Tempted (Sea Dragons of Amber Bay Book 1) by Zoe Ashwood

Author:Zoe Ashwood [Ashwood, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

Two and a half hours later, I am no longer convinced any of this is fun. In fact, this is about as far from fun as I can get, and I intend to tell Jack all about that when I catch up with the bastard. I swipe at my brow with my hand, and my bracelet scratches my cheek. Just perfect. He’s left me alone on this path to Hell. He claims he remembers a cool picnic spot just ahead. He went scouting and left me alone in the wilderness, where a bear could come and eat me at any second. Or a wolf. Or a starved fox. Because I’m gods damned delicious. I might be sweating inside my fleece-lined jacket on this gorgeous day, but I still smell good.

I round the corner then stop, my feet rooted to the ground. Below me, the most spectacular view unfolds, and I’m left speechless.

The ground slopes gently down from my standpoint, a soft valley covered in meadows. It’s pink—the exact hot pink of the flowers I picked earlier in the week. Fireweed, Aiden had called them. Now I see why: the ground is ablaze with color, and there’s such beauty in this stark scene that my breath catches in my throat.

Far beyond to the left, the gray ocean meets a shore hidden by emerald-green spruce trees, and even farther out, the sea melts into the pale-blue sky.

“What do you think?” Jack says from my side. “Was this worth the hike?”

I didn’t hear him come up to me, but I reach out and take his hand, our fingers twining together as though we’ve done this a hundred times. “Definitely,” I whisper.

He hums in approval and lets me gaze out for a minute longer. Then he gently tugs my hand. “Come on, you can still see the view from our picnic place.”

Jack leads me to an open, sunny spot just ahead, where he has spread out a checkered picnic blanket. On it, he has laid out an entire feast of English muffins, cold ham, hard-boiled eggs, white cheese, and shiny red apples.

“Oh wow,” I breathe. “This is why you left me at the mercy of bears? I might just forgive you.”

We sit, and he prepares me a cute little sandwich. It’s fantastic, the ingredients fresh and savory, and the two bottles of cider he brought to go along with the food are still cold. We fall on the feast like famished beasts. It’s probably all the fresh air and the hiking that have done a number on us. Jack, of course, looks as though this was a gentle Sunday stroll.

“Do you go hiking often?” I ask, curious to know more about him.

He gives a one-shouldered shrug and cores another apple, passing me the slices. “I’m more of a swimmer. But yeah, I know these hills pretty well.”

I glower at the barely there footpath we’d ascended. “You and the deer, huh?”

Jack snorts. “The deer heard you coming from a mile away and ran.”

“Oh!” I nudge his shoulder in mock-anger.

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