Jump Point - Ophelia Sexton Page 0,46

woman for miles around," Kara pointed out, dealing with uncertainty the only way she knew how—with a smart-ass remark. She stepped back out of his embrace. "Okay, we'd better go now." She tapped the back of her wrist, as if wearing a watch like Mike's. "We still have miles to go. At least we don't have to worry about catching dinner now."

* * *

Oops, I pushed too hard…again, thought Mike, already missing the way her warm curves nestled against him. Dammit.

He'd thought he was beginning to get the hang of walking the courtship tightrope with Kara. Instead, it seemed that he'd gotten overconfident. Again.

At least she didn't seem upset this time. Instead, she grinned at him with her usual mischievous glint.

"Can you imagine the shit we'll catch from everyone if we're both late for the pickup, and we have to explain why?" Without waiting for him to reply, she continued in a breathy porn-star voice, "Oh, I'm so sorry, guys. I was busy giving Mike a blowjob and totally lost track of the time. Oopsie!"

"Well, if you said it like that, there's no chance in hell that anyone would believe you," Mike pointed out, laughing. He added in a teasing tone, "So you really don't want to tell anyone that we, uh, hooked up on this pack-out?"

Kara's expression was a mixture of disbelief and outrage. "Are you kidding me? No!" She glared at him. "Not a word, Nakano. Or else."

Keep it light, he reminded himself, and tried to push down the stab of hurt from her words.

She crossed her arms, daring him to challenge her ingenuity. Mike knew better than to take the bait. He'd seen what happened when Thor and Carl had dared her.

Mike forced himself to keep up the banter. "Okay, I'll consider it…if you share some of those dried mango snacks when we get back to Fort Wainwright," he said, as they walked across the clearing to retrieve their pack-out bags.

"What dried mango snacks?" Kara asked, fluttering her eyelashes with exaggerated innocence.

Mike turned his head and fixed her with a long look. "The ones you stole from Thor's PG bag. Everyone knows it was you. What we can't figure out is how you did it."

He lifted her bag to chest height so that she could slip her arms through the thick, padded shoulder straps.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She turned her head and smiled at him angelically before settling her pack-out bag into place.

* * *

As they set off on the next leg of their hike, Mike realized that he was actually pretty damned happy.

Even taking into account a gun-wielding arson-loving maniac, today had been a great day. He was going to remember the sight of Kara's sweet mouth wrapped around his cock for a long, long time to come.

And if he played his cards right, it wouldn't be the first and last time.

Then he realized that she had never given him an answer about going out on a real date once they got back to their home base in Denver. That partially deflated the golden bubble of afterglow.

It's okay, he reassured himself. Just take this one step at a time.

His bear didn't like that. It wanted Mike to grab Kara and claim her as their mate right now.

She likes us. She wants to have sex with us, it urged.

And she's extremely skittish, Mike replied silently. Don't mess this up, bear. I have a plan, but you need to trust me and be patient.

His bear had never been patient. It let out a frustrated sigh. I didn't know that courtship would be so much like hunting, it observed.

Neither did I, Mike said. But she's warming up to us, right? So don't screw this up. If we do this right, we'll have the rest of our lives to make up for lost time.

They hiked for another few hours. The dense spruce groves dwindled, replaced by a gently rolling landscape of open scrub, dotted with wildflowers, clusters of dwarf birch and willow, and occasional hedges of berry bushes dotted with jewel-like clusters of red, orange, and yellow salmonberries.

The ripe berries were popular with Denali's bears, and Mike spotted dozens of them feeding intently in the bushes, including mothers with cubs.

Conscious of their refreshed food supplies, Mike and Kara kept their canisters of bear spray at the ready and gave the bears a wide berth.

The area was threaded with dozens of brooks, creeks, and streams flowing with ice-cold glacier meltwater. Some of them were narrow enough to