Elias nodded. "I already thought of that," he said. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

23.

Elias "Are you going to tell me where we're going?" River asked.

"Nope," I said. "You'll see in just a minute." Up ahead was the turn off, this little indentation on the side of the road that only fit two cars at any given time. It was just us, given the fact that it was early evening. No one else would be out here this late.

I'd been out here earlier this afternoon.

I turned off the engine, and River looked at me warily, stepping out of the car. When I popped the trunk, she laughed nervously. "I don't suppose you'd tell me if you had a trunk full of tarp and duct tape and stuff, would you?" she asked.

"Pulling over here does make me look like a serial killer, doesn't it?" I said.

"That wasn't really an answer."

"Yeah," I said. "Me and my fucking bum leg, we're a real good killing team." In my head it sounded like a joke, but it came out more bitter than I intended.

River narrowed her eyes when she looked at me. "Do people feel sorry for you when you talk like that?" she asked. "Seems like you get by just fine to me with that bum leg of yours." Her back was toward me as she looked around. I watched her draw in a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling. "Besides, wasn't it Ted Bundy who kept a crowbar in a cast on his arm? Lured his victims with his injury and his good looks."

"Are you saying I'm good looking?" I picked up a headlamp and handed it to her.

"It's tacky to fish for compliments you already know are true." She turned the lamp over in her hands.

"Put it on," I said, sliding the band on mine over my head.

"Sexy."

"You want to fall down the trail or what?"

"You're taking me hiking?" she asked. "I was kind of thinking dinner, a nice glass of wine, but sure."

"Well, I can't exactly get rid of a body in a restaurant, can I?" I asked. "It has to be the woods."

River narrowed her eyes and glared at me. "Har-dee har-har."

I picked up the picnic basket from the trunk.

"Is that a picnic basket?" she asked. "You own a picnic basket? You don't exactly seem like the type."

"What type is that?" I asked.

"A girl." She stuck her tongue out at me. It was a childish gesture, but one that immediately made me smile.

"Maybe I've got a crowbar in the basket," I said. "Ever think of that?"

"True," she said. "You want me to carry something here?"

"Nope. Everything else is set."

We hiked down the dirt trail, and she clutched my hand a few times when she skidded on pebbles. I wasn't sure if this was something she'd like or not. Someone like her probably didn't do shit like this, I thought.

"Hiking down here," she said. "It's still all right with your leg?"

I had her hand in mine, from when she skidded a minute ago, and I hadn't let go. "Yeah," I said. "I'm not an invalid."

"Didn't think you were," she said. "Just asking if you had one special for working out and stuff."

"Oh," I said. Christ, I was edgy when it came to her. Or maybe in general, I wasn't sure. "Yeah. I've got a running one. It's in the trunk of the car, actually." I paused for a beat. "With my crowbar, you know."

She laughed. "Well, I guess if anyone were going to take me out in the woods for a date, I guess I'm glad it's you."

Hell, as soon as she uttered the words take me, I was hard. I set down the basket, and stopped and pulled her against me, her back pressed into me. I slid my hands down her arms, pinning them at her sides, and I felt her shift against my hardness. Goose bumps dotted her arms, and the fact that she responded to me like that drove me nuts. She made a sound, this cross between a whimper and a moan, and it made me fucking crazy.

My face was near her neck, and I inhaled her scent, drank her in. She turned her head to the side, and when I grazed her neck with my lips, I felt her knees buckle.

At least I could be sure she was just as turned on by me as I was by her.

But I stopped.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked, her voice breathy.

"Come on." My hand at the small of her back, I guided her forward. "There's this place up here around the bend. I want to show it to you."

"Or we could stay right here for a little bit." She pressed her ass against my hardness and moaned a little. It was all I could do to not rip her clothes off right there. But I had other plans for her.

"Shut your mouth and keep walking," I said.

River laughed. "I see," she said. "So we're playing kidnapper, then?"

"Depends," I said. "You into that kind of thing?" I nodded toward the clearing, just around this bend in the path. It was this spot away from the trail, down by a small bubbling creek, the aspen trees providing a canopy over the clearing. Even blanketed by the crisscrossing branches and the leaves, you could still see the evening sky and stars poking through.

River's back was toward me as she looked around. "You did all this for me?"

"I didn't figure you'd want to go somewhere public," I said. Plus, I wanted to show you I'm not a total asshole.

I stood a few feet away from her, behind her. She still hadn't turned around. It was probably too much- she probably thought I was some creepy fan, coming on too strong. Guys probably did this kind of bullshit all the time.

Not me, though. I'd never done something like this before. This was a first for me.

I'd come down earlier this afternoon and spread out the blanket, left some battery operated lanterns around the clearing for light. I'd even found these battery operated string lights earlier, and draped them from the trees. The lights bathed everything in this soft glow, and I took my headlamp off and set it on the ground, then started unpacking the basket.

I poured wine into glasses, but stood there, glasses in hand. She still hadn't said anything. Shit, she hadn't even turned around. I took a sip of the wine.

"No one's ever done anything like this for me," she said.

Shit. I knew it was too much. She was going to think I was some kind of obsessive stalker fan or some shit.

Then she turned around, her hand over her mouth. "I don't know what to say, Elias."

24.

River I couldn't believe he'd done all of this for me. The lights strung up in the trees, the wine... he'd even set up an IPod and speakers... I heard Van Morrison's Into the Mystic playing softly in the background. "No one's ever gone to this kind of trouble for me before," I said.

"Is that a good thing?"

"That no one's gone to that kind of trouble for me?"

He cocked his head to the side. "You know what I mean."

"Shit, Elias," I said. "All of this...it's beyond good."

He nodded and handed me a glass of wine. "Okay, then."

Okay then. I was beginning to realize that Elias was the kind of guy who had a lot more going on under the surface than I thought. Still waters, I thought.

"So," I said, sipping from my wine glass. "Why'd you really bring me here?"

Elias shrugged. "I wanted to see you naked."

"You already saw me naked, if you recall," I said, my voice light. I definitely remembered it. I couldn't stop thinking about his hands on me. "What's so special about this place?"

Elias looked away. "I used to come here a lot," he said. "When I was a kid. It was kind of my place, when I had to get away. My escape. My house is a couple miles from here."

There was a lot left unspoken in what he said, a lot of blanks that I filled in based on what June had said about the Saints. I assumed Elias had a lot of running away that he had to do back then. I didn't know what to say, except that it seemed important that he had shared this place with me. So I just said, "It's pretty."

Elias didn't say anything, just stepped forward and kissed me, hard on the lips. His tongue found mine, and I melted into him, my body pressed against his as he kissed me hungrily. When he pulled away from me, the way he looked at me, lust in his eyes, made me shiver.

"Take off your clothes," he said.

"What?"

"I want to see you," he said.

"I thought you brought me out here to eat," I teased. I'd been with him last night, yet I suddenly felt nervous.

"I did," he said, winking.

I laughed. "Dirty."

He shook his head. "Not yet," he said. "But I'm about to be."

His words sent a surge of arousal running through me at the anticipation of being with him. "You first," I said.

"What?"

"Take your clothes off," I said. "You first."

He smirked. "Thought you'd never ask." I watched as he pulled his shirt over his head, then tossed it to the side in the grass. When he'd finished undressing, he stood there, stark naked, hands on his hips, grinning.

Proudly displaying his hard-on.

"Now you," he said. "Take it off. I want to see you buck fucking naked."

I laughed at his crudeness. It seemed out of place here after he'd done something so sweet. Grasping the edge of my shirt, I raised it over my head. I tossed my shirt in the ground, and reached behind my back to unhook my bra. All the while, I stood there, looking at Elias. It's not like I hadn't stripped down like this before.

But there was just something about the way that Elias looked at me that made me nervous and self-conscious and brazen and daring all at once. He made me want to throw caution to the wind. Hell, he was making me throw caution to the wind.

I wasn't sure whether that terrified or thrilled me.

But I just stood there, my chest bare, looking into his cool blue eyes, as the breeze lightly stroked my skin, the way a lover would. I didn't look away as I unbuttoned my jeans and stepped out of them, leaving every stitch of my clothing on the ground.

"Jesus," he said. His voice was hoarse, and he looked at me with an expression that was clouded with desire.

"What?"

"You're so fucking hot," he said.

"Classy." I was sarcastic, but the truth was, his brusque words turned me on. I liked the way he was rough around the edges.

"Turn around," he said. "I want to see all of you."

A breeze rustled the trees, and my nipples hardened in the coolness of the air. I felt like I was under some kind of spotlight. Even after I turned around, I could feel his eyes on me.

I didn't hear him move, but I felt his touch, his palm on my shoulder. I shivered involuntarily, a reflexive response. "And?" I asked. "Do you like what you see?"

He didn't say anything. But I felt his hands on my waist, and then one hand on my thigh, pushing my legs apart.

And then he was kneeling at my feet behind me, his head between my legs, his mouth on me. His tongue moved down me, and I nearly lost my balance as he ran his tongue down the length of my slit. "Shit," I said, the word little more than a whisper.

He brought his face away from my pussy, and I could feel his hot breath on me, teasing me, taunting me with every word. "I definitely like what I see from this angle," he said, probing me with his fingers. "And I definitely like how you taste."

My muscles clenched down around him, like they had a mind of their own. My body definitely seemed like it had a mind of its own when it came to Elias. Or maybe this was what it meant to have a rebound.

Either way I didn't care. Not when Elias was doing what it was doing. He had me so desperate, needy for him, that I would do whatever he wanted. I wasn't used to feeling like this, my body aching, yearning to be filled.

He brought me to the edge, my breath coming in gasps as he probed me relentlessly with his fingers. Then he stopped, and stood. The throbbing between my legs was all I could think about. I wanted him to keep doing what he was doing.