

"WE HAVE two choices," Trent said after they'd eaten breakfast.
"What's that?"
"We can either start walking---and I've got to tell you it's a very long hike to the nearest main road..."
"Or?"
"We can just stay here until Angie and David get worried when I don't check in and drive out looking for us, or until Izzy develops a conscience and comes back."
"Don't hold your breath on that last one," Emma mumbled, repacking the breakfast dishes. "So, if we decide to wait, what are we going to do to pass the time?" she ventured, slanting a coy glance his way.
Trent wriggled his eyebrows. "How important is that bet to you, anyway?"
Emma started laughing. "Not at all."
The next thing she knew, she was in Trent's arms.
"Emma," he breathed.
She kissed him with all the passion that had been stewing inside her for the past ten years.
He threaded his hands through her hair. She slipped her palms up under his shirt. His skin was so warm and hard. Just like the rest of him. She inhaled deeply, smelling his wonderful outdoorsy scent. The heady aroma of nature's cologne---water, sunshine, man. Their tongues glided over and around each other. Playing, teasing, cajoling. How long she'd waited for this without even realizing she'd been waiting.
"I'm not casual when it comes to relationships," Trent said. "I want you to know that."
"Neither am I."
"This means something. You mean something to me."
"Ditto."
"Emma," he said, "I feel like I've been in a long deep-freeze just waiting for you to come back into my life. I didn't acknowledge it until now, but somewhere in the back of my mind, in the bottom of my heart I kept hoping that one day..."
"Me, too," she whispered. "Me, too."
She didn't care about the stupid bet anymore. Let Izzy win. Izzy needed to win. All she cared about was Trent. As soon as they returned to civilization, she'd tell her friends she was out of the bet.
He swung her into his arms and carried her into his tent, arranged her gently down on top of the sleeping bag.
"Um, do you have protection?" she asked belatedly. She hadn't even thought about it.
"I have a condom in my wallet. But just one, so we have to be frugal."
She gave him a wicked smile and licked her lips. "Ah, but there's other things we can do."
"What kind of things?"
"Well, for starters remember the thing you did to me when we first made love?"
"As if I could forget."
"We could do that again and I could do it back to you."
"Woman," he said. "I like the way you think."
He reached for her fleece top and pulled it over her head, then he took off his own and tossed both garments to the side of the tent. He made short work of the rest of her clothing---including the chastity belt---and then tucked into foreplay with a serious intent. He kissed and nuzzled, nibbled and sucked. Her lips, her chin, her nipples. Ah, her raw, achy nipples that tingled at his touch, telegraphing a message of urgent desire straight to her womb.
For hours they played. He traced his fingertips over her sensitive belly and she mirrored his movements, giving back as good as she got. He murmured sweet everythings into her ear, telling her how beautiful she was and in detail describing everything he wanted to do to her. His naughty words lit her up inside and her hands roved over his body, feeling every sensitive masculine body part.
Finally, when they were stripped bare and naked, his erection burgeoned, thick and heavily veined.
"My, my," she cooed. "You're bigger than I remembered."
He blushed and that blush did a strange thing to her heart. He was shy with her. This big, commanding man. Then Emma saw that Trent was trembling.
"What's wrong?" she whispered.
He shivered from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. "I've never felt anything so overwhelming, Emma. It's clogging me up. I want to be with you more than I want to breathe."
"You're with me, Trent."
"I'm worried I won't live up to your fantasies."
She grabbed him by the hair, forced him to look her in the eyes. "You could never, ever disappoint me."
"What if the sex is really bad?"
"It won't be," she said. "It's with you. Our first time was magic. This time will be, too."
"Emma," he murmured and trailed his hand over her bare skin again, tracing enticing little circles all the way down to the where her thighs met.
She spread her legs and let him in, his fingers tickling her. She grew even wetter, which was a total surprise because she hadn't thought that was possible. She arched her back, wanting him, begging him with her body to give her what she longed for, what she desperately needed. "Come inside me, Trent. Take me now."
"Not just yet."
"You love torturing me."
"I do at that." He grinned. "But in the very best way."
Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to her bare belly and kissed his way back up to her straining nipples. She quivered.
"Does that feel good, sweetheart? Tell me what you like."
"Good." It was all she could manage.
He flicked his tongue over one straining bud and then oh-so-lightly bit down. Razor-thin shards of pleasure spread throughout her breast. She moaned.
He smiled and kept at it. His mouth sucking, his tongue teasing, fingers tickling. Brilliant. He'd honed his technique in ten years.
He left her nipples and traveled downward. He spent a little time at her navel, producing crazy, erotic ripples in her belly that undulated all the way down into her sex.
When his lips reached her straining, hungry clit, he stopped short of touching her with his tongue. His breath was hot against her tender flesh, igniting her beyond comprehension.
She arched her hips again, trying to bring his mouth and her clit into contact, but he moved with her, keeping his mouth just out of her reach,
"Please," she gasped. "Stop tormenting me."
Then at last, he relented and buried his head where she wanted it, his mouth touching her innermost lips.
Every muscle in her body clamped down hard and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from moaning.
"Go ahead." His voice lowered, went huskier. "Moan all you want. There's no one around to hear you but me. Wait until you see the things I'm going to do to you."
Things? What things? A dozen stimulating images tumbled through her head.
While he suckled her clit with his mouth, he slipped a finger into her slick, wet sex. Her moist walls sucked at his finger, gripping and kneading him in rhythmic waves, pulling him deeper and deeper into her.
She existed in the delicious void, floating without a body. She was total sensation. She hovered on the brink of orgasm but he would not let her fall over. A steady strumming vibration began deep in her throat and it emerged as a wild moan.
"Please," she begged. "Please."
"Please what, babe?"
"Please make me come."
He gave her everything, then. His tongue danced, his fingers manipulated. She let go of all control. Let go and just allowed him to take over. It seemed he was everywhere. Over her, around her, in her, outside of her. He was magic. He was amazing. He played her with accomplished precision. She was his instrument, tuned and ready.
"More." She thrashed her head. "Harder."
He gave it to her just the way she asked for it. Pumping his hand into her while his thumb pressed her clit.
"Come, babe, come," he coaxed.
She came. Exploded into great, writhing pleasure. Sating her soul for the first time in ten long years.
TRENT WOKE some time later and immediately reached for Emma. Her body was so lush and warm. He couldn't stop touching her. How had he gone so long without touching her? She smiled dreamily at him.
"Hello, Mountain Man," she whispered and snuggled close to him.
He couldn't believe he was with her again. That they were back where they'd started all those years ago and the feelings bubbling inside him were richer, purer than they'd ever been before. He kissed the top of her head, inhaled the scent of her hair. He cherished this moment, understood it was the beginning of something great.
Whoa, wait, don't get ahead of yourself. You don't know if she's as invested in this as you are.
"This morning was wonderful," she said, "even if every part of my body aches."
"There's one part of my body that's aching for you."
Her eyes lit up as her hand traveled south of his waist. "Pervert," she said as her fingertips lightly grazed his rock-hard erection.
"It's all your fault, lady," he growled low in his throat.
Quickly, she flipped over and straddled him, her hot little fanny resting on his abdomen, his penis bouncing against her bottom. She was amazing. All sunshine and smiles.
She leaned forward to place a kiss on his lips and he closed his eyes. Please don't let this be a dream. Because that's what this felt like. His deepest dream come true.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her steady. "I want you, Emma."
He kissed her again, tasting, savoring it, savoring her. She was one hell of a woman, his Emma. She was soft and sweet on the outside, but on the inside she was tough and determined. He admired her so much.
The heat throbbing in his solar plexus began to grow, radiating outward and upward, encompassing every part of him, making a home in his heart.
This was the missing piece of the puzzle. His Emma. If he'd only known, he would have gone in search of her. Kept them both from floundering, making mistakes.
But maybe they'd been destined to be apart. To make those mistakes and learn from them so when they hooked up again they'd be truly ready for each other. The idea comforted him, made him feel as if everything had been destined all along and it was falling into place just as it should. Fanciful thoughts and he was not a fanciful man, but he thought them nonetheless.
Her hands were all over him, moving, roving, exploring. Finding sensitive nooks and crannies that he hadn't even known were sensitive. His hands were doing some exploring of their own, tickling, teasing, caressing, kneading. Soft sounds flew from her lips and he realized he was making a few noises of his own---pleasure, delight, joy.
He felt the fire of it race through him, burning, a forest fire of need. She was frantic, too, yanking at his hair, rocking her pelvis against his.
She pressed forward, thrust one pink nipple in his face. "Suck me."
He didn't have to be told twice. Slowly, he suckled that sweet tip, pulling it into his mouth, nibbling lightly with his teeth until she moaned and ground against him harder, faster.
His penis surged, yearning to be joined with her. He left her with a kiss to retrieve the condom. Only it wasn't in his backpack. So much for being prepared for anything. What was he going to do? He had to have her or go mad.
"Emma," he said. "We gotta stop. I don't have that condom after all." He felt like a teenager.
"I'm on the pill," she said. "And I've been to the doctor. I'm healthy. How about you?"
"Yes, I get checked regularly."
"So we've got nothing to worry about."
"Are you sure you want to take that step?"
"Trent," she cried. "Take me."
"You got it, babe," he lifted her up and settled her down on his erection.
Her gasp of breath tightened his abdominal muscles. It felt so good to slide into her unsheathed. Bare flesh against bare flesh. No rubber between them.
"More," she urged.
He let her slide down as far as she could go, taking him in to the hilt. She let out a strangled moan of pleasure and began to move over him, her tight little box a vise around his penis. He felt his own muscles tighten and helplessly he began thrusting hard into her.
"Trent, Trent, Trent," she said his name like a chant.
He could feel the orgasm building, bigger than the night before. He couldn't tell where she began and he ended. They were just one. Writhing in ecstasy together. They clasped each other, their bodies covered in sweat.
The rhythm took hold of him, primal. Destined. The two of them. Into each other so deep there was simply no getting out. Not that he wanted to get out. Bliss. Pure bliss.
With a bulldozer of an orgasm pulsing through his cock.
In one long, hot moment they hung suspended, staring into each other's eyes so they saw nothing else, felt nothing else. Rising, converging, coming.
The shudder shook his body. Wrapped around him hard and squeezed at the same time he felt her jerk and shiver.
Their pants were airy gasps, barely breathing at all. Their skin was slicked. Their bodies melded. One.
And then he remembered what he'd written on the water tower in neon-green paint.
Trent loves Emma forever.
THEY DOZED after that, neither one of them wanting to get up and break the spell. Both luxuriating in the memories they'd just created. Perfection.
"I could live here forever," Emma said as Trent peeled an orange and fed her tangy sweet slices.
"You wouldn't have said that a few days ago."
"A few days ago I hadn't found you again."
"Emma," he said. "As soon as we get back to base camp, you and I need to do some talking."
"About what?" she asked, munching on the orange.
"About what this means. You live in New York, I live in the Colorado wilderness. And we both love where we live and our careers."
Emma crinkled her nose. "Do we have to think about that right now?"
"Not now," he said, "but soon."
He was right and she knew it. Long-distance relationships were difficult, and he loved this place just as much as she loved New York. She couldn't imagine him living there. He was a wilderness man through and through. And she was a girly-girl who needed her creature comforts.
You did pretty well without all that girly-girl stuff on this trip.
Yes, but this had been a vacation. What was fine for a few days would quickly grow old for a lifetime. A lifetime.
She looked at Trent and her heart flipped. He was the one. She knew it in her heart. He'd always been the one.
But she'd twisted herself around for men for so long, trying to be what they wanted her to be in order to make the relationships work and because of that, the relationships hadn't worked. She'd learned from Doug and Ryan that you couldn't be something you weren't. At least not for very long.
"What are you thinking about?" Trent asked.
"I'm thinking what a fabulous lover you are." She hugged him.
"Don't be evasive with me. You were frowning and I could see those little cogs in your brain whirling. Talk to me. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking I don't want this to end."
"Me, neither."
"So where do we go from here, Trent? Our lifestyles are as opposite as opposite can be."
"I know."
"I could try to change, but I used to do that in every relationship I was in. Twist myself into a pretzel until I didn't recognize who I was anymore. The only time I didn't do that was when we were together before."
"We're together again, so why can't you be yourself with me?"
She swept her hand at the tent. "This isn't the real me."
"Maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit. I saw how you were out there on the river. You were magnificent, Emma. And you looked so happy. I take a lot of people out here and I can tell when someone fits and when they don't. You fit."
Did she? Maybe she was changing. But how would she know if that was the case or if she was just trying to be what Trent wanted her to be?
"You're right, let's not talk about this now. Let's just enjoy the rest of our time out here," she said. "We'll reevaluate when we're back in civilization."
It had been a fun adventure, but as a lifestyle, she couldn't see it. But was she going to let Trent get away simply because she wasn't a wilderness woman at heart? She looked at him and her stomach tugged. Surely, there had to be a way.
"I used to work in the city," he said. "Houston."
"Oh."
"I hated it with every fiber in my being. The noise, the crowds, the pollution. I spent three miserable years there before I finally wised up and moved back to Colorado."
"Why did you move to Houston in the first place?"
"To be with a woman."
"There's good things about the city."
"There are," he agreed, "and I enjoyed those things. Just not enough."
They looked at each other.
"Oh, Trent," Emma said. "What are we going to do?"
He never answered the question because David's SUV came driving down the mountain trail, horn honking.
They were rescued.
THEY ARRIVED at base camp just before nightfall more exhausted than they'd ever been in their lives. Izzy and Angie and Myrtle came out to greet them and help them inside. Then Emma went off to the locker room to shower and change clothes, Izzy following at her heels.
EMMA TOOK her purse from the locker and wrote her a check for $500. "Here you go, Izzy, you won the bet fair and square."
Izzy held up her palms, shook her head. "It wasn't really fair. I put you in front of Trent and I knew nature would take its course. You've loved him since you were seventeen. Then I stranded you in the woods. All dirty pool. Keep your money."
"How did you get Myrtle to go along with it?"
"She's like you, still a romantic at heart. She couldn't resist helping me play cupid."
Emma met Izzy's eyes. "How did you know I was still in love with Trent?"
"Remember that night at the club?"
"I remember. I haven't had a hangover like that in years. It was right after Ryan dumped me."
"Well, it might have been right after Ryan dumped you, but all you could talk about was Trent. How you were afraid he was the love of your life and you'd lost him forever."
Emma wrinkled her nose. "I said all that?"
"You did."
"I don't remember that part."
"Well, I do and I used it to my advantage."
"You were crafty enough to use it. More power to you." Emma pressed the check at her. "Please, take the money. You won the bet. You stayed celibate when we all lost it."
"Yeah," Izzy said, "but you've all got great guys and I'm all alone."
TRENT TOOK Emma to the airport to catch her flight back to New York. Since the trip had gotten cut short because of Izzy's maneuverings, Izzy had gone home early and Emma and Trent had spent the remainder of her vacation in a quaint bed and breakfast in downtown Durango making love for hours on end.
It was killing Trent to have to let her go, but he knew she had to come back to him on her terms. She looked scared and sad and shaky. So he just took her hand and held it as they sat in his SUV outside the terminal gate.
She had to run from him. Just like she'd done ten years ago when her father had forbidden her to see him and he'd pushed her away.
But this was different. She was older now and could make her own decisions. She'd be back. He knew it in his heart of hearts, and yet it was difficult, letting her go, trusting that she would return.
He got out, helped her with her luggage, walked her to the checkpoint, kissed her cheek. "I'll be waiting," he said.
I'll be waiting.
Trent's words echoed in her ears all the way to New York. This had all happened so fast and yet it felt so right. Why was she hesitant? What was she afraid of?
Emma had the answer to that one. She was afraid she was romanticizing the relationship. That it wasn't really as shiny and wonderful as she thought. That's what she was afraid of.
Trent.
She couldn't stop thinking about him, but she was determined to try. She had to be sure that what they had was real and not just some overblown fantasy. Her mother called and asked her to dinner, so she went, driving upstate to Terrytown, driving past the high school. Remembering the places she and Trent used to go.
"Mom, Dad," she said at the dinner table after they'd eaten.
"Yes?" Her mother asked. "Have some more pot roast, honey."
"Do you remember my first boyfriend, Trent Colton?"
"My, yes," her mom said. "He was a very handsome boy."
"He got her in a lot of trouble," her dad grumbled.
"He's got his own company now," Emma said.
Her father raised his head, surprise in his eyes. "No kidding?"
"Where'd you hear that?" Her mother passed her a basket of yeast rolls.
"He was my tour guide on my white-water rafting trip." Her hands shook. Her stomach knotted.
"Isn't that something?"
Emma stared at her father, feeling all the old pain freshly. "Why didn't you like him, Daddy? He might have been a little rough around the edges when he was a teenager, but he's a wonderful man. Why did you break us up?"
Her dad met her gaze. Sadness, regret, lingered in his eyes. "You want to know why I broke you up?"
She laid down her fork and knife, suddenly short of breath, her chest tight with emotion. This was it. Everything finally out in the open. "Yes, I would."
"You were eighteen, much too young for feelings like that." He paused. "I did what any responsible father would do and told him he wasn't right for you, and that he should stay away if he knew what was good for him. And for you."
"Oh, Dad."
Her father cleared his throat. "I saw the way he looked at you. I read what he wrote about you on the water tower in neon-green letters. I hadn't seen anyone that in love since I fell in love with your mother. It was too much, too fast. I was afraid you'd give up on Yale, on your future."
Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You broke us up because he loved me?" Her hands trembled and sorrow welled up inside her at what they'd lost.
"Your mom and I got married too young. Neither one of us got to have any freedom before you and your sisters came along. I wanted you to have what we never got to have. Freedom and the opportunity to discover yourself."
"Honey," her mother added. "You have to understand, we figured if it was meant to be, you'd find each other again."
She silently processed this as the kitchen clock ticked off the tense moments.
She could hold on to her anger and blame her parents, or she could recognize the gift they'd tried to give her, even though she didn't understand it.
The past was gone. She couldn't get it back. What mattered now was what she and Trent had found in the present. They'd both learned and grown from their mistakes. He'd gotten over his insecurities and she could release her hurt and resentment.
She smiled then, loving her parents, forgiving them, and letting go of their mistakes. And just like that her mind was made up. "Then it's really meant to be. The minute we laid eyes on each other it was as if ten years just fell away. Mom, Dad, I'm moving to Colorado to be with Trent."
"YOU'VE BROUGHT ME to the ends of the earth to live," Emma said to Trent when she walked into the office of Wild West Adventure Tours.
He pushed away from the desk and got to his feet. "That didn't take you long."
"I went back to Terrytown."
"Oh?"
"And I saw my parents."
"Oh." His tone flattened.
"They like you."
"You told them about my company."
"Well, yeah, but it turns out they really liked you all along."
Trent frowned. "I find that hard to believe."
"It's true. They were just scared we'd end up with their life. Married too young with too many kids too soon, so they warned you off. But I'm not them, and this is my decision."
Trent stalked across the floor, scooped her up in his arms, hugged her tight. "You were my first and I..." He paused, swallowed. "I want you to be my last."
"Oh, Trent." She didn't mean to cry, but sweet tears of joy slid slowly down her cheeks.
"Don't leave me hanging here, sweetheart. Is that a yes?"
In answer, she stood on tiptoes and cupped the sides of his dear face with both palms and kissed him with a fervency unlike any other.
And they both knew in their heart of hearts it was truly meant to be.


