Page 19 of Dare to Fall
There’s half a pot of coffee left on the warmer and a freshly rinsed mug in the sink, but no Gabby.
I hear a scream, followed by a string of curses. I rush out the door in my birthday suit, pulling on a pair of shoes in a quick hop.
“Gabby?” I call out, panic filling my chest. No way in hell I’m going to let anything—man or beast—take her from me when I just got her back. “Gabby, where are you?”
“Over here,” she calls, her tone filled with defeat.
My gaze snags on a body just on the other side of the cabin building site, and I sprint to her. She’s wearing a pair of leggings and a loose shirt of mine that’s torn at the shoulder. What the actual fuck?
“Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride,” she grumbles, sitting up. There’s a twig wedged in her messy bun, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it. “Where’re your pants?”
“I heard you scream. I just ran. What the hell happened?” I ask, scanning the area for signs of an intruder, ready to hunt down anyone who dared to threaten my woman. I don’t give a fuck if I’m naked or not.
“That damn fox happened.”
“What?”
“He had the audacity to trespass on your land with my phone still in his mouth. Like did the damn thing get stuck in his teeth or what?”
“You’re making this up.”
“I wish I was.” She drops her face into her hands and groans. “I need that phone back.”
“Why?”
“Why do I need my phone?” she asks, looking at me as though it’s the stupidest question I could ask. And in some ways,it is. I’d feel lost without my own. But for some reason, Gabby’s desperation to get her phone back bugs me.
“You have some boyfriend back in Omaha or something?”
“Yes, Tucker,” she says flatly, giving me an equally flat look. “That’s why I want my phone back so badly. I want to tell myboyfriendthat I got railed on the side of Bertha by my childhood best friend who was secretly wielding the Hammer of Thor in his pants. He’ll be just thrilled knowing you’ve ruined me for all other men.”
“When I said you were mine, Gabriella, I fucking meant it.” My cock starts to warm to life, despite the chilly temperatures. The fucker is ready to stake another claim should it be necessary.
“Did you have your morning coffee? I left you some,” she says, pushing to her feet. She brushes the dirt from her ass with both hands, that twig in her hair nearly poking me in the bicep when she bends. “And if you must know, I need that phone because it has all my information about my new job in California stored on it.”
“California?”
I hear the crunch of gravel before I register the van heading up my driveway.
“I’ve got a gig as a rafting guide on the Kern River. But I have to report by Tuesday. Without my phone, I don’t have a boarding pass for my flight, an address for my job, or anything I actually need to get where I’m going. And before you ask, no I don’t have a laptop. I hate those things.”
But all I hear isCaliforniaandTuesday. As in three days from now.
“You might want to put on some pants,” she says, nodding at the shuttle van. “I get the sense that Fred’s not exactly the conservative type, but let me at least get the man a cup of coffee before you traumatize him with your massive cock. Even whenit’s cold out, that weapon of mass destruction could poke an eye out.”
“That’s it then?”
“What’s it then?”
“You’re going to California?”
“That’s what I just said.”
I run my hand through my hair, caging my frustration inside my chest so I don’t let out a loud, frustrated groan that’ll startle Fred.
Fuck, Fred.
