Free Counting Stars (A Donnelley Brother's Novel) by Alannah Carbonneau Page B

eyes and breathed in deep. Obviously,
I was testing his patience—but he was testing everything inside of me. “We walked six hours to get here, Reese. We’re not
walking back for a tent.”
    “Well, I’m not sleeping
with you.” I rose to my full height, feeling an argument brewing.
Despite my five-feet-of-pitiful, I hoped I looked at least a little
intimidating.
    “What’s the problem with
sleeping next to someone?” He growled. Irritation was loud in the
undertones of his words.
    “It’s improper. I don’t
know the first thing about you.” I stammered. “I can’t sleep with
you.”
    “You do know the first
thing about me. I’m blunt, as you’ve so kindly stated.” He rubbed
his brow with thick fingers. “And it’s not like I said we have to
fuck. We’d just be sleeping next to each other.”
    I scrubbed my face with my hands as a frustrated sound
crawled from my throat. “I can’t believe you just said
that! I’m not sleeping next to you, so you can sleep outside
because I won’t be!”
    With those words, I
darted into the tiny tent. Reaching for his pack that was sitting
on the right side of the tent, I chucked it outside and zipped up
the tent. My chest was heaving. I was so angry. I sat in the center
of the tent, cross-legged, as I fumed over the ignorant man who I
could now hear beating wood with his axe.
    How dare he expect me to sleep next to him! And how
dare he say such vile things? It wasn’t like I was a prude, but I
didn’t go around talking to strangers in such a way. And that’s
what I was to him. I was a freaking stranger! I
was his customer! And he thought he could just expect me to accept
his sleeping next to me.
    Who would do that?
    That’s when a distasteful thought fluttered through my
mind. Logan was the one who did solitary trips. How many women had
he taken out here into the wilderness? How many women had he had to sleep next to? How many of them had he
fucked?
    Just the thought made my
mouth dry and my eyes mist. Here I was stuck in the middle of
nowhere with an egotistical man-whore while I was trying to find
acceptance over the death of my husband.
    Could my life get any
worse?
    With pity-filled
thoughts swimming through my mind, I assembled my sleeping bag on
the floor. A small pillow and another thin fleece blanket had been
rolled up tight inside the sleeping bag. Once I’d placed my blanket
on the floor of the tent, I was fully convinced that this was a
one-person tent. There was no way I was sharing it with that—man.
There was barely enough room for my sleeping bag and pack, I
couldn’t imagine sharing the space with Logan. Not only would his
sleeping bag be a tight fit, but the man himself was so large, I
had no doubt it would be a very snug fit.
    A tap on the tent
startled me from my thoughts and Logan’s deep voice seeped through
the fabric. “You decent?”
    “What do you want?” I
ground through tightly clenched teeth.
    “The food will have to
stay in the tent. There’s less of a chance that an animal will come
for it if it’s inside.”
    “You’re not sleeping in
here.” I announced again—in case he’d forgotten.
    “I’ve realized.” He
tapped again. “I’m coming in.”
    “Just hand me the food.”
I met him at the door, noting a grim expression on his handsome
face. “There’s no reason for you to be in here.”
    “You’re being
ridiculous.” He handed me a cooler of food.
    “No, what’s ridiculous
is that you expected a woman you don’t know to be comfortable
sleeping next to you.” Tension was seeping from my pores as I
glared up at him through angry eyes.
    Logan shook his head and a grin formed on his lips.
“Most women are comfortable with it.”
    “ Well, I’m not!” I said icily. “You’d think you would
have expected as much by my earlier request to have a woman as a tour guide. Or have you forgotten, I was supposed
to be out here with Gracie.”
    His already dark eyes
darkened. When he spoke, his voice was