Worth the Risk: (A Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) Read online

  "Danielle, you've got to wake up." This time the voice was accompanied by a couple of hard shakes. She frowned and whimpered, her forehead scrunching up and her eyes sealed shut as she concentrated on her unraveling dream.

  He'd just moved his hands around to grasp her ass and lift her. She slid her shapely legs around his waist and waited anxiously for that sweet sensation of penetration. But the voice would not rest, and neither would the shaking, and finally the dream burst like a pricked bubble and her eyes flew open.

  Or maybe she was still dreaming. Caleb stood looking down at her, his warm hand grasping her shoulder. She looked down at that hand, its fingernails short and clean. She wondered briefly how he kept them so clean out here in the woods. Her own nails were a mess.

  When he noticed her gaze he pulled away, and she fell back against the air mattress and into reality, realizing that her arms and legs were wrapped firmly around her body pillow. She blushed and frantically rearranged herself. "What are you doing here?" she asked, pulling her sleeping bag up over her shoulders.

  "You've got to get up. We need to move. Grab your things."

  "What are you talking about?" She burrowed deeper into her bag. Here he was, spouting orders again. Well, General Caleb could just blow his revelry somewhere else. She rolled over, ignoring him.

  "There's no time to mess around. Get up. The Alsea has jumped its bank not far from here, and you're below the water level. The likelihood of a mudslide is pretty high. Grab your things so we can move you to somewhere safer.

  "A mudslide? Sure, order me two." Her sleepy brain thought the joke was quite clever.

  Apparently, the ranger didn't agree. He grabbed her legs through the sleeping bag and flipped her over, then yanked the bag off her entirely.

  "Hey! I was using that!" she said, the cold helping to finally awaken her anger. "Now get out and leave me alone!"

  "This isn't a game, Professor. Get up. Grab your gear. We need to get moving."

  "All right, hold on," she grumbled, standing up and moving over to the door, slipping on her shoes and then grabbing her raincoat.

  While he yanked her sleeping bag off her bed and began rolling it up, she trudged outside. The cold rain hit her face, completing her wake-up call. She could barely see through the trees because of the gray downpour. Suddenly her legs were wet. She looked down and realized she had been splashed by the fast-moving water flowing between her legs. Her campsite was flooding.

  She felt him behind her before he spoke. "Even if there isn't a slide, this area could still flood out. We need to move to higher ground immediately. Grab your essentials and let's go."

  "Okay." She wasn't one to fight when confronted with overwhelming evidence. Dani rushed back inside her tent and began gathering her research as quickly as possible. She slid her most important papers into her backpack, as well as her laptop, cell phone, and the remaining video equipment. "What about the generator?" she asked, and he shook his head.

  "Too heavy. It will weigh us down, and we might need all the speed we can get."

  "Do I have time to pack clothing?" Most of her clothes were in a pile next to her bed, waiting for the rain to end so they could be washed and hung out to dry.

  In the woods, an ominous groan sounded. Dani thought it might have been a tree falling.

  "No time," Caleb barked and grabbed her backpack from her. "Get whatever else you need right now and let's get to the ATV." Dani grabbed her toiletry bag and threw it into a duffel, along with a pile of books, her remaining folders of notes, and three specimen containers, each housing a noisy frog nestled within some twigs and leaves. She zipped it up, slung it over her shoulder, and followed the ranger out of the tent.

  The pair jogged toward the ATV, the rushing water around their legs impeding their progress. Suddenly Dani was unable to move, her boot lodged in a thick patch of mud. She couldn't get her boot out, despite tugging.

  Caleb turned around, grabbed her duffel, and put her things in the ATV. He then returned to her and pulled hard on her leg. It came loose but without the boot. They both stared at her sock in surprise for a moment.

  "No time," he repeated, at last, pulling her into his arms and trudging to the ATV. Although she was nervous about the storm and the rapidly rising water level, Dani felt safe in his strong arms.

  She frowned when the contact ended and blushed at the warmth that had suffused her body. She was already aroused thanks to her indecent dream, his touch stoking the fire to new heights.

  He put her down gently, and she slid over to allow him to climb in. As he started the vehicle and attempted to turn it around, Dani searched the tree line across the camp from them. Water was flowing heavily out of the trees, and the ground itself was starting to move, the mud joining the water to create a dark, heavy flow.

  "We better hurry," she said, tugging on his arm, unable to look away from their possible doom.

  "Hold on." He gunned the ATV forward with enough force to free them from the mud, and also to slam her back against the seat. Her breath whooshed from her body, but she grabbed the handgrip and held on for dear life.

  She could barely see anything in the driving rain, and she wondered how Caleb was able to navigate. He swung the vehicle off the main path and onto a tight deer run. Branches whacked the side of the cab as they sped up a long incline.

  "Where are you going? This isn't the way to your cabin!"

  "I don't think we've got time to make it to my place. There's a small hunting shack not far from here. It's in a stand of trees at the top of a small hill and should be high enough up to be safe."

  She looked into his face and read doubt. His scowl seemed set in stone. She looked away, fear crawling down her spine like a supplicant before its master. If Caleb had doubts, how bad could the situation really be?

  She'd read about mudslides; she knew how damaging they could be. Even if the mud missed you, the debris it carried could still do damage. And the debris it would pick up here in the forest was worrying.

  Dani looked up at the towering pines, wondering how much mud it would take to dislodge one from its home and carry it across the forest to batter against the side of an old hunting shack. The water still rushed behind them, and Dani couldn't stop herself from grabbing his arm, clenching her fingers tight around the hard muscle. Would they really be safe?

  She had no more time for questions as they pulled up in front of the shack. Caleb looked at her and gently removed her hand from his arm. "Stay here."

  He climbed from the ATV, taking along her two bags and sleeping bag. He slung both rolls over his right shoulder and tucked the bag under his arm, then jogged to the back of the vehicle where he pulled out a canvas pouch from the storage compartment beneath one of the seats.

  The ranger ran up to the shack and pushed against the door, but it wouldn't budge. He stepped back and in a quick motion forcefully kicked the door. It swung inward, and he disappeared inside.

  In seconds, he was back out again and heading toward her. He bent and slid his arm under her legs, then picked her up again and jogged toward the hunting shack. Stepping inside he put her down and slammed the door shut.

  Dani looked around at the small one-room shack. The room was dark and almost empty, except for the built-in furniture. Along one wall was the outline of a wooden bench, which appeared hard and uncomfortable. The opposite wall held a bed that came out of the wall about 4 feet off of the ground, with a small ladder at one end for climbing up. It was covered in a thin padding that looked old and worn.

  Beneath the bed was an empty wire spool that must have been used for a table, but there were no chairs. At the far end of the shack was a rusty iron stove that had definitely seen better days. Sadly there was no firewood stacked beside the stove.

  Caleb was watching her when she turned back to face him.

  "Well," she said with a half-smile. "Now what?"

  Chapter 9

  The interior of the small shack was dim, and until Caleb pulled out a small electri
c lantern from his bag, everything had a sinister, shadowy quality. The lantern did little to drive away the dark chill of the place, but at least she could see the ranger's rugged features.

  At that moment Dani forgot to be mad at him. "Thank you," she said, sincerity ringing like a bell in her voice. "I could have been injured, or worse."

  His cool blue eyes met hers for a moment, and Dani felt a strange but comforting heat fill her body. He quickly looked away. "Don't mention it."

  Caleb dug in his bag and began pulling out supplies. He set two-liter bottles of water, a sealed package of jerky, another of trail mix, a first aid kit, a flashlight, and a plastic box holding spare batteries and a wind-up radio on the table.

  "This is the emergency pack I keep in the ATV," he told her as he arranged the items on the table. "It isn't much, but it should last us until we can make our way out of here."

  "And how long do you think that will be?" she asked him as she squatted next to her duffel bag and began removing her specimen jars.

  "Not before tomorrow morning, that's for sure." He straightened and watched her set the three frog containers on the table. "And just what are these?" he asked, humor and frustration warring in his voice.

  "These are my latest specimens," she announced. "I plan on taking them into the lab next week for analysis and dissection. I hope my findings will support the theory that they are separate species."

  "I told you to grab the essentials, and you bring three frogs?"

  "They ARE essential!" she protested, unable to see the full smirk on his shadowed face, but she could see enough to know he was enjoying himself. "Besides...they could have been hurt."

  "Hurt?!?" His voice was incredulous. "But you just said you were going to dissect them!"

  "I know, but...oh forget it, you wouldn't understand."

  Caleb laughed. "You're right, I probably wouldn't."

  Dani felt a smile turn up the corners of her mouth and she barely kept herself from giggling. Unfortunately, a sudden chill ran through her, and she shook, her fingers barely able to re-zip her duffel.

  "You're cold," she heard him say, his voice turning gruff. He unrolled her sleeping bag and slid it around her shaking shoulders. "It's going to be a chilly night." He frowned at the place where a stack of firewood should be. "With all this rain, it'll be impossible to find any dry wood, even if there wasn't a biblical-level flood going on."

  His words seemed to conjure the storm again, and Dani heard several large groans outside of the shack. One particularly loud one was followed by a huge crack, and the thump of a tree hitting the ground. The shack shook around them, and Dani again wondered about the probability of debris taking out the shelter they'd found.

  Her anxious eyes found his and couldn't hide their fear. His features tightened, his lips drawing into a thin line. It seemed her fright galvanized him into action and he reached up to the bed in the wall and pulled the thin padding off of it, setting it in front of the stove.

  "I know you must have packed your notes and books," he told her as he made his way back to the bunk. "You got anything in there you can spare?"

  "Spare? What do you mean?"

  Caleb stood beside the bed, his large hands placed on the wooden bed frame that jutted out of the wall. "Anything we can burn?"

  "Burn? My notes? My BOOKS?" She didn't understand. "They won't burn for long, and we'll be just as cold as before, only I'll be without my necessary supplies!"

  "We just need them to get a fire started. And hopefully, we won't need much. Just see if you can find a few scraps of paper or something," he said, failing to hide his rising annoyance.

  "But what are you gonna burn?"

  "This," he said, and pulled hard against the wooden frame of the bunk. The nails gave a protesting shriek as the board pulled away. He'd started on the short side, pulling the four-foot long board away from the wall and struggling to detach it from the outer corner and its companion boards.

  Having freed the two-inch thick board, he angled it and brought it down against the edge of the large spool several times. At last the old board cracked and split in half. He then repeated the process with the smaller pieces. Finally, he had a small pile of wood before him and looked expectantly at her.

  Dani pulled open her pack and riffled through the papers it held. She didn't dare part with any of her own notes, but perhaps there was an article or two she could do without. She came across one entitled "The Inability of Frog Species to Coexist Peacefully" and yanked it out. "Here's one." She passed it to him.

  Caleb knelt on the pad before the wood stove and started to tear the article into smaller pieces. He arranged them carefully in the stove's iron belly, then frowned down at the pile of wood near his feet. "We still need some kind of kindling. See if you can find any small twigs or pine cones or something on the floor." He didn't sound too hopeful about finding anything, but as he bent to search the stove area for kindling, she sighed and did the same.

  Dani grabbed the flashlight from the makeshift table and began exploring the shack floor. She swung the light into the corners but found nothing. She fell to her knees before the bench and crouched down, shining the flashlight underneath. The light fell upon a dusty box shoved under the bench, one she must have missed in her earlier rudimentary inspection of the cabin. She tugged the box out from under the bench and opened it.

  "Found something," she said with a grin.

  Caleb stood and approached, bending over her to peer into the box. It was filled with various liquor bottles, each at least half-full.

  "Not gonna help much," the ranger said with a frown. "We could burn the box, though. Pull out those bottles and pass it over."

  She took the bottles out of the box, investigating each one. "Hmm, this is some expensive booze for a shack like this." She held one bottle up to the dim light, her tone filled with disbelief and wonder. "This is a forty-year old single malt scotch."

  "Unless there are some sticks in there, it won't help."

  "Maybe it won't help you," she said, unscrewing the lid of the scotch bottle, "but I could sure use a drink." She put the bottle to her lips and swallowed, the burning liquor scorching a path down her throat and into her worried belly.

  Sighing, she returned the cap. It might not get a fire started, but at least it helped calm her nerves.

  Dani brought the bottle with her to the table and set it down as she bent over her specimen. They looked no worse for wear, but they were being oddly quiet. It was said that animals can sense natural disasters and Dani wondered if the flood could account for their abnormal silence.

  Her gaze was drawn back to the scotch, and she wondered if another belt would bring her tranquility. Her eyes suddenly widened, realizing that she'd overlooked the obvious. "Hey, how many sticks do you need?"

  "As many as I can get," Caleb replied, his eyes still sweeping the floor for refuse.

  Dani popped the top off the first specimen container, making sure to keep an eye on the frog inside so that he didn't escape. She carefully brushed the leaves off the twigs stashed inside and then pulled the twigs out, stacking them on the table. She did the same thing to the other two containers, and in the end, she had a small pile of a dozen or so twigs.

  "Here," she said, walking over to him, her hands full of sticks. His eyes lit with amazement.

  "Where'd you get these?" he asked, and Dani thought she might have heard a hint of admiration in his deep voice.

  "Let's just say that the prisoners on Death Row won't miss their creature comforts that much."

  "Let's hope these are enough," he said, crouching before the stove again. For the next twenty minutes or so he carefully coaxed the paper and meager kindling to light, then huffed and puffed until the old lumber took flame. Finally, the fire was stable enough to leave alone, and he moved away from the stove, allowing a warm orange glow to blanket the room.

  * * *

  Turning away from the fire, Caleb found his companion on the bench huddled in the sleeping bag, h
er knees pulled up against her chest, and the bottle of scotch clutched in one hand. He pulled the bottle away from her, and she whined. "It's keeping me warm!"

  "You just feel warmer," he contradicted. "It actually cools the blood."

  "Whatever," she scowled, "the illusion is just as good as the reality sometimes."

  "I doubt that," he couldn't stop himself from saying as he looked into her dark eyes. Hunger filled him when his gaze traveled to her lips. The illusions of her that had filled his dreams every night could in no way compete with the reality of her satiny lips against his. She'd taken up residence in his fantasies, and nothing he did could dislodge her.

  Each night he was tortured by thoughts of kissing her, of touching her. He wondered if he'd ever see her fantastic breasts again. If he'd ever get to taste them again. He longed to touch her silky smooth skin again, especially the sweet sensitive slit between her taut thighs. To hear her come for him would be a dream. He tore his eyes away from her, reining them in like wild horses he had to break, distracting himself by looking at the liquor bottle he'd liberated.

  The bottle was half-full of a light brown liquid that seemed to glow in the firelight. The label looked old, the cursive writing full of so many swirls it was almost difficult to read. Must be expensive, as it looked nothing like the cheap swill his parents had spent their last dimes on.

  "Why don't you move closer to the fire?" he asked when Dani shivered again.

  She nodded thankfully and moved down to sit on the mat before the warm stove. Caleb knew his pitiful pile of wood wouldn't last much longer, so he started back in on the bunk.

  The plywood bottom was already sagging with the absence of one of its supports, and it didn't take long for Caleb to pull it off from the rest of the beams. He then began pulling at the other support pieces. The bed came apart slowly and painfully, and Caleb was thankful the wood was so old.