Wild and True: A Frankie Love Escape (9 page)

“It’s like she was begging for it,” I added, pointing up to the sky.

“Begging, huh?” the tattooed guy asked. “I didn’t know the moon could beg.”

“Oh, she can do all sorts of things,” I continued. “She’s magic.”

“And you?” he asked. “Are you magic?”

“I think she is,” Ashton answered for me. “What kind of girl walks alone at night with a mug of whiskey to talk to the moon?”

“The kind of girl I’d like to meet.” The tattooed guy lit a joint and took a puff. “I’m Jude, by the way.” He offered it to me. I took a few hits before handing it off to Ashton.

“I’m Willow.”

“You’re the girl from the lobby,” Jude said. “The one we’ve been talking about all night.”

“All of you?” I said, suddenly feeling like I was under inspection. I gave Ashton a long look, but he shook his head in denial.

“No, not all of us. Just the two of us,” Ashton explained. “Our friends have other things on their minds.”

“And you, what do you have on your mind?” I asked, as I passed Jude the tail end of the joint, knowing exactly what I had on my mind.

“I have too much on my mind,” Jude said.

“I hear you,” I said.

“Why’d you come out here, anyway?” Ashton asked Jude.

“Oh, right—fuck, I almost forgot. Liam wanted us to get some firewood out by the general store. The fire’s almost out.”

“Fuck,” Ashton said. “I spent hours on that beast this afternoon. We should do that now, or the cabin’s going to be freezing in a few hours.”

“Agreed.”

“Okay, I’ll see you guys around, then,” I said, my eyes meeting Ashton’s, wondering why he had fucked me like that only to leave me wanting more.

“I can walk you back,” Jude offered. “You shouldn’t walk alone.”

“Good call,” Ashton said. “I’ll see you at the cabin then. Bye, Willow.”

Surprised by Ashton’s sudden departure, I turned to Jude. “Shall we?”

He gave me a nod, and I pointed out the trail my cabin was on.

“
H
ave
you ever been to this resort?” Jude asked as we walked.

“No, but I’ve wanted to for a while. I like how mellow it is this time of year.”

Mellow, except for the late-night sex on the beach. When I’d decided to come here, I’d had no idea I was going to become a cocktail.

“Have you been here before?”

“Yeah, we come a bunch of times throughout the year. My friend works here full-time. I wouldn’t mind a gig like that.”

“I get what you mean. I live in the city and it can be a grind.”

“Yeah, I’m into the idea of the Walden Commune shit, you know? Even if it is naive. But life is fragile, and I want to surround myself with beauty, saturate myself with nature’s grandeur while I can.”

“That’s so poetic,” I say, impressed. “You should be a writer.”

“I am, actually.”

“Oh, well, there ya go,” I said, laughing softly.

“And you? What are you Willow?”

“I’m….” I paused, literally and figuratively. On the dark trail, where I could just barely make out the rough eyes of this man’s face, I stopped and decided to be honest. “I’m floundering.”

“And you don’t like that?” he asked, leaning closer.

“No, I don’t. It’s scary. Not knowing what I should be, or where I should be. Or what I want to be.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said slowly, shaking his head. “The thrashing is where the beauty lies.”

The air between us shifted, and he leaned toward my mouth and kissed me hard before I could think of pulling away.

It was the kind of kiss that could knock me to the ground.

The kind of kiss that was wild and untamed.

The kind of kiss that matched his words and face and soul.

The kind of kiss I understood.

I pulled back, panting. I brushed my fingers against my blissfully bruised lips.

“Are you okay?” he asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

I nodded, unable to speak. Shit. I had fucked Ashton and then I’d kissed Jude, and wasn’t there some sort of guy-code against that? Not that either of them knew that I had done anything with the other one.

Not looking up at Jude, I started walking on the trail again, not trusting myself to stand there next to him. That one kiss had undone me, in a different way than Ashton’s had.

It wouldn’t be fair to the guys for me to muddle the lines this way. Jude kept up with my pace, and didn’t say any more.

He knew what kind of kiss we’d just had. But I knew what kind of kiss I’d had with Ashton. Well, not exactly a kiss.

Fuck.

At the door of my cabin I turned to him. “Thank you.” I didn’t clarify if the
thank you
was for the walk or for the words or for all of it. I didn’t need to.

“You’re welcome, Willow.” And then he simply walked away.

I collapsed into bed, knowing I wouldn’t be getting the sort of sleep I needed for the next day’s hike, but also knowing my mind was going a million miles a minute.

What had I just done?

T
he next morning
, Courtney, Callie, and I went to the resort cafe for breakfast. We must have all been craving sweets, because the entire table ordered the challah bread French toast. We were quiet as we drizzled fresh maple syrup over the thick bread, and decadently added cream to our dark roast coffee.

We hadn’t spoken much; it seemed as if we were all in our own little worlds.

I knew I was.

Finally Courtney told us about the sauna, which seemed a little boring in all honesty, but I agreed to go with her later, after my hike.

Then Callie told us she had a massage appointment for the morning, so it looked like we were all splitting up.

Before we paid and left, the four lobby guys walked into the cafe and passed our table. As expected, Courtney lowered her eyes and added sugar to her coffee as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, not even giving the Kyle lookalike a second glance.

It was her loss, really. If she always kept her face down, she’d never experience the kind of passion we all knew she wanted.

I wanted the guys to stop and say something, but they didn’t. They sat at a table in the far corner, which allowed us the privacy to discuss them.

“I’d honestly do any of them,” I said, much more callously than I meant. Revealing my moonlit walk to my friends felt too intimate; it had been such a sincere moment. I wasn’t ready to share it. Hell, I’d already shared it with one too many guys.

The problem being I didn’t know which one had been the one too many.

They were both so sexy and appealing, but in different ways. Ashton was bright and alive, and brought out a playful side of me. Also, he had a massive cock I’d like inside of me again.

While Jude was serious and reflective, with an intensity that matched my own.

“Well, I like the one with the short blond hair. He’s everything Blaine isn’t,” Callie admitted. “Not that I’m interested in guys this weekend!”

We all knew who Courtney liked, which left Jude and Ashton for me. I nervously played with my hair—and at one point, as I signed my check, I caught Ashton’s eyes and offered him a smile.

I couldn’t help myself; he was so hot. He gave me one right back, and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks.

* * *

I
walked
to the porch of the general store and looked at my watch, 9:58. Only a few minutes before the group was meeting for the hike, and definitely not enough time to run back into the cafe, sans girlfriends, to invite the guys to the soaking tubs later.

It was probably best that I didn’t have time, I thought. I needed to be available to my friends—that was why we were here, after all. Besides, the fact that I’d had sex with one of the guys and kissed the other, could be awkward to say the least.

I was tightening the straps on my backpack when Jude and Ashton stopped right in front of me.

“Oh, hey,” I said, immediately blushing, wondering if they had talked to each other about our intimate moments. “What are you guys up to today?”

“We’re headed out for a hike,” Ashton said. As soon as he said it, it was obvious. They both had backpacks on and wore sturdy hiking boots, just like me.

“Oh!” I said, my eyes wide. “Um, me, too.”

“Cool,” Jude said. “Anyone else coming?”

“I’ll go check in the office,” Ashton said, and he slipped inside quickly, giving me a wink before he walked away.

Alone, I looked at Jude, suddenly panic-stricken. I shouldn’t have kissed him. Either of them. But Jude didn’t pick up on my agitation, which led me to believe he didn’t know about my other encounter.

“Do you do a lot of hiking?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Quite a lot, actually. You?”

“I try and pick different hikes around the Peninsula where I live. Ashton doesn’t usually join in, but the friend we’re staying with has massage clients all day, and our other buddy has some work to catch up on, so Ashton agreed to come with.”

Interesting
. The other guy they were with was the resort’s masseuse. I smiled, knowing Callie would be in good hands today.

Before I could put my foot in my mouth, Ashton came back out. “Just the three of us,” he said, with a wide grin. “Lucky, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, much too forced. “Lucky us.”

“You okay?” Ashton asked.

“Totes!” Now I was being overly enthusiastic. This was a freaking disaster.

“Okay, well, the cashier gave me a map, and the trail starts at the water’s edge, where we were last night. We all know how to get there.” He bit his lip slyly and looked straight at me. Shit. This was going to be bad.

“The question isn’t about the starting point, it’s about how we want to end up,” Jude said, and I heard his double meaning. I looked at him sharply, but he didn’t pick up on my dagger eyes.

“Well, I know exactly where I want to end up,” Ashton said. “Do you, Willow?”

“Umm, sort of?”

He gave me a quick nod. “I bet you know more than you’re letting on.”

“Yeah, she does,” Jude agreed.

Not answering either of them, I started walking toward the water where the hike began. The leaves under our feet crinkled, but we all walked at about the same pace. I didn’t look at either of them, not knowing what I should say. Last night I had felt so free, so unencumbered. I hated that now those feelings were replaced with doubt.

I should be able to kiss or have sex or do whatever I want with whomever I want. I hated that I was getting all worked up over these guys. Why couldn’t I just be in the moment?

We walked for about an hour in an increasingly awkward silence. The guys talked a little about work, about their friends. But I kept quiet.

“You sure everything’s okay, Willow?” Ashton asked, pulling me back and letting Jude move ahead of us on the path. His hand found mine and he gave it a squeeze.

He looked concerned, but also had that look in his eye that told me he wasn’t too concerned about me. And why would he be? We’d just had a random one-off at the water.

“I’m good,” I said. “Honest.”

“Are you annoyed Jude’s here? Maybe you wanted me all to yourself again.”

I laughed. “Maybe that’s it.”

“I think it’s more than that,” he said.

For a moment I wondered if he knew what I’d done with Jude, but then he grabbed my face and kissed me, erasing any question that he’d told his friend about our fuck.

No way would he kiss me when Jude was just a few yards ahead of us if they had told one another about our intimate moments.

His kiss was strong and sweet, and filled with the happiness the woods offered. I smiled at the maple syrup smell of his lips, knowing mine matched his.

“You look good in hiking boots,” he said, after we pulled apart. I leaned in for another kiss, taking in all of him.

Then, smacking his ass, I smiled and said, “You look good in nothing.”

I started walking away, a little nervous that Jude would turn and see us. But he was taking a photo of a tree with his phone, so I didn’t think he knew what had been going on, literally behind his back.

Jude spoke quietly when I caught up with him. “Isn’t this gorgeous?” He pointed to a small sparrow on a branch, and he was right. The bird cocked its little head toward us, and seemed to smile and nod before flying off.

“Have you seen any eagles here?”

“So many,” Jude said. “Last summer I was up here, out on the water kayaking, and this eagle swooped low to the water, grabbed a fish and sailed away. It was incredible.”

I noticed Ashton had moved quite a way ahead of us, at a good clip. But I wanted to pause here with Jude for a moment, tell him that I was sorry for the kiss. If anything was going to happen again, it needed to be with Ashton. He was the one who made the first move.

“Speaking of incredible … that kiss last night was pretty epic.” He set his hand on my shoulder so I couldn’t look away. His eyes were intense, like I remembered from the night before. “You are pretty epic.”

“You don’t even know me,” I said, scoffing at his words. I didn’t feel epic, not in that moment. In that moment I felt like a player. I wasn’t used to stringing guys along.

“I know that last night you spoke truth to me, about how you felt, and that was real and honest and beautiful,” he said.

He took hold of my waist and pulled me close. His mouth covered mine with the passion I’d felt coursing through him last night. He seemed to drink me in with his lips, his breath. He inhaled me, and I drew in what I could. His hands pulled me in closer, and a sigh escaped my lips. I couldn’t help it. I felt his cock so close to me, hard and wanting.

Wanting me.

My mind suddenly filled with longing, a different kind than Ashton had incited. Ashton was charming and eager, and when I was with him I felt free. But Jude brought out a rough and dirty and demanding kind of longing.

I pulled away, even though I didn’t want to, not in the slightest. But I knew this could all end really badly. I was several miles up a mountain with two near-strangers and I was picturing some brawling disaster.

Knowing I needed to stop this, I just blurted out what I’d held in for too long in one fell swoop.

“IhadsexwithAshton.”

He laughed, a really gentle laugh. One that I didn’t expect from a guy whose arms were covered in tattoos, whose face was filled with hard lines, whose emotions were so fierce.

“That is
so
not the reaction I expected,” I admitted.

“He told me last night, after I told him we kissed.” Seeing my eyes getting wide with concern, he added, “We weren’t disrespecting you, I swear. I told him about our kiss—how amazing you were—and then he felt like he needed to keep things honest. So he told me what you two had done.”

Mortified, I covered my face. “I should have said something earlier.”

“No, we agreed not to bring it up because we didn’t want to make you feel like you had to choose. We thought maybe things would naturally just go the way they ought.”

“Okay, can you just give me a chance to think things through? I feel like I’m in an awkward position here. I don’t want to come between friends.”

“Anything you want, Willow.”

And I believed him.