to be paying a price for it later.”
She sat, staring at him. He knew her too well.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you, Wildfire. I don’t know what it is you won’t share with me. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to add to whatever weight it is you’re carrying. I love you too much for that.”
He took her weight at the hips and gently moved her until she was sitting next to him on the bench, then stood up.
“What about you? Are you okay?”
He stopped but he didn’t turn around. “Honestly, no. I haven’t been okay since you called a week ago and ended my world as I know it.”
Without another word he walked out the door.
Chapter 13
Day four of the race involved no backpacks.
The packs were all getting lighter each day as the athletes ate more and more of their food, but today the packs were left in the camp since the fifteen-mile course would end with rappelling and climbing.
Fifteen miles was still a long way to go, the terrain as rough as yesterday, their bodies more worn down.
But Riley was focused. There would be no more stopping and flirting with Wildfire. Last night’s kiss had singed him, but Zac’s words were a constant echo in his head.
Something was hurting her. Something was making her afraid.
And somehow, it was tied to him.
He didn’t love her any less, but he needed to regroup and decide the best way to approach this whole situation with her. The direct approach wasn’t always the most effective. Spending time with a bunch of former Special Forces soldiers had taught him that. It was true in war.
It was true in love also.
In this case, those things were the same.
He’d had coffee with her again at dawn this morning, again not saying anything, just needing to be close. He’d asked her if she would come watch him during the rappelling today. She’d said she would try.
He was going to shove the entire situation out of his head today as he pushed his body hard. Winning with Wildfire might have to wait. But he was damned well determined to win this race. Whoever had messed with his puzzle box yesterday had just cemented it.
It was time to stop screwing around. Phoenix was about to rise.
Running without the backpack felt so much easier. Riley pushed, the miles melting away as he focused on nothing more than the next step in front of him. By midafternoon, he’d made it to the cliffside where the rappelling would take place, the route having looped them back around so they were about a mile and a half from camp.
The climbing and rapelling were set up in multiple stations. Just like with the kayaking, there were safer routes that weren’t as technically difficult but were longer. The less experienced athletes would go with those.
Riley didn’t even slow down as he passed them on his way up to the more dangerous rappelling stations. Most of the elite athletes would do the same.
There were three separate rappelling stations set up at the top of the cliff. Only one person could be on one rappelling line at a time, so if all three were taken when you arrived, you just had to wait.
Everyone had to rappel down the cliff, move over to the sides, and climb back up again in an area more suitable for climbing, then rappel back down before running back to camp.
There were two people already in the process of climbing back up. The one near the top was definitely Bo. The other near the bottom was slower, maybe Baby. Somebody else was on one of the easier rappelling lines, moving pretty slowly. Looked like Iceland.
Riley didn’t waste any more time. He got into the rappelling harness and strapped himself in. Less than five minutes after he’d arrived at the edge of the cliff, he was making his way down.
Riley didn’t play it safe, but Zac had chosen a location that didn’t make the rappelling easy. Some of it required horizontal jumps, and the trickiest parts required participants to move both down and to the side at the same time.
None of it fazed Riley. He was laughing out loud and had passed Iceland by the time he reached the canyon floor.
Iceland wasn’t mad, just waved him on. It was going to take the other man a while.
Riley unhooked himself from the rappelling line at the bottom and ran over to the climbing area. Bo was already near the top. Catching him would be hard, probably impossible. Baby was halfway up. Riley might very well catch him if not in the climb, then back on the second rappel. There was no way Baby was as fast as him on that.