Page 8 of Trapped

“Hardly!”I snorted.“Good friends don’t let each other walk away into the wilderness.”

“She would have done whatever she wanted whatever you did.”His thumb drew tiny circles on the side of my hand.“You said so yourself.”

“Maybe.”He was right, but the knowledge didn’t make me feel any better.“Anyway, enough about me.”I wiped away my remaining tears with the heel of my hand.“We’re supposed to be talking about you, remember?I asked aboutyourpast, sir.”

His lips tugged as I steered the conversation back around to him.“Yes, you did.”

“And?”Why did I have the feeling he was holding back?“What might I not like?”

He glanced at the fire.“There are some things I shouldn’t say.”

“Shouldn’t?Since when do you take commands?”

“I don’t.”The intensity of his gaze landed back on me.“But I used to, and I signed the Official Secrets Act, which technically forbids me from saying any more about it.”

The Official Secrets Act?

I straightened at his answer.Who the hell had he been in his life before he was a park ranger?“Oh.”

“Oh?”He chuckled.“Is that all you’re going to say?”

“What more can I say?You haven’t told me anything yet!”

“I just told you I’m not allowed to tell you, and there aren’t many professions embroiled in state secrets, little girl.”

“You were a spy?”Disbelief echoed in my tone as I followed his metaphorical breadcrumbs.

His smirk stretched wider.“I can neither confirm nor deny your question.”

He was playing games with me, and I didn’t appreciate it.“Can you at least tell me if you worked for the secret services, sir?”

My gaze scanned over his taut body, eyeing his musculature.If I’d ever seen anyone so fine before, I’d recall.He was flawless, save for one scar just visible on his other shoulder; a small yet deformed blemish that possibly spoke to the things he’d previously endured.I wanted to ask him about it but hesitated.However much it irked me, he obviously didn’t want to tell me about his past.“Maybe wink once for yes and twice for no.”

He laughed at the suggestion, tugging me even closer until I yielded to his embrace.“If I tell you, the authorities could arrest me, little girl.”

Glancing up from the contours of his shoulder blade, I tried to decide if he was being serious.Could I really see the capable, savvy guy who’d rescued me from the storm being a spy?Taking in his high cheekbones and damn near flawless body, he looked more like a model, but the longer I played with the idea, the more the concept of espionage made sense.

He was always so bloody sure of himself, self-aware yet simultaneously conscious of his surroundings.Smart and skillful, with incredible physicality to match; Eli would surely have made the perfect spy.

Peering down at me, his lips twisted when our gazes connected.“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?To see me arrested?”

His sarcastic timbre conveyed that he was only joking, but staring into the gray pools of his eyes, I considered the question.

“If you were arrested, I’d be in trouble out here, sir.”

“True.”His arm tightened around me, and against my better judgment, I sensed myself melting against him.“But you’d be at liberty to go where you like, and see who you like, when you like.’

“Apart from the snow.”

I mumbled the words against his chest, trying hard not to breathe in his enticing scent as I settled beneath his chin.How could a man who obviously hadn’t showered for at least a day smell so damn good?Eli made sweat and muscle the most tempting combination I’d ever contemplated.

“Ah, yes, the snow.”His tone was wistful.“The only thing keeping us together.”

“That’s not what I meant.”I grazed my lips over his soft chest hair, my hand rising to skim over his scar.

Eli had just the right amount of dark hair covering the expanse of his pectorals and offered a comfy place to rest my head.Settling there, I glanced toward the scar, my fingertips lingering over the disfigurement.

“Something you want to ask me?”His voice was clipped.

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