Page 24 of Trapped with the Forest Ranger
Outside, thunder mutters low, a belly-deep growl retreating toward the horizon.
But in here, the storm is alive and well—trapped between our bodies, wound tight and waiting.
“Thank you,” I whisper, barely more than breath. “For the foxes. For… this.”
I gesture vaguely, helpless to explain the feeling clawing at my chest. The weight of his arm. The safety and the danger of it. The silence between us that’s louder than any scream.
Caleb turns his head.
Looks at me.
Really looks.
And it’s like being struck. Like a match dragged against skin. His gaze drops to my mouth and stays there, and every inch of me pulls taut. Heat coils low. My pulse skitters like prey in a snare.
I tilt my chin without thinking. Lips parting. Needing.
Needing him.
The air crackles, thick with everything we haven’t said. With want. With hesitation. With the kind of pull that lives in bone and instinct, not reason.
His head dips.
Breath brushes my lips. Tastes like rain and restraint.
I forget how to breathe.
My eyes flutter shut?—
CRACK!
A deafening crash overhead.
The hut jolts.
We tear apart like we’ve been struck by lightning, adrenaline and lust crashing together in a jarring, breathless snap.
He stands fast, scanning the roof.
I press a hand to my chest, heart racing like I just jumped out of a plane.
The storm’s still out there.
But the one between us?
It’s only getting started.
My heart, which just moments ago had been cartwheeling from the almost-kiss, now jackhammers against my ribs like it’s trying to claw its way out. Caleb’s already moving—fluid, focused, scanning the ceiling with a soldier’s precision. Every muscle in his body wired and ready.
“Branch,” he says, voice flat. “Deadfall from the upper tree line.”
Like we weren’t seconds away fromtearing into each other. Like I wasn’t just about to climb him and beg him to ruin me.
I’m still catching my breath, still trying to reboot every system that short-circuited the second his mouth hovered over mine. He’s checking the roof for leaks. Leaks. As if we didn’t just shatter the atmosphere between us.
The moment’s gone.
Snuffed out like a candle between two fingers.
