I closed my eyes to avoid seeing his gorgeous face close up, and tried to focus on something other than his fingers brushing my bare skin and the faint warmth of his body heat, despite only wearing a green T-shirt. I caught a hint of his scent, like the depths of the forest spiked with male perspiration, and the breath caught in my throat in response.
Every nerve in my body was taut. It was disturbingly and wonderfully intimate all at the same time, and I wanted him to take forever to get the knots undone, even as I couldn’t bear for the intensity to last another second.
I felt as much as heard him sit back, a sudden emptiness in the atmosphere, as though a huge weight had been lifted.
Sam paused to clear his throat. I opened my eyes to find him a couple of metres away, looking intently at the scrubby grass by his feet. ‘All sorted.’
‘Thanks,’ I mumbled, reverse-scrabbling into the tent because turning around so that he had a full view of my barely-covered backside felt even more exposing. I took a few seconds to choke on the utter horror of what just happened, got dressed and spent another long moment with my hands pressed over my face, shaking my head and wishing I was anyone but me, before shuffling back out again.
‘Hi,’ Sam said, with a quirky smile, hands in his shorts pockets as he rocked back on the heels of his walking boots.
‘Hi. And thank you. Who knows how long I’d have been trapped there if you hadn’t stepped up. Although, if you hadn’t snuck up on me, I wouldn’t have got caught up in the first place, so… maybe instead of thanking you I should be asking what you’re doing creeping about my clearing?’
‘I wasn’t creeping! I entered the clearing in a perfectly relaxed manner.’
‘Okay, but back to the thousand acres of forest, and why you happened to be in this one?’
Sam glanced over his shoulder, rubbing his jaw.
‘As the ranger on call tonight, I was notified that a member of the public had pitched a tent in an unsuitable location. While the unofficial line is that we leave campers to it as long as they aren’t presenting any risk to the forest or leaving their rubbish behind, in this case I have to move you on.’
‘Why is this unsuitable?’ I asked. ‘It’s an empty spot, with a stream nearby. I made sure the fire’s a safe distance from the undergrowth. I’m not disturbing anyone.’
‘Actually, the sight of you stripping off was pretty disturbing to the guys in the shooting lodge.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You’ve camped in direct line of fire of the rangers’ shooting lodge. See this?’ He took a couple of steps and nudged a cluster of tiny brown balls with his toe. ‘Deer droppings. They weren’t at all happy about catching a trespasser in their rifle scope until…’ Sam stopped, catching himself.
‘Until they caught her stripping off.’
He shrugged awkwardly. ‘It’s first Saturday of the hunting season. Spirits and emotions are high.’
I hung my head, the humiliation burning beneath my skin. ‘I can’t believe I thought I could do this.’
‘If it’s any consolation, you picked a great spot. That’s why the deer love it.’
‘I’m a complete joke.’
‘You looked like you were doing great to me.’
‘I mean literally. They’ll be laughing about me all over the forest.’
Sam looked at me, his eyes shadowed in the deepening darkness. ‘Not when I’m on shift.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s a big forest.’
‘With weird and embarrassing things happening all over it. Trust me, we’ve seen a lot worse. One woman drying out her walking gear is nothing compared to the group who decided to see in the summer solstice with a night of drug-fuelled naked dancing right on the edge of a thirty-foot drop. We had to call the police.’
‘Please tell me no one called the police about this!’
‘I think we can handle this one internally.’
A sudden crack echoed through the trees, causing Nesbit to spring to attention, ears twitching.
‘But that’s our signal to get out of the way.’ Sam pulled a wry grin. ‘Come on, I’ll show you a spot out of the action.’
He waited for me to shove my stuff back into the pack, and with a couple of flicks had the tent back in its bag. I tried to watch to see how he did it, but unfortunately blinked and so missed it.
‘Can you fetch some water for this?’ he asked, nodding at the campfire.
‘I think it’s already gone out.’ My amazing fire had not been quite as successful as I thought, having burnt out at some point after Sam’s arrival.