He shuddered. Nope. For now hed just head right on back to the ranch and finish off the new stallion pen, exactly as hed planned.
THE SOUND OF HAMMERING reached Robin on her mothers back porch. Shed made herself scarce while her brother-in-law read a story to her nephews and Grandma settled down for a nap.
She was amazed by how much her three nephews had grown since last Christmas. She normally saw them twice a year when family gathered at her sisters cottage near Prince George for an old-fashioned Christmas then a lazy summer vacation. But this year they seemed to be on some kind of accelerated growth plan.
She smiled as she lowered herself into a wood slat chair. Grandma, however, hadnt aged a bit. Hugging her earlier in the familiar living room, Robin had felt eighteen years old again.
The house was the same. The yard was the same. Her gaze drifted across the acreage that was dominated by her mothers market garden, pausing on the shiny new barn on the property next door. The barn was a very big change.
She wondered how long it had been since the Bronsons had left town. When Old Man Bronson owned the property it had been an eyesore of tilting, rotting clapboard, rusted cars and weed-choked lawns. By contrast, the new owners had bulldozed the old junk, built a magnificent two-story log house, and planted oats and hay to feed the dozens of horses grazing in white-fenced paddocks.
Whoever bought the place certainly seemed to have money. Which made Robin wonder why theyd chosen a town like Forever.
As she mulled the question, a shirtless man strode around the corner of the barn. He wore a leather tool belt low on his faded jeans and held a hammer in his right hand. Sweat glistened on his chest and upper arms, emphasizing bulging muscles. A cowboy hat shaded his face.
Magnificent was the word that popped immediately into Robins mind. If she ever decided on recreational sex, instead of serious procreation, this was exactly the kind of guy shed go for.
She watched unblinking as he bent over one of the fence rails at the property line and drove a nail into it with three sure strokes. Then he straightened, holstered the hammer and stepped back to survey the section of fence. The sun caught his face as he tipped his chin up.
Jacob Bronson.
Robin froze.
It felt as if her heart had splatted against her backbone then ricocheted against her ribs before taking up a jerky rhythm that left her gasping for breath. Shed never expected to see him again.
He suddenly stilled, as if hed caught her scent. Eyes narrowing, he looked straight at the covered porch.
He couldnt see her. Surely to goodness he couldnt see her in the shadow of the awning. And even if he could, he wouldnt recognize her, not from a hundred yards away after fifteen years.
So why did his blue-eyed stare seem to penetrate to her very soul? Her eyes fluttered closed against the unnerving sensation.
She wouldnt remember.
She refused to allow the humiliating memories to crowd her mind.
Shed successfully kept them at bay since the day she boarded the floatplane out of town fifteen years ago, and there was no reason for them to surface now. No reason at allunless you counted a mere glimpse of the man who had witnessed her greatest folly. She groaned as recollections burst forth in crisp color and vivid detail.
It had happened more than fifteen years ago. The night before graduation when the twenty-one seniors of Forever Public School carried on the town tradition of skinny-dipping at Make-Out Beach. It was a rite of passage on the summer solstice when the midnight sun dipped briefly below the horizon and the water darkened just enough to preserve modesty.
Make-Out Beach was private and secluded. Ten miles out of town, it was accessible only by a dirt road that wound along the riverbank, giving swimmers and anyone else ample notice of approaching visitors.
Robin had banished her fears that night and trooped down to the girls beach with her friends to enter the water in privacy.
Modest and hesitant compared to many of her classmates, shed deliberated for long minutes before shed decided the voracious mosquitoes on shore were a greater evil than stripping naked and slipping into the icy water.
One by one the other girls had drifted over to join the boys. She could still hear shrieks and laughter above the crackling fire. It reflected orange off the slow-moving water just beyond the shrub-covered point that separated the two beaches. Even her friend, Annie, had inched her way around to the main beach.
Robin waded along the soft, sandy bottom and hugged her cool shoulders. She was being ridiculous. She couldnt just cower here all night long.
Everyone else seemed to be having fun. It didnt sound as though the boys were taking advantage. The shrieks and screams mostly coincided with a huge, brightly colored beach ball soaring high above the treetops.
She took a couple of strokes toward the point. She was all alone, and the chilled water rushed over her sensitive skin as she glided across the surface. She intended to peek around the corner, just to see what they were all doing. Maybe she could unobtrusively join in at the edge of the group.
Leafy wild cranberry bushes clung to the point of land that separated the two coves. She drifted toward the voices. As she neared the end of the point, she could see Rose out in the deep water. Seth and Alex were treading water in attendance, playfully splashing her from several feet away. Annie and three other girls clustered together, crouched in the shallows.
A mosquito bit Robins neck. She slapped at it. Another stung her ear and she shook her head so her hair flung out in all directions. As if a signal had passed from bug to bug, she was suddenly surrounded by the whining insects. In danger of inhaling the pests, she ducked her head under the water and pushed away from the shore.
When she surfaced, the swarm quickly zeroed in on her again. Another deep breath and she was back under, swimming further away from the point, away from the voices and laughter, through the silent dark water. She didnt surface again until her lungs insisted.
Then she burst up out of the water, gasping. The bugs were gone, but the current had caught her and pulled her to the far side of the girls beach. Robin sighed in exasperation, wishing she had just stayed home.
She stretched into a front crawl. She was a strong swimmer, but she made frustratingly slow progress through the cold water. It would be easier close to shore where the current was weak, but the memory of the hungry mosquitoes kept her twenty feet away from the bushes that harbored the swarms.
Her foot brushed a tree branch hidden under the water. It scraped and stung, and she gasped out loud. She put her feet down. Her toes squished through soft, sucking mud. She shuddered and jerked her feet back up, trying to not wonder about leeches.
She began rhythmically stroking through the water, thinking longingly of her big beach towel and Annies truck with the rolled-up windows. She kicked out a little further from shore. Her foot hit another deadfall tree. As she jerked away, her ankle was suddenly wedged tight in a tangle of branches, pulling her briefly under the water.
Great. She quickly surfaced and maneuvered around to pull her foot out from the opposite direction. Her ankle wrenched with the movement and she gasped.
A mosquito buzzed next to her ear. She batted at it, then gingerly felt along the slimy log with her other foot. She found a solid purchase and sighed in relief, balancing herself with small arm movements.
Her trapped foot throbbed a bit, but she was pretty sure it wasnt seriously hurt. In any event, it was as good as packed in ice down there in the river water. She twisted it to the left. Nothing. Then she tried twisting it to the right. Still nothing.
She reached down along her bare leg until her hand found the branches. It was impossible to get a good grip without ducking her head under the water. So she ducked and pulled at the offending branch with all her strength.
It wouldnt bend. It wouldnt break. She surfaced again, wiping the water out of her eyes.
Should she call for help?
Wouldnt that just be the most entertaining moment of the entire senior year? Eight boys all pawing around her naked body, trying to be the hero. Robin shuddered.
How long was it until a person became hypothermic in glacial water? She couldnt remember what the first-aid manual said. Since she normally had total recall, was that a sign her brain was freezing?
She was overreacting. Goose bumps were forming on her skin and she was starting to shiver, but she was pretty sure she wasnt in any immediate danger.
She ducked under the water once again, using both hands to try to free her foot. When she burst back through the surface she was no better off. Robin swore under her breath.
Need some help?
She nearly screamed at the deep voice directly behind her. She twisted around.
Jacob Bronson. The class geek. A rangy, slouch-shouldered, slow-talkin boy from the poorest family in town. His jeans were always too short, and he missed more school than he attended, working the pathetic piece of ground his father liked to call a farm.
Uh. She chewed her lip. It was pretty obvious she needed help here. And she didnt think Jacob was dangerous. He might try to cop a feel, but then, so would Seth or Alex given the opportunity.
She was known as the Ice Princess because of her standoffish airs and habit of keeping all the boys at arms length. Though, in truth, it was more fear than superiority that kept her virtuous. Not that her reasons mattered. She could well imagine the prestigious bragging rights a guy would have for sliding his hands over a buck-naked Robin Medford in a rescue attempt.
Better one boy without an audience, she decided. One quiet boy at that. Though she strongly suspected even Jacob would break his silence to talk about this one.
It was settled then. Jacob was going to run his big rough hands along her naked legs.
She looked nervously up into his charcoal-blue eyes. He wasnt laughing at her or leering at her. In fact, he looked genuinely concerned. She swallowed.
Her voice quavered as she answered his question. Yes. Please.
JACOBS HANDS were gentle as they encircled her ankle. Of necessity, his cheek was in close proximity to her navel under the water.
She gazed up at the pale blue sky where a faint quarter moon bravely attempted to shine despite the midnight sun hovering just below the distant mountains. She tried valiantly to pretend this wasnt happening.
Jacobs cheek brushed her abdomen. She sucked in a frantic breath as a strange humming sensation worked its way along her limbs. The pressure of the tree branch lessened for a second, then snapped back. Robin jerked from the brief flash of pain.
Jacob surfaced. Sorry.
She shook her head. Its okay. He was trying to be gentle, she could tell. She stared straight at his naked chest, wondering if succumbing to hypothermia might not be a better way to go. She was never going to live this down.
He clamped his jaw. Im, uh, going to have to
What? Please, oh, please, dont let him go for help.
Wellyou see He raked a hand through his short-cropped hair. Ill have to wrap my arms around your leg
So? She was just relieved that he wasnt going for an audience. She was beginning to worry that Annie would come looking for her.
Just hurry, she implored.
Okay. Im sorry. He ducked under the water again.
The freshening breeze tangled her wet hair, chilling her face and scalp. She could feel his strong arms working their way around, no, between her legs. Her eyes widened.
His shoulder brushed her upper thighs. Her body hummed again. It felt It felt
She closed her eyes as her entire body seemed to convulse with longing. His fingers surrounded her ankle and his shoulder flexed enticingly. Then suddenly his body was rushing along the length of her, coming up for air.
He stood completely still, looking intently past her right ear at the black-green bushes on shore as he sucked in long breaths. Robin stared up at the droplets of water clinging to his dark, thick lashes. She felt flushed, warm, itchy. Her lips parted.
Suddenly she was in no hurry to get free. She wanted him to rub against her legs again. She liked the feel of his skin, the friction of the water.
He glanced hotly into her eyes for a split second before he dove. Abandoning any pretense of keeping their body contact to a minimum, his strong, sure hands explored her ankle and the branches surrounding it. His shoulders, neck and hair alternately rubbed and brushed her inner thighs and higher.
Her knees felt weak, and she reached down tentatively to steady herself. She touched his square shoulders, the shifting steel of his muscles, and suddenly felt safe. Here, trapped and naked in the Forever River, rubbing up against Jacob Bronson, and shed never felt so secure in her life.
His ragged clothes and perpetual slouch had hidden a magnificent sinewy physique. Unable to stop herself, she let her hands slide down his upper arms. Bulging biceps flexed under her touch. His cheek rested against the top of her thigh, chin just barely brushing the downy curls.
Robins entire world focused on that insubstantial touch.
She felt her ankle slip free.
As he slowly surfaced she let her hands move with him, keeping her grip on his arms, telling herself it was so she wouldnt fall.
She gazed into his eyes, then noted for the first time his coarse beard stubble. It was a marked contrast to the sparse facial hair of the other boys in the class. He was really quite handsome, in a rugged, dangerous sort of way. She wondered why she hadnt noticed before.
His big hands gently closed around her rib cage and she realized her breasts were out of the water, puckered and exposed to his avid gaze. She shuddered, but made no move to conceal herself. A coyote howled on the mountainside. Its pups answered in short yips.
He was going to kiss her. She could see the longing in his eyes.
The longing transformed to determination, then resolve.
He slowly bent forward.
She tipped her head to accommodate him. His cold lips touched her softly. They warmed against her own. They opened. She followed suit, and his tongue pushed through. He tasted of mint and smelled faintly of spiced aftershave long diluted by the river water.
His arms wound slowly, inexorably, around her, and she pressed her long fingernails into his taut shoulder muscles, desperate to get closer. She felt him brace himself on the bottom against the rushing current. He was strong and sure and invincible.
He lifted her, holding her naked body flush against his own. She wound her arms around his neck, and felt her legs begin to encircle his hips. Steadying herself, she rationalized.
The roar of the river pounded in her ears. If there were any mosquitoes lingering, she sure didnt feel them. All sensation was centered inside; hot pulsating waves of hormones propelling her toward the unknown.