As she started to drag the shirt over her head, Hunter grabbed the hem and yanked. Lee tumbled down on top of him again, to find her mouth captured. When he let her surface, she narrowed her eyes. “You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” He caught her chin in his hand and kissed her again. “Let’s have breakfast.”

She swallowed a laugh, but her eyes gave her away. “Bastard.”

“Okay, but I’m still hungry.” He tugged her shirt down her torso before he started to dress.

Lying back, Lee strugggled into a pair of jeans. “I don’t suppose, now that the point’s been made, we could finish out this week at a nice resort?”

Hunter dug out a fresh pair of socks. “A resort? Don’t tell me you’re having problems roughing it, Lenore.”

“I wouldn’t say problems.” She stuck a hand in one boot and found the inside damp. Resigned, she hunted for her sneakers. “But there is the matter of having fantasies about a hot tub and a soft bed.” She pressed a hand to her lower back. “Wonderful fantasies.”

“Camping does take a certain amount of strength and endurance,” he said easily. “I suppose if you’ve reached your limit and want to quit—”

“I didn’t say anything about quitting,” she retorted. She set her teeth, knowing whichever way she went, she lost. “We’ll finish out the damn two weeks,” she mumbled, and crawled out of the tent.

Lee couldn’t deny that the quality of the air was exquisite and the clarity of the sky more perfect than any she’d ever seen. Nor, if he’d asked, would she have told Hunter that she wanted to be back in Los Angeles. It was a matter of basic creature comforts, she thought. Like soaking in hot, fragrant water and stretching out on a firm, linen-covered mattress. Certainly, it wasn’t more than most people wanted in their day-to-day lives. But then, she reflected, Hunter Brown wasn’t most people.

“Fabulous, isn’t it?” His arms came around her waist, drawing her back to his chest. He wanted her to see what he saw, feel what he felt. Perhaps he wanted it too much.

“It’s a beautiful spot. It hardly seems real.” Then she sighed, not entirely sure why. Would Los Angeles seem more real to her when this final week was up? At the very least, she understood the tall buildings and crowded streets. Here—here she seemed so small, and that top rung of the ladder seemed so vague and unimportant.