Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,25
there.”
I was noticing.
She motioned to one of the chairs, because now I could see there were two of them. “You can sit on that.”
“Uh. Sure.”
But first I went to the table and put down the supplies I’d brought, including a bag of ice. When she saw it, she got up and pulled something over. It looked like a trash can, but when she lifted the lid, it wasn’t. I put the ice in there, feeling how cold it was.
“It’s a solar-powered cooler. Neat, huh?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You sit out here?” The place was lit up with her campfire and some lanterns, but still. “What do you do if someone comes up here that you don’t want? There are men who search for campers. You know that, right? Like, they actually search out single women camping.” I sat in the chair, but immediately stood again. “This is dangerous.”
She shoved to her feet. “I’ve been camping for years. And I pick places that are off the trail. I’m not stupid.”
“Bullshit.”
Her eyes got big. Her face got red. “Excuse me?”
“I said bullshit. I drove right up to your spot. You can’t hide—” I stopped and peered right at her. “Tell me you’ve never been scared out here by yourself. Tell me you’ve never had a guy poking around that made you uncomfortable.”
She huffed. “Besides you?”
“Tell me that’s never happened, Aspen. In all the years you’ve been this camping expert, you’ve never had an encounter with another camper that scared you?”
She didn’t say a word.
She looked at the ground, and I knew I was right.
Fuck. Fuck! It had happened.
“When?” I demanded.
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “It doesn’t even matter. I was smart. I got away, and it’s never happened since.”
But it happened.
It had happened once, and it could happen again.
My teeth ground against each other. “I’m not leaving you out here alone. You camp, I’m with you. Or someone else is with you. Enough of this alone shit.”
Her head snapped up and her mouth fell open. “You—what? You can’t do that!”
I snorted, sitting at the table and finding a cup in the bag. I poured myself a drink. “Watch me. I’ll call for reinforcements if I have to.” I leveled her with a look. “I know people who wouldn’t like hearing about this. Don’t forget.”
She glared at me, collapsing back down. “You can’t do that. You can’t come in here and take all this away from me. You can’t!”
Her chin wobbled.
Well, crap.
But no, I had to push past the guilt that was easing in. “Aspen, this isn’t safe. There are big game animals that could hurt you too. I can’t—this isn’t safe. You want to camp, you need to have someone with you.”
“You?” She snorted, but she wasn’t looking at me anymore. Her head was down, and she was ripping a stick apart. Hell. She was shredding it, and then she threw the little pieces on the fire.
“Me or someone else you trust. I can’t leave you out here. The man in me won’t let me.”
“The man in you needs to take several seats down.”
Okay. I grinned. That was funny.
She glanced up, saw my grin, and smiled before she looked back down. “I’ve been camping for years. It’s something I did with my brother.”
Her brother.
I remembered—those movie producers were Nate Monson’s parents.
“You mean Nate?”
She stiffened before looking at me. “You know about my older brother?”
I shrugged. “I just put it together. Zeke’s obsessed with your brother’s best friend, so I hear those names quite a bit.”
The blood drained from her face. “You haven’t said anything to him about me, have you?”
I shook my head. “You want a drink?” I grabbed for some ice in that weird trash can/cooler thing.
She shook her head, then stopped. “Yeah.” She sighed. “You make me need to drink.”
I grinned, handing her mine. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She took the cup, making sure to avoid touching my fingers, and I wiggled my eyebrows, letting her know I was aware of what she’d done. Then I gave her a cocky smirk and she flushed, pulling the drink away.
After I poured myself a second cup, I moved to the chair, but that didn’t seem right. She was on the ground, so I eased down too, sitting close enough that my knee could touch hers if I wanted.
I sipped my drink. “I’ve not said anything to Zeke, but he’s going to ask me. He knows I took off tonight, so he’ll be up in my business, wanting to know where