Yours for the Taking (14 page)

“Yet, that’s how you took it.”

Gina didn’t say anything; she stared at him as if he was insane. He couldn’t stand it anymore; he bent down and kissed the creases that formed between her brows before he trailed his lips down to her ear. “I can’t be in the same room with you and not want to make love to you. Even when you’re pissed at me, I want you, but I never want you to feel cheap.”

Gina just laughed and pulled away, grabbing her own neck and trying to massage away the tension he’d felt running through her. “Don’t worry about it, Ben. At $35,000 a day, I hardly feel cheap.”

***

After Gina helped Kate pack up more food than two people could possibly eat in a month, she said good-bye to Joe who insisted on giving her a hug. Heck, even Kate hugged her. Gina endured it by shooting imaginary darts at Ben’s head. She was sure he’d said something to Kate. Frankly, Gina would rather have Kate’s blatant dislike than forced affection. Before Gina got in the car, Kate ran out and gave her a pair of gloves. She said it would be cold up there in the mornings. Where the heck was Ben taking her anyway? The tundra?

Ben received another hug and kiss from Kate before he got behind the wheel of the Land Rover. It felt really weird to be in the front seat of a car. As a matter of fact, she couldn’t remember a time when she’d ever ridden in the front seat. In New York taxis, the passengers almost always ride in the back.

Gina took control of the radio, something she’d never had the opportunity to do. She flipped through the pre-set stations, looking for something that fit her mood. After going through them twice, Ben handed her his iPod.

“You might as well see if this has anything on it you feel like listening to. We’ll have a hard time getting a decent radio station once we get farther into the mountains anyway.”

“We have a hard time getting a decent radio station now.” Gina had, of course, seen people with iPods. Heck, everyone she knew had one except her. When she didn’t move as fast as he deemed acceptable, he set the radio, put the iPod on the docking station, clicked something, and music poured out of the speakers. Nifty. She just hoped he didn’t have crap taste in music. What came on was an eclectic mix; there was country to rock, new age, jazz, and everything in between. “How many songs do you have on here?”

He touched a button and pointed to the space over the picture of the album cover. It said one of twenty-two thousand six hundred forty-three.

“You have over twenty-two thousand songs?”

Ben flipped his turn signal on as he stopped at a stop sign. “Sounds about right.”

Gina turned in her seat toward him. “Do you mean to tell me you have twenty-two thousand dollars tied up in music?”

Ben shrugged. “I had a large music collection before I downloaded everything, but I guess over the years, I’ve spent that much. It’s not as if I sit on iTunes and just buy whatever I see.”

“You could buy a car with that much money, and it’s all sitting here on your iPod.”

“Yeah, I guess. What’s on yours?”

“My what?”

“Your iPod. What kind of music do you like?”

“I don’t have an iPod. Spending money on music you can get for free on the radio seems like a waste.”

Ben raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Where I come from, people don’t have money for food yet they walk around with iPods and cell phones. I’ve never understood it. They can’t feed their kids but they have big-screen TVs. Not me. I bought food, clothes, paid my rent, and utilities. I didn’t get a computer until I had to for school. I probably still wouldn’t have one if the company hadn’t paid for it. An iPod isn’t something I have a hard time living without.”

They drove on, following a river until they came to a huge dam and just beyond that, a beautiful reservoir named Lucky Peak surrounded by treeless foothills. After a few miles, they hit the tree line and the road narrowed. They’d been climbing steadily for a half hour, and Gina couldn’t believe they kept going higher. Lodge pole pine rushed by on one side, and a raging river on the other. The road turned into a well-trimmed gravel surface and followed the river even higher.

“How much longer?”

Ben smiled. “It’s about three hours.”

“Down a road like this?”

“Up a road like this… well, a few miles up, it turns into a logging road.”

“What’s a logging road?”

Gina heard a huge pop inside her head, and a swooshing sound. She pulled on both her earlobes and wiggled her jaw. “Oh my God! What just happened?”

Ben handed her a stick of gum. “Your ears just popped. It’s the altitude.”

“How high are we?”

“About twenty-five hundred feet and climbing.”

“And just how far are we climbing?”

“Three Whores Bend is at about seventy-five hundred feet above sea level.”

“I’m guessing that’s higher than the Empire State Building.”

Ben turned on the heat. “Yup, way, way higher.”

“
Madre de Dios
.” The road narrowed again, and soon the gravel disappeared and turned into a narrow, dirt road, not wide enough in many spots for two cars to pass. She looked over the side of the road, which dropped about a hundred feet or more down to a raging river the likes of which she’d never seen outside a movie theater. “Ben, can you move over?” She inched closer to the center of the car, hugging the armrest.

Ben looked over at her. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you, sweetheart?”

Holding onto the armrest with a death grip she usually only reserved for her caffeine fix, she peered out the window. “Heights, no. Driving off cliffs, yeah, very, very afraid.” The road took a sharp turn to the left and Gina grabbed Ben’s arm. If she wasn’t mistaken, she might have even screamed.

He put his arm around her. “Calm down, I’ve driven this road a hundred times at least. I haven’t driven off a cliff yet.”

Gina elbowed him in the ribs. “Would you stop feeling me up and put both hands on the wheel?” By this time, she was practically sitting on the center console. “Ben, is it like this all the way up?”

His smile did nothing to alleviate her fears.

“It’s going to get worse than this?”

“In about a half hour, you’re gonna want to close your eyes.”

“Crap, Ben. You need to turn around.”

He looked at her and not at the road. “Where?”

Something darted in front of the car. “Stop!”

Ben hit the brakes and dust blew up everywhere. “What is it?”

“A dog!” Gina released her seat belt, climbed over Ben, opened his door, and jumped out of the Land Rover. “Where is he?”

Ben put the truck in park, set the emergency break, and put the hazards on. Why, she had no idea. She hadn’t seen another car in over half an hour. “Here, puppy.” She made kissing noises. “Come here, little guy.”

She saw a flash of white trying to scamper up a cliff on the other side of the road. She gingerly walked across the washboard road and up a steep hill into the forest.

“Gina, don’t try climbing—”

Ben was behind her when a little puppy slid down into her arms. Catching it threw her off balance and back into Ben, who tried grabbing them both. The two of them landed on him as he fell on his back onto the road.

The puppy landed on Gina, knocking the wind out of her. She lay there, holding the wiggling dog and heard a very strange sound.

“Get up! Now!” Ben scrambled to his feet, pulling her alongside him as she tried to hold onto a very unhappy and scared dog. When she looked up, she saw a huge eighteen-wheeler barreling down the mountain toward them. The driver blew his horn, scaring the puppy even more. It jumped from her arms as Ben dragged her toward the car and around the other side.

“The dog is out there!”

Ben pulled her to the edge of the cliff. Holding her by the waist, he wrapped one arm around a small tree growing on the edge of the road as the truck sped past, barely missing the car. Ben held her so tight she couldn’t breathe.

“If the damn dog is still alive, we’ll find him.”

Gina fought against Ben, trying to get to the puppy. Once the whine of the diesel engine and brakes lessened, Ben relaxed his hold. “Damn it, Gina! Don’t ever do anything that stupid again. You almost got yourself killed.”

Ben’s face was white. He opened the passenger door and threw her into the car. “I’ll look for the puppy. You sit here and don’t move.”

“Where am I going to go?”

Ben closed his eyes and for once in his life prayed for patience. “Where have I heard that before? Stay.” He shut the door, went around the car, and pulled the key from the ignition before locking her in. He leaned against the car trying to catch his breath. Gina had just scared the life out of him. He saw that truck barreling down the logging road and all he could think of was that he was going to lose her too. He wiped the sweat and grime from his face with a shaking hand. “Fuck.”

Gina rapped on the window. So much for staying put, she’d already climbed into the driver’s seat.

Ben looked across the road. No sign of a puppy and no road pizza to be found. At least it didn’t look as if the truck got it. Ben thought he heard something, so he got down on his knees and looked under the car. Sure enough, the shaking, filthy pup cowered behind the wheel. Ben crawled under the car and grabbed the little guy by the scruff of the neck. It yelped in fear as Ben dragged him out. Gina opened the door and jumped from the car, landing a hair’s breadth from the family jewels. She skipped from between his legs as he slid out from under the truck. He looked up to find her reaching for the damn dog. “I thought I told you to stay in the fucking car!”

She pulled the wet and dirty dog into her arms. “Shhh. You’re scaring him.”

Shit, that was no him. “It’s a her.” Just what he needed, another female. Hell, he couldn’t handle the one he had.

Gina held the shaking pup, not caring that it was covered with dirt and God only knows what. Puppy paw prints covered her shirt and jacket.

Ben walked to the back of the car and opened the tailgate. He moved the bags around, found an old towel, brought it to her, and wrapped it around the puppy. “You’re already covered, but maybe this will keep the inside of the car from getting too dirty.”

“Isn’t she beautiful? Look at that face.”

Beautiful wasn’t the word Ben would have used to describe the mutt, but it was obvious Gina was in love with her. There was going to be hell to pay if they found the puppy’s owners. “Get in the car. There’s a campsite about a mile up. Maybe she got away from her owners there.”

Gina didn’t look happy, but what were they going to do with a puppy? Even if the thing cleaned up well she wasn’t going to be a pocketbook pup most women use as accessories. From the looks of her, she was a pointer mix, all black with what might be white spots, and big paws she’d yet to grow into. The little thing couldn’t be over three months old.

“She doesn’t have a collar. How are we going to know if whoever is there is really her owner?”

“Sweetheart, why would someone lie?”

She just shrugged and climbed into the car, pulling her seat belt around both her and the now quiet puppy.

Ben pulled the critter from her arms. “The seat belt goes around you. Then you hold the puppy. Got it?”

“Fine.” She gave him a dirty look before reaching for the dog. “Poor baby, he’s usually not this mean.”

Ben slammed the door. “Yeah, only after near-death experiences.” Ben felt as if he’d been having near-death experiences ever since he married Gina.

By the time Ben rounded the car, Gina had the dog flat against her chest. The puppy’s front legs were on Gina’s shoulders, her little doggie face tucked under Gina’s chin, and her tail curled under her skinny little butt, with her back legs straddling Gina’s waist. It would take a crowbar to separate the two.

Just what Ben didn’t need. He didn’t know which would be worse, finding the owners or adopting a dog. From the look on Gina’s face, he knew either way there was going to be trouble. He started the car, the music came on, and scared the pup who jumped and whined. Gina quickly turned off the radio and quieted her by singing a song in Spanish. Ben didn’t know what she was singing about, but whatever it was, it worked. She had a really lovely voice… Gina, not the dog.

A few minutes later, he pulled into a campground. It was empty, but it hadn’t been for long. Either they dumped the pup or they lost her. The next campground was miles up the road; there was no way the puppy could have made it that far on her own. No, she’d be a sitting duck with all the wildlife around there. Ben hadn’t remembered passing a camper or even a truck with a camper shell since leaving Boise. From the feel of the fire pit, the past residents had been gone for hours. Great, it looked as if Gina had just adopted a dog.

The only good thing about having the puppy was that Gina was so busy mothering the damn thing she hadn’t looked out the window once. For that, Ben was grateful. By the time they made the bridge into Atlanta, an old mining ghost town close to Three Whores Bend, the puppy was asleep curled up against Gina. Ben would never admit it, but he missed having his wife’s hot little body pressed against his, even if she was only doing it to stay away from the edge of the road, or cliff as it were.

He couldn’t wait to get her into the cabin and out of her dirty clothes. The economy-sized box of condoms sitting in the jockey box was calling his name. Strangely, it came out sounding like Gina’s voice.

Gina turned toward him for the first time in what seemed like hours. “Are we there yet?”

He looked over and saw her cuddling the puppy to her chest. “Why are you whispering?”

“Jasmine is asleep.”

“Jasmine?”

“The puppy. She looks like a Jasmine to me.”

“You’ve named her?”

“Well, I have to call her something, don’t I?”

Ben shook his head. “No. Sweetheart, I know you like her, but have you thought this out? Do you really want to adopt a puppy?”

“Why? Don’t you?”

“Hold on. How did I get involved in this whole adoption process?”

“You saved her. What do you want to do, just drop her off somewhere?”

“I’m sure we can find her a good home.” Ben shot her his most charming smile as he broke out in a cold sweat.

His smile was not well received. Gina straightened her shoulders and set her chin in that determined angle that never failed to piss him off and turn him on at the same time. “She has a good home. Mine. I’ve been thinking about getting a dog and Jasmine is perfect.”

Well wasn’t that just great? She’d gladly take in a mutt to live with her but he had to practically bribe her to let him stay the night.

Gina held the puppy like a baby, cooing for all she was worth whenever the thing made a peep.

He blew out a breath, knowing he was treading on thin ice. Still, he was the man, he needed to assert himself, he wasn’t sure why he felt the need, but it was there all the same. “She’s not sleeping in my bed.”

Gina turned up her cute little nose and held the pup a little closer. “That’s fine, she can sleep in mine.”

Like hell. He didn’t come all this way to sleep alone, not after last night anyway. Oh no, he had plans. “Sweetheart, all the beds are mine, and you and I are sleeping together.”

“Either Jasmine sleeps with us or you can sleep alone.” Gina looked down at the big soulful brown puppy eyes. Shit, he was so fucked. She ran her hand over the puppy’s crusty belly. “Just as soon as we get home, I’ll draw you a nice hot bath and we’ll get you all pretty again.”

Ben stopped at the only place in Atlanta where he might be able to get dog food. He’d be damned if the puppy was going to eat their food.

The establishment, if you could call it that, was more of a bar than a store, but they did carry a few necessities. Lord knew, there weren’t many mini-marts in this neck of the woods. Luckily, there was a bag of puppy chow available and rope that would serve as a temporary leash and collar. He paid the man behind the bar and was glad Gina had stayed with Jasmine. He could just imagine what she’d say if she saw this place. He thanked the guy and headed to the car wondering where Gina had come up with a girly name like Jasmine. He figured it could be worse; she could have called her Fifi or something equally offensive to his Y chromosome.

Ben tossed his purchases in the back, threw the Defender into low gear, and headed up the mountain.

***

Gina waited for Ben. As soon as he left, she locked the doors and watched the few people come and go. The town itself looked like a rougher version of the ghost town she’d seen on an episode of
The Brady Bunch
. Unfortunately, they weren’t on a Hollywood set.

She told herself that Three Whores Bend couldn’t be this bad. After all, Ben said they had a country club. She could only hope that the people
there
didn’t look as if they’d just escaped from jail.

He rapped on the window, pulling her from her thoughts. Even though she was still mad at him, she was relieved to see him. The people staring at her gave her the creeps. As far as she was concerned, the sooner they got out of this place, the better.

“I was able to get puppy chow and some rope.”

“You’re not planning on getting kinky, are you? Because if you think I’ll let you tie me up with that, you’ve got something coming to you.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “I got it for the dog. You’ll need a leash, and since they didn’t have any sequin-covered designer leashes available, we’ll have to make do with the rope. As for tying you up, I packed silk ties so you have nothing to worry about.”

Leave it to Ben to say the perfect thing to put her usually dormant hormones into overdrive. She had to admit, that hot, unshaved, mountain man getup really worked for him. It still weirded her out a little, though. It was as if he were two people. In New York, he was a self-assured businessman who wore suits that cost more than she grossed in a month, and lived in a gorgeous loft apartment over his art gallery. But when he crossed the Continental Divide, he turned into a hot Jeremiah Johnson. Ben put a young Robert Redford to shame. It just wasn’t natural. Unfortunately, her hormones didn’t seem to care.

Gina tried to ignore him and her screaming hormones by looking out the window. There was nothing to look at but mountains, trees, river, and sky.

She’d heard the term Big Sky Country, but she never really understood it until she stepped out the door that morning. The sky was huge, she’d been staring at it almost the entire drive, and she still couldn’t get over it. It was so bright and clear, she could still see the moon and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. All day. She hadn’t even seen a plane. The only things she’d seen were birds. Ben had even pointed out a bald eagle once, not that she believed him. The only place they had eagles anymore was in zoos. She rolled her eyes. When she told him that, he just laughed at her, which pissed her off.

All this empty space made her feel uncomfortable. What she wouldn’t give to see a substantial building. Where was a nice high-rise when she needed one?

Ben turned the car off what looked like a path and headed straight up a mountain. Gina grabbed the armrest as the steepness of the incline threw her and the puppy back into the seat. She saw nothing but sky through the windshield. “Ben?”

The engine roared as they crawled up what no mountain goat, no less a vehicle, should be able to climb. She pictured them rolling over backward and tumbling end over end like a Hot Wheels car under the control of a daredevil four-year-old.

After a few minutes of climbing, the Land Rover leveled out. Gina opened her eyes to find them on the edge of a precipice. “We’re going to die!”

“Calm down, you’re scaring the puppy. We’ll be fine. You just have to know how to drive off-road.” Ben patted her hand, which had a death grip on the armrest as he let off the brake and let the car roll over the edge.

Gina screamed again and prayed as the seat belt tightened uncomfortably across her chest. It was the only thing keeping her from flying through the windshield. They headed straight down. Her hand flew to the dashboard, the other holding a squealing Jasmine. And even though she’d never driven, her foot smashed against an imaginary brake pedal.

Ben had both hands on the wheel, but when she looked down, his feet were nowhere near the brake.

“We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die!” She would have crossed herself if she had an extra hand. The engine whined as they rolled down the unbelievably steep mountain.

“No, we’re not. It’s under control.”

“Would you please step on the brake?”

“Only if you want us to roll. We’re in low gear; the engine is doing the braking. If I stepped on the brake, we’d go ass over teakettle. Relax. I know what I’m doing.”

Madre de Dios
, the man looked as if he was on a Sunday drive through Central Park. “Ben, if I survive this trip, so help me God, I’m gonna kill you.”

“Well, that would be an interesting start to the honeymoon.”

At the bottom of the mountain, they turned and Gina’s shoulder hit the door panel hard. They went up and down a few more death defying hills and stopped in front of a small cabin. “Where’s the ranch?”

He turned off the engine. “We’re here.”

She leaned closer to the windshield and peered out. They’d parked in front of a small, two-story cabin, though the second story couldn’t have been much more than a loft. The place was built of unpainted, weathered barn wood. The windows were trimmed in white and there where what looked like hitching posts outside the front door. She did a double take. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You married me for this?”

“Isn’t it great?”

She looked at Ben’s excited face, and then back to the house. The man was deadly serious.

“Just look at that view. Tell me this isn’t the most beautiful place on earth.”

She looked out the side window and all she saw were mountains. Sure the mountains were pretty, but it’s not as if they actually did anything but stand there looking majestic. Gina had never seen mountains like this. They were so steep, even trees didn’t grow on most of them. They were huge rock mountains.

“Tomorrow I’ll take you to the meadow. You should see the wildflowers. They’re incredible this time of the year.”

Ben hopped out of the car and Gina followed more slowly. He went and opened up the house while Jasmine frolicked in the front yard, not that there was anything as civilized as grass growing. It was more like stones, weeds, and pine needles. Jasmine went potty, which just reminded Gina of her own need to use the facilities.

She walked into the cabin looking for the bathroom. To the left was an eat-in kitchen with a weird looking large, metal stove. She figured it must be one of those AGA stoves. She’d never seen one in person, but from what she could remember about them, it seemed to fit the bill. To the right was a sitting area. Beyond that, there was a hallway with a few doors. She peered into one and saw a bed, the headboard and footboard made out of trees, with some of the bark still on it. Cute. The next door was the bathroom, thank God. She lifted the toilet bowl lid. “Ben, I think we have a problem.”

Ben came in behind her. “What?”

“It’s the toilet. Please tell me it’s not some kind of backwoods ice bucket.”

“Why?”

“Because there is the world’s largest ice cube in there.”

Ben groaned. “I’m gonna kill Delbert. He was supposed to bleed the pipes.”

“Bleed the what?”

“The pipes. You have to drain the pipes or they’ll freeze in the winter.”

“Okay, but it’s not winter now. It’s almost June.”

Ben shook his head and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. But you’re going to have to use the outhouse until the pipes thaw.”

“Did you just say outhouse?”

Ben nodded. “It’s just like a real bathroom, only you don’t have to flush.”

“Oh joy! I’ve always had such a problem remembering to flush.”

He took her hand and led her out the front door and about fifty yards away stood a very small house she had thought was a shed. Shows what she knew.

He unlatched the door and handed her a roll of toilet paper. “There you go. I’ll start unloading the car.”

“Why? We can’t stay here without a toilet and water.”

“Sure we can, you’ll see. It’ll be fine.”

Gina couldn’t believe she was peeing in an outhouse! She didn’t know outhouses still existed, no less were used. If Ben had told her last week she’d be using facilities that were nothing more than a hole in the ground, she’d have called Bellevue to see if they had an open bed in the psych ward. And if he thought for one minute she was going to stay somewhere she couldn’t bathe, well, a psych ward was where he belonged.

She finished up, turned to flush, and remembered she didn’t have to. Gross. There was also no sink to wash her hands. She went back to the car, dug through her purse, and found hand sanitizer. She looked around to see where he’d run off to when she noticed Ben had tied Jasmine to the hitching post. Jasmine lay on her side, stretched out in the sun with her puppy belly sticking out. Gina walked over, bent down next to her, and the puppy didn’t move. “Ben?”

Ben came out of the cabin and looked over at them.

“There’s something wrong with Jasmine.”

“She’s okay, I fed her. She’s just full. Since it’s probably been a while since she’s had a meal, I gave her a handful of kibble so she wouldn’t make herself sick. She inhaled it. I tied her out here just in case it doesn’t all stay down.”

Ben reached for her hand and Gina found herself forgetting all about the outhouse issue as he helped her up. How could she be mad at a guy who stopped to get her puppy food without having to be told? Especially when the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind, which said more about her puppy parenting skills than anything. Then he was sweet enough to feed Jasmine while Gina had only thought of herself and her own creature comforts. Put another X in her unfit for puppy parenthood column.