For just a moment, my eyes were drawn to the dark scrolls and sharp angles of the tribal tattoo that covered his left arm, ending at his wrist. The markings were a stark black against his tanned skin, and the ferociousness of the design left me speechless.
I wasn’t into tats, and I’d seen Eli’s in images many times, but there was something about those markings that made my heart lodge in my throat. They were fierce, but for some reason they only made me feel . . . sadness.
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked hesitantly as my gaze went back to his face.
He folded his muscular arms in front of him as he answered, “You didn’t seem to want to come to me, so I’m coming to you. I’m your student for the next thirty-two hours or so, Jade.”
I might not have been fond of Eli Stone, but his presence was still a little bit overwhelming.
Okay, maybe more than a little bit.
It had been so long since I’d seen Eli in person that I’d started to tell myself that I’d overestimated the tension that had flowed between us in his office.
But I really hadn’t.
My body was taut just from being in close proximity to him, and the hypervigilant awareness I felt when I looked at him was very, very real.
The feelings were so powerful that I couldn’t focus on anything else but him.
I didn’t understand it.
But I was truly experiencing it.
The same awkward, potent attraction I’d fought in his office months ago.
I swallowed hard, my brain working to figure out exactly how I could get rid of Eli Stone before I made a complete and total fool of myself.
CHAPTER 3
ELI
Jade Sinclair looked like a deer in the headlights right now, and I could sense her panic.
Oddly, I didn’t really want her to be intimidated by me. She sure as hell hadn’t been when we’d met in my office.
Was it because we were alone in the middle of nowhere?
I suspected that wasn’t the case, since she was out here routinely with people she didn’t know.
Why in the fuck is she so afraid of me?
Granted, I’d lied to her when I told her in my office that I’d just wanted to see why she wanted to buy a piece of land that was worth almost nothing. But the truth was, I’d been intrigued by her reported character and skills for a long time.
One of my college acquaintances, a fellow adventure seeker, had taken one of Jade’s advanced survival classes, and he’d told me about her.
She had a reputation in the San Diego area of being one of the best survivalists around.
When I’d gotten the opportunity to see her in person, I’d taken it.
Yes, I had been curious about why she wanted some worthless property. But that hadn’t been my main motivation for wanting to meet her.
Unfortunately, I’d gotten caught up in a crisis right before her appointment time, so I’d had to make her wait.
I sure as hell hadn’t wanted to put off the meeting, but I’d been wrestling with an issue that could cost a lot of people their jobs, so I hadn’t had any choice.
I’d been relieved that she’d still been there when the crisis was over. Rather than discussing extreme survival with her, I’d ended up getting punched in the gut by the most beautiful, composed, outspoken, and entirely irresistible woman who had ever crossed my path.
She’d been nothing like I’d expected.
But everything I’d wanted just the same.
Since I was very much an amateur survivalist, I’d wondered if I could talk her into teaching me some of the things I didn’t know. I had limited time, so I was going to try to convince her to teach me specifics to save time.
Unlike my acquaintance who had taken her class, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the fact that a female knew more than I did about survival.
In fact, I’d been . . . intrigued.
Problem was, I hadn’t planned on being attracted to her.
For some unknown reason, I wanted Jade Sinclair more than I’d ever wanted any other woman in my bed.
And I was determined to make it happen.
I had to have her to shake her out of my system. I was pretty damn tired of thinking about her so much that I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t keep my mind on work, and couldn’t keep my dick deflated because she was becoming an obsession for me.
Unfortunately, getting her to spend time with me had been impossible. But I wasn’t the type of man to admit defeat.
“You have to go,” she finally said. “The class is full.”
“I know,” I answered. “I bought all of the spots over a month ago, plus I made a healthy donation to Save the Wildlife Corridors Fund that should go through today.”
The shock on her face was nothing short of adorable. I knew I really should stop baiting her, but I couldn’t help myself.
I wanted her.
And I never lost a deal or a competition that I really wanted to win.
I might have been born wealthy, but the empire I’d created after my father had passed away two years ago was all dogged determination. I never gave up when I knew I had to negotiate.
And there wasn’t much I wasn’t willing to put on the table to get a deal with Jade.
“I’m not doing this,” she said, her chin going up. “You’d treat this class like a joke, and it’s something that’s important to me.”
“Not even for a seven-figure donation to your charity?” I queried. Yeah, I kind of felt like a dick because I was trying to sway her with money. But her passion for wildlife was obviously a motivating factor for her, and I used any weaknesses I could find.
Her jaw dropped. “You gave that much to SWCF? Why?”
“Like you said, it’s important to you.”
“You could have just donated the land I wanted,” she said suspiciously.
I shook my head regretfully. “I can’t do that, Jade. And this isn’t a joke. A friend took one of your advanced courses. He sang your praises, even though he was a little intimidated that a woman was teaching him. I was impressed. I could use more survival skills. I have a lot of hobbies that could leave me in a situation where I need the information you could teach me to survive.”
Okay. Maybe that was just a little bit of bullshit, too, since I already had basic survival skills because of the extreme challenges I did on a regular basis. But I had to appeal to her sense of fairness somehow. And truthfully, Jade could teach me a lot more than I already knew.
Jade was intelligent and pretty much fearless, if the stories I’d heard were true.
Maybe she was a challenge, but it was more than that.
In the last several years, very little had intrigued me. But Jade did. And once my interest had been piqued, there had been no turning back.
I wanted to get to know her almost as much as I wanted to fuck her, which was new for me.
“Maybe I’m not all that good,” she challenged. “But I’ll teach you what I can, since you seem to need to be on television every damn week, so I assume you aren’t going to stop doing ridiculous challenges anytime soon.”
God, she’s stubborn, but I kind of like that about her.
Jade was a woman with fire. She’d just never found anybody to stoke the flames, and I was determined to be the man who did.
She reminded me of a beautiful butterfly who was still struggling to get free of her cocoon. Obviously, she had some hang-ups, but I wasn’t one to talk about that, since I was more fucked up than she could ever be.