I was still stunned she’d agreed to come. This couldn’t be any more out of her comfort zone. She wasn’t in control, hadn’t prepped ahead of time, and didn’t know what to expect. But it was still going to be a disaster if she hated it.

She looked at something on her phone, sighed heavily, and put it down again. I wished I had Lucas Steel’s powers to see to it that anyone who wronged her met a slow, painful end. It wasn’t a lesson she’d meant to teach me, but I now had a clear understanding of why he would melt the minds of the warlords who kidnapped Freya, before delivering their heads as an apology gift.

Instead of scaring the hell out of her by telling her that, I said, “Asha warned you not to look. You can’t control it right now anyway, so looking is only going to make you feel shitty.”

“It’s horrible. I know this is what I signed up for, but living it feels different from imagining it.”

“Tell me about it.” She didn’t smile at my joke. “I promise we’ll make it right.”

“Some of it.” She sighed.

We reached the entrance of the park a few hours later and I kept glancing over to see her reaction. As we drove through the stark desert filled with nothing but giant rocks and weirdly shaped Joshua trees, she finally spoke. “No wonder my friends like coming here to do hallucinogenic drugs. It looks like we’ve stepped into a Dr. Seuss book. It’s stunning.”

I let out a breath.

I eventually turned into the Jumbo Rocks campground and found the spot I’d managed to book from a last-minute cancellation. It was tucked deep in against the rocks, so it felt secluded and private despite being in the campground.

When I parked and turned the engine off, Elena glanced around at the emptiness surrounding us. “Mr. Chase, this looks a lot like you’ve just parked at a campsite. You promised we weren’t camping, so I can only assume we’re hanging out here for the evening until we go check in to a hotel.”

I grinned. “I promised no tents. I didn’t promise we weren’t camping.”

I hopped out of the truck before the look on her face made me laugh aloud. She cracked her door open to call out, “So where are we sleeping if not in a tent?”

“Under the stars,” I said, already starting to pull gear out of the back.

She jumped out and stomped over to where I was piling my stuff. God, she was sexy when she was mad.

“I’m not sleeping outside, you devious motherfucker.”

“I thought you’d be proud of my little evasion. Isn’t it something Lucas Steel would do?”

Her derisive huff confirmed I was right. “Fine. Do your convening with nature thing. I’m calling an Uber and I’ll see you back in LA.”

I couldn’t repress a choked laugh as she stormed back to the truck. “Good luck with that,” I muttered.