The Darkest Embrace Read Online Free PDF Page B

Not when there were so many other ways to occupy their time.
    “Oh, hey,” Max said when she slipped her hand down the front of his jeans and gave him a careful squeeze. “Um, okay.”
    “I love the way you kiss me,” Jessie told him matter-of-factly, pushing onto her toes so she could look into his eyes. “Love it.”
    Max laughed softly and pulled her closer. “Good, because I love kissing you.”
    She steadied herself with her hands on his shoulders, brushing another kiss against him but not letting it go deeper. Somehow, her face found a place in the hollow of his shoulder. His hands on the small of her back. They moved slowly together to inaudible music while she pressed her hand flat to the comforting beat of his heart beneath the flannel.
    This, Jessie thought, felt like falling in love.
    She could have stayed like that for a long time, but her stomach was growling. With another kiss, she nibbled gently at his jaw for a second before slapping him on the ass. “Breakfast,” she said. “I hope you packed more bacon because it hurts my heart that we had to throw that all away.”
    An hour later they’d both eaten and showered in the charming claw-foot tub that wasn’t big enough for two but managed to fit them both anyway. Max had packed a picnic basket. Bread, cheeses in a cooler bag, an unbroken bottle of wine and even glasses. Also, in a touch that made tears prickle in the back of her eyes, a bunch of flowers with a matching vase.
    “Romantic,” Jessie told him.
    Max grinned. “There’s a waterfall.”
    There certainly was. A small one that had been fed to greatness by last night’s storm, set back a mile or so from the cabin at the end of a winding path that had turned to thick mud from the rain. It cut through the trees that got increasingly thicker the farther into the woods they got. A jutting wedge of rock made the water gush out far over the rest of the cliff, leaving plenty of room to walk beneath it to the other side, where they found a soft patch of still-damp grass and leaves and spread their blanket. Their morning lovemaking had eased some of the edge, but that didn’t mean she didn’t pounce him as soon as she could.
    “You’ll spill the wine!” Max protested, but held the glass away from him so she could straddle his lap.
    Jessie took his face in her hands. “I am crazy about you, Max Arnec. You know that, right?”
    For an embarrassing few seconds, she thought she’d gone too far. Said too much. It wasn’t like her to be so open, but something about Max had always made her that way. Honest.
    She stopped worrying when he inched her closer to kiss her mouth. “The feeling’s mutual.”
    She’d just settled into a sweet, lingering kiss, when something flashed through the woods just out of sight behind them. Startled, Jessie pulled away to look over Max’s shoulder. He frowned.
    “What?”
    “I saw something.”
    There it was again, the push and rustle of something in the leaves. Jessie squinted, trying to catch sight of it, but the shadows were too deep...and Max’s mouth too delicious for her to worry herself too much about it. At least, not until the rustling got much, much closer.
    “What the hell is that?” Jessie eased herself from Max’s lap, the memory of yesterday’s close call on the road still fresh.
    Max stood, looking into the woods. Nothing happened but the whisper of the wind through the branches, and he turned to look down at her with a bemused smile. “A deer maybe.”
    A chill skittered down Jessie’s spine that had nothing to do with the sweet fall breeze. The scent of something sour and rotten tickled her nose and left a bad taste in her mouth. She covered them both, shaking her head as she stepped back.
    “Let’s go back to the cabin.”
    They hadn’t done more than crack open the bottle of wine, but Max nodded right away with an uneasy look over his shoulder. “Yeah. Sure. Okay.”
    “We can hit the hot tub,” she offered brightly, bending to