Mind The Gap / 8

Rose got her wish the next day, in a move that I’m certain was calculated.

Bella was determined to send Damned If She Do, even if it meant leaving her palms behind. I helped her over the last of the tumbled rocks that were crushed up against the tree line and all three of them were there already, as though we were the ones late to the party. I tried not to groan and trailed Bella up the slope, thoroughly enjoying the view as I trudged behind her, unable to remember if I’d accidentally slipped at dinner last night and mentioned our destination. They certainly weren’t here for their own benefit. The route was far below Jasper’s skill level and Emmett was basically as tall as the rock itself.

He was currently assisting Rose over the last lip with his giant paw on her ass.

I introduced the girls and of course Rose dropped the Sparkle thing, just as bad as a guy. She also called me a shit-head, which she tended to do a lot lately, courtesy of Emmett. He was a bad influence. She stumbled over herself when she mentioned James, her eyes launching far beyond Emmett on the rock in front of us and landing all the way down there at that rock cairn holding court at the base of the Passion Pit. She had only just begun climbing with us when it happened and I thought that she might be forever scarred by the ordeal. Her climbing took on a tone of cautious contemplation afterward that she still hadn’t quite shaken herself of.

Which made Bella’s comment about the gazelle spot fucking on.

Rose climbed like a creature somewhere toward the bottom of the food chain. A golden, wide-eyed creature, alert to every errant noise and ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. Timid, watchful bursts of speed, always taking careful stock of her surroundings and picking her way carefully up the rock, her moves alluding to the fact that she knew full well every single one could be her last. It sort of alarmed me that Bella saw the connection before I did, but now that she mentioned it, I couldn’t see Rose any other way.

Which really made me start to wonder about Bella.

She was a freak accident. The good kind. It was the only way I could explain her sudden appearance and what it had done to my head. I used to come out here to clear myself, drain away the restless anxiety in a purge of skin, but lately I was leaving as cloudy as ever. I used to climb for the challenge of it, the endurance and even for the pain. Now, I was content to stand back all day, lounge in the sun and watch the girls work their problem in a scant amount of clothing. I used to avoid other climbers and hardly paid attention to the stray girls who wandered across us, hoping to latch on.

Now, instead of dreaming about rocks in my sleep, I was dreaming about her.

The girl was fucking hot.

I didn’t want to admit it, but it was the damn truth. I would have liked to say that it was her skill, her easy laugh and her determination that I was falling for, because I was. I wanted to tell you that it was those long-ago sparkles, which I sorely missed. But dear lord, in all honesty, she had a rack to die for. And big bottomless brown eyes and too much hair and roughened fingers dipped in chalk. I was so done for. I could barely think about her decently anymore, every thought stained with ferocious want and my imagination warped us into all sorts of compromising positions. When she offered to spot me while I gave the Passion Pit another go, even that sparked one of my more vivid hallucinations.

Pinning her to my crash pad. Dusting every inch of her skin with my chalky fingers.

Jasper caught me staring at her ass that day.

Four times.

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