I returned the weak smile he was giving me. “A secret spot? How can it be secret if you know about it?”

He blinked in surprise and lifted an eyebrow at me. “She’s still mouthy. That’s a good sign.” He turned to walk away but not before throwing over his shoulder, “I know all kinds of things no one else knows, Leo.”

That was the truth. He knew how to push and pull me at the same time. He was the only person who made me want to chase full speed after heartbreak. He was the only one who saw through all my standard defenses and barreled his way past them like they weren’t even there. He knew I was prickly and pointy, but more than that, he knew the reasons why and my thorns didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

Grady and Webb had wandered off to start setting up camp. As usual, they were having an intent conversation between themselves and didn’t seem at all interested in what was going on with the rest of the group. Frankly, I was surprised they were still with us. The pretense that they were here on some kind of business trip seemed long abandoned. They had ulterior motives for being out here in the woods with the rest of us and their focus on who else might be lurking on the remote and hard-to-reach trails was so obvious there was no ignoring it. I couldn’t worry about that either because Cy turned me around, plastered my back to his front and started marching me toward the river and away from camp. He was still holding me up and each step he took, he bore most of my weight as I tripped and lagged in front of him. I was nothing more than a Leo-sized marionette and all my strings were wrapped around Cy’s fingers.

“You want me to come after you if you’re gone for more than an hour?” Lane’s voice shifted from serious to salacious and a knowing light glinted in his denim eyes. The smile on his face made me blush.

“Give me a little longer than that. We’re going to have to alternate being on lookout tonight, so we can keep an eye out for Sutton.” And for whoever else might be lurking in the woods, but he didn’t say that part out loud. “Get everyone fed and settled in. We’ll be back in a bit.”

Cy started marching me in the opposite direction we’d started out in. Lane started laughing and shouted at me, “Remember that there’s nothing to block sound out here, Leo. If you’re a screamer the entire camp is going to know it.”

I blushed even hotter and tried to turn my head so I could tell him to fuck off, but Cy wouldn’t let me. He was on a mission and nothing was going to deter him from it. When my legs quit working because the pain from my shoulder sucked all of my remaining energy and stamina, he simply picked me up and carried me like I was a baby, cradled against his chest for the last ten minutes of the trek to the hidden hot springs.

There was a bend in the river and an outcropping of rocks that looked too steep to climb. Cy walked us around the back of the formation and I was shocked to see a bubbling pool of water that was about the size of an apartment swimming pool behind the boulders. Someone had walled the water in with stone so that it was a natural hot tub hidden away in the middle of nowhere.

“This place is insane.” I exhaled the words out in awe. It was surrounded by nothing but wide open sky and craggy rocks. It was like something out of a movie or a glossy ‘Come to Wyoming’ travel brochure.

“Wyoming is covered with thermal vents. There are all kinds of spots along the river folks have blocked off to make natural soaking pools. This one is hidden because it’s behind the rocks. Dad used to bring us out here in the middle of winter.” He stepped away from me and turned me around to face him.

“Why in winter?” I asked the question as he rubbed his hand over his face like his patience was at the breaking point.

“He always told us we wouldn’t appreciate it fully in the summertime. Ranch work is always hard and grueling on your body, but that goes into overdrive in winter. You aren’t just battling stubborn livestock and unforgiving landscape, you’re also trying to fight Mother Nature, and that bitch is undefeated around here.” He tilted his head toward the water. “It’s hot, but I think it will help some of those bumps and bruises.”

I looked at the water and then back to him. I could feel heat rising in my neck and my cheeks getting warm. My reaction made his eyes spark with silver threads of arousal.

“Great. But I don’t think I can get in there by myself.” If I did get in, there was no way I was getting myself back out.

“I’ll help you in.” His deep voice was dripping with velvet and promise.

I flushed under his unwavering scrutiny. “We didn’t bring anything to change into.”

That almost smile lifted the edges of his mouth and I knew if he ever managed to get all the way there, I was going to hand my heart over to him with no questions asked. His half a smile already owned me, his entire smile was bound to consume me.

“We’re going in the water, our clothes aren’t.”

Well, when you put it like that . . .

I moved to start unbuttoning my shirt and almost ended up on my knees in front of him as searing agony shot through me when I tried to move my bad wrist to grab the buttons. Through watery eyes and a tight throat, I told him, “I don’t think I can get undressed either. This is going to be incredibly awkward.”

He took a step toward me, then another. We were almost touching chest to chest and we were sharing breaths and heartbeats. He lifted his hands to the front of my shirt and was achingly gentle as he slid one button after the other free. “Don’t worry, Leo, I’ve got you and I’ll take care of you the best I can.”