Desert Ice Daddy by Marton, Dana (best motivational novels .txt) 📗

the moment. He settled in, knowing he hadn’t much hope of falling asleep an arm’s length from her, and from the way she was still fidgeting an hour later, he was pretty sure she wasn’t asleep yet, either. He leaned toward her, not knowing even as he moved whether it was to make some light comment or draw her into his arms at last.

And they didn’t find out, either. The buzz of a motor stopped him, the sound on the ground this time and not in the air, then another vehicle, coming from a distance.

The rumble of the engines was getting stronger.

“Who is that?” Taylor moved closer.

He had no answer. But whoever they were, they were heading toward the tent.

TAYLOR’S BREATH CAUGHT and all her senses focused, suddenly alert. Please, God, don’t let anything go wrong again.

Akeem was sitting up already, shoving his feet back into his boots. “I’ll check it out.”

She didn’t want to stay alone again in the dark tent. “I’ll go with you.”

He stood, held his hand out for her, his long fingers closing over her smaller ones in a firm, reassuring grip.

They zipped up the tent and kept low, in the cover of the sagebrush as they moved in the direction of the sound. Since visibility was decent in the moonlight, not much obstructing the view once they were out of the acacia patch, they didn’t have to walk far before they spotted the small group of four-wheelers.

“Teenagers,” Akeem whispered, although that precaution was probably unnecessary. Those kids wouldn’t have heard him over the noise they were making.

He stayed down, and so did she as the kids did jumps over a rocky overhang. Wispy clouds drifted over the moon, then darker ones. Five minutes passed, ten, half an hour. The boys didn’t seem to tire of their entertainment, not even when more clouds came, blocking out the moon. They didn’t head out until the first drops of rain fell. So much for the weather forecasts.

By the time she and Akeem reached the tent, the rain was coming down hard, the noise of the four-wheelers fading in the distance.

She’d been soaked through. She tugged at her clothes, silently cursing the weather, not nearly as concerned about her wet clothes or the fact that, given enough rain, their tent could be washed away as she was about the tracks the rain was obliterating at this very moment.

“How will we find them?”

“Let’s not worry about that until we see how bad things are in the morning. You better take those clothes off.” Akeem’s voice came from the dark. With the moon now under a cloud cover, virtually no light filtered into the tent. “You take the sleeping bag and wrap yourself up. I have an extra horse blanket in the bottom of the bag for emergencies.”

She peeled off her shirt and pants and laid them out to dry at her feet then slipped into her sleeping bag. She nestled in, but couldn’t get comfortable in the wet bra and underwear, so she tugged them off and carefully laid them next to her. Better. Except for the acute awareness that she was naked with Akeem.

At least he wasn’t.

Then she heard the sound of wet clothes sliding against skin. And counted. Pants. Shirt. Socks. Then one more thing.

She whipped to her side, turning her back to him, and waited for her heart to slow. At least he didn’t know that she was naked, too.

“If they don’t dry by morning, they’ll dry on us as soon as the sun comes up.” His voice startled her.

Did he know? She pulled the sleeping bag to her chin.

“Don’t worry. I can’t see anything. Try to get some sleep.”

Easy for him to say. She squirmed.

“Are you okay?”

Since she anticipated a lot more squirming before she would fall asleep, she needed to come up with an excuse to cover up how pitifully bothered she was by his nearness. His naked nearness.

“It’s cold out here.” She spoke nothing but the truth. The rain had brought the temperature down by twenty degrees in twenty minutes.

But apparently she had said just the wrong thing.

Akeem moved closer. “We can keep each other warm. Come on.” He reached out in the darkness and pulled her to him, sleeping bag and all.

She froze, a full head-to-toe complete freak-out with her mind going blank. But when her brain began to function again, she did notice the heat that radiated from him, and how good that felt. Little by little, she allowed herself to relax against him, as much for his warmth as to prevent him from realizing how much his touch was affecting her.

And as if having her back resting against his broad chest wasn’t enough, he placed his arm loosely on her waist and tucked her head under his chin.

“Goodbye, sleep,” she mouthed silently into the darkness. But wouldn’t have moved for anything.

THEY WERE MAKING slower progress than the day before, covering only ten miles or so by eleven. Akeem tried to shrug off his exhaustion. He hadn’t slept much with Taylor in his arms. She’d been cold, but soft, a perfect fit, and soon enough her body had warmed to his. Then when she fell asleep and truly snuggled into him, curves against angles…

He hadn’t been able to fall asleep until close to dawn. And now he was paying the price for it. But being able to hold Taylor in his arms was worth a sleepless night. It was worth so much more than that.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Taylor had walked a step or two behind him earlier in the morning to benefit from his shadow—little things like that could make a big difference in the desert—but with the sun now high in the sky, his shadow was negligible so they were walking beside each other.

“It’s our best bet.”

The rain had washed away the tracks from the day before, but they’d crossed a set of fresh ones that seemed very similar, heading in the same direction. His instincts