The Mighty Quinns: Eli (10 page)

“I've been alone for such a long time, and it works for me.”

He chuckled softly. “Me, too.”

“So then you understand why I can't—”

Eli pressed a finger to her lips. “I do.” He slipped his hand around her nape and pulled her into a deep, mind-numbing kiss. And he did understand; it was far too early in whatever this was between them to make plans for the future. For now, it was enough to lie next to her. But he already found it hard to be separated from her between check-ins. What would happen at the end of her year? He wanted to believe that they could have something once she came down from the mountain. “On the other hand,” he began, “I'd like to think that I could change. Especially if I met the right person. And if I could change, then maybe you could, too. Not that I'm asking you to. It's just something you might want to consider.”

“I don't know,” Lucy murmured.

“Know what? Whether you can change, or whether you could consider it?”

“Both.” She paused, then smiled. “But I do like kissing you. And I like touching you.” Her hand smoothed down his chest, opening his shirt along the way. When she reached his jeans, she unbuttoned the fly and let her fingertips tease at the waistband of his boxers.

Eli growled softly as she worked his jeans and boxers down over his hips, a sleepy smile curling the corners of her mouth. He was already hard and when she wrapped her fingers around his shaft, his breath caught in his throat.

Never in his life had he felt as if he belonged, as if he fit. But when he was with Lucy, everything fell into place so naturally. They seemed to know each other at a deeper level, as if their souls had met long before their minds and bodies had. He had no idea what her favorite color was or how she preferred her eggs. He didn't know if she could play tennis or if she got seasick. But he knew that they'd both been alone for a very long time—and now they weren't.

She drew back and pushed up on her knees. In the early-morning sunshine streaming through the window, her curves were lit with a soft filter.

Eli watched as she pressed a kiss to the center of his chest, brushing aside the faded shirt he wore. When she got to his belly, she ran her tongue along the length of his shaft, sending a wave of pleasure through his body.

“I guess you
are
feeling better,” he murmured, pulling her hair away from her face.

“I bet I can make you feel better, too,” she said.

He grabbed her waist and rolled her beneath him, pinning her arms on either side of them. “Why don't you save your strength and let me take care of you?”

He straddled her waist, trapping her beneath him, then bent closer and brushed his lips across hers. Lucy groaned, arching against him. When she reached for him, he caught her hand and held it above her head. “Stay very still,” he whispered.

Eli slid his hand beneath the T-shirt she wore, exposing her belly first and then her breast. Eli grabbed the hem and slipped it over her head. Her skin was smooth and soft and he cupped her breast in his palm, teasing at the nipple with his thumb.

Lucy watched him, a smile playing on the edges of her mouth. When he bent down and drew her other nipple into his mouth, she ran her fingers through his hair, gently smoothing her palm over his temple.

It amazed him how her touch held such power over him. A simple caress was enough to warm his blood and make him hard. Eli wanted to believe the touch was her way of silently communicating her affection, replacing the words she wasn't quite ready to say.

He moved lower, trailing warm kisses over her belly. Eli gently parted her legs and found the damp spot that drove her desire. His tongue slipped between her folds and flicked at her clit. Lucy sucked in a sharp breath and her fingers twisted in his hair.

He wanted to give her pleasure, to make her ache for him in the same way that he ached for her. Eli had always been a considerate lover, but with Lucy he wanted more than just a physical response. He wanted the connection that would only come when she was at her most vulnerable, when she'd look at him and he'd see the need in her eyes. It was a gift, as if she were entrusting him with her heart and soul.

Eli had always preferred a no-strings relationship when it came to women. But from the start, Lucy had wrapped him up in a tangle of desire and denial, until he had no choice but to surrender. Whatever she needed, he would give.

Eli brought her to the edge again and again but each time he pulled her back. She groaned in frustration and finally took matters into her own hands. With a wicked smile, she sat up and pushed him back with her foot until he sat opposite her, his arms braced behind him. She straddled his lap, slowly lowering herself until he was buried inside her warmth. She ran her hands along his shoulders and over his chest, the two of them facing each other.

As she began to move, Eli fixed his gaze on her face, watching the play of pleasure dance across her beautiful features. She knew instinctively how to please him, how to quicken her pace and then slow down, drawing her strokes out until they were exquisitely slow and filled with sensation.

Eli felt his orgasm begin to build. He reached between them and began to caress her. With a languid smile, she pressed her forehead against his and closed her eyes, twisting her hips as she came down on him. The change of movement sent a delicious surge of desire through his body.

Before long, they were both breathless, grasping for that one moment that they could share. He wrapped his hand around her nape and pulled her into a deep kiss and it was enough for him. Eli tumbled over the edge, surrendering to his pleasure.

As the last of his spasms faded, he opened his eyes to see her watching him, her eyes half-closed. Eli pulled out and laid her down on the bed, then brought her to completion with his tongue.

She shuddered with each wave of her orgasm. And when her body was finally still, Eli stretched out beside her and pulled her into his arms. “Are you all right? That wasn't too much?”

Lucy giggled. “Yes, you were far too good. Don't fish for compliments.”

“I'm not.”

“Let me give you a little secret. That thing you do with your tongue. That kind of drives me wild.” She pressed her finger to her lips. “Don't tell anyone.”

He drew her closer and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Since you gave me a secret, I think I should give you one.”

“What is it?” Lucy asked.

“I'm not talking about the tongue thing,” he said. “I mean what you said earlier about your past.” He paused. “I like that we can be completely honest with each other. So, in that spirit, I want you to know that I've actually seen you more than once a month. I hike up here every week, just to check up on you.”

She pushed up on her elbow. “You do?”

“I don't want to creep you out. It's not like I was stalking you. I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“Why haven't I seen you?”

“I just come to the bottom of the meadow. And I wait until I you come outside and then I'm reassured that you're all right. Don't be angry. It's just that I take my responsibilities very seriously. And I feel responsible for you. Only, this past week I was busy with another job, and I didn't come. And look what happened. Once a month is definitely not enough.”

She stared at him for a long moment and Eli couldn't read her expression. But then she reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand. “That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“You're not angry?”

Lucy shook her head. “No. Not at all. But from now on, you don't have to hide. You can come up to the cabin and at least say hello.”

He leaned in close until their lips nearly touched. “Hello,” he murmured.

“Hello,” Lucy replied.

 

5

September

S
UMMER
IN
THE
R
OCKIES
was achingly short. The snow had barely melted from the north face and the weather had warmed just enough to grow the vegetables in her garden before the cold set in again. Without warning, the mornings turned chilly and spots of color marked the maple trees along the edge of Trudie's meadow.

Lucy couldn't help but feel a bit melancholy. The hardest part of her journey was ahead—the isolation that snow and cold would bring. Next month would mark the halfway point in her year and she couldn't believe how much she'd changed in that time.

Since her illness, Eli had been coming to the cabin more and more often. Though Lucy knew she would have to send him away eventually, she was enjoying his company. They'd grown so close as both friends and lovers. Living here on the mountain, they'd managed to avoid the typical pitfalls that most couples faced. There were no jobs, no family obligations, no diversions to make them question the strength of their bond. They were simply...together.

They'd made no promises to each other. The future was just some vague point on the calendar. And though Lucy was happy not to complicate matters, she sensed Eli might not share her feelings.

He'd appointed himself as her protector, and had made it his mission to teach her what she needed to know to survive on the mountain. Yet, he knew well enough that he had to step back and let her take the lead with the “Trudie” project.

So while she refused his help in building her cabin, his advice had made the process go much more smoothly. He taught her how to sharpen the tools, how to create a roller system to move the logs faster and how to wield the log stripper so that it took off larger swathes of bark each time.

By the end of August, she'd collected enough logs to build four seven-foot-high walls and had started to notch the corners and fit the logs together. She was proud of the results of her efforts, and had documented every step of her progress with the camera.

Though it wasn't going to be the prettiest cabin and it was made with small trees that could barely be called logs, the important point was that it would be a shelter.

“I'm worried about the roof,” she said, stepping away from her work to stare at the growing structure.

“You're not going to be able to put the roof on yourself,” Eli warned. “My grandmother didn't. She had lots of help. And she had a horse to pull the logs down to the site. She had friends to help her put things together. She had a pulley system to put the rafters and the ridgepole in place.”

“I know. But my cabin is much smaller than Trudie's. It's supposed to be crude. Look at the chimney. It isn't straight, but it's functional.” She shrugged. “If it looked too good, they'd think I had help.”

“Well, if you want to do a peaked roof,” he said, “you're just going to have to tell your producers that you can't do it on your own. You could do a sod roof. Or, if you just had a slightly slanted roofline, you wouldn't need a ridgepole. Though, come spring, you'd have mud coming through the roof as the snow melts or when it rains.”

“We can't do shingles, like Trudie's roof?”

“We'd have to cut some cedar trees and then split shingles. It would take a lot of trees and a lot of work. But you could work on that over the winter.”

“I was hoping to live in it during the winter,” Lucy said.

“Do you realize how cold it gets around here, Luce? And how windy? You'd be miserable.”

“I never expected it to be anything less than difficult,” Lucy said. He sighed and she sent him a warning glare. “Don't look at me like that. If I want to do it, I'm going to do it. With or without your approval.”

“That's true, but here's the reality. With the materials you have and the time left, you're not going to get a perfect roof. It's going to leak when it rains or when the snow melts. Cold air is going to sneak into every little crack and crevice. And your fireplace isn't large enough to heat the entire cabin.”

She sat down next to him, picking up the little bird he'd carved from a piece of scrap wood. Like her cabin, the carving was crude, but she still recognized it as a bird. “What would you do?” she murmured.

“I would get a canvas and put that over the roof. I'd turn your cabin into a workshop so that I could make shingles all winter long. And as soon as I had enough, I'd put on a proper roof.”

He handed her his water bottle and Lucy took a long drink. “It doesn't look that bad, does it?” she asked.

“No,” Eli said. “It has a sort of rustic charm that most people would find very appealing.”

She nodded. “Yes, it does.” A low rumble in the distance caught Lucy's attention and she frowned. “Is that thunder?”

Eli listened for a moment, then shook his head. “Nope. It's a helicopter. Maybe there's a search-and-rescue party out looking for someone.”

The sound grew closer and closer and they both stood and turned toward the meadow. A few moments later, the helicopter appeared on the horizon, moving directly toward the cabin. Lucy's stomach lurched. “You'd better go,” she said.

“Why?”

“It seems the producers are about to pay me a visit, and you're not supposed to be here.”

“I'll stay,” Eli said. “After all, they are the ones who are paying me.”

Lucy hurried toward the cabin. “Fine, but I'm going to clean up your stuff from inside the cabin. You stay right there.”

“I'll just walk out to the meadow to meet them,” Eli suggested.

“No! You shouldn't even be here. It's not the first of the month.”

“I'll just tell them I was...doing a few repairs around the cabin. I'm technically the landlord. I'm allowed to check up on my property.”

“All right, but don't say anything else.”

He gave her a teasing salute and headed toward the meadow, Riley trailing along after him. Lucy, meanwhile, raced around the interior of the cabin, hiding any evidence of Eli's presence. She hadn't realized until now that the two of them were virtually living together, his belongings comingling with hers.

By the time she'd finished and changed into clean clothes, Eli was escorting three people up the rise to the cabin. She hurried down the porch steps and met them halfway. Lucy recognized the two women, Rachel McFarlane and Anna Conners, as her producers, but they'd brought along a man.

“Hello,” she said. “This is a surprise.”

“We wanted to catch you in your natural habitat,” Anna said, a bright smile on her face.

“You've met Eli Montgomery,” Lucy said. “He's Trudie's grandson. He stopped by to—”

“To fix the seal on the water pump,” he said.

“Yes,” she said.

“And now that I'm done, I'm going to head out. Miss Parker, I'll see you next month.”

“Do you really have to leave?” Rachel asked.

“I have a long hike back down,” he said.

“We could take you down on the helicopter,” Rachel said.

“No, I'd rather hike.”

“Your pack is on the porch,” Lucy said.

Their gazes met for a moment, before Lucy turned to the stranger in the group. “I'm Lucy Parker.”

“This is Bennett Sinclair,” Rachel said. “He's a programming exec from the Lifeworks network. He's very interested in buying our show, but first he's got some new ideas that we'd like to discuss with you.”

“New ideas?” Lucy forced a smile. “From a man?”

“The gals here told me about how you only wanted women on this project,” Sinclair said. “Well, unfortunately that will have to change. We're concerned that the existing format doesn't provide enough drama for a cable reality show, and I'm here to push things along. But don't worry, your idea is in good hands. I've worked in television for twenty-five years. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.”

Rachel gave her a gentle pat on the back. “Why don't you show us around and we'll get to Bennett's ideas later?”

Lucy stole a quick glance at Eli as he passed by her. He gave her a wink and a wave and she wanted to stop him, to ask him to stay. He could explain the problems with the cabin roof. Or he could explain the fireplace design. Lucy groaned inwardly. She hadn't realized how much she'd come to depend on him until now.

She waved at her cabin. “Well, as you can see, the walls of the cabin are up. Then I figure we'll have the first few weeks in October to do the chinking before the freezing cold weather sets in.”

“You need a roof,” Sinclair said.

“Well, I have a couple of options there. I'd like shingles, but I may have to settle for sod.”

“Yes, that's good. Sod is dirty and full of worms and bugs. More drama.”

Over the next few hours, she played tour guide, taking the trio from her new cabin to her garden to the smaller projects she'd been working on inside the cabin. Rachel and Anna seemed to be impressed by the pickled radishes and beans she'd canned, and Sinclair questioned her about possible botulism from home canning and the human interest it might provide.

She talked about Trudie and recalled sections of her diaries, pointing out some of her things in the cabin. But Sinclair didn't seem every interested in the history of the cabin. Instead, he seemed more concerned with the bear population.

He asked a long series of questions about how much of a danger the bears were to her, about what bears ate and when bears were most active. Lucy had a hard time reading the motives for his questions. When he moved from bears to other wilderness threats, Lucy offered up the story about her illness. She left out the part where Eli had rescued her, but Lucy's version seemed to pique Sinclair's interest.

“We've brought along a picnic lunch,” Anna said. “Why don't I set it up on the porch and then we can get down to business.”

“Business?” Lucy asked.

“Yes,” Rachel said. “We have some important matters to discuss about the show and we thought it best to come here personally and talk to you about them.”

Though she couldn't read Sinclair, it was clear that Rachel was not happy with what they'd come to say. She sent Lucy a smile, then an apologetic shrug.

“I'll just get some plates and forks.”

As she moved around the kitchen, she heard the backdoor squeak. Eli popped his head in. “Everything all right?” he asked.

“Go away!” she whispered. “They're out on the porch.”

“Don't look so scared. Be tough. Show them what you're made out of.”

Eli disappeared and she sighed softly. His words had made her feel a bit better. This was
her
project. She'd conceived it and brought it to them. She'd sold it to the producers and she wouldn't let some network guy stroll in with his plans to change things up. She'd just need to stand her ground and everything would be fine.

Lucy walked back outside and found Sinclair and her two producers deep in conversation. When they saw her, they split apart and Sinclair stepped forward. “I'm just going to make this short and sweet. The show needs more drama. More excitement. Or no network will buy it. What you've given us so far isn't a reality show. It's a sleep aid. You have to crank up the excitement. If you don't, you might as well pull the plug.” He glanced back at Anna and Rachel, who both looked stricken. “But I have some great ideas for how to turn this ship around. All right? Let's start with the bears...”

He talked all through lunch about various traumas that Lucy could endure over the next six months. Somewhere around his enthusiastic description of Lucy's possible encounter with a rabid porcupine, she realized that there would be no standing up to Bennett Sinclair. Her project, as she'd conceived of it, was finished.

Shoving his now empty plate at her, Sinclair put an end to further discussion. “Well, this meeting has been very productive. I'm glad we're all on the same page about the new vision for the show.”

He walked off the porch and headed for the helicopter. As Anna and Rachel passed her, they each gave her hand a squeeze.

“Can he do this?” Lucy asked.

Anna nodded. “If we want the show to be seen, we need him.”

As the trio walked to the helicopter, Lucy glanced down at Riley, who sat by her side. “Maybe you could fight a mountain lion,” she muttered. “That would be dramatic.”

* * *

“H
E
THINKS
I'
M
BORING
, E
LI
. He's watched the footage I've shot and he says I'm about as exciting as—a sleeping pill!”

Eli gently rubbed Lucy's back. “Why does he get a say? You and the producers decided what the show would be. Why aren't they sticking to the plan?”

“Anna and Rachel say that if we play it Sinclair's way, his network will buy the show. They see this as their big chance. I guess they're capitalists first and feminists second.”

“But it's your idea.”

“It seems they agree with Sinclair. If I don't change things, they're going to pull the plug. I mean, I can continue to live here and do my videos. But there would be no money for postproduction or marketing. I'd be left with just a bunch of home movies.”

Eli's anger surged. Why hadn't he stuck around to talk with the TV people? He could have defended Lucy's idea and explained what his grandmother might have wanted. He could have offered assurances that Lucy was working hard.

“You can fix this,” he said. “There are lots of interesting things you can show the audience without compromising the integrity of your show. I'll help you.”

“There's another thing. They want to send a cameraman. They think my taping doesn't look slick enough. And that my tape will be more dynamic if I don't have to worry about the camera. So, there's probably going to be another man on the mountain before too long.”