Not Too Tall to Love Read Online Free Page A

all
experienced walkers. Including Andy.
    “Shit, man, I don’t know what came over me.
Let’s just follow her and I’ll apologize after we catch her up—okay?”
    The men headed down the side track. Derek
half-expected to find Andy waiting for them around the first bend in the path,
but she was nowhere in sight.
    After about five minutes of steady walking
Corey said, “Ya know what, Derek? I reckon you were so upset about her leaving
us because you care for her. You’re falling for her. After one night together
she’s gotten under your skin. And she’s under my skin too. I can’t wait to get
her in our bed again tonight.”
    “Of course I’m not falling for her. She’s just
a joint fuck. We’ve done this several times before and I’ve never fallen for
any of them.” Even to himself he sounded weak. Could I be falling for her?
She’s certainly fun to be around. And a mighty hot bedmate. He hadn’t come so hard from a blowjob ever before that he could recall.
    And the way she woke
us up this morning. Hell, I nearly came in her hands. But is it possible to fall
for someone in a day?
    “Besides, we’ve only known her for a day,” he
told Corey.
    “Well, no—actually we’ve known her for a year.
We’ve talked to her quite a bit, remember. She walks at a good pace with those
lovely long legs. And she doesn’t hang off our arms whining like Sara and
whatshername.”
    “Cathy. Yeah.” Derek
thought of Andy’s hazel eyes and how she’d watched him come this morning. Of her wide-mouthed smile and her laughter as they had walked along
the ridge. Of her sheer joy in the adventure they were sharing.
    And he realized he did care about her. Oh, maybe it was lust and not love , but hell yeah—he really didn’t want anything to happen
to her.
    “Let’s catch her up,” he said and increased his
pace.
    “Good plan,” said Corey, matching his speed.
     
    * * * *
     
    Andy had walked away from them at a fast pace.
She’d been really looking forward to seeing these falls and she was smart
enough to recognize that Derek’s response was out of all proportion to a minor
disagreement. At first she thought it was a male testosterone, “Me Tarzan, you
Jane” thing, but then she got to wondering if it was more than that.
    “Well, too bad. I was right about our
directions every single time we disagreed on the way up and down Blue Ridge
Mountain, and I’ll keep the pace as fast as I safely can to make sure I get
back before dark,” she said aloud to herself.
    The track wasn’t steep. It was grading steadily
downhill but was basically smooth dirt with few rocks, so it was easy to keep a
fast pace without risk of breaking an ankle. Nonetheless, Andy kept a sharp eye
on the track, aware that hiking alone wasn’t a smart decision in such an
isolated area. Although she was pretty sure the guys would come looking for
her—if not immediately, then tonight if she wasn’t back by dark.
    After about fifteen minutes’ steady hiking she
could hear the splashing sounds of water and she became aware of birdcalls,
too. She stopped for a moment to look up into the trees but couldn’t see any
birds yet.
    How strange. We heard
the falls and the birds up on the top of the ridge, but not again until now.
That’s some weird acoustics .
    Stepping out briskly again she rounded a few
more bends—and there were the
falls—still probably a mile away, but they were framed like a perfect picture
between the trees of the track.
    “Beautiful,” she breathed. “Worth
every step of the journey.”
    Andy picked up her pace again and hiked on to
the falls. The sound of the water became louder with every bend she negotiated
and it took her a while to realize she could hear footsteps behind her on the
track.
    With a naughty giggle she broke into a jog for
the last hundred feet or so and arranged herself on a rock, her backpack at her
feet, gazing at the falls so that she could play innocent when they arrived.
     
    * * * *
     
    Derek and