Suddenly, a terrifying thought flitted through my mind. “Do you think there are fish in this water?”

   He shrugged. “Probably.”

   My eyes darted to the water and I tried to see through it, looking for indications of any creatures moving under the surface. I started to panic, thinking I was feeling something brush up against my skin under the water. “I swear to God, if my leg touches a fish, I’m gonna flip out.” The water wasn’t murky, but as was the way with the Pacific Northwest, the riverbed was full of rocks and dirt, making everything under the water look brown. I could see my feet, but it was hazy and unclear.

   Nate, still holding my hand and leading me through the water, stopped and let out a loud laugh. His happiness made me temporarily forget I was, possibly, surrounded by fish, and I smiled along with him. When his laughter died down, he gave my hand a gentle squeeze, which somehow shot all the way to my heart, making it clench in my chest.

   “Don’t worry, Evelyn. I’ll protect you from all the fish in the stream.”

   We continued to wade through the water, my skin finally becoming used to the temperature, and my body slowly submerging as the depth rose from my ankles to mid-thigh. He hadn’t dropped my hand since he first took it, and I didn’t try to pull away; I liked the way it felt to have a man hold my hand. I liked being just half a step behind him and took every opportunity to admire him from my vantage point.

   The sun had come out and although it wasn’t terribly hot, the direct sunlight offered a beautiful light to his form. The most interesting part of him, as far as I could tell in that moment, was the way the muscles in his upper arms stretched the fabric of his t-shirt. With every step he took and every sway of his free hand, his biceps and triceps gave a delicious show of contracting and relaxing. A few times, he’d reached up to point out something overhead, and the sleeve would creep just a little further up, displaying even more tanned skin and taut muscle.

   “Hmmm,” I heard him murmur right before I walked into the back of him. I let out a surprised oof as my front hit the side of his arm, and I looked up at him to see him smiling down at me, as if he could tell I’d been staring at him.

   “Something distracting you back there?” he asked with a knowing grin.

   “Perhaps,” I said, not admitting to anything. “Why’d you stop?” I looked around his formidable body to see what had caused his abrupt halt.

   “Looks like we might be in a bit of a situation,” he said, raising his free hand to point ahead of us. I saw people wading, or actually swimming, through water that was much deeper than “waist-deep.”

   “I thought it only went waist-deep?” I asked, horrified at the thought of putting my nipples in the frigid water. Every woman could attest to the fact that cold water and nipples didn’t mesh well. “Well, this has been fun, Nate,” I said, turning away from him and heading back the way we came. A sharp tug on my hand brought me right back to his side, my breasts pressed against the hardness of the biceps I was just previously admiring.

   “Don’t give up on me now,” he said, his eyes peering down into mine with such intensity, I found my breath sneaking away from me. “I’ve got you. Don’t worry.” His free hand came forward and his fingers pushed the wisps of hair that had escaped my ponytail back behind my ear, and every hair follicle on my neck came to attention. He held my gaze for a long moment, his fingers resting at the base of my neck, my pulse pounding through my veins, and all I could think was, ‘please, God, kiss me this very instant.’

   But he didn’t, and instead of breathing Nate in, I had to take in actual oxygen, inhaling sharply as the presence of his fingers disappeared from my skin.

   “Here’s the plan. I’m gonna go through first, and then I’ll come back and help you through. I’ll take your camera and my backpack and put it on the other side.”

   “I’m not going to give you my camera.” My voice was still a little breathy from all the non-kissing that was happening, but I still wasn’t giving him my camera.

   He rolled his eyes, which should have pissed me off, but for some reason it only made me smile. “I promise I won’t get it wet. I’ll hold it above my head. It’ll be dry as a bone when it reaches the other side.”

   “And what if you trip? What if you get bitten by a giant river monster and my camera falls to the floor of this godforsaken stream? Then what?”

   “There is no river monster and I’m not going to trip. Come on, Evelyn. You’re going to have to learn to trust me eventually. This just speeds up the process.”

   My head instinctively tilted to the side as I contemplated his words. I was going to have to learn to trust him eventually? This was a foregone conclusion, already? I’d only trusted a handful of people in my lifetime and for some reason, Nate assumed he was going to make the short list. I couldn’t figure out if I thought it was sweet that he wanted to gain my trust, or if I should be running in the opposite direction.

   “If you drop my camera in the water, you have to replace it,” I said by way of relenting, my voice still full of air, obviously affected by our close proximity.

   “Done,” he said confidently.

   “It’s really expensive,” I threw back at him, only slightly annoyed by his confidence. Honestly, his cockiness was more arousing than annoying, but I knew it was imperative to the survival of my tough exterior to remain impassive to all his charms.

   “I think I can handle it,” he replied, his voice dropping lower and tinted with a gravelly rumble. My mind immediately started thinking about everything he could handle, including me, and I felt my pulse in profoundly private places.

   Since it was impossible for me to speak without saying, “Take me now,” I simply nodded in response. He smiled, all sexy and rugged, then released my hand and lifted my camera from around my neck. Before he could take it away from me fully, I grabbed it and opened the compartment that held the SD card and took it out. If he was going to ruin my camera, I wasn’t going to let him ruin all the pictures I’d taken. I kept my gaze on him as I slipped the card into my bra. His eyes widened and mouth dropped open.

   “That was just cruel,” he groaned.

   I gave him half a smile and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. He narrowed his eyes and gave another groan. Then proceeded to put my camera inside his backpack. Once it was all zipped up he turned back to me. “I’ll be right back.”

   “Okay,” I managed. He stepped away from me, heading toward the narrow passage where brave hikers were up to their armpits in water. Some laughing, some cursing. I looked behind me and found a large rock to sit on while I watched him navigate the water. He held the backpack above his head and even from a distance, I could see his knuckles turning white from gripping it so tightly. Eventually he disappeared around a bend and I could no longer see him or his backpack, so my eyes wandered and I took in the beautiful imagery around me. I laughed to myself, wishing I had my camera to take some photos.

   After a few minutes of sitting on the rock and watching people navigate the stream, going in and out of the gorge it created, I finally saw Nate return, his shirt completely wet. As he got closer, I noticed his neck was wet as well. But his hands, which were still up above his head, were dry.

   “Your camera is safe and dry on the other side. I left it with a responsible-looking group of hoodlums spraying graffiti on the pine trees.”

   “Shut up,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him, but still grinning, unable to stop my lips from turning up at his words. I immediately regretted saying that to him, afraid he’d find my retort offensive. I didn’t know him well enough to be telling him to shut up in a playful way – not everyone understood my sarcasm. Thankfully, his smile broadened at my words and, surprisingly, he only seemed to enjoy my sass.