Page 65 of Trapped with the Forest Ranger
"What do you want, Harper?"
The question emerges rough, like it scrapes up from somewhere deep, ragged with emotion barely contained.
"I don't know," I say, breath hitching. "But Idoknow I don't want to run away from this. Not from you. Not from whatever this is between us."
He inhales sharply, like the air's suddenly too thick. His control fraysat the edges.
"And Australia?"
"It can wait." The words come out without hesitation, surprising even me with their clarity. "There will still be assignments in six months. A year. But this feels like something I’d regret not exploring."
His eyes search mine. A storm gathering.
"Why would you give up your dreams?"
My voice softens, honesty trembling beneath it. "Because I keep hoping you’ll tell me to stay."
"Harper... I won’t do that." He stiffens. Shakes his head.
"What if I said I wanted you tomakeme stay?"
"That’s not my place." His mouth parts, shocked stillness stretching between us. "What little time we’ve spent together doesn’t give me that right."
"What if I want it to?" The words spill out, raw and quiet. "What if what we started—what wetouched—is more than one night? What if I want to stay and explore more of what we started? The control. The surrender. The way you make me feel like the world narrowed to just you."
He blinks, chest rising and falling like he’s fighting a battle within himself.
"Harper..."
"I just want to know if that side of you was real." My throat tightens. "And if you’d take me there again."
He’s silent, but the heat in his gaze says everything his words refuse to.
I hold my breath, waiting for his next move.
Chapter 18
Caleb’s eyes darken,pupils blown wide until there's barely any green left. Just black hunger. His jaw works, tendons flexing beneath skin that smells like woodsmoke and pine. Every breath he takes is measured, controlled—the way he always is when he's fighting something inside himself.
Then he steps in. Closer. Into my space. Into me. I back up. Back. Back. Back, until my boot hits the porch step. Caleb follows as the air between us thickens, charged with everything unsaid. My skin prickles with awareness as his body heat radiates across the inches that separate us.
Too much distance.
Not enough barriers.
"You want me to take control?" His voice drops into that place that turns my spine liquid, that dark register that promises things my body remembers even when my mind tries to forget. "You want me to lead?"
My heart slams against my ribs. I nod, swallow hard around the lump in my throat. "Yes. I want?—"
"Then listen." His words cut through me, sharp and clean. My stomach twists with anticipation, that familiar achestarting low and deep. The air feels too thick to breathe. I'm ready to say yes to anything—to kneel, to bend, to break myself open for him again.
"You'll take the Australia assignment." He leans in, mouth brushing my ear. His breath ghosts across my skin, raising goosebumps.
The words hit like a slap.
I jerk back, stunned and stumbling. My mind reels, trying to reconcile what I thought was happening with what he just said.
"What? No—Caleb, that's not?—"
